Quantum Diaries Science is complex. There’s no getting around that. But it’s essential that everyone engage constructively with it. That’s particularly true of the political and business leaders in Davos, whose decisions on science-based subjects can influence everything from the well being of our children to the future of the planet. It’s vital that those… Continue reading Links for 2012-01-31
Month: January 2012
The Arxiv Is Not a Journal
There’s been a lot written recently about academic publishing, in the kerfuffle over the “Research Works Act”– John’s roundup should keep you in reading material for a good while. This has led some people to decide to boycott Elsevier, including Aram Harrow of the Quantum Vatican. I’m generally in favor of this, but Aram says… Continue reading The Arxiv Is Not a Journal
Links for 2012-01-30
BOOK REVIEW: How To Teach Relativity To Your Dog By Chad Orzel – Science News It may sound like a strange setup, but the somewhat kooky concept works well for explaining a field of physics that can sound, well, kooky to the uninitiated. Emmy is the stand-in for the everyman (or everydog) who has never… Continue reading Links for 2012-01-30
It’s a Real Book!
I was going to write something about the politics of scientific publishing, but instead, I want to focus on what’s really important in modern publishing: That’s right, I got a couple of early copies of How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog in the mail this morning. It’s a real book, with pages and everything…… Continue reading It’s a Real Book!
Links for 2012-01-26
slacktivist » Mark Driscoll, John Woolman, Zacchaeus and grace That [Quaker abolitionist John] Woolman was so miraculously persuasive suggests to me that he likely wasn’t as monomaniacally focused on a single subject as the old preacher in the story I shared in the previous post. And the more I think about that story and Woolman’s,… Continue reading Links for 2012-01-26
A Toy Model of the Arrow of Time
The toy model of statistical entropy that I talked about the other day is the sort of thing that, were I a good computational physicist, I would’ve banged out very quickly. I’m not a good computational physicist, but by cargo-culting my way through some of the VPython examples, I managed to get something that mostly… Continue reading A Toy Model of the Arrow of Time
Simple Video Editing Software?
So, back when How to Teach Physics to Your Dog was coming out, I did a few “dramatic readings” of bits of the book, such as this one on the Quantum Zeno Effect: This was made with Windows Movie Maker, because it was free (came with the computer) and dead simple. However, Movie Maker on… Continue reading Simple Video Editing Software?
Notes Toward a Toy Model of the Arrow of Time
I’m fairly certain somebody has already done this, because it’s such an obvious idea. It’s a little beyond my cargo-cult VPython skills right at the moment, though (I can probably learn to do it, but not right now), and I none of the applets I Googled up seemed to be doing this, so I’m posting… Continue reading Notes Toward a Toy Model of the Arrow of Time
Baby Blogging Backlog
I’ve been really bad about documenting The Pip’s growth here. The annoying thing is, I’ve actually taken pictures of him over the last couple of weeks, but I’ve been too busy to edit and post them. If there’s one thing transcontinental flights are good for, though, it’s providing you with time to do stuff like… Continue reading Baby Blogging Backlog
Difficult Problems in Automotive Thermodynamics
While clearing the cars of frost Thursday morning, I was reminded of a difference of opinion Kate and I have about the best approach to a cold car. I tend to start the car up, and immediately turn the defrost on full blast; she prefers to let the car warm up for a while first,… Continue reading Difficult Problems in Automotive Thermodynamics