This may seem like an odd diversion, but John asked about it just this morning so I thought I’d share with the rest of the class. Electrons, in their secret life as wibbly-wobbly quantum particle-wavey things, have a property called spin. To quote a handy article I just ran across: One of the things that [...]
Posted by Chris in Science on December 28th, 2010 | Comments Off
Looking at my to-do list today, I noticed for the millionth time how two key attributes of a task seem to be either redundant or in conflict: its due date and its priority. It always seemed to me that you should only need to assign one or the other. If you have a deadline, then [...]
Posted by Chris in Business, Science, Technology on November 30th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The Xerces Society has a new website. Yay, bugs! I mean, seriously, just because they lack endoskeletons and have more appendages than you do is no reason to get all squeamish. Here, we’ll start you off slowly with some really, really important bugs: native honeybees and bumble bees (one of my favorites). And they’ve got [...]
Posted by Deb in Agriculture, Animals, Environment, Science, That which is awesome, Uncategorized on January 5th, 2009 | Comments Off
or, What Democrats Don’t Understand About Morality This is really fascinating stuff, folks. Read this. Then watch this: And to quote from Jonathan Haidt’s article: Here’s my alternative definition: morality is any system of interlocking values, practices, institutions, and psychological mechanisms that work together to suppress or regulate selfishness and make social life possible. It [...]
Posted by Deb in Academia, Education, Government, Oddly Enough, Politics, Science on October 3rd, 2008 | Comments Off
So wait, did anyone else know that dolphins make ring vortices of air and play with them like toys? If so, why didn’t you tell me? This video is the most amazing thing I saw all day. Makes me happy just thinking of it.
Posted by Chris in Art, Science on September 29th, 2008 | Comments Off