Steinn responds to yesterday’s post about his comments about science blogging. I’m going to continue the tradition of responding here, rather than in his comments, because, well, I need something to post today. He concedes that outreach is a worthy purpose of blogging, but continues to be concerned about blogging as a tool for more… Continue reading Why Doesn’t Blogging Generate More Science?
Author: Chad Orzel
Selling Science to Congress
Via Facebook, of all things, a message reporting a conversation with Representative Bill Foster (D-Fermilab), talking about the best ways to encourage Congress to take science seriously. First, he addressed what’s been done in the past: On the effectiveness of the APS letter-writing campaign: *Recently I sent my chief of staff to a meeting of… Continue reading Selling Science to Congress
Unsurprising Endorsements
In a move that I’m sure will surprise, oh, three or four people, the editors of Seed have officially endorsed Barack Obama for president. I doubt any regular reader of this blog will be surprised to hear that I agree with their endorsement. In fact, I’m on record as saying that I will not vote… Continue reading Unsurprising Endorsements
Quantum Computing Candidates: Optical Lattices
Last week, I wrote about ion traps as a possible quantum computing platform, which are probably the best established of the candidate technologies. This week, I’ll talk about something more speculative, but closer to my own areas of research: neutral atoms in optical lattices. This is a newer area, which pretty much starts with a… Continue reading Quantum Computing Candidates: Optical Lattices
What Is the Use of [Academic Discipline] Blogging?
Steinn asks a provocative question: has science blogging done any good? I can think of science policy issues where blogging has made a contribution, and the general spread of information and communication done by blogs has probably had some impact, but has any actual science been directly impacted by blogs, or discussion on blogs? I… Continue reading What Is the Use of [Academic Discipline] Blogging?
links for 2008-10-29
The Frontal Cortex : Dangerous Models Why investment bankers are like cod fishermen (tags: economics social-science science environment animals blogs computing theory) Fear and Humiliation as Legitimate Teaching Methods :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education’s Source for News, Views and Jobs Teaching lessons from World of Warcraft. Seriously. (tags: academia education games internet psychology… Continue reading links for 2008-10-29
The Visual Display of Political Information
The closing narrative of the McCain campaign is apparently going to be “Obama’s a pinko commie socialist who wants to raise your taxes,” which means it’s time for all good liberals to bust out the graphs to show why this is false. Well, graph, singular. You know the one: I don’t remember who first posted… Continue reading The Visual Display of Political Information
The Missing Word
There have been a whole bunch of stories written about the idiot skinheads who were busted for a ludicrous plot to kill a whole bunch of black people, including Barack Obama: the AP version, the Washington Post, the New York Times. They’re all pretty similar, and they’re all notable for one thing: the word they… Continue reading The Missing Word
Think Like a Videogame Physicist
Over at Dot Physics (which might be the best physics blog in the world at the moment), Rhett Allain has a pair of posts exploring the physics of Fantastic Contraption. The posts don’t really lend themselves to excerpting, so you need to go over there and read them, but I think they’re brilliant, and deserve… Continue reading Think Like a Videogame Physicist
links for 2008-10-28
Cognitive Daily: Should you let your toddler watch TV? No, you dolt. (tags: science psychology television kid-stuff) The Bill Clinton President School – World Wide Web Homepage "Aren’t you tired of not being president?" (tags: us politics onion silly internet) Microsoft Ad Campaign Crashing Nation’s Televisions | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source "The… Continue reading links for 2008-10-28