It’s NCAA tournament time, which is time for everybody to break out the moralizing stories about the pernicious aspects of college athletics that they’ve been sitting on since the football season ended. The Associated Press (via the New York Times) clocks in with a particularly discreditable entry, a story on a study of racial disparities… Continue reading Annual Mis-Reporting on Graduation Rates
Month: March 2011
Links for 2011-03-15
Which Traits Predict Success? (The Importance of Grit) | Wired Science | Wired.com “For a long time, talent seemed to be about inheritance, about the blessed set of genes that gave rise to some particular skill. Einstein had the physics gene, Beethoven had the symphony gene, and Tiger Woods (at least until his car crash) had… Continue reading Links for 2011-03-15
Your Can’t-Miss NCAA Bracket for 2011
Even though the really important Final Four has already been decided, the Division 1 NCAA basketball championship starts this week, which means it’s time to fill out your championship brackets. And so, as usual, I present the guaranteed-can’t-miss-sure-thing method of picking the winner based on the rankings of Ph.D. programs in physics (excerpt displayed; click… Continue reading Your Can’t-Miss NCAA Bracket for 2011
“What Every Dog Should Know About Quantum Physics” at New Paltz Tuesday Night
I’ve still got work to do today, but I did want to pop in quickly to note that I’ll be giving my “What Every Dog Should Know About Quantum Physics” talk tomorrow night at 8 p.m. in the Coykendall Science Building Auditorium, at SUNY New Paltz. It’s part of the Mid-Hudson Astronomical Association meeting, and… Continue reading “What Every Dog Should Know About Quantum Physics” at New Paltz Tuesday Night
Links for 2011-03-14
Why I am not worried about Japan’s nuclear reactors. | Morgsatlarge – blogorific. “Now, where does that leave us? * The plant is safe now and will stay safe. * Japan is looking at an INES Level 4 Accident: Nuclear accident with local consequences. That is bad for the company that owns the plant, but… Continue reading Links for 2011-03-14
Steven Erikson, The Crippled God (Spoilers) [Library of Babel]
OK, having spoken vaguely about The Crippled God, here’s a post for spoiler-y comments about the book and the series as a whole. If you haven’t read it, but think you might, save this post for reading after you’re done. SPOILERS:
Steven Erikson, The Crippled God (Spoiler-Free Comments) [Library of Babel]
(This is a post about the concluding volume of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, so if you clicked through here because the title made you expect a rant about religion, you’re at the wrong blog.) It’s hard to say anything coherent about this other than “Wow.” I mean, this is the tenth thousand-page book… Continue reading Steven Erikson, The Crippled God (Spoiler-Free Comments) [Library of Babel]
Links for 2011-03-13
Bowing to the Future: Just for the record… “It takes a bit of work to make a decent ebook. I’ve been overseeing the conversion of the Pyr backlist for two months now, so I know. I’ve also bought about 15 ebooks in the last two weeks on iBooks, and I’m sorry to say that I… Continue reading Links for 2011-03-13
Championship Basketball Thoughts
I stayed up way too late last night, watching televised basketball and reading Steven Erikson (about which more later). It wasn’t a good night for my teams, with both Syracuse and Maryland losing, but this is the most hoops I’ve watched all season, and I have a few miscellaneous comments: — How about that Big… Continue reading Championship Basketball Thoughts
Links for 2011-03-12
What if editors got royalties? – Hey, There’s A Dead Guy in the Living Room So okay, publishing is risky no matter the paradigm. But what if, rather than a traditional publishing house glomming most of the risk into one big beach ball, each participant in the publishing process took ownership of his/her own little… Continue reading Links for 2011-03-12