In chapter 2 of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, there’s a footnote about the ubiquity of uncertainty principle analogies in the mass media: To give you an idea of the breadth of subjects in which this shows up, in June 2008, Google turned up citations of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle in (among others)… Continue reading What Uncertainty Means to Me– And You, and the Universe
Links for 2010-09-07
The Daily What “I love xkcd wedding cakes / boom de yada boom de yada.” (tags: internet pictures xkcd comics food) The physics.org web awards | Latest Features | physics.org “The aim of physics.org has always been to help those interested in physics navigate this sea of information. Over the past few years we’ve gathered… Continue reading Links for 2010-09-07
Cheerful Kiss-Off Songs
The AV Club offers a list of 28 gleeful breakup songs, a category that includes some great tunes. The comments contain some good additional suggestions, and they still missed one of my all-time favorites, “Bye, Bye” by the Subdudes (if that link won’t play, you can get a cell-phone camera live version on YouTube— skip… Continue reading Cheerful Kiss-Off Songs
Academic Poll: Labor Day
Today is Labor Day in the US, which is the traditional end-of-summer holiday. The top link in today’s Links Dump is a survey of the history via Slate, headlined “Why Do We Get Labor Day Off?“ Of course, my reaction to that is “What do you mean, ‘we’?” Today is also the first day of… Continue reading Academic Poll: Labor Day
Links for 2010-09-06
Why do we get Labor Day off? – By Brendan I. Koerner – Slate Magazine “Though President Grover Cleveland declared Labor Day a national holiday in 1894, the occasion was first observed on Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City. A parade was organized by the city’s Central Labor Union, a branch of the Noble… Continue reading Links for 2010-09-06
Hugo Awards 2010
The 2010 Hugo Award Winners were announced on Sunday night. Of course, this being a science fiction award, it’s only appropriate that they be announced from THE FUTURE, so the results were available early this morning, US time. It turns out that I voted for 1.5 of the fiction award winners: China Mieville’s The City… Continue reading Hugo Awards 2010
SteelyKid’s Weekend Excursion
We had a Barfy Toddler Incident yesterday, making a mess of Kate’s spiffy new car seat, but that seems to have been a passing thing, perhaps caused by an excess of cranberry juice while on campus yesterday morning greeting new students. Thus, we went ahead with our plan to take SteelyKid to the zoo today:… Continue reading SteelyKid’s Weekend Excursion
Links for 2010-09-05
The short answer Yglesias’s question is “Yes.” – Acephalous “[A]s it currently stands, the choice is between being a “serious” scholar who engages no one or an “unserious” scholar whose work is read by many but, because of that, counts for nothing. I’m obviously not endorsing this model, nor am I saying it’s the same… Continue reading Links for 2010-09-05
Worst. Evaluation Scheme. EVER.
Speaking of teacher evaluation schemes, as we were, Doug Natelson draws my attention to a new proposal from Texas A&M: [Frank] Ashley, the vice chancellor for academic affairs for the A&M System, has been put in charge of creating such a measure that he says would help administrators and the public better understand who, from… Continue reading Worst. Evaluation Scheme. EVER.
Links for 2010-09-04
News: Searching for STEM Success – Inside Higher Ed “During the two-decade period from 1985-1986 to 2005-2006, rural community colleges increased the number of women and minority STEM graduates by more than 42 percent. By contrast, urban community colleges boosted these underrepresented groups by just under 24 percent and suburban community colleges by about 10… Continue reading Links for 2010-09-04