I’m always a little hesitant to post reviews of books that I’m using as reference sources when I’m writing something, because it feels a little like recommending that you skip past my book and go to my sources instead. This is, of course, completely irrational, because however much I my use a given book as… Continue reading An Illustrated Guide to Relativity by Tatsu Takeuchi
Category: Science
This One Goes to 11
A reader from the UK, James Cownie, was kind enough to send this picture of the “New and Bestselling” shelf at a WH Smiths ” at one of the service stations on the M20.” You might not recognize the cover immediately, but in the #11 spot on that list is occupied by How to Teach… Continue reading This One Goes to 11
Possibly Stupid Question: Why All These Extra Particles?
I’ve reached a point in the book-in-progress where I find myself needing to talk a little about particle physics. As this is very much not my field, this quickly led to a situation where the dog asked a question I can’t answer. But, hey, that’s why I have a blog with lots of smart readers…… Continue reading Possibly Stupid Question: Why All These Extra Particles?
Where I’m Going to Be in 2011
Not an exhaustive list, but since I’m noodling around with my calendar, I might as well note some of the stuff I’ll be doing this year: I’ll be on a panel about international science testing at the AAAS Annual Meeting in February. This will be a different experience– not only have I never been to… Continue reading Where I’m Going to Be in 2011
The Four Percent Universe by Richard Panek
Back in the fall, I got an email from my UK publisher asking me if I’d be willing to read and possibly blurb a forthcoming book, The Four Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality by Richard Panek. The book isn’t exactly in my field, but there… Continue reading The Four Percent Universe by Richard Panek
First Impressions, In Person and Online
There was a faintly awful essay by Melissa Nicolas at Inside Higher Ed yesterday, giving MLA job candidates advice on how to dress: Let’s start with your shoes. Anyone who has been to MLA knows that it is a big conference, and whether you are on a search committee, attending sessions, or interviewing, you are… Continue reading First Impressions, In Person and Online
Dorky Poll: Favorite Newtonian Rule?
It’s the first day of the new term, and the projector bulb that was working on Friday decided to stop working by Sunday. After that bit of excitement this morning, plus my lecture, I’m beat. I always forget how much talking is involved in intro physics lectures. My class for the term is the first… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Favorite Newtonian Rule?
2010: The Year in Blog
Because I’m sure everybody is as fascinated by blog stats as I am, here’s the traffic to this blog for 2010, in graphical form: In case you can’t numerically integrate that in your head, I’ll tell you that the total number of pageviews represented there is a bit more than 908,000. We have yet to… Continue reading 2010: The Year in Blog
Benford’s Law of Amazon Rankings
Late last year, Matthew Beckler was nice enough to make a sales rank tracker for How to Teach Physics to Your Dog. Changes in the Amazon page format made it stop working a while ago, though, and now Amazon reports roughly equivalent data via its AuthorCentral feature, with the added bonus of BookScan sales figures.… Continue reading Benford’s Law of Amazon Rankings
The Status of Simulations
Most of what would ordinarily be blogging time this morning got used up writing a response to a question at the Physics Stack Exchange. But having put all that effort in over there, I might as well put it to use here, too… The question comes from a person who did a poster on terminology… Continue reading The Status of Simulations