Twinkie diet helps nutrition professor lose 27 pounds – CNN.com “Twinkies. Nutty bars. Powdered donuts. For 10 weeks, Mark Haub, a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University, ate one of these sugary cakelets every three hours, instead of meals. To add variety in his steady stream of Hostess and Little Debbie snacks, Haub… Continue reading Links for 2010-11-10
How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update
I haven’t been doing these as regularly as I was earlier in the year, but here are a few interesting bits of news about How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: LA FISICA SPIEGATA AL MIO CANE, is now available. That’s the Italian edition, which Google translates to something like “Explaining Physics to My Dog.”… Continue reading How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update
Calculus Saves the Economy!
I’m taking a bit of flak in comments to my silly Bob Dylan post from Sunday, with various right-wingers spontaneously popping in to tell me that JFK cut taxes. My initial reaction to this is to think that supposing a perfect equivalence between JFK cutting the top rate from 90% to 70% during a time… Continue reading Calculus Saves the Economy!
Links for 2010-11-09
Moving Toward Quantum Computing – Science in 2011 – NYTimes.com “In 1981 the physicist Richard Feynman speculated about the possibility of “tiny computers obeying quantum mechanical laws.” He suggested that such a quantum computer might be the best way to simulate real-world quantum systems, a challenge that today is largely beyond the calculating power of… Continue reading Links for 2010-11-09
Physics Job Market: Same As It Ever Was
The American Institute of Physics has a statistics division that produces lots of interesting analyses of issues relevant to the discipline. A couple of them were released just recently, including one on the job status of new Ph.D.’s (PDF). The key graph from the report is this one: The text of the report talks up… Continue reading Physics Job Market: Same As It Ever Was
Massive Giveaway Winner(s)
Last week’s guess-the-number contest for my spare copy of Massive by Ian Sample generated over 150 comments. So, who won? Well, I said at the time: I am thinking of an integer between 0 and 1000 (inclusive). The person who comes closest to guessing the number by midnight Eastern time Friday, November 5 wins a… Continue reading Massive Giveaway Winner(s)
Links for 2010-11-08
Sunday Function : Built on Facts “[T]he idea of function as a machine is such a powerful and intuitive one that it tends to be used pretty universally until you have a good reason to abandon it. Non-mathematicians rarely encounter such reasons, even in the more mathematically demanding disciplines like physics, computer science, and engineering.… Continue reading Links for 2010-11-08
The Bob Dylan Plan for Economic Growth
I bought the Witmark Demos a week or so ago, because I could always use another 50 Bob Dylan songs, and listening to them on shuffle play has managed to earworm me with one song in particular, “I Shall Be Free”, which it occurs to me has great current relevance: Well, my telephone rang it… Continue reading The Bob Dylan Plan for Economic Growth
Links for 2010-11-07
Democrats didn’t lose the battle of 2010. They won it. – By William Saletan – Slate Magazine “Politicians have tried and failed for decades to enact universal health care. This time, they succeeded. In 2008, Democrats won the presidency and both houses of Congress, and by the thinnest of margins, they rammed a bill through.… Continue reading Links for 2010-11-07
Short Story Club: “The Heart of a Mouse” by K. J. Bishop
This week’s Short Story Club story is “The Heart of a Mouse” by K. J. Bishop, from Subterranean Press (which means I’m faintly surprised not to have to pay $15 for it). I recognize Bishop’s name, and think I have a copy of The Etched City upstairs that I’ve never gotten around to reading, but… Continue reading Short Story Club: “The Heart of a Mouse” by K. J. Bishop