Skippy Records

Sound of the Mountain, The...
Kawabata, Yasunari
Simulacra and Simulation...
Baudrillard, Jean
Decoding The Universe...
Seife, Charles
Crows: Encounters with the w...
Savage, Candace
Understanding Search Engines...
Berry, Michael and Murr
Kabbalah and the power of dr...
Shainberg, Catherine
Ishmael...
Quinn, Daniel
God's Problem: How the Bible...
Ehrman, Bart D.
Black Elk Speaks...
Neihardt, John G
Trillion Dollar Meltdown, Th...
Morris, Charles R
Misquoting Jesus:The story b...
Ehrman, Bart D.

Posted by DrSkippy27 at 07:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are many natural examples of synchronization of oscillations due to resonance and very small couplings.  But there aren't many prototypical cases that show the effect so clearly.  Bad Astronomy posted a great video and explanation today.  Here's the video:

 

Posted by DrSkippy27 at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The photo is from a 10K trail run I did last weekend with 60 other runners.  Paul's Crazy Legs 10K course was a lot of fun.  The morning was cool and clear--perfect for a trail run.  My time was 64:30--not near my best 10K time, but not too disappointing for early in the season, 500+ feet vertical climb and the rocky trails at Devil's Backbone. It was fun to be out on trails again!

 

 

 

Posted by DrSkippy27 at 01:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The recent redoubling of poisoning of the word "elitist" in the political discussion is disheartening to me.  I find myself trying not to sound elitist, or second guessing my thoughts, trying to determine how far out of touch with the mainstream I am.

This may be a useful exercise in self-awareness, but it is a disaster with regard to aspirations.  The accusation of "elitist" seems to be moving away from meaning wealthy, powerful and exclusive--the opposite of populist--into an ambiguous and vaguely pejorative "thinks they know stuff we don't."  Restating as an prescription for being accepted by society gives "don't try to know more than anyone else." For a society and a country, that aspiration starts an ugly race to the bottom.

Bad Astronomy sums it up succinctly:

...people are generally experts in a field for a reason. They've studied it. They've experienced it. They've done research, published papers, looked at the results, tried to interpret them, made predictions, done further experiments. They learn from what they experience.

That’s why they're experts.

Posted by DrSkippy27 at 08:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)