silly

a video by John Cleese: I'm pretty sure that is what it is...
In which we remind people of the Ten Commandments of the God Particle. Now with added footnotes. I I am the Higgs. Thou shalt have no other Higgs before me.1 II Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the HIGGS thy God Particle am a jealous God Particle, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. 2 III Thou shalt not take the…
The blog is recovering from the transition to WordPress, but I'm still not fully confident in it. So We'll turn to another corner of the social media universe for my procrastinatory needs this morning: Having Emmy answer physics questions on Twitter. The same deal as when we've done this before: If you've got a physics question you'd like my dog to answer, post it to Twitter with the hashtag #dogphysics (or leave it in a comment, or email it to me), and Emmy will answer via Twitter, where she's @queen_emmy.
1 And the LORD looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. 2 And the LORD said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 3 Make thee an ark, and this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred qubits, the breadth of it fifty qubits, and the height of it thirty qubits. 4 And Noah asked the LORD, What is a qubit? 5 And the LORD replied unto Noah, A qubit is a two-level quantum…
I am an inveterate driver of "back ways" to places. My preferred route to campus involves driving through a whole bunch of residential streets, rather than taking the "main" road leading from our neighborhood to campus. I do this because there are four traffic lights on the main-road route, and they're not well timed, so it's a rare day when I don't get stuck at one or more of them. My preferred route has a lot of stop signs, but very little traffic, so they're quick stops, and I spend more time in motion, which makes me feel like I'm getting there faster. That's the psychological reason, but…
A scientific theory hasn't really arrived until the cynical and unscrupulous find a way to use it to extract money from the credulous and gullible. This has posed a significant obstacle for general relativity, dealing as it does with gravity, which requires really gigantic masses to produce measurable effects. That makes it a little difficult to sell wacky general relativity-based schemes to people. Until now, anyway-- recent advances in atomic clocks have made it possible to see relativistic effects on a human scale. There was a really nice talk on this experiment in the fundamental symmetry…
Union operates on a trimester calendar, with three ten-week terms (September-November, January-March, April-June), rather than the two 14-15 week semesters used by most other colleges and universities. This has some advantages in terms of flexibility-- even science and engineering students get to take terms abroad, which is harder to swing in a semester system-- and some disadvantages in terms of scheduling-- we run much later than most other schools (the last day of classes is next Friday), which closes our students out of a lot of summer programs that begin in early June. As you can imagine…
However, I'm inclined to think that he isn't a tosser, just naive (as someone said, I don't think Tim understands the policy world very well). He looks a bit naive in his picture, doesn't he? And that is a sure-fire way to tell. But maybe that is me being naive. Well, let me tell you and you can make up your own mind. Assuming you can be bothered, go off and read his piece in Nature: 2 °C or not 2 °C? That is the climate question (you ought to; please don't rely on my biased reporting of him :-). Tim has a laudable aim: he wants to ensure that global efforts to tackle the climate problem…
I'm spending the day trying to get some work done on the book-in-progress, so I'm avoiding both work- and blog-related stuff. I don't want to leave the site completely quiet, though, so here's a question to ponder, relating to SteelyKid's continuing fascination with Goodnight Moon: How does a cow jump over the moon? The father of one of SteelyKid's classmates, who is not originally from the US, asked why there's a cow jumping over the moon in that (or, as SteelyKid puts it: "Cow jumping MOON!!"), and I don't have a good answer. I'm aware of the nursery rhyme and the Tolkien joke, but why…
Melissa at Confused at a Higher Level offers some thoughts on the relative status of experimental vs. theoretical science, spinning off a comprehensive discussion of the issues at Academic Jungle. I flagged this to comment on over the weekend, but then was too busy with SteelyKid and football to get to it. since I'm late to the party, I'll offer some slightly flippant arguments in favor of experiment or theory: Argument 1: Experimentalists are better homeowners. At least in my world of low-energy experimental physics, many of the skills you are expected to have as an experimental physicist…
SteelyKid is a big fan of the classic children's book Goodnight Moon, which, if you haven't spent the last sixty-odd years in a cave, you probably know features a bunny saying goodnight to a variety of objects in a great, green room. The attentive toddler will find a lot to look at in the pictures-- there's a mouse in every one that SteelyKid delights in pointing out-- but an inquiring adult might well ask "Just how long does it take this bunny to say goodnight to all this stuff, anyway?" Well, we can answer this question with SCIENCE! You see, there are six pictures in the book showing the…
SteelyKid, like most toddlers, knows a few songs, and likes to sing them over and over. Her repertoire is limited to "ABCDEFG" (the alphabet song, but that's how she requests it), "Twinkle, Twinkle," "Some man" ("This Old Man," which I only figured out this weekend), and "Round and Round" ("The Wheels on the Bus"). I get a little bored with the repetition, and so tend to make up my own verses, which get sideways looks from her, followed by telling Kate "Daddy's silly!" I've been posting a lot of these on Twitter over the past several days (@orzelc), but for posterity, a few physics-related…
Rubber dino, you're the one, You make bathtime lots of fun Rubber dino, I'm awfully fond of you Doo-doo doo-de-doo Rubber dino, fearsome roar, Good thing you're a herbivore Rubber dino, I'm awfully fond of you doo-doo doo-de-doo Every day when I, get undressed next to the sink, I find a Little fella who's, cute and yellow and extinct When I squeeze you, water squirts, Then I giggle, 'til it hurts Rubber dino, I'm awfully fond of you Doo-doo doo-de-doo You're my favorite bathtime toy, Watch out for that asteroid! Rubber dino, I'm awfully fond of Rubber dino, I'm awfully fond of, Rubber dino…
I'm pretty sure I've used this topic before, but not with PollDaddy. And while I really ought to do a ResearchBlogging post today to make it a clean sweep for the week, I just don't have the energy. So here's a poll: what's your favorite fundamental force? What's your favorite fundamental force?online surveys Those of us with corporeal existence should restrict our answers to the low-energy condition of the present material universe, not any of the higher energy unification scales.
While I'm still trying not to think about the new academic term that starts in two weeks (yes, the first day of class is Labor Day, grumble mutter grump), it's beginning to impinge on my consciousness. Thus, this poll on a frequent and annoying phenomenon that recurs with every new academic term: Students who miss the first day of class in a new academic term should be:online survey You can choose one and only one answer in this poll. Attempts to submit multiple answers will be given a failing grade, and reported to the Dean as a violation of the Academic Honesty policy.
the hot topic in mathematical sciences at the moment is the draft proof that P≠NP (warning: PDF). This is one of the biggest issues in computer science, and one of the Clay Mathematics Institute's Millennium Problems, so a proof would be Big News in math/CS, and earn the prover a cool $1,000,000. Reaction among blogging theorists is mixed, with some intrigued and at least one willing to bet against it. So what do I think of the proof? Honestly, this is so far out of my areas of competence that I need Google to remind me what the symbols mean. About all I know is that it's a Big Deal in…
tags: Mormonism, religion, cults, mind control, Magic Mormon Underwear, moron, offbeat, humor, funny, comedy, silly, beliefs, insanity, education, streaming video I've lived among mormons for more years than I care to think about, and yes, the magic underwear was one of those mysteries that us kids speculated on when the adults weren't around. As if they were flies upon the walls of my childhood, the Thinking Atheist has made this video that discusses the the Mormon church's most famous "secret."
tags: Candid Camera, Hidden Camera, Bloody Arm, prank, humor, funny, silly, streaming video This cute video captures people's reactions when they are pranked by twins.
tags: Monty Python meets Darth Vader, humor, funny, silly, weird, Star Wars, Monty Python, satire, fucking hilarious, streaming video Is this the ultimate in silliness and hilarity? The combination of Monty Python AND Star Wars?
tags: Muppets' Swedish Chef makes Pöpcørn Shrimp!, humor, funny, silly, weird, Swedish Chef, cooking, food, The Muppets, streaming video Do you like pöpcørn shrimp? Watch the Swedish Chef as he prepares this explosively good meal! The Muppets have their own official website.