I have a big stack of exams and lab reports to grade, so I need to go off someplace where I don’t have Internet access and do that. In my absence, here’s a Dorky Poll question inspired by recent news: Which Nobel laureate (in any field) is the craziest? There’s no real shortage of scientists… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Craziest Nobel Laureate
Sectarian Atheists and Anti-Catholics
Miriam Burstein points out the historical antecedents of the “Atheist Two-Step” discussed by Adam Kotsko and Brandon at Siris. This also ties in nicely with Fred Clark on sectarian atheists, as previously mentioned. Also, speaking of historical screeds by Protestant preachers, Jerry Fallwell is dead. I really don’t have anything to say about that, other… Continue reading Sectarian Atheists and Anti-Catholics
Life Cycle of Science PR
One of the fun things about EurekAlert is that it allows you to trace the full life cycle of the publicization of science in a way that used to be impossible for a regular person. For example, take the recent “Ring of Dark Matter” story. First, there’s a rumor of a result. This first stage… Continue reading Life Cycle of Science PR
A Billion Tons of Nickel
Via Toby, a detailed proposal for floating colonies on Venus. I heard Geoff Landis talk about this at Boskone a while back– the basic idea is that the Venusian atmosphere is so dense that you could easily build structures that would float high enough up in the atmosphere to be above the hellish temperatures. You… Continue reading A Billion Tons of Nickel
The Internet Is a Very Strange Place
As you may or may not have noticed, last week’s silly dog post got picked up by, well, just about everyone. I think it probably started with a sidelight link at Making Light, then it showed up on Boing Boing, and Digg, and MetaFilter, and something like half the LiveJournals in the world, it seems.… Continue reading The Internet Is a Very Strange Place
Parallel Universe Tenure Discussions
The recent discussion over the academic tenure system has sort of wound down, or at least, those parts of it that I feel I can contribute to have wound down. I really ought to note the posts by Bill Hooker and the Incoherent Ponderer, who correctly note that the biggest problem with the academic system… Continue reading Parallel Universe Tenure Discussions
Tired of the LHC
There’s a big long Dennis Overbye article about the Large Hadron Collider in the Times today. The paginated version runs to seven or eight pages on the web, and Overbye is a good writer, so you can be fairly sure it’s exhaustive and detailed and interesting. I can’t say that authoritatively, though, because I got… Continue reading Tired of the LHC
Call for Submissions
Stuart Coleman of Daily Irreverence is going to be hosting the next edition of the physics blog carnival Philosophia Naturalis in the near future, and he’s looking for posts. So, if you’ve got physics blog material you’d like to see receive more attention, go over there, and send it to Stuart.
Inference and Illiteralism
Two good “fundamentalism is stupid” posts over the weekend. First up is Scott Aaronson on rules of inference: In the study of rationality, there’s a well-known party game: the one where everyone throws a number from 0 to 100 into a hat, and that player wins whose number was closest to two-thirds of the average… Continue reading Inference and Illiteralism
Clifford Johnson Tribute Post
Here’s a picture of some pretty flowers: These are from the ornatmental cherry tree in our front yard. Like all the other similar trees in the neighborhood, it’s absolutely exploded over the past week. Also, I rode my bike a bunch this weekend: