I just received the American Physical Society's monthly newsletter, APS News. In the "Letters" section, they published a letter entitled "Nothing Wrong with Fewer Women Physicists" by someone names Jeffery Winkler from Hanford, CA. Winkler was evidently "shocked" by a February article about how encouraging women to pursue careers in physics is a ( Read more... )

Every time I start teaching quantum mechanics in intro physics, I wind up feeling a little disappointed. To most students it's just another set of equations to memorize; they don't understand how much of a radical departure it is from everything we knew before. I suppose that's inevitable to some degree, since modern kids are raised on a diet of ( Read more... )

Jonathan Coulton has decided to respond to Glee's plagiarism of his "Baby Got Back" parody by raising money for charity. If you can, contribute a buck by buying this (fun!) song. It's already outselling the Glee version, and the better it does the stronger our message that artists deserve credit for their work. Here's JoCo's post with purchase ( Read more... )

Glee-fan friends: I hear that last night's episode featured a fun cover of "Baby Got Back". I hope you liked it! It's a great parody arrangement written by Jonathan Coulton, one of my favorite singers today. You should check out his music; some suggestions to get you started are here: Read more... )

It is cold in Alma today. When I walked in this morning, the temperature was right around 0 degrees Fahrenheit, but the wind chill was something like -8F (though the wind chill forecast had been for -17F; maybe we lucked out ( Read more... )

I saw The Hobbit a few days ago, and I enjoyed it. I started to write up some brief comments on the movie to post here, but they got a bit out of hand, so I've posted them on my Tolkien website instead. For those who are interested, have a look at my full review; comments are welcome!

On Monday afternoon, I got the official word from the college's Provost that I've been recommended for tenure and promotion to Associate Professor. That's fantastic news: I don't need to suddenly hunt for a new career, and I can keep doing a job I love. (And then I came home, posted a cryptic comment on Facebook, and graded final exams and papers ( Read more... )

[Steuard is finally catching up on old stuff he's been meaning to post here ( Read more... )

I'm up for tenure this year, and as part of that process I'm required to submit a portfolio that "makes the case" that I've fulfilled the college's requirements for tenure and promotion. That's been hanging over my head for months, but at long last it's finally finished! I turned it in on Tuesday, which means that my part of the process is ( Read more... )

I was thinking about color this morning (yes, I do these things), and I was struck by a disturbing thought: when did I last see violet? Not purple, which I see all the time, but actual violet. [I'm not the first person to wonder this: here's a very thorough discussionPurple, as you no doubt recall, is a compound color: it's what we perceive when we ( Read more... )