Lady spinning on escalator handrails. Nominally the net force is zero, assuming each rail exerts the same magnitude of force, but there may be some differences depending on what part of her body is in contact, or the escalator speeds. They each exert a torque in the same direction, though, so she spins.
via Kottke
Do grocery stores give us the right mix of nuts?
Does anyone like Brazil nuts? Anyone?
Taking a look at the data from the other direction, we can ask another question. Is there anyone who likes Brazil nuts and doesn’t like any other nut? In other words, how many people might not find any nuts at all that they like if Brazil nuts were removed from the mix?
Commentary on Lego fun snacks
excerpt
You can’t tell me that this isn’t a lawsuit just waiting to happen. I can only assume that their next product is fruit flavored thumbtacks.
via Daring Fireball
I was out sick a few days last week (you may have noticed a fever-induced tinge to my ramblings) and was reassured today (back at work) to find out that others had been ill last week as well. Being sick when all around you are well raises the question of what, exactly, is wrong with you, but if others have it then it’s whatever’s going around and probably nothing serious.
OTOH, I can’t really imagine how reassuring “Oh, it’s just something that’s going around” was circa 1350.
Edgy comic George Carlin dies in L.A. at age 71
Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs, dirty words and the demise of humanity, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday. He was 71.
It had to happen sometime, but . . . Continue reading
[it] is a colloquialism used by U.S. Cinema critics and fans and has a meaning similar to jumping the shark. It is used to denote the point in a movie or movie series at which the characters or plot veer into a ridiculous, out-of-the-ordinary storyline. Films that have “nuked the fridge” are typically deemed to have passed their peak, since they have undergone too many changes to retain their initial appeal, and after this point critical fans often sense a noticeable decline in their quality. It is considered as the movie equivalent of what Jumping the shark means for television.
Somedays teh interwebz iz just too rich of a medium. Thank you, Al Gore. 😉
via Kottke
Or at least make it spin a little. A simple motor: battery, magnet and wire.
Magnetic field sees a changing current and that results in a force, which gives you a motor. Quite similar to the Faraday motor, but then, he was allowed to play with mercury (and he never wore a bike helmet, either)
Update: Give MY creature life. Built one myself this afternoon, and even figured out how to upload it to YouTube. She may not look as pretty as these other motors, but she loves to spin. (First attempt didn’t go so well, but I found lighter wire that was still stiff)
Don’t you see the joker laughs at you?
Over at Physics and Physicists, a followup to an earlier post, to which I had added my two cents.
In an earlier post, I responded to a writer who called professional scientists the “most scientifically illiterate group in the US” and pointed out several fallacies of that statement. The problem here is that the level of expert knowledge that scientists consider themselves to have. We know what it means and how it feels to know something very well. This is why when we read other area of studies, we know we do not have the same level of expertise and would rather be inclined to refer to a true expert in such a field.
Once again I find myself agreeing, and wanting to add a little more than would comfortably fit in the comments.
What is it to be scientifically literate? We really have to define the term before deciding whether scientists are or are not. When stories surface about scientific illiteracy, it seems that they are pretty basic science questions that are being asked, not in-depth inquiries that require an advanced degree to answer. If we’re going to set the bar that high, then virtually everyone is scientifically illiterate, but that means that “literacy” is the wrong word. “Literacy” is being able to read at an nth grade level or college level (argue amongst yourselves, both of you, as to what that means), but it doesn’t require that you be a literature major, capable of dissecting the works of Hemingway in great detail. But there is a continuum of ability above the threshold of “literate” in terms of what you can get out of the material. Being literate means you can read “An Old Man and the Sea” and understand it. If you think you have to be able to discuss the imagery in it to be considered literate, you’re just making it up.
So scientific literacy has to be the ability to understand the basics of science in general, and some of the major tenets of various disciplines. i.e. how is science conducted, and what’s important about physics and stamp collecting biology, chemistry geology, etc. Do you possess some knowledge, and can you apply it?
I think it boils down to how good your bullshit detector is.
Continue reading
Over at Cectic