It’s been ages since I did a booklog post here. I’ve been reading lots of stuff, I just haven’t been blogging it. I really should do something about the books in the stack by my computer, though, so I’m going to try to write a short post about each, and then shelve them before they… Continue reading Paul Shirley, Can I Keep My Jersey? [Library of Babel]
Basketball Isn’t Broken
Dick Vitale is yapping about changing the rules of college basketball again, undeterred by the fact that the last time they listened to him it was an unmitigated disaster (the season or two when they replaced the alternating possession on a held ball with a “ties go to the defense” rule that proved totally unworkable).… Continue reading Basketball Isn’t Broken
Chain, Chain, Chain… Chain of Valves
Here’s a picture of the gas-handling line leading to the discharge region seen in the plasma post: How many valves can you count in that picture? If you said “seven,” give yourself a pat on the back. Here’s the same picture with the valves numbered for your convenience:
You’ve Got to Have Money to Learn Math
EurekAlert provides the latest dispatch from the class war, the the form of a release headlined ” Family wealth may explain differences in test scores in school-age children“: The researchers found a marked disparity in family wealth between Black and White families with young children, with White families owning more than 10 times as many… Continue reading You’ve Got to Have Money to Learn Math
Lab Porn: Plasma!
A couple more pretty pictures of the apparatus, to pass the time: This is the plasma discharge source that we use to make metastable atoms. We excite the gas using a RF coil (under the tinfoil) with a couple of watts of power at 145 MHz (local ham radio people must love me…), which creates… Continue reading Lab Porn: Plasma!
Lab Porn: Doomsday!
Behold, the end of the world is at hand! They said I was mad– mad!– but now they’ll pay… Well, ok, it’s not actually a doomsday weapon. It’s a shot of the main experiment chamber in my lab, taken in very low light in an attempt to capture the orange glow of the ion gauge… Continue reading Lab Porn: Doomsday!
Happy Easter
Today is Easter Sunday, which I will be celebrating in the traditional manner: by, um, driving across half of New York and Pennsylvania… OK, maybe that’s not the usual tradition… I’m giving a talk tomorrow at Bucknell, so I need to get to Lewisburg, PA tonight. This will allow me to stop through Scenic Whitney… Continue reading Happy Easter
Young and Photogenic
Ladies and gentemen, one of the three worst pictures ever taken of me: There is, of course, a story behind this. It’s not a particularly good story, but there is one…
links for 2008-03-23
Relativity: Measuring the speed of light « Skulls in the Stars A history of experiments through the ages. (tags: precision-measurement experiment history science) Nanocrystals could help recover waste heat – physicsworld.com “[T]he thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) for the ingots increased to 1.2 at room temperature (from a value of 1.0 previously). Moreover, they found… Continue reading links for 2008-03-23
Tampa Madness!
I got a late start this morning, and had to run some errands today, but I would be remiss if I didn’t post something to commemorate the wackiness in the Tampa subregional of the NCAA Tournament. They played four games yesterday in Tampa: the first two went into overtime, with Western Kentucky beating Drake on… Continue reading Tampa Madness!