One of the NCAA pools I’m in has a copy of Obama’s bracket entered, and the last I checked, I’m a couple of games up on him. This means I’m as qualified as anyone else to offer a plan to fix the financial crisis, and I have just the plan we need. On the question… Continue reading Physics Can Fix This
Category: Politics
So This Is What Ohio Feels Like
Mike Dunford has a post up titled You Almost Have to Feel Sorry for Jim Tedisco, about the special election that’s being held to fill Kirsten Gillibrand’s House seat. The title alone is enough to tell you that Mike doesn’t live in this area any more. Nobody who has to listen to the multi-media saturation… Continue reading So This Is What Ohio Feels Like
Class and College
Over at Unqualified Offerings, Thoreau offers a provocative comment on class and higher education: Today (OK, yesterday, but I didn’t really sleep on the plane, so it’s still yesterday, or tomorrow is also today, or something) a friend offered (without necessarily endorsing) the theory that one reason why we try to get everyone to go… Continue reading Class and College
Not Your Normal Press Release
EurekAlert offered a press release from the American Physical Society over the weekend that may indicate that someone in the press office has won a round of drinks: The American Physical Society (APS) is elated that the Senate has approved the FYO9 Omnibus Bill, which will allow scientists to continue cutting-edge research that will lead… Continue reading Not Your Normal Press Release
Why “Clean Coal” Matters
Back before things went pear-shaped this weekend, Jonathan Zasloff had a good post about why “clean coal” is important: I think it’s terrific that the Coen Brothers are making funny, effective ads against relying on “clean coal” as part of the US energy program. But I worry that the clean energy community is really missing… Continue reading Why “Clean Coal” Matters
Moses Viney
This week was Founder’s Day at Union, one of the three big academic-procession events of the year (the others being Convocation in the fall, and Commencement in June), and this year’s event had a clear theme about race and equality, with the keynote speech being given by James McPherson on Union’s connection to the abolitionist… Continue reading Moses Viney
Nationalism and Science
Via email, Mike Steeves points me to an Ars Technica article about a Thomson Reuters report on the “decline in American science”: The US is beginning to lose its scientific dominance. That’s the message from Thomson Reuters, the people behind EndNote and impact factors. According to a report in their publication ScienceWatch, the US’ science… Continue reading Nationalism and Science
The Down Side of President Obama
Now that we have a President who is smart, articulate, and has the best interests of the country in mind, I feel compelled to actually watch his major speeches, like last night’s not-really-the-State-of-the-Union address. It’s a small price to pay for having a President who speaks to the nation as if we were rational adults,… Continue reading The Down Side of President Obama
Asteroids Killed Newspapers, GIF at 11
This week’s Science Saturday on bloggingheads.tv features Carl Zimmer and Phil “Bad Astronomy” Plait: It’s a wide-ranging conversation, covering topics in astronomy, why people believe crazy things, how the Internet can help, and the death of newspapers and their eventual replacement by blogs. Plait is really energetic (he spends a couple of minutes talking over… Continue reading Asteroids Killed Newspapers, GIF at 11
Wanted: News Smoothing
Back in the fall, I got all caught up in the election, like everybody else, and I added a bunch of blogs to my RSS feeds in Google Reader. I’m thinking that I might need to cut back to pre-election levels, if not lower, though. Following too many political blogs is giving me whiplash. This… Continue reading Wanted: News Smoothing