Steve Po-Chedley, a recent Union graduate and physics major, is spending the better part of a year in Uganda, as part of a new program set up by the college. As part of the program, he’s maintaining a blog, and recently posted some reflections on his work to date. The most interesting part is where […]
Month: December 2008
Ask Mister Language Person
A minor but extremely annoying language peeve: The straps that one uses to steer horses are called reins. The period of time during which some sort of ruler holds authority is a reign. Thus, when one wishes to reassert control over something that is running unchecked, one would “rein it in.” The time during which […]
links for 2008-12-21
Sciencewomen : Thoughts on my AGU experience Don’t tell my university administrators, but sharing my latest science results is only a tiny fraction of the reason to go to a conference like AGU. Even hearing the latest and greatest science is not the entire reason. This is a lesson that is taking me a long […]
Little Touches Make a Big Difference
I’ve complained previously about the idiotic positioning of the radio antenna on my car, which has nearly cost me an eye a couple of times, when I needed to hack ice off the windshield. Today brought up another example of really small design flaws that make a big difference. Last night’s storm dropped about a […]
Intellectual Ignorance Knows No Bounds
I’ve said a number of harsh things here about the bad attitude of people who consider themselve Intellectuals toward math and science. After reading this New Yorker discussion about a Young Adult novel, I may need to change my stance a bit. It’s not that they’re better than expected when it comes to math and […]
links for 2008-12-20
EzraKlein Archive | The American Prospect It’s possible there are other solutions than EFCA. But it needs to be solved, one way or the other. EFCA has its problems, but pretending that it’s somehow a perversion of workplace democracy as compared to a world in which 25 percent of organizing campaigns see a worker fired […]
The National Academy of Sciences Wants You
…to answer a two-minute web survey asking about what scientific issues are most important to you. The blurb announcing it is: What topics in science, engineering, and medicine matter most to you? The National Academies are interested in developing useful and engaging print and web-based educational materials on the topics that you’d like to learn […]
Movies, A-Z
Nobody officially “tagged” me for this, but I saw it at Easily Distracted, and it seems like a good post topic for the Friday before Christmas. The idea is to pick one movie title for each letter of the alphabet. The list below the fold is not an attempt to come up with Great Films […]
Freezing Coherent Field Growth in a Cavity by the Quantum Zeno Effect
When I saw ZapperZ’s post about this paper (arxiv version, expensive journal version) from the group of Serge Haroche in Paris, I thought it might be something I would need to incorporate into Chapter 5 of the book-in-progress. Happily, it’s much too technical to require extensive re-writing. Having taken the time to read it, though, […]
links for 2008-12-19
The Art of SATergy – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com "Consider the following question for the GMAT (the test given to MBA applicants). Unfortunately, issues of copyright clearance have prevented us from reproducing the question, but that shouldn’t stop us. " (tags: science education academia psychology social-science) Op-Ed Contributor – It’s a Narnia Christmas – NYTimes.com […]