Kate and I went to see Bruce Springsteen last night in Albany. The show was listed as starting at 7:30, but it was 8:25 before the band took the stage. At about 9:30, they were playing “Devil’s Arcade,” one of the slower and more political songs off the new record, which gave me time to… Continue reading Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Month: November 2007
links for 2007-11-16
Environment plays key role in children’s readiness for school “Genetic factors played a significant role in the children’s core abilities underlying the four components of school readiness, but the environment shared by twins of the same family remained the most important factor overall.” (tags: education science news) White children more positive toward blacks after learning… Continue reading links for 2007-11-16
Dark Matter in Sixty Seconds
Via email, a plug for the newish site 60 Second Science, which is a project from Scientific American built around a podcast featuring one-minute explanations of, well, science. The email was specifically highlighting their new project, a set of video podcasts going by the name of Instant Egghead. The first video (also the only one… Continue reading Dark Matter in Sixty Seconds
Dorky Poll: Dubious Proofs
Over at Good Math, Bad Math, Mark explains “Proof by Contradiction,” a common mathematical technique that doesn’t translate all that well to politics. Whenever proof techniques come up, I always think about one of the very few things I remember from my graduate class on Math Methods. We were talking about some sort of complex… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Dubious Proofs
Book Report
It’s been a while since I did one of these, so here’s your book progress update for the last couple of weeks, with the obligatory dog picture. This is probably the halfway point for the first draft, more or less.
links for 2007-11-15
Freshman’s 3-Pointer Helps Lift Syracuse – New York Times A typical beginning of the season (tags: basketball) Relativity passes new test of time – physicsworld.com Precision spectroscopy of lithium ions in a storage ring confirm time dilation. That’s a relief. (tags: physics science experiment news relativity) Donate to the Jhereg Foundation Steven Brust needs money… Continue reading links for 2007-11-15
The Teammate Desirability Factor
Over at the World’s Fair, Dave is asking people for their scientific eponyms, that is, the formula they would like to have named after themselves. These are, of course, entirely made up. Here’s my contribution, from the scientific study of pick-up basketball: the Orzel Teammate Desirability Factor (TDF): The Factor ranges between positive and negative… Continue reading The Teammate Desirability Factor
Social Networks Do the Darnedest Things
I’m currently getting trounced in Scrabble on Facebook, though I’m playing the game under protest: How can they possibly say that “ZA,” “KA,” and “AE” are English words, but “KABOOM” is not? The stupid thing is rigged. Anyway, I’ve been playing around with this social network business for a little while now, and it’s kind… Continue reading Social Networks Do the Darnedest Things
A Jonah Goldberg Moment
What’s a mid-size breed of dog with a reputation for laziness? I need a slow-moving dog to contrast with a hyperactive husky, and I already used “basset hound” in a different context. Ideally, it should have about the same mass as a husky.
Simple Answers to Complicated Questions
Dave Bacon watched “Judgement Day” last night, and has a question: It’s not like, you know, there aren’t people who think quantum theory is wrong or that quantum theory is somehow related to the Vedic teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. So why is it that quantum theory (which after all is “just a theory” wink,… Continue reading Simple Answers to Complicated Questions