Links Dump
drorzel | September 9, 2008
Shaping Single Photons | Physical Review Focus
"Physicists have been manipulating single photons for several years, but now a team has modulated the time profile of a photon. Using the same optical equipment that fashions ordinary light pulses, the team molded single photons into arbitrary shapes, such as a pair of square pulses, as they describe in the 5 September Physical Review Letters. This precise control could have uses in quantum cryptography and quantum memory storage."
(tags: physics quantum optics science news articles)
View from the Corner: An interesting mathematical model...
"…
drorzel | September 8, 2008
Whatever » A Previous Message Repeated, Slightly More Forcefully
"Now, again, please: Take a nice, deep cleansing breath, center yourself, have some tea, and get a goddamn grip. "
(tags: US politics blogs)
Confessions of a Community College Dean: Ask the Administrator: Academic Blacklists?
"The usual meaning of 'blacklist,' as I understand it, is a list of names of people to be shunned. I've never seen such a list, nor have I ever heard of one, anyplace I've worked."
(tags: academia jobs blogs politics)
drorzel | September 7, 2008
Confessions of an RNC security guard | Salon
"Even in their lusty, alcohol-fueled swoons, these young politicos still call Palin "governor." In a way, this reverential horniness is sort of endearing. But mostly it's just creepy."
(tags: politics US journalism society culture)
Shtetl-Optimized » Blog Archive » The Singularity Is Far
"[I]f the Singularity ever does arrive, I expect it to be plagued by frequent outages and terrible customer service."
(tags: science computing books review blogs)
drorzel | September 6, 2008
Soundtrack Saturday: "Real Genius" | Popdose
All but one of the songs from Val Kilmer's finest film.
(tags: music movies blogs science)
drorzel | September 5, 2008
Adventures in Ethics and Science: Data paparazzi.
Is it ethical to write a paper based on a snapshot of a data slide at a conference?
(tags: ethics science publishing physics academia)
Jonathan Martin's Blog: Democrat reader email of the day (so far) - Politico.com
"Mrs. Palin needs to be reminded that Jesus Christ was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor."
(tags: politics US religion history class-war literature)
Scientists get death threats over Large Hadron Collider - Telegraph
"Such is the angst that the American Nobel prize winning physicist Frank Wilczek of the…
drorzel | September 4, 2008
Torontoist: ROAWR...Pop!
Best. Balloon Animal. EVER.
(tags: dinosaurs animals art silly pictures)
Built on Facts : Charging the Earth
"Gravity couldn't hold lint to your shirt in a million years."
(tags: physics math gravity science blogs)
Confessions of a Community College Dean: In Which I Realize That We're Doing It Wrong
"[T]he attitudes we convey, and messages we send, by treating ESL status as a handicap are backwards. In this market, fluency in two languages (English and Spanish, really) is a huge plus. ItâÂÂs an asset. "
(tags: academia education diversity society culture blogs)
drorzel | September 3, 2008
The Quantum Pontiff : Wisely Using Your Advantage
"In other words, what is your probability of ruin, given a starting bankroll of D dollars, an advantage of p, and a target of T dollars?"
(tags: science math statistics blogs)
Optics basics: Coherence ë Skulls in the Stars
A very nice explanation of one of the slipperier concepts in optics.
(tags: physics optics science education blogs)
Top Story On John McCain Run Out Of Obligation | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
"John McCain is one of only two men who has a chance to become president of the United States of America, and by…
drorzel | September 2, 2008
Making Light: Why RMS Titanic Didn't Have Enough Lifeboats
"Sixteen hundred people died in the Titanic disaster because no one had worked out the implications of tuned circuits."
(tags: history science blogs gadgets)
The TNR Q&A: Charles Barkley
"People can always bring up stuff. When I get involved in politics, I am not even going to talk about what the other guys do. The media likes that. I am not going to sit around saying, "The other guy sucks worse than me." I don't need to be governor; I want to be governor."
(tags: politics US sports race basketball)
Why Assistant Professors…
drorzel | September 1, 2008
Swans on Tea û How Does Calculus Compare?
Darth Vader explains the Pythagorean Theorem. Why? Why not?
(tags: youtube silly math education)
Roald Dahl's seductive work as a British spy - Telegraph
"I think he slept with everybody on the east and west coasts that [was worth] more than $50,000 a year."
(tags: sex history politics war)
His Physics Theories Added Up - Yahoo! News
A short biography of James Clerk Maxwell. The attempts to connect with modern physics are a little odd, but it's a good capsule summary of his life and character.
(tags: physics math history science)
The Science…
drorzel | August 31, 2008
Setshot: Basketball for the Aging and Infirm: Politics: McCain panders to aging ballers
"Apparently, "Sarah Barracuda" (her high school hoops nickname) played point guard on a state championship squad from Wasilla, Alaska, but there is scant evidence that she plays anymore."
(tags: US politics basketball sports blogs)
drorzel | August 30, 2008
Philosoraptor
"John McCain has revealed that his apparent choice of Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential running-mate was, as many observers predicted, a carefully-staged hoax."
(tags: US politics stupid blogs silly)
drorzel | August 29, 2008
Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Stories / Shade by Steven Gould
Teleporteurs sans frontieres.
(tags: SF stories)
Search Magazine - On God
P.J. O'Rourke does his best Gregg Easterbrook impression.
(tags: science religion stupid)
Built on Facts : Falling from Heaven
" If my opinion is worth anything though, I think classic literature is improved by a little physics."
(tags: physics math science blogs culture literature humanities)
Michael Nielsen û Quantum computing for everyone
"[I]magine for the sake of argument that I could give you a simple, concrete explanation of how…
drorzel | August 28, 2008
Shtetl-Optimized û Blog Archive û Can we?
"IâÂÂd like propose the following question: what non-obvious things can nerds who are so inclined do to help the Democrats win in November? "
(tags: politics US society culture computing internet)
I Watched This On Purpose: Bio-Dome | The A.V. Club
"Bio-Dome doesn't exist to please critics or audiences. It exists to lead easily entertained dumbasses with low standards to Christ."
(tags: movies religion review stupid drugs)
Trying to satisfy too many agendas slows school reform
"Advocates of the liberal perspective can learn from those who…
drorzel | August 27, 2008
America Needs To Have A Superficial Conversation About Race | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
"The time for vagueness is now."
(tags: race politics silly internet US diversity society culture)
The Energy Challenge - Wind Energy Bumps Into Power GridâÂÂs Limits - Series - NYTimes.com
âÂÂWe still have a third-world grid,â Mr. Richardson said, repeating a comment he has made several times. âÂÂWith the federal government not investing, not setting good regulatory mechanisms, and basically taking a back seat on everything except drilling and fossil fuels, the grid has not been…
drorzel | August 26, 2008
Street Corner Science with Leon Lederman | ScienCentral
In which a Nobel laureate answers science questions on the streets of Manhattan.
(tags: science physics education video internet society culture)
'Physics for Future Presidents' :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs
IHE interviews Richard Muller about his book
(tags: physics education science books academia politics US)
Asteroids and comets to scale, as a single image for printing or Powerpoint - The Planetary Society Blog | The Planetary Society
If you've been struggling with how to convey the…
drorzel | August 25, 2008
How to get a college roommate you can live with
First and foremost, don't be a jerk yourself.
(tags: academia education social-science psychology news)
Want to Lower the Drinking Age? Hope You Like Spam :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs
MADD-- all class, all the way.
(tags: academia booze stupid society US politics)
'Unprecedented' 2-Year Decline for U.S. Science Funds :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs
"never before in the 36 years that the NSF has produced this report have there been two consecutive years in…
drorzel | August 24, 2008
Evolving Thoughts: The real Olympic performers
"[U]sing the Wikipedia population figures and the official medal tally, I plotted gold medals per million population and medals overall per million population"
(tags: sports blogs silly)
Why You Should Turn Gmail s SSL Feature On Now - Webmonkey
"Browser Connection" in your GMail settings-- set it to "Always Use https://"
(tags: internet computing)
drorzel | August 23, 2008
DFL: Getting to the Games: A Reality Check
"A common misconception -- a result, no doubt, of the countless stories about Eddie the Eagle and Eric the Eel -- is that it's not that hard to qualify for the Olympics, if you pick your sports and countries shrewdly."
(tags: sports blogs)
Methodist advocates evolution | The Journal Gazette
âÂÂWe find that scienceâÂÂs descriptions of cosmological, geological and biological evolution are not in conflict with theology.âÂÂ
(tags: religion science society culture politics biology)
Carbon-Based Curiosities û Blog Archive û The IKEA of…
drorzel | August 22, 2008
Great Olympic moments on YouTube
"One of the best ways to watch the Olympics is to chase down all the references made by NBC's commentators on YouTube and watch them in addition to (or instead of) the regular telecast. "
(tags: video sports youtube history)
drorzel | August 21, 2008
Cocktail Party Physics: calculus is craptastic
"Few science bloggers have the good fortune to write off a Vegas trip as "research", but that's exactly what it was: my next book for Penguin is all about my experiences as a former English major learning calculus, inspired by a series of blog posts I wrote in 2006. "
(tags: math science books writing games physics)
On 'Real Education' - II :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs
"[Charle Murray's] pessimistic view of peopleâÂÂs ability to learn ignores not just good evidence to the contrary but the real…