Category Archives: Society

Quantitative journalism with open data

This is the best news article I’ve seen in a while: It’s the political cure-all for high gas prices: Drill here, drill now. But more U.S. drilling has not changed how deeply the gas pump drills into your wallet, math … Continue reading

Posted in Open Science, Science By Press Release, Society, Statistics | 8 Comments

A Federal Mandate for Open Science

Witness the birth of the Federal Research Public Access Act: “The Federal Research Public Access Act will encourage broader collaboration among scholars in the scientific community by permitting widespread dissemination of research findings.  Promoting greater collaboration will inevitably lead to … Continue reading

Posted in Open Science, Politics, Science 2.0, Scientific Publishing, Society | 2 Comments

strike!

In a move that will undoubtedly bring the US Senate to its knees, the Quantum Pontiff is going dark from 8am to 8pm EST on Jan 18 to protest SOPA, PIPA, the Research Works Act and other proposed acts of … Continue reading

Posted in Computers, General, Open Science, Scientific Publishing, Society | Comments Off

Correcting Untruths

We here at the Quantum Pontiff value truth in all its forms: theorems, lemmas, statistical inference, and hard experimental data, to name just a few. So I feel compelled to highlight the following. In his column on the New York … Continue reading

Posted in Extralusionary Intelligence, Society | 8 Comments

Geocentrism Revival

Seriously? A few conservative Roman Catholics are pointing to a dozen Bible verses and the church’s original teachings as proof that Earth is the center of the universe, the view that was at the heart of the church’s clash with Galileo … Continue reading

Posted in Astronomy, Off The Deep End, Physics Bastardizations, Religion | 17 Comments

Radio Free Albemuth, the Film

Fans of Philip K. Dick delight!  “Radio Free Albemuth”, the film, premiered on October 7th at the Gotham Screen International Film Festival.  For those who don’t know, Radio Free Albemuth (RFA) is one of Dick’s last novels, and was basically … Continue reading

Posted in Movies, Read You Tweed, Religion | 1 Comment

Missed This: New John Baez Blog

Hmm, I’m totally out of it as I missed that John Baez, who “blogged” before blogging was the incredibly hip thing to do (which lasted for exactly 2 seconds in 2006?) has a new blog, a new two year visiting … Continue reading

Posted in Physics, Science, Society | 4 Comments

CERN Physicist Arrested

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Posted in Physics, Society | 4 Comments