Category: Links Dump

Maru the Cat does dimensional analysis : Built on Facts “Here is a picture of (I think) Maru the cat playing in a bag. He loves bags. Here is the same picture of Maru, at half the size: Now imagine that Maru is a physicist and the pictures are not pictures but instead windows into… Continue reading Links for 2011-06-13

The National Oral History – Grantland “The National Sports Daily, on the one hand, is a long-dead and short-lived newspaper that, for 18 months, between January of 1990 and June of 1991, attempted to cover sports in a way that no other American publication would, could, or had ever even imagined. On the other hand,… Continue reading Links for 2011-06-11

Chuck Klosterman: How an obscure junior college basketball game in North Dakota made history – Grantland “[S]omething crazy happened in this particular game. In this particular game, a team won with only three players on the floor. And this was not a “metaphorical” victory or a “moral” victory: They literally won the game, 84-81, finishing… Continue reading Links for 2011-06-10

What is morally off-limits in pop culture? | Music | The Big Questions | The A.V. Club “What I can’t relate to as I read the defenses written by Powers and Barthel is the implicit denial that anything might offend them. This is where the argument that morality always should (or can) be kept separate… Continue reading Links for 2011-06-08

Career Advice: Advice for Grad Students – Inside Higher Ed “Some of the greatest catastrophes in graduate education could have been avoided by a little intelligent foresight. Be cynical. Assume that your proposed research might not work, and that one of your faculty advisers might become unsupportive — or even hostile. Plan for alternatives.” (tags:… Continue reading Links for 2011-06-07

Book Review: ESPN – WSJ.com “The modest idea of Bill and Scott Rasmussen–a failed hockey broadcaster and his college-dropout son–ESPN is now, according to James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales, “the most important component of the Disney empire, worth more than the entire National Football League, worth more than the NBA, MLB, and the NHL… Continue reading Links for 2011-06-06

Bulb In, Bulb Out – NYTimes.com “Over the past few years, in conditions of strict secrecy, a multinational team of scientists has been making a mighty effort to change the light bulb. The prototype they’ve developed is four inches tall, with a familiar tapered shape, and unlighted, it resembles a neon yellow mushroom. Screw it… Continue reading Links for 2011-06-05

“Gone For Goode” | Homicide: Life On The Street | TV Club | TV | The A.V. Club “Homicide is not The Wire. But, maybe because so many of the people who were central to its creative team had developed their skills somewhere else besides television, it was something that no one had ever quite… Continue reading Links for 2011-06-04

Practical Tips on Writing a Book from 23 Brilliant Authors | NeuroTribes More or less what you would expect: idiosyncratic, largely contradictory, but with a few general patterns. (tags: writing books business publishing blogs science)

Mpemba’s baffling discovery: can hot water freeze before cold? (1969) | Skulls in the Stars “”My name is Erasto B Mpemba, and I am going to tell you about my discovery, which was due to misusing a refrigerator.” With those words, Tanzanian student Erasto Mpemba entered scientific history, and also sparked a scientific mystery and… Continue reading Links for 2011-06-02