Social media is frustrating, but not for the reasons you are probably thinking. It’s frustrating because it’s disconnected. What happens on Facebook doesn’t seamlessly make it to Twitter; conversations on Twitter don’t seamlessly appear as conversations on Facebook. Twitter friends cannot talk to Facebook friends when discussing the same topic. […]
A collection of posts on the results from CIPANP 2012, written by Aidan Randle-Conde for the LHC Blogs. Quantum Diaries Now that we’re in the conference season we’re treated to the latest results from the LHC and Tevatron. For now we focus on squeezing as much as we can from […]
A very thorough look at spending under Obama, produced by the folks at FactCheck.org: FactCheck.org : Obama’s Spending: ‘Inferno’ or Not? on Factcheck Is President Obama’s spending an “inferno,” as Mitt Romney claims, or a binge that “never happened” as an analysis touted by the White House concluded? We judge […]
For those of you who don’t follow Symmetry Magazine, here is a reminder of this great resource forkeeping up with the frontiers of accelerator, particle, and astrophysics. Check it out and sign up to get it. ♲ Symmetry magazine The June edition of symmetry is now online! This month’s issue […]
Off to run errands and take a family member to get vaccinated against shingles. Learn more about this new vaccine: Few Takers for the Shingles Vaccine on Nytimes The good news about the shingles vaccine, recommended for all adults age 60 or older with normal immune systems, is that it […]
A number of my students in CFB/PHY 3333 [1] decided to write research papers about the hCG Diet. I was particularly interested in their papers because an acquaintance of mine told me last year that they had decided to try the diet. At the time, I did not know what […]
This was a good week for prime examples of propaganda and pseudoscience. Let’s get started. 49 Cherry-Picked Questionable Authorities Can’t Be Wrong There was some recent buzz about “49 authorities” who sent a letter [1] to NASA’s chief and asked the agency to stop promoting the idea of human-induced climate […]
While driving through the University Park neighborhood the other day, I saw the new Romney campaign sign on a lawn (see left). Seeing the sign for the first time made me realize that an old pet peeve of mine – lack of punctuation in signs – was still peeving me. […]
I’ve been sick all week. The moment I arrived in Michigan for the MCTP Second SPring Symposium on the Higgs Boson, I started getting a scratchy throat and running a fever. By the time I made it to my hotel and made the round trip the the nearby CVS for […]
American Airlines is planning to run an anti-vaccination message from the Australian Vaccination Network, AVN. AVN is a mis-leadingly named organization that promotes the discredited link between vaccines and autism, among other anti-scientific nonsense. They claim there is scientific debate about the dangers of vaccines (there is no such debate) […]
I doubt that this product contains no genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Humans have been breeding plants according to their useful functions – cold-weather resistance, nutrition, disease-resistance – for thousands of years. It was only when Gregor Mendel illuminated the laws of genetics that we learned how to control this in […]
The University of Michigan’s Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratory contains a “Physical Model Basin” for testing various ship designs. It can hold 750,000 gallons of water and its testing systems can supporting motion up to 22 ft/s.