Sean Carroll and Brad DeLong have each recently asserted that relativity is easier to understand than quantum mechanics. Both quote Feynman saying that nobody understands quantum mechanics, but Sean gives more detail: “Hardness” is not a property that inheres in a theory itself; it’s a statement about the relationship between the theory and the human […]
Month: February 2011
Links for 2011-02-16
Did you ever want to meet one of the Calaquendi? : EphBlog “I don’t remember exactly when I first read the Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and the Silmarillion, but it was at least 30 years ago. I’ve re-read them all (plus “Unfinished Tales” and the recently published “The Children of Hurin”) dozens of […]
Links for 2011-02-15
The Prodigal Academic: Quick tips for TT interviews “It is interview season in my fields, and we have a few searches going on here at ProdigalU (and keeping me out of trouble). I know I’ve blathered on about interviews here, here, and here before, but more tips can’t hurt, right? Here are a few things […]
Physics Takes Practice
Doug Natelson talks about a recent presentation on education: I recently heard a talk where a well reputed science educator (not naming names) argued that those of us teaching undergraduates need to adapt to the learning habits of “millennials”. That is, these are a group of people who have literally grown up with google (a […]
Links for 2011-02-14
Zero Gravity: The Lighter Side of Science “In the July issue of APS News we pointed out that Einstein’s field equations for general relativity appear unexpectedly under the opening credits of the animated feature film “The Triplets of Belleville,” directed by Sylvain Chomet of France. We asked our readers for their interpretation, and offered copies […]
A Not Entirely Original Observation About Popular Music
I picked up a few albums off “Best of 2010” list a few weeks ago, and have been listening to them on shuffle play a lot. These included Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Which is kind of a rough one for shuffle play with SteelyKid in the house– I keep having to skip […]
Next Weekend at AAAS
As I’ve mentioned in passing before, I’ll be attending the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science next weekend, in order to appear on a panel about the TIMSS Advanced 2008 test. I’m an idiot, and didn’t submit an abstract in time (I thought there was a perfectly adequate placeholder abstract […]
Links for 2011-02-13
The Literature of Ideas; or, please stop laughing at me – pornokitsch “I can understand the temptation – and seeing how widely used the phrase has become, clearly I’m not the only one. Being “the literature of ideas” gives science fiction the authority of science. Or broadening it out – it gives speculative fiction permission […]
Links for 2011-02-12
Yemen: Protests Continue Away from International Media Eyes · Global Voices “With the entire world watching Egypt as it celebrates the uprooting of its dictator, Yemenis are calling for help and the world’s media attention. On Twitter, the calls came loud and clear. A rally started in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, in celebration of the […]
Academic Poll: Correlation and Evaluation
The always fraught question of student course evaluations has come up again on campus. In discussions, the correlation between “expected grade” and “overall evaluation” has once again been noted– that is, students who report expecting a higher grade are more likely to give a good overall score to their professors than students who expect a […]