If you’re in Broome County or environs, the biggest political event of the year is today: John Orzel is officially launching his campaign for the New York State Senate. This will apparently involve a number of events around the 52nd state senate district, ending with a rally and cookout in Scenic Whitney Point: “What does… Continue reading John Orzel for New York State Senate
Links for 2010-07-15
Mightygodking.com » Post Topic » What if Bertie Wooster, rather than being a mere layabout, was also Batman? “”Good morning, sir. I have prepared a breakfast of scrambled egg, kippers and bacon, as per your request.” “Fantastic, Jeeves! I tell you truly, I’ve worked up a massive appetite and that’s no mistake.” “Am I to… Continue reading Links for 2010-07-15
I Write Like a Random Selection of Famous People
Via Crooked Timber, there’s a silly web site that lets you put in a chunk of text, and does some sort of statistical analysis of it to determine what famous writer’s prose it most closely resembles. It turns out, I’m kind of hard to categorize. For instance, when I’m writing about Holy Grails, I apparently… Continue reading I Write Like a Random Selection of Famous People
Holy Grails of Science
With the rumors of a Higgs Boson detected at Fermilab now getting the sort of official denial that in politics would mean the rumors were about to be confirmed in spectacular fashion, it’s looking like we’ll have to wait a little while longer before the next “Holy Grail” of physics gets discovered. Strictly speaking, the… Continue reading Holy Grails of Science
George Steinbrenner 1930-2010
I’m not much of a baseball fan, but as a New York resident and Williams alumn, it seems I’m contractually obligated to say something about the death of Yankee owner George Steinbrenner. He was a fixture in New York sports for as long as I’ve been aware of them, and his impact on baseball and… Continue reading George Steinbrenner 1930-2010
Links for 2010-07-14
Can I build an ansible to communicate across the cosmos? “In this week’s Ask a Physicist, we answer a question that’s on everyone’s mind: Can we use quantum entanglement to make a mockery of the speed of light, and create intergalactic communications devices like Le Guin’s “ansible”?” (tags: science physics quantum sf education blogs io9)… Continue reading Links for 2010-07-14
Presentation Style: Indoctrination or Selection?
we have a summer student seminar series, in which students who are doing summer research give 15-minute talks about their research. These are generally pretty good– our students are, by and large, very good public speakers. One thing that I always find interesting about this is how many of the students end up sounding just… Continue reading Presentation Style: Indoctrination or Selection?
What People Think “Outreach” Is
Yesterday’s poll about “outreach” activities drew 117 responses by this morning. Since PollDaddy stupidly calculates percentages for ticky-box polls based on the number of total selections, not the number of people who vote, the graph you get when you view the results is kind of useless. A better version, using the “CHECK THIS BOX” count,… Continue reading What People Think “Outreach” Is
Dog Physics in Alabama?
It looks like I may well be getting together with some friends from college in Alabama on the first weekend in October, to go to a college football game. The logistics of getting to Tuscaloosa make this seem like an awfully long weekend, but I would feel guilty taking two days off just for football… Continue reading Dog Physics in Alabama?
Links for 2010-07-13
Scientists vs. Engineers – The Scientist – Magazine of the Life Sciences “In the past, I have heard there was conflict between the “two cultures” of science and the humanities. I don’t see a lot of evidence for that type of conflict today, mostly because my scientific friends all are big fans of the arts… Continue reading Links for 2010-07-13