Links for 2010-09-20

6 Famous Unsolved Mysteries (That Have Totally Been Solved) | Cracked.com “One of our favorite pastimes here at Cracked is sucking the mystery out of life like the cream out of a Twinkie, leaving only the bland, dry sponge cake of reality behind. To that end, we’ve decided to list the often mundane solutions to […]

Links for 2010-09-18

Rally to Restore Sanity “We’re looking for the people who think shouting is annoying, counterproductive, and terrible for your throat; who feel that the loudest voices shouldn’t be the only ones that get heard; and who believe that the only time it’s appropriate to draw a Hitler mustache on someone is when that person is […]

Links for 2010-09-17

http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/debut-author-lessons-10-things-about-signing-books/ Good, solid advice on signing books, some of which I’ve stumbled on myself, others I wish I’d known a year ago. (tags: books publishing blogs) Interference | Flickr – Photo Sharing! An awesome picture of water wave interference involving a waterlogged bee. (tags: pictures physics science waves water)

Links for 2010-09-16

What higher education costs § Unqualified Offerings “There’s a lot of talk going around about the cost of higher education.  Let’s look at some numbers in the state university system here, which focuses on undergraduate education.” (tags: academia education economics blogs unqualified-offerings) Do Scientists Have a Special Responsibility to Engage in Political Advocacy? | Age […]

The Inevitable Hiatus

So, I’m looking at the couple-dozen tabs I have open in Chrome for stuff that I think would be worth blogging about, and the slides for this afternoon’s lecture that need revising, and the student poster that needs to be completed before tomorrow, and the committee stuff that I ought to be doing, and the […]

Links for 2010-09-15

Lunch at McDonald’s – The Amateur Gourmet “I won’t be the first food writer to note that McDonald’s makes terrific fries. I’ve read interviews with chefs who try to emulate that crispy exterior and moist interior, that perfectly pleasing balance of salty, savory and sweet. These fries are prevalent around the world for a reason: […]

Why I’m Skeptical About the Changing Fine-Structure Constant

Not long ago, a new preprint on the fine structure constant got a bunch of press, nicely summed up by the Knight Science Journalism Tracker last week. I meant to say something about this last week, but what with it being the first week of classes and all, I didn’t find the time. I still […]