March 25, 2011
I can see the oncoming train at the end of the book-in-progress, so I'm going off the grid to try to finish a draft of the final chapter and introduction. Here's something to think about while I'm away from the Internet:
Choose one:online surveys
For bonus points, defend your choice in the…
March 25, 2011
Smaller government, smaller dreams, smaller people | slacktivist
"Consider this account of the rebuilding and re-engineering of Galveston. Consider the scope and audacity of the project -- the cost, the labor, the years it took. Does any American city, or America itself, still have the courage,…
March 24, 2011
SteelyKid would like to remind everybody that sometimes you just need to kick back on the couch, eat some snacks, and watch tv:
In her case, that means watching the same episode of Good Eats over and over and over...
Other times, of course, you need to get out and feel the wind in your hair:
Even…
March 24, 2011
The Procrastination Flowchart
You Are Here
(tags: internet pictures silly)
Award-winning journalism job post | a few tasteful snaps
"We want to add some talent to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune investigative team. Every serious candidate should have a proven track record of conceiving, reporting…
March 23, 2011
I am less enthralled by the "molecular gastronomy" thing than someone with my geek credentials ought to be. As a result, I was a little disappointed when I clicked the link (from Jennifer Ouellette on Twitter) to this Wired story about a new tv show called Marcel's Quantum Kitchen. Because, you…
March 23, 2011
News: Tabloid Science - Inside Higher Ed
"The Sex Life of the Screwworm -- a silly subject for federally funded research, no?
Some members of Congress thought so: they singled out the project about 30 years ago as the nation's top symbol of wasteful spending -- and later apologized when, upon…
March 22, 2011
Kevin Drum re-posts a chart on wind power made by Stuart Staniford showing that the number of new wind power plants installed in 2010 was way lower than in 2009 or 2008:
This is meant as a starting point for discussion about the big economic issues that might've caused this. One of the many, many…
March 22, 2011
How Josef Oehmen's advice on Fukushima went viral - opinion - 21 March 2011 - New Scientist
"So who exactly is Josef Oehmen and why did he write about the nuclear accidents in Japan? Oehmen agreed to tell New Scientist his side of the story - and it suggests that a minimum of research by the…
March 21, 2011
I've been watching a lot of basketball lately, and between the channel-flipping and occasional single-game windows, it has not been possible to use the DVR to avoid seeing commercials. Which means I've seen a lot of the current paradigm of advertising in America, which seems to consist of two main…
March 21, 2011
Awesome new physics blogs « Quantum Progress
Because you need more things to read.
(tags: blogs science physics internet)
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
A foolproof strategy for making money, that I am sadly far too ethical to use.
(tags: science physics quantum comics smbc)
Radiation…
March 19, 2011
Chimping and Other Photo Tips - NYTimes.com
"Last week, for my birthday, a friend bought me an amazing gift: a private photo lesson, taught by a professional. I know a lot about photography, and I've come a long way, but I'm not a pro. Tom Bear, on the other hand, is the ultimate pro; his shots…
March 18, 2011
Just a quick reminder that I'll be giving my "What Every Dog Should Know About Quantum Physics" talk (same basic one from Tuesday night) as part of the Saturday Morning Science program (pdf) at the University of Toledo tomorrow, Saturday the 19th. The talk will be at 9:30, with breakfast beforehand…
March 18, 2011
This year's NCAA tournament is being spread over four tv networks, so that every game is shown in its entirety. Previously, you got whatever game was deemed to hold the most interest for your region of the country, plus occasional looks in at games elsewhere, that usually managed to miss the most…
March 18, 2011
There was a lot of great basketball yesterday, but I want to talk quickly about one small thing at the end of the Kentucky-Princeton game, that I think is kind of the basketball equivalent of the oft-debated punt on fourth-and-short in the opponents' end in football. That is, it's the wrong play,…
March 18, 2011
The Virtuosi: Physics Challenge Award Show
"So before we officially announce our winner, let's backtrack and build up some suspense. The challenge was to come up with a bunch of MacGyveresque experiments to determine as closely as possible the standard second, meter and kilogram using only the…
March 17, 2011
SteelyKid is actually at Grandma and Grandpa's this week, having a ball, and freeing Kate from having to do solo toddler duty for the days that I'm traveling. As a result, you get some week-old pics (though if Grandma and Grandpa send us a picture from this week, I'll post it). Here we have an…
March 17, 2011
The 2011 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship officially started Tuesday, with the first of the "First Four" games, formerly known as the "play-in" game. It gets going in earnest today, though, which means that once this posts, I'll be shutting the Internet down and working like crazy for a few hours…
March 17, 2011
What we know, and don't know, about Japan's reactors
"In response to the confusion, speculation and apprehension surrounding the rapidly unfolding events at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the aftermath of last week's earthquake and tsunami, a panel of MIT nuclear engineering,…
March 16, 2011
I got home very late last night after my talk in New Paltz, the cold that I've been developing for the last week has hit full strength, and I'm giving an exam this morning. So here's something completely silly:
Which sister do you prefer?Market Research
For bonus points, guess which of these…
March 16, 2011
Who Benefits Most From Attending Top Colleges? - Innovations - The Chronicle of Higher Education
"Now [Stacy] Dale, a senior researcher with Mathematica Policy Research, and [Alan] Krueger, a professor at Princeton University, are back with an extension of their earlier research, examining…
March 15, 2011
It's NCAA tournament time, which is time for everybody to break out the moralizing stories about the pernicious aspects of college athletics that they've been sitting on since the football season ended. The Associated Press (via the New York Times) clocks in with a particularly discreditable entry…
March 15, 2011
Which Traits Predict Success? (The Importance of Grit) | Wired Science | Wired.com
"For a long time, talent seemed to be about inheritance, about the blessed set of genes that gave rise to some particular skill. Einstein had the physics gene, Beethoven had the symphony gene, and Tiger Woods (at…
March 14, 2011
Even though the really important Final Four has already been decided, the Division 1 NCAA basketball championship starts this week, which means it's time to fill out your championship brackets. And so, as usual, I present the guaranteed-can't-miss-sure-thing method of picking the winner based on…
March 14, 2011
I've still got work to do today, but I did want to pop in quickly to note that I'll be giving my "What Every Dog Should Know About Quantum Physics" talk tomorrow night at 8 p.m. in the Coykendall Science Building Auditorium, at SUNY New Paltz. It's part of the Mid-Hudson Astronomical Association…
March 14, 2011
Why I am not worried about Japan's nuclear reactors. | Morgsatlarge - blogorific.
"Now, where does that leave us?
* The plant is safe now and will stay safe.
* Japan is looking at an INES Level 4 Accident: Nuclear accident with local consequences. That is bad for the company that owns the…
March 13, 2011
OK, having spoken vaguely about The Crippled God, here's a post for spoiler-y comments about the book and the series as a whole. If you haven't read it, but think you might, save this post for reading after you're done.
SPOILERS:
There's a bit early in the book (too far back for me to find now)…
March 13, 2011
(This is a post about the concluding volume of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, so if you clicked through here because the title made you expect a rant about religion, you're at the wrong blog.)
It's hard to say anything coherent about this other than "Wow." I mean, this is the tenth thousand-page…
March 13, 2011
Bowing to the Future: Just for the record...
"It takes a bit of work to make a decent ebook. I've been overseeing the conversion of the Pyr backlist for two months now, so I know. I've also bought about 15 ebooks in the last two weeks on iBooks, and I'm sorry to say that I wish a few of the…
March 12, 2011
I stayed up way too late last night, watching televised basketball and reading Steven Erikson (about which more later). It wasn't a good night for my teams, with both Syracuse and Maryland losing, but this is the most hoops I've watched all season, and I have a few miscellaneous comments:
-- How…
March 12, 2011
What if editors got royalties? - Hey, There's A Dead Guy in the Living Room
So okay, publishing is risky no matter the paradigm. But what if, rather than a traditional publishing house glomming most of the risk into one big beach ball, each participant in the publishing process took ownership of…
