Over at Swans on Tea, Tom has a great story of his Frankenstein Moment, that moment in science when the lightning flashes, and it’s immediately clear that everything just worked, and you have successfully reanimated your creation, or split the atom, or discovered high-temperature superconductivity, or whatever. As he says, these are rare. My own… Continue reading The Frankenstein Moment
Author: Chad Orzel
Dorky Poll: Trick Questions
I’m giving an exam this morning (magnetic fields, circuits, magnetic forces on charges), which is always a carnival of boredom– happily, I have papers to grade during the test, which will keep me busy. Sadly, this is not a final exam, as Female Science Professor and others are making or grading right now– we still… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Trick Questions
FutureToy!
I have to go to work unpleasantly early to give an exam, and then I’ll be occupied for most of the day with a visiting speaker. Here’s something cute and fuzzy to compensate: That’s the plush triceratops I bought Tuesday at the Natural History museum shop, as an advance gift for FutureBaby. We’re developing a… Continue reading FutureToy!
links for 2008-05-15
Fafblog! the whole world’s only source for Fafblog. That’s that no-nonsense down-to-business style I like about you, Hillary Clinton! You don’t just talk about change. You talk about how much you don’t just talk about change! (tags: politics US silly blogs society) How to Turn Your Vacuum Cleaner into a Bazooka : Environmental News Blog… Continue reading links for 2008-05-15
NYC Trip: Excellent Art at the Met
I feel a little bad about posting a long ranty thing about stupid and annoying art at the Met, because every time I go there, I find something new and really impressive. For example, the renovations underway in the museum forced me to cut through the European Decorative Arts section, where I never go, because… Continue reading NYC Trip: Excellent Art at the Met
NYC Trip: Bad and Ugly at the Met
Having done a whirlwind and somewhat disappointing swing through the Museum of Natural History, I strolled across Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to get me some culture. I guessed correctly that it was less likely to be choked with middle-school kids, and I never fail to find something interesting to look at.… Continue reading NYC Trip: Bad and Ugly at the Met
NYC Trip: American Museum of Natural History
Some colleagues organized a bus trip to New York yesterday, which I went on, on the grounds that a) it was cheap, and b) in a few months, we won’t be doing much traveling at all for a while. This required me to get up at an ungodly hour to catch the bus on campus,… Continue reading NYC Trip: American Museum of Natural History
links for 2008-05-14
Shtetl-Optimized » Blog Archive » The bullet-swallowers “Some connections are obvious: libertarianism and MWI are both are grand philosophical theories that start from premises that almost all educated people accept (quantum mechanics in the one case, Econ 101 in the other), and claim to reach conclusions that (tags: blogs politics quantum science physics silly economics)… Continue reading links for 2008-05-14
FutureBaby Chronicles: Open Pseudonym Thread
Kate and I have been discussing possible names for FutureBaby when he or she ceases to be a baby in potentia and becomes an ActualBaby. We’ve also talked a bit about the issue of FutureBaby’s Internet identification– specifically, whether I should refer to him or her by name in the eventual blog posts (and oh,… Continue reading FutureBaby Chronicles: Open Pseudonym Thread
links for 2008-05-13
Confessions of a Community College Dean: False Economies “[S]elf-defeating efforts at cost control” See also “deferred maintenance.” (tags: academia economics stupid politics) Maths plus ‘geeky’ images equals deterred students This week, in the Journal of Unsurprising Results. (tags: math science psychology society culture education academia) Quantized conductance seen in graphene – physicsworld.com “This phenomenon will… Continue reading links for 2008-05-13