I heard today that Mayor Bloomberg of NY has succeeded in persuading the city council to vote in favor of extending term limits for elected officials [1]. This struck at my moral center for leadership, which I elaborated on a few weeks ago [2] – the Cincinnatus model. Cincinnatus was […]
This morning, I awoke a bit later than usual, went through the morning routine, paid some extra attention to the cats, and then hit the road for Davis, CA. I came here today to give a seminar, just as I had been doing through my 8-state trek in September and […]
The following is imagined, and purely fictional, in the same way that Galileo’s “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems” was a work of fiction about actual scientific principles. Some of the text is taken from Ref. [1]. (cue music) Mr. Tom Brokaw: Our issues this Sunday: He is a […]
The sum, 27+1+11, are the number of days that I was away from home while Jodi was here in CA, the number of days we were both home, and the number of days she’s away from home, all for a period of 39 days starting on Sep. 18. Physics can […]
I micro-blogged last night some thoughts I had on the debate. This debate left me with a few questions, which I’ll try to address here. 1. “$3M for an overhead projector in a planetarium? I wonder if he means one of those super-expensive star projectors? Sounds like education.” (http://www.cooleysekula.net/chirp/index.php?action=shownotice¬ice=32) This […]
I feel halfway home. I got up early this morning, after a nice solid 8 hours of sleep, and hit the road an hour later. This put me into Midway Airport four hours ahead of my flight, but I really like killing time at Midway. They have a decent food […]
I don’t have a lot of time to say too much – in fact, I’ve planned a rather informative look back on my seminar trip that I’ll write later – but I can say this: what an incredible month this has been. I have learned a terrific amount about over […]
My journey on this large part of my seminar tour has taken me several thousand miles, through eight states, to eight institutions, in two countries. It was inevitable that this would catch up to me, and while I was hoping to stay that until I got home it seems my […]
I don’t want to sound paranoid, but I think Barack Obama is following me. The other day I was in Cleveland, east of the downtown area. As I left the city, heading southwest for Cincinnati, I turned on the radio. It was then that I heard it: Barack Obama was […]
This morning, over breakfast at the B&B where I am staying in Cincinnati, I saw that the New York Times ran a cover article on Alan Greenspan. It was a retrospective – given the mess the economy is in, what does he say now looking back? They highlighted quotes from […]
This afternoon I arrived in the city of Cincinnati, in southwestern Ohio. I began my journey this morning after my last breakfast in Cleveland. Breakfast was fantastic, topped with a great discussion of physics with a fellow traveler staying at the B&B. He told me a little about the heavy […]
What a tiring past four days. I came to the realization of just how close the first faculty job application deadlines had become, and ramped up my work on application material. That, coupled with the seminars and travel is tiring me out. I still find myself energized for this whole […]