The Supreme Court grapples with the primordial ooze of the Summum case. – By Dahlia Lithwick – Slate Magazine "[T]he current Third Aphorism of Religion Cases: Government establishment of religion is only impermissible when it freaks out Justice Stephen Breyer." (tags: religion politics law silly society culture) Backyard Nukes? | Cosmic Variance | Discover Magazine… Continue reading links for 2008-11-13
Author: Chad Orzel
Dorky Poll: Craziest Seminar Question?
Speaking of departmental seminars, as we were, it occurs to me that this might be an amusing Dorky Poll question: What’s the craziest thing you’ve heard asked of a seminar speaker? One of the nice things about academia is that lots of educational events are put on, free and open to all. The problem is,… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Craziest Seminar Question?
Seminar Series: Threat or Menace?
The Female Science Professor is thinking about seminar series. Specifically, whether attendance should be mandatory for students: Being required to attend the departmental seminar eliminates that pesky decision-making process about whether to go to seminar or not. But then, if required to attend, you might sit there in the seminar, seething with resentment about being… Continue reading Seminar Series: Threat or Menace?
links for 2008-11-12
The Case of M. S. El Naschie | The n-Category Café I wouldn’t’ve started a blog if I’d known I could get Elsevier to give me my own journal… (tags: science publishing academia journals stupid) Backreaction: Technetium-99 "what a strange element is technetium in the first place, as without stable isotopes, it marks a gap… Continue reading links for 2008-11-12
Physics Books for Middle Schoolers?
Sometime commenter “Dr. Pain” asked, on a mailing list, for book recommendations for his son, who “wants to read up about physics, especially weird modern physics.” He adds some qualifications: Kid’s books on physics are way too elementary for him, but the typical “naive adult” book is over his head. Does anyone have any good… Continue reading Physics Books for Middle Schoolers?
Fixing Education Is Expensive
Edward Glaeser has an op-ed in the Boston Globe arguing for more education funding: The clearest result from decades of education research is the importance of teacher quality. My colleague Tom Kane finds that students who are lucky enough to get a teacher in the top quarter of the teacher-quality distribution jump 10 percentile points… Continue reading Fixing Education Is Expensive
Many-World vs. Multiverse
In the recent discussion of Many-Worlds and making universes, Jonathan Vos Post asked what science fiction treatments of the idea I like. The answer is pretty much “none,” because most SF treatments are distractingly bad. For example, last night I finished Neal Stephenson’s Anathem, a whopping huge brick of a book setting up an incredibly… Continue reading Many-World vs. Multiverse
links for 2008-11-11
Mars Lander Succumbs to Winter – NYTimes.com Farewell, Phoenix, thou good and faithful servant. (tags: space planets science astronomy news) Deep Secrets of ‘The Daily Show’ – City Room Blog – NYTimes.com "Mr. Remnick asked the writers and producers what a typical day at “The Daily Show” is like. Based on their responses, here is… Continue reading links for 2008-11-11
What’s the Matter With Your Definitions?
Over at Slate, Daniel Gross has a really dumb piece on rich people voting for Obama “against their own economic interest”. There are many dumb things about this article, starting with the fact that it doesn’t even attempt to answer the question in its title, but the main thing that’s dumb is the framing of… Continue reading What’s the Matter With Your Definitions?
Hands of Science
SteelyKid has recently begun to figure out her hands. As I noted last week, within the last couple of weeks, she’s started to be able to reliably grab things near her. Just within the last few days, she’s discovered that she has two hands, and they can interact with each other: She’s started grabbing one… Continue reading Hands of Science