Chad Orzel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Union College in Schenectady, NY. He blogs about physics, life in academia, ephemeral pop culture, and anything else that catches his fancy.
Kate's parents live on the New Hampshire side of Boston, and we're down visiting for the weekend. This morning, I went downstairs with the tablet to do my morning blogroll in front of the tv while Kate slept in. I didn't really appreciate what being this close to New Hampshire meant for television…
Jobs, News and Views for All of Higher Education - Inside Higher Ed :: The Identity Studies for Everyone
The latest literary-studies fad: Age Studies.
(tags: academia literature)
village voice > art > Meet the East Village "It" Couple of Young-Adult Lit by Carol Cooper
A profile of Scott…
I'm going to be in the Boston area this weekend, visiting Kate's family, so I will end up watching Saturday night's Giants-Patriots game with my Patriot-fan in-laws. In case you didn't know, New England is currently 15-0, and if they win this game they have the chance to be the first team to ever…
In the same basic spirit as yesterday's knit cephalopod picture, here's a sign from Takayama that we really liked:
I'm not sure exactly why the octopus has punched the fish to the moon, Ralph Kramden style, but Kate and I got a kick out of it.
I'm also not sure what it says-- something to do with…
The Least Essential Albums Of 2007 | The A.V. Club
"Every year produces great music and a nearly equal amount of terrible music. Then there's the not-so-creamy middle, the albums that have no real reason to exist, but nonetheless find their way to music-store shelves and online music stores."
(…
Here are the 22 five-star-rated songs that I added to my iTunes library in 2007 (aphabetcal by artist):
"Rehab," Amy Winehouse
"Antichrist Television Blues," Arcade Fire
"Open All Night," Bruce Springsteen & The Sessions Band
"Bottom of the Rain," Buffalo Tom
"CC and Callas," Buffalo Tom
"Sly…
One of the highlights of this year's Christmas haul: knitted cephalopods!
That's an octopus and a giant squid, knitted from spun awesome by my sister's partner. The tentacles have pipe cleaners (or something) in them, so they're poseable.
They're currently sitting on top of the tv, but they're not…
Changing Courses at the Food Network - New York Times
No more Emeril Live, but still more Rachel Ray.
(tags: food television culture society economics)
Polarization technique focuses limelight
Rayleigh scattering off small particles in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet produces a…
Hey, Mike. Rough month, eh? You're doing all right in the polls at the moment, but just getting hammered from all sides in the blogosphere. You're getting blasted for denying evolution, but also for not denying it fiercely enough for Ann Coulter. People are none too happy about your ill-informed…
I love getting toys for Christmas:
Chateau Steelypips is now GPS-enabled. That's from our drive home last night (GIMPed to within an inch of its life, because the light level was really low)-- bonus points for anyone who can identify where it was taken. It's a Garmin c340, for those who want specs…
It was sort of amusing when people started doing kitsch holiday commercials in a CGI version of those old quasi-claymation holiday specials (Rodolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the like). I'm ok with hipster irony, at least to a point.
It was a whole lot less amusing when somebody (I've forgotten…
The final installment from the Tree of SCIENCE!!! for this year:
This is a Santa Claus figure walking his dog. Which, of course, is a reminder to everyone of the importance of talking to your pets about SCIENCE!!!
Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate it. The rest of you, have a great…
The Muckraker's Progress: Politics & Power: vanityfair.com
"[Bob Livingston] said he thought I was a bottom-feeder. So they called me for a comment and I said, 'Yeah, that's right, but look what I found when I got down there.' " --Larry Flynt
(tags: politics US society stupid)
scifantasy:…
Thanks largely to the leather canary, I've amassed a surprising number of non-sucky Christmas songs this year. There's some painful stuff in there, too, but most of the tracks on their mixes aren't likely to make you want to stab ballpoint pens through your eardrums. If you're in need of a holiday…
E Y E W E A R: The Failure of Interest In Poetry In Our Time
Today's nominee for Pompous Ass Comment of the Year: "The fact that poetry does not interest most people suggests most people are no longer interesting."
(tags: academia culture poetry literature books)
Christmas with Christopher…
"Hey, dude. What's in the binder?"
"Well, it's the first draft of my book. I finished it this morning, and printed it out to have a paper copy to look at."
"Ooooh! The book about me?"
"Well, it's a book about physics, featuring you. But yes, that's the only book I'm working on at the moment."
"…
Tomorrow, Kate and I will be heading off to Scenic Whitney Point to spend a few days with my family. Part of this will be the traditional Christmas Eve dinner with my father's side of the family (described in more detail below the fold). It occurred to me a little while ago that this is the one…
This one may not look like much, but it covers a lot of ground for the Tree of SCIENCE!!!:
This ornament is built around a copper plaque, and copper is a very good conductor, which means it includes an element of solid state physics.
The copper in the plaque is from the roof of the Library of…
COROT surprises a year after launch
Stellar seismology and a new extrasolar planet.
(tags: astronomy news science planets)
The quest for a new class of superconductors
An article positing superconductors in which electrons pair up through something other than phonon interactions.
(tags: physics…
It's been a rotten year for the Atlanta Falcons-- Michael Vick turned out to have even worse judgement than people had thought, and the team immediately went into a death spiral. Then, last week, their first-year head coach, Bobby Petrino (formerly of Louisville), announced that he was leaving to…
As previously mentioned, I plan to end the book with a chapter on quantum flim-flam. As research for this, I've been looking at kook sites on the web, and Googled "quantum healing," which turns up all manner of gibberish from Deepak Chopra. It also includes a helpful little item at the bottom of…
Today's Tree of SCIENCE!!! ornaments salute this here series of tubes:
On the right side of this picture, you see two little clothespin soldiers in sailor outfits with semaphore flags. These guys represent communications technology.
Communications technology, from crude semaphore all the way up…
The Year In Film 2007 | The A.V. Club
I don't see enough movies to do a sensible "Year's Best" list any more, but the AV Club is one of the most reliable review sites out there.
(tags: movies)
Are We Not Men?
Jon Zobenicaoverthinks Playboy and Maxim
(tags: culture gender journalism sex society…
Having ranted at great length about the awfulness of Dick Vitale's caterwauling during games broadcast on ESPN, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that he's having vocal cord surgery. In his own words:
The past six weeks have been very emotional for me and for my family as we've visited some of…
A former Michigan law professor is suing the university because he was denied tenure:
The professor, Peter Hammer, won a majority of votes of the faculty of the law school in his case. But the 18-12 margin was two shy of the two-thirds requirement to win tenure, so he lost his job, and now is a…
Another cold December day, another ornament from the Tree of SCIENCE!!! This one's for the doctors in the house:
That's a little elf guy smoking a pipe, and he represents the science of public health.and epidemiology.
I'm a little dubious about some of the more extravagant claims made regarding…
Travis Hime of Arcane Gazebo has just finished his Ph.D. on Solid-State Qubits with Current-Controlled Coupling. Go congratulate him on bringing quantum spam that much closer to reality.
("Dear sir or madam, I may or may not be the widow of the former president of Nigeria, and I may or may not have…
Monkeys perform arithmetic as well as college students
I knew that.
(tags: academia education biology math psychology news science)
Merck Manual for Pet Health - Ferret Hit by an Arrow? Here's a Book for You - New York Times
The Merck/Merial Manual for Pet Health: Home Edition: Because…
I could probably tease this information out of the Particle Data Group website, given enough time, but somebody with a background in particle physics can probably answer this in two seconds, so I appeal to the Internets:
What is the shortest lifetime of a particle that has been directly detected?…
