Links for 2010-10-31

Views: No Excuses, Mr. President – Inside Higher Ed “Most parents and taxpayers consistently share the beliefs of most teachers about what needs to be done to improve our schools. An August Gallup/Phi Delta Kappa survey showed respondents agreeing with teachers that the largest problem with schools is a shortfall in funding, that the major […]

Short Story Club: “My Father’s Singularity” by Brenda Cooper

This week’s Short Story Club entry is “My Father’s Singularity” by Brenda Cooper. Who I keep having to remind myself is not the Brenda-with-a-surname-starting-with-C that I remember posting to rec.arts.sf.written back in the day (that was Brenda Clough). This is set in the not-too-distant future in the Pacific Northwest, and is the first-person tale of […]

Links for 2010-10-30

The Forever Blog « Easily Distracted “There’s been talk that blogs are over and Twitter and Facebook are king. I meant to say something about this issue when the end of Bitch Ph.D was announced, since that was an important blog for me and many other people. I think it’s only half-right to say that […]

Award-Worthy Campaign Ad

The New York Times has a video highlighting particularly clever campaign commercials in the New York area, which includes this spot from my uncle John Orzel’s state senate campaign: I’m not aware of any polling regarding the race, so I have no idea how things will turn out next Tuesday. The word from my parents […]

Links for 2010-10-29

Polson High School students use primitive bows to study physics “It’s one thing to put Montana’s Indian Education for All Act to work in a social studies classroom. Physics? That would seem to be a whole ‘nother matter. And it is. But certainly not, as Polson High School teacher Jon Petersen is proving, impossible. Petersen’s […]

Thursday Toddler Blogging 102810

Inspired by the anti-flash-photography article in the morning’s links dump, this week’s Toddler Blogging offers you a choice of two different pictures. Here’s one with the flash: And one without: (Appa’s been feeling self-conscious about SteelyKid’s growth lately, and asked for a little forced perspective in the second shot. SteelyKid was too busy reading Dr. […]

How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog in the Times

The Times Higher Education magazine in the UK, that is. They ran a review of my book a couple of weeks ago, which I’ve only just noticed: The approach is quite entertaining. The tone of the book is chatty and contains some truly awful puns involving dogs, which, if you can stand them, make it […]

The Calculus Diaries by Jennifer Ouellette

I finished Jennifer Ouellette’s new book a few weeks ago, shortly after my trip to Alabama, but it’s taken me a long time to get around to reviewing it due to a combination of too much work and being a Bad Person. There’s finally a tiny break in the storm of work, though, so here’s […]

Links for 2010-10-28

Take better photos of friends and family: Turn off your flash. – By Steven I. Weiss – Slate Magazine “The flash didn’t go off” has been shorthand for photographic failure for more than 100 years, but the conventional wisdom on lighting is now being challenged by advances in camera technology. The quickest, simplest, cheapest way […]