Category: Links Dump

slacktivist: Establishment “Here is what the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says about religion: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …” Sometimes a comma is just a comma and not a vast chasm separating two competing and incompatible ideas. The two clauses there do… Continue reading Links for 2010-04-24

Don’t ignore the Tea Party’s toxic take on history. – By Ron Rosenbaum – Slate Magazine “And it suddenly occurred to me that Tea Partiers really should read this pamphlet, because it would teach them something about what “tyranny” is actually like. It would teach them something about what “communism” was really like. It would… Continue reading Links for 2010-04-23

Scathing Amazon Reviewer Revealed as Author Orlando Figes’ Wife – AOL News Why didn’t I try– oh, right. Because Kate has integrity, as do I. That’s why. (tags: books literature history stupid internet) Backreaction: It comes soon enough “I think of the future frequently – and more often than not I think it could come… Continue reading Links for 2010-04-22

We Are Not Alone § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM “From illusory “canals” spied through blurry 19th century telescopes, to today’s high-endurance robotic rovers, in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars is the perennial favorite target. It is, after all, the most hospitable planet we know other than our own. But despite the Red Planet’s watery, warm ancient… Continue reading Links for 2010-04-21

Ptahhotep “The Instruction of Ptahhotep to his son survives in papyrus copies. It is a collection of maxims (not all are given here) dealing with human relations. The maxims do not cover all aspects of Egyptian life. For the most part, they touch on the peaceful virtues of kindness, justice, truthfulness, moderation and self-control. A… Continue reading Links for 2010-04-20

Rev. Mod. Phys. 82, 1155 (2010): Introduction to quantum noise, measurement, and amplification “The topic of quantum noise has become extremely timely due to the rise of quantum information physics and the resulting interchange of ideas between the condensed matter and atomic, molecular, optical-quantum optics communities. This review gives a pedagogical introduction to the physics… Continue reading Links for 2010-04-19

EXCLUSIVE: The Day Einstein Died – Photo Gallery – LIFE “Albert Einstein, the genius physicist whose theories changed our ideas of how the universe works, died 55 years ago, on April 18, 1955, of heart failure. He was 76. His funeral and cremation were intensely private affairs, and only one photographer managed to capture the… Continue reading Links for 2010-04-18

The Secret of L.A.’s 10-Year-Old Fake Freeway Sign – Traffic – Jalopnik “An artist named Richard Ankrom had the same experience, and so he did what any fed-up Los Angeles driver would do: He created a simple directional tool to help drivers prepare for the 5’s poorly marked hairpin exit. He designed and sewed a… Continue reading Links for 2010-04-17

YouTube – Real Word Problems From My Physics Book – PH17 Amazingly, this isn’t the silliest problem I’ve seen in an intro physics book… (tags: education physics science silly video youtube) Twitter / @busynessgirl/Calcwars Newton, Leibniz, meet Twitter. Twitter, Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz. (tags: silly math science history internet) Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 153202… Continue reading Links for 2010-04-16

The Virtuosi: Would a laser gun recoil? “Let’s motivate our question a little bit. I’ve wondered about this question since I saw star wars. Though I’m no firearms expert, the recoil in guns must come from conservation of momentum principles. Momentum is conserved in a system. The gun starts with zero momentum. We fire, give… Continue reading Links for 2010-04-15