Aaron:
Well, Chad's back, and I guess that means that this guest-blogging stint has come to an end (free! I'm free!). I want to thank Chad again for the opportunity to play in his sandbox for a few weeks. I didn't...
Posted on September 9, 2007 11:49 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I remember the last time I saw the milky way. I was at my aunt's house in the foothills of the Sierras, and late at night the dense river of stars emerges. But that is still not the true milky...
Posted on September 8, 2007 6:40 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Now that I'm back in College Station, it's time to start getting applications ready for the great job search. I don't know how it is in other fields, but in math/physics, this generally involves three to four letters of recommendation,...
Posted on September 6, 2007 4:01 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Steinn reports that the NRC has made its recommendations for NASA's Beyond Einstein program. The winners appear to be LISA, a gravity wave observatory, and JDEM, a competition of dark energy focussed satellites. Steinn has lots of links to the...
Posted on September 5, 2007 5:05 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Well, I'm back in Texas and just in time for Steve Jobs to introduce new toys I can't afford. At the risk of turning Chad's blog into an Apple advertisement, every time I pass an Apple store, it takes significant...
Posted on September 5, 2007 2:22 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Happy Labor Day to everyone. I'll be traveling back to Texas, so no blog for me for a day or so....
Posted on September 3, 2007 12:15 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Because my team, the Forty Niners, aren't. Neither apparently is Michigan. On the other hand, my co-guest blogger is surely happy....
Posted on September 2, 2007 11:33 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Principles proprietor is currently at WorldCon where the Hugo awards are given out. This year's winners are available (among many other places, I'm sure) at Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden's blog. I wasn't a huge fan of Rainbows End...
Posted on September 1, 2007 1:50 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Taking a break from all this physics, I thought I'd talk a little about music and some related mathematical coincidences. One of the fundamental concepts of music is that of consonance and dissonance. Consonant things sound nice when played together...
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Posted on September 1, 2007 11:20 AM • 22 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
If you're on the west coast tonight and are willing to stay up late or wake up early, you have the chance to see the Aurigid meteor shower. This shower is fairly unique because it arises from a comet with...
Posted on August 31, 2007 9:39 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Since I have control over this blog for a little while (and where is my co-guest blogger anyways?), I figure I ought to use it in my own self-interest. Towards that end, the Austin City Limits music festival is coming...
Posted on August 29, 2007 8:09 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I remember back when I was in high school and came across lists of the greatest mathematicians ever. They almost always included Archimedes, Newton and Gauss. Sometimes Euler made it in. I knew who these guys were, but every once...
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Posted on August 27, 2007 5:48 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The title of this post is a famous question (posed, for example, by Joe Polchinski) which is modeled after an even more famous question by Ken Wilson, "What is Quantum Field Theory?". I certainly can't answer the first question, but...
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Posted on August 26, 2007 2:18 PM • 23 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
For those of you willing to stay up late, there will be a total eclipse of the moon on August 28 visible to various extents over most of the western hemisphere and some of east Asia. The show is a...
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Posted on August 25, 2007 7:33 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Or, "Stealing Chad's Ideas: First in a Series". When you write 'log', do you mean base 10 or base e? What field do you work in? Update: Or base 2 for you CS-types....
Posted on August 24, 2007 8:20 AM • 43 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
As I mentioned earlier, I'm currently attending the Simons Workshop in Mathematics and Physics at Stony Brook University. The weather finally warmed up today, and we relocated to Smith Point Beach to hear Juan Maldacena tell us a bit about...
Posted on August 23, 2007 9:06 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
"Prof. Orzel gives the impression of an everyday guy who just happens to have a vast but hidden knowledge of physics." (anonymous student evaluation comment)
