Thanks to physics blogging major domo Sean Carroll, I’ll be chatting tomorrow at Caltech in a presentation prompted by my recent book (I’ve mentioned it once or twice), Newton and the Counterfeiter. (Amazon, Powells, Barnes and Noble,Indiebound and across the pond at Amazon.co.uk, Waterstones, Blackwells, Borders,John Smith & Son) I’ll be speaking about what Isaac Newton’s [...]
Archive for October 2009
For a Good Time in Pasadena: Newton and the Counterfeiter Edition…
October 29, 2009Further Must Watch Video: No on 1 dept.
October 27, 2009Getting my orders as usual from GOS, specifically Bill in Portland Maine, I follow BiPM’s link to this video: I don’t think I need for this blog’s readership to talk about the biology of sex and sexuality. I don’t think I need talk about the dangers of simple minded appeals to what I think of [...]
Is Fox News, News? No…A proof.
October 26, 2009…well, not formally so, but I think what follows could well fall into the bounds of an argument constructed to the requirements of informal discourse — and what could be more devoid of formality than this here blog? The proposition, that Fox News is not a real news organization has been put forth, forcefully, by [...]
Brain Candy Whilst More Serious Posts Gestate: Really, Really Bad Parking Day`
October 26, 2009Via Jonathan Turley, this is yet another reason to sneer at SUV drivers. Truly, kids, don’t try this at home:
In Defense of Reading: Jim Lefferts Guest Posting On Books That Will Reward Your Gaze
October 25, 2009Jim Leffert, a fellow member of perhaps the most broad-spectrum Jewish congregation in existence, Harvard Hillel’s Worship and Study Minyan, reads more than almost anyone I can think of, and writes about his voracious and small “c” catholic habit for the benefit of that congregation and on GoodReads. His latest is below. Winter’s coming…stock up [...]
Live Blogging President Obama’s Energy Address At MIT
October 23, 2009Star studded crowd. Gov. Patrick, Sen. Kerry, and local congressman Mike Capuano are here. 12:45: Obama takes the podium. Wild applause. This is Obama country. First words: Thank you MIT! In joke: ”I’ll be here a while. I understand a bunch of engineering students have put my motorcade on top of Building Ten. Reference image: [...]
I know it’s a serious subject, but…
October 22, 2009This line cracks me up for all the wrong reasons: “Music should never be used as torture,” said [Roseanne] Cash. “It’s beyond the pale. It’s hard to even think about.” Now I like Roseanne Cash’s music, and her dad is a god to me… …but really, if the music business does not wish to get [...]
My Workplace Is Cooler Than Yours: Fun With Light And Bullets Edition
October 22, 2009So, a couple of days ago I post some distressingly entrancing video of bullets punching holes in various things. That attracted the attention of the most excellent Jim Bales, Assistant Director of MIT’s Edgerton Center, which is one of the real jewels of the undergraduate experience here, and the heir and monument to one of [...]
Not My Usual Patch…but this line brought back such fond memories
October 21, 20092nd Update: I realize I wasn’t being entirely clear. What’s striking about Siskind’s nonsense is not simply its content, wild enough, but that she wrote this not in the heat of the election and/or its immediate aftermath, but this month, after the spectacular melt down of whatever remained of temporary-Governor Palin’s plausibility. That’s what made [...]
Now That’s a Class I Might Just Not Want To Teach…
October 20, 2009My post of what Lovable Liberal called “bullet porn” has attracted some curious readers to this blog. One of them emailed me today, with a line I truly never expected to read within the academic cocoon. It read: “I’m not ready to trust my TA with a rifle.” Now that’s a what I call a [...]
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