On a happier science-related note, the AIP’s Physics News Update highlights a very nice article in The American Journal of Physics about the wide-ranging scientific investigations of Luis Alvarez: Scientist as detective: Luis Alvarez and the pyramid burial chambers, the JFK assassination, and the end of the dinosaurs Luis Alvarez (1911-1988) was one of the… Continue reading Scientist as Detective
Category: Personal
Woo-Hoo!
If you go to the California Bar home page, you will see that only 56.1% of the applicants who took the bar exam this year passed. If you poke around a little, you can find the list of those who passed, and on that list, you’ll find my sister’s name. She graduated law school back… Continue reading Woo-Hoo!
The Healing Power of Beer
As noted here in the past, I had horrible stomach problems for a good chunk of last year. This was diagnosed as “Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disease” or “GERD,” which basically amounts to “Your stomach hurts.” After a number of deeply unsatisfactory appointments with a gastroenterologist, and some tests about which the less said the better, it… Continue reading The Healing Power of Beer
In Which I Play With Social Network Applications
I haven’t even had a book contract for a month, and already I’m engaging in Authorial Avoidance Behavior… I spent a while this morning messing around with setting up a del.icio.us account. This does actually have a worthwhile goal, namely to be an improvement over my current system of keeping a hundred tabs open in… Continue reading In Which I Play With Social Network Applications
Reality Lets Me Down, Again
From the “You Read Too Much SF” file: I was really disappointed by the press release that went with the headline: Mysterious energy burst stuns astronomers A headline like that really ought to involve bodies strewn about a remote observatory, and enigmatic alien forces roaming free, perhaps being hunted by menacing government agents. Sadly, it… Continue reading Reality Lets Me Down, Again
James “Robert Jordan” Rigney, 1948-2007
James Oliver Rigney, better known to the world by his Robert Jordan pseudonym, has passed away after a long illness. I didn’t know him personally– I met him very briefly once, at a signing– but the Wheel of Time books were ridiculously important in my life. I met a great many friends through Robert Jordan… Continue reading James “Robert Jordan” Rigney, 1948-2007
It’s Good to Be Home
Friday morning, we woke up in Osaka, and from there, the “day” went something like this: 1 hour on the train from Osaka Station to Kansai Airport 2 hours at the airport 12 hours on a plane to Detroit 2 hours in the airport at Detroit 2 hours on a plant to JFK 2 hours… Continue reading It’s Good to Be Home
USVI: Love the Hat
One final vacation picture: what with all the snorkeling and boat-chartering and hiking, I was starting to worry that I might seem too cool to be a physicist. There was a chance that I might meet somebody, and not have them realize immediately what I do for a living. At the same time, my Northern… Continue reading USVI: Love the Hat
Japan Travel Checklist
In just a few days, Kate and I are leaving for Japan, for a couple of weeks of tourism before Worldcon. Most of the important things have been done– we’ve got tickets, and hotel reservations, and JR Pass vouchers, and that sort of thing. Things remaining to be dealy with (a partial list): Medication. What… Continue reading Japan Travel Checklist
USVI: Mise En Scene
I took a rather large number of pictures on the recent trip, and I’m very happy with at least some of them. I’m uploading the raw images to Flickr, but I’m also cropping and tweaking them in GIMP for posting here. Because, well, it’s my blog, and if I want to try to make you… Continue reading USVI: Mise En Scene