Links Dump
drorzel | April 8, 2009
The physics of why bicyclists hate stop signs - Hard Drive
"In their essay "Why Bicyclists Hate Stop Signs," University of California physics professor Joel Fajans and Access transportation journal editor Melanie Curry write that requiring cyclists to follow the same complete-stop rules as motorists defies science.
"While car drivers simply sigh at the delay" of a stop sign, they write, "bicyclists have a whole lot more at stake when they reach a stop sign.""
(tags: science environment politics bike)
What Does This Generation Think it Means to be a âScientistâ?
"I agree with Alberts that…
drorzel | April 7, 2009
Brigham Young U.'s Student Newspaper Is Pulled After Embarrassing Typo - Chronicle.com
"The caption described a photograph illustrating the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saintsâ General Conference, and it referred to the groupâs âQuorum of Twelve Apostatesâ rather than âApostles.â
Rich Evans, editorial manager of The Daily Universe, the student paper, told the Tribune it was âthe worst possible mistake.â BYU is owned and run by the church, as the Mormon Church is formally known.
The error was an accident: A student had misspelled the word âapostle,â and the articleâs editor chose…
drorzel | April 6, 2009
After North Carolina, Hansbrough Faces a Skeptical N.B.A. - NYTimes.com
âYou guys make it out like I just came back to school just to win a national championship,â Hansbrough said. âI came back to school because I enjoy college.â
(tags: academia sports basketball)
drorzel | April 5, 2009
Cocktail Party Physics: brew masters
"I seem to have collected an impressive array of items on various science-y aspects of beer, which forms the topic of today's monster post. Benjamin Franklin once observed, "Beer is living proof that God wants us to be happy," and we're all about sharing the joy here at the cocktail party."
(tags: science physics blogs biology chemistry booze cocktail-party beer)
I smoke pot, and I like it - THE WEEK
"Marijuana is neither evil nor dangerous. Scientists have proven its medical uses. It has spared millions from anguish. But the casual pleasure marijuana…
drorzel | April 4, 2009
peake: What you won't read
"Nevertheless, just possibly because of my own slight interest in the outcome, I have been following the responses to this yearâs shortlists [for the Hugo and other SF awards] rather more intently than I might otherwise. And I have been struck by a number of observations. Nothing earth shattering about them, they are the sorts of observations that occur year in year out, which is itself sadly interesting; but unavoidable observations for all that."
(tags: movies SF books awards)
Page 1 | How to Write about Africa | Granta 92: The View from Africa | Magazine |…
drorzel | April 3, 2009
â¦My heartâs in Accra » From protest to collaboration: Paul Simonâs âGracelandâ and lessons for xenophiles
A great post about one of the most successful cultural appropriations ever.
(tags: politics culture music history world zuckerman)
Career Advice: Check It Out by Checking It Off - Inside Higher Ed
"Before you assign an essay three things need to be in place:
1. Your expectations need to be spelled out in detail.
2. Students need to know your grading criteria.
3. You need a plan to return the papers promptly."
(tags: education academia writing humanities inside-higher-ed)
News:…
drorzel | April 2, 2009
Why Advertising Is Failing On The Internet
"My basic premise is that the internet is not replacing advertising but shattering it, and all the kingâs horses, all the kingâs men, and all the creative talent of Madison Avenue cannot put it together again."
(tags: economics society culture internet advertising business media)
Views: Monsters With Constituencies - Inside Higher Ed
"Although Antioch may not be anyone's image of a disciplined campus, the 500 students and faculty in the auditorium that day in 1964 were well disciplined indeed. They sat in absolute silence throughout the talk.…
drorzel | April 1, 2009
Hold Steady rocks for the lucky few -- Page 1 -- Times Union - Albany NY
"The Hold Steady's Tuesday night performance at Valentine's was sold-out weeks in advance of the show, which left a lot of mopers without a ticket or a hope of getting in.
Those who'd jumped on the chance early on, though, were treated to a walloping dose of Craig Finn and crew, the likes of which a venue the size of Valentine's probably won't see until the band is making the reunion rounds 20 years from now."
(tags: news music review)
When are fake forces awesome? | Dot Physics
"A fake force is one of those forces…
drorzel | March 31, 2009
Setshot: Basketball for the Aging and Infirm: "Worse than he thinks": Self-image versus ability
"To me, the worst players to run with (aside from the belligerent and insane) are those with drastically inflated self-images. You know these players. They're the ones who think that they're the best on the court, the ones who think they know how the game should be played and how you should be playing it."
(tags: basketball sports society stupid)
Moses is Departing Egypt: A Facebook Haggadah
"Moses has taken the Which god are you? quiz. Moses is Osiris, God of the Dead. Dressed in white flannel…
drorzel | March 29, 2009
The Washington Monthly
"I wonder why people are so angry about bonuses. Do they hate the rich? Do they want to punish success?Are they eaten up inside with resentment? Do they just not want to admit that some people work harder and are more talented than they are?
Or could it be one too many stories like this (h/t)?"
(tags: politics economics stupid class-war business)
drorzel | March 28, 2009
Optics basics: Youngâs double slit experiment « Skulls in the Stars
"As Iâve so far been restricting my âoptics basicsâ posts to discussions of fundamental concepts related to optics, it might seem strange at first glance to dedicate a post to a single optical experiment. What will hopefully become clear, however, is that Youngâs double slit experiment is connected to so many basic concepts in optical physics (and still provides surprising new results to this day) that one post is hardly enough to describe all the interesting insights that can be gained by studying the experiment and its…
drorzel | March 28, 2009
The Washington Monthly
"All of that's changing, slowly but surely. The GOP lock on evangelicals is loosening. Poverty and global warming are just as serious for many younger evangelicals as whether two consenting adults of the same gender can get married.
And Pat Robertson's Regent University has an official student organization for Democrats."
(tags: blogs politics society culture US religion)
phinney / 27 / 03 / 2009 / Advice / Home - Inside Higher Ed
"Tenure is an individual accomplishment that can be all consuming and absorbing twenty-four-seven for the first decade or two of an…
drorzel | March 27, 2009
Jets Attempt To Trade Mannequin Dressed As Favre For Jay Cutler | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
"The Jets refuse to drop their offer and have sweetened it with the addition of a dog in a Jerricho Cotchery jersey."
(tags: silly football sports onion)
Kung Fu Monkey: Ephemera 2009 (7)
"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with…
drorzel | March 26, 2009
Step away from the curve § Unqualified Offerings
"The ideal curve would have a mean of about 50%. If itâs too much above 50%, then most of what youâre putting on there is easy for everyone, so it should just be a given. If itâs too far below 50%, then most of what youâre putting on there is too hard for everyone, so it should just be a given that they canât do it and testing them is pointless." Yikes. And we wonder why physics has a bad reputation.
(tags: science physics education academia)
Itâs What You Know That Just Ainât So § Unqualified Offerings
"[O]ne of the wisest sales reps I…
drorzel | March 25, 2009
Hulu - Cosmos
All 13 episodes of Carl Sagan's landmark series. Because if you're going to watch video on your work computer, it might as well be something good.
(tags: science astronomy television space video)
Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / Humorous Humanist Armageddon: Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaimanâs <em>Good Omens</em>
"Itâs an interestingly odd book, hilariously funny, very clever and not much like anything else. Heaven and Hell are trying to bring about Armageddon. Their agents on Earth, an angel called Aziraphale (who runs a second-hand bookshop)…
drorzel | March 24, 2009
Ten photons per hour « A Quantum Diaries Survivor
"The small speck of light shown in the upper left of the picture above, labeled as MGC 10-17-5, is actually a faint galaxy in the field of view of NGC3690. It has a visual magnitude of +15.7: this is a measure of its integrated luminosity as seen from the Earth. It is a really faint object, and barely at the limit of visibility with the instrument I had. The question I arrived at formulating to myself this morning was the following: how many photons did we get to see per second through the eyepiece, from that faint galaxy ?"
(tags: science…
drorzel | March 22, 2009
The Mid-Majority: Respect, Resilience, Joy and Despair Â
"This must be a lot of fun for you, this March Madness. It must be pleasant to rally behind something until you have no use for it anymore, to adopt and dispose the efforts of a team, to judge its efforts without any real consequence. But the idea that your gambling stories are somehow as thrilling as the on-court action is misguided at best. The delusion, however great or small, that any of the participants care who you've picked in your brackets is the luxury of narcissism. It's the same Princess of the Universe mentality that…
drorzel | March 21, 2009
weir3 / Instant Mentor / Advice / Home - Inside Higher Ed
"Unless youâre a botanist or geologist thereâs no pedagogical reason to teach outside. The first gorgeous day of spring semester will bring a clamor to meet underneath the spreading maple students spy from the window. Donât do it! That hour will pass with female students tugging at short skirts to maintain modesty, men in khakis seeking not to get grass stains on their trousers, fidgeting when everyone realizes the ground isnât as comfy as it looks, attention lapses every time someone walks by, the cupping of ears to hear comments…
drorzel | March 20, 2009
slacktivist: The Immortals
"I'm something of an expert on the demographic implications of the baby boom. I've developed this expertise from copy editing hundreds, probably thousands, of articles* on the effect of the baby boomers' impending retirement on Social Security. Based on what I've learned from those articles, and from closely watching the ongoing political debate over the Future of Social Security, I can say a few things, with confidence, about what this new generation will be like."
(tags: blogs politics economics stupid society culture slacktivist)
Tips for presenting at a…
drorzel | March 19, 2009
Idle Question of the Day
"Exactly what bad consequences would follow if laws were passed by the relevant countries rendering credit default swap contracts void henceforth? (That is, canceling all the outstanding wagers because the bookies went bust.) "
(tags: blogs politics economics social-science business)
Basketball news: No, I don't think that it's better to be down by one point than up by one point at halftime. Or, to put it in statistical terms, 1.3% (with a standard error of 2%) is not the same as 7.7% - Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Soci
A little more detail on why…