Nobody officially “tagged” me for this, but I saw it at Easily Distracted, and it seems like a good post topic for the Friday before Christmas. The idea is to pick one movie title for each letter of the alphabet. The list below the fold is not an attempt to come up with Great Films… Continue reading Movies, A-Z
Freezing Coherent Field Growth in a Cavity by the Quantum Zeno Effect
When I saw ZapperZ’s post about this paper (arxiv version, expensive journal version) from the group of Serge Haroche in Paris, I thought it might be something I would need to incorporate into Chapter 5 of the book-in-progress. Happily, it’s much too technical to require extensive re-writing. Having taken the time to read it, though,… Continue reading Freezing Coherent Field Growth in a Cavity by the Quantum Zeno Effect
links for 2008-12-19
The Art of SATergy – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com "Consider the following question for the GMAT (the test given to MBA applicants). Unfortunately, issues of copyright clearance have prevented us from reproducing the question, but that shouldn’t stop us. " (tags: science education academia psychology social-science) Op-Ed Contributor – It’s a Narnia Christmas – NYTimes.com… Continue reading links for 2008-12-19
Thursday Baby Blogging 121808
Past Baby Blogging entries may have created the impression that SteelyKid does nothing but lie in her back in her crib. Quite the contrary– here’s a picture of her in one of her favorite activities, shaking the hanging animal toys in her play gym. The traditional Appa-for-scale is in the background– beware of forced perspective… Continue reading Thursday Baby Blogging 121808
Standards Are the Enemy of Achievement
The US Chamber of Commerce has a education website, which provides “grades” for states based on various measures of their educational performance. One category is “Academic Achievement,” based on the percentages of students scoring at or above grade level on the NAEP test. Another is “Rigor of Standards,” which is a little fuzzier, but is… Continue reading Standards Are the Enemy of Achievement
links for 2008-12-18
Barack Obama Defeats Barack Hussein Obama | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source "Though few had heard of the freedom-hating extremist before, Barack Hussein Obama quickly garnered attention in several key regions of the country, and saw his popularity buoyed by conservative talk-radio hosts, mass e-mail forwards, and thousands of Americans riding on the… Continue reading links for 2008-12-18
The Stupidest Argument in College Football
Over at Cosmic Variance, Sean has a nice, concise post about what’s wrong with college football. He’s responding to a desperately stupid post that ends with this: Let’s not ruin college football’s fabulous 13 week do-or-die regular season with a playoff! This was posted back in October, so the author can perhaps be forgiven for… Continue reading The Stupidest Argument in College Football
Tenure Is Not the Problem
Steve Hsu has a nice post on teaching, following up on the Malcolm Gladwell piece that everyone is talking about. Steve took the time to track down the Brookings Institute report mentioned in the piece, and highlights two graphs: The top figure shows that certification has no impact on teaching effectiveness. The second shows that… Continue reading Tenure Is Not the Problem
links for 2008-12-17
Confessions of a Community College Dean: “It’s Just a Job” vs. “We’re All in This Together” "[T]here’s been a fascinating exchange in blogland between Tenured Radical and Dr. Crazy. Both addressed the ways that budget issues are being discussed at their respective colleges. Stipulating upfront that neither was really arguing with the other, and that… Continue reading links for 2008-12-17
The Monkey Dance, Benny Hillified
Via Tom, my go-to source for this sort of nonsense, the Benny Hillifier, which will add “Yackity Sax” to any YouTube video. Because any video is funnier with “Yackity Sax”. And since I know somebody will ask, it works on the Monkey Dance, too.