NPR hack apologizes for Wall Street « LBO News from Doug Henwood For a while, I’ve been thinking about writing a piece on how NPR is more toxic than Fox News. Fox preaches to the choir. NPR, though, confuses and misinforms people who might otherwise know better. Its “liberal” reputation makes palatable a deeply orthodox… Continue reading Links for 2012-02-07
Month: February 2012
Wacky Football Mishap Poll
So, my Giants edged out Kate’s Patriots again in the Chateau Steelypips Bowl, in a game that was certainly not without its drama. I’m not going to gloat about it, because a couple of different bounces here or there easily could’ve changed the outcome. Also, I didn’t see the third quarter at all, really, because… Continue reading Wacky Football Mishap Poll
The Best of All Possible (Football) Universes
Proving that you can find physics in everything, Sean Carroll points to a strange anomaly in the Super Bowl coin toss: the NFC has won 14 coin tosses in a row. The odds of this happening seem to be vanishingly small, making this a 3.8-sigma effect, almost enough to claim the detection of a new… Continue reading The Best of All Possible (Football) Universes
Incredibly Serious Sunday Poll
Like many Americans, I’m going to be hugely preoccupied today. Thus, a poll for your blog-like entertainment needs: The Super Bowl is today. Who’s going to win? If you choose the last option, please arrange to have contacted me in the past to tell me who to have laid a significant bet on so I… Continue reading Incredibly Serious Sunday Poll
Links for 2012-02-04
Duke’s Cameron Crazies Lose Their Enthusiasm – NYTimes.com There is growing sentiment that Cameron has lost some of its craziness, and there is definitive evidence that it has lost some of its Crazies. About 1,200 seats are earmarked for Duke’s undergraduates, but this season students have filled about 700 a game while classes are in… Continue reading Links for 2012-02-04
Course Report: A Brief History of Timekeeping 03
It’s been a little while since I wrote up what I’ve been doing in my “Brief History of Timekeeping” class, because I was out of town, and then catching up from being out of town. Some of this material has already appeared here, though, so I can hopefully catch up a lot of stuff in… Continue reading Course Report: A Brief History of Timekeeping 03
Links for 2012-02-03
Whither The Occupation – Ta-Nehisi Coates – National – The Atlantic “There’s an argument that the process of federal legislation, at this point, is crippled by deep systemic problems. The filibuster is an obvious example. It’s also worth pointing out that there is a space for activism beyond electoral politics. But laws exist for a… Continue reading Links for 2012-02-03
How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog: Photoshop Contest
It’s now officially February, and the release date for How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog is only a few weeks off– the official release date is Feb. 28. Of course, I’ve got a copy already: If you would like a copy of your very own, you can either wait until the release, or take… Continue reading How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog: Photoshop Contest
Thursday Eratosthenes Blogging: Measuring Latitude and Longitude with a Sundial
As I keep saying in various posts, I’m teaching a class on timekeeping this term, which has included discussion of really primitive timekeeping devices like sundials, as well as a discussion of the importance of timekeeping for navigation. To give students an idea of how this works, I arranged an experimental demonstration, coordinated with Rhett… Continue reading Thursday Eratosthenes Blogging: Measuring Latitude and Longitude with a Sundial
Lap Desk?
It’s apparently a good day for asking questions of the readership, so here’s another one: as SteelyKid has gotten older and more active, she’s become a real drain on productivity, especially at bedtime. Bedtime is now a process rather like a certain spoof book, extending well over an hour, and involving repeated requests to come… Continue reading Lap Desk?