More iPhone Features
Recall all the excitement of last week about the iPhone? Humourist Brian Unger of
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Author Archives: Clifford
Open Yellow
Well, that flower that so many of you – like me – enjoyed so much a while back has opened up very nicely. So I thought I’d share an update photo of it: -cvj
Better and Better
Last year in early January I was pleased to see that the MTA had improved things dramatically by changing the express buses (Metro Rapid) on my route from normal buses to those lovely long spacious ones – essentially two normal buses joined together with a giant hinge to allow the … Click to continue reading this post
Snap Links
New feature. This one is being tested since I’m not really sure whether I like it or not:
If you hover over any external link in a post, you’ll see something interesting happen. Try it. Here is a link to the USC website, for example.
I am trying to decide if this is a useful feature or not. Perhaps it is just too annoying compared to the gain in functionality? Or perhaps you don’t care either way since you […] Click to continue reading this post
Look Up!
Comet McNaught seems to be a gift that keeps on giving. Last night here in Los Angeles, just after the sun set, I stepped out to look from a nearby elevated spot – and there it was. With binoculars, it’s an impressive sight, and possibly the last naked-eye visible comet sighting for a long time. Unfortunately, I have no equipment that I can use to take a decent photo for you, so I can’t share what I saw.
But you can go out and look. I give some viewing tips below.
What you’re probably puzzled about now is why the experts kept getting the “last chance to see” message wrong. People seemed very sure back on Wednesday that it would be gone from view -and I did a post to that effect myself- and and the same thing was said on Thursday and then on Friday.
I’m guessing that this is because although they can track the position rather well, they […] Click to continue reading this post
Conference in Progress
Well, I checked in on the Women in Physics conference today, and it seems to be going very well. I went to lunch and sat with a number of the students (and some faculty) and I also chatted to some in private about their interests, current stages in their careers, etc. It’s always so wonderful to hear people so enthusiastic about physics, and listen to them wondering what their part in the great story of science will be.
Here are a couple of shots of the delegates at lunch – it is a sort of panorama (click each component for larger view): […] Click to continue reading this post
Just Go
From time to time I manage to make it to a movie theatre and sit down to watch a film that I have heard nothing about (which is really hard to do these days), and then am treated to the pleasure – if the film is at least half-decent – … Click to continue reading this post
De-Lurking Week!
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 … Click to continue reading this post
Women in Physics
This is a reminder that the Women in Physics Conference that I mentioned earlier takes place this weekend. In case you are in the area and interested in some of the
Site Map of Asymptotia
For your viewing pleasure, I’ve installed a new feature of the blog that allows you to see all the post titles under each category in a set of pages called site map. It will always be available to the right, near the top of the sidebar. It is an alternative … Click to continue reading this post
Last Chance For Some To See McNaught
So the new comet, McNaught, is now very much a naked-eye visible object. Apparently it is the brightest comet in the last 30 years or so. I learned* that (for those in the Northern Hemisphere) Wednesday evening might well be the last chance to see it before it becomes a … Click to continue reading this post
iLike iPhone
My lovely Sony-Ericsson T616 is just marvellous. I can use it all over the planet (more or less), it talks to all my other devices using Bluetooth so that I can sync calender and other data seamlessly. But it is old and falling apart. My ipod is a bit frustrating because I got one of the bad battery batch from long ago, and never got around to getting the replacement battery from the class-action suit. So it runs out of charge really fast.
But I’m not one for rushing to the new gadget until something really moves me, and so I’ve managed this situation quite well for some time now. Well, this could be the device I’ve been waiting for – Just announced by Apple at the CES in Las Vegas MacWorld in San Francisco: […] Click to continue reading this post
Andromeda Now Makes Sense
The Andromeda Galaxy is bigger than previously thought. Perhaps as much as five times bigger. I know that you’re thinking – “Oh, that’s because most of it is dark matter, right?” No, this is not another dark matter story. In fact, there are many newly discovered stars from a recent study! The suburbs of the galaxy are much more extensive than previously identified. It’s rather good news, since the galaxy makes more sense than it did before, in the context of our understanding of how galaxies form and evolve. (Image above is of Andromeda in the infra-red, from NASA.)
The point here is that current theories of evolution for galaxies have the oldest stars Click to continue reading this post
All Hands on Deck
Well, it’s the middle of the Bleak Midwinter, and the first day of classes of the new semester. Mine start tomorrow. It is time to get myself back into the classroom-teaching frame of mind -although to be honest I don’t think the break was long enough for me to have got sufficiently far removed from it: 85% of the research tasks that I wanted to do during the break remain undone.
Anyway, I must sit and contemplate what I am going to talk about in the graduate course entitled “Selected Topics in Particle Physics”. It’s my lunch break, so I thought I’d chat to you for a bit.
Rumour has it that everyone is expecting some sort of string theory course, reasonably complementary to the one that my colleague Nick Warner taught here two years ago. I’ve no interest in just teaching the standard string theory topics – a good and motivated graduate student can just look them up in a book if motivated enough (if they can’t they’re in the wrong business) – and so I’d like to throw in some material that is not packaged together in the standard way, and give them an education that emphasizes powerful ideas and techniques that are relevant to more than just standard string theory research, but theoretical physics in general.
You see, this is one of the wonderful things about the topic that you don’t hear about much when people say things (and write books for a general audience) about how much it is supposedly taking over smart young minds and leading them astray: It is a fantastic framework for training good physicists for whatever new and useful ideas and physics will come along in the future, whether it is string theory or some other topic. The point is that string theory has developed in so many different ways, and […] Click to continue reading this post
Budgetary Blues
Yesterday there appeared a New York Times article by William J. Broad about the effects of the congressional budget delays on funding for scientific research. It’s not cheerful reading, but it is worth knowing about, especially since the forecast is not set to dramatically improve any time soon. The article … Click to continue reading this post
