A couple of days ago, the LHC Blog asked about the future funding of the arxiv pre-print server, currently hosted at Cornell. Cornell is looking to get some external funding, though: Currently the plan is to ask the “heaviest user institutions” (other university library systems) to voluntarily contribute to support arXiv operational costs. The FAQ… Continue reading Paying For Free Stuff Is a Solved Problem, Isn’t It?
Category: Silliness
Wanted: Non-Dogs Learning Physics
The DogPhysics Pet Gallery is up to seven dogs, but as yet nobody has sent in a picture of a non-dog pet learning physics from How to Teach Physics to Your Dog. Emmy thinks this is because other pets are dumb, but I think she’s getting a little conceited. You can prove her wrong by… Continue reading Wanted: Non-Dogs Learning Physics
Seasonal Poll: Shopping in December
I’m spending today doing some Christmas shopping, god help me. So here’s a seasonally-appropriate poll for you all: The worst part of going to a mall in December is:(polls) Please choose only one. No returns or exchanges.
Monetizing Neuroses
You know, if somebody were to put together an application that would periodically check the Amazon sales rank of a given book and generate a Google Analytics style time series graph, and charge authors $5/book to see the output, I bet they’d make a bunch of money. Granted, it would put that person on the… Continue reading Monetizing Neuroses
The Bohr-Einstein Debates, With Puppets
Back during the DonorsChoose fundraiser, I promised to do a re-enactment of the Bohr-Einstein debates using puppets if you contributed enough to claim $2,000 of the Hewlett-Packard contribution to the Social Media Challenge. I obviously aimed too low, because the final take was $4064.70, more than twice the threshold for a puppet show. So, I… Continue reading The Bohr-Einstein Debates, With Puppets
Poll: Holiday (Music) in Hell
The Onion kindly provided this Patton Oswalt demolition of the “Christmas Shoes” song. while it’s funny, it is a reminder that we have reached the time of year when radio stations across the country will begin inflicting holiday “cheer” on their listeners. which seems like an excellent subject for a poll: Which of these holiday… Continue reading Poll: Holiday (Music) in Hell
Dorky Poll: Particle Type
Here’s an extremely dorky Dorky Poll topic. I can’t believe I haven’t used this one before: What sort of particles do you prefer?(poll) Choose only one.
Quasi Poll: Phone Call from the Future
I’m kind of in a fog today, which I’m choosing to attribute to airport lag (it can’t be jet lag, because I didn’t change time zones, but you get some of the same disorientation from spending too much time in airports and on planes), because the other option is incipient flu (half a dozen students… Continue reading Quasi Poll: Phone Call from the Future
Two-Word Lyrics Quiz #7
I was up until almost midnight grading labs, and I have forty-odd grant proposals to read today, so I’m going to be unplugging from the Internet and working on, well, work. For entertainment while I’m paying for my procrastination, here’s another two-word lyrics quiz. These two-word phrases each uniquely identify a pop song (I hope).… Continue reading Two-Word Lyrics Quiz #7
Fastener Technology Puzzle
If you buy a loaf of bread, it comes in a plastic bag closed with either a metal twist-tie or a little plastic tab. Either of these may be re-used to close the bag again after you have used some of the bread. If you buy a bunch of carrots, they generally come in a… Continue reading Fastener Technology Puzzle