Via His Holiness, there is an aggressively stupid paragraph in a New York Times movie review today: Did you hear the one about the guy who lived in the land of Uz, who was perfect and upright and feared God? His name was Job. In the new movie version, “A Serious Man,” some details have… Continue reading A. O. Scott Is an Ignoramus
Month: October 2009
Swashbuckling Through Quantum Optics
I’m teaching my Quantum Optics class again this term, out of a completely different textbook than last time around– I’m using Mark Fox’s Quantum Optics from the Oxford Master Series in AMO Physics, which is more of a regular textbook. I’ve got six students– four junior and senior physics majors, one senior chemistry major, and… Continue reading Swashbuckling Through Quantum Optics
DonorsChoose: Now That’s a Noble Cause
We’re currently in the early stages of the annual DonorsChoose fundraiser, helping to raise money for educational projects. This is especially important in the current economic climate– even before things went south, many schools and classrooms were strapped for cash, but now it’s even worse. But I can understand if that’s not a noble enough… Continue reading DonorsChoose: Now That’s a Noble Cause
Links for 2009-10-02
Physics Buzz: Space invaders: cosmic rays arrive for their 100th birthday “Cosmic rays constantly bombard earth’s atmosphere at a rate of about 100 per square meter per second, but they don’t make it through intact. They collide with atmospheric molecules, setting of a cascading shower of secondary particles, such as neutrinos and muons. Researchers probably… Continue reading Links for 2009-10-02
Thursday Baby Blogging 100109
SteelyKid says, “Baby Blogging time again? Can it wait? I’m in the middle of a book…” She is her parents’ daughter… And also a Great Big Baby, as you can see from this picture of her cuddling Appa:
Revenge of the Squirrels
“OK, thanks very much. I’ll pick it up at six, or a little after.” I hang up the phone. I can feel the dog’s eyes on my back. “So what was that about?” she asks. “Oh, that was the Ford dealer,” I say casually. “They’re done with my car.” The dashboard lit up like a… Continue reading Revenge of the Squirrels
Donors Choose 2009: Help Kids, Win Books
As you may have seen on some other ScienceBlogs blogs, it’s time again for the annual DonorsChoose fundraiser: If you haven’t been here in past years, DonorsChoose is a charity dedicated to education. They take specific proposals from school teachers looking for items to help their classes– anything from pens and paper to classroom furniture,… Continue reading Donors Choose 2009: Help Kids, Win Books
Links for 2009-10-01
slacktivist: In the belly of the fish “My fundie Bible teachers considered this the main, or even the only, point of this story worth considering. Their task, as they saw it, was to defend the story as being “literally” true, and so they’d share legends (see Bartley, James) of sailors swallowed by whales and go… Continue reading Links for 2009-10-01