Does your campus web site suck too?

I howled when I saw this on xkcd, which I read regularly:


Nailed it!

I visit college web sites while advising future transfer students, and it is rare to find one that makes it easy to find what a student needs, even if they have a "prospective student" link on the front page. And our college web site is as bad as most. So it pleased me a lot to see IHE pick this up in a story Wednesday.

I really like the comment objecting to the "three clicks" problem for key information, and REALLY like the person who is taking this cartoon to every meeting of a CC website revision committee meeting.

But the funniest part was the observation about pictures of "pretty girls studying under trees" on the home page.

Does your college have a photo roll including ethnically diverse but atypically good looking students studying under trees? Ours does. Using computers? (Yep) Interacting in a small group with a distinguished looking professor? (Yep) A link that takes you directly to the academic calendar or the college's majors with a clear list of requirements? (Sort of)

UPDATE:
IHE has a followup story about efforts at web redesign that starts with the student. Interesting followup. I know our college web site has been redesigned to use pull-down menus that have a laundry list of possible links, but we simply do not have a "prospective student" category nor any sense that most of the links off the front are not used.

However, I also have to wonder if "prospective" is too fancy a word for many of our incoming students, the ones that place into developmental reading classes.

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Happy New Year!

see more deMotivational Posters

Or see the original ones: from Despair, Inc.

I like the one that's new for 2010: Bailouts

But let's not overlook this one or the T shirts for social media and the big bank bailouts.

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New Course in Literary Criticism

"The Poetry of Sarah Palin's Tweets"

If you haven't seen it ... check it out. [Sorry for the ad.]



This is seriously good stuff, although it owes a lot to William Shatner channeling the beat era Howl of Allen Ginsburg plus a very careful choice of tweets.

But what fun! What insights could we glean from this poetry?

And could it bring back beat poetry in REAL coffeehouses like I recall from my freshman year in college? Haiku, meet tweet-haiku, limited to 140 characters. A new art form!

PS -
Since the ad I am seeing is for cat owners, I'll counter it with this story about a UK cat that rides a bus.

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Climate Change in Hell ... and more

Here are some great articles from The New Yorker for your entertainment.

• Shouts and Murmurs takes a look at a symposium about Climate Change in Hell that was (allegedly) hosted by Former VP Al Gore

This is a short, fun article. It is an amusing twist on the usual physics problem concerning the temperature of Hell (as in, is Heaven hotter than Hell) and the on-going Big Science of Global Warming that manages to skewer a number of suspects. For example, why does Sony have a Portal to Hell in one of its sub-basements?


Hitting closer to home,

• XXL, which looks at books about possible explanations for the rapid growth of obesity in the US.

Favorite factoid about consequences of changes in the past few decades: "It has been estimated that Americans’ extra bulk costs the airlines a quarter of a billion dollars’ worth of jet fuel annually." I personally thought the problem was a result of the SUV (like goldfish in a bigger bowl, people grew to the size of their vehicle), but the author seems to argue that the vehicles were needed to carry our supersized fries.

By the way, at my CC we are starting to have problems fitting students into the standard desks in our standard classrooms. Anyone else have this problem? We might have to cut class sizes just to make the aisles big enough for students to navigate their seats to their seats.

• A movie review of Bruno by Anthony Lane

The review might be funnier than the movie. Not that I would know, since I won't bother until the DVD comes out, so to speak. It can't possibly compare to Zoolander.

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Basic Research Proves the Obvious

According to a study reported by the BBC, cats 'exploit' humans by purring:

Cat owners may have suspected as much, but it seems our feline friends have found a way to manipulate us humans.

Researchers at the University of Sussex have discovered that cats use a "soliciting purr" to overpower their owners and garner attention and food.

Unlike regular purring, this sound incorporates a "cry", with a similar frequency to a human baby's.

The team said cats have "tapped into" a human bias - producing a sound that humans find very difficult to ignore.

(Follow the link above to see video evidence of this, as if we needed any!) Look below the fold for LOLcat evidence of this phenomenon from a photo posted late last week:


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

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Blogging about some blogs

Some classics out there today:

Matt writes about clouds and the "chemtrail" conspiracy theories. Worth visiting just to see the photo of a fighter just about at Mach 1. BTW, Matt is correct about the second photo. It is from Castle Bravo, the largest yield device (at 15 megatons) ever tested by the US.

Amusing, but he needs to get more up to date. Check out this about sighting Michael Jackson's ghost in a CNN clip shown on Larry King.

Thanks to a commenter on FSP's blog about hating the iPhone for that last one. That was also where I found a link to another great article:

Is Google Making Us Stupid from the July issue of The Atlantic. Read it, and see if you start skimming before you get to the paragraph where the author quotes a blogger about the number of paragraphs he can read before he starts skimming.

For the record, I didn't start skimming until I read that prompt, but my attention span for scientific articles was never so great that I didn't usually follow the Feynman approach of reading the introduction and then jumping to the conclusion to see if they got the right answer. Unless it really mattered, and then it took days or a week to read the paper closely.

On that subject, Chad has a great "research blogging" article about entanglement and a hysterical article about a really bad press release title related to string "theory". I suspect that "possible relevance of mathematical tools developed for string theory to an entirely different problem" would not have gotten quite as much attention.

Also, some really good comics in the last few days. PhD comics on whether your research project is impossible (following up on a series about a student being sent on a wild goose chase) and xkcd on the 2038 bug in Unix (when the time counter runs out of seconds in 32 bits).

PS -
Like his fellow former sportscaster, Sarah Palin, Keith Olberman doesn't seem to know much science. Tonight on "worst persons" he said something implying that you use carbon dating to determine the age of uranium. Not even close. I wonder how many people noticed ...

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This Beer's for YOU!

Check out this article featuring a NK beer ad. There sure isn't much in the way of competition for the quality advertising work like this!

However, it does remind me of some lame ads from the early days of American TV. Is that a North Korean version of this old Hamm's Beer ad? Contrast the fake "injun" music with what I assume is standard national fare in NK, but the biggest difference is that you weren't allowed to show anyone actually drinking beer back in those days in the US. Later they pushed the envelope by showing a full glass and then one half empty, before that rule was lifted entirely.

NK happily shows drinking, but has its own ban on showing women as consumers. Talk about patriarchy!

But what I really love about that ad is the short bit of socialist realist art showing a sweaty worker downing a cold one. Doesn't last long in the ad, but to their credit, the BBC features it on the freeze frame.

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RBOC - Light summer reading

This will be about as random as it gets.

• Zambia leader hit by press leak

I won't spoil this for you. Go read it right now while keeping in mind the question of whether the Federal Reserve's pronouncements would generate more surprise and get more attention if Bernanke spoke in a garden under a tree.

• Who wants tenure anyway?

Thought provoking (although I am old enough to have seen this topic debated and discussed many times in two different centuries) and also making clever use of some great academic cartoons.

• The tragedy of Fred Hoyle

A great article pointing out the Nobel-worthy contribution Fred Hoyle made to our understanding of the production of the elements in stars. This contribution to nuclear physics helped destroy the Steady State theory that Hoyle promoted until his death. How? It showed how nuclei beyond He could be produced in thermonuclear reactions, making Big Bang predictions of the production of only a few isotopes of the lightest elements consistent with what we see in nature.

• A thought experiment from 1963

Would it have helped or hurt the Civil Rights movement if something like this had happened in August 1963?

In 1963, as King delivers his famous speech to the March on Washington, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev delivers a public message of his own to the protesters. “We would like to tell these brave voices of freedom,” Khrushchev says, “that they have the full support and solidarity of the USSR. The Soviet Union and the United States Communist Party are ready and willing to perform any measures within our power to help our American brothers and sisters obtain their rights from this oppressive regime. And although Dr. King pretends that he holds no hostility toward the American capitalist system of government itself, and wishes only to secure the ideals of the American founding for all of its citizens, we all know that he and his supporters really yearn for complete regime change in Washington. We in Moscow will do whatever it takes to help you achieve this goal.”

Did Osama bin Laden help or hurt Kerry by endorsing him just before the election, and did bin Laden do it to keep Bush (and his dis-engagement from al'Qaeda) in office? Imagine what would have happened if he had endorsed Bush ...

• Video analysis of whether dynamite on a hammer can lift a guy off the ground

Like it says. Go look at the video and pay attention to the last few seconds.

My analysis of the analysis is that the author's video interpretation results in a major underestimate of the velocity of the hammer after the explosives detonate. It is only in frame for a short time, and is slowing via both gravity and an interaction with the person holding it during that time. The energy in the hammer was surely much greater than estimated, so the question might really be "How high would he have gone if he had not let go of the hammer?"!

Now go watch it again. Clearly this person is using much more explosive than the others. See how theirs just go off? Notice how several people are doing this before he walks out, but then the area clear completely as he prepares to try his experiment? Right now I am speculating whether you could pull yourself off the ground by swinging a sledge hammer if you had it tied to your hands.

BTW, I wasn't too impressed with an earlier article. As Uncle Al noted, the Magnus Effect (what makes a baseball curve) was first seen with musket balls and studied with curved barrels (much like the paintball guns mentioned in the Wiki article he quotes) centuries ago. It is quite an oversight to leave that out, but even Wiki understates how big it can be: ever watch a golf ball rise when driven by a real pro? Lift from the Magnus Effect is why the optimum launch angle for a golf ball is only about 12 degrees.

• Interview of Chad and his dog Emmy about quantum mechanics

This last one makes for some great summer fun!

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And now, something completely different ...

Advanced Cat Yodeling


Hat tip to Icanhascheezburger.

But that is only part of the story.

That is less than half of the full video. Click on this link to see the full six minute engineer's guide to cat yodeling WITH cat polka video. I love the "fist" bump about 4 minutes in, and that one of the cats is actually a dog, but the opening "free aspect ratio" bit and the "protection" needed when first annoying your cat ... those are priceless.

Be sure to check out some of the video responses.

And if you never saw their first video, an engineer's guide to cats, check it out, too.

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Kids These Days ...

Hat tip to Jennifer Ouellette at Cocktail Party Physics for this clip of Louis CK on Conan O'Brien:


Everything is amazing, nobody is happy...

I love how he carries on with a "Bad Codger Attitude" (hat tip) despite not being all that old ...

... like his comments about dialing a phone. Kids these days don't know that the reason we have "800" numbers for free long distance (what was originally "WATS" lines[*]) is that it was so hard to dial those higher digit numbers. That is also the reason that the access code for long distance is a "1" in the US (we ruled telecommunication back then) and the original area codes for big cities were easy (like 212 or 313) and you definitely knew when you lived in a backwater town (an area code starting with 90). Now it doesn't matter, but we still "dial" a phone!

... but particularly his comments about flying. Except there are a lot of people who don't want to know they are 5 or 6 miles above the ground (they don't know what 35,000 feet means in real numbers) or ever look out of a window. I think they don't actually believe in flight.

[*]
Yeah, I'm that old, but I was also paying attention as a little kid.

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Question of the Day Winner

A student asks Rudbeckia Hirta:

"Can you give me permission to fail algebra for a fourth time?"

I really have a hard time keeping a straight face when I get ones like that, but I usually manage to tell them that only a Vice President, on the advice of an appeals committee, can do that. One colleague, however, would preface that with a "Well, bless your heart, sweetie. I'd love to help you out but they just won't let me near the computer since that time when ... well, you might have read about it in the newspaper. You'll have to go to the Office of Academic Inquisitions like everyone else."

That combination of enthusiastic naivete is, sadly, not uncommon. But at least I have the excuse that I am at a CC, with its share of enthusiastically naive students, not at an alleged Flagship University of the State.

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Cool Gift Idea

Ah, the things you can sell to tourists.

Check this out.

Paper made from Wombat scat.

It is said to have a nice organic scent.

Just when you think it can't get any stranger than making coffee from beans that have gone through an animal's digestive system, we get this story!

I wonder when they will start selling it globally, on the internet, rather than just selling it to tourists.

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And now for something else from the brits...

How can a great article about the number of calories consumed in alcoholic beverages go from informative to sublime?

Easy. Look at the first comparison in the calorie count table: a pint of hard cider (200 calories) is equal to "beans on toast".

Beans on toast?

A "pint of bitter" (190 calories) being equal to a great looking donut, yes. This connects well on both sides of the pond. Although most American 'beer' drinkers wouldn't recognize something stronger than water as a beverage, we all like donuts. That one even looks like it came from Krispy Kreme.

But ... Beans on Toast? Either they have a twisted sense of humor or Britain needs a better cook book.

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Happy St. Patrick's Day

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

We had a fun one at work. I think the faculty have more fun with this one than the students do. One of my colleagues wore all sorts of green bling to his classes, while the students seemed focused on learning.

I see the dual advantage of giving an exam right before spring break: (1) the students have it all crammed in their heads from studying and doing homework right up to the exam, with no chance to forget it all over break, and (2) the wake up call when they get back from a week of work or partying and get the exam back.

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Second Blogiversary

It has been two years now since I got this thing started on the eve of Pi Day.

What better way to celebrate than with a story from the BBC (complete with video) about flossing monkeys in Thailand teaching their infants how to floss! If only my mother had been nearly as successful as these. For me, it was never "monkee see, monkee do"....


And below the fold, how about the charming presence of Emmy, the Queen of Niskayuna, on facebook to help promote her role in Chad's pop-science book about Quantum Mechanics? Having vastly enjoyed the stories on his blog (see this collection for a sample), I eagerly await the appearance of that book - and hope to see his book tour visit to the Colbert Report.

Or an argument (not unfamiliar if you have heard any talks about "Brain-Based Education") whether the internet has, or has not, created a stupid generation? I take the Negative side on that debate. When professors see uncritical use of citations (or not) from the tubes of the internets in student work, they forget that they used to see uncritical use of periodicals of questionable repute and cribbing from print sources in the past. One generation was cured of that the same way this one can be, by actual instruction in critical analysis. In some ways it should be easier today: there was nothing like Google or Turnitin to identify the use of copied works.

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Pepsi ...

... re-did their logo to resemble the Obama O?

Sure looks like it, particularly given that they appear to be launching their new ad campaign today (rather than during the Super Bowl) featuring lots of "O" words like HOPE and JOY.

Ah, corporate America, how we have underestimated your ability to snap up any new trend and exploit it for every bit of marketing value it might have.

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Terror Threat for the New Year

more Icanhascheezburger animals



We have enough trouble with the tree rats without that!

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Christmas Eve

I've got some catching up to do, with a few articles back in the queue, but first:

What would Christmas be without NORAD tracking Santa?

The "live cam" coverage of Santa's visits around the globe has already started. Go to http://www.noradsanta.org/en/video.html to see all of them via YouTube. Noradsanta.org also includes ways to follow him on Google Earth. According to a BBC article today, they also have a live twitter feed (@noradsanta) so kids know when to expect his visit.

For any film buffs out there, I also stumbled on this clip from an 1898 film called "Santa Claus". The special effects are impressive, but it is also interesting to see Santa portrayed before the Coca Cola version provided a common version for American culture. Even as Snopes debunks this story, they confirm it. Their text from 1927 (four years before the Coke ad appeared) clearly says the standard Santa wore a hood. Notice the hoodie on Santa in that 1898 film? But the Santa in the first Coke ads wore a hat and all Santas wear a hat today. (Read the Coca Cola company version of this history here.)

In other news, a priest is in trouble in Italy for telling children that Santa is not real. What was that guy thinking? Well, he said what he was thinking: that kids should only believe that Jesus is real. Odd way to treat a patron Saint of the Church, but he clearly does not appreciate the role of mythology in human culture. (I once heard a fascinating sermon drawing a parallel between the two, concerning belief in the unseen based on hearsay evidence that might be centuries old.) Of course, plenty of evangelical churches try to do away with the mythology of Halloween (the eve of All Saints Day), so maybe they will take on the commercial mythology of Santa next. Not. Santa serves too many purposes to do that.

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Quote of the Day

From the BBC European News Desk ....

"We can still have sex and drugs but in a way that shows the city is in control."

- Deputy Mayor Lodewijk Asscher of Amsterdam

Apparently they were shocked, SHOCKED, to learn that brothels, along with marijuana shops, peep shows, sex shows, mini-supermarkets, phone, and souvenir shops might provide a cover for organized crime and contribute to urban decay.

Rudy Giuliani could have told them that. Even if there were no broken windows.

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Palin prank call

This is just too funny.



I simply can't believe it isn't faked. Could it be that easy for professional con men (i.e. radio hosts) to get past the people screening calls for a future VP?

Among the positives would be that there is a CKOY (CKOI?) station near Montreal, but among the negatives would be the utter absence of any mention of this in a google search of the station's web site. A US station would promote the heck out of a coup like this if it was real. I think it more likely that the comedy group linked from the video did both sides of the call.

Only the mainstream media will know for sure ... so I will hold off publishing for now.

OK, they do. Saw this report from the BBC, so I'll publish this now. Note that there is an audio interview with the prankster at the bottom of the BBC article.

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