Theoretical Musings
Dave Bacon is a theoretical ski bum who is also an assistant research professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. His research is on quantum computing, his scientific passions extend to everything in physics, mathematics, computer science and beyond, and his personal pleasures include making wine, playing poker, skiing, camping, and daydreaming (although not all of those at the same time.)
November 30, 2007
Category: Teaching
...is finding a homework stuck to my door, with duck tape, along with the note "Gone to Mt. Baker" (Mt. Baker is a local ski area.) Actually this reminds me of a policy I've always wanted to try: require every...
Posted by Dave Bacon at 4:20 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks• View blog reactions
November 29, 2007
Category: Seattle
From the magazine Seattle Metropolitan, comes the article "Smartest city ever: 50 ways Seattle will change the world." I hope the claim is true, but like all magazine articles from rags denoted entirely to a city, the lens is more...
Posted by Dave Bacon at 3:00 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks• View blog reactions
Category: Best Title Ever
One of the funniest abstracts to a paper on the arxiv in many moons appeared yesterday, authored by Carlos Mochon: arXiv:0711.4114 Title: Quantum weak coin flipping with arbitrarily small bias Authors: Carlos Mochon "God does not play dice. He flips...
Posted by Dave Bacon at 12:30 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks• View blog reactions
Category: Extralusionary Intelligence
One good reason to subscribe to the New York Times is that they have what I consider far above average science reporting for a newspaper. Their Tuesday Science Times section is a must read for me pretty much every week....
Posted by Dave Bacon at 12:04 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks• View blog reactions
November 27, 2007
Category: Quantum Computing
My grandfather liked to write letters to the editor. I think I inherited this disease from him. Here are the contents of a recent letter I wrote to the editor of Physics Today which I hope some of you may...
Posted by Dave Bacon at 12:12 PM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks• View blog reactions
November 24, 2007
Category: Nitpicker's Paradiso
Paul Davies essay in the New York Times on "Taking Science on Faith" is sure to raise some hackles from the science community. Me, I'd just like to point out how silly some of Davies arguments specifics are. Yes, its...
Posted by Dave Bacon at 6:30 PM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks• View blog reactions
Category: Quantum Basterdizations
Well it is certainly true that Mystics and quantum physicists speak the same language, that language most probably being Mandarin, English, or Hindi, but I'm guessing that's probably not what they meant by that title. I should have stopped reading...
Posted by Dave Bacon at 5:18 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks• View blog reactions
November 22, 2007
Category: Read You Tweed
Books recently removed from the queue. "Mathematicians in Love" by Rudy Rucker, "An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets" by Donald Mackenzie, "Financial Calculus : An Introduction to Derivative Pricing" by Martin Baxter and Andrew Rennie. "109...
Posted by Dave Bacon at 12:11 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks• View blog reactions
November 21, 2007
Category: Quantum Computing
Postdocs, APS GQI quantum newsletter, Quantum computing in Waikiki, quantum chicanery, quantum foods....
Posted by Dave Bacon at 4:30 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks• View blog reactions
November 20, 2007
Category: Quantum
So you want to learn quantum theory in ten minutes? Well I certainly can't give you the full theory in all its wonder and all its gory detail in that time, but I can give you a light version of...
Posted by Dave Bacon at 8:56 PM • 39 Comments • 0 TrackBacks• View blog reactions
