Today, Secretary Bodman came out in defense of U.S. policy toward global climate change. He said that the U.S. spends more on this issue than the rest of the world combined (not sure on what we’re spending it, I am afraid – barely anybody even knows there’s an office of […]
*Ignignokt: Our god is a god of vengeance. A god of hate. * *Err: A god of action! * *Ignignokt: Our god is an Indian who can turn into a wolf and- * *Err: Dude, that’s Wolfen. * *Ignignokt: Yes, well Wolfen will come after you, with his razor.* These […]
I’m sorry . . . I’ve been laughing my ass off about this today. I am sure this wasn’t funny for Boston, and I apologize in advance for having a sense of humor, but this story just loosens my bowels it’s so ridiculous. Yes, that’s the first time “bowels” has […]
Here are the highlights from the omnibus spending bill passed by the House today: **NSF**:“SEC. 20916. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for ‘National Science Foundation, Research and Related Activities’ shall be $4,665,950,000, of which not to exceed $485,000,000 shall remain available until expended for Polar research and operations support, and […]
This is a critical day for U.S. fundamental, curiosity-driven research. Having failed to pass the bi-partisan proposed increases for FY07 last autumn, the 109th Congress literally passed the buck to the 110th. They threatened to respond to this mess by “skipping” FY07, funding it at the same levels as FY06, […]
Dear Bill, I am so excited. I popped popcorn, and broke out the noisemakers. I even found an old stash of bright yellow Spongebob Squarepants party hats. You cannot know the joy you bring to my life. Microsoft Windows Vista (WOW . . . like . . . WOW) is […]
As you probably heard, “the primary scientific instrument onboard the Hubble Space Telescope failed today”:http://story.news.ask.com//article/20070130/D8MVBN680.html after its backup power supply failed. While NASA suggests that 1/3 of the camera’s capabilities could be restored in a month or so, it’s clear that this marks the end of a brilliant era in […]
This past Friday, on “Talk of the Nation: Science Friday”, a half-hour of the two-hour program was devoted to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the Higgs particle [SciFriLHC]. The guests were luminaries of the hadron and future collider world – the spokesman of the CDF collaboration at Fermilab (Konigsberg), […]
Here are my notes on the President’s SotU speech, with timestamps (slightly delayed by Stevo)! 6:13: Bush starts off acknowledging the historic occasion of the first woman to be Speaker of the House. Jodi comments that he “would have been a real ass” not to do it. 6:18: “Unemployment is […]
I recently purchased an M-audio Fast Track USB box, which converts XLR input to USB. This lets me plug an SM57 microphone, good for average sound applications and generic instrumental recording, into my desktop linux box and record drums. This has given me the freedom to finally pursue my drumming […]
Last month, Jodi’s name was the first two words of an article on dark matter and the CDMS experiment. Forgive me for being a proud husband. The article has been featured on the SLAC website, and last night I noted it was on the “Fermilab website”:http://www.fnal.gov. Symmetry is a joint […]
The Higgs – no, we haven’t found it yet. Physicists have long talked about it. We’ve been building and running machines for decades, trying to zero in on it. Back in the eighties, most physicists seemed to think it was a low-mass particle and looked for evidence of it at […]