1) I downloaded the demo version of Corel’s Grafigo program, which a colleague really likes on his tablet, and earlier this week, I spent a short time playing around with it. A very short time, because there are controls on the top menu bar that simply disappear when you have the tablet in portrait mode–… Continue reading In Which I Am Thwarted by Computers
Month: December 2007
Tree of SCIENCE!!! #3
Today’s ornament from the Tree of SCIENCE!!! might seem like a repeat, but it’s not: I know, you’re saying “Dude, you already did life sciences…” True, but this glittery polar bear doesn’t stand for life sciences, he stands for climate science and environemntal science.
links for 2007-12-13
[0712.1649] Warp Drive: A New Approach “In this paper we demonstrate that a sufficiently advanced civilization could, in principal, manipulate the radius of the extra dimension to locally adjust the value of the cosmological constant.” (tags: physics theory science silly articles) The Associated Press: Maine Newborns to Get $500 for College “A foundation started by… Continue reading links for 2007-12-13
The Ingenuity of Rocket Scientists
There’s another Mars article in the Times this morning, which I wouldn’t bother to note in a full post save for one thing: the way they got the results. The right front wheel of Spirit stopped turning in March 2006. Since then, the rover has been driving backwards, dragging the lame wheel along. This May,… Continue reading The Ingenuity of Rocket Scientists
Problems with Middle School Math
EurekAlert had a press release yesterday regarding a new study on the training of middle-school math teachers. It’s not pretty: Middle school math teachers in the United States are not as well prepared to teach this subject compared to teachers in five other countries, something that could negatively affect the U.S. as it continues to… Continue reading Problems with Middle School Math
Science wa Hanashimsu Ka?
Over at Page 3.14, they’re marking the launch of the German-language site scienceblogs.de (for real, this time) with a poll about language skills: they want to know what languages other than English ScienceBlogs readers speak, and what you think they should target next. Current sentiment is running in favor of French or Spanish next, but… Continue reading Science wa Hanashimsu Ka?
Tree of SCIENCE!!! #2
Today’s picture from the Tree of SCIENCE!!! is a two-fer: That’s a glass star and a wooden crescent moon, and together, obviously, they stand for astronomy and planetary science. Really, that’s so easy and obvious that I don’t need to say any more.
University of Pharyngula?
One of the alternately entertaining and depressing things about the culture wars in the US is the existence of a sort of parallel academic universe, in the form of vanity universities like Oral Roberts University, Bob Jones University, and Jerry Fallwell’s Liberty University. These provide both a thin veneer of credibility for pseudo-academic nonsense and… Continue reading University of Pharyngula?
links for 2007-12-12
Malaria – Vaccine – Mosquitoes – Research – Medicine and Health – New York Times A profile of efforts to make a vaccine for malaria. (tags: biology medicine animals economics drugs) Jobs, News and Views for All of Higher Education – Inside Higher Ed :: Campus Fight Club Dorm-room boxing, yet another brilliant student idea… Continue reading links for 2007-12-12
Santa Claus is a Physicist
Dave Ng over at the World’s Fair is at it again, asking what sort of science background Santa Claus has: So the premise is that Santa is at least several hundred years old, and you’ve got to assume that somewhere along the line, he spent some time in academia and probably got a degree or… Continue reading Santa Claus is a Physicist