Category: Pop Culture

Hello, Southern Maryland: Talk Wednesday at St. Mary’s College

I’m in last-minute-revision mode here, made mroe frantic by the fact that SteelyKid developed a fever yesterday, and had to be kept home from day care. I did want to pop in to note that I will be giving the Natural Science and Mathematics Colloquium at St. Mary’s College in Maryland tomorrow, Wednesday the 13th.… Continue reading Hello, Southern Maryland: Talk Wednesday at St. Mary’s College

Hugo Humiliation

Over in LiveJournal land, nwhyte just finished reading all the Hugo-winning novels, and provides a list of them with links to reviews or at least short comments. He also gives a summary list of his take on the best and worst books of the lot. The obvious thing to do with such a list, particularly… Continue reading Hugo Humiliation

What Every Dog Should Know About Quantum Physics, Now Streaming

A few weeks ago, I gave a talk based on How to Teach Physics to Your Dog for the University of Toledo’s Saturday Morning Science program. At that time, their local PBS affiliate recorded the talk, for use on their very nice streaming video site, Knowledgestream.org. My talk is now up, and the video is… Continue reading What Every Dog Should Know About Quantum Physics, Now Streaming

Silly Poll: Music Ed

I can see the oncoming train at the end of the book-in-progress, so I’m going off the grid to try to finish a draft of the final chapter and introduction. Here’s something to think about while I’m away from the Internet: Choose one:online surveys For bonus points, defend your choice in the comments using only… Continue reading Silly Poll: Music Ed

“Quantum Kitchen” Ought to Mean Something Else

I am less enthralled by the “molecular gastronomy” thing than someone with my geek credentials ought to be. As a result, I was a little disappointed when I clicked the link (from Jennifer Ouellette on Twitter) to this Wired story about a new tv show called Marcel’s Quantum Kitchen. Because, you know, there are much… Continue reading “Quantum Kitchen” Ought to Mean Something Else

Advertising Reveals Our Culture

I’ve been watching a lot of basketball lately, and between the channel-flipping and occasional single-game windows, it has not been possible to use the DVR to avoid seeing commercials. Which means I’ve seen a lot of the current paradigm of advertising in America, which seems to consist of two main modes: Smug and “dickish”: The… Continue reading Advertising Reveals Our Culture

Hey, Ho, Northern Ohio

Just a quick reminder that I’ll be giving my “What Every Dog Should Know About Quantum Physics” talk (same basic one from Tuesday night) as part of the Saturday Morning Science program (pdf) at the University of Toledo tomorrow, Saturday the 19th. The talk will be at 9:30, with breakfast beforehand. If you’re in the… Continue reading Hey, Ho, Northern Ohio

NCAA Tournament: Play-Ins, Ratings, and Majors

The 2011 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship officially started Tuesday, with the first of the “First Four” games, formerly known as the “play-in” game. It gets going in earnest today, though, which means that once this posts, I’ll be shutting the Internet down and working like crazy for a few hours, so I can justify moving… Continue reading NCAA Tournament: Play-Ins, Ratings, and Majors