I finally got a copy of Cox and Forshaw’s The Quantum Universe, and a little time to read it, in hopes that it would shed some light on the great electron state controversy. I haven’t finished the book, but I got through the relevant chapter and, well, it doesn’t, really. That is, the discussion in… Continue reading On the Interconnectedness of Things
Month: March 2012
Links for 2012-03-13
Fair Is Foul, But Fouling’s Unfair – The Triangle Blog – Grantland I would always prefer that the trailing team receive an opportunity to tie the game by hitting a shot from the floor. It’s superior in every way: It doesn’t force anyone to awkwardly miss a free throw on purpose, it’s more dramatic than… Continue reading Links for 2012-03-13
Incremental Progress in Quantum
The Links Dump item about software patents this morning includes a lament that there are so many silly little software patents, organized so badly, that finding one you might be infringing would take forever. This may or may not be a convincing argument against them, but for a physics geek like me, my first reaction… Continue reading Incremental Progress in Quantum
Links for 2012-03-12
Opinion: The problem with software patents? They don’t scale Nathan Myhrvold, the Microsoft veteran who founded the patent-trolling giant Intellectual Ventures, loves to complain about the “culture of intentionally infringing patents” in the software industry. “You have a set of people who are used to getting something for free,” he told Business Week in 2006.… Continue reading Links for 2012-03-12
Recent Genre Fiction Reading: Schroeder, Buckell, Cole
I’ve gotten out of the habit of booklogging recently, which is sort of a shame, because it means I’ve also gone back to the problem that led Kate and me to start booklogs in the first place: people ask what I’ve been reading recently, and I can’t remember… As a sort of corrective to this,… Continue reading Recent Genre Fiction Reading: Schroeder, Buckell, Cole
Friday Baby Blogging
I had planned to catch up on blogging a bunch of things this afternoon, but I decided I needed a nap more than I needed to pump up the blog traffic. So, here’s a cute-baby picture to make up for it: This is The Pip, trying to figure out what’s up with the little dude… Continue reading Friday Baby Blogging
Links for 2012-03-09
Still not as bad as Division I revenue sports § Unqualified Offerings Still, at the end of the day, there’s at least some notion of accountability and standards behind the assessment movement. I don’t think it’s been a very effective effort at accountability and standards, but somebody somewhere was clearly pushing for standards. However, I… Continue reading Links for 2012-03-09
A Musical Interlude
Yesterday was a really grueling day, and I’m home with The Pip today, so no substantive blogging. But here’s a song about the universe, written and performed by one of my colleagues: If this becomes the next LHC Rap, remember you heard it here first. By a weird coincidence, we’ve been watching our Animaniacs DVD’s… Continue reading A Musical Interlude
Experimental Particle Physics: Still Really Difficult
So, the news of the moment in high-energy physics is the latest results being reported from a conference in Europe. The major experimental collaborations are presenting their newest analyses, sifting through terabyte-size haystacks of data looking for the metaphorical needle that is the Higgs boson. And what are those results? It sort of depends on… Continue reading Experimental Particle Physics: Still Really Difficult
Links for 2012-03-07
Luis Alvarez: the ideas man – CERN Courier Luis Alvarez – one of the greatest experimental physicists of the 20th century – combined the interests of a scientist, an inventor, a detective and an explorer. He left his mark on areas that ranged from radar through to cosmic rays, nuclear physics, particle accelerators, detectors and… Continue reading Links for 2012-03-07