awesome is my ground state

doctorwho:

Scientists claim to have invented their own version of Doctor Who’s famous sonic screwdriver.

The Dundee University researchers have created a machine which uses ultrasound to lift and rotate a rubber disc floating in a cylinder of water.

It is said to be the first time ultrasound waves have been used to turn objects rather than simply push them.

The study could help make surgery using ultrasound techniques more precise, the physicists said.

Ultrasound waves could already be made to push objects and scientists believed they could also turn them - but the Dundee University team claims to have now proved it.

They used energy from an ultrasound array to form a beam that can both carry momentum to push away an object in its path and, by using a beam shaped like a helix or vortex, cause the object to rotate.

The results of the sonic screwdriver experiment will be published in the American Physical Society’s journal Physical Review Letters.

See the last name there? THAT’S MY ADVISOR

denyinghipster:

infoneer-pulse:

College and university librarians are concerned about students’ search skills, and no wonder:

At Illinois Wesleyan University, “The majority of students — of all levels — exhibited significant difficulties that ranged across nearly every aspect of the search process,” according to researchers there. They tended to overuse Google and misuse scholarly databases. They preferred simple database searches to other methods of discovery, but generally exhibited “a lack of understanding of search logic” that often foiled their attempts to find good sources.

The librarians quoted here understand most of the key problems, and are especially sharp about “the myth of the digital native” — about which see also this deeply sobering Metafilter thread — but there’s one vital issue they’re neglecting: research databases have the worst user interfaces in the whole world.

» via The Atlantic

THIS IS MY UNIVERSITY. Also, I have learned by now how to search and research. But there is always more to learn. 

Wait, wait, wait, let me get this straight, they’ve managed to spin the inability to navigate a poor UI into a fault? God, maybe you could actually have an intuitive interface instead.

This morning, with her, having coffee.

—

Johnny Cash, when asked for his definition of paradise.

(via emtc)

This. @BriannaKratz

(Source: jessbend, via allisonweiss)

My conclusion is that men do not find women beautiful. They can assess the value of a woman’s currency as defined by the current cultural mores, and they can place a particular woman in a beauty hierarchy, and in fact they do, (some women get a 10, others an 8, and others aren’t worth rating) but all of it depends on the opinion of their mates, or other males. It means that getting a pretty woman has nothing to do with the woman herself and everything to do with showing other men how well you’ve done.

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Bullshit

On Beauty by cherryblossomlife (via thruflowheater)

(via denyinghipster)