Say what? Ten random search terms

A so-called fluff post because I don’t have anything useful to say… Here’s a sample of the words people type into Google that lead them here.

1. random facts (can be found everywhere on the internet)
2. facts about pi (see this post)
3. random facts on number 25 (ehm, it’s 3*3 + 4*4?)
4. Out, out, damned spot (Lady Macbeth says that)
5. crocheting in the ocean (!? seems difficult to me)
6. why earth revolves (dunno… to give us night and day?)
7. speed of light 12 million miles a minute (well, yeah, more or less)
8. science poems uranium (lots of science poems here)
9. qulog (you found it)
10. muis menselijk oor (wordt genoemd in dit verhaaltje, dat je maar beter niet helemaal kan geloven…)

Stay tuned for a new installment of the Tuesday Afternoon Science Poetry, due tomorrow.

Filed under: English, Qulogistics, Random 10s

Ten random facts about pi

1. It’s Pi-day today!
2. Maybe they were preparing festivities… anyway, lately the number one search term for people coming to Qulog is Pi Song.
3. As a result, the stats on that post have gone up from maybe four every day to over yesterday!
4. There are seconds in a year (error is less than a percent).
5. You can ‘measure’ by repeatedly dropping a needle onto a ruled surface. It’s not a very practical way, but I like it anyway.
6. Somewhere in the digits of is my birthday. (But where? I always forget.)
7. A circle with diameter 1 has circumference and surace area .
8. During a lecture on quantum field theory, Gerard ‘t Hooft once joked that he used the ‘small circle approximation’: .
9. There are more pi-songs than just the one I wrote about last year.
10. Oh, I almost forget: , followed by a lot of digits I don’t remember…

Filed under: Education, English, Hands-on math & science, Math, Qulogistics, Random 10s

New additions to the Blogroll

1. HUNBlog, a Houston-based newish blog on science education, hosts the latest edition of the Carnival of Education using Monty Python quotes as in-between titles.
2. Galactic Interactions is astronomer Rob Knop’s blog. (He doesn’t seem to be Dutch although hies name made me think so.) Topics include astronomy and science & culture.
3. Science & Politics among all the other posts, coturnix has built quite an impressive list of science blogs. And to think that he has two other blogs as well!
4. Radioactive Banana combines science, art and culture, leading for instance to watercolors called Superposition.
5. She Falters to Rise writes a dissertation.

And then there are a few physics blogs where I read about something called Relational Quantum Mechanics, apparently thought up by quantum gravity theorist Carlo Rovelli. This recent preprint on Relational EPR is discussed

1. (not technically a blog, but well) on a Physicsforum thread, and at:
2. Reality Conditions
3. Quantum Quandaries
4. Christine’s Background Independence
   
5. Backreaction

I’m not sure what I think of this RQM yet, I haven’t read it all. Maybe later.

Filed under: English, Quantum, Random 10s, Second-hand blogging

Random 10 from the Bogroll

Expand your knowledge of the blogosphere! Below is a collection of remarkable posts or series of posts from 10 semi-random blogs I read.

1. See Jane Compute – a miniseries about teaching her computer science courses. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5. The links are in her sidebar, too.)

2. green gabbro – Friday Rock Blogging is not about the music, but about, you know, rocks.

3. jill/txt – Jill won a prize for her research blogging!

4. Gertie’s schilderijen – (foei, midden in zo’n rijtje van tien stiekem reclame maken voor familie) echte mooie schilderijen van oa bootjes in Griekenland en landschappen in Indonesië – ze zijn te koop.

5. Tall, dark, and mysterious – responds to a commenter’s misconceptions.

6. Wiskundemeisjes – serie van drie postjes (1, 2, 3) over het vermoeden van Goldbach, dat elk even getal te schrijven is als de som van twee priemgetallen.

7. Adventures in Ethics and Science – two posts on academics changing fields (1, 2)

8. Uncertain Principles – real lab stories.

9. inkycircus – sciency handicraft: modeling molecules using balloons.

10. Bètablokker – nog zo’n fijn gedicht van Drs. P!

Filed under: Education, English, Hands-on math & science, Nederlands, Random 10s, Research, Science, Second-hand blogging

Weekend random 10 – whodunnit

Geïnspireerd door de tv die vanavond een uiterst merkwaardige Close-up docu over ‘de Agatha Christie Code’ en de tweede aflevering van nr 1. op deze lijst uitzond, een random 10 van fijne politie- en detectiveseries.

1. Mayo – nieuw op BBC 1, zondagavond 21.00. Met Alistair McGowan als een wise-cracks debiterende detective, die zich stoort (hoe herkenbaar) aan “PIN number” (want dat is Personal Identification Number number).
2. Dalziel & Pascoe – maar waar is die andere agent, hoeheetieookweer, gebleven?
3. die goeie ouwe Morse met z’n operaplaten – mag altijd wel ergens herhaald worden
4. Frost – daar begon het mee, in 199?
5. Silent Witness – vooral als Amanda Burton met d’r Ierse accent meedoet
6. Midsomer Murders – de kerk, het cafe, de plaatselijke toneelvereniging
7. Poirot – lekker nostalgisch met zwarte koetsen, (bol)hoeden, telegrammen, het contrast tussen de zeer Britse Captain Hastings en de Belg Poirot… en extra leuk als ze Japp van Scotland Yard overtroeven.
8. Inspector Lynley – met als extraatje de klasse-tegenstelling tussen Lynley en Havers
9. Baantjer – maar minus de laatste scene, waarin het hele verhaal nog een keer uitgelegd wordt. En die sluikreclame mag er ook wel uit.
10 geen CSI – NY, Miami, of waar dan ook. Flitsend vormgegeven maar onbegrijpelijke en onwaarschijnlijke technische hoogstandjes, teveel zonnebrillen, te snel gesneden, te weinig echte mensen.

Filed under: Nederlands, Random 10s