I usually save these recap posts for weekends, and try to be more substantive on weekdays, but seasonal allergies have filled my head with goo in a way that left me incapable of doing anything more strenuous than watching streaming action comedy yesterday (last two episodes of The Brothers Sun, which was dopey but basically fun). I’m on the mend, but still not up to saying anything really weighty, so we’ll do the month-in-review thing instead.
Me on Substack:
— On Dragons Swallowing the Sun: A report on taking SteelyKid and The Pip up north to see the total eclipse.
— On Prestige and Public Communication: Where I’ve settled on the question of whether and how academic institutions should reward effects to speak to a broader public.
— Flexibility and Expectations: Some thoughts about what might be the most valuable career skill I have and whether that’s something we can teach effectively.
— On Baseball, Redux: Revisiting the national pastime as The Pip has gotten more into the game, pulling me with him.
— Physics, Old and New: Links to three items (repeated below) in which I talk about physics with varying degrees of formality.
— Artificial Drudgery: In which I cave into pressure to say Something about “artificial intelligence,” or at least the potential political significance of the roiling cauldron of linear algebra currently being marketed as “AI.”
Me Elsewhere:
—“The Sounds of Science”: a big group article to which I made a small contribution, answering the question “Will there be new physics?”
— Into the Impossible: A video appearance on a podcast run by Brian Keating. Recorded some time back, but released in early April.
— “The Quantum Physics of an Ordinary Morning”: The public lecture I gave at the World Quantum Day celebration at the University of Illinois.
Links Dump:
This is going to be really thin because so much of the #discourse has been consumed with either recent events in the Middle East (which are too weighty for me to be comfortable dashing off thoughts about) or campus protests about same (which are not remotely significant enough to deserve the level of attention they’re getting). I’m reading a bunch of stuff about these issues, but don’t really want to share any of it in the current atmosphere. So here are a couple of silly things:
— “Government Logos From Best to Worst, Ranked by Roman Mars” in the Washingtonian: Graphic design is his passion.
— World’s First Screw-Bike, by James Bruton: The kind of gloriously weird content the Internet needs more of.
Pseudo-Random Photo of the Month:
This is Not A Happy Image: The Pip in the parking lot of the orthopedic practice showing off his hard cast. He busted his ass all winter long working to make the school baseball team (he’s in 7th grade, so this was the first year he could try out), and finally did it (thus the team hat). Then on the day before the first game, he fell in gym class and injured his right wrist. Which isn’t broken, but involves some injury to one of the tiny bones that has him in a hard cast for the next three weeks. Which means there’s an exceedingly remote chance that he will get even a single at-bat for the school team season (his travel team runs later, so he’ll probably be back before that season ends).
We were braced to learn it was an actual fracture and would be 10-12 weeks in a cast—which would’ve been the full “Moonlight” Graham scenario— so this is way better than the worst case. But still a big bummer.
(It’s also a partial explanation of the relative quiet around here, because this has involved a bunch of doctor appointments taking a chunk out of my schedule. Also, because he’s a Good Kid and supports his friends, The Pip is still going to all the games for both school and travel teams, which means his injury has not substantially reduced the travel burden for me…)
Pseudo-Random Song of the Week:
This is far from the most significant tune in the Prince catalog, but might be my sneaky favorite.
Bonus Pseudo-Random Song:
A colleague’s son wrote a satirical folk song about the low bridge in the next town over that keeps getting hit by 18-wheelers. He got a bunch of local media attention from this; the above is the whole thing played at a school talent show.
And that’s April in a nutshell. If you liked any of this and want more along these lines, here’s a button:
And if you want to respond to any of this, the comments will be open:
Did you have to memorize that in HS too? :)