pontiff | September 8, 2009Over at the most uncertain blog, he of uncertain principles (aka Chad) takes up a challenge posed by @EricRWeinstein on twitter concerning Paul Krugman's recent article on why economists got the economic crisis so wrong. Since I know even less economics than anyone around here this seems like a great opportunity for me to weigh in (this is, after all, the blogosphere!)
Krugman's article is deceptively enticing, yet I find it disturbingly inadequate. In particular the critique is very much written as a just-so story, and there is very little in terms of concrete claims made nor of actual…
pontiff | September 8, 2009One RSS feeds I subscribe to is the one at http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/. I mean, if the world is going to end, I certainly want Google reader to be the first to tell me. But today's RSS update is, instead of the traditional "no", different:
Bye bye everyone. This domain is not being renewed. It's been fun.
Which means that soon when you check www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com, you may not get an answer. Which may or may not mean the LHC has destroyed the world (oh noes!) Or it may just mean that your going to find a web page filled with spam from a domain name squatter.…
pontiff | September 8, 2009Tomorrow, September 9, 2009 is apparently the date for a worldwide game of monopoly: Monopoly City Streets
Welcome to Monopoly City Streets. You versus the world in the biggest live game of MONOPOLY in history!
On the 9th SEPTEMBER, a world of property empire building on an unimaginable scale will be launched! A live worldwide game of MONOPOLY using Google Maps as the game board. The goal is simple. Play to beat your friends and the world to become the richest property magnate in existence.
Own any street in the world. Build humble houses, crazy castles and stupendous skyscrapers to collect…
pontiff | September 4, 2009Scott Aaronson, Leonid Grinberg, and Louis Wasserman's "Worldview Manager" is now live at http://projects.csail.mit.edu/worldview/home. It seems that I am not in much conflict over quantum computing
So, damnit, I may be wrong, but at least I'm consistent (the hobgoblin of a little mind, mind you.) Via @cgranade and @mattleifer.
pontiff | September 4, 2009Congrats to Andrew Houcke for being selected as one of MIT Technology Reviews 2009 Young Innovators under 35. Houcke has been one the leading experimentalists in superconducting qubits, in particular doing pioneering work in circuit quantum electrodynamics. News article from Princeton:
Andrew Houck, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and a past Princeton valedictorian, was named to Technology Review magazine's list of the top 35 young innovators for 2009.
Since 1999, the editors of Technology Review have honored the young innovators whose inventions and research they find…
pontiff | September 4, 2009I'm a pretty optimistic guy. Okay, I'm a really optimistic guy. But even my optimism has its limits when bashing up against the cold hard reality of what experiments plus our understanding of the laws of physics tells us about the universe. Here are my top three most depressing facts about the universe coming from the field of physics and astronomy.
The speed of light. The speed of light is a real bummer, dude. I mean sure, 299792458 meters per second may sound fast, but in comparison to the nearly 40 trillion kilometers to the nearest star, it's not very fast. And considering the…
pontiff | September 3, 2009How do you build a computer out of fire?
(Motivated by the observation that if you take three pieces of string and tie them together at a single point, you can make an OR gate. If we denote the presence of fire on a string as a 1 and the absence of fire as a 0, then this contraption clearly computes the OR function. But OR by itself is not universal.)
pontiff | September 2, 2009At least three postdoc positions at the University of New Mexico and the University of Arizona's "Center for Quantum Information and Control." Here is a pdf ad for the positions.
The Center for Quantum Information and Control (CQuIC) is seeking to hire at least three postdoctoral fellows over the next year. CQuIC has research nodes at the University of New Mexico (UNM) under Professors Carlton Caves and Ivan Deutsch and at the College of Optical Sciences of the University of Arizona (UA) under Professor Poul Jessen.
Research at CQuIC is focused on quantum information, quantum control,…
pontiff | September 2, 2009Trip to Zurich for 8th Symposium on Topological Quantum Computing, Zurich 29th-31st August 2009.
Thursday 8/27 - 7:30am SEA to 3:30pm IAD, 6:00pm IAD to 8:00am ZRH. Attempt to upgrade first leg failed which is too bad as it was the international version of the 767-300 which has a pretty nice (by American carrier standards) business class. Both flights are completely full. Am I the only one who often goes to the self check kiosks by the gates and attempts to move my seat to one beside an empty seat? Sleep approximately 2 hours. Why does the lady behind me think that it is okay to start a…
pontiff | August 30, 2009You've got to love a country where a Caesar salad includes a big helping of Bacon:
All hail Caesar Bacon!
pontiff | August 26, 2009I'm off to Zurich tomorrow for 8th Symposium on Topological Quantum Computing which I'm greatly looking forward to (this will be my first trip to Switzerland.) What I'm not looking forward to is the 15.5 hours it will take me to get from the Seattle airport to the Zurich airport! So, any recommendations for papers I should read, lectures I should listen to, or videos I should watch in order to keep from going insane on during the flight?
pontiff | August 21, 2009An interesting paper on the arXiv's today, arXiv:0908.2782, "Adiabatic quantum optimization fails for random instances of NP-complete problems" by Boris Altshuler, Hari Krovi, and Jeremie Roland. Trouble for D-wave?
Adiabatic quantum algorithms are a set of techniques for designing quantum algorithms based upon the adiabatic theorem in quantum physics. The basic idea is as follows: (1) take the problem you are trying to solve and convert it to a Hamiltonian whose ground state (you could use other energy eigenstates, but in general this is not done) is the solution to this problem, (2)…
pontiff | August 20, 2009I Am Poor, the $0.99 iPhone app:
The mac & cheese, Ramen noodles, and tuna is my artistic rendition of what poor college students eat with their limited funds.
The icon on your iPhone or iPod Touch always reminds you (and others when you show it to them) that you were able to afford this.
But, we all would like to get a little richer so tapping on the info button will let you read on old classic by P.T. Barnum called 'Art of Money Getting' to give you some sage advice to help you increase your wealth.
Barnums "Golden Rules for Making Money" found in 'Art of Money Getting' will pay for 'I…
pontiff | August 19, 2009Want a job hacking away at topological quantum computing (and more) by day and surfing (by morning?) on the beautiful Southern California coast near Santa Barbara? Okay, well maybe surfing isn't part of the job description, but Microsoft's Station Q at UCSB has postdocs available with a deadline of October 16, 2009:
Station Q will be recruiting postdoctoral researchers. We are primarily interested in applicants with a strong background in quantum Hall physics, topological insulators, quantum information in condensed matter, and/or numerical methods, but will consider excellent candidates…
pontiff | August 15, 2009Living in a small rural town is hard. Jobs are often difficult to come by (in the Northwest this is particularly true of towns that have suffered the slow fall of the timber industry.) The county where I grew up, Siskiyou county, currently has an unemployment rate north of 18 percent. And yet, there are small towns where, well you might not have a good job, but you have something else which has tremendous value. Here is the view from near the top of my run this afternoon above Yreka, CA
The volcano to the right is Mt. Shasta and the one to the left is Goosenest (a great place to camp and…
pontiff | August 11, 2009Buzzing on Scienceblogs right now is PalMDs ongoing attempt to get his BMI in shape. In honor, I shall post my latest attempt at getting in shape:
Kids and adults: don't try this at home!
How did I do it? Eat like a monk and run a lot.
pontiff | August 11, 2009How did I miss this one from 2005? And how come no one told me to take off my tinfoil hat? Via @kmerritt, "On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets: An Empirical Study" by Ali Rahimi, Ben Recht, Jason Taylor, and Noah Vawter.
Among a fringe community of paranoids, aluminum helmets serve as the protective measure of choice against invasive radio signals. We investigate the efficacy of three aluminum helmet designs on a sample group of four individuals. Using a $250,000 network analyser, we find that although on average all helmets attenuate invasive radio frequencies in either…
pontiff | August 10, 2009March is ages away, but it is time to start planning for the APS March meeting, to be held in the beautiful rose city, Portland, Oregon (Note to skiers that Mt. Hood is just a short distance away :) ) Anyway an important part of the March meeting are invites sessions and the quantum computing/information/foundations topical group GQI is in charge of a few of these sessions. Want to nominate a session or invited speaker? Now's your chance. Here's the email that was sent out Friday:
Dear GQI members,
This is an email to solicit from you proposals for GQI sponsored invited sessions and…
pontiff | August 5, 2009Booz Allen Hamilton is looking for a science and technology consultant in quantum information sciences. Help be a part of quantum revolution! Description and contact info below the fold.
Key Role/Position Description:
Serve as a strategic consultant to government science and technology clients. Contribute to advancing the state-of the-art in the quantum sciences by combining strategic planning and technical analysis. Assist clients in researching and formulating ideas for new research programs. Provide expertise in assessing research proposals for technical merit and proposal objectives.…