Links Dump
drorzel | October 26, 2010
Should Students buy an iPad or a Year's Supply of Pot Noodles? | blog@CACM | Communications of the ACM
"Suppose you gave up washing clothes for a year, or relied on your mum to do it for you. According to the budgeting guide this would save £222, just about half of the iPad. You could go with dirty clothes for your first two years and buy an iPad for third year, I guess. How about food? The budget reckons £1295 for a year. Sheer extravagance! Two Pot Noodles a day would cost under half that at £547.50. Throw in some vitamin supplements at £1.69 and what more could you need? That saving…
drorzel | October 25, 2010
Hugo Nominees: Introduction | Tor.com | Science fiction and fantasy | Blog posts
"I haven't, of course, read every single book nominated for the Hugos since 1953. (What have I been doing with my time?) If I haven't read it, I shall say so, and I shall say why. Otherwise I shall talk briefly about the books and their place in the field. If I'm inspired to re-read a book and talk about it in detail, I'll do that separately. I'll be very interested to hear other opinions and especially suggestions for other things of the year that should have been nominated. My views are, of course, my views,…
drorzel | October 24, 2010
Hey, Tea Partiers, this wine's for you! - By Mike Steinberger - Slate Magazine
"In response to the advent of the Tea Party movement, some people have demanded to know where all these deficit hawks and defenders of the Constitution were during the Bush years. I have a different question: "Where's the Madeira?" If the Tea Partiers wish to evoke the spirit of 1776, it seems to me that alongside the powdered wigs and pantaloons, they ought to be accessorizing themselves with bottles of Madeira, which was a favorite tipple of the Founding Fathers and was supposedly used to toast the Declaration…
drorzel | October 22, 2010
US LHC Blog » I've Invented a New Theory, What Do I Do Now?
Surprisingly, "Start a kooky-looking webpage, and make a million dollars" isn't one of the options. Probably an oversight.
(tags: physics theory experiment lhc-blogs science blogs particles)
...My heart's in Accra » The ley lines of globalization
"To use Maersk's calculator, you need to register with the site, download a client browser certificate and accept three server certificates from Maersk before you can access their secure site. But once you do, it's just a few short clicks before you can calculate the cost of shipping a…
drorzel | October 21, 2010
Views: The Real Cost Equation - Inside Higher Ed
"All of these arguments place the higher education system at the center of the universe worth examining. Holding up a magnifying glass to the industry can indeed yield a wealth of detailed information, but without context that information is partial, and it can be quite misleading. The college-centric view of the world all too often lends itself to an easy politicization of complex issues. Before we jump on the apocalyptic bandwagon, there is mileage in placing the higher education industry firmly within the industrial structure of the…
drorzel | October 20, 2010
In Kansas, Climate Skeptics Embrace Green Energy - Series - NYTimes.com
The power of framing in action.
(tags: science politics environment energy society culture religion media communication nytimes)
Physics Buzz: Twin Paradox a Paradox in Low-Earth Orbit
"Relativity enthusiasts will be excited to learn that in a few months, twin brothers will meet in space for the very first time! But who will age more, the brother spending six months in orbit, or the brother on the quick shuttle hop to the International Space Station?"
(tags: science physics physics-buzz blogs relativity space)
Why…
drorzel | October 19, 2010
Confessions of a Community College Dean: Tossing Bottles
One of the staples of 80's teen movies was the moment when the screwup hero realized that he had imbibed (or allowed others to imbibe at a forbidden party) much of what was in the parents' liquor cabinet -- these houses always had well-stocked liquor cabinets -- and didn't want to get caught. Invariably, he'd add water to the various bottles to make the cabinet look, at first glance, undisturbed. Tossing bottles would have given the game away.
SUNY Albany is tossing bottles, and catching holy hell for it. Apparently, it's suspending…
drorzel | October 18, 2010
The Trouble with Scientists | Speakeasy Science
"Scientists won't talk to journalists; they don't want to waste their time "dumbing it down"; they don't see it as "making us smarter." So many of the good stories in science don't get covered at all. Or the stories get covered only for an already science-literate audience - explored in publications like Discover or Science News - rather than for that far larger group, the science disenfranchised.
Last week's editorial by Royce Murray, the editor of Analytical Chemistry, "Science Blogs and Caveat Emptor" brought home the point that while the…
drorzel | October 17, 2010
It's Time To Forgive George Lucas
"I cannot defend the prequels, despite their many laudable qualities: often wonderful if no longer industry-defining special effects; Jedi Knights that are warriors to be feared and respected; a glimpse of a splendid Republic of majestic alien races, a galaxy worth fighting for.
What I can say now, after rewatching the best film of the series on the occasion of its 30th anniversary, The Empire Strikes Back, is that George Lucas is directly responsible for one of the things that has given me the greatest, most quantifiable joy (if by "money spent" alone) in…
drorzel | October 16, 2010
Scale of Universe - Interactive Scale of the Universe Tool
A spiffy interactive guide to the scale of things.
(tags: science astronomy physics biology measurement computing internet)
slacktivist: Hold on to the good
"Test everything. Hold on to the good.
That's from the Apostle Paul, actually. It's a bona fide biblical commandment. Both parts of it. Test everything. Hold on to the good.
Note the difference between the first part and the second. "Test everything" is unconditional. What should we test? Everything. But the second part is conditional. We're not told to hold on to everything…
drorzel | October 15, 2010
Kung Fu Hustle | Film | The New Cult Canon | The A.V. Club
"Stephen Chow seems to understand the limits and potential of CGI action better than anyone. If CGI is fundamentally inadequate in giving realistic action the same punch it has with real stunts and practical effects, then why not go completely in the other direction? The violence and mayhem in Chow's action-comedies Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle are spectacularly unreal, and the audience doesn't mistake them for reality any more than they would the Warner Brothers cartoons that partly define Chow's goofball sensibility. CGI has…
drorzel | October 14, 2010
James Burleigh Morton ⺠at museums, he is allowed to touch the art
One of Union's Watson Fellows from last year, blogging his trip around the world taking pictures of international shipping.
(tags: world travel academia awards pictures business blogs)
Out of the Kitchen and Into the Fire | Exploring Open-Fire Cooking Around the World
One of Union's Watson Fellows from last year, blogging his trip around the world learning open-fire cooking methods.
(tags: food academia awards travel world blogs)
drorzel | October 13, 2010
Gay Sex vs. Straight Sex « OkTrends
"Gay issues have been in the news a lot lately, from the debate over same-sex marriage in Congress to a sickening rash of gay-bashing here in New York City. We see a lot of emotion out there, instead of information, and we wanted to provide some data-based context on sexuality so that people might make better choices about what they say, think, and do.
We run a massive dating site and therefore have unparralleled insight into sex and relationships. Here's what we've found, in numbers and charts."
(tags: statistics gender sex culture politics internet…
drorzel | October 12, 2010
Pimp My Novel: Here Be Dragons
"[Myth:] Amazon is going to kill the independent/second-hand book store. While I can't say for sure this is 100% false, I'm very confident that Amazon will not kill independent, local, and second-hand book stores; there's no substitute for their ambience, knowledgeable staff, and propensity to stock hard-to-find titles. In fact, should Amazon manage to kill brick-and-mortar chains (which I think is the likelier scenario), indepedents might undergo a resurgence/renaissance of sorts. Think of it this way: chains are the dinosaurs, indies are the scrappy mammals…
drorzel | October 10, 2010
YouTube - Sesame Street: Smell Like A Monster
The monster your monster could smell like.
(tags: youtube video kid-stuff silly)
drorzel | October 9, 2010
Goodnight to Goodnight Moon? « Easily Distracted
"When experts in education, childhood, psychology, economics, what have you, venture forth into the public sphere to say that our schools are failing to do something utterly essential, or that tomorrow's children must absolutely have some skill that they do not have now, or that oh my GOD SWEDEN and CHINA and ARGENTINA all have started teaching children how to program in Java while they are still in the WOMB, you know what that's the equivalent of? It's like going up to someone who is starting to develop a dissassociative identity disorder…
drorzel | October 8, 2010
A Nobel prize for levitating a frog - The Dayside
"Unlike the graphene discovery, frog levitation hasn't begotten a vast worldwide research effort whose fruits include thousands of research papers and scores of patents. Nevertheless, as Novoselov recounted in an interview with ScienceWatch, the two projects have something in common:
'The style of Geim's lab (which I'm keeping and supporting up to now) is that we devote ten percent of our time to so-called "Friday evening" experiments. I just do all kinds of crazy things that probably won't pan out at all, but if they do, it would be really…
drorzel | October 7, 2010
Career Advice: Rules for Science Job Talks - Inside Higher Ed
"4. Give a strong, conceptually oriented introduction. Be as brief as possible while still making all of your points. Be sharp at the beginning. Remember the 20 Minute Rule: You should show a data slide no more than 20 minutes into your talk (or your audience has the right to get up and walk out!)."
(tags: science biology academia presentations inside-higher-ed jobs)
AIP Journals - 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics
Everything you might want to read about this year's Nobel Prize in Physics, and then some. For free from AIP.
(tags:…
drorzel | October 6, 2010
Trains on the moon: John M. Ford’s Growing Up Weightless / Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts
"At the heart of John M. Ford's Growing Up Weightless (1993) is a train trip by a group of teenaged roleplayers across the far side of the moon. It's also the story of how thirteen year old Matt Ronay discovers what growing up means, and how his father Albin writes a symphony about water on the moon. It's set four generations after Luna became independent--and that's Lunna, not Loonam, and absolutely never call it "the Moon," as if it were something Earth owned. This is a…
drorzel | October 5, 2010
YouTube - John Orzel - Treading Water
My uncle's tv ad for his NY State Senate campaign.
(tags: politics video television new-york youtube)
Americans Are Horribly Misinformed About Who Has Money - Politics - GOOD
In other news, the Sun rose in the east today.
(tags: class-war politics statistics society culture education math us blogs)