June 27, 2011
On Saturday, we took SteelyKid to the Bronx Zoo. It was kind of hot, and she got a little over-tired by the end, but it had a lot of amazingly cute moments, too. And, unlike Sunday's trip to the beach, I brought my camera and shot a couple hundred pictures of various things. Including this shot of…
June 27, 2011
We spent Sunday morning introducing SteelyKid to one of my favorite places in the world, Jones Beach on Long Island. She was ok with the water until an unexpected wave sideswiped us and splashed her in the face, but enjoyed the sand quite a bit. And I got to swim in the ocean and body-surf on some…
June 25, 2011
"Hey, Dude, what'cha doin'?"
"I'm checking out the dog drawings I commissioned for the book-in-progress. Here, take a look:"
"Hey, wait just one minute. That looks like me!"
"That's the idea. Since you're in the book, I thought it would be nice to have some pictures that look like you, rather than…
June 24, 2011
I kicked off the week with a grumpy post about the Guardian's flawed list of great non-fiction, so let's end the week with a slightly more upbeat take on the same basic idea. The New York Times did a slightly lighter list, asking their staff to pick favorite nonfiction. The lack of consensus is…
June 24, 2011
(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of S.M., a Canadian government employee who would prefer not to be identified by name. The goal is to provide some additional information for science students thinking about their fiuture careers,…
June 24, 2011
Swans on Tea » Copy ... Riiiight
"The argument that copyright takes away your right to say what you want is a bunch of bull. If you are using a copyrighted piece of work, they aren't your words, so any kind of protections for the originator of those words doesn't stop you from saying what you…
June 23, 2011
SteelyKid is in a bit of a "no pictures" phase at the moment, which makes it kind of difficult to get weekly shots. Hence the run of Toddler Blogging pictures without Appa in them-- when we pick Appa up, she runs away.
Thus, this shot with the color balance all wonky (I could do a better job of…
June 23, 2011
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…
June 23, 2011
(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Carl Knutson, who works for a company making online learning systems. The goal is to provide some additional information for science students thinking about their fiuture careers, describing…
June 23, 2011
Video Breakdown: Khan and Kinematics | Wired Science | Wired.com
"So my quick take - Khan Academy is a textbook video. Are textbooks new? No. Are they the best thing for students? No. Should we ban textbooks in all forms? I don't think so.
What about other aspects of Khan Academy videos? How are…
June 22, 2011
A lot of people who rail against popular music (hipsters, classical music snobs, etc.) will cite the mere presence of one or more saxophones in a song as evidence that it sucks, as if saxophones are inherently evil. I've never really understood this attitude, and wonder how widespread it is. Thus,…
June 22, 2011
p>(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Brad Holden, of the University of California Observatories (which, OK, is affiliated with an academic institution, but this is not a traditional faculty-type job). The goal is to provide some…
June 22, 2011
About SETIstars.org | SetiStars Blog
"SETIstars is an initiative by the SETI Institute to recognize and rally support from the community to help fund the SETI Institute's operations and that of the Allen Telescope Array. It serves as a place to galvanize community action with clearly defined…
June 21, 2011
Josh Rosenau has a post about the supernatural, spinning off recent posts about a recent Calamities of Nature webcomic. Josh makes a point that I think is valid but subtle:
The issue with the supernatural is not whether it's part of the universe, but whether it is bound by the same laws as all the…
June 21, 2011
Via Inside Higher Ed, a professor in New Jersey took the whole social media thing to the next level:
A Fairleigh Dickinson University physics professor is in custody for allegedly running a prostitution website involving about 200 women and more than 1,200 johns, police said Monday.
David Flory of…
June 20, 2011
While I was off at DAMOP last week, the Guardian produced a list purporting to be the 100 greatest non-fiction books of all time. Predictably, this includes a tiny set of science titles-- five in the "Science" category, two under "Environment," and one each under "Mathematics" and "Mind." And that'…
June 20, 2011
Minneapolis
"[Don] Rawitsch, a lanky, bespectacled 21-year-old with hair well over his ears, was both a perfectionist and an idealist. He started dressing as historical figures in an attempt to win over his students, appearing in the classroom as explorer Meriwether Lewis.
By now he'd made it…
June 19, 2011
My parents came up today to go out for dinner for my birthday/ father's day. On the way home, SteelyKid announced that she wanted to go to a playground. We explained that first we needed to go home and get Emmy, and then we would see about going to a playground. SteelyKid then suggested that we…
June 19, 2011
Why The Atlantic's Article On New Age Medicine Is Wrong - Matthew Herper - The Medicine Show - Forbes
"What bothers me most about Freedman's argument is that he comes so close to being right. I actually agree that the success of alternative medicine is the result of mainstream medicine's failure…
June 18, 2011
Today was my birthday, one of the integer-multiple-of-ten ones that's supposed to be a milestone. And, really, to the extent that it does prompt self-reflection, it's nice to be reminded that the last several decades have been pretty good to me: I've got a really good job, a great family, and the…
June 17, 2011
Alternate, More-Interesting Post Title: Attack of the Vampire Physicists.
I realized today that the only time I have been outside during daylight hours on this trip to Atlanta was during the brief walk down the platform to the airport entrance. This is only a little unusual for a DAMOP-- the…
June 16, 2011
Kate here while Chad is at DAMOP, with this week's Toddler Blogging.
What, you may ask, is SteelyKid counting on her fingers?
In fact, she is counting down to . . .
Takeoff!
June 16, 2011
One of the odd things about going to conferences is the unpredictable difference between talks and papers. Sometimes, when you go to a talk, you just get an exact repetition of what's in the paper; other times, you get a new angle on it, or some different visual representations that make something…
June 15, 2011
Tuesday at DAMOP was dominated by my talk. Well, in my mind, at least. I suppose people who aren't me saw other interesting things.
OK, fine, I did go to some other sessions. I would link to the abstracts, but the APS web site is having Issues this morning.
In the Prize Session that always opens…
June 14, 2011
That's the title of my talk this morning at DAMOP, where I attempt the slightly insane feat of summarizing a meeting with over 1000 presentations in a single 30-minute talk. This will necessarily involve talking a little bit like the person reading the legal notices at the end of a car commercial,…
June 13, 2011
You may or may not have noticed that I've been making a concerted effort to do more ResearchBlogging posts explaining notable recent results. I've been trying to get at least one per week posted, and coming fairly close to that. I've been pretty happy with the fake Q&A format that I've settled…
June 13, 2011
Right around the time I sent in the manuscript for my own book explaining relativity to Emmy, I got an email offering me a review copy of The Manga Guide to Relativity, part of a series of English translations of Japanese comic books explaining complicated concepts in a friendly way. That was…
June 13, 2011
Maru the Cat does dimensional analysis : Built on Facts
"Here is a picture of (I think) Maru the cat playing in a bag. He loves bags.
Here is the same picture of Maru, at half the size:
Now imagine that Maru is a physicist and the pictures are not pictures but instead windows into the universe he…
June 12, 2011
I've heard a lot of buzz about The Quantum Thief-- see, for example, this enthusiastic review from Gary K. Wolfe, so I was psyched when it finally became available in the US a little while back. Of course, the down side of this sort of buzz is that it's almost impossible to live up to the promise…
June 12, 2011
It was the sort of mid-June morning that global warming deniers dream of: cold and threatening rain. the rain held off until all the speakers had spoken, all the graduates had done their walk across the stage, and all the degrees had been passed out. That's as much as you can ask for, really.…
