Over at Evolving Thoughts, John Wilkins pokes string theorists: Ernst Rutherford, the “father” of nuclear physics, once airily declared “In science there is only physics. All the rest is stamp collecting”. By this he meant that the theory of physics is the only significant thing in science. Such mundane activities as taxonomy in biology were… Continue reading Strings and Philately
Month: March 2008
links for 2008-03-29
Anachronista: The Simpsons Bayeux Tapestry Couch Scene It’s missing the comet… (tags: silly television video) Good Math, Bad Math : Introduction to Linear Regression The basics of data fitting. (tags: science math) Quantum Decoherence Reduction by Increasing the Thermal Bath Temperature A counter-intuitive result. (tags: physics quantum science theory articles) Condensate Fraction in a 2D… Continue reading links for 2008-03-29
Manual Links for 3-28-08
There are fewer of them this time, so I’ll keep them above the fold. Graphene makes for better optical displays – physicsworld.com “According to the same group of researchers that first fabricated the 2D sheets of carbon nearly four years ago, graphene has the ideal optical properties to form the transparent electrodes in liquid crystal… Continue reading Manual Links for 3-28-08
On the Suckitude of Office 2007
My sabbatical is coming to an end, so I’ve begun prepping my class for the term that starts Monday. I’m teaching the honors section of introductory E&M, and for the intro classes, I lecture off PowerPoint. We’re starting an entirely new syllabus this year, and I plan to use my spiffy tablet PC to do… Continue reading On the Suckitude of Office 2007
Semi-Comfortable Question: Personal Particle Accelerator
Back in the comments of one of the “Uncomfortable Question” threads, Matthew Jarpe asked (as background research for a new novel): If someone were to hand you the keys to your own particle accelerator and you could do any experiment you wanted, what would it be? Well, if somebody just gave me the keys to… Continue reading Semi-Comfortable Question: Personal Particle Accelerator
Baby Advice Open Thread
Most of my best ideas come from Kate, so I’ll steal this one, too: If you could only give me one piece of advice [regarding FutureBaby, due in July], what would it be? If you’ve been itching to provide child-bearing or -rearing advice (and I know some of you have), here’s your chance. Please limit… Continue reading Baby Advice Open Thread
Deep Questions from Pop Music: Commas
Today’s question come to us courtesy of Ivy League white-reggae band Vampire Weekend: So, who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma, anyway? Well, John Scalzi, obviously, but the real question is: why? Why does this simple piece of punctuation engender such strong negative feelings in people who are otherwise mostly sensible? Personally, I lean… Continue reading Deep Questions from Pop Music: Commas
Manual Links Dump
You may or may not have noticed the absence of the “Links for [Date]” posts the last couple of days. There’s been some sort of glitch at del.icio.us, and they didn’t auto-post the way they usually do. You may or may not have missed them, but I do, so below the fold you’ll find the… Continue reading Manual Links Dump
Class and National Service
The Dean Dad posted an interesting article about “national service” programs yesterday. He’s against them, for class reasons: The message that national service programs send strikes me as dangerous. The implication seems to be that rich kids can just jump right into higher ed and start moving up the ladder, but the rest of us… Continue reading Class and National Service
Richard K. Morgan, Broken Angels [Library of Babel]
This is the second Takeshi Kovacs novel, sequel to Altered Carbon. Kovacs is a former UN Envoy, a generally amoral individual loaded up with a bunch of sophisticated mental conditioning, and sent out into the world to troubleshoot problem spots for the world government. And he’s a guy who really puts the “shoot” in “troubleshoot”…… Continue reading Richard K. Morgan, Broken Angels [Library of Babel]