Well, Isaac seems to have picked the worst possible path that a Category 1 storm can take. It came in just south of New Orleans, causing flooding of the Mississippi just south of the city, and then decided to just sit there. Normally a tropical storm force winds might have somewhat limited damage, but 40Continue reading “Thinking of everyone back home”
Category Archives: Lagniappe
Mathematics as a social entity
One of our greats, Bill Thurston passed away on Tuesday. Since then my friends have been digging up old writings and discussing the work that he did. This short essay in response to a Math Overflow question caught my eye though. [quote] It’s not mathematics that you need to contribute to. It’s deeper than that:Continue reading “Mathematics as a social entity”
Cooler than your vacation photos
Monday, Monday …
Curiosity has landed!
NPR’s news report: “Mars Rover Pulls Off High-Wire Landing”
Landing on Mars looks somewhat difficult
NASA’s newest Mars rover, Curiosity, is apparently the size of a compact car and is due to land August 5. This has got to be the best promotional video I’ve ever seen for anything: “Challenges of Getting to Mars: Curiosity’s Seven Minutes of Terror” Unfortunately, this may be our last rover for a long time.Continue reading “Landing on Mars looks somewhat difficult”
Space is pretty. And smells metallic?
This is cute: a one paragraph answer to the question, “What does space smell like?” And for good effect, here’s a recent image of the Orion Nebula that recently had the honor of being The Atlantic’s photo of the day.
Shameless self-promotion
Andrew and I were featured in the UF Research News blog today. Some of the summary is a bit off, but still it’s fun to see: “University of Florida researchers improve on an old model for studying predator search patterns.”
xkcd: Relativistic Baseball
Over at xkcd, the new project is to answer physics-based “What if …” type questions. It’s off to a good start! “What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light?”
