{"id":4671,"date":"2010-05-07T06:58:23","date_gmt":"2010-05-07T06:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/principles\/2010\/05\/07\/links-for-2010-05-07\/"},"modified":"2010-05-07T06:58:23","modified_gmt":"2010-05-07T06:58:23","slug":"links-for-2010-05-07","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/2010\/05\/07\/links-for-2010-05-07\/","title":{"rendered":"Links for 2010-05-07"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"delicious\">\n<li>\n<div class=\"delicious-link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/id\/2253050\/?from=rss\">Microsoft&#8217;s PowerPoint isn&#8217;t evil if you learn how to use it. &#8211; By Farhad Manjoo &#8211; Slate Magazine<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"delicious-extended\">I&#8217;ve seen more terrible slide presentations in my life than good ones, but that stat isn&#8217;t necessarily an indictment of the program&#8211;I&#8217;ve also encountered a lot more terrible books than terrific ones, and I&#8217;ve certainly seen more ugly Web sites than pretty ones. Yes, PowerPoint&#8211;and slide software in general, a category that includes Apple&#8217;s Keynote&#8211;can be heroically misused. But if you use it correctly, slide software can help you captivate and inform an audience in a way that a speech alone could never manage.<\/div>\n<div class=\"delicious-tags\">(tags: <a href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/orzelc\/meetings\">meetings<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/orzelc\/presentations\">presentations<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/orzelc\/computing\">computing<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/orzelc\/software\">software<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/orzelc\/society\">society<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/orzelc\/culture\">culture<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/orzelc\/slate\">slate<\/a>)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"delicious-link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeshighereducation.co.uk\/story.asp?storycode=411493\">Times Higher Education &#8211; Scientists talk up teaching but still fail to promote it<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"delicious-extended\">&#8220;While 77 per cent say that teaching and research are equally important and only 7 per cent say that research takes precedence, when asked to select a candidate for a role involving both duties, 48 per cent chose a star researcher with no significant teaching experience.<\/p>\n<p>The report says that the respondents believe that this is the appointment their institution would want them to make, adding that despite missions to educate, most top-level universities are &#8220;far more interested&#8221; in pursuing a research than a teaching agenda.<\/p>\n<p>It notes that such institutions tend to &#8220;direct more funding, awards and job security to outstanding researchers than outstanding teachers&#8221;.&#8221;<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"delicious-tags\">(tags: <a href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/orzelc\/science\">science<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/orzelc\/academia\">academia<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/orzelc\/social-science\">social-science<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/orzelc\/statistics\">statistics<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/orzelc\/society\">society<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/orzelc\/culture\">culture<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/orzelc\/times-higher-ed\">times-higher-ed<\/a>)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"delicious-link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eurekalert.org\/pub_releases\/2010-05\/uom-tgr050610.php\">Trapping giant Rydberg atoms for faster quantum computers<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"delicious-extended\">&#8220;In a rubidium atom, just one electron occupies the outer valence shell. With precisely tuned lasers, the researchers excited this electron so that it moved 100 times farther away from the nucleus of the atom, which classified it as a Rydberg atom. That valence electron in this case is so far away from the nucleus that it behaves almost as if it&#8217;s a free electron.<\/p>\n<p>To trap the Rydberg atoms, the researchers took advantage of what&#8217;s called the &#8220;ponderomotive force&#8221; that allows them to secure a whole atom by holding fast to one electron&#8212;the sole valence shell particle in the rubidium Rydberg atoms. The optical lattice, formed with intense, interfering laser beams, is what provides the ponderomotive force.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The laser field holds on to the electron, which behaves almost as if it were free, but the residual weak atomic binding force still holds the atom together. In effect, the entire atom is trapped by the lasers,&#8221; [Michigan&#8217;s Georg] Raithel said.&#8221;<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"delicious-tags\">(tags: <a href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/orzelc\/science\">science<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/orzelc\/physics\">physics<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/orzelc\/atoms\">atoms<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/orzelc\/low-temperature\">low-temperature<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/orzelc\/experiment\">experiment<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/orzelc\/news\">news<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/orzelc\/lasers\">lasers<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/orzelc\/quantum\">quantum<\/a>)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Microsoft&#8217;s PowerPoint isn&#8217;t evil if you learn how to use it. &#8211; By Farhad Manjoo &#8211; Slate Magazine I&#8217;ve seen more terrible slide presentations in my life than good ones, but that stat isn&#8217;t necessarily an indictment of the program&#8211;I&#8217;ve also encountered a lot more terrible books than terrific ones, and I&#8217;ve certainly seen more&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/2010\/05\/07\/links-for-2010-05-07\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Links for 2010-05-07<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links_dump","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}