It seems that I cannot watch the Independent Lens program, “The Atom Smashers” [1], on my local PBS stations. Help! I really want to see this program. If you know of a (legit) way to get it on the internet, let me know. Maybe it’ll appear on the website, maybe […]
In order to get some work done today, free from the pressures of an open-office-door policy, Jodi has escaped to an undisclosed location (with me in tow, happy to also get work done). She and at least one of her colleagues will be here today, and then we’ll eventually shuffle […]
For those of us who experienced high school in the nineties, especially high school in suburbs or more rural parts of America, there is a certain experience one had with those around you. I was a nerd, not very sociable, and that made me uninterested in parties. But it made […]
For those of you trying to find news about the fatal car accident in front of SLAC this morning, the accident report has started to make rounds in the local news: http://www.almanacnews.com/news/show_story.php?id=2849
This is the last leg of the flight back to San Jose. It’s about 5 pm CA time, and we’re mercifully on time tonight. I know I always say this, but it’s hard for me to believe that I woke up in Lafayette, IN this morning and am now lurking […]
Yesterday, I hit the road from Bloomington and headed north to West Lafayette, and Purdue University. Purdue is a place I knew little about before I arrived, but the many posters on the walls of the physics department told the tale. From detector fabrication (CDF hadron calorimeter, CLEO silicon detector, […]
What is a Hoosier? I never realized until last night how long I’ve wondered that, but never bothered to just go and look up the answer. This is an amazingly simple question with, it turns out, no simple answer. According to the bits on Wikipedia [1], the exact origin of […]
Tomorrow, I am heading back to the Midwest for a brief round of seminars. My travels will take me to Indiana University and then Purdue. I am really looking forward to this, as there are people I respect greatly at both locations. I’m even looking forward to the plane ride; […]
Millie thought back to the time she’d messed around with that Duke kid, the one that strutted around like he was king of the penthouse but he was really just a thieving piece of shit who slept around for homework. It still wasn’t quite as disconcerting as this e-mail. She […]
This weekend my wife and I drove down to the Monterey area for two reasons. The first was a delayed celebration of our wedding anniversary; I was traveling for my seminar tour during the actual anniversary. The second was so that she could run the Big Sur half-marathon, and I […]
In the last few weeks – and, indeed, years – I am more and more stuck by the fact that physicists are not wide-spread open-source consumers. I’ll give a key example, and then conclude. Microsoft Office. It’s offered for cheap to institutions, especially adademic ones, in order to get people […]
It was clear by 8:05 pm: Barack Obama was to be President. Our cottage erupted in joy, for a the first time it seemed that something went right in national politics in eight years. This is an opportunity not to be wasted. Fellow scientists, this is our chance to showcase […]