Apparently it is De-Lurking week everywhere in the blog world. This means that even if (especially if) you have not commented on the blog before, this is the time where you come in and say hello, before (if you prefer) returning back to lurker status for a while. You can do it as “anon” or under another assumed name if you wish to. I know – you’re shy, you don’t think that anyone cares, or that you have anything to say at all… No. We (that is, the community of regulars and me, your host) care, and what you say will be interesting!
You can just say hello, or tell us how you found the blog, how you find the blog (if you see what I mean), tell us something about yourself, or not, or just make a little noise! Or pick a topic that you prefer.
(And of course, even if you’ve commented before -rarely or frequently- we’ll be happy to hear from you too!)
-cvj
(*Via Uncertain Principles and Adventures in Ethics and Science.)
Hi Clifford,
I thoroughly enjoy logging on in the wee small hours after a busy day in clinical medicine and have finally got my babies to sleep!
Your writing reminds me that there is a life out there where people take time to think, reflect on life, notice what is really going on and comment with intelligence. I often find myself locked in the medical metaphorical straight-jacket and I find you open up new horizons.
Dont stop! Its very refreshing.
Clifford – I’ve been thinking about the blog and I do have theory, that you have in fact invented some sort of time machine which gives you more hours in the day, enabling you to do all the things you do and giving you time to write about it. Whatever your secret is, keep on doing it!
Anon: You too?!
Hi Clifford!
Hi!
I really enjoy reading this blog – especially when I am grant writing. It makes a great break in the tedium (of grant writing).
Thanks everyone. Thanks very much. I find your comments interesting and encouraging. I really appreciate them. It is useful to me to learn more about the readers, or just to read that they are there. It increases the sense of community, at the very least.
Cheers,
-cvj
Thanks Plato! That’s a lovely post indeed.
Hey, putting an end to me lurking 😉
Clifford, you know my net-presence fairly well. While my own blog ELECTRON BLUE is on hiatus due to technical difficulties, I will pop up here. I always turn to ASYMPTOTIA when I begin my blog scanning, and I always enjoy reading it. Thanks for taking the time to write it.
I suppose I’m a pseudo-lurker as I don’t comment very often, but do very much enjoy reading the blog. The example of the delightful post mentioned above illustrates why.
9 – popocatepetl: Which was the post about a little girl doing math in the bus? I’m curious but am sorry I can’t recall it. Could someone point to it, please?
It was a lovely story about innocence, and the opportunity for teaching a young inquisitive mind.
Just “being there” for the child in all of us.
Every time I visit, I’m tempted to type something up in LaTex. Ah, what the heck. A formula for reducing products of pure state density matrices:
Let [tex]\vec{u}, \vec{v}, \vec{w}[/tex] be unit vectors in three dimensions, and [tex]\vec{\sigma}[/tex] be the usual vector of pauli matrices. Then
[tex]P_u = 0.5(1 + \vec{u}\cdot\vec{\sigma})[/tex]
is a projection operator for spin in the [tex]\vec{u}[/tex] direction and similarly for v and w. Then
[tex]\sqrt{2}\;\sqrt{1+\vec{u}\cdot\vec{w}}\; P_u P_w
= \sqrt{1+\vec{u}\cdot\vec{v}}\;\sqrt{1+\vec{v}\cdot\vec{w}}\;
\exp(iS_{uvw}/2)\; P_u P_v P_w [/tex]
where [tex]S_{uvw}[/tex] is the surface area of the spherical triangle whose vertices are [tex]\vec{u}, \vec{v}, \vec{w}[/tex].
I also followed from Cosmic Variance. Was studying at Berkeley when I started reading, now I’m a math postdoc at NYU. I’ve always enjoyed the range of topics you write about, and continue to do so.
Which was the post about a little girl doing math in the bus? I’m curious but am sorry I can’t recall it. Could someone point to it, please?
From physics, to gorgeous apple pies, the Sun, flowers, to riding your bike to work, and knitting – what’s not to like about you? For lack of a better turn of phrase, you seem to have this Zen-like approach to blogging. It’s a very nice place to lurk over. Thanks!
(I come through Cocktail Party Physics. I wasn’t able to get into CV at home until a few months ago.)
Clifford, I agree with Yajnavalkya. Your post about the little girl doing math in the bus was one of the greatest posts of all time, I reckon.
I read here, and elsewhere, because of the physics and cosmology. However, I keep on coming back because of everything else!
big cheers,
astromcnaught
Hello,
I also followed when you moved from CV. This is one of my favorite blogs, the variety of topics is great, and as a grad student it’s nice to see that a successful life in academia doesn’t preclude other interests. Thanks for a great blog!
Hi There,
Like Luo Lin, I also followed you over from CV. I like the kind of stuff you talk about and post about. I like the kind of stuff you talk about, and also the way you talk of things. There’s no dearth of smart people who know cool stuff, but you belong to the very tiny minority of non-cynical, non-caustic smart people. As a physics grad, myself, I think that there are a lot of things people could learn from your attitude, not just because it’s good for Physics popularisation and presenting a more welcoming view of Physics to the public at large, but also because basically it’s just more fun and better.
I especially liked your post about the IFF and using crochet to visualise manifolds. And since I’m recalling good posts I liked, there was also an old post of yours about a little girl doing math.
I know you’re a busy guy with lot’s of work etc. … but if you’re asking, I for one would love to hear more about your work too.
cheers,
~Y
I followed you over from Cosmic Variance. I mostly just read, though I have commented on occasion.
I’m also a professor, but in the humanities. My own blog is mostly personal rather than professional these days.
Reading about the California flowers and weather makes me homesick.
Instead of me –
Robinson Jeffers.
The mathematicians and physics men
Have their mythology; they work alongside the truth,
Never touching it; their equations are false
But the things work. Or, when gross error appears,
They invent new ones; they drop the theory of waves
In universal ether and imagine curved space.
Nevertheless their equations bombed Hiroshima.
The terrible thing worked.
The poet also
Has his mythology. He tells you the moon arose
Out of the Pacific basin. He tells you that Troy was burnt for a vagrant
Beautiful woman, her face launched a thousand ships.
It is unlikely: it might be true: but church and state
Depend on more peculiarly impossible myths:
That all men are born free and equal: consider that!
And that a wandering Hebrew poet named Jesus
Is the God of the universe. Consider that!
And I forgot to say that interestingly, it seems this trend only appears on american blogs (or at least english speaking blogs). Though it might be a good idea for my lately uncommented blog … 🙂
Though I read many blogs and news feeds, I usually don’t comment. Not that I lurk, I just have nothing to say. And actually, I am even more a lurker these days, because I don’t want to play the game of these numerous de-lurking posts that I read.
But that’s the end of the day (in Denmark), I read so many of them today, I break down, you win, even though you blog is one of the only blogs I have already commented 🙂
Cheers,