In which celebrity culture comes to particle physics. ———— It’s been about six months since we had a big flurry of Higgs Boson stories, and as enjoyable as the relative quiet has been, it means we’re due for another run. And, predictably enough, the usual suspects are stoking speculation about what, exactly, will be officially… Continue reading Higgs Rumors Are the Price of Success
Links for 2012-06-21
In which we look at the failure of elites, and the international language of bad dancing. ———— Why Elites Fail | The Nation A pure functioning meritocracy would produce a society with growing inequality, but that inequality would come along with a correlated increase in social mobility. As the educational system and business world got… Continue reading Links for 2012-06-21
10,000 New Ebooks, but Nothing to Read
In which we look at how the Brave New Publishing World makes it really hard to find something good to read. ———— In a recent links dump, I included a link to this post about the current state of publishing, which is a follow-up to an earlier post about the current state of publishing. Elsewhere… Continue reading 10,000 New Ebooks, but Nothing to Read
Ten Years Before the Blog: 2008-2009
In which the great blog recap rolls on to probably the most important event of the last ten years: the arrival of SteelyKid. And a bunch of other bloggy stuff. ———— There’s really no question what should be the featured image for this recap post: Clearly, it needs to be an early photo of SteelyKid,… Continue reading Ten Years Before the Blog: 2008-2009
Links for 2012-06-20
In which we look at failures of academic collegiality, the allocation of resources in the liberal arts, teaching as a big grey area, advice for new teachers, common misconceptions about education, an ambitious plan to reform jury duty, and a former member of Fred Phelps’s hateful Westboro Baptist Church. ———— Confessions of a Community College… Continue reading Links for 2012-06-20
Ten Years Before the Blog: 2007-2008
In which we look back at a very political, perhaps excessively political year on the blog. ———— I’m picking up the pace of my recap because I’d like to get through as much as possible before the actual tenth anniversary of the blog this Friday. I won’t get through every year, but I’m going to… Continue reading Ten Years Before the Blog: 2007-2008
The Towering Interferometer: “Testing General Relativity with Atom Interferometry”
In which we look at a slightly crazy-sounding proposal from my former boss, the experimental realization of which is getting close to completion. ———— I spent more or less the entire first day of DAMOP a couple of weeks ago going to precision measurement talks. Most of these were relatively sedate (at least by the… Continue reading The Towering Interferometer: “Testing General Relativity with Atom Interferometry”
Links for 2012-06-19
In which we look at an impassioned plea from a gay seminarian, a satirical video about the Singularity, and two more dispatches from the imminent death of traditional publishing. ———— Letter from a gay Christian classmate « Mercy not Sacrifice I am asking you to set aside your quiet whispers for a potent disquietude; I’m… Continue reading Links for 2012-06-19
Ten Years Before the Blog: 2006-2007
In which we look back at a particularly eventful year for the blog. ———— The ScienceBlogs archives aren’t really set up very well for reading straight through, so as we reach this part of our historical recap, I’ve changed methodology. Since I have better analytics for the ScienceBlogs years than the Steelypips ones, I’ve got… Continue reading Ten Years Before the Blog: 2006-2007
Woke Up This Morning
So, anyway, as of today, I’m apparently the same age as the Reverend D. Wayne Love in 1998 or thereabouts. And the sound makes its way outta the window Minglin’ with the traffic noises outside, you know and All of a sudden I’m overcome by a feelin’ of brief mortality ‘Cause I’m gettin’ on in… Continue reading Woke Up This Morning