On the vagaries of random playlists on the iPod:
The transition from Bobby Darin’s “Mack the Knife” to RHCP’s “Funky Monks” at oh-dark-thirty in the morning, before caffeine and not really fully awake, is a little harsh.
I’m just sayin’
Daily Archives: May 30, 2008
"Land, Land. . . Ah, Land: see Snatch."
Oh, boy, was he strict. Harvey Korman, 1927-2008
I remember watching him on the Carol Burnett Show, trying not to laugh at something Tim Conway had done or said. That was as funny as the rest of the stuff.
Font Recognition Software
To help NCIS catch those evil fonts caught on video, only to find that their prints aren’t in AFIS.
via Daring Fireball
Don't Sleep Through This
Giving a Good Talk over at Life as a Physicist.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) there is a lot more to giving a good talk than just a good deck of slides. I think the number one thing for me is “tell a story.”
Some good tips to check out. A couple to add:
Don’t make your graphs too complicated and the admonition of death-before-yellow-on-white applies here as well. Also remember that (red/green) color blindness is not all that uncommon, so — especially if you’ve used red and/or green — point out which line you’re discussing, rather than just saying “the red line represents X”
I’ve heard a common critique that the presentation slides should be cartoonish, but I rarely find them funny, so I use a different description — simplify. The text should be the highlights, not a transcript. If you’ve followed the advice about fonts (I say minimum size ~18), you won’t be able to fit everything you say on the slides, anyway. You shouldn’t be speeding along any faster than about one slide per minute. And remember to breathe.
The Physics of a Half-Gaynor
Physics Floundering saved by Disco Parody
And just like that when I had given up all hope,
I said nope, there’s just one way to find that slope.
And so now I, I will derive.
Find the derivative of x position with respect to time.
It’s as easy as can be, just have to take dx/dt.
I will derive, I will derive. Hey, hey!