Swans on Tea

Ropes, Fences, and Polarization

Matt tackles some of the big misconceptions about light, which stem from how light and polarization are presented.

What’s good about the picture is that it conveys the idea of what it means for a polarizer to select a polarization. What’s bad about it is that the “picket fence” metaphor doesn’t really have anything to do with the actual physics of light polarization. Instead it furthers the exact misconception we talked about in my earlier post – that the crests and troughs of the wave have a physical up-and-down extent in space. They do not. The ups and downs represent the strength and direction of the electric field at that point, that’s all.

I remember a professor bringing this up in college. It’s easy for me to understand why the wrong picture is accepted — it seems plausible, and there’s not much reason to question it at the level it’s presented.

Anti-Terrorist Fantasy Dream Team on the Case

“I believe a fictional threat is best met with decisive fictional force,” explained President Obama. “Jack Bauer and Wolverine are among the very best we have when in comes to combating fantasy foes.” Mr. Bauer said, “We’re quite certain that our prisons are secure. Osama bin Laden and his agents wouldn’t dare attempt a break-out, and would fail miserably if they tried. But I love this country. And should Lex Luthor, Magneto or the Loch Ness Monster attack, we’ll be there to stop them.”
[…]
Republican Newt Gingrich also condemned the president’s actions. “President Obama seems to think that crapping one’s pants is a bad thing somehow,” said the former Speaker of the House, “but crapping one’s pants is what this country was founded on. The Reagan Revolution wouldn’t have happened without fear of evil Soviets and welfare queens. And say what you will about President Bush, he kept this country crapping its pants for seven long years after 9/11.”

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I went out hiking Saturday, taking advantage of the awesome weather that just showed up. Did some geocaching, but also brought my new camera out to Huntley Meadows Park, a wetland wildlife sanctuary about 40 minutes to the south of me. We had a downpour on Friday (after rain off and on all week), so I knew it would be muddy off the main (paved) trail, but mid 70s with relatively low humidity is just too good to pass up.

About an hour into my hike, I was passing through a meadow area on a soggy path, and I kept hearing a bird chirp right behind me, but there was no tree nearby. I finally spotted it — he (it could have been a she) was dive-bombing me! Either he felt I was intruding or he really didn’t like my Asilomar Beach hat, but either way he was aiming for the head and pulling up at the last second, despite me not having a “strafe me” sign on my back.

I was a little startled, but since I wasn’t hiking with Tippi Hedren I didn’t think I was in too much danger. I got the last pass on film, after this I guess I was far enough away from the nest (there were several birdhouses near the trail). The video camera was still set for 420 fps, so I got it in slo-mo.

Panorama of the nighttime sky over Death Valley. You can see the Milky Way as the arc in the center.

As if It Needed to, Virginia Bans Smiles at the DMV

DMV officials say the smile ban is for a good cause. The agency would like to develop a facial recognition system that could compare customers’ photographs over time to prevent fraud and identity theft. “The technology works best when the images are similar,” said DMV spokeswoman Pam Goheen. “To prepare for the possibility of future security enhancements, we’re asking customers to maintain a neutral expression.”

People smile for their driver’s license photos? I have four different photo IDs handy, and I’m not smiling in any of them. The last time I got a photo taken for a passport, the guy operating the camera asked if I wanted it taken again, before he printed it out. My face was centered and my eyes were open, so my response was, “It’s a passport photo” (i.e. not a portrait). He replied that he had a lot of customers ask for a re-shoot because they felt the photo wasn’t very flattering. At which point I would say: I refer my honourable friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago (British Parliament. C-Span. Catch the fever.)

The fraud mentioned above is duplicate licenses — they match your photo with those already in the system. And your name and address, I presume, if they are attempting to eliminate identity theft.

fact unchecked is billed as A daily dose of misinformation, fact unchecked is the after dinner breath-mint to the information saturation buffet. Any similarity to actual truth is coincidental, unintentional, and gravely unfortunate.

With amazing tidbits like

The song “Louie Louie” is an adaptation of a lesser-known Robert Frost poem “And There Went Louis.”

and

Residents of Quito, Ecuador are five times as likely to experience vertigo than the average South American citizen.

Frivolous Theorem of Arithmetic

Very frivolous. Very true.

RunPee.com

A website that tells you when during a movie you can dash to the bathroom without missing anything critical.

If only conferences had this service, for that balance between proper caffeination and the full bladder.

Crappy balloon art.

Much, much simpler than “your lower intestine”

Too late.

I may just have to buy a BB gun and shoot my eye out some Jell-o

25 And Over

Instructions upon reaching the age of 25.

Grow up.

And when I instruct you to grow up, I do not mean that you must read up on mortgage rates, put aside candy necklaces, or desist from substituting the word “poo” for crucial syllables of movie titles. Silliness is not only still permitted but actively encouraged. You must, however, stop viewing carelessness, tardiness, helplessness, or any other quality better suited to a child as either charming or somehow beyond your control. A certain grace period for the development of basic consideration and self-sufficiency is assumed, but once you have turned 25, the grace period is over, and starring in a film in your head in which you walk the earth alone is no longer considered a valid lifestyle choice, but rather grounds for exclusion from social occasions.

20 items.

4. Develop a physical awareness of your surroundings. As children, we live in our own heads, bonking into things, gnawing on twigs, emitting random squawks because we don’t know how to talk yet. Then, we enter nursery school. You, having graduated college or reached a similar age to that of the college graduate, need to learn to sense others and get out of their way. Walk single file. Don’t blather loudly in public spaces. Give up your seat to those with disabilities or who are struggling with small children. Take your headphones off while interacting with clerks and passersby. Do not walk along and then stop suddenly. It is not just you on the street; account for that fact.

I developed some of these earlier than 25, thanks to being in the navy (they frown on being late, for instance, though they’re not too keen on having you walk in heels). OTOH, being in grad school, and the corresponding lack of money, delayed a few others.

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Towards a grand unification of cutlery

It’s got a Venn diagram, so it must be science-y.

Also, there’s the natural bar graph and spaghettieis