Logic (nsfw)

Study Design

Commentary on the Peer Review Process

Ah peer review…

Just in case there is confusion about why Hitler is appearing on the blog, please consult our newest blogroll member, Know Your Meme.  They did a wonderful job explaining Autotune to my parents over the Thanksgiving weekend (featuring Weird Al!).

In Memory of Sir Olaf Pol

Sir Olaf Pol, 2002

Sad news, everyone. I heard from his son today that Sir Olaf Pol passed away early this morning. As you may or may not remember, Sir Pol lived in Durham for many years. He was an amateur quantum physicist who presented his findings to a group at Duke several years ago, coincidentally on this date. His most striking—and controversial—contribution to his science was taking the “gedanken” out of the “gedankenexperiment” of Schroedinger’s Cat. A shocked audience listened to him describe how he took in stray cats of the streets of downtown Durham and Chapel Hill for these practical applications. Sir Pol’s son reports that three and a half of the cats survive.

Bless His Heart

When they get you, they get you. Though it pains me as a Duke fan to post this, it’s pretty darned hilarious and the production values are awesome:

Bunton’s Winter CD: Track 7

Every so often I make up a mix CD of my favorite songs at the moment; mostly new songs, but with some old songs sprinkled in for flavor. I thought it’d be a neat feature of this new blog to go through, song-by-song, and explain a little about why it appeals to me.

Psych is almost one of my favorite shows on television. The show follows goofy Shawn Spencer, son of a retired cop, who was drilled with techniques of keen observation as a child. He’s never been able to hold a steady job, until he enlists his nerdy best friend Gus (played by West Wing alum Dulé Hill) to open a psychic investigating firm. Of course they’re not psychic, but they’ve found it’s the only way to get the local police department to contract them out. The show is quite funny. Most episodes revolve around a theme, from spelling bees to roller derby to astronomy.

The theme song is performed by The Friendly Indians, the garage band of series creator Steve Franks. I’ve always had a little more respect for people who’ve been in a band, because it’s not easy. I’ve dabbled in karaoke from time to time, but I’ve never had the discipline to perform in an actual band.

Next time: more British rock

Two is a trend

Congrats to John for ending the drought!

I thought I’d share a link that touches on a number of Lunchtime! themes, however inspiring or sad that might be. Namely: sports, lists, Duke, spelling/grammar mistakes, and poor judgment.

On an unrelated note, I recently saw Mulholland Drive for the first time. Let me toss out this conversation starter: WTF?!?

Finally, as one of the few Americans at the institute, I’ve been congratulated on our recent elections more times than I can count. Since I’m sure this is disproportionate to whatever amount of credit I actually deserve (first time voting in a swing state!), let me at least pass along the sentiment.

Carolina “Classic”

There are some things about North Carolina almost everyone knows, such as tobacco, basketball, and NASCAR. Then there are things that you only learn if you live here for a while; e.g. coleslaw is a condiment.

That’s right, any self-respecting North Carolinian restaurant serves a tiny cup of coleslaw on the side with every sandwich (and many other orders) so that you can put it on your sandwich if you care to. It actually works quite well because the cole slaw here is the best I’ve ever had: unlike its Midwestern brethren it contains only a bit of mayonnaise, and unlike the local barbecue it’s light on the vinegar.

Coleslaw features prominently in Carolina-style burgers, which also have chili, chopped onion, and mustard. Even Wendy’s has a fast-food version that is sold regionally. Apparently there is some sort of difference between coleslaw and “slaw,” but either way I find them to be delicious.

Another, more interesting North Carolina “quirk” has to do with how I’ve used quotation marks in these last two sentences.

1776

I was just going through my forgotten and nearly dead post drafts and found this doozy. Since many of us went and sat through the amazing-looking, albeit fascist 300 together, I figure many of you might also enjoy Robot Chicken’s 300-inspired take on the American revolution:

I especially enjoy the crossing of the Delaware. Robot Chicken really captures the movie for me — I remember longing for the sophistication of Starship Troopers.

And while on the topic of the founding fathers, I can’t help but find HBO’s John Adams to be completely unnecessary. I don’t really think it’s any fault of it’s own (except maybe for casting overused Paul Giamatti) but I can’t help but giggle at the oh-so-serious looking promos that popped up seemingly everywhere a few weeks ago. I don’t know if it’s possible to have year-long movie-watching moods, but I feel like I wouldn’t be in the mood for something like this until at least next year…

April Fool’s Day Roundup

Several of the larger internet sites have an annual April Fool’s Day gag. Here’s a roundup of some of them:

• Virgin and Google team up to present Virgle: the plan to colonize Mars.
• GMail presents Custom Time: the ability to pre-date your email.
• Wikipedia’s Article of the Day focuses on the amazing life of Ima Hogg.
• YouTube is rickrolling itself under Featured Videos.
• CollegeHumor.com has been bought as a sweet eighteen gift for a spoiled brat.
• Improv Everywhere spent a fortune redesigning their site.
• Nestle has renamed the Butterfinger as The Finger.

A nearly-exhaustive list can be found at Wikipedia.