Chad Orzel
@orzelc.bsky.social
Physicist, professor, author of books about science for non-scientists. Longer-form stuff at https://chadorzel.substack.com/
It really just feels Not Right to be getting "Black Friday" subscription sales from UK-based magazines.
November 24, 2025 at 10:49 AM
It really just feels Not Right to be getting "Black Friday" subscription sales from UK-based magazines.
Reposted by Chad Orzel
Really important to stress that the Crown Jewels of the US higher education system were never the Ivies or elite SLACs (other countries have equivalents of these) but the well-funded, large, cheap, and excellently staffed public state university systems bringing high quality education to the masses.
One of the bragging rights that the US ed system had in the 20th century is that we didn't have education tracks. Essentially, any kid could go to a CC or state school & major in whatever they wanted to (obviously an oversimplification). I fear this aspect of the American dream is dying.
November 23, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Really important to stress that the Crown Jewels of the US higher education system were never the Ivies or elite SLACs (other countries have equivalents of these) but the well-funded, large, cheap, and excellently staffed public state university systems bringing high quality education to the masses.
Reposted by Chad Orzel
maybe the best hitting pitcher in baseball history
November 23, 2025 at 4:01 PM
maybe the best hitting pitcher in baseball history
It's dark beer season, MFers:
November 22, 2025 at 10:06 PM
It's dark beer season, MFers:
Reposted by Chad Orzel
INCARNATE WORD HAS THE BEST TD CELEBRATIONS
November 22, 2025 at 8:45 PM
INCARNATE WORD HAS THE BEST TD CELEBRATIONS
Reposted by Chad Orzel
Reposted by Chad Orzel
These days, kids have to learn about lanthanides and actinides on the street. This wasn't always true.
November 22, 2025 at 5:12 AM
These days, kids have to learn about lanthanides and actinides on the street. This wasn't always true.
Evergreen tweet.
These people are all awful.
November 22, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Evergreen tweet.
This is an amazing sentence: "The Peekskill Meteorite Car ("PMC"), a 1980 red Chevy Malibu, is one of the two most famous objects struck by a meteorite (the other, Ms. Ann Hodges, died in 1972). "
meteoritecar.com
meteoritecar.com
The Peekskill Meteorite Car Official Website
The official website of the Peekskill Meteorite Car, the most famous object to ever be struck by a meteorite.
meteoritecar.com
November 22, 2025 at 2:39 PM
This is an amazing sentence: "The Peekskill Meteorite Car ("PMC"), a 1980 red Chevy Malibu, is one of the two most famous objects struck by a meteorite (the other, Ms. Ann Hodges, died in 1972). "
meteoritecar.com
meteoritecar.com
Reposted by Chad Orzel
This is a really good overview of asteroid-impact risk (and what we as humans have been doing to mitigate it).
OK, so. Below a certain size, the atmosphere takes care of the problem--objects below 10 meters in size, say, are going to give a great showy fireball but not do any damage on the ground unless you're really personally unlucky, like the teenager who owned this car.
meteoritecar.com
meteoritecar.com
The Peekskill Meteorite Car Official Website
The official website of the Peekskill Meteorite Car, the most famous object to ever be struck by a meteorite.
meteoritecar.com
November 22, 2025 at 2:23 PM
This is a really good overview of asteroid-impact risk (and what we as humans have been doing to mitigate it).
Reposted by Chad Orzel
Look! A planet! It has clouds made of xenon. What a good land.
November 22, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Look! A planet! It has clouds made of xenon. What a good land.
Reposted by Chad Orzel
JD Vance Cries In Bathroom After Trump Uses ‘Piggy’ Nickname On Someone Else https://theonion.com/jd-vance-cries-in-bathroom-after-trump-uses-piggy-nickname-on-someone-else/
November 21, 2025 at 7:00 PM
JD Vance Cries In Bathroom After Trump Uses ‘Piggy’ Nickname On Someone Else https://theonion.com/jd-vance-cries-in-bathroom-after-trump-uses-piggy-nickname-on-someone-else/
It's been a banner week for people yelling about educational reforms, mostly because they disagree at the level of not-clearly-stated fundamental premises: open.substack.com/pub/chadorze...
Educational Reform Standoff
This week in smart people arguing past one another
open.substack.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:26 PM
It's been a banner week for people yelling about educational reforms, mostly because they disagree at the level of not-clearly-stated fundamental premises: open.substack.com/pub/chadorze...
Reposted by Chad Orzel
The only hypothetical trade for Anthony Davis that actually makes sense to me is Paul George and change for AD. You can't count on Embiid or AD to stay healthy, but if you have BOTH of them, you can essentially bank on always having *one* great center who can play. It's brilliant.
November 21, 2025 at 3:12 AM
The only hypothetical trade for Anthony Davis that actually makes sense to me is Paul George and change for AD. You can't count on Embiid or AD to stay healthy, but if you have BOTH of them, you can essentially bank on always having *one* great center who can play. It's brilliant.
Reposted by Chad Orzel
Jacob Rees-Mogg & his nanny look like the villain & his sidekick in a Bond movie directed by Wes Anderson
November 20, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Jacob Rees-Mogg & his nanny look like the villain & his sidekick in a Bond movie directed by Wes Anderson
Reposted by Chad Orzel
I want a hard target search of Jason Bourne’s pants
Another day in the damn Jason Bourne Response Suite. I'm wearing a blue dress shirt and a headset and just absolutely getting reamed out by a veteran character actor re: him "needing eyes" or whatever. No sense of when or if we're ordering lunch. I tried to get a coffee and Joan Allen glared at me.
November 20, 2025 at 11:25 PM
I want a hard target search of Jason Bourne’s pants
Reposted by Chad Orzel
Truth hurts.
scottaaronson.blog?p=9344
scottaaronson.blog?p=9344
November 20, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Truth hurts.
scottaaronson.blog?p=9344
scottaaronson.blog?p=9344
We used to have proper mascot fights in this country: www.sfgate.com/collegesport...
What really happened the night Oski beat up the Stanford Tree
"I must've been 18 beers deep at that point. I was in big trouble."
www.sfgate.com
November 20, 2025 at 5:03 PM
We used to have proper mascot fights in this country: www.sfgate.com/collegesport...
Someone with access to faculty-list email logs-- not the messages, just the NUMBER of messages sent-- could probably easily back out the midterm and final grading schedule.
November 20, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Someone with access to faculty-list email logs-- not the messages, just the NUMBER of messages sent-- could probably easily back out the midterm and final grading schedule.
A CIVIL CAMPAIGN (1999), by L.M. Bujold:
November 20, 2025 at 2:24 PM
A CIVIL CAMPAIGN (1999), by L.M. Bujold:
Reposted by Chad Orzel
Trump in a room with a very charismatic person results in like half a day of Trump agreeing with everything that person said, so this has the potential to be very, very funny.
Trump says he’s meeting with “communist” Mamdani at the White House on Friday
November 20, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Trump in a room with a very charismatic person results in like half a day of Trump agreeing with everything that person said, so this has the potential to be very, very funny.
Reposted by Chad Orzel
My most extreme policy position on college admissions is that if you want to be really serious about admissions equity and preserving rigor, you just use some form of school adjusted GPA and standardized test scores and then lottery admit from all applicants above that threshold.
November 20, 2025 at 1:08 AM
My most extreme policy position on college admissions is that if you want to be really serious about admissions equity and preserving rigor, you just use some form of school adjusted GPA and standardized test scores and then lottery admit from all applicants above that threshold.
Reposted by Chad Orzel
Physicists have experimentally confirmed a 50 year old prediction of special relativity.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IwZ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IwZ...
It Took Physicists 50 Years To Prove Einstein Right About This
YouTube video by Sabine Hossenfelder
www.youtube.com
November 19, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Physicists have experimentally confirmed a 50 year old prediction of special relativity.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IwZ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IwZ...
The rare blog post in which I watch a relatively current film and talk about what I thought: open.substack.com/pub/chadorze...
The Revolution Will Be Available As Video On Demand
In which I finally get around to One Battle After Another
open.substack.com
November 18, 2025 at 3:09 PM
The rare blog post in which I watch a relatively current film and talk about what I thought: open.substack.com/pub/chadorze...
Reposted by Chad Orzel
Skeleton wore it better.
November 18, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Skeleton wore it better.