Some colleagues organized a bus trip to New York yesterday, which I went on, on the grounds that a) it was cheap, and b) in a few months, we won’t be doing much traveling at all for a while. This required me to get up at an ungodly hour to catch the bus on campus,… Continue reading NYC Trip: American Museum of Natural History
Month: May 2008
links for 2008-05-14
Shtetl-Optimized » Blog Archive » The bullet-swallowers “Some connections are obvious: libertarianism and MWI are both are grand philosophical theories that start from premises that almost all educated people accept (quantum mechanics in the one case, Econ 101 in the other), and claim to reach conclusions that (tags: blogs politics quantum science physics silly economics)… Continue reading links for 2008-05-14
FutureBaby Chronicles: Open Pseudonym Thread
Kate and I have been discussing possible names for FutureBaby when he or she ceases to be a baby in potentia and becomes an ActualBaby. We’ve also talked a bit about the issue of FutureBaby’s Internet identification– specifically, whether I should refer to him or her by name in the eventual blog posts (and oh,… Continue reading FutureBaby Chronicles: Open Pseudonym Thread
links for 2008-05-13
Confessions of a Community College Dean: False Economies “[S]elf-defeating efforts at cost control” See also “deferred maintenance.” (tags: academia economics stupid politics) Maths plus ‘geeky’ images equals deterred students This week, in the Journal of Unsurprising Results. (tags: math science psychology society culture education academia) Quantized conductance seen in graphene – physicsworld.com “This phenomenon will… Continue reading links for 2008-05-13
Science Habitat Photo Contest
The Corporate Masters are holding a workspace photo contest: Now hard at work on the next issue, Seed editors want to see the typical or not-so-typical places where you do science. For the chance to get your scientific work space featured in Seed, please send a photo of it to art@seedmediagroup.com by Tuesday, May 13th… Continue reading Science Habitat Photo Contest
Why Capital Punishment Is a Bad Idea
Charles Kuffner reports on an “Innocence Summit” in Texas last week, and points to two more reports from Grits for Breakfast that provide more colorful detail. The news story already says most of what needs saying, though: AUSTIN — Nine wrongfully convicted men who spent a collective 148 years in Texas prisons met with a… Continue reading Why Capital Punishment Is a Bad Idea
College: Poisoning Young Minds Since Forever
Matt Nisbet points to a new Pew Survey about global warming showing very little change in public opinion on the subject in recent years. It seems that An Inconvenient Truth didn’t really cause a radical change in public opinion, after all. (Of course, it does appear to have brought climate change to the attention of… Continue reading College: Poisoning Young Minds Since Forever
Cyclone Relief
There’s been a lot said and written about Cyclone Nargis recently, and reading the coverage by Chris Mooney and others makes me feel a little like a Bad Person for not saying anything myself. But, really, what is there to say? It’s a gigantic disaster, and the deplorable political situation in that part of the… Continue reading Cyclone Relief
links for 2008-05-12
The Neon Season: Theatre Tag Hilarious tales of disasters on stage. (tags: theater silly society culture) Making Light: A new holiday, rarely celebrated “Happy Voice of Command Day, in honor of all of those people in our lives who were irrefutably right.” (tags: culture society religion silly) Crooked Timber » » Economic fundamentalism and the… Continue reading links for 2008-05-12
Physics for Babies
Kate and I made a run to Babies “R” Us today, and looked at a bunch more baby stuff. We got a little punchy after a while, so it was perhaps not surprising that I was tremendously amused by the idea of Penguin Bowling. On further reflection, though, it’s really only natural. After all, the… Continue reading Physics for Babies