A Tribute to Paul Newman | Popdose "What the world will miss most about Paul Newman isn’t his artistry as an actor and a director, both of stage and film, but it is his kindness and all-around stature as a good man." (tags: movies society culture) Study of Standardized Admissions Tests Is Big Draw at… Continue reading links for 2008-09-30
Fixing Science Education
In the comments to last week’s science majors follow-up post, commenter Jim G calls me out: OK, I agree with that 100%, and I’m sure everyone who reads this post has observed the phenomena you mention dozens of times or more. But I wonder whether you have a proposal, or if you’re just pointing out… Continue reading Fixing Science Education
Guess the Nobels, Win a Prize
October is almost upon us, which means that the winners of the 2008 Nobel Prizes will be announced soon. Very soon– the first announcement (for Medicine) is next Monday. The most important announcement– the Nobel in Physics– is next Tuesday, October 7. This is a good excuse for a contest, so: Leave a comment on… Continue reading Guess the Nobels, Win a Prize
Fourth Time’s the Charm
Congratulations to SpaceX for successfully launching a payload into orbit after three failed attempts: The two-stage Falcon 1 rocket built by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) lifted off at about 7:15 p.m. EDT (2315 GMT) from the U.S. Army’s Ronald Reagan Ballistic Defense Test Site on the Kwajalein Atoll in the about 2,500 miles (4,023 km)… Continue reading Fourth Time’s the Charm
links for 2008-09-29
Cocktail Party Physics: prime time science Why you should stop worrying and learn to love science-themed tv shows. (tags: television science culture society) blarg? » I’m Sorry, Are You From The Past? Standards-compliant Web design, Microsoft style. (tags: computing internet stupid)
Letter Books, or the Benefits of a Digressive Writing Style
I’m currently reading David Foster Wallace’s Everything and More: A Brief History of ∞, because his recent death made me want to read some of his stuff, and I haven’t read this (which turns up on best-science-books lists) before, so it seemed like a good way to go. Reading Wallace does tend to affect my… Continue reading Letter Books, or the Benefits of a Digressive Writing Style
Earmarks and the Ridicule of Science
There’s an interesting exchange over at the Reality-Based Community around the topic of “earmarks” for science, like the grizzly bear DNA study McCain keeps mocking. Michael O’Hare argues that science should not be funded by earmarks: Almost any piece of scientific research, especially in biology, that isn’t called “Cure cancer!” is liable to the kind… Continue reading Earmarks and the Ridicule of Science
Awesome Dragon Baby Blogging
SteelyKid has a new friend, courtesy of my sister: It’s a shlumpy google-eyed dragon, stuffed with pure awesome. I’m dubbing this guy “Wellington,” for family-historical reasons. A side shot (with extra bonus baby in the mirror) is below the fold:
links for 2008-09-28
Editors for Obama : Editors for Obama Change in which we can believe. (tags: language education silly internet)
Stochastic Baby Blogging
Here’s an update to the SteelyKid feeding pattern, with almost twice as much data as the previous graph: Still no solid pattern to the feedings, time-wise, but there has been some change, in that the individual feedings have gotten more distinct. They tend to be longer, and the intervals between feeding are somewhat longer.