Caught on video: It’s very difficult to decide which of the many, many toys in the toybox is the right toy…
Change Estimation and the Wisdom of Crowds
The results of the estimation contest are in. There were 164 serious entries (I excluded the $12,000 and $1,000,000 “guesses” from the final data). The mean value guessed by commenters was $83.30, and the median was not far off, at $77.12. The standard deviation was high– $43.10– but as you would expect with a large… Continue reading Change Estimation and the Wisdom of Crowds
What You Might Not Know About (Biomedical) Journals
Via I-no-longer-remember-who (the tab’s been open for several days), there’s a list of What You Might Not Know About Scientific Journals, outlining some of the facts about scientific publication. There’s some good stuff, but as you can tell from my title, a lot of it is fairly specific to biomedical journals, and doesn’t really apply… Continue reading What You Might Not Know About (Biomedical) Journals
Hey to Uganda
I mentioned a few times that one of our physics graduates from 2008 was spending a year in rural Uganda, working at a clinic and school there as part of a college-run fellowship program (with Engeye Health Clinic. Steve is back in the US now, and headed to graduate school in Seattle in Atmospheric Sciences.… Continue reading Hey to Uganda
Links for 2009-08-17
In a Queens Park, Duke Riley Leads a Battle on the Low Seas – NYTimes.com “This was an art exhibition — a term that perhaps conjures a more subdued event. But the art in this show, called “Those About to Die Salute You,” involved humans in motion, boats on water and those tomatoes. It was… Continue reading Links for 2009-08-17
Can’t-Miss Toy Idea: Roomba Baby
As a parent of a newly mobile one-year-old, I have a can’t-fail suggestion for a toy product that would fuse two popular technologies: realistic infant simulators (baby dolls that cry, wet themselve, etc.) and vacuum-cleaning robots. All you need to do is mount a baby doll on a Roomba chassis, and use the same random-walk… Continue reading Can’t-Miss Toy Idea: Roomba Baby
Links for 2009-08-16
Rick Perlstein — Birthers, Health Care Hecklers and the Rise of Right-Wing Rage – washingtonpost.com “The tree of crazy is an ever-present aspect of America’s flora. Only now, it’s being watered by misguided he-said-she-said reporting and taking over the forest.” (tags: politics stupid evil media society culture US)
Links for 2009-08-15
Making Light: Panels and parlor games “So all you lucky devils went to Worldcon and I didn’t. And now I get to read panel reports, which are always both fun and tantalizingly vague. So let’s have a game of it. What fictional characters would you put on a panel, what would you have them talk… Continue reading Links for 2009-08-15
Estimation Contest: Guess the Total, Win a Book
This wooden box sits on top of my dresser, and every afternoon when I come home, I dump the change from my pockets into it. It’s getting close to full, as you can see: I’ve got a couple of extra galley proofs kicking around, so here’s a contest: Guess the total dollar value of the… Continue reading Estimation Contest: Guess the Total, Win a Book
Dorky Poll: Thermodynamics
I have a thousand things to do today, and blogging isn’t high on the list. So here’s a dorky poll to pass the time, because it’s been a while: What’s your favorite Law of Thermodynamics?(polls) We’re working in the classical limit, here, so you’re not allowed to choose a linear superposition of all four laws.… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Thermodynamics