Cocktail Party Physics: science, politics, and getting it wrong "One surefire way to panic the heck out of people is to mention nuclear bombs and radical Islam in the same sentence. I dunno about you, but I kinda had a mini-freakout when I read about the amount of enriched uranium the United Nations says that… Continue reading links for 2009-02-22
Go Figure
Maryland 88, North Carolina 85 (WARNING: Auto-playing video): Greivis Vasquez did something no Maryland player had done since 1987, and the Terrapins pulled off an upset that was almost as remarkable. Vasquez had a career-high 35 points and 11 rebounds and 10 assists — Maryland’s first triple-double in 22 years — and the Terrapins rallied… Continue reading Go Figure
What I’m Planning to Nominate for the Hugos
We are now one week out from the deadline for Hugo Nominations. I’m eligible to nominate this year, and while a couple of past requests for recommendations have failed to generate anything, I thought I’d throw up a preliminary look at my ballot in hopes of bringing in a few recommendations:
links for 2009-02-21
mmcirvin: Some children’s music "We listen to a LOT of children’s music these days. Maybe a little too much sometimes. On the other hand, we’re fortunate to live in an age of relatively listenable children’s music with some adult appeal. Here’s some stuff Jorie’s been hearing lately:" (tags: blogs music kid-stuff) Acephalous: Batman as a… Continue reading links for 2009-02-21
Why We Immunize
Over at Making Light, Jim Macdonald has a response to the anti-vaccination movement, taking his cue from the Navy: There’s a manual that every Navy gunnery officer is required to read or re-read every year: OP 1014; Ordnance Safety Precautions: Their Origin and Necessity. It’s a collection of stories about, and photographs of, spectacular accidents… Continue reading Why We Immunize
Course Report: Formal Quantum Mechanics
I left off last time with a brief introduction to uncertainty, followed by two classes worth of background, both mathematical and Mathematica. Class 15 picked up the physics again, starting with an explanation of the connection between the Fourier theorem and uncertainty, namely that any attempt to construct a wavefunction that has both particle and… Continue reading Course Report: Formal Quantum Mechanics
links for 2009-02-20
Abstruse Goose » How Stuff Works "Science killed my unicorns." (tags: science comics silly abstruse-goose) Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / Hugo Nominations Including a few links to recommended-reading lists. (tags: movies SF literature books hugos) Physics and Physicists: What Did Galileo Actually Do? Most People Don’t Know "The name "Galileo"… Continue reading links for 2009-02-20
Thursday Baby Blogging 021909
For this week’s Baby Blogging, SteelyKid couldn’t decide whether to show off her ability to grab Appa or her ability to touch her toes, so she tried to do both at once: The color scheme of this outfit is undoubtedly going to lead to some irritating interactions with people in malls (“Why is her outfit… Continue reading Thursday Baby Blogging 021909
Journalists Are Amplifiers
A few days ago, Bee put up a post titled Do We Need Science Journalists?, linking back to Bora’s enormous manifesto from the first bit of the Horgan-Johnson bloggingheads kerfuffle. My first reaction was “Oh, God, not again…” but her post did make me think of one thing, which is illustrated by Peter Woit’s latest… Continue reading Journalists Are Amplifiers
links for 2009-02-19
slacktivist: Why I’m peeved "House-of-cards fundamentalism allows for no distinctions between babies and bathwater, between the central tenets of the faith and the adiaphora and error. So once one part of this belief system begins to collapse — as it inevitably will since young-earth creationism is disprovable — then it all has to go." (tags:… Continue reading links for 2009-02-19