Technology & Middle Earth : Built on Facts "Why doesn’t anyone just use a telescope or binoculars? Ok sure, it’s ancient middle earth and presumably a Galileo hasn’t been born yet. But I see no reason that this ought to stop them. Middle Earth is not a completely pre-technological environment, there’s science of some sophistication."… Continue reading links for 2009-06-26
Author: Chad Orzel
Thursday Baby Blogging 062509
SteelyKid is pondering a life as a costumed crime-fighter– she’s got the pseudonym for it, after all– and here we see her trying out a catchphrase to strike fear into the hearts of naughty people: “Spooooon!!!” Actually, that’s lifted from somebody else. Probably needs more work. The traditional Appa-for-scale picture:
Reminder: Enter to Win My Book
Just a quick reminder post to note that you can win an advance proof copy of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog in one of two ways: By captioning pictures of the dog with physics apparatus By writing short poems about dogs and physics Regarding the last one, I’m thinking of adding a second… Continue reading Reminder: Enter to Win My Book
Geniuses Don’t Fail Out
Over at Skulls in the Stars, gg has a very good response to the polemic about the dullness of modern science that I talked about a few days ago. He takes issue with the claim that modern science is “dull” compared to some past Golden Age, and does a good job of it– go read… Continue reading Geniuses Don’t Fail Out
When Press Releases Collide
Consecutive entries in my RSS reader yesterday: Salty ocean in the depths of Enceladus Discovery could have implications for the search for extraterrestrial life An enormous plume of water spurts in giant jets from the south pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. In a report published in the international science journal Nature today (25 June), European… Continue reading When Press Releases Collide
We’re Gonna Build Something This Summer
I’ve been reading a bunch of posts at Infinite summer lately, where they’re planning to spend the summer (re)reading David Foster Wallaces most magnum of opuses, Infinite Jest. In a development that surely nobody could see coming, I’ve decided to spend some of my infinite (hah) free time re-reading it myself. If you’re not familiar… Continue reading We’re Gonna Build Something This Summer
links for 2009-06-25
Confessions of a Community College Dean: An Unmarked Car "[A]t work, I can wear, say, a gray suit, and be both situationally appropriate and utterly impersonal. On dress down days, the alternate uniform of tie-less Oxford and khakis (or a close variant) gets the job done. There’s nothing terribly interesting about either ensemble, but that’s… Continue reading links for 2009-06-25
That’s What You Get for Talking Physics with Skaters
Via email, a news story from San Francisco with the headline “Physics discussion ends in skateboard attack“: A homeless man is on trial in San Mateo County on charges that he smacked a fellow transient in the face with a skateboard as the victim was engaged in a conversation about quantum physics, authorities said today.… Continue reading That’s What You Get for Talking Physics with Skaters
Desert Island Blogs
I’m thinking of paring my RSS feeds down again, as I’m feeling a little overextended at the moment, and could stand to spend less time reading stuff on the Internet. This brings up the obvious question of which blogs to keep, and which blogs to jettison, and that, in turn, lends itself to a reader… Continue reading Desert Island Blogs
Not All Physics Is On the Arxiv
Via a comment by Christina Pikas, there’s a post at the Scholarly Kitchen about a new study quantifying the use of the arxiv: Employing a summer intern, Ingoldsby conducted an arXiv search of nearly 5,000 journal articles published by the American Institute of Physics and the American Physical Society. Their methodology was painstakingly robust, looking… Continue reading Not All Physics Is On the Arxiv