Where was I ?

Where was I ?

The CHIPP 2012 winter school of particle physics is over, and so is the 50th winter meeting on nuclear physics. The two events had three things in common: they were both held in renowned locations…
Palaeobarbie

Palaeobarbie

This is pretty funny; this is based on (supposedly genuine) letter sent to a well respected US museum. Obviously the names of institutions and individuals have been changed. Dear Mr. Smith: Thank you…
Favorite ArXiv Articles Of The Day

Favorite ArXiv Articles Of The Day

I read ArXiv regularly. It's not easy because most of the latest publications of physics go there before print. Apart from pedagogical articles (for teaching purposes), all the articles are aimed at…
Slit Experiments and Coherence Patterns

Slit Experiments and Coherence Patterns

Fire a machine gun at a wall with two slits. Look at the pattern bullets make that pass through. The pattern is the sum of two Gaussian curves. Classical physics makes sense. Repeat the exercise…
Copyright Infringement and International Law

Copyright Infringement and International Law

Copyright Infringement and International Law What with the day of action on SOPA taking up the front pages of the media, a new legal definition published by the UN has been mostly overlooked. I think…
First Snarky Puzzle Answers of 2012

First Snarky Puzzle Answers of 2012

Dec. 6, Spinning the Interaction Story: Spin 1 (1 of 3)Snarky puzzle Figure out how to represent any quaternion using 3D rotations and one complex number. BackgroundComplex numbers are critical in…
The Decisions of Life and Death

The Decisions of Life and Death

The decisions of life and death are not easy to make, whether it's about a loved one on life support or the need to spare a beloved pet suffering. As one family struggles with the harsh words of an…
Gladstone and Macaulay

Gladstone and Macaulay

William Macaulay, in a review (1839) about the recently-published book by William Gladstone, The State in its Relations with the Church, wrote:     Mr Gladstone conceives that the…
A Theory of Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos

A Theory of Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos

I was going to talk about neutrinos today, as the results of MiniBoone looking at how muon neutrinos mix into electron neutrinos had just been published earlier this week, and wanted to write about…
Preview - The First Hydroelectric

Preview - The First Hydroelectric

“It is said, with prefect truth as regards many matters, that ‘a little knowledge is a dangerous thing’, but there is no doubt in my mind that even a little knowledge – provided it be sound…
CiteAlert: a new form of Spam

CiteAlert: a new form of Spam

Elsevier is spamming my mailbox. You would not expect that from a large publishing company who makes money from publishing scientific papers, but that's what happens. I think I am not alone in…