June 1, 2011
I've Gone and Done It Now: What It's Like Without the Muslim Headscarf « Inner Workings of My Mind
"I experimented last week. I took off my hijab - the headscarf many Muslim women wear to cover their hair.
I have been wearing a headscarf when I leave the privacy of my home for 25 years, since I…
May 31, 2011
A bunch of people I follow on social media were buzzing about this blog post yesterday, taking Jonah Lerher to task for "getting spun" in researching and writing this column in the Wall Street Journal about this paper on the "wisdom of crowds" effect. The effect in question is a staple of pop…
May 31, 2011
I heard David Kaiser talk about the history of quantum foundations work back in 2008 at the Perimeter Institute, and while I didn't agree with everything he said, I found it fascinating. So when I heard that he had a book coming out about this stuff, How the Hippies Saved Physics, I jumped at the…
May 31, 2011
(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Adam DeConinck, who works at a company providing supercomputing resources. The goal is to provide some additional information for science students thinking about their fiuture careers, describing…
May 31, 2011
Richard Dansky » Seven Questions That Need To Be Asked About Writing About Writing
"1-Why do so many writers spend so much time writing about writing?
Because deep down, many of us are still in thrall to the delightfully archaic notion of "Write What You Know" - which, in some form or other has…
May 30, 2011
Last week's post about the Many-Worlds variant in "Divided by Infinity" prompted the usual vigorous discussion about the merits of the Many-Worlds Interpretation. This included the common objection that we don't know how to obtain the probability of measurement outcomes in the Many-Worlds…
May 30, 2011
(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Matthew Schlecht, a chemist by training who runs his own technical translation service, Word Alchemy Translation. The goal is to provide some additional information for science students thinking…
May 30, 2011
I had intended last Wednesday's post on the Many-Worlds variant in Robert Charles Wilson's Divided by Infinity to be followed by a post on the other things I said when I did a guest lecture on it for an English class. What with one thing and another, though, I got a little distracted, and I'm only…
May 30, 2011
Guest Post from Author Nick Mamatas: "The Writer's Life: Actually, It's Awesome!" « Suvudu - Science Fiction and Fantasy Books, Movies, Comics, and Games
"In my new book Starve Better, I talk about writing short subjects--both fiction and non-fiction--with an eye toward writing effectively and…
May 29, 2011
I mentioned it on Twitter already, but it's probably worth a mention on the blog (not that they really need my traffic): Once again, 3 Quarks Daily is collecting nominations for its science prize:
As usual, this is the way it will work: the nominating period is now open, and will end at 11:59 pm…
May 29, 2011
"Literally Unbelievable"
Stories from The Onion as interpreted by Facebook
(tags: silly onion internet blogs facebook stupid)
May 28, 2011
Kij Johnson's "Ponies" is the second on Locus's Short Story Club list of award-nominated stories. More than that, though, it's an actuall award winner, having claimed a share of the Nebula for Best Short Story.
I enjoyed Johnson's two novels, The Fox Woman and Fudoki quite a bit, so I'm happy to…
May 28, 2011
Bob Dylan is turning 70: Let's take a look at some of the weird shit he's done | Music | The A.V. Club Twin Cities
"Dylan's musical brilliance is already a solidified fact, his onstage antics have already been covered, and plenty more ink has been spilled about his standing as a prickly interview…
May 27, 2011
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…
May 27, 2011
The big physics story of the week is undoubtedly the new limit on the electric dipole moment (EDM) of the electron from Ed Hinds's group at Imperial College in the UK. As this is something I wrote a long article on for Physics World, I'm pretty psyched to see this getting lots of media attention,…
May 27, 2011
(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Richard Lobinske, a Hazardous Waste Manager (meaning he handles chemicals, such as these decades-old pesticides, not particularly noxious low-level employees). The goal is to provide some…
May 27, 2011
The Power of Hunger and Stairs: House of Stairs | tor.com | Science fiction and fantasy | Blog posts
"House of Stairs may be one of the most disturbing and memorable young adult science fiction books ever. I first encountered it in junior high, and it left a chill that has never completely left.…
May 26, 2011
Kate is off at Wiscon (or at least en route-- her flights are all screwed up), and SteelyKid is off at Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend. Which means I don't have an Appa picture this week, but in honor of the pagan origins of the name of the day, here's a picture of SteelyKid enacting a scene…
May 26, 2011
As I've mentioned before, I'm schedule to teach a class on "A Brief History of Timekeeping" next winter term as part of the Scholars Research Seminar program. Even though I have a hundred other things to do, I continue to think about this a lot.
One of the goals of the course is to introduce…
May 26, 2011
(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Darren Anderson, the Chief Technology Officer for Vive Nano. The goal is to provide some additional information for science students thinking about their future careers, describing options beyond…
May 26, 2011
Career Advice: 10 Tips for Junior Faculty - Inside Higher Ed
The usual mix of sound general advice and "Thank God I don't work at a big university/ in the humanities."
(tags: academia jobs tenure inside-higher-ed)
6 Civil War Myths Everyone Believes (That Are Total B.S.) | Cracked.com
"Now, we…
May 25, 2011
I learned today that the National Georgraphic Channel video I mentioned last week has actually already aired on the network. It was last week's episode of the series "Naked Science," titled Living in a Parallel Universe.
I haven't seen it, obviously, but it's running again, tomorrow (the 26th), at…
May 25, 2011
If I ever decided to abandon any pretense of integrity or credibility, and just shoot for making a bazillion dollars peddling quantum hokum, the particular brand of quantum philosophy I would peddle has already been laid out, in Robert Charles Wilson's Divided by Infinity. In the story, the…
May 25, 2011
(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Will Hendrick, who worked as a lab tech before returning to school. (This may seem like an odd inclusion, but there are people who do this sort of thing forever, so I think it's valid.) The goal is…
May 25, 2011
News: Major Decisions - Inside Higher Ed
"For 15 broad categories of majors, such as engineering, physical science, and business, the report explores the median and quartile pay, the percentage of the major comprising women and minorities, and the percentage of individuals from that major who…
May 24, 2011
I'm teaching our upper-level lab course this term, where I do a two-part experiment on laser spectroscopy. The first part is to calibrate the free spectral range of a homemade Fabry-Perot interferometer, and the second part is to use that Fabry-Perot as a frequency marker to calibrate a diode laser…
May 24, 2011
(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Amy Young, who runs her own soap-making business. The goal is to provide some additional information for science students thinking about their fiuture careers, describing options beyond the assumed…
May 24, 2011
Is the Launch Speed in Angry Birds Constant? | Wired Science | Wired.com
"Does the Bird's Launch Speed Depend on the Angle?
If the bird is indeed shot from an elastic cord, then technically the bird should go faster when shot horizontally than when it is shot straight up. Why? Physics."
(tags:…
May 23, 2011
As I have admitted previously, I have a fondness for tv shows about UFO's, the loonier the better. So, when I learned that there was a show called When Aliens Attack airing last night on the National Geographic channel, I was all over that. I'm happy to report that it did not disappoint-- it…
May 23, 2011
Matt McIrvin's Steam-Operated World of Yesteryear - Children's/science museums north of Boston
"Boston has lots of great places to take kids to see/interact with cool stuff; there's the New England Aquarium, the Museum of Science, and the Boston Children's Museum, all of which are justly famous.…
