Everybody and their siblings have been linking to this Minute Physics video, an “open letter” to President Obama complaining about the way that most high school and even intro college physics classes don’t teach anything remotely modern: I’m not entirely sure where the date of 1865 comes from, but it’s true, the standard intro physics… Continue reading Why Are Physics Classes Full of Old Stuff?
Do the New Paper Dance
OK, it’s a paper I mentioned here before, when it went up on the arxiv, but the “Comments on Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics” article I wrote this summer is up on the Physica Scripta web site now, and for the next not-quite-thirty days it’s free to read and download: Searching for new physics through… Continue reading Do the New Paper Dance
Financiers Still Aren’t Rocket Scientists
Over at Slate, John Dickerson has a piece expressing amazement that “numbers guy” Mitt Romney was so badly misinformed about the election. While I’ll admit to a certain amount of schadenfreude about the general bafflement of the Romney campaign and the Republicans generally, this particular slant (which Dickerson isn’t the only one to take, just… Continue reading Financiers Still Aren’t Rocket Scientists
Twilight of the Elites and the Rise of the Culture
In which I use my double license as a physicist and a science fiction fan to engage in some half-assed futurism spinning off Chris Hayes’s much-discussed book. ————- I don’t read a lot of political books, because I tend to find them frustrating. They’re usually surprisingly ephemeral, trying to spin Deep Meaning out of a… Continue reading Twilight of the Elites and the Rise of the Culture
What’s FiveThirtyEight Good For?: The Inevitable Nate Silver Backlash
Now that we’ve apparently elected Nate Silver the President of Science, this is some predictable grumbling about whether he’s been overhyped. If you’ve somehow missed the whole thing, Jennifer Ouellette offers an excellent summary of the FiveThirtyEight saga, with lots of links, but the Inigo Montoya summing up is that Silver runs a blog predicting… Continue reading What’s FiveThirtyEight Good For?: The Inevitable Nate Silver Backlash
Four More Years…
…and The Pip will be five. Happy birthday, Little Dude! Oh, yeah, there was also some kind of election. In which a bunch of crazy people lost, and a guy I played rugby with was elected a US Senator. Which is a great way to celebrate the one-year anniversary of this momentous occasion. And here’s… Continue reading Four More Years…
Get Out the Vote
If you’re in the US, it’s Election Day, so go vote. I’d like to say something here about how I don’t care who you actually vote for, but of course that’s not true– I would strongly prefer it if you were to vote for Barack Obama and other Democrats, and against Mitt Romney and a… Continue reading Get Out the Vote
Twitter-Induced Degradation
In which I discuss the manner in which and the degree to which Twitter is ruining the media. ———— Yesterday, Kevin Drum posted saying that Twitter is ruining political journalism, calling out its role in solidifying media groupthink before events are even completed. That seemed like a pretty good criticism to me, but like a… Continue reading Twitter-Induced Degradation
Science Bloggers for Students 2012
I’m barely keeping my head above water with the day job at the moment, so I’m a bit behind the curve on this. It’s October, though, which means it’s time for a DonorsChoose fundraiser. If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, you’ve seen a few of these. If not, there’s too… Continue reading Science Bloggers for Students 2012
Conceptual Physics Costumes for Halloween
For various reasons I can’t talk about, I’m not in a good mental place for deep and thoughtful blogging just at the moment. But prompted by yesterday’s Surviving the World, I’ll revisit a past post topic, and suggest some abstract ideas you could dress as for Halloween, if you’re so inclined. The Doppler Effect: Wear… Continue reading Conceptual Physics Costumes for Halloween