The Quantum Pontiff : A Curmudgeon’s and Improv’s Guide to Outliers: Introduction "Gladwell’s books are fun, but I find myself often disagreeing with his analysis, so I thought it would be entertaining to take my time reading his latest and jot down my thoughts as I progress. " (tags: science social-science society culture medicine books)… Continue reading links for 2008-12-30
Race, Gender, and a Job for Slacktivist
I was on Baby Duty today, so I spent some time listening to Bloggingheads dialogs, including Kerry Howley and Richard Rodriguez: There’s a lot of good stuff in here, but I almost hesitate to post about it, because it’s practically guaranteed to bring out the worst sorts of commentary. There’s a bunch of stuff about… Continue reading Race, Gender, and a Job for Slacktivist
Best Music of 2008
This is a much more idiosyncratic sampling than usual, for the simple reason that I bought very little music this year– probably the least since I started buying my own records. This was a combination of pre-SteelyKid austerity measures (do you know what day care costs these days?), post-SteelyKid lack of time to listen to… Continue reading Best Music of 2008
Control Your Pets!
While I realize that you find your eighty-pound Labrador Retriever utterly charming, there are, in fact, other people and dogs who are not enthusiastic about having him galumphing over to try to jump on us. Hard to believe, I know, but it’s true. For this reason, you should have your dog on a leash when… Continue reading Control Your Pets!
links for 2008-12-29
nanoscale views: More about insulators "I’ve been thinking more about explaining what we mean by "insulators", in light of some of the insightful comments [on the last post]." (tags: science physics blogs materials condensed-matter) Cocktail Party Physics: CSI lies and suspicious science "CSI? Unrealistic? Hate to break it to you kids, but, yeah. At the… Continue reading links for 2008-12-29
Blogging Is Not Complicated
Bora has a post taking issue with the claim made in Slate’s blogging guide article that blog posts should be short. At least, I think that was his point– the post was much too long, and I didn’t read it all. I’m constantly amazed by how evergreen the “how to blog” topic is. It’s just… Continue reading Blogging Is Not Complicated
links for 2008-12-28
nanoscale views: What does it mean for a material to be an "insulator"? "We broadly lump solids into two groups, those that conduct electricity and those that don’t. Materials in the latter category are known as insulators, and it turns out that there are at least three different kinds." (tags: science physics blogs education materials… Continue reading links for 2008-12-28
Christmas Baby Blogging
SteelyKid says “Glad tidings for all!” Or, well, something like that. This is an out-take from the Christmas pictures– it’s amazing how hard it is to get a picture of a four-month-old in which she is both upright and smiling. Anyway, Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, or at least won’t be offended by… Continue reading Christmas Baby Blogging
Quantum Physics for Dogs, v3.0.1
I haven’t sent it off to my editor yet– I need to look it over one more time to see if there are horrible mistakes anywhere– but I’m officially declaring the third draft of the book-in-progress to be complete. It clocks in at 61,518 words, and 240 pages. That’s 50% more words than the contract… Continue reading Quantum Physics for Dogs, v3.0.1
Bloggers vs. Journalists, Aleph-Nought in a Series
What with one thing and another, I didn’t watch this week’s Bloggingheads Science Saturday– Kate’s parents were visiting, and then there was the Snowpocalypse, and I have book edits to finish, and I don’t enjoy the John Horgan/ George Johnson pairing all that much. Apparently, I really missed out, because three-quarters of the way through,… Continue reading Bloggers vs. Journalists, Aleph-Nought in a Series