I was just tagging this for the Links Dump, but I thought it deserved better. Fred Clark, blogdom’s best writer on politics and religion, is putting together a book-like thing from his blog, and has posted the introduction to the section on creationism: The oldest book in our Bible contains a hymn of praise to… Continue reading Religion, Science, and Joy
Author: Chad Orzel
How Much Outreach Do We Need? Depends on What You Mean by “We”
Over Twitter, somebody pointed to this article on astronomy outreach (free PDF from that link), which argues that everybody else should stop trying to be Brian Cox: I’ve known Brian for years and worked with him before his celebrity status went supernova. I would love to say “I told you so” to all the TV… Continue reading How Much Outreach Do We Need? Depends on What You Mean by “We”
Links for 2011-08-02
The Virtuosi: Physics in Sports: The Fosbury Flop “Physics has greatly influenced the progress of most sports. There have been continual improvements in equipment for safety or performance as well as improvements in technique. I’d like to talk about some physics in sports over a series of posts. Here I’ll talk about a technique improvement… Continue reading Links for 2011-08-02
Threading the Helpfulness Needle
When I came up for my reappointment review three years into my professorial career, I was given a list of required materials to submit, which included a “statement of teaching philosophy.” The same thing had been required for my job application, and at that time, I wrote about techniques and methods that had seemed particularly… Continue reading Threading the Helpfulness Needle
Do You Really Need an Electron Microscope for That?
As previously mentioned, I’m watching a little bit of Fringe in order to be able to talk sensibly about it later this week. I watch the Season 1 finale last night, and its treatment of parallel universes is about what I’d expect for tv, but being the obsessive dork I am, I got distracted from… Continue reading Do You Really Need an Electron Microscope for That?
Links for 2011-08-01
(The semi-automatic method I’ve been using to post Links Dumps has broken, so here’s a hand-edited version of what I’ve tagged for the last few days. Suggestions of alternative automated ways to post tagged links are welcome in comments.) Text Editors in The Lord of the Rings — Crooked Timber "vi: Moria Like Fangorn, ancient… Continue reading Links for 2011-08-01
Jim Butcher, Ghost Story [Library of Babel]
One of the problems with a long-running series is that it accretes backstory as you go (unless, of course, you go the Rex Stout route and just pretend that time doesn’t pass for the characters, even when you have the client in a later book being the son of a character from one of the… Continue reading Jim Butcher, Ghost Story [Library of Babel]
Happy Saturday Music
SteelyKid’s third birthday is next week, but we’re going to Kate’s mother’s for the day itself, so we’re having a birthday party today for her and her friends from day care. So, even though all the news is depressing, it’s a day to be happy. So here’s a happy song: (OK, I don’t quite know… Continue reading Happy Saturday Music
Fringe Query
I’m going to be talking to someone about treatments of parallel worlds in popular media next week, and as the only going mass media concern with a parallel-worlds plot seems to be the show Fringe, it would be helpful for me to be able to talk sensibly about it. Thus, two questions: 1) Where is… Continue reading Fringe Query
China Mieville, Kraken [Library of Babel]
I’m not a huge Mieville fan, but the descriptions I read of Kraken sounded like good fun. As I like fun books, and a fun book written by China Mieville seemed sufficiently improbable that I just had to see it, I picked it up a little while ago, and read it over the last week… Continue reading China Mieville, Kraken [Library of Babel]