Kind of a belated gripe, but something I was reminded of today that I forgot to blog when I first noticed it. I griped last year about the fomulaic nature of the “Best Science Writing” anthology, but I had no idea that the 2008 version would be worse. OK, I haven’t read it, but I… Continue reading Physics Gets No Respect
Book Report: Slouching Toward Production
The Book-in-Progress is slowly but surely moving toward being the Book-in-Production. There isn’t an officially official date yet, but I’ve gotten what should be the last round of edits, and been told that it should be out this fall, just in time for holiday gift-buying. Between the book and my class, I don’t have a… Continue reading Book Report: Slouching Toward Production
links for 2009-02-09
A physics history-mystery: magnetism from light? « Skulls in the Stars "Iâve been looking into Faradayâs contribution to the understanding that light is an electromagnetic wave. That investigation led me to some early work by other researchers on the light/magnetism connection, and led me in turn to a puzzler: how significant and accurate is that… Continue reading links for 2009-02-09
The Frakes Story
Back in the 25 things post, I alluded to a long-ago encounter with Jonathan Frakes in Williamstown. This has led to a number of requests for the full story, which I will put below the fold, for those who care:
Information Insecurity
I only started using FriendFeed a few months ago because other people at the Science in the 21st Century workshop were documenting the conference on it. I quickly became a fan of the service, which not only added an extra dimension to the meeting, but has also been a continuing source of interesting material from… Continue reading Information Insecurity
The Purpling of Blogdom
Williams has long held a dominant position in a number of categories of blogging: Dan Drezner on economics and politics, Marc Lynch on the Middle East, Ethan Zuckerman on the developing world and really cool conferences, Derek Catsam on history and Red Sox fandom, yours truly on canine physics. And I’m sure I’m forgetting several… Continue reading The Purpling of Blogdom
Half a Year!
SteelyKid is six months old today! To celebrate, here’s some video of her bouncing around in her jumper: (That’s spliced together from a bunch of shorter clips. You can here me babbling inanely in the background, because my brain turns to cheese whenever I’m within about five feet of her. I was tempted to mute… Continue reading Half a Year!
Twenty-Five Things
Since everybody I know on Facebook seems to have done this, it seems I’m obliged to post a list of twenty-five random facts. I wouldn’t want to have my Internet License revoked, or anything.
links for 2009-02-07
The Crowd-Sourced Reading List | The Loom | Discover Magazine "Last week I blegged for examples of great science writing from over the years, and you did not disappoint. Rania Masri, who teaches writing to scientists in Lebanon, asked if I could share the list. Itâs the least I can do in exchange for everyoneâs… Continue reading links for 2009-02-07
Two Cultures in Beginnings and Endings
Not long after I posted my comments about textbook prices, I went to a panel discussion on teaching, where a social scientist made an interesting observation about the ways different disciplines interact with books. In the humanities, the whole point of the class is to discuss the books. Nothing useful can be done until and… Continue reading Two Cultures in Beginnings and Endings