I apologize for having gone so long without updating. At least, I apologize to anyone who still reads me. I never exactly had commanding readership numbers, in fairness, but of late it seems that Livejournal (or at least its service outside of Russia) has been dead as heaven on a Saturday night. The truth is, I would like very much to tell everyone ( Read more... )

So I skimmed this list in search of a little Halloween-season creepiness, but...meh. Most of the memorable ones provoked no so much feelings of creepiness as moral outrage/disgust (Unit 731, for example, makes Josef Mengele sound like a civilized human being in comparison, and the account of the murder of Junko Furuta makes me, more than anything, ( Read more... )

So a number of people seem to think that I'm an astrophysicist, and I would just like to clarify: I'm a theoretical physicist, not an astrophysicst. I can see, though, why people would make that mistake; there was, first of all, that whole unfortunate episode with galaxy formation a few months ago, and secondly, it is true that most of my research ( Read more... )

My bicycle, I'm pleased to say, is back and better than ever. Hopefully this will be the last repair I need to get on it in a long time. I passed thanksgiving this year among friends at a potluck, which, at the very least is a damn sight better than my epic adventure at Swiss Chalet last year.
But back to the point of this entry. I just got back ( Read more... )

A few months ago, I noticed, to my mounting horror, that "bitchicle" is, with only minor stretching, a perfectly legitimate pronunciation of the word "bicycle" given its spelling.  Lately, however, I have taken to calling my bike that, because...damn, that thing is a bitch.
I have tried: I have been refilling the tires religiously; I have been ( Read more... )

Today, while riding my bike downtown, I was pulled over by a police officer. Naturally, it was my first inclination to assume that I had violated some minor traffic law, so I prepared myself for the possible troublesome necessity of paying a ticket (what with my finances stretched as they were). But no ( Read more... )

I am not marking assignments as such this year; rather, I have been tasked with teaching the lab component for first-year physics for engineers ( Read more... )

AaAaaaaArrrggh why isn't anybody talking about this!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!!?!?

Do you know what this means*??? Do you have any idea what this means*!?
I don't either! That's what I want to find out! Does it mean that tau-neutrinos have imaginary mass? Does it resolve the horizon problem without inflation? Does it mean we can throw-out all of the extra ( Read more... )

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On the (very crowded) bus home from UVic today, I witnessed a conversation which irritated me very deeply. This girl was sitting by herself, minding her own business when some guy sat down next to her, and asked "do you like animals?"
To which she replied "I imagine that everybody does, don't they?"
And the guy replied "Exactly!" and proceeded to ( Read more... )