‘Columbine,’ by Dave Cullen — New York Magazine Book Review Most of what you think you know about the Columbine school shooting is wrong. (tags: society books review history media) The Laptop in the Classroom « Easily Distracted "I am sure there are students in my classes who have multitasked during a lecture or discussion.… Continue reading links for 2009-05-07
Author: Chad Orzel
Preventative Bacon
I’m waiting for the toaster when the dog trots into the kitchen. “You should give me some bacon!” she says. “Why is that?” I ask. “To prevent swine flu!” “Look, there’s no chance that I’m going to get swine flu from eating pork products. I know you saw some people on the Internet saying that… Continue reading Preventative Bacon
Good Science Books for Kids
The proprietor of Good Mom, Bad Mom emails to point out a post spinning off Monday’s Goldilocks post. A good thing she did, as Technorati has collapsed into utter uselessness, at least for finding people who link to my posts. Her post quotes an unnamed correspondent, who writes: My two daughters are both compulsive readers,… Continue reading Good Science Books for Kids
links for 2009-05-06
Why Canât You? « Easily Distracted "I had a fun conversation with a student this week who had a number of challenging questions about issues to pose to me. The question Iâm still knocking around: if academic cultural critics understand expressive culture so expertly, why canât they create it? Wouldnât it be better to always… Continue reading links for 2009-05-06
Malcolm Gladwell Is No Charles Barkley
I’m never quite sure what to make of Malcolm Gladwell. Lots of smart people seem to be favorably impressed by his writing and ideas, but whenever I actually read anything by him, there doesn’t seem to be much there. Take, for example, this New Yorker piece on basketball as a metaphor for innovation. As seems… Continue reading Malcolm Gladwell Is No Charles Barkley
Quantum Computing in Diamond, on the Arxiv Blog
As I understand it, the Physics ArXiv Blog is not affiliated with the people who actually run the Arxiv (Paul Ginsparg et al.). Which is probably good, as I’m never entirely sure how seriously to take the papers they highlight. Take yesterday’s post, Diamond Challenges for Quantum-Computing Crown, which is about a paper that asks… Continue reading Quantum Computing in Diamond, on the Arxiv Blog
links for 2009-05-05
The 25 most important movies ever made about war and diplomacy. – By Fred Kaplan – Slate Magazine "Last week, in the online edition of Slate’s sister publication Foreign Policy, two of its regular bloggers, Stephen M. Walt and Daniel W. Drezner, drew up lists of what they regard as the best movies ever made about… Continue reading links for 2009-05-05
The Faulty Thermodynamics of Children’s Stories
SteelyKid is not yet at the stage where I can usefully read to her– she likes sitting on my lap while I read just fine, but she’s more interested in trying to eat the pages than listening to the story. I was reminded this morning, though, that when she gets to bedtime-story age, I’m going… Continue reading The Faulty Thermodynamics of Children’s Stories
Less Is Also Difficult
I’m an experimentalists through and through, and have always known better than to attempt real theory. On two occasions, though, I’ve been forced to do a little bit of computer simulation work in order to interpret my results. One of these was for the time-resolved collisions experiment, and worked out well. The other was when… Continue reading Less Is Also Difficult
links for 2009-05-04
International Act Like A T-Rex Day "Our trademark application for "Act Like A T-Rex Day" has been OPPOSED by a very large company. In other words, we got served⦠The company opposing the trademark is a restaurant called "T-Rex Cafe, Inc.". They have trademarked the word "T-REX". Any merchandise with the word "T-REX" anywhere on… Continue reading links for 2009-05-04