Category: Links Dump

Language Log » The “pound sign” mystery “Yesterday, in discussing Kevin Fowler’s song Pound Sign, there was some debate about the origin of the term “pound sign” for the symbol #. I suggested that it all started with the substitution of # for £ on American typewriter keyboards, but others argued that # was a… Continue reading Links for 2010-07-19

Physics Education Research Group (UMD) / Scientific Community Labs “Scientiifc community labs (SCL) are designed to give students the experience of participating in a model of a realistic scientific community at an early stage in their scientific training. In traditional labs, students often receive very detailed guidance, allowing them to complete the lab and get… Continue reading Links for 2010-07-18

News: Technologically Illiterate Students – Inside Higher Ed “The assumption that today’s student are computer-literate because they are “digital natives” is a pernicious one, Zvacek said. “Our students are task-specific tech savvy: they know how to do many things,” she said. “What we need is for them to be tech-skeptical.” Zvacek was careful to make… Continue reading Links for 2010-07-17

Mightygodking.com » Post Topic » Grading every country’s national anthem, part one “Burundi. Sounds more like a movie soundtrack than a national anthem – a really awesome movie, though, about African cowboys looking out over the savannah as the sun sets over the elephants, and then maybe they fight evil white people from some European… Continue reading Links for 2010-07-16

Mightygodking.com » Post Topic » What if Bertie Wooster, rather than being a mere layabout, was also Batman? “”Good morning, sir. I have prepared a breakfast of scrambled egg, kippers and bacon, as per your request.” “Fantastic, Jeeves! I tell you truly, I’ve worked up a massive appetite and that’s no mistake.” “Am I to… Continue reading Links for 2010-07-15

Can I build an ansible to communicate across the cosmos? “In this week’s Ask a Physicist, we answer a question that’s on everyone’s mind: Can we use quantum entanglement to make a mockery of the speed of light, and create intergalactic communications devices like Le Guin’s “ansible”?” (tags: science physics quantum sf education blogs io9)… Continue reading Links for 2010-07-14

Scientists vs. Engineers – The Scientist – Magazine of the Life Sciences “In the past, I have heard there was conflict between the “two cultures” of science and the humanities. I don’t see a lot of evidence for that type of conflict today, mostly because my scientific friends all are big fans of the arts… Continue reading Links for 2010-07-13

LaserFest | Videos of Lasers in Art & Entertainment A collection of videos showing the use of lasers in art, movies, and television. (tags: lasers science physics video television movies outreach art) Home – emergentuniverse.org A small but well-designed site dedicated to giving the public an interdisciplinary look at the science of emergent phenomena, including… Continue reading Links for 2010-07-11

Energy Secy advances nano science in spare time – San Jose Mercury News “This is Chu’s second such meaty scientific paper in recent months, both published in the journal Nature. The first, published in February, was following Albert Einstein’s general relativity theory and better measuring how gravity slows time. Both were published while he has… Continue reading Links for 2010-07-10

Using the General Social Survey | Gene Expression | Discover Magazine Notes on how you, too, can be a social scientist. Or at least noodle around with statistics. (tags: social-science blogs statistics surveys) Science in the Open » Blog Archive » It’s not information overload, nor is it filter failure: It’s a discovery deficit “We… Continue reading Links for 2010-07-09