Stolen from Brad DeLong: Woof.
Month: February 2007
Inscrutable Science Update
It’s a good day for people posting about science I don’t understand… Peter Woit points to the Non-Commutative Geometry blog, at which Alain Connes, the godfather of non-commutative geometry, is posting. It’s not the most polished blog, but if you can understand what they’re talking about, it’s probably interesting. Scott Aaronson is excited about new […]
Education Wonkery
Buried in a “Quick Takes” post a few days ago, Inside Higher Ed had a link to a set of suggestions for improving public education: Education Sector is offering the following eight education ideas for the 2008 presidential campaign. They cover the educational spectrum, from preschool to higher education. They range in scope from big […]
Coming Soon to a Presidential Address Near You
Two American physicists are reporting the discovery of nearly perfect quasicrystal patterns in the decorative tiles of a certain type of Islamic art: Penrose tiling is very reminiscent of “girih” – the elaborate patterns used in Islamic architecture. While travelling in Uzbekistan, [Harvard physicist Peter] Lu noticed motifs with 10-fold rotational symmetry, which is a […]
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
Fade In: The dining room of Chateau Steelypips, at dinner time. “Can I have a piece of chicken?” “No.” “But I really like chicken.” “That’s nice. The answer is still no.” “But I really like chicken. Pleeeease?” “For the last time, no.” “OK.” Pause “Can I have a cookie? Pleeeease?” Fade out
New Developments in Science Blogging
Two exciting new developments in the Seed-o-sphere: 1) Rob Knop’s Galactic Interactions has joined ScienceBlogs. It’s nice to have another physical science type around here, along with all these damn biologists. If you’re so inclined, go say “hi.” 2) The Powers That Be have also unveiled a new RSS feed option: Scienceblogs Select, through Feedburner. […]
Those Who Can’t Teach, Teach About Teaching
My father taught sixth grade in the public schools for thirty-odd years, and always griped about the teacher training workshops that they were periodically subjected to, in which some expert would be brought in to talk about the wonders of the latest fad in pedagogy, while all the teachers in the school struggled to stay […]
Spooky Action at a Distance
This is an approximate transcription of my physics talk from Boskone, titled “Spooky Action at a Distance,” in which I attempted to give a reasonable explanation of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (“EPR” hereafter) paper and Bell’s Theorem. This was sort of a follow-on from last year’s “Weird Quantum Phenomena,” meant to highlight a specific class of weird […]
ACC Update
Maryland beat Florida State last night, and moved over 0.500 in the ACC for the first time. This is also their 21st win on the season, and Jeremy Gold has gone round the bend: MD could rise as high as #2 seen in the NCAAs should they finish 10-6 in the ACC and win the […]
Extrasolar Planetary Atmospheres
The only reason I’m not going to hunt and kill James Nicoll for pointing me at the Conservapedia thing is that he also provides a link to the latest results from the Spitzer telescope. Not the one that Kate’s former boss uses to keep an eye on the New York State Legislature, but the one […]