6 Famous Unsolved Mysteries (That Have Totally Been Solved) | Cracked.com “One of our favorite pastimes here at Cracked is sucking the mystery out of life like the cream out of a Twinkie, leaving only the bland, dry sponge cake of reality behind. To that end, we’ve decided to list the often mundane solutions to… Continue reading Links for 2010-09-20
Month: September 2010
Short Story Club: “Elegy for a Young Elk” by Hannu Rajaniemi
Hannu Ranjaniemi’s The Quantrum Thief has generated a lot of buzz, but doesn’t seem to be available on this side of the Atlantic (not without exorbitant shipping charges, anyway). As a result, I haven’t read anything of his, so I was happy to see “Elegy for a Young Elk on the Short Story Club list.… Continue reading Short Story Club: “Elegy for a Young Elk” by Hannu Rajaniemi
Links for 2010-09-18
Rally to Restore Sanity “We’re looking for the people who think shouting is annoying, counterproductive, and terrible for your throat; who feel that the loudest voices shouldn’t be the only ones that get heard; and who believe that the only time it’s appropriate to draw a Hitler mustache on someone is when that person is… Continue reading Links for 2010-09-18
Links for 2010-09-17
http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/debut-author-lessons-10-things-about-signing-books/ Good, solid advice on signing books, some of which I’ve stumbled on myself, others I wish I’d known a year ago. (tags: books publishing blogs) Interference | Flickr – Photo Sharing! An awesome picture of water wave interference involving a waterlogged bee. (tags: pictures physics science waves water)
Thursday Toddler Blogging 091610
For this week’s Toddler Blogging, a shot of Family Reading Time: SteelyKid looks very serious, because she’s going about the important job of locating Goldbug in Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. Grandma and Grandpa still have the copy of this that I loved when I was little, and introduced SteelyKid to… Continue reading Thursday Toddler Blogging 091610
A Quick Reputational Poll
In a place I can’t link to, I encountered the somewhat boggling statement that “Nature leans more in the direction of Popular Science than Critically Peer Reviewed [Journal].” Thus, a quick poll: Nature is:online surveys Context is for the weak.
Links for 2010-09-16
What higher education costs § Unqualified Offerings “There’s a lot of talk going around about the cost of higher education. Let’s look at some numbers in the state university system here, which focuses on undergraduate education.” (tags: academia education economics blogs unqualified-offerings) Do Scientists Have a Special Responsibility to Engage in Political Advocacy? | Age… Continue reading Links for 2010-09-16
The Inevitable Hiatus
So, I’m looking at the couple-dozen tabs I have open in Chrome for stuff that I think would be worth blogging about, and the slides for this afternoon’s lecture that need revising, and the student poster that needs to be completed before tomorrow, and the committee stuff that I ought to be doing, and the… Continue reading The Inevitable Hiatus
Links for 2010-09-15
Lunch at McDonald’s – The Amateur Gourmet “I won’t be the first food writer to note that McDonald’s makes terrific fries. I’ve read interviews with chefs who try to emulate that crispy exterior and moist interior, that perfectly pleasing balance of salty, savory and sweet. These fries are prevalent around the world for a reason:… Continue reading Links for 2010-09-15
Why I’m Skeptical About the Changing Fine-Structure Constant
Not long ago, a new preprint on the fine structure constant got a bunch of press, nicely summed up by the Knight Science Journalism Tracker last week. I meant to say something about this last week, but what with it being the first week of classes and all, I didn’t find the time. I still… Continue reading Why I’m Skeptical About the Changing Fine-Structure Constant