It’s that time of year again when people start thinking about Halloween costumes– SteelyKid is apparently planning to re-use her Peter Pan outfit from last year– and the conceptual costumes post from a while back has proved enduringly popular at this time of year. If you’re not into conceptual art, though, maybe some historical cosplay… Continue reading Historical Physicist Halloween Costumes
Category: Silliness
Louis de Broglie is Mildly Amused by Your Ideas
After a nice, relaxing weekend in Ithaca without the kids, I’ve returned to a crazy hectic Monday, with no free time to blog, despite a couple of things that I vaguely need to post. Lacking time, though, I’ll just give you this image of Condescending Louis de Broglie, an idea that sprang to mind when… Continue reading Louis de Broglie is Mildly Amused by Your Ideas
The 15 Most Interesting Force-Carrying Bosons
It’s gradually becoming clear to me that this blogging thing is old hat. It’s a Web 4.0 world now, and we’re all just Tmblng through it. So, I need to get with modernity, and start posting the listicles that are the bread and butter of the new social media order. Thus, I give you a… Continue reading The 15 Most Interesting Force-Carrying Bosons
Fantasy Physics Season Preview
While I was away for the weekend, intending to mostly ignore the Internet, Steve Maier tweeted: #FantasyFootball ? What if #FantasyPhysics existed–who would be your picks? This, of course, ended up sucking up a huge amount of mental energy for the rest of the weekend, because it’s such perfect blog fodder. If I’d had a… Continue reading Fantasy Physics Season Preview
Physics of the Bouncy-Bounce
SteelyPalooza came off very well, despite high disaster potential. We were, after all, inviting a dozen five-year-olds plus assorted siblings to our house, on a day when Kate and The Pip were out of commission due to coxsackie virus. Everything went smoothly, though: the kids loved the bouncy-bounce, SteelyKid’s playset and playhouse, and the six-person… Continue reading Physics of the Bouncy-Bounce
Dorky Poll: Document Preparation Software
The Pip is home with coxsackie virus today, and we’re having a big party for SteelyKid tomorrow (her fifth birthday is next week), so I’m too busy to do more cold-atom blogging today. So instead, we’ll consider one of the great linguistic conundra of modern physics: The document preparation system LaTeX is pronounced: This is… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Document Preparation Software
Dorky Poll: Rorschach Numbers
It’s been a really long time since I’ve done a Dorky Poll here, but I’m pretty fried at the moment, so here’s a kind of mathematical personality test: two numbers that do not uniquely define a sequence, but suggest some possibilities that reveal your innate character type and/or appropriate career path: Personality Test: What number… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Rorschach Numbers
Kids These Days
SteelyKid’s preschool “graduation” was today, and in addition to a certificate with her name on it, she got a CD of her class’s favorite songs and a composite picture of her class. I’d include an image, but it wouldn’t reproduce well, and anyway, I try not to post pictures of other people’s kids. What I… Continue reading Kids These Days
Return of The Physics Bus
My parents have a DVD of the Bacon Brothers singing “The Wheels on the Bus” over an animated scene, which The Pip loves and insists on watching over, and over, and over, and over… As the parent sitting through this on Sunday morning, I got a little punchy over on Twitter, and invented some quantum-physics-themed… Continue reading Return of The Physics Bus
How Good Is My Starbucks Cup?
It’s been a while since I’ve done a post over-analyzing some everyday situation, because I’ve been too busy to do any silly experiments. We’re on break this week, though, so I took a little time Monday to bring excessive technology to bear on the critically important scientific question: how good is my insulated Starbucks cup?… Continue reading How Good Is My Starbucks Cup?