How to Become a Scientist

Just found this resource from an LJ community I follow. It's a discussion of what to do academically to become a scientist. Reminds me of my similar post (concentrating more on the time scales) from 2005.

"Why do we need to know...?"

Well, on the upside, I'm glad to know it's not just students in science classes.

Rockin' Astrophysicist

After a 30-year leave of absense to become Queen's lead guitarist, Brian May finally finished writing his astrophysics doctorate thesis. We don't know yet if his thesis committee has accepted it, and the actual graduation wouldn't be until next May (2008).

N-body problem

Next time you need some entertainment, check out this Planet simulation game. Although "solving" the three-body problem is not possible, simulations are trivial. For a couple goals, try to get a "Mercury" type planet - closer to the Sun than the Earth, highly elliptical orbit. When you get it, it will precess naturally due to Earth's gravitation (rather than due to general relativity as Einstein proved). And a harder goal is getting a Moon to orbit the Earth (I haven't managed yet).

Even Newton knew it

Science and religion are NOT opposed. Papers just revealed to the public in Jerusalem show Newton's calculation of the end of the world based upon the book of Daniel (no sooner than the year 2060), and the dimensions of the temple which reflect the cosmos.

And just because I'm feeling dorky and sleep deprived... Science and religion are not antiparallel, they're skewy.

China's FDA head gets death penalty

Zheng Xiaoyu, former director of China's State Food and Drug Administration, was sentenced to death for corruption on Tuesday. AP/Reuters/MSNBC

He was guilty of accepting more than $800,000 in bribes, his actions led to the deaths of thousands of US cats and dogs a full two years after he was fired, and dozens of human deaths from tainted antibiotics, and as a result China is giving him the death penalty.

I'm not sure what to think.

Vector Physics - Japanese TV style

For your entertainment, on the page I found it, it said "Vector physics in real life. From 'Trivia no Izumi' (Fountain of Trivia), the same Japanese show that figured out how heavy a fish Dora cat can carry."

For your edification, what's happening is the truck is driving forward (left) at 100km/hr, while the ball is being shot backwards (right) at (-)100km/hr relative to the truck. Note in particular the strobe effect photos of the ball shot from a stationary truck at 1:40, and the ball shot from the moving truck at 3:50. Also note that while the ball falls it drifts forward slightly, this could be due either to a mismatch in velocities or due to drafting (wind following the motion of the truck), and after it impacts the ground it bounces forward significantly, probably due to spin ("English") on the ball or possibly due to drafting (since the video is sped back up we can't tell how fast it's moving forward compared to while it was falling).

Link c/o hitchhiker.