It was inevitable. Agree or not with what our administration does in Iraq, it was a done deal that eventually the fight would be compared to World War II. On a day when the President is speaking to a large veterans’ association, I see in his speech a gross mischaracterization […]
Language has always fascinated me. It really began when I took Latin in high-school (a love for which was recently rekindled by a “edutainment” program packaged with the KDE desktop manager: KLatin). The way that so much meaning could be hidden in a few words, a few well-chosen endings on […]
Well, I am back in California. After a very pleasant two week trek through the upper Midwest (driving a total of 2300 miles from Minneapolis, to Soudan, to Park Falls, Oshkosh, Milwaukee, Madison, Fermilab, Milwaukee, Park Falls, and then Minneapolis), I am picking up my life here at SLAC. But, […]
Earlier in this vacation, I said that I was excited about getting rain, thunderstorms, and maybe even a tornado. I argued as follows: I didn’t travel 2000 miles for weather I can get for free in California. Last night, I got my wish. Jodi fell asleep around 10, and I […]
I haven’t been back to Naperville since I last attended a Braidwood collaboration meeting, a few months before the project was canceled by the Department of Energy without peer review. Yeah, I’m still harping on that, but it’s a point worth making (over and over). I’m here now to present […]
Yesterday, Jodi and I spent the day in Madison, WI. This is where, about three years ago, we graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with our degrees in physics. We took this opportunity not only to seek out our old haunts, but also to catch up with the groups that […]
A few days ago, a critical piece of evidence was gathered [ARXIVDM]. This evidence was needed to discern between two possibilities: either 84% of the matter in our universe is “dark” – non-luminous, invisible to most means of detecting it – or is due to a modification of gravity at […]
I’ll comment on this more later. For now, here is the reference: “http://www.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0608407”:http://www.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0608407.
Jodi and I have been in Wisconsin for a day, marking the second half of our trip to the Midwest. We’re leaving Park Falls tomorrow for Osh Kosh, then on to Madison on Tuesday and Wednesday. I sat outside today, working on the PC I built for my in-laws using […]
We’re in the final stages of packing and cleaning before we get into the car, head south (quick lunch in Virginia, then coffee in Duluth), and go to Jodi’s parents’ house. Goodbye, Soudan!
One of the many reasons I am a physicist is the influence of my father. I had previously commented on the role my mother’s father, “pop-pop”, played on my choice to pursue science as part of my life. However, the role my father played in engaging me in challenging questions, […]
An article appeared recently [CNNPhysics], written by Gregory Mone, a member of the writing staff at Popular Science. In the title of the article, he posed the question “Can this machine rescue physics?”. This article came to my attention when members of the BaBar collaboration began to comment on it. […]