As mentioned previously, I have an inexplicable fondness for the “Ancient Aliens” show on the History channel. It’s such a bizarre mishmash of every crazy idea out there in the UFO community that it ends up being hilarious where it ought to be just reprehensible. To give you an idea of the wackiness, the episode… Continue reading Ancient Aliens: The Unified Theory of Kookiness
Category: Science
Precision Measurement Hits Cable
I didn’t see it live, but thanks to the wonders of the Internet, you can see Tom O’Brian of NIST talking about measurement on the Rachel Maddow show last night: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Tom used to have an office not far from the lab I worked… Continue reading Precision Measurement Hits Cable
Crikey, I’ve Been Anglicised!
I spent yesterday going over proposed copy edits to Anglicise How to Teach Physics to Your Dog for the forthcoming UK edition, which adds “Quantum” to the title, and will have all new cover art, etc. This means that clergy in the book are now permitted to marry, all book property belonging to the Catholic… Continue reading Crikey, I’ve Been Anglicised!
Evil Squirrels from Extra Dimensions
It’s been a very long day, so I’m lying on the couch watching “Pardon the Interruption” on ESPN. They’re having a boring conversation about baseball, and I’m just drifting off into a pleasant doze when: “Fear! Fire! Foes! Awake! Fear! Fire! Foes! Awake!“ I jolt awake. “What are you barking at?!?” I yell at the… Continue reading Evil Squirrels from Extra Dimensions
Why Do We Have Stuff? Hints from Fermilab
There’s a Dennis Overbye article in the Times today with the Web headline “From Fermilab, a New Clue to Explain Human Existence?” which I like to think of as a back-handed tribute to the person who linked to an interview with Sean Carroll by calling him “The cosmologist, not the scientist.” This is the secret… Continue reading Why Do We Have Stuff? Hints from Fermilab
Why I’d Never Make It as a Mathematician
Matt’s Sunday Function this week is a weird one, a series that is only conditionally convergent: So the sum of the infinite series, by inexorable logic, is both ln(2) and ln(2)/2. How is this possible? Of course it isn’t. The flaw in our logic is the assumption that the series has a definite sum –… Continue reading Why I’d Never Make It as a Mathematician
Bath-Time Fluid Dynamics
SteelyKid’s every-so-often bath was last night, and as always, she was fascinated by scooping up water in a hexagonal cup thing that’s part of one of her bath toys, and watching it drain out. Which is completely understandable– not just because she’s a baby, but because there’s a bunch of physics at work, here. I… Continue reading Bath-Time Fluid Dynamics
How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update
A few upcoming events related to How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: The big one is that I’ll be aprt of the “Author’s Alley” portion of the World Science Festival Street Fair in New York City on Sunday, June 6th. The last couple of these have coincided with out-of-town trips for me, so I’m… Continue reading How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update
Bohemian Mechanical Rhapsody
Blame Bryan O’Sullivan for this– after his comment about misreading “Bohmian Mechanics” as “Bohemian Mechanics,” I couldn’t get this silly idea out of my head. And this is the result. I like to think that this was Brian May‘s first draft (he does have a Ph.D. in astrophysics, after all), before Freddie Mercury got hold… Continue reading Bohemian Mechanical Rhapsody
Knowing What’s Essential Is Essential
Spinning off a blog at Inside Higher Ed, the Dean Dad has a post on deciding what classes are essential: My personal sense of it is that the distinction between core and periphery is largely a function of purpose. If your goal in life is to be an exhibited artist, then you might well decide… Continue reading Knowing What’s Essential Is Essential