The Bozo Condensate

I’m standing in the kitchen, sipping tea and watching snow blowing across the back yard. It’s cold enough that the digital thermometer has stopped working, which puts it in the single digits Fahrenheit. I’m not looking forward to walking the dog in this. “Pretty cold, dude,” she says. “Yeah,” I say. “It’s cold, all right.”… Continue reading The Bozo Condensate

How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update

Two new links for today’s Obsessive Update: The first is a nice article from Union’s press office, with the headline “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but what about physics?”. I spent half an hour or so talking with one of the staff writers (who has a science background, which is a nice… Continue reading How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update

How to Teach Physics to Your… Lizard?

Not much news on the book front this morning– various promotional things are in progress, including an on-campus thing tomorrow afternoon, but there’s nothing new to link to. We do, however, have the first non-mammal added to the DogPhysics Pet Gallery: a lizard, sent in by Marcella McIntyre. It’s not actually a pet, per se,… Continue reading How to Teach Physics to Your… Lizard?

How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update

Not a whole lot new, but it’s been a few days. Also, it’s a challenge to remain ambulatory at the moment, thanks to this cursed cold, so I’m not really prepared to turn out Significant Blogging. — This morning’s vanity search (why yes, I am searching for “How to Teach Physics to Your Dog” on… Continue reading How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update

How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update

Today is the first day of classes, and to celebrate, I’ve come down with the Martian death virus that Kate and SteelyKid have had the last few weeks. Joy. This calls for a How to Teach Physics to Your Dog update, to distract myself from the cotton balls and vacuum pump oil that have apparently… Continue reading How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update

How to Teach Psychics Physics to Your Dog

In talking to a reporter about How to Teach Physics to Your Dog on Wednesday, I learned of a mistake in the text of the book– a footnote on page 71 says that Scientific American published an article on how to make your own “quantum eraser” in April 2007, when in fact it was May… Continue reading How to Teach Psychics Physics to Your Dog

Why Every Dog Should Love Quantum Physics 6: Superconductors

If you’re still not sure whether you should be teaching physics to your dog, here’s another good reason: Superconductors. The “super” in “superconductor” refers to the fact that these materials conduct electric current with absolutely zero resistance, better than the best ordinary metals. This has obvious applications in the green technology field (which dogs should… Continue reading Why Every Dog Should Love Quantum Physics 6: Superconductors

Quantization of Books 3: How Many Books Is That?

When I saw the data generated by the sales rank tracker Matthew Beckler was kind enough to put together, I joked that I hoped to someday need a logarithmic scale to display the sales rank history of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog. Thanks to links from Boing Boing, John Scalzi, and Kevin Drum,… Continue reading Quantization of Books 3: How Many Books Is That?

How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update

Various and sundry updates regarding How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, now available wherever books are sold: Well, ok, that last sentence is a slight exaggeration. I spent a little while punching ZIP codes of places I’ve lived into the Barnes and Noble page, and couldn’t find any stores that have copies in stock.… Continue reading How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update

Move Over, Schrödinger’s Cat

A couple of quick book-related items that I can’t resist posting, even while on vacation: First, the sales rank cracked the top 500 on Amazon last night, peaking at 396. I don’t know if this is just a matter of relative sales volume being low, or what, but it’s a huge kick all the same.… Continue reading Move Over, Schrödinger’s Cat