One of my favorite movie scenes:
Stolen Question: Who’s Coming to Dinner?
I’m running way behind this morning for a variety of reasons, so I’m going to swipe another easy question and throw it back to the audience. this one’s from Eric Lund, who asked: If you could attend a dinner with any major political figure in the world, who would it be, and why? The answer… Continue reading Stolen Question: Who’s Coming to Dinner?
Pop Quiz: Michelson Interferometer
Inspired by one of yesterday’s easy questions, a pop quiz for you. The figure below shows a Michelson Interferometer: A laser falls on a beamsplitter, which allows half of the light to pass straight through, and reflects the other half downward. Each of those beams then hits a mirror that reflects it directly back where… Continue reading Pop Quiz: Michelson Interferometer
links for 2009-07-14
Confessions of a Community College Dean: College Prep "In some circles, ‘college’ is an undifferentiated term for a place that other people go to get the kinds of jobs that other people get. It’s probably some kind of racket, though the exact workings are hard to detail. In some circles, ‘college’ is a place to… Continue reading links for 2009-07-14
Ask Me Easy Questions
As noted earlier, I’m not at my sharpest, thanks to this past weekend’s festivities. Which means I don’t have any deep-thinking blog posts in the queue, and the hundreds of posts piled up in Google Reader since later Thursday were just marked read without more than a cursory glance. Since I’m at a loss for… Continue reading Ask Me Easy Questions
Chicago
As noted last Friday, I spent the weekend in Chicago with a bunch of friends from college, which kept me pretty busy– some golf, ridiculously upscale steaks, improbably located Cajun food, a Cubs game (5-2 Cubs over Cardinals), ribs, and live blues music (from Joanna Connor and Duke Tumatoe). I think that’s pretty much everything… Continue reading Chicago
links for 2009-07-13
Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / Beyond the Aryth Ocean: Part 1: A review of selected maps in fantasy novels "[L]etâs take a look at some of the great maps of fantasy literature. This is by no means a complete list of the great ones, or even the most well known.… Continue reading links for 2009-07-13
MJ, Fame, Writing, and More
If you’re desperate for something to fill your Friday afternoon, and not the comment-leaving sort, you could do a lot worse than spending an hour and a half (give or take) with Chuck Klosternman and Bill Simmons in their two part ESPN podcast. It’s nominally about sports, but they spend a good bit of time… Continue reading MJ, Fame, Writing, and More
Who Are You People?
I’m headed out of own for the weekend to play golf and re-live the past with some friends from college. If all goes well, I should be in Chicago by the time this posts. I wouldn’t want to leave you starved for entertainment, though, so I’ll follow many of the other ScienceBlogs folks (as usual,… Continue reading Who Are You People?
links for 2009-07-10
P.G. Wodehouse | Books | A.V. Club "Logistics and aesthetics stand in the way of anyone wishing to dive into P.G. Wodehouseâs canon. His work sprawls over 90 books published over 75 years, most of which are constantly sneaking in and out of print, many of which have different British and American publication titles. His… Continue reading links for 2009-07-10