January 23, 2011
Food for Thinkers: The Rise of White People Food - Food - GOOD
"White People Food has nothing to do with the relative melanin level of the person eating it. There are plenty of black and Hispanic foodies happily gorging themselves. They, too, in this case, are White People. And it has nothing to…
January 22, 2011
Last year, Kate was one of the people who helped organize a fundraising auction to send a few people to Wiscon. It's that time again, and she's seeking donations for the auction:
Last year, Con or Bust raised $6,183.89 and helped thirteen people of color attend WisCon. We weren't able to meet all…
January 22, 2011
$1,000 to do something Awesome. « The Awesome Foundation - Toronto
"Further details below, but the basic idea is that 10 Torontonians have committed to showing up each month, stuffing $100 each into a paper bag, and giving that bag to the person we think has the best chance at achieving…
January 21, 2011
There's been a lot of hand-wringing and finger-pointing in academic circles this week over the release of a book claiming college students are "Academically Adrift" (see also the follow-up story here). The headline findings, as summarized by Inside Higher Ed are:
* 45 percent of students "did…
January 21, 2011
Ephblog has mentioned Connecticut Congressman Chris Murphy, Williams class of '96 several times, but until yesterday's announcement and an email from somebody else pointing it out, I never connected the name with the Chris Murphy who was a freshman playing rugby when I was a senior. Having looked…
January 21, 2011
Surviving the World - Lesson 862 - Middle Aged
"I like the idea that you are greeted by a yeti either as you leave this world or when you first arrive in the afterlife. If you're creating a new religion or lifestyle, may I suggest you implement this concept into your theology?"
(tags: comics…
January 20, 2011
There have been a bunch of times in the last couple of weeks where it was brought home how big SteelyKid has gotten compared to Kate, so this week, we have a Mommy-for-scale photo:
The stylish headband SteelyKid is sporting is from today's Tu B'Shevat celebration at the Jewish Community Center,…
January 20, 2011
I gave a talk today on blogs as a tool for science communication (basically the same as this one, with a few minor updates), and got asked "Aren't the people who read science blogs mostly scientists already?" Which reminded me that it's been a while since I did a "Who are you people?" post.
So, if…
January 20, 2011
A pretty straightforward question: Which prime number do you like the best?
What's your favorite prime number?online surveys
This is a purely classical poll, so you only get to choose one favorite, not a superposition of multiple numbers. Your selection is legally binding, so choose wisely!
(…
January 20, 2011
Andrew Lownie Literary Agency | What Editors Want
A big list of editors talking about what they're looking for at their publishing houses, including this, from Oneworld i the UK: "We also love quirky non-fiction for our Autumn list, when shoppers are looking for something a bit different. We had…
January 19, 2011
I'm giving a talk at the AAAS meeting next month on international physics tests, and they have asked me to provide information that they will duplicate and distribute to the media. Items requested include:
-- A one-paragraph biographical sketch (not a C.V.)
-- A lay-language summary of your talk,…
January 19, 2011
We did a lab yesterday that asked students to measure the speed of a ball leaving a spring-loaded launcher in a few different ways. this is a great way to talk about the difference between systematic and random errors and how those are dealt with. As a way of starting that discussion, I asked the…
January 19, 2011
The slow-photography movement asks what is the point of taking pictures? - By Tim Wu - Slate Magazine
"[T]he real victim of fast photography is not the quality of the photos themselves. The victim is us. We lose something else: the experiential side, the joy of photography as an activity. And…
January 18, 2011
The latest snowstorm is wreaking some havoc on my plans for the day, which means I'm going to lift another question and answer from the Physics Stack Exchange, with some modification. This one is a question about thermal radiation:
What are the quantum mechanisms behind the emission and absorption…
January 18, 2011
xkcd: 3D
"You should've gone to the screening at CERN."
(tags: comics xkcd silly physics particles science theory)
Smarter Than the Average Bear? « Easily Distracted
"If I have seen a pattern, among my students and my parental peers alike, it's that parents who try to be someone that they're…
January 17, 2011
Part of this past weekend's meeting of the Committee on Informing the Public was to evaluate 100+ proposals for "mini-grants" of up to $10,000 for new outreach activities. It wouldn't be appropriate to go into detail about any of the proposals or what we decided (the PI's of the proposals we…
January 17, 2011
Drug experiment - The Boston Globe
"[N]early a decade later, there's evidence that Portugal's great drug experiment not only didn't blow up in its face; it may have actually worked. More addicts are in treatment. Drug use among youths has declined in recent years. Life in Casal Ventoso, Lisbon's…
January 16, 2011
I was at a meeting of the Committee on Informing the Public of the American Physical Society at the tail end of last week, so it seems appropriate to post a couple of APS-related announcements here on my return:
1) The APS has just created a Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public. You may have…
January 15, 2011
For one obvious example, I'm typing this on a plane-- Southwest has started doing wi-fi on some flights, and it is totally worth $5 to be able to web-surf in flight.It would be even better if the flight wren't packed, so I could type more comfortably, but I'm ok with just reading (once I post this…
January 15, 2011
YouTube - Fox in Socks-Like NEVER before
Just a tiny bit faster than I can manage...
(tags: youtube books kid-stuff video)
Veiled Criticism - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - 01/13/11 - Video Clip | Comedy Central
"It's not a show!!!"
(tags: politics us television comedy video)
January 14, 2011
The physics book generating the most bloggy buzz in the latter part of 2010 would have to be Ian Sample's Massive: The Missing Particle that Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science, about the as yet undetected particle known as the Higgs boson. Detecting the Hiigs is the most immediate goal of the…
January 14, 2011
The Virtuosi: Darts
A scientific analysis of where to aim to get the most points, and how that point shifts depending on your skill level.
(tags: science games statistics math blogs virtusoi physics)
Real Genius | Film | The New Cult Canon | The A.V. Club
"Here's a movie that has all the…
January 13, 2011
I am in Florida for a meeting this week, having flown from Albany to Ft. Lauderdale. Due to the vagaries of the air travel system, though, this required a change of planes in Orlando. The Orlando-Ft. Lauderdale flight is sufficiently short that I like to think of it as a ballistic route-- you're…
January 13, 2011
Pimp My Novel: Two Households, Both Alike in Dignity
"The sample sizes aren't quite identical yet, folks (232 votes this round compared to 342 last round), but currently 54% of those of you who responded own an e-reader, as opposed to only 42% in June 2010. Granted, this is an entirely…
January 12, 2011
Another response copied/adapted from the Physics Stack Exchange. The question was:
What are the main practical applications that a Bose-Einstein condensate can have?
Bose Einstein Condensation, for those who aren't familiar with it, is a phenomenon where a gas of particles with the right spin…
January 11, 2011
It occurs to me that I'm kind of dropping the ball on my shameless self-promotion because I haven't mentioned that one of my posts made the cut for this year's fifth edition of the best-of-science-blogging anthology The Open Laboratory. The post included is Science Is More Like Sumo Than Soccer, a…
January 11, 2011
As usual, the best commentary on this weekend's shootings comes from Jon Stewart:
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Arizona Shootings Reaction
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes
Political Humor & Satire Blog</a>
The Daily Show on Facebook…
January 11, 2011
Cocktail Party Physics: i think that i shall never see / a carbon offset as lovely as a tree
"I heard a NASCAR broadcaster make the following claim: "NASCAR offsets 100% of the carbon emissions from this race via their tree-planting program." Anytime someone says "100%" or "always" or "without…
January 10, 2011
I'm always a little hesitant to post reviews of books that I'm using as reference sources when I'm writing something, because it feels a little like recommending that you skip past my book and go to my sources instead. This is, of course, completely irrational, because however much I my use a given…
January 10, 2011
A seasonally appropriate poll, brought to you by this morning's frigid dog walk (15F/ -9C), and the memory of a newscast back when I was in Maryland that referred to an overnight low temperature of 22F/-6C as "Bitter, bitter cold":
The maximum (daytime high) temperature I would characterize as "…
