Links Dump
drorzel | October 1, 2008
Nina Katchadourian
Short stories told through pictures of book spines
(tags: books literature pictures art stories language)
Cognitive Daily: Do TV, movie and game ratings actually do any good?
A good rule of thumb is that when a paper title asks a question the answer is "no."
(tags: games social-science psychology articles science society culture television movies)
Presidential Election 2008 FAQ
A wealth of information on the US Presidential election.
(tags: US politics statistics society)
Improving measurements of space and time - physicsworld.com
"Physicists in France have proposed…
drorzel | September 30, 2008
Dr. Rivka -
How many US Supreme Court decisions can you name off the top of your head?
(tags: law US politics)
Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / Bloat: threat or menace?
A defense of long books.
(tags: books writing literature SF blogs)
Dynamics of Cats : why are grades confidential?
"FERPA" is not a sufficient answer. Why do we have FERPA?
(tags: academia education law US)
Physics, guitars and pitch harmonics « Skulls in the Stars
Guitars and laser beams
(tags: physics optics science blogs music)
PHD Comics: The Economic Meltdown
An economic guide for perplexed…
drorzel | September 29, 2008
A Tribute to Paul Newman | Popdose
"What the world will miss most about Paul Newman isn't his artistry as an actor and a director, both of stage and film, but it is his kindness and all-around stature as a good man."
(tags: movies society culture)
Study of Standardized Admissions Tests Is Big Draw at College Conference - NYTimes.com
"[William] Fitzsimmons, the dean of admissions at Harvard, led a commission of college admissions officials who drafted the study, which challenges colleges and universities to examine their use of the SAT and ACT and to consider whether the benefits outweigh…
drorzel | September 28, 2008
Cocktail Party Physics: prime time science
Why you should stop worrying and learn to love science-themed tv shows.
(tags: television science culture society)
blarg? » I'm Sorry, Are You From The Past?
Standards-compliant Web design, Microsoft style.
(tags: computing internet stupid)
drorzel | September 27, 2008
Editors for Obama : Editors for Obama
Change in which we can believe.
(tags: language education silly internet)
drorzel | September 26, 2008
Primer: TV Detectives | The A.V. Club
"A brief history of--and notable highlights from--television's long-term love affair with procedurals, mystery stories, and the colorful characters who figure out whodunit."
(tags: television review culture avclub)
drorzel | September 25, 2008
Good Math, Bad Math : How Mortgages Turned into a Trillion Dollar Disaster
"The question is, if mortgages are at the root of the current economic disaster, how can it possibly result in close to a trillion dollars worth of losses?"
(tags: US politics humanities math diversity stupid)
Easily Distracted » Blog Archive » Trade Secret of Teachers
"Watching Palin's interview with Katie Couric felt like being in a classroom with a bad bluffer. In fact, a bad bluffer at their worst moment, which is about five minutes before a final examination is about to begin."
(tags: academia US politics…
drorzel | September 24, 2008
Dynamics of Cats : how to buy a house
A first-order approximation.
(tags: economics society US politics)
Good Math, Bad Math : Bad Probability and Economic Disaster; or How Ignoring Bayes Theorem Caused the Mess
"One of the big questions that comes up again and again is: how did they get away with this? How could they find any way of taking things that were worthless, and turn them into something that could be represented as safe? The answer is that they cheated in the math."
(tags: " economics politics math statistics stupid)
Point/Counterpoint: Gov. Palin Has No Experience vs. Please…
drorzel | September 23, 2008
Playing the odds at the LHC: the luminosity frontier « Shores of the Dirac Sea
"The chances (odds) of one proton hitting another in such tight conditions... are almost as bad as having to win a lottery three times in a row."
(tags: physics particles science blogs education math)
The Best of YouTube - bestofyoutube.com
This will do wonders for my productivity.
(tags: blogs video youtube internet silly)
Matthew Yglesias » Rounding Errors
Ah, the innumeracy of Harvard-educated pundits...
(tags: US politics math blogs silly)
Easily Distracted » Blog Archive » Not Even Wrong
"[A]…
drorzel | September 22, 2008
Submission Form
"Use this form to nominate a blog post for The Open Laboratory: The Best Writing on Science Blogs 2008. "
(tags: science blogs books)
BuyMyShitPile.com: Hey Washington, can you buy my bad investments too?
"Use the form below to submit bad assets you'd like the government to take off your hands. And remember, when estimating the value of your 1997 limited edition Hanson single CD "MMMbop", it's not what you can sell these items for that matters, it's what you think they are worth."
(tags: politics economics internet silly)
xkcd - A Webcomic - Tones
"One stand on which I'…
drorzel | September 21, 2008
Making kinematics graphs in Excel | Dot Physics
Important tips on making a graph with Excel.
(tags: physics education computing blogs science)
Robert Hughes on Damien Hirst's upcoming Sotheby's auction | Art and design | The Guardian
"Where you see Hirsts you will also see Jeff Koons's balloons, Jean-Michel Basquiat's stoned scribbles, Richard Prince's feeble jokes and pin-ups of nurses and, inevitably, scads of really bad, really late Warhols. Such works of art are bound to hang out together, a uniform message from our fin-de-siècle decadence."
(tags: culture review art)
Vote for…
drorzel | September 20, 2008
HAMLET (FACEBOOK NEWS FEED EDITION). Written by Sarah Schmelling.
"Polonius thinks this curtain looks like a good thing to hide behind."
(tags: books literature internet silly culture pictures)
BBspot - Evolutionary Acceleration Research Institute Ready to Start "Squirrel Smasher"
"Scientists currently rely on computer simulations to smash biological units, but simulations can only do so much, and without the visceral enjoyment of seeing two squirrels collide at thousands of miles an hour."
(tags: science silly biology animals particles)
Opportunity's got a long road ahead - The…
drorzel | September 18, 2008
...My heart's in Accra » Sumo and the cycle of nature
"Every two months, there's a 15-day basho. You can set your watch by it, if you happen to have one of those watches that's accurate only to the week."
(tags: sports Japan drugs blogs)
Basics: Making graphs with kinematics stuff | Dot Physics
"I think it is important that students understand the basics of graphing without using a spreadsheet or some other computer program. All too often students just feed numbers to a program and it spits out a picture."
(tags: academia education physics science blogs)
Quantum gas of ultracold polar…
drorzel | September 17, 2008
Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / Free e-books from Will Shetterly and Emma Bull
Two really good books, for free. What more could you want?
(tags: SF books literature)
D.F.W., R.I.P. :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs
"For a young writer to discover Wallace in those days could be an experience of very mixed emotions, for it meant realizing that one's generation had produced a literary genius, and that it was somebody else."
(tags: books literature writing academia)
Public Relations for Science - Big Think
Everybody's favorite…
drorzel | September 16, 2008
Wondermark by David Malki ! - 442: In which Beth keeps her Books
"They will breathe with gills that make the sound of fluttering pages."
(tags: internet comics books kid-stuff)
Unsolicited Advice VII: Should I Have a Web Page? | Cosmic Variance
Yes, but for the love of God, keep it professional.
(tags: academia jobs science internet)
The Reality-Based Community: Quitting while you're behind.
"This really isn't what the McCain camp was hoping for today. They can't plausibly argue with Fiorina, both because she's on their team and because she is, after all, perhaps the world's leading…
drorzel | September 15, 2008
Lithwick: Put Palin on the Supreme Court | Newsweek Dahlia Lithwick on Legal Issues | Newsweek.com
"[I]f any branch of government is in need of a mother of five who likes shooting wolves from helicopters, the [Supreme] [C]ourt is it."
(tags: law politics silly US)
David Foster Wallace (Harper's Magazine)
Free downloads, in memoriam.
(tags: literature writing stories culture review society)
David Foster Wallace - Commencement Speech at Kenyon University
"I submit that this is what the real, no bullshit value of your liberal arts education is supposed to be about: how to keep from going…
drorzel | September 13, 2008
Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator: Make Your Own Palin Baby Name
"Chad Orzel, if you were born to Sarah Palin, your name would be: Bush Gator Palin"
(tags: politics US internet silly)
Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / A Chance to Show Off: the first line game
"Not long after I moved with my family to a small town in New Hampshire, I happened upon a path that vanished into a wood on the edge of town."
(tags: books blogs games literature)
Op-Ed Contributor - The Origins of the Universe - A Crash Course - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com
Brian Greene explains what to expect from the…
drorzel | September 12, 2008
'Race and Class Matters at an Elite College' :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs
"Elizabeth Aries explores the insights she gained by studying four groups of students at Amherst College: affluent white students, affluent black students, white students without a lot of money and black students without a lot of money."
(tags: academia class-war diversity race society culture)
drorzel | September 11, 2008
Fafblog! the whole world's only source for Fafblog.
"As a Jesus-fearing moose-hunting hockey-mom mother of five who hunts moose for Jesus, Sarah Palin is kin to the wild outdoors and appreciates its bountiful splendor as she is gunning it down from her airplane. "
(tags: politics blogs silly US)
Woot : 10 Things We're Looking Forward To Now That The Large Hadron Collider Is Running
"1) Suddenly much harder to get particle beams insured"
(tags: blogs silly physics particles)
drorzel | September 10, 2008
Pure Pedantry : PhD Complete Rates
"As opposed to completion gaps, I am much more concerned with the fact that about a third of students are not finishing their PhDs. Why is that?"
(tags: academia science education gender race social-science)
Learning Curves: You Will Be So Screwed When We Get to Max-Min
"My life would be so much easier if you had to pass a serious algebra exam in order to get a driver's license."
(tags: academia education math blogs)
xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe
"I'm a physics grad student. I need the excuse to party."
(…