Time for everybody’s favorite morbid pop-culture game: as we all know, it’s a standard joke that celebrity deaths come in threes. So, who completes this week’s triad: David Foster Wallace, Richard Wright, and …?
Author: Chad Orzel
Pictures of Distant Worlds
Everybody’s all abuzz about this picture: This may be the first image of a planet around a sun-like star. May be, mind– it looks likely, but there are still a lot of caveats. If it is a planet, and not a dim background star, it’s got about eight times the mass of Jupiter, and is… Continue reading Pictures of Distant Worlds
links for 2008-09-16
Lithwick: Put Palin on the Supreme Court | Newsweek Dahlia Lithwick on Legal Issues | Newsweek.com "[I]f any branch of government is in need of a mother of five who likes shooting wolves from helicopters, the [Supreme] [C]ourt is it." (tags: law politics silly US) David Foster Wallace (Harper’s Magazine) Free downloads, in memoriam. (tags:… Continue reading links for 2008-09-16
We Are Science
If you listen to people talking about (or read people blogging about) new ways of doing things, you’ll frequently hear references to Science or Academia as if they were vast but monolithic entities existing in their own right. Statements like “The culture of Science does not reward open access…” or “Modern Academia does not reward… Continue reading We Are Science
Reading On-Line and in College
The Chronicle of Higher Education has an article about online literacy this week (time-limited link, look quickly), and I’m sure you’ll be shocked to learn that the author is pessimistic. The article cites distressing findings from new research: In the eye-tracking test, only one in six subjects read Web pages linearly, sentence by sentence. The… Continue reading Reading On-Line and in College
Virtual Science Debate
As you might have guessed from yesterday’s tease, the folks at ScienceDebate 2008 have now managed to get answers from the McCain campaign (to go with Obama’s froma few weeks ago). Which means that while you may never see them answering science questions on a stage together, you can put them head-to-head on the Web,… Continue reading Virtual Science Debate
We Have a Gene for That
Via Brian and John, John Cleese’s take on genetic determinism: All the best social commentary comes from comedians, these days.
Correlation Equals Causation, NFL Edition
I started watching the Giants-Rams game today with SteelyKid on my lap. The Giants marched right down the field, and scored a touchdown, and seemed to have the game well in hand. It was lunchtime, though, so Kate took SteelyKid upstairs, and the Giant offense sputtered after that, producing only two field goals. In the… Continue reading Correlation Equals Causation, NFL Edition
Congratulations, Dr. Ken
… for a successful defense. And excellent taste in celebratory beer.
Secret History of Quantum Physics
Kate and I were talking about Garrett Lisi’s utopian idea of a time-share netowrk for scientists (about which more later, maybe), and I mentioned the fine tradition of great discoveries being made while on vacation. It occurred to me, though, that there’s a secret history story begging to be written about one of these. Erwin… Continue reading Secret History of Quantum Physics