The Scientist is doing a survey about science blogs, and if you go look at the article, you’ll notice a shocking omission. That’s right, there’s not a single physicist on the list. Of course, that shouldn’t actually be a surprise, as they’re actually doing a survey of life science blogs. But that doesn’t stop all […]
Month: September 2007
Looping in Education
Wednesday was a Day of Meetings for me, starting at 8am, which means I didn’t have time to type up a bunch of blog posts and schedule them as usual. Having just clawed my way out of Meetingville, though, let me take a few minutes to throw up another Academia post, before the topic gets […]
Academic Poll: All or Nothing Questions
A philosopher at McGill University has stirred up a controversy by requiring students to get perfect scores on a quiz about the Greek alphabet or drop her class on Plato: The course, which at times refers directly to original texts, requires students to gain a familiarity with the Greek alphabet. To make sure that would […]
The Magazine Experiment: Analog, November 2007
At the recent Worldcon, there were several rounds of the usual Save the Magazines Chorus: short fiction is the lifeblood of the genre, it’s where we get our new writers, etc. With the usual subtextual implication that I am a Bad Person because I don’t read or subscribe to any SF magazines. (The most annoying […]
People for the Eating of Tasty Atheists
Over at Pure Pedantry, Jake Young has recently posted two long, thoughtful, and civil entries in the New Atheism debate (he must have a thesis deadline, or something). The first follows John Dewey in arguing that a tight link between science and atheism is counterproductive, while the second collects and responds to criticism of the […]
Radioactive Clouds, Antimatter Molecules, and the Dying Earth
A quick physics news update, on some stories that came out last week: “Thundercloud “accelerator” fires gamma-ray beam:” A team of scientists in Japan has seen a 40-second burst of gamma rays from a thundercloud. This was presumably produced by electrons accelerated to extremely high velocities within the could coming to a sudden stop– a […]
The Bubble Has Popped
Before we bought our current house, coming up on five years ago, we looked at another slightly larger house that’s literally just around the corner. It hadn’t officially been listed yet, but our agent (who, weirdly, lives right next door) showed it to us, and we thought very hard about it. Unfortunately, it was about […]
Dismal Physics
Sean Carroll takes a look at economics from the point of view of a physicist: Economists have a certain way of looking at the world, in which (to simplify quite a bit) people act rationally to maximize their utility. That sort of talk pushes physicists’ buttons, because maximizing functions is something we do all the […]
Welcome to Grad School, Here’s Your Angst
Via Matt McIrvin, Total Drek’s Unhelpful Hints for Graduate Students: (1) It is important to realize as soon as possible that you are not an undergraduate any longer. In fact, you’re not really even a student. Grad school is more like an apprenticeship program than traditional schooling. As such, you’re here to learn by doing. […]
NFL Week 2
Three comments on the second week of the NFL season: 1) Given that Brett Favre famously lay down to give Michael Strahan the single-season sack record, it seems only fitting that the Giants should roll over to give him the NFL wins record for a QB. If the clock hadn’t run out, he probably could’ve […]