Category: Links Dump

Optics basics: Young’s double slit experiment « Skulls in the Stars "As I’ve so far been restricting my ‘optics basics’ posts to discussions of fundamental concepts related to optics, it might seem strange at first glance to dedicate a post to a single optical experiment. What will hopefully become clear, however, is that Young’s double… Continue reading links for 2009-03-29

The Washington Monthly "All of that’s changing, slowly but surely. The GOP lock on evangelicals is loosening. Poverty and global warming are just as serious for many younger evangelicals as whether two consenting adults of the same gender can get married. And Pat Robertson’s Regent University has an official student organization for Democrats." (tags: blogs… Continue reading links for 2009-03-28

Jets Attempt To Trade Mannequin Dressed As Favre For Jay Cutler | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source "The Jets refuse to drop their offer and have sweetened it with the addition of a dog in a Jerricho Cotchery jersey." (tags: silly football sports onion) Kung Fu Monkey: Ephemera 2009 (7) "There are two… Continue reading links for 2009-03-27

Step away from the curve § Unqualified Offerings "The ideal curve would have a mean of about 50%. If it’s too much above 50%, then most of what you’re putting on there is easy for everyone, so it should just be a given. If it’s too far below 50%, then most of what you’re putting… Continue reading links for 2009-03-26

Hulu – Cosmos All 13 episodes of Carl Sagan’s landmark series. Because if you’re going to watch video on your work computer, it might as well be something good. (tags: science astronomy television space video) Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / Humorous Humanist Armageddon: Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s <em>Good Omens</em>… Continue reading links for 2009-03-25

Ten photons per hour « A Quantum Diaries Survivor "The small speck of light shown in the upper left of the picture above, labeled as MGC 10-17-5, is actually a faint galaxy in the field of view of NGC3690. It has a visual magnitude of +15.7: this is a measure of its integrated luminosity as… Continue reading links for 2009-03-24

The Mid-Majority: Respect, Resilience, Joy and Despair   "This must be a lot of fun for you, this March Madness. It must be pleasant to rally behind something until you have no use for it anymore, to adopt and dispose the efforts of a team, to judge its efforts without any real consequence. But the… Continue reading links for 2009-03-22

weir3 / Instant Mentor / Advice / Home – Inside Higher Ed "Unless you’re a botanist or geologist there’s no pedagogical reason to teach outside. The first gorgeous day of spring semester will bring a clamor to meet underneath the spreading maple students spy from the window. Don’t do it! That hour will pass with… Continue reading links for 2009-03-21

slacktivist: The Immortals "I’m something of an expert on the demographic implications of the baby boom. I’ve developed this expertise from copy editing hundreds, probably thousands, of articles* on the effect of the baby boomers’ impending retirement on Social Security. Based on what I’ve learned from those articles, and from closely watching the ongoing political… Continue reading links for 2009-03-20

Idle Question of the Day "Exactly what bad consequences would follow if laws were passed by the relevant countries rendering credit default swap contracts void henceforth? (That is, canceling all the outstanding wagers because the bookies went bust.) " (tags: blogs politics economics social-science business) Basketball news: No, I don’t think that it’s better to… Continue reading links for 2009-03-19