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The Personal Blog of Stephen Sekula
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A clothes dryer heating element, 10 years old and broken

Before I wanted to be a physicist – I mean, really wanted to become a physicist – I learned the joy of tinkering. I am sure it started earlier than when I remember it actually happening (memory is funny that way), the first first recollection I have of fully losing […]

The Joy of Pulling things Apart

The conference, Rencontres de Blois, takes place annually in the Chateau de Blois. This year was the 30th anniversary of the conference and the 31st such edition of the conference. The conference is a synthesis of particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology – a perfect match to the strengths of our […]

Messages from Blois (2019)

Signs of Summer 2019

Signs of Summer 2019

Any person with a minimum sufficient experience in life has been rewarded with failure. A subset of those people, with sufficient practice, will come to recognize failure, not as a friend, but as a teacher. A recent useful (and ultimately harmless) failure in my class became a key teaching moment, […]

Failure as a Teacher’s Aid

Tomorrow, my spring teaching begins. Again, I am teaching “Introductory Mechanics” (PHYS 1303), our 1st-semester introductory physics course. Inspired by the Marvel Studios movies, the theme this semester is “ASSEMBLE!” Enjoy my little fan art below. Many thanks to my undergraduate teaching assistants, and course veterans: Chase, Lauren, and Andrew!

Spring 2019 Introductory Mechanics (PHYS 1303)

Critical Thinking Guide: President Trump’s First National Address

Tonight, President Trump will address the nation during prime time (9pm EST). Major networks will carry the speech. The Democratic leadership will rebut the speech afterward. The speech is expected to focus on the following claims from the President: There is a national security crisis at the southern U.S. border. […]

Critical Thinking Guide: President Trump’s First National Address

I love podcasts. I don’t get to listen to all the ones I like all of the time, but I love knowing that interesting content – from polished news programs to amateur computing tips – are there at my command when I do have time. However, a trend has grown […]

Don’t Let Podcasts Die in Darkness

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Phase one of the home server upgrade, taking its operating system from Ubuntu 14.04 -> 16.04, was a fairly long process. In the wake of that upgrade I was left with a non-working MediaGoblin instance. Today, I took the next step: 16.04 -> 18.04. This went substantially better.

Home Server Upgrade – Phase Two

I’ve been putting it off for over a year: our home server is running an old Ubuntu Linux installation, and needs to be upgraded. Research and teaching and life intervened, and this upgrade fell farther and farther down the list. In the meantime, Ubuntu produced two stable releases… making the […]

Home Server Upgrade – Phase One

We are not quite home, but we are back in Texas! It is less than an hour to home now.

Back in Texas!

We pass by St. Louis during our return trip to Texas. We have 90 minutes of driving left today before we call it quits.

St. Louis

By my own recollection, it was the spring of my second year in college. I was a sophomore who had stumbled in my physics and math classes at Yale. I had tasted what it was to no longer be the best student in your classes, and it was hard to […]

Who does the “A” physics?

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Follow this blog on Mastodon or any other ActivityPub-enabled social media system. This blog’s identity (webfinger) is @steve@steve.cooleysekula.net.

astrophysics a view from the shadows badreligion badscience chickasha climate climate disruption computing evolution fighting pseudoscience israel nobelprize oklahoma photo photos physics policy politics pseudoscience research science teaching Texas State Fair travel

  • (no title)
    September 15, 2025
    Today was a day for blue skies, two long walks, tacos, a nap, reading out in the yard, and cheesecake. Also dinner and music […]
  • (no title)
    September 14, 2025
    Had a lovely sunset walk in Bell Park and enjoyed the "solar system walk" all the way to Neptune at the end of the […]

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