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Belief vs. Understanding
From a fine dissection of the (religious) right’s view of evolution over at Science And Politics: I do not believe in evolution. It is not something you believe in or not: it is something you understand or not…. Evolutionary biology is sitting on such large mountains of strong evidence collected over the past 150 years…
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There is power in a Union?
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My great-grandfather moved to the US from Russia in the years before the First World War, in part forced out due to his trade union activities. Although working at a University isn’t exactly the equivalent of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, or my great-grandfather’s construction sites in New York City, I was pleased to find out…
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Google maps in the UK
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Google Maps is (are?) up and running in the UK. Here’s where I work, more or less (actually I thought I was in SW7 2AZ, but it can’t seem to find that…). It’s a slick interface, although it will be much cooler when the Satellite maps are available, like they are in the US.
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Outlaws and geeks
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From David Gates’ review of ‘The Outlaw Bible of American Literature’: The Rebel Establishment complete with great quote and weirdly out of place tech reference (extra points if you get it): From Waylon Jennings’s autobiography, … the Platonic country-music anecdote, about Hank Williams: “Faron Young brought Billie Jean, Hank’s last wife, to town for the…
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Followups
Hunter Thompson: Rich Cohen’s Gonzo Nights recounts Thompson’s sad end, subsumed in the persona he created through drinking, drugs — and his words. For Women in Sciences, Slow Progress in Academia: Women applying for a postdoctoral fellowship had to be 2.5 times as productive to receive the same competence score as the average male applicant….…
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Downtime warning
Yet again, the servers will be off this weekend: from about 6pm BST Friday 15 April through 8am Monday 18 April. Get some fresh air.
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Einstein in the Midlands
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Just back from a few days at the University of Warwick (which is actually in Coventry, a city with a such a bad rep that they didn’t want to name the University after it), at the IOP‘s Physics 2005: a Century After Einstein (a bit more information on what I discussed here). An unexpected highlight…
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Comin’ back from Cali
First, sorry if you tried to access the blog the last couple of days: the power was down in the building over the weekend for some pretty serious periodic maintenance. Some day soon I plan to bite the bullet and transfer over to an independent host and my own domain. A few highlights, culinary and…
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Science (and food) the world over
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I’m in the midst of four weeks which I’ll have spent mostly on the road, and as a working trip, it’s a good opportunity to discuss some of the science I’m doing, for a change. I spent last week at Lancaster University, at Origins 2005: The Origin of the Primordial Density Perturbation. Despite its location…
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The Way We Live Now
In 1987, at the height of the Reagan era, LA’s greatest punk (?) band, X, released what even then we knew would be their swan song, See How We Are. X were never ashamed of the poetry in their rock’n’roll, and in the title track they use it to remind us that the political is…