The Perimeter Institute will be hosting a workshop in September on “Science in the 21st Century“: Times are changing. In the earlier days, we used to go to the library, today we search and archive our papers online. We have collaborations per email, hold telephone seminars, organize virtual networks, write blogs, and make our seminars… Continue reading Science in the 21st Century
Month: April 2008
links for 2008-04-04
VQR » The Christian with Four Aces A biography of the deeply creepy and corrupt Pat Robertson. (tags: culture religion television journalism politics US society) Coming to New York, a Science Event for the Masses – New York Times “Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, who described himself as being from Muppet Labs, extolled the family-oriented programs. The… Continue reading links for 2008-04-04
Cut and Paste Error of the Year
EurekAlert provides a sort of firehose feed of press releases, some of which contain really hilariously awkward phrases. This release about a graphene-based measurement of the fine structure constant is one of the all-time greats, though: Prof Geim, who in 2004 discovered graphene with Dr Kostya Novoselov, a one-atom-thick gauze of carbon atoms resembling chicken… Continue reading Cut and Paste Error of the Year
Let’s Zen!
Wow. I’m cranky today. I really need to be more Zen about things. Here’s a picture to meditate on: This is the famous “Crane and Turtle” garden at Konchi-in in Kyoto. It’s one of very few gardens absolutely known to have been designed by the great garden-desing master Kobori Enshu, out of the huge number… Continue reading Let’s Zen!
Social Class and Educational Access
Via Matt Yglesias, the Quick and the Ed offers an absolutely terrific article about the effect of class on access to college, using AJ Soprano as an example. On The Sopranos, AJ was a delinquent, who nevertheless got sent off to college because of the tireless efforts of his mother, and the family’s money. Drawing… Continue reading Social Class and Educational Access
The Framing Fracas
I really had intended for Tuesday’s dog pictures to be my only comment on the recent framing debacle (well, Monday’s expertise post was an oblique commentary on it, but nobody got that, which you can tell because the comments were civil and intelligent and interesting to read). But Chris Mooney is making a good-faith effort… Continue reading The Framing Fracas
Better Teachers Cost Money
Kevin Drum points to a report comparing international education systems from McKinsey and Company management consultants. The report (9.5 MB PDF) does double duty: it serves as a useful and important contribution to the study of education reform, and also as a case study in how to use PowerPoint to generate documents that are well… Continue reading Better Teachers Cost Money
links for 2008-04-03
Analytics According to Captain Kirk A detailed statistical analysis of the Red Shirt Phenomenon in Star Trek. (tags: articles economics math psychology statistics television SF silly science)
Dorky Poll: SI or CGS?
I have a doctor’s appointment this morning, and then class, so here’s another Dorky Poll inspired by the fact that I’m teaching intro E&M: What system of units do you prefer for E&M: SI, or CGS? This is even dorkier than usual, so I suppose I should provide some context…
SETI in My Inbox
One of the nice things about being a semi-pro blogger is that people send me tips about things that might be blogworthy. Most of these go into the daily links dump posts, but every now and then one hits at a time when I’m short of material, and looking for something to write about. Such… Continue reading SETI in My Inbox