Swans on Tea

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There seem to be a lot of bureaucratic jobs out there. People shuffling papers around and about, sending them to and fro, ostensibly with a goal in mind of accomplishing some task. Sometimes that task is helping someone else get something done. Somehow, though, there are cases in which the metric by [...]

Just when you think things can’t get any sillier. Boeing Patent Shuts Down AMC-14 Lunar Flyby Salvage Attempt
Primarily this is because SES is currently suing Boeing for an unrelated New Skies matter in the order of $50 million dollars - and Boeing told SES that the patent was only available if SES Americom dropped [...]

Aussie Laser-Pointer Ban in New South Wales.
No mention if there is a power threshold. (see update, below)
Legitimate users, like astronomy enthusiasts, will have to apply for prohibited weapons permits.
That’s right, mate. You’ll need a frikkin’ carry permit for your laser pointer (especially if it’s mounted on the head of an endangered [...]

A Case Study of Gender Bias at the Postdoctoral Level in Physics, and its Resulting Impact on the Academic Career Advancement of Females
via Physics and Physicists

Over at Cosmic Variance, a discussion about getting the message of science out, in the context of the recent EXPELLED! brouhaha.
To the Framers, what’s going on is an essentially political battle; a public-relations contest, pitting pro-science vs. anti-science, where the goal is to sway more people to your side. And there is no doubt [...]

I ran across this blog post on future energy concerns — Less heat, more light: solving the energy crisis, and while much of it seems solid and there are some very good points in it, there are some things that are very, very wrong. And there’s this whole problem with conclusions drawn from invalid [...]

ZapperZ discusses Public Impatience With Science, or the importance of doing basic research now so that people can do applied research later and bring new and useful technology to market in the future.
This ties in what I was talking about in my last entry, (and earlier than that) because while there are the funding organizations [...]

Unlike some pursuits, in science new information sometimes means having to revise your conclusion. Just after snarking about how unscientific congress is, I read that Bill Foster, another physicist, has been elected to fill Dennis Hastert’s seat.
So the raising operator has been applied by the good people of the 14th district in Illinois, at [...]

Why Can’t a Woman Be More Like a Man?
An interesting article on the gender-representation issue in the sciences. Many assume it’s all sexism, but whenever somebody checks to see if that’s really the case, two things seem to happen: they come to the conclusion, “Not so much,” and they are often attacked [...]

An essay on basic research and budgets and making a case for the necessity of funding.
In truth, fundamental research is a necessity, not a luxury. Most of the technological developments made in the past 100 years have been fuelled by fundamental research into science.
It’s mostly about “Big Physics” and there’s a lot that [...]

Nanotechnology isn’t morally acceptable to a lot of people.
My immediate reaction, after playing “what the?” is that this is a reaction from ignorance. I mentioned before that many people get visions of nanobots taking over the world dancing in their heads when you mention the word “nanotechnology” so I suspect this is [...]

Primary season is upon me, and as with the elections last fall, I am being inundated with phone calls. I will take the same strategy on Tuesday as I did in November: if I get a call from or on behalf of a candidate, I won’t vote for them. It’s an open [...]