I can’t really come up with any scientific significance for this one, but it amuses Kate to no end to have an elephant angel on the tree. And why not? It’s supposed to be a season of miracles, and what could be more miraculous than an elephant with butterfly wings shooting stars out of its… Continue reading Theology on the Tree
Month: December 2006
Christmas Songs That Don’t Suck
We’re off to do our annual holiday trek all over New England. We will have sporadic Internet access, but don’t expect any blogging before next Wednesday. Not that anybody’s going to be reading blogs over the weekend, anyway… If you’d like some seasonal music, below the fold is a list of the 21 songs from… Continue reading Christmas Songs That Don’t Suck
The Good, the Bad, and the Mellow
The problem with the holiday season is that it just flies by so fast– it seems like you’ve barely finished clearing away the Thanksgiving dishes, and then you find that you’ve already missed Mellowmas. Haven’t heard of that one? Well, it’s a new holiday invented by jefitoblog and Jason Hare, explained by jefito thusly: For… Continue reading The Good, the Bad, and the Mellow
Theorist for Sale or Rent
Scott Aaronson is offering his services to the highest bidder in the String Wars. His prices may be a little steep– a well organized review article will set you back $2 million, though a sloppy and poorly sourced one is probably cheaper– but really, isn’t it worth it to have the second funniest physics blogger… Continue reading Theorist for Sale or Rent
NBA Brawl Conspiracy Theory
The big NBA story of the week is, of course, the brawl that broke out between the Knicks and Nuggets a week ago, and the big suspensions that followed. In particular, Denver star (and former Syracuse player) Carmelo Anthony was suspended for fifteen games for slugging the goon from the Knicks whose flagrant foul touched… Continue reading NBA Brawl Conspiracy Theory
Press Release Bursts
One of the fun things about following science news through the Eurekalert press release aggregator is that work done by big collaborations tends to show up multiple times, in slightly different forms. Take, for example, the gamma-ray-burst results being released in Nature this week, which show up no less than five times: one, two, three,… Continue reading Press Release Bursts
Charles Stross, The Jennifer Morgue [Library of Babel]
Charlie Stross is one of the current Hot Authors in SF, but he’s been pretty uneven for me. I liked Iron Sunrise quite a bit, but thought the highly-regarded Accelerando was actually pretty bad, and I didn’t care much for The Hidden Family, the second volume in the Amber-with-Usenet-economics series. The cover copy of Glasshouse… Continue reading Charles Stross, The Jennifer Morgue [Library of Babel]
Unanswered Questions
Slate‘s Explainer presents a list of questions that were submitted but not answered. They propose to answer one of these, chosen on the basis of a reader vote. (Details at the bottom of the article.) Some of my favorites:
New Online Magazine: Inkling
A couple of the women behind Inkycircus have decided to launch a new online science magazine, called Inkling. As they put it, their mission is: [to] cover the science that pervades our life, makes us laugh, and helps us choose our breakfast foods. If you like the stuff you see in Seed, you’ll find similar… Continue reading New Online Magazine: Inkling
Modified Gravity Eliminates Dark Matter?
There’s a news squib from the Institutes of Physics this morning touting new results on a theory of modified gravity that the authors say can explain the structure of the universe without needing to invoke dark matter. This is a significant problem in cosmology, as the article explains: [O]ur theory of gravitation – Einstein’s theory… Continue reading Modified Gravity Eliminates Dark Matter?