The new Death Cab for Cutie album was released last week, and I’ve been intermittently earwormed with the first single, “I Will Possess Your Heart.” And, wow, is that one of the creepiest songs ever– you get the sense that he’s not entirely sure whether he needs to possess the rest of her, or if… Continue reading Non-Dorky Poll: The Creepiest Song in the World
Author: Chad Orzel
McCain is Radioactive
Matt Nisbet has a post up talking about McCain’s environment ad, and linking to a Media Curves study tracking people’s reactions to the spot. What’s interesting from the results, is that in the beginning of the ad, Democrats respond positively to the opening pandora’s box frame focusing on hurricanes, all three partisan groups decline in… Continue reading McCain is Radioactive
links for 2008-05-20
New family of quaternary iron-based compounds superconducts at tens of kelvin – Physics Today May 2008 “Last year it looked as though high-Tc superconductivity takes place only in CuO2 planes. Now that LaOFeAs has broken the cuprates’ monopoly, what other superconductors wait to be discovered?” (tags: physics materials energy science news) The Twin Paradox A… Continue reading links for 2008-05-20
Religion, Happiness, and History
Kevin Drum wades into a discussion over a claim that religion leads to happiness (started by Will Wilkinson and picked up by Ross Douthat), and offers an alternate theory for why religious people are happier in America by unhappier in Europe: This is way outside my wheelhouse, but here’s another possibility: Europe has suffered through… Continue reading Religion, Happiness, and History
Time Dilates When You’re Chasing Bunnies
We’re just starting out on a walk, and no sooner do I open the gate from the back yard than the dog takes off at a run, hitting the end of the leash and nearly pulling my arm out of the socket. “Whoa, there,” I say. “Take it easy.” “Come on,” she says, “We need… Continue reading Time Dilates When You’re Chasing Bunnies
Compare and Contrast
Mike Hoye rides the Tokyo subway and takes a picture of it: Here’s my view of the same scene (from this Flickr set): I really hope he was sitting down when he took that.
Burying the Lede: Taxing Tuition
Over at Inside Higher Ed they’ve got a piece titled “Massachusetts Should Tax Harvard” taking the position that most of the arguments against taxing extremely wealthy institutions of higher education are nonsense. You have to read all the way to the last paragraph to get to the one really interesting suggestion, though: Although I support… Continue reading Burying the Lede: Taxing Tuition
links for 2008-05-19
ruhlman.com: Flour, egg, milk Really simple popovers. (tags: food blogs) Dynamics of Cats : grade inflation “I had been worrying that my “curve” was tipping too far, too many As and Bs, but [threats are] not why – in fact student whingeing, if anything, would tip me towards harsher grading.” (tags: academia education society) Grits… Continue reading links for 2008-05-19
Horticulture Question
We’re very happy with Chateau Steelypips, and we especially enjoy our back yard: Of course, it’s not without its problems, as you can see in that picture (and another that I’ll put below the fold). The yard is pleasantly private and shady, thanks to a row of maples along the right side, and an enormous… Continue reading Horticulture Question
Cities in Their Old Age
Continuing the morning’s theme of “crushingly depressing stories from the New York Times,” there’s also a downer article about cities where there are more deaths than births: What demographers call a natural decrease has been occurring for years in tiny rural towns and in some retirement meccas in the South. But the phenomenon is relatively… Continue reading Cities in Their Old Age