Maryland held off a tough Davidson team to win, 82-70, in a game that I saw basically none of. By the time the BC-Texas Tech game wound down to its uninteresting conclusion, Maryland had built up a fairly secure lead, and there were only a couple of minutes of garbage time left. I gather that… Continue reading First Round Update
Month: March 2007
NCAA Tournament 2007
While I am taking the day off to watch basketball all afternoon, I will not be live-blogging the first round, the way I have the last couple of years. I realize this is a huge disappointment to about two people out there, but since typing on the laptop got me crippling muscle spasms in my… Continue reading NCAA Tournament 2007
The Life Cycle of a Microwave Photon
After a short post-March Meeting lag, Physics World is back to announcing really cool physics results, this time highlighting a paper in Nature (subscription required) by a French group who have observed the birth and death of photons in a cavity. I’m not sure how it is that the French came to dominate quantum optics,… Continue reading The Life Cycle of a Microwave Photon
Notes Toward an Aphorism
From the first invention of human language right up to the present moment, there has never been an instant when “He did it first” was a winning argument. Counterexamples?
A Question of Ethics
Is this video a deplorable example of cruelty to animals, or an entertaining way of dealing with bushy-tailed vermin? (It’s unquestionably the work of somebody with way too much free time. It’s much simpler to just let the dog out back, and let her chase the squirrels out of the yard. Though she might enjoy… Continue reading A Question of Ethics
Science Showdown: Orbit Region First Round
Announcing the first round games of the Orbit Region of the 2007 Science Showdown: These games match central physics concepts against one another, in a bid to determine the greatest physics idea, which will eventually face and humiliate ideas from other fields of science. I’ll be announcing the winners on Friday, but ehre’s your chance… Continue reading Science Showdown: Orbit Region First Round
Harry Potter and the Labrador Retriever Problem
The BBC has done a poll about unread books, and found some results that at first might appear surprising: Some 35% of those who bought or borrowed Vernon God Little, DBC Pierre’s story of a US high school massacre, admitted not finishing it. The figure was 32% for the fourth instalment in the Harry Potter… Continue reading Harry Potter and the Labrador Retriever Problem
A Bracket for Everything, and Everything In Its Bracket
Posting has been basketball-heavy of late because, well, there isn’t much else going on that I find all that interesting at the moment. More importantly, though, it’s the Season of the Bracket… I’m not the only one affected, of course, though many people who don’t care about hoops have to find other outlets for the… Continue reading A Bracket for Everything, and Everything In Its Bracket
Ficlets
John Scalzi is announcing the launch of a new “collaborative short fiction” site, Ficlets: What does “collaborative short fiction” mean in this case? Simple: You, as a writer, post a very short (not more than 1,024 characters) piece of fiction or a fiction fragment on the Ficlets site. People come to Ficlets to read what… Continue reading Ficlets
Let’s Hear it for Young Nerds!
The winners of the 2007 Intel Science Talent Search have been announced. First prize goes to physics, as is right and proper: Mary Masterman, 17, of Oklahoma City, submitted a physics project to the Intel Science Talent Search describing the spectrograph system she built for $300 at home (commercial units can cost $20,000 to $100,000).… Continue reading Let’s Hear it for Young Nerds!