It’s common in math and computer science for people to prove important theorems sort of in passing, on the way to some other result. At least, it looks that way to an outsider– Fermat’s Theorem and the Poincare Conjecture are the high-profile examples that come to mind. In that spirit, Scott Aaronson helpfully distills all… Continue reading The Essence of Academic Research
Geek Safari
Yesterday’s New York Times features an article about SF conventions, in the travel section, of all places. Officially, the 25th annual staging of MidSouthCon, a three-day-long celebration of science fiction, role-playing games, fantasy artwork, medieval weaponry and just about every leisure pursuit that prefers to envision the cosmos as it might have once been or… Continue reading Geek Safari
He’s an Overachiever, Baby!
Having gotten a fair number of visits via the search string “Jim Boeheim’s Wife” (and once or twice “Jim Boeheim’s Hot Wife,” presumably by people who are looking for something more salacious than me griping about how inappropriate it is for Dick Vitale to talk about her attractiveness all the goddamn time), I would be… Continue reading He’s an Overachiever, Baby!
Queen Emmy the Clever
At lunch Friday, I was talking to a few colleagues about how smart our pets can be. I haven’t done gratuitous dog-blogging in a while, and it’s been a long week, so here are some of the more impressive of our Emmy’s intellectual achievements:
Free Ragamuffins
Having disagreed (somewhat) with Tobias Buckell in the previous post, let me follow that up with something positive: He’s got a new book, Ragamuffin coming out soon, and he’s putting excerpts up on the official Ragamuffin page. You can get RTF files of the first two chapters, and he’s promised a chapter a week leading… Continue reading Free Ragamuffins
Agitprop for Kids?
Earlier this week, while I was buried in work, Tobias Buckell pointed to a post at the Guardian blog in which China Mieville calls for more kid-lit agitprop. It’s a nice example of why I have a hard time with Mieville. Or, quoting Toby because he puts it more concisely: I’m left of two minds.… Continue reading Agitprop for Kids?
Notes From the World’s Best Health Care System
I came home Wednesday night to find a message on the answering machine. This is somewhat unusual, as most of the people who call us are trying to get us to donate money to some cause or another, and they don’t leave messages. I hit play: Hi, this is [Name] from [Gastroenterology Practice]. This message… Continue reading Notes From the World’s Best Health Care System
Why Physics?
We were talking about student recruitment the other day, as faculty are wont to do, and our chair suggested that we really ought to have a “Why You Should Major In Physics” page as part of the department web page. As I’m currently the web page coordinator, it will fall to me to write whatever… Continue reading Why Physics?
Matters of Democracy
As mentioned previously, there was a talk on campus last night by a couple of activists, Michael Berg and Joan Mandle. Berg is an anti-war activist, best known as the father of Nick Berg who was infamously beheaded on video in Iraq. He’s also a former Green Party candidate for Congress in Delaware. Mandle is… Continue reading Matters of Democracy
Science Promotions on the Web
Two links to things promoting science on the web: 1) What’s the Greatest Innovation? Spiked online asked a bunch of famous people to describe the greatest innovation in their field, and compiled the responses. As with most of these things, there’s some interesting stuff in the responses, and a lot of predictable answers of the… Continue reading Science Promotions on the Web