As a sort of palate-cleanser after the quantum chicanery discussed in the previous post, let me recommend Donald Simanek’s Museum of Unworkable Devices, a wonderful collection of failed ideas for perpetual motion machines, including explanations of why they don’t work. I’m tempted to turn a couple of these into exam questions, the next time I… Continue reading Unworkable Devices
Author: Chad Orzel
Help Me Locate Kooks
The final chapter of Bunnies Made of Cheese: The Book is currently envisioned as a look at the misuse of quantum mechanics by evil squirrels: qucks and hucksters of various sorts. As a result, I spent a good chunk of yesterday wading through the sewers of alternative medicine books on Amazon, using the “Search Inside… Continue reading Help Me Locate Kooks
links for 2008-07-08
Confessions of a Community College Dean: Ask and Ye Shall Receive… Wise and worldly advice about academic job hunting. (tags: academia jobs education) My Semester With an Asperger Syndrome Student :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education’s Source for News, Views and Jobs I am somewhat uncomfortable about the fact that this article is based… Continue reading links for 2008-07-08
Innumeracy by John Allen Paulos
John Allen Paulos’s Innumeracy is one of those classics of the field that I’ve never gotten around to reading. I’ve been thinking more about these sorts of issues recently, though, so when the copy I bought a few years ago turned up in our recent book-shuffling, I decided to give it a read. Unfortunately, I… Continue reading Innumeracy by John Allen Paulos
Free Books!
Kate and I are giving away books. Not all of them, mind, and they’re not totally free– you need to pay shipping– but a couple hundred duplicate/ disliked/ never-going-to-get-read books are being discarded. If you would like any of them, there are simple instructions on Kate’s LiveJournal. Don’t worry that this will leave us bereft,… Continue reading Free Books!
Uncertain Principles, Certain Results
From yesterday’s snail mail: On behalf of President Bush, thank you for your correspondence about the President’s Fiscal Year 2009 Budget. We appreciate hearing your views and welcome your suggestions. So, there you go. I’m appreciated and my suggestions are welcomed. Of course, it took me a while to figure out when I might’ve contributed… Continue reading Uncertain Principles, Certain Results
Quantum Quantum Quantum
“2. Ever repeat a word so much it starts to lose its meaning? Writing a book is like that, only with 90,000 words.” Quantum quantum quantum, quantum quantum. Quantum.
links for 2008-07-06
What a drag: Arago’s Experiment (1810) « Skulls in the Stars “[I]t was a failed experiment, based on incorrect theories of light propagation, which was interpreted incorrectly by Fresnel, but this incorrect interpretation helped lead to the (correct) view that light has wavelike properties!” (tags: physics history optics astronomy precision-measurement relativity)
links for 2008-07-05
Neurophilosophy : C19th Japanese anatomical scrolls Cool anatomical paintings from 1819. (tags: art biology Japan medicine history science pictures) Population Density Increases in Hell § Unqualified Offerings “They say you should speak no ill of the dead, and indeed, with dead Jesse Helms I have no beef.” (tags: US politics)
links for 2008-07-04
294 – Err Lingus « Strange Maps Aer Lingus demonstrates the fine grasp of Northeast US geography that we usually associate with Manhattanites. (tags: silly US travel) The Notes of Japanese soldier in USSR Fascinating cartoons drawn by a Japanese POW in the Soviet Union. (tags: art comics history Japan pictures war stories) Off the… Continue reading links for 2008-07-04