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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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.
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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. [...]

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