July 2011
61 posts
4 tags
Silly mass-to-energy conversions
If you converted all the mass in a penny directly to energy you could power almost 9,000 US homes for a year.
If you converted all the mass from a speck of dust to energy it would be about the same amount of energy you extract metabolically from half a gram of sugar.
Wolfram Alpha
6 tags
6 tags
4 tags
6 tags
Israel Erupts in Protest, Tens of Thousands Chant... →
This is unexpected…for me at least.
4 tags
4 tags
3 tags
“Let’s try a thought experiment. Let’s say you had a candidate who was skeptical...”
– Barry Lynn (via azspot)
Don’t tell Fox News…
6 tags
4 tags
holy-dread asked: Why did you begin studying Physics?
6 tags
Watchskepttv:
“Bodies” Make Up Fake Coral Reef
Hundreds of life-size human sculptures were recently installed as part of a new underwater sculpture garden off Cancún, Mexico.
via tooyoungforthelivingdead:
A new artificial coral reef made of more than 400 eerie-looking human figures has been made to replace the natural coral reef that is decaying due to human intervention.
Fish and coral have...
10 tags
Quantum Mechanics vs. Atheism
conspiracyfact:
Can Science prove that there is a God?
Quantum mechanics is a support not a denial of the existence of God. Many notions of science and reality have to be rethought and redirected, but no biblical perspective is violated or denied. Let us look at some reasons why this is true:
1) Complete determinism and materialism is impossible. It is obvious that changes on an atomic...
6 tags
2 tags
6 tags
Understanding Republican fiscal policy
For a while I have been really confused.
Speaker Boehner says that the budget legislation being discussed during dept ceiling talks will help create jobs by cutting spending and decreasing taxes. Now all the data I have seen has shown that unemployment is negatively correlated with state spending. Also most of the tax cuts will affect the top tax bracket and the corporate income tax. I am...
7 tags
4 tags
5 tags
Obama's Legacy →
jonathan-cunningham:
Therein lies one of the most enduring attributes of Obama’s legacy: in many crucial areas, he has done more to subvert and weaken the left’s political agenda than a GOP president could have dreamed of achieving. So potent, so overarching, are tribal loyalties in American politics that partisans will support, or at least tolerate, any and all policies their party’s leader...
4 tags
4 tags
“The rotation group is a Lie group. The crucial property here is that every...”
– Quarks and Leptons: An Introductory Course in Modern Particle Physics
I know what a Lie group is.
5 tags
“Could you imagine what the Tea Party would be saying right now if there was a...”
– Matt Taibbi, “Corporate Tax Holiday in Debt Ceiling Deal: Where’s the Uproar?”
Yeah, I just can’t anymore…
(via cognitivedissonance)
4 tags
“…the “paradox” is only a conflict between reality and your feeling of what...”
– Richard Feynman, The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1964) Volume III, p. 18-9
Of course this superb physics book, is one of the first things you can see when stop by the amazon shop of “Science is Beauty”.
(via scienceisbeauty)
I am in complete agreement here.
5 tags
“America is the most religious Western democracy in the world, with the...”
– HERB SILVERMAN, Founder and President of the Secular Coalition for America, and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the College of Charleston. (via liberal-life)
4 tags
2 tags
Killing of infants on the rise in Pakistan
liberal-life:
At a morgue in Pakistan’s largest city, five linen pouches — each the size of a loaf of bread — line the shelf of a walk-in freezer.
Wrapped inside each small sack is the corpse of an infant.
The babies are victims of what one relief agency calls Pakistan’s worst unfolding tragedy: the killing and dumping of newborns.
“Sometimes they hang them, and sometimes they kill by the...
6 tags
6 tags
“HEY, WAIT A MINUTE!!! Citibank and the Pentagon were the hackees — the objects...”
– The Most Incredible Thing Fox News Has Ever Done (via azspot)
I have no words…
5 tags
9 tags
The Liberal Life: Governors Resorting to Prayer →
liberal-life:
So we have Texas Governor Rick Perry proclaiming August 6 as a “Day of Prayer and Fasting” for America to seek God’s guidance.
Given the trials that beset our nation and world, from the global economic downturn to natural disasters, the lingering danger of terrorism and continued debasement…
5 tags
“Neuroscience is beginning to touch on questions that were once only in the...”
– David Eagleman, “The Brain on Trial”
This is a fascinating read that challenges our understanding of free will and personal accountability in the context of law. As science unearths more evidence of biological determinism of human behavior, the lines between innocence and guilt are being blurred....
6 tags
People say quantum mechanics is...
…but I think, at least for me personally, that classical electrodynamics/electrostatics is just as bad. Sure quantum has some axioms and results that at first make you say, “Wait, are you serious?” But after a while I think I’ve come to be more comfortable with how quantum problems shape up and how answers should look. Sure I wouldn’t have guessed that Hilbert...
5 tags
4 tags
4 tags
What happens when a revolution stalls out? →
In Tahrir, protesters have dug in for the long haul. The middle of the square has been converted into a tent city, complete with winding pathways, food stocking centers, and a hairdresser. Electricity has been routed from street lamps to power fans and recharge cell phones. Wi-Fi Internet connections and satellite TV have been set up. Protesters have organized popular committees to protect the...
5 tags
13 tags
Tea Party Goes After The Manatees.
theinformedvegan:
Since it turned out that Barack Obama was born in the USA, the Tea Party is in need of a new villain. A villain whose very existence is helping turn America into communist Russia. Someone pure evil and anti-American like…the manatees!
Citrus County Florida Tea Party is targeting the gentle manatee and working tirelessly to overturn boating restrictions over manatee habitat...
7 tags
If baking recipes were like physics texts...
You would see a lot of this.
“With flour, sugar, eggs and milk, it is not hard to make a cake.”
End of recipe.
7 tags
The CIA's secret prison in Somalia →
Amidst a horrific drought, and what has been called the world’s worst humanitarian disaster today, Jeremy Scahill of The Nation uncovers a hidden CIA prison in Somalia. Scahill also reports that the CIA trains Somali strike teams to attack suspected terrorist targets and that CIA contacts in Kenya will apprehend US targets in Kenya and then render them to CIA-backed groups in Somalia.
...
8 tags
6 tags
Egyptians once again fill Tahrir square in Cairo →
Disappointed with progress on the issues demanded by the people during the revolution, Egyptians protest in the largest numbers since the revolution began.
4 tags
“One of the most important comments on deceit, I think, was made by Adam Smith....”
– Noam Chomsky (via azspot)
4 tags
5 tags
Somali children die en route to refugee camps →
7 tags
10 tags
3 tags
Good journals for the advanced undergrad/early...
What are some? I sometimes find a good article in Reviews of Modern Physics, but it seems I have to sift through quite a few. Physics Today is nice, but a bit wordy and it doesn’t have that many articles in it. Arxiv is nice because it is open access, but again I have to sift through quite a bit to find anything that I can really digest…
4 tags
4 tags
Philadelphia Saves $2 Million By Not Prosecuting... →
Just over a year ago, the powers that be in Philadelphia effectively decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana by offering offenders the chance to enroll in a three-hour class that would expunge the offense from their records. Not only did this give Philadelphia police more time and energy to focus on more serious crimes, it has also saved the city a pretty sizable Ziploc bag of...
5 tags
Science and "transcendent" experience →
14 tags
In His Own Words: How I Went Undercover at... →
cognitivedissonance:
COMMENTARY: Truth Wins Out activist John Becker took a hidden camera with him to five therapy sessions at a Christian counseling center run by Marcus Bachmann. By John Becker, op-ed contributor
The organization I work for, Truth Wins Out (TWO), fights anti-LGBT religious extremism and the “ex-gay” myth. We’d been receiving questions about the Bachmann clinic and...
