COROT surprises a year after launch Stellar seismology and a new extrasolar planet. (tags: astronomy news science planets) The quest for a new class of superconductors An article positing superconductors in which electrons pair up through something other than phonon interactions. (tags: physics science news low-temperature materials) Boston College physicists find new explanation for superconductivity’s […]
Month: December 2007
Bobby Petrino and Media Bias
It’s been a rotten year for the Atlanta Falcons– Michael Vick turned out to have even worse judgement than people had thought, and the team immediately went into a death spiral. Then, last week, their first-year head coach, Bobby Petrino (formerly of Louisville), announced that he was leaving to become the head coach at Arkansas, […]
Google Passeth All Understanding
As previously mentioned, I plan to end the book with a chapter on quantum flim-flam. As research for this, I’ve been looking at kook sites on the web, and Googled “quantum healing,” which turns up all manner of gibberish from Deepak Chopra. It also includes a helpful little item at the bottom of the page: […]
Tree of SCIENCE!!! #8
Today’s Tree of SCIENCE!!! ornaments salute this here series of tubes: On the right side of this picture, you see two little clothespin soldiers in sailor outfits with semaphore flags. These guys represent communications technology.
links for 2007-12-20
The Year In Film 2007 | The A.V. Club I don’t see enough movies to do a sensible “Year’s Best” list any more, but the AV Club is one of the most reliable review sites out there. (tags: movies) Are We Not Men? Jon Zobenicaoverthinks Playboy and Maxim (tags: culture gender journalism sex society) Ampere […]
College Basketball Gets a Little Quieter
Having ranted at great length about the awfulness of Dick Vitale’s caterwauling during games broadcast on ESPN, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that he’s having vocal cord surgery. In his own words: The past six weeks have been very emotional for me and for my family as we’ve visited some of the […]
Michigan Tenure Lawsuit
A former Michigan law professor is suing the university because he was denied tenure: The professor, Peter Hammer, won a majority of votes of the faculty of the law school in his case. But the 18-12 margin was two shy of the two-thirds requirement to win tenure, so he lost his job, and now is […]
Idle Consumer Electronics Question
Why does my new car stereo (with spiffy direct iPod connection) come with a remote control? Just where do they think I’m going to go?
Tree of SCIENCE!!! #7
Another cold December day, another ornament from the Tree of SCIENCE!!! This one’s for the doctors in the house: That’s a little elf guy smoking a pipe, and he represents the science of public health.and epidemiology.
Congratulations to Doctor Gazebo
Travis Hime of Arcane Gazebo has just finished his Ph.D. on Solid-State Qubits with Current-Controlled Coupling. Go congratulate him on bringing quantum spam that much closer to reality. (“Dear sir or madam, I may or may not be the widow of the former president of Nigeria, and I may or may not have the sum […]