Tonight I have a bittersweet occasion to attend. My long-time friend and colleague, once my graduate school apartment mate in Geneva during my first summer at CERN and then my grad school office mate, is saying farewell to the U.S. physics community and going to Switzerland. Like many, many other […]
It’s been a while since I jotted some thoughts here in the old blog. It’s been a rather on/off series of weeks. I went on a four-day vacation while my sister was here, then returned for a full week of research. Labor Day weekend was spent in Connecticut with my […]
Quite a while back, I believe in early 2006, I setup a home personal video recorder (PVR) using a Hauppauge 350 TV Tuner card, a small form-factor system and an old monitor, and MythTV. My MythTV distribution of choice, at the time, was KnoppMyth. However, after one or two scary […]
I’ve largely avoided the political pageantry surrounding the alleged candidates for U.S. president in 2008. This is for several reasons. The first is that I am still a little burned out on the pure doses of politics that came in 2006, during my last round of physical science outreach to […]
This has been a really refreshing week, quite a turn of events from the constant obsession with fundamental particles. My sister arrived on Tuesday, and after finally clearing my plate of all my last minute research items I was ready to put aside physics. We hiked, we biked, we watched […]
From Tuesday, and for the rest of this week, I am on vacation. This is my first time off in over half a year. While Europe shuts down for the month of August, and people rest or spend time with family and friends on the coast, I am trying to […]
Well, it’s inevitable. In physics, we have a saying that goes something like, “Yesterday’s theory is today’s discovery is tomorrow’s calibration”. In politics, it might go something like this: “Yesterday’s impossibility is today’s lightning rod is tomorrow’s bludgeon.” This morning, as I listen to the program “Forum” on KQED, they […]
My thoughts tonight will be with the many people in the path of Hurricane Dean as it makes landfall in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.
Two years ago, we in the United States were treated to the destruction of an entire city, the failure of local, state, and national government institutions, and an ongoing saga regarding the New Orleans’ levee system. Last year, predictions were for an equally destructive season, something that was averted thanks […]
After my last freak out, I decided it was time for some R&R. My sister is visiting next week, and that seemed like a pretty good time to just not come into work. Consequently, I’ll be taking my first vacation since Christmas next week. In the meantime, I’ve had a […]
Well, this probably is the worst year on record. Sigh. It had such potential. Last November, I was optimistic that I’d be done with my search for invisible decays of the Upsilon, I’d have at least one other publication in addition from another rare decay search, and that by now […]
Jodi and I finished dinner tonight and the suggestion arose that we shouldgo to a local cafe for cake, coffee, and a little atmosphere. She had some work to do on a research project, something she could do with her Powerbook, and I had a paper to edit and some […]