John Cleese Responds

Too much fun not to share:



Oops. Misspelled CleEse. Fixed.

Crisis in Dairyland

Some commentary on our local politics from the Daily Show.

Crisis in Dairyland - Recall Edition

Jiggle The Handle

Given the recent space toilet troubles, I am reminded of similar troubles aboard the space shuttle Challenger nearly 30 years ago (November, 1981), and comedian Robin Williams commentary on the solution to the problem. The relevant part starts at 2:35.



Thirty year ago, this put me in stitches. It's still a good one.

Skeptics on TV

Michael Shermer on The Colbert Report

The Awakening

Oh the horror!

from The Daily Show.

What Would Woody Do?

What Would Woody Do?


Simply amazing political events in Wisconsin this week (a few samples: 1, 2, 3).

I have been recalling the words of a wise man - a business professor and amazingly good teacher - and I recall them as:

Unions are bad, but if your company has a union, they probably deserve it.

It's not too hard to see how unions might cause inefficiency, and if business and workers all played fair with each other, everyone would be better off. It's not too hard to see the track record of businesses, and see that unions are sometimes the only recourse workers have to gain fair treatment - or even to punish businesses for bad behavior.

I don't have any easy answers, but I'm pretty sure that Governor Walker's move to take away collective bargaining rights for State workers is only asking for worse trouble. The union might be bad, but you deserve it. Deal with it. Negotiate with it. Be fair, and treat it with respect. Don't try to legislate it away, or it might be replaced by something even worse.

And now for our next musical number!

And now for our next musical number!

 [Found on Pharyngula]

edit - forgot a title! Silly me.
edit = forgot the video! Doh!!

Goldarce is Pure Gold

Good Stuff.

280,951 Post-It Notes

280,951 Post-It Notes, and a lot of spare time.


EepyBird's Sticky Note experiment from Eepybird on Vimeo.

Or click here to view it full screen (worthwhile).

Biostatistics vs. Lab Research

I had this same conversation just this morning!



Somehow I doubt the full humor of the situation will be apparent to most people, but this conversation occurs at my job on an occasional basis. A sample size of N=3 is a barest minimum for even a t-test, and on that basis alone probably isn't enough, but I'm willing to set that aside for the bigger issue, because it depends on the question.

It is a matter of the question asked. Not all experiments are the same, nor are all samples the same. In my conversation this morning, there was a basic misunderstanding of the sample unit. There was a sample size of N=3 in one group (treatment), and another group of 3 serving as a control. The problem (well one of the problems) was that the controls were not used as an independent group, but rather as a way to normalize each of the first 3. Instead of having two groups of 3 each, that we really had was a single group of 3 pairs of subjects (matched pairs). This lead to a few hours of trying to untangle What had been done versus what needed to be done. Frustrating, but then education is an important part of my job too.

The Airspeed of an Unladen Swallow in Flight

"WHAT ... is the airspeed of a laden swallow in flight?"

One of the classic questions of science popular culture Monty Python fans, but before weighing down a 20 gram bird with the fruit of a Cocos nucifera, someone really ought to look into how they fly normally.

And of course, someone has.

"In order to maintain airspeed velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wings forty-three times every second, right?"

Actually, wrong. By comparing the European Swallow with bird species of similar body mass, we can estimate that the swallow beats its wings 18 times a second with an amplitude of 18 cm:

Species	Body mass	Frequency	Amplitude
Zebra Finch	13 g	27 Hz	11 cm
European Swallow	20 g	≈ 18 Hz?	≈ 18 cm?
Downy Woodpecker	27 g	14 Hz	29 cm
Budgerigar	34 g	14 Hz	15 cm

Check out the full article at Style.org.


Or ... you could go with the original research!



Now that I think about it, I must have posted this once before. But what the heck, it's worth repeating. :-)

Now This is Progress!

Robot fetches beer. We should all have one of these.


[Hat-Tip-2 Terrence Tao (via Google Buzz)]

Solenoid Jam Session

The lights are dimming, everyone take your seats for the show.



Or view here

[Found on Pharyngula]

You Can't Trust Science!

I get it - I get the whole Atheism versus Religion thing. In matters related to science, the atheists generally have it right, and it's not too hard to find someone who is: A) a kook, and B) religious, that is sadly wrong on a given scientific matter. I'm cool with that.

There one thing that bugs me though; this video offers a good example of a bad argument. It is an error to say that because religion has little to offer in terms of scientific thought and progress, it has nothing to offer at all. Religion has a lot to offer*, just not in the realm of science and technology. There are valid criticisms of religion, but criticizing religion for not being scientific is just silly.

Likewise, atheism may be entirely agreeable to scientific thought, but it is the scientific thought and not the atheism that creates progress and technology. Giving atheism credit for science and technology is equally silly.

All I'm saying is that science and religion have to be appreciated on their own merits. And if you just want to see the boobs, they appear at 3:20 into the video. ;-)

* I won't go into what religion offers and/or what it has accomplished, because that is a matter of individual beliefs, and your mileage may vary. I won't get into that argument.

[Hat Tip to One Good Move]

Apollo 11 Launch in Slow Motion

Found on Weird Science - Eight minutes to watch 30 seconds of rocket launch. Enjoy your front-row seat, and be glad you weren't actually ON the front row ...


Apollo 11 Saturn V Launch (HD) Camera E-8 from Mark Gray on Vimeo.

First Video Directed by an Octopus

The first video directed by an octopus, and it's a chase scene!



I wonder how long before this is up on Pharyngula?

[Tip-O-Hat 2 IO9]

Arthur Benjamin and Mathemagic!

Celebrity for the math-geek, and some good advice for students (quoting from memory):

Arthur Benjamin: "The number of math courses you take in college is the single best predictor of your future income."

Steven Colbert has an answer for that too, but he always has an answer*.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Arthur Benjamin
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy

* Always, except maybe for that time when Jane Fonda was on the show. ;-)

crab cannon nonnac barc crab cannon nonnac barc

Bach's Crab Cannon: forwards, backwards, looped, and twisted.



[Hat Tip 2 Newton Excel Bach]

Moguls on the Move

Help! I'm a Rocky Mountain skier trapped in the flat-lands!

At Improbable Research I found this story describing how moguls - those bumpy things on a ski slope, gradually work their way uphill. That should make sense to experienced skiers, though now there is an article at Physics Today that makes it more than just anecdotal belief. The video below illustrates the movement over the course of the ski season:



The ski slope is a run call Riflesight Notch at Mary Jane ski area, Winter Park, Colorado. It looked familiar even before I read the text describing the video. I have been there many times, skiing the moguls until every muscle ached and loving every minute of it, then dinner at Katie's Beanery in Granby on the way home.

Paradise.

Symphony of Science

Very nice!


Check out The Symphony of Science for more.

[Tip-o-the-Hat to RabidApe]