I read Guy Gavriel Kay’s newest book, Ysabel a while ago, but I’ve been dithering about what to say in the booklog entry. I’ve been dithering long enough, in fact, that Kate beat me to it, so now I have to post something. Kay is best known for a set of very loosely connected pseudo-historical… Continue reading Guy Gavriel Kay, Ysabel [Library of Babel]
Month: February 2007
Pop Culture Supercollider
One of those only-on-the-Internet, adventrues-in-D-list-celebrity videos: A YouTube clip of a hair metal cover band joined onstage by one of the teachers from “Saved by the Bell” and Dallas Cowboys snap-dropper Tony Romo, singing “Somewhere in the Night” by Journey. Romo really gets into it, and Mr. Belding drops the F-bomb a few times, and,… Continue reading Pop Culture Supercollider
The Definitive Statement on Marcus Ross
As usual, Scott Aaronson says it better than I did: [M]ost of the commentary strikes me as missing a key point: that to give a degree to a bozo like this, provided he indeed did the work, can only reflect credit on the scientific enterprise. Will Ross now hit the creationist lecture circuit, trumpeting his… Continue reading The Definitive Statement on Marcus Ross
A Snowy Day, in Pictures
Before we get to the dog pictures, I want to give a quick shout-out to the Comment of the Month here, which is Josh’s bunny made of cheese. That’s great. Anyway, we went outside with the camera for a little while this afternoon, to get the table picture posted earlier. This was an adventure for… Continue reading A Snowy Day, in Pictures
Want to Be a Doctor? Major in Physics
Somebody at work had printed out a table of MCAT scores by major, compiled by the AIP. I couldn’t find it on the web, but I found the original source, and made my own version of the relevant bit. This shows the average numerical scores on the three sections of the MCAT test for students… Continue reading Want to Be a Doctor? Major in Physics
Topography of Winter
This is our cast aluminum patio table, which always looks really cool when snow piles up on the lattice-work pattern of the top. Click the image above for a slightly larger picture. We’ve gotten more than a foot of very powdery snow thus far, and it’s still coming down hard. I taught my class, gave… Continue reading Topography of Winter
Idle Curricular Thoughts
A couple of years ago, we undertook a grand revision of our General Education curriculum, the set of core liberal arts courses that all students are required to take in order to graduate. The old system was very specific, requiring a large-ish number of courses in very specific areas, and was biased toward Western culture… Continue reading Idle Curricular Thoughts
Modern Experimental Physics Update
Over at metadatta, Sujit is doing spectroscopy experiments with interferometers, and has posted a very nice introduction to the technique. Basically, if you have a light source emitting two different wavelengths that are very close together, you can determine the wavelength difference by shinging the light into an interferometer, and seeing how far you need… Continue reading Modern Experimental Physics Update
Happy Valentine’s Day
Over at Inside Higher Ed, Scott McLemee celebrates everybody’s favorite annoying holiday with a look at two scholars of sex: the late Gershon Legman who coined “Make love, not war” back in 1963; and Blaise Cronin, who currently studies the more respectable sort of pornography at Indiana. Personally, I half think the real purpose may… Continue reading Happy Valentine’s Day
Classic Edition: Grad School Chicken Creole
A couple of times a year, our department secretary will organize potluck luncheons, and badger the faculty into cooking things and bringing them in for a big gathering in the conference room. We invite all the students, and everybody eats way too much, talks too much, and generally has a good time. We had another… Continue reading Classic Edition: Grad School Chicken Creole