The other day, the Dean Dad remarked on one of the quirks of academic technology: Last week I saw another iteration of something I still don’t really understand. People who are perfectly civil in person are often capable of firing off incredibly nasty and hateful emails. Sometimes they’ll do that with cc’s all the way… Continue reading Email Passeth All Understanding
Month: July 2008
Physical Theories Squeak When You Chew Them
“The Internet is silly!” I turn around from the computer. “Yes it is,” I say to the dog, “But what, specifically, makes you say that?” “All these posts about physics theories. Comparing them to women and men and stupid wizards, and relationships. It’s silly.” “Yes, well, it does seem to be the diversion of the… Continue reading Physical Theories Squeak When You Chew Them
links for 2008-07-31
Cassini instrument confirms liquid surface lake on Titan ‘”We can see there’s a shelf, a beach, that is being exposed as the lake evaporates,” Brown said.’ (tags: astronomy science planets news space) Prelude to the Higgs: A work for 2 bosons in the key of Z “The properties of the ZZ diboson make its discovery… Continue reading links for 2008-07-31
Nothing But Uncertainty
Over at Backreaction, Bee has a nice post about uncertainty, in the technical sense, not the quantum sense. The context is news stories about science, which typically do a terrible job of handling the uncertainties and caveats that are an essential part of science. Properly dealing with uncertainty is one of the hardest parts of… Continue reading Nothing But Uncertainty
Ethics in Science Fiction
A colleague emailed me yesterday with the following question: As I have mentioned the other day, [Prof. Firstname Lastname] of Comp. Sci. is putting together an exciting course “Can Computers Think?” (Intro to Comp. Sci.), and she hopes to use Sci Fi short stories (and movies, and TV series) to bring ethics into the course.… Continue reading Ethics in Science Fiction
links for 2008-07-30
The Nature of Glass Remains Anything but Clear – NYTimes.com “David A. Weitz, a physics professor at Harvard, joked, “There are more theories of the glass transition than there are theorists who propose them.”” (tags: physics materials science) Medium Large It’s back! Maybe the best Web comic going. (tags: comics internet silly) Game Over: Scrabulous… Continue reading links for 2008-07-30
Songs of the Moment
Currently in heavy rotation at Chateau Steelypips (links to last.fm): “Do the Panic” by Phantom Planet. I’m a sucker for the “Ba ba ba” chorus… “Sequestered in Memphis” by the Hold Steady. “We went to some place where she cat-sits.” I had to Google that. “Glad It’s Over” by Wilco. “I hate you one hundred… Continue reading Songs of the Moment
Reader Request: LHC
In the Reader Request Thread, Ian asks: I’d like to hear what you think we’ll learn (if anything!) when the LHC comes online next month. Well, that sort of depends on the time scale. I’m not a big accelerator guy, but my sense from reading the blogs of people who are is that we’re not… Continue reading Reader Request: LHC
The New York Times on Glass
I tagged this for del.icio.us, but on reflection, it deserves better than to be buried in a links dump. It’s so rare that the New York Times notices physics that doesn’t cost billions of dollars, that Kenneth Chang’s article on glass deserves its own post. Peter G. Wolynes, a professor of chemistry at the University… Continue reading The New York Times on Glass
Two Cultures Round-Up
Because I am a Bad Person who thinks and types relatively slowly, I have been lax about following up to the many excellent posts that have been written in response to this weekend’s two cultures posts. Let me attempt to address that in a small way by linking a whole bunch of them now: My… Continue reading Two Cultures Round-Up