In which we look at relativistic rockets, scientific revolutions, and the mathematical connection between entanglement and nonlocality. The Relativistic Rocket Science fiction writers can make use of worm holes or warp drives to overcome this restriction, but it is not clear that such things can ever be made to work in reality. Another way to… Continue reading Links for 2012-05-29
Links for 2012-05-28
In which we post a new collection of random links in an effort to see if the RSS feeds actually work now but aren’t showing anything because I haven’t posted anything. Craig Sager’s Suits and Sideline Sartorial Disasters – Grantland You’ve been blown off your couch and knocked from your barstool with disbelief — even… Continue reading Links for 2012-05-28
Ask Emmy Questions
The blog is recovering from the transition to WordPress, but I’m still not fully confident in it. So We’ll turn to another corner of the social media universe for my procrastinatory needs this morning: Having Emmy answer physics questions on Twitter. The same deal as when we’ve done this before: If you’ve got a physics… Continue reading Ask Emmy Questions
Spiffy New Digs, Suggestions Wanted
So, as you may or may not have noticed, ScienceBlogs has gotten a makeover. If you read via RSS, you might not notice anything, but if you come to the blog itself, you’ll see a new look. The previous three-column layout is gone, and posts on the front page now show only short excerpts and… Continue reading Spiffy New Digs, Suggestions Wanted
How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog in the New York Times
I was going to post something noting that the great WordPress transition will begin at 7pm tonight, and comments after that time will be lost like Roy Batty’s tears. However, I have much happier news: tomorrow’s Science Times (available on the Web already) will include a review of How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog!… Continue reading How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog in the New York Times
Kickin’ Back (With Chicken)
Because I need to test out some features of the new WordPress system, including the image handling, here’s a place-holder post with a bonus SteelyKid photo: This is SteelyKid kicking back at Niska-Day over the weekend (the annual community fair here in Niskayuna). Don’t be deceived by the lazy look of this image– she was… Continue reading Kickin’ Back (With Chicken)
Links for 2012-05-21
Back of the Envelope Problems A collection of classic estimation problems, with answers, written by E.M. Purcell for the American Journal of Physics back in the day. nanoscale views: The unreasonable clarity of E. M. Purcell Purcell had the insight that in a cavity, the number of states available for photons is not quadratic in… Continue reading Links for 2012-05-21
How to Teach Relativity to Your Bay Area Dog
So, you find yourself living in the San Francisco Bay area, and you maybe have a dog who would like to know something about relativity, or you maybe want to someday have a dog who will want to know something about relativity, or you maybe want to know something more about relativity yourself, in case… Continue reading How to Teach Relativity to Your Bay Area Dog
Links for 2012-05-18
The poor and their time are soon parted § Unqualified Offerings Why do I bring this up? I bring it up because I read this article about how the poor get trapped in a system that rains shit down on them. No, I’m not here to offer the poor advice on how to find good… Continue reading Links for 2012-05-18
The Republican Brain by Chris Mooney
This has been out for a little while now, and Chris has been promoting it very heavily, and it’s sort of interesting to see the reactions. It’s really something of a Rorschach blot of a book, with a lot of what’s been written about it telling you more about what the writer wants to be… Continue reading The Republican Brain by Chris Mooney