Over at Backreaction, Bee has posted a fairly readable introduction to extra dimensions, including a sort of taxonomy of different models. If you’re interested in that sort of thing, take a look. It almost makes up for the dreadful visual pun from a little while back. (There’s other good stuff there, including a list of… Continue reading Across the Eighth Dimension
Life During Wartime
There are two main reasons why I don’t write a great deal about politics here. The first, and most important, is that I tend not to like the way that I end up sounding when I go off on political topics. The second, only slightly less important, is that I rarely feel like I have… Continue reading Life During Wartime
Is Our Students Learning?
Over at Inside Higher Ed, there’s an article by Laurence Musgrove on whether student writing has really gotten worse in recent years. He suggests a good mechanism for how faculty might be fooled into thinking so: […] I think the main difference between students then and now exists mostly in our heads, since in many… Continue reading Is Our Students Learning?
World Cup Post-Script
Via Dave Sez, a Sports Illustrated columnist says that Zidane’s head-butt was understandable because of all the flopping other players do: So Zidane slammed a guy. He lost it. Writers all over the world are competing with themselves to heap scorn on France’s greatest player. You know something? I don’t blame him for getting sore.… Continue reading World Cup Post-Script
String Theory, RHIC, and Furr’s Law
An off-hand comment in my RHIC post has provided a lot more traffic and entertainment than I would’ve thought possible, and has also accidentally re-confirmed what we used to call “Furr’s Law” back in my Usenet days– namely, that the fastest way to get information on the Internet is to say something wrong, and let… Continue reading String Theory, RHIC, and Furr’s Law
What Students Are Good For
Among other things, pointing me to silly bits of pop-culture ephemera that I haven’t noticed before. Such as, for example, The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: this is the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny good guys, bad guys, and explosions as far as the eye can see and only one will survive, I wonder who… Continue reading What Students Are Good For
Readercon: Social Class and Speculative Fiction
Having spent the weekend at Readercon, I feel like I should talk about it a little. For those who have never been to a SF convention, it’s not all people dressing up like space aliens and fairy princesses– in fact, the cons Kate and I go to tend not to have all that much of… Continue reading Readercon: Social Class and Speculative Fiction
Readercon: Embracing the Uncomfortable
Having spent the weekend at Readercon, I feel like I should talk about it a little. For those who have never been to a SF convention, it’s not all people dressing up like space aliens and fairy princesses– in fact, the cons Kate and I go to tend not to have all that much of… Continue reading Readercon: Embracing the Uncomfortable
Physicists in the Culture War
This month’s Physics Today has an article by Murray Peshkin on “Addressing the Public About Science and Religion”, that is both a nice change of pace (as physicists don’t do much of that sort of thing), and a reminder of why a lot of physicists don’t do that sort of thing. It’s not that he… Continue reading Physicists in the Culture War
Extremely Dorky Poll
Rob Knop offers a nice discussion of the speed of light, in response to last night’s question. This post is not about that, though you should go read it. This post is about my odd reaction to Rob’s title: “‘Speed of Light’ : a bad name for a great fundamental constant?” The notion of a… Continue reading Extremely Dorky Poll