The Washington Monthly "[S]trange to say, in 2007 the median family income in New York City was $52,871. Maybe New York takes in floods of new residents every year, and so many of them die of starvation that the median income is actually below the level needed to survive. Maybe over half of the families […]
Month: April 2009
I Do Not Think That Means What You Think It Means
A couple of physics stories in the last few days have caught my attention for reasons that can be lumped together under the Vizzini Effect– that is, they say things that involve unconventional uses of common words. Take, for example, the Physics World story Physicists distinguish between the indistinguishable, which starts off: Spurred on by […]
links for 2009-04-20
Amazon.com: From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time: Sean Carroll: Books Sure, it looks like a really good book about physics. But where’s the talking dog? (tags: science physics books) Built on Facts : Testing 123 "In the physical sciences and physics especially, science follows an infinite loop procedure. I’ll […]
Sunny Afternoon of the Ninja Squirrels
The dog comes into the office looking disgusted. “Well, you’ve really done it now, dude.” “What? What did I do?” “You had to go and put a bird feeder in the front window, didn’t you?” “What about it?” We put a thistle-seed feeder in front of the bay window in the living room, and I […]
links for 2009-04-19
Star Formation: The Game | DISCOVER Magazine Play the Hand of God and place supernovae to produce star-forming regions in a cloud of gas. My best score is just over 2000. (tags: science astronomy games internet) Questions for Steven Chu – The Science Guy – The Green Issue – Interview – NYTimes.com "Was anyone in […]
Physics Has a Flavor
SteelyKid is fascinated by the John Archibald Wheeler tribute issue of Physics Today:
links for 2009-04-18
slacktivist: T.F.: By the rivers of Babylon "That’s a change from the view of apocalyptic types from older times. They used to fear people like Napoleon — those who sought to conquer the world through force, riding forth on literal, flesh-and-blood white horses, intent on empire. But to premillennial dispensationalists, would-be imperialists get a pass. […]
links for 2009-04-17
North Of The Border Case File #135: Canadian Bacon  | DVD | A.V. Club "Just as Ned Flanders likes Woody Allen movies except for âthat nervous fella thatâs always in them,â I like Michael Moore movies and kind of hate Michael Moore himself. " (tags: culture movies review avclub world) Solar power sats get […]
Testing the Fine Structure Constant: The More Things Change, the More They Don’t
Via the arxiv Blog, a review article has been posted by the Haensch group with the title“Testing the Stability of the Fine Structure Constant in the Laboratory.” The fine structure constant, usually referred to by the symbol α is a ratio of fundamental constants– the electron charge squared divded by Planck’s Contant times the speed […]
Thursday Baby Blogging 041609
SteelyKid says, “Being sick is exhausting… Zzzzzzzzzz”: She’s been running a fever for the last couple of days, which happened to coincide with the closing of the JCC day care center for Passover. This has wreaked a certain amount of havoc on plans for the adults in the house, but it could’ve been much worse. […]