Mandarin ducks at the National Zoo’s bird house. These guys were perched on a railing in the fligt area, and didn’t move, even though people were passing no more than a few feet from them, taking pictures. (Picture by Kate.)
Art and Animals
Kate was attending a workshop run by the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG, a wonderful acronym) in Washington, DC this Wednesday and Thursday, and when she told me that, I said “Hey, I’m not teaching this term, why don’t I tag along?” So, we extended the trip a little bit, and made it a… Continue reading Art and Animals
Score One for Physics
Physics comes through at the ballot box: Stunning many who considered the district west of Chicago reliably Republican territory, Bill Foster, a physicist and Democrat, won a special election on Saturday to fill the Congressional seat that J. Dennis Hastert, the former speaker of the House, held for two decades. […]Mr. Foster defeated James D.… Continue reading Score One for Physics
links for 2008-03-09
Let’s Play a Game, Part 2: Game Trees and Totally Finite Games « Intrinsically Knotted Classifying games based on possible moves and winning strategies. (tags: math science academia games) …yet I’ll hammer it out The Mentally Scarring Public Service Announcement Tournament. With YouTube links, so you can experience the trauma yourself. (tags: youtube video television… Continue reading links for 2008-03-09
Magazine Etiquette in Medicine
Dave Munger has been spending a lot of time in waiting rooms: When it comes to waiting rooms, it turns out, eye doctors wipe the floor with everyone else’s ass. Not only does the eye doctor have the least shabby interior decor, it also arguably offers the best selection of reading material and visual entertainment… Continue reading Magazine Etiquette in Medicine
Do You Feel Super?
ScienceBlogs is launching a new “Super Reader” program, where each blogger can nominate two readers as “Super Readers” who will be given the ability to tag three posts a week from all of ScienceBlogs for a special RSS feed (this will be done using del.icio.us). This is envisioned as a first step toward greater interactivity… Continue reading Do You Feel Super?
links for 2008-03-08
The Silly Little Show-Biz Book Club: Rollin’ With Dre | The A.V. Club “I will read all these terrible books so you don’t have to. It’s my latest attempt to transform the stupid, pointless shit I do in my free time into the stupid, pointless shit I am obligated do for my job.” (tags: books… Continue reading links for 2008-03-08
Vacation Dog Blogging #4
Today is the last day of our trip, so here’s a shot of Her Majesty showing off her regal side. Of course, the snow on her muzzle kind of undercuts the dignified affect…
What a Drag It Is Getting Old
SportsCenter this morning is basically a big Favre-a-thon, with wall-to-wall coverage of Brett Favre’s tearful retirement press conference yesterday. I watched the footage of him choking up, and said “Yeah, he does look pretty old. Probably time to hang it up.” Then I realized: He’s less than two years older than I am. I guess… Continue reading What a Drag It Is Getting Old
links for 2008-03-07
nanoscale views: Reviewing- why, how, and how often? “well written, thorough, timely referee reports almost always improve the quality of scientific papers” (tags: academia science physics articles writing) Shtetl-Optimized » Blog Archive » Long-dreaded politics post “[A]fter seven years of Bush, to ask whether I’d “prefer” Hillary or Obama is like asking a drowning person… Continue reading links for 2008-03-07