Rick Perlstein — Birthers, Health Care Hecklers and the Rise of Right-Wing Rage – washingtonpost.com “The tree of crazy is an ever-present aspect of America’s flora. Only now, it’s being watered by misguided he-said-she-said reporting and taking over the forest.” (tags: politics stupid evil media society culture US)
Month: August 2009
Links for 2009-08-15
Making Light: Panels and parlor games “So all you lucky devils went to Worldcon and I didn’t. And now I get to read panel reports, which are always both fun and tantalizingly vague. So let’s have a game of it. What fictional characters would you put on a panel, what would you have them talk… Continue reading Links for 2009-08-15
Estimation Contest: Guess the Total, Win a Book
This wooden box sits on top of my dresser, and every afternoon when I come home, I dump the change from my pockets into it. It’s getting close to full, as you can see: I’ve got a couple of extra galley proofs kicking around, so here’s a contest: Guess the total dollar value of the… Continue reading Estimation Contest: Guess the Total, Win a Book
Dorky Poll: Thermodynamics
I have a thousand things to do today, and blogging isn’t high on the list. So here’s a dorky poll to pass the time, because it’s been a while: What’s your favorite Law of Thermodynamics?(polls) We’re working in the classical limit, here, so you’re not allowed to choose a linear superposition of all four laws.… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Thermodynamics
Book Report: Blurb-tastic
A cosmologist, a science writer, three best-selling science fiction authors, a best-selling mystery novelist, and a Nobel laureate walk into a bar– Oh, wait, that’s not the opening to a joke. That’s the list of people who have provided blurbs for my book… Kind of an eclectic bunch, but I’m pretty psyched. I’m not quite… Continue reading Book Report: Blurb-tastic
Links for 2009-08-14
A Burning Dog Needs No Chimney – White House unveils death panel “After a week of unconvincing denials, the Obama administration reversed course today and released photos of the “death panel” that would, under a proposed new health-care system, make decisions about “when to pull the plug on grandma”:” (tags: politics health-care medicine silly pictures… Continue reading Links for 2009-08-14
Thursday Baby Blogging 081309
It’s getting harder and harder to get good SteelyKid pictures, because she’s always in motion (see digital camera complaints in the previous post). So, we have to resort to tricks like putting her in her babypod and holding Appa up next to her: Fortunately, she doesn’t mind too much… Actually, she sits in the babypod… Continue reading Thursday Baby Blogging 081309
Pimp Me Digital Cameras
The vast majority of the SteelyKid pictures posted here have been taken with our Canon PowerShot A95 camera, which is around five years old at this point. It’s served us well, but is getting old, and has a few sub-optimal features, in particular the lag time between pushing the button and actually taking the picture–… Continue reading Pimp Me Digital Cameras
Physics for Dragons
One of our poetry contest winners has been reading his proof copy of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, and posted some comments. Actually, it was posted last week, but I was at Worldcon, and not dealing with much of anything else. The comments are pretty positive, but he asks a couple of questions… Continue reading Physics for Dragons
Links for 2009-08-13
Physics and Physicists: On the Role of the Michelson-Morley Experiment: Einstein in Chicago “The conventional thought, based on many accounts given by Einstein in his later years, is that he can’t quite remember if he was aware of it, and thus, it didn’t play any influential role in his formulation of the principles of relativity.… Continue reading Links for 2009-08-13