I thought about posting something in advance of my annual moment of bloggy silence, to let people know what’s up, as my traffic has increased by about an order of magnitude since the last time I did this. As the post is equal parts gesture of respect and protest against the use of the anniversary… Continue reading Explanatory Note
Month: September 2006
September 11, 2006
Why, Yes, I Am Ready for Some Football
The NFL season starts in earnest today, and it’s about damn time. Granted, the early afternoon offerings on our local cable system– Jets/Titans and Eagles/Texans– probably don’t really qualify as “football,” and the late afternoon Cowboys/Jaguars game is interesting only insofar as either Terrell Owens or Bill Parcells might explode at any moment, but it’s… Continue reading Why, Yes, I Am Ready for Some Football
First Weekend
The first weekend of the Fall term is always a strange time. Classes are back in session, so I’m in Teaching Mode, but there really isn’t that much to do, because I haven’t collected any work requiring grading yet. I always feel like the last weekend before classes ought to be some grand last hurrah… Continue reading First Weekend
New Tunes Follow-Up
Some time back, I asked people to pimp me new tunes, and got a wealth of recommendations. I put in a big iTunes order not long after, and now I’ve had a chance to listen to most of those tracks, so I thought I should post a follow-up summary of what I bought and what… Continue reading New Tunes Follow-Up
The Pipeline Problem
One of the things that ends up bothering me about the discussion of how to get more women in science is that it tends to focus on the college and professional elvel. Everybody seems to have an anecdote about a creepy physics professor, or an unpleasant graduate student, or a sexist post-doc. This bugs me… Continue reading The Pipeline Problem
Blogger SAT Challenge?
Last weekend, when talking about the new SAT, I attributed the low quality of the essays reproduced in the New York Times to the fact that this is a test with vague questions and a short time limit. Dave Munger was a little skeptical in comments, and I remarked that: Somebody ought to get a… Continue reading Blogger SAT Challenge?
Too Many Science Books?
One of the perks of this corporate blogging gig is that it’s put me on the radar of book publishers, who have started sending me free stuff. We like free stuff, here at Chateau Steelypips, and we like books, so that’s a Good Thing. It’s becoming almost too much of a Good Thing, though– In… Continue reading Too Many Science Books?
True Lab Stories: Boris the Magnet Guy
The story about Bloch oscillation gravity measurements reminds me of a True Lab Story about a different sort of sensitive measurement made using cold atoms, made during my grad school days. Sadly, this one wasn’t particularly useful… The standard technique for accumulating large numbers of cold atoms is a thing called a magneto-optical trap, which… Continue reading True Lab Stories: Boris the Magnet Guy
Cold Atoms for Gravity Probes
This is nearly a month old, now, because I keep saying “Oh, Idon’t have time to do this justice– I’ll write about it tomorrow.” I really need to stop doing that. Anyway, Physics News Update has a story about a scheme to measure gravity using Bloch oscillations, based on a paper in Physical Review Letters.… Continue reading Cold Atoms for Gravity Probes