Today is “Selection Sunday,” when the field for the NCAA basketball championships will be announced, and everybody will start filling out their office-pool bracket sheets. I’m going to be in the weird position of watching the tournament without a rooting interest, as both my teams stink, and won’t be in the field. But I can… Continue reading Conference Tournament Madness
links for 2008-03-16
I Watched This On Purpose: Hitman | The A.V. Club “[A] new feature that will explore the impulse to spend time with entertainments that are unlikely to reward us in any meaningful way, or sometimes any way at all.” (tags: movies stupid) Bad Movie Physics: A Report Card “We rated 18 movies based on how… Continue reading links for 2008-03-16
Interstellar Economics
Paul Krugman is now a famour economist, but many years ago, he was “an oppressed assistant professor, caught up in the academic rat race.” So, he did what any good academic would do in that situation: he wrote a silly paper to cheer himself up. In this case, a paper discussing the issues that arise… Continue reading Interstellar Economics
FutureBaby Playlist: T-Z
We had an appointment yesterday for a fetal echocardiogram, to look for heart problems that might’ve caused the scary first trimester screen result back in January. This was basically a high-resolution ultrasound focussed on the heart (with Doppler velocity imaging to look at blood flow), and after half an hour of looking at FutureBaby’s heart… Continue reading FutureBaby Playlist: T-Z
links for 2008-03-15
Alpha Centauri might harbour an ‘Earth’ – physicsworld.com SF fans and space enthusiasts worldwide commence drooling. (tags: science astronomy planets space news SF) NPR: It Isn’t Rocket Science: How Best to Board a Plane Science explains why Southwest is more efficient than other airlines. (tags: science math computing travel) The World’s Smallest Diamond Ring —… Continue reading links for 2008-03-15
FutureBaby Playlist: O-S
You know, there are really a remarkable number of bands whose names begin with “S”… There may be more “B” or “T” acts in my library, just because I own a bazillion songs by Bob Dylan and Tom Waits, but there sure are a lot of “S” artists. This set continues to show that sing-along-ability… Continue reading FutureBaby Playlist: O-S
Lab Visit Report: Four-Wave Mixing
The next lab visit experiments I want to talk about are really the epitome of what I called the “NIST Paradigm” in an earlier post. These are experiments on “four-wave mixing” done by Colin McCormick (who I TA’d in freshman physics, back in the day), a post-doc in Paul Lett’s lab at NIST. As Paul… Continue reading Lab Visit Report: Four-Wave Mixing
Nice Beaver!
Yet another picture taken by Kate at the National Zoo. When we arrived at the beaver pen, a bunch of keepers were inside, posing for a picture. This little guy clearly thought that humans being in his enclosure indicated that it was feeding time, and was doing his best pathetic begging. It really just begs… Continue reading Nice Beaver!
Talk Like a Physicist
Today has been dubbed “Talk Like a Physicist Day”. Why? Because we’re at least as cool as pirates, that’s why. Over at Swans on Tea, Tom offers some vocabulary tips: Use “canonical” when you mean “usual” or “standard.” As in, “the canonical example of talking like a physicist is to use the word ‘canonical.’” Use… Continue reading Talk Like a Physicist
links for 2008-03-14
The Smart Set: Sequins & Scandals – November 8, 2007 “Figure skating is the quintessential American sport, not merely because it is fiercely individualistic while at the same time incredibly conformist, but also because the athletes and fans, like the American electorate, have an extraordinarily high tolera (tags: sports stupid society culture) What a Star’s… Continue reading links for 2008-03-14