It’s not often that I regret having a cell phone that is just a phone, but this is one of those occasions– I stopped by my publisher today to talk about marketing and publicity, and record a video for the web, and got a stack of finished copies of the book, hot off the presses.… Continue reading I Can Haz Books!
Thursday Baby Blogging 111909
Actually, this ought to be “Wednesday Morning Baby Blogging,” as that’s when the picture was taken. Kate and I are going to New York City for the weekend, though, and SteelyKid is spending the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa in Scenic Whitney Point. So, you get an early picture, posted late: This was taken just… Continue reading Thursday Baby Blogging 111909
Poll: New York State of Mind
Kate has a court appearance in New York tomorrow, and we’re making a long weekend of it. I’m typing this from my parents’ house, where I’m dropping SteelyKid off for some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa, and tomorrow, I’m heading down to The City. I’ve got some meetings scheduled tomorrow afternoon, and Friday at… Continue reading Poll: New York State of Mind
Creepiness Is Contagious
It’s always kind of distressing to find something you agree with being said by people who also espouse views you find nutty, repulsive, or reprehensible. It doesn’t make them any less right, but it makes it a little more difficult to be associated with those views. So, for instance, there’s this broadside against ineffective math… Continue reading Creepiness Is Contagious
Links for 2009-11-18
Zeroth Order Approximation: Summary dismissal “Not every civil court case proceeds to trial. Some are settled “out of court” by the parties involved. Others are settled by the judge in a “summary dismissal” or “summary judgment”. The suit is deemed to be unworthy of trial, even without a full hearing. In this way valuable time… Continue reading Links for 2009-11-18
Dorky Poll: How Do You Say That?
As every physics-loving dog knows, the idea that electrons behave like waves was first suggested by Loius Victor Pierre Raymond de Broglie (the 7th duc de Broglie) in 1923. The proper pronunciation of his surname is a mystery even to human physicists, though. So, how would you say it? Louis Victor Pierre Raymond de Broglie’s… Continue reading Dorky Poll: How Do You Say That?
There’s No Cloning in Football
Sunday night, the Patriots lost a heartbreaker to the Colts 35-34. The talk of the sports world yesterday was Bill Belichick’s decision to go for it on fouth-and-two on his own 28 yard line when he was up by six with just over two minutes to play. They didn’t get the first down, and turned… Continue reading There’s No Cloning in Football
Physics Is Going to the Dogs
There’s been an independent rediscovery of the notion of using dogs to explain physics, as you can see in this YouTube video of Golden Retrievers explaining the structure of atoms: Emmy thinks she should get royalties, in the form of cheese. But then, she thinks that about everything…
Links for 2009-11-17
Why Wine Ratings Are Badly Flawed – WSJ.com “[A] 1996 study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology showed that even flavor-trained professionals cannot reliably identify more than three or four components in a mixture, although wine critics regularly report tasting six or more. There are eight in this description, from The Wine News of a… Continue reading Links for 2009-11-17
Companions in Zealous Research
Blogging has been light of late because I was in the Houston area for the weekend, at the annual meeting of Sigma Xi, the scientific research honor society (think Phi Beta Kappa, but for science nerds). Every chapter is required to send a representative to the annual meeting at least once every three years, and… Continue reading Companions in Zealous Research