Swans on Tea

Sleep Talkin’ Man
The “definitely not G-rated” sleep talking ramblings of a guy named Adam, as recorded by his wife.
Jan 19 2010
“My badger’s gonna unleash hell on your ass. Badgertastic!”
“No, not the cats. Don’t trust them. Their eyes. Their eyes. They know too much.”
“Just look at yourself. Yeah, now look at me. You don’t stand a [...]

What Is Time? One Physicist Hunts for the Ultimate Theory
Sean Carroll is interviewed by Wired, on the subject of the arrow of time. He should write a book or something.
[W]hy was the entropy ever low to begin with? Why were the papers neatly stacked in the universe? Basically, our observable universe begins around 13.7 [...]

My Solar System simulation

DNA’s Dirty Little Secret
In Puckett’s case, where there were only five and a half markers available, the San Francisco crime lab put the figure at one in 1.1 million—still remote enough to erase any reasonable doubt of his guilt. The problem is that, according to most scientists, this statistic is only relevant when DNA material [...]

Why yes. Yes it is. Refracted, not stirred. Flickr photo

Things I Won’t Work With: Dioxygen Difluoride
aka FOOF
Sulfur compounds defeated him, because the thermodynamics were just too titanic. Hydrogen sulfide, for example, reacts with four molecules of FOOF to give sulfur hexafluoride, 2 molecules of HF and four oxygens. . .and 433 kcal, which is the kind of every-man-for-himself exotherm that you want to avoid [...]

Global warming advocates ignore the boulders
He’s certainly not a scientist, nor, seemingly, is he scientifically literate.
In his latest steaming pile of op-ed on global warming, Mr. Will attempts to call into question the “settled science” of global warming by discussing virtually no science at all. Seriously — a bunch of politicians not being able [...]

The Frame: Space shuttle Endeavour’s mission to the space station

Don’t confuse them with facts
At this point, Judi forwarded me their correspondence, along with a despairing note. She is probably somewhere drinking right now.
You see, like me, she can remember a time when facts settled arguments. This is back before everything became a partisan shouting match, back before it was permissible to ignore or deride [...]

Paying Zero for Public Services
[T]he idea was first conceived by an Indian physics professor at the University of Maryland, who, in his travels around India, realized how widespread bribery was and wanted to do something about it. He came up with the idea of printing zero-denomination notes and handing them out to officials whenever he [...]

I migrated to the newer Microsoft Office Suite last fall, and it not only did not go particularly well (many things that should have been imported from the old version did not migrate), it’s still haunting me.
I discovered that a monthly task reminder had not “fired” — too late to help me, of course. [...]

Caleb Charland photos
Science-y effects and interesting takes on science demonstrations.