A couple of weeks ago, I announced a contest to determine the Most Amazing Laser Application. What with one thing and another, this didn’t get posted last week, but I don’t intend to drop it completely, and will be finishing the series up in the next week or so. Here’s the list of finalists, with… Continue reading Laser Smackdown Update
Thursday Baby Blogging 021810
Look out, it’s a Giant Monster Baby! OK, she’s not really gigantic, but she does tower over Appa these days. And she’s strong enough to lift Appa one-handed, while drinking juice with the other:
Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts [Library of Babel]
While Adam Roberts was kind of an ass regarding last year’s Hugo ballot, the summary of his latest, Yellow Blue Tibia, sounded pretty entertaining to me, and it was on the Locus Recommended Reading list, so I got it out of the library. The book is presented as the memoir of Konstantin Skvorecky, a Soviet… Continue reading Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts [Library of Babel]
How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update
A couple of reviews, an offer, and a mystery regarding How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: The reviews: A review at suite101 that went up a while ago, but I somehow missed in the vanity search. It’s a nice, detailed review, and if I had to pick a pull quote it would probably be:… Continue reading How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update
Links for 2010-02-17
Final Links Dump for forty days, give or take. Physicists watch chemistry in slow motion – physicsworld.com “Physicists in the US have observed chemical reactions taking place at such low temperatures that they are dominated by quantum effects, rather than thermal collisions. The researchers showed that diatomic molecules containing potassium and rubidium are much less… Continue reading Links for 2010-02-17
The Faulty Fluid Dynamics of Hotel Environmentalism
Boskone this past weekend was held at the Westin Waterfront in Boston, which has these funky double showerheads that they charmingly call the “Heavenly(R) Shower” (hype aside, they are very nice showers). The picture at right is courtesy of lannalee on Twitter, as I didn’t bring a camera. Why am I telling you this? Because… Continue reading The Faulty Fluid Dynamics of Hotel Environmentalism
Links for 2010-02-16
Penultimate Links Dump (for a while) US LHC Blog » Let’s draw Feynman diagams! “There are few things more iconic of particle physics than Feynman diagrams. These little figures of squiggly show up prominently on particle physicists’ chalkboards alongside scribbled equations. The simplicity of these diagrams a a certain aesthetic appeal, though as one might… Continue reading Links for 2010-02-16
See You in Forty Days
I’m giving up reading blogs for Lent. The proximate cause of this is Bora’s latest blame-the-media post, which is just deja vu all over again, because I’m pretty sure this exact conversation has gone on ten times before (the fact that scientists find other scientists compelling speakers does not mean that scientists are good at… Continue reading See You in Forty Days
Recent SF Reading
Since I’m at Boskone, talking and listening to people talking about science fiction and fantasy literature, it seems appropriate to do a quickie post listing notworthy genre stuff I’ve read recently. There isn’t that much of it, as I’ve been doing a lot of non-fiction reading, and also slightly preoccupied with book promotion. Still, I’ve… Continue reading Recent SF Reading
Links for 2010-02-13
WINTER OLYMPICS: Robert Teklemariam will raise Ethiopia’s flag | Richmond Times-Dispatch “On Monday in Vancouver, Robel Teklemariam will compete for Ethiopia in the 15-kilometer cross country skiing event. This will be his second Olympics but the first with his mother in attendance. To qualify, he traveled the world on a shoestring budget, chasing down qualifying… Continue reading Links for 2010-02-13