Click here to find, at PhysicsWeb, the Quantum Pontiff making an idiot of himself:
“It often becomes necessary, in a world where there is so much garbage floating around, to advertise your work,” says Bacon. “Blogging, to me, is no worse than giving a talk at a conference.”
Okay, that didn’t come out exactly as I wanted it too.
I’ve been saying since well before the web that one of the remarkable things about the Internet (or ARPAnet, in those days — yes, I’m an old fart) is that it gives ordinary people an opportunity previously reserved to television stars and politicians:
The opportunity to make a fool of yourself in front of a large crowd of strangers.
The web accelerated that, and blogs made it almost mandatory. Heck, I’m sure half the stuff on mine induces snickers…
“There’s no such thing as bad publicity,” they say in Hollywood, but if you’re a postdoc or finishing grad student looking for a job, or a young prof hustling for tenure, it’s not clear to me that that’s necessarily so…
I think the Daily Show makes it clear that “there is such a thing as bad publicity!” Heh.
One of the things I actually did tell the reporter was that the final issue you bring up is the one that I think is the most interesting. I certainly have pondered at times whether I should be blogging or not. But luckily I’m not a postdoc, a grad student, or a young prof 🙂
SLOW MOTION HYDROGEN BOMB! REBUT IT, IF YOU CAN.
Otherwise, start watching for headlines that are more optimistic, such as these:
GLOBAL WARMING REVERSED!
DIASTER AVERTED… EARTH SAVED!
MAN-MADE CLIMATE CHANGES… PERMANENTLY NULLIFIED!
Albert Einstein provided the perfect scientific answer to Global Warming in 1905 with his paradigm, mass-to-energy equation, which is the key to unlocking all of the clean, cheap, environmentally friendly energy the inhabitants of Earth will ever need, without any pollution or waste stream, and with no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse emissions.
Even the super-powerful Energy Cartel will be unable to prevent millions of individuals around the World from freely switching to this abundant and everlasting Einsteinian cornucopia of “home-made energy,” which will automatically reestablish Mother Nature as the exclusive controller of climate change.
http://slow-motion-Thermonuclear.blogspot.com/2006/06/invention-for-sale-slow-motion.html
Dynamic Static Random Access Memory (DRAM) and Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) require constant power in order to retain memory. Using a magnetic memory chip known as Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM), information can be stored in the form of magnetization. The newest generation of MRAM employs the spin-torque effect for programming the magnetic bits. By using a current pulse, the spin-torque can be controlled and the memory state of the cell can be programmed. An experiment performed at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Germany has uncovered that a spin-torque switching of a nanomagnet is as fast as what is permitted according to the fundamental laws of physics’ limit.
———————
georgea
dabacon
Incomplete Physics
Question: question 12 in “Thinking Physics†– page 259
Inside a warm damp cave completely sealed off from the outside world could life flourish indefinitely?
Answer: No life forms could flourish indefinitely. In an isolated system, entropy always increases. Life tries to push entropy in the opposite direction. When life is created, entropy decreases in the cave but nature demands a greater entropy increase offset. The cave, being sealed, would mean that entropy would reach its max, thus energy necessary to sustain and generate new life would be unavailable. Maybe we should learn a lesson from this. Available energy is mandatory. Wealth may equate to available energy. If you want to live in a nation that is prospering make sure that its available energy supply is abundant.
Read more about Entropy in the book “Physics Foibles”
I think blogging should be there to enhance communication but in a certain limit.
😛
great article! ill be stopping back! do you mind if i share this?