51 Best Physics Blogs

A few other people got the same email I did, promoting a list of the 50 Best Physics Blogs put together by Accredited Online Colleges Dot Org. It’s a fine list, with one glaring problem: They didn’t include Matt Springer’s Built On Facts. As you can probably tell from its frequent tagging for the daily… Continue reading 51 Best Physics Blogs

Congratulations to Lauren Uroff and tcmJOE

During this year’s DonorsChoose fundraiser, I promised books as prizes to people who contributed to my challenge. Now that the finished books are ready, it’s time to congratulate the winners. Lauren Uroff wins one copy for giving the largest individual donation of the people who forwarded me receipts (the largest overall contribution was from Hewlett… Continue reading Congratulations to Lauren Uroff and tcmJOE

Creepiness Is Contagious

It’s always kind of distressing to find something you agree with being said by people who also espouse views you find nutty, repulsive, or reprehensible. It doesn’t make them any less right, but it makes it a little more difficult to be associated with those views. So, for instance, there’s this broadside against ineffective math… Continue reading Creepiness Is Contagious

DonorsChoose: The Final Days -or- You’ll Get Your Puppet Show

Last week, I promised to do a puppet show if my DonorsChoose challenge entry claimed more than 1% of the $200,000 that Hewlett-Packard is donating to this year’s Social Media Challenge. If you’re quick with arithmetic, you’ll see that the puppet-show threshold was $2,000. The actual contribution was $4,064.70, more than double the threshold amount.… Continue reading DonorsChoose: The Final Days -or- You’ll Get Your Puppet Show

Rule 1 of Writing: Try Not to Sound Like a Doofus

Via somebody on Twitter, Copyblogger has a post titled “7 Bad Writing Habits You Learned in School,” which is, as you might guess, dedicated to provocatively contrarian advice about how to write, boldly challenging the received wisdom of English faculty: What is good writing? Ask an English teacher, and they’ll tell you good writing is… Continue reading Rule 1 of Writing: Try Not to Sound Like a Doofus

Taking Off for the Great White North

I’m heading to the airport right after my second class today (I’m doing two weeks of our first-year seminar class), to appear at the Quantum to Cosmos Festival at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo. This promises to be a good event– I had a great time at the Science in the 21st Century workshop last… Continue reading Taking Off for the Great White North

DonorsChoose: Win Hewlett-Packard’s Money

This year’s DonorsChoose challenge is doing pretty well, with the total standing at a bit over $2,200. Thanks to all who have donated thus far. There’s a new development in this year’s challenge, which is that Hewlett-Packard is going to donate $200,000 to DonorsChoose, which will be divided among Social Media Challenge blogs in proportion… Continue reading DonorsChoose: Win Hewlett-Packard’s Money

Many Worlds, Many Comics

The Digital Cuttlefish looks at the Archie comics, and waxes poetic: Two paths play out in a comic book, When Archie walks down memory lane “The road not taken” is the hook; So now, the writers take a look And re-write Archie’s life again, This time with Betty as his bride; Veronica the woman spurned,… Continue reading Many Worlds, Many Comics