At the Tor party at Boskone, Teresa Nielsen Hayden introduced me to Jim Kelly as “a reviewer.” While technically somewhat accurate (I do occasionally post book reviews), and a better answer to “Why are you at this party?” than “I’m a guy with a web site,” it made me feel a little guilty for shamefully… Continue reading New Book Reviews
In Case You Were Wondering
About my take on the critically important science question sweeping ScienceBlogs, the answer is Cowboy Bebop. I’m cool with that. I get better theme music than any of the others. (Totally scientific quiz here.)
Golden Grouches
Seed is meeting their contractual obligation as members of the American media by offering some science-based Oscars. This is a rare year in which I really don’t care at all about the actual awards. I haven’t seen any of the movies nominated for Best Picture, and I don’t really have much interest in seeing any… Continue reading Golden Grouches
Shuffle Play Whiplash
iTunes just threw up a pretty good set of songs that spans almost the full range of my four-and-five-star playlist: “Solar Sex Panel,” by Little Village. “Mr. Brightside,” by the Killers “I Wish I Had an Evil Twin,” by the Magnetic Fields “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat,” by Bob Dylan “Swing, Swing,” by the All-American Rejects “Flash,”… Continue reading Shuffle Play Whiplash
Better Jobs Than Science
Via Matt McIrvin (whose earlier entry on “Nerd Bravado” is also a must-read), the best explanation I’ve heard so far of the whole “Why are there so few women in scinece?” debate: they got better jobs: One of my students, we’ll call him Bill, in an introductory computer science class said that he wanted to… Continue reading Better Jobs Than Science
Discard Food Product. Eat Packaging.
While I would like to be posting cool recipes (with pictures, even!), I’m currently on a somewhat restricted diet. This isn’t a terribly serious post, and may slide over into “self-pitying,” so I’ll put the bulk of it behind the cut.
FEMA in Space
Dennis Overbye writes about popular NASA programs being delayed or cut in order to fund the Moon-and-Mars initiative and support the Space Shuttle/ ISS. Predictably, people who care about actual science are somewhat dismayed– Gordon Watts serves as a nice example. Fellow ScienceBlogger Chris Mooney has carved himself out a nice little niche writing about… Continue reading FEMA in Space
Mid-Week Links Dump
I usually try to save this sort of thing for the weekend, but we’re coming down to the end of the term, and today is an especially hectic day. Thus, a list of links that struck me as worth passing on: First, Paul Kwiat on counterfactual computation at Cosmic Variance. I will get back to… Continue reading Mid-Week Links Dump
Fred Phelps: The Untold Story
Leonard Pitts has the scoop: Allow me to share with you an epiphany. I think Fred Phelps is gay. Not that I’d have any way to know for sure, and not that there’s anything wrong with that. But it seems obvious to me that Freddie has spent a little time up on Brokeback Mountain, if… Continue reading Fred Phelps: The Untold Story
Set My Syllabus For Me
I’m currently teaching our sophomore-level modern physics class, which is titled something like “Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, and Their Applications.” We’ve finished with the basics of Special Relativity and abstract quantum theory, and have entered the mad sprint through applications (Union is on a trimester calendar, so classes end next week)– three classes on atoms and… Continue reading Set My Syllabus For Me