…My heart’s in Accra » Cultural appropriation of the kick-ass kind The haka comes to Texas. (tags: rugby football culture society sports) VOTD: I Love Sarah Jane (Zombie Short Film) | /Film "Jimbo is 13. All he can think about is one girl, Sarah Jane. And no matter what stands in his way – bullies,… Continue reading links for 2008-10-05
The Metastable Xenon Project
Over the past several weeks, I’ve written up ResearchBlogging posts on each of the papers I helped write in graduate school. Each paper write-up was accompanied by a “Making of” article, giving a bit more detail about how the experiments came to be, what my role in them was, and whatever funny anecdotes I can… Continue reading The Metastable Xenon Project
links for 2008-10-04
Ideas: Prediction vs Explanation: A Puzzle "We do ten experiments. A scientist observes the results, constructs a theory consistent with them, and uses it to predict the results of the next ten. We do them and the results fit his predictions. A second scientist now constructs a theory consistent with the results of all twenty… Continue reading links for 2008-10-04
Two-Word Lyrics Quiz, #2
I’ve got meetings and phone calls most of the day, so here’s something to keep you amused. Each of the following two-word phrases is taken from a pop song, some well-known, some faintly obscure. If you think you can identify one, leave a comment containing a more complete version of the line in which it… Continue reading Two-Word Lyrics Quiz, #2
The Science Blogging Bubble Ends?
Over at Nature Networks, Timo Hannay has posted a conference talk in which he questions the future of science blogging: “Science blogging is growing” I confidently wrote in an essay a few months ago. Then, like any good scientist, I went in search of evidence to support my prejudice. But I couldn’t find any beyond… Continue reading The Science Blogging Bubble Ends?
Quick VP Debate Commentary
I made it through half an hour of last night’s VP candidate debate. When they got to the question of global warming, I realized that her answer was indistinguishable from something the Sarah Palin Interview Generator might cough up, and opted for Tombstone on the History Channel (!) instead. “Evidently, Mr. Ringo is an educated… Continue reading Quick VP Debate Commentary
Thursday Baby Blogging 100208
It’s been eight weeks since her birth, and SteelyKid celebrates by doing the Baby Dance: I almost didn’t get to this today, but I wanted to make sure I got something up to serve as a debate alternative. She’s much cuter than Sarah Palin, to say nothing of Joe Biden…
The Making of “Creation of an Ultracold Neutral Plasma”
As mentioned in the previous post, the cold plasma experiment was the last of the metastable xenon papers that I’m an author on. My role in these experiments was pretty limited, as I was wrapping things up and writing my thesis when the experiments were going on. The main authors on this were Tom Killian,… Continue reading The Making of “Creation of an Ultracold Neutral Plasma”
Creation of an Ultracold Neutral Plasma
This is the last of the papers I was an author on while I was in grad school, and in some ways, it’s the coolest. It’s rare that you get to be one of the first people to do an entirely new class of experiment, but that’s what this was. It kicked off a new… Continue reading Creation of an Ultracold Neutral Plasma
DonorsChoose: “I Do Therefore I Learn”
Over the course of the next month, I’ll be highlighting some of the proposals in my DonorsChoose challenge, to let you know the benefits you can provide. Some of the proposals are heartbreakingly basic, asking for things like copy paper, but this is a science blog, so let’s look at some science proposals. For example,… Continue reading DonorsChoose: “I Do Therefore I Learn”