This is an action shot, but you can’t really tell. An instant after this was taken, SteelyKid succeeded in getting Appa off the couch, and thumped down hard on her butt. This is also “Late-Wednesday Baby Blogging,” as Kate and SteelyKid left for Readercon early this morning (well, Kate is bound for Readercon. SteelyKid is… Continue reading Thursday Baby Blogging 070909
What People Think About Scientists
Just in time to feed into the discussion surrounding Unscientific America, there’s a new Pew Research Poll about public attitudes toward science. As is usually the case with social-science data, there’s something in here to bolster every opinion. The most striking of the summary findings, to me, is the second table down, in which the… Continue reading What People Think About Scientists
Academic Poll: Paper Torture
I’m sitting here finding new and inventive ways to not write the pedagogical paper I’m working on at the moment. This seems like a good excuse for a poll! The hardest part of writing a paper is:(survey) As you can tell from the list of elements, I have scientific papers in mind, here, but other… Continue reading Academic Poll: Paper Torture
This Is My Job
I got a weirdly hostile comment to my popularization post last night: You have some chutzpah. You are being paid, probably quite well, to do research! Journalists are paid, not nearly so well, to popularize research. It takes some nerve to take an extra year’s salary, and to take time away from your real job—and… Continue reading This Is My Job
links for 2009-07-09
Physics Buzz: Watch this! "Forget the cheesy narrator and hokey graphics. Wobble the camera like you’re Michel Gondry filming Eternal Sunshine. Ditch the pseudo-techno soundtrack that makes the kids shake their heads at you for trying to be hip, and go for something understated. Then you might have something as good as Colliding Particles. The… Continue reading links for 2009-07-09
Infinite Recurrence
I’m something like 100 pages ahead of the Infinite Summer spoiler line (page 283 as of last night), meaning that a lot of the stuff I’d like to discuss or see discussed isn’t fair game yet. I’m still greatly enjoying the re-read of Infinite Jest, though. As I’ve said before, this is a dangerous book… Continue reading Infinite Recurrence
Canine Poll: Do You Know Your Enemy?
I’ve got a couple more things to say about Unscientific America, probably, but I opted for some more David Foster Wallace last night, and don’t feel like typing them up now, so I’ll give you all a break. Anyway, what you’re really here for is the baby and dog stuff, so here’s another poll question… Continue reading Canine Poll: Do You Know Your Enemy?
…For Some Definition of Physical Reality
There’s a press release dated a week or two ago from Leiden University headlined “Physical reality of string theory demonstrated,” in an apparent bid to make Peter Woit’s head explode. The release itself is really pretty awful, with poorly explained and irrelevant pictures, and a really confusing description of what this is really about (in… Continue reading …For Some Definition of Physical Reality
links for 2009-07-08
LIGO: the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory A comprehensive review article on LIGO, free online for a limited time. (tags: articles science gravity astronomy physics relativity precision-measurement) Never build a relationship on books | Books | guardian.co.uk "I don’t know if Borders will actually be making recommendations for dates in the same way as they recommend… Continue reading links for 2009-07-08
Ad Astra Per Aspera II: The Climbening
A bunch of heavy stuff on the blog today– quantum physics, insulting journalists, political activism. Here’s a cute baby video to lighten the mood: This is Steelyid demonstrating her climbing prowess, just in case anybody suspected that Saturday’s filler picture was staged. She can actually go quite a bit faster than this, but she kept… Continue reading Ad Astra Per Aspera II: The Climbening