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So what now? Whither Brexit?
Along with many of you, I’ve been pondering how we can get out of the mess that David Cameron dumped us in three weeks ago. I think I’ve found a way, which crucially might actually be agreeable to everyone who has a say in the matter. It gives us two possible outcomes: leaving the EU without too much pain, or remaining without too much strife.
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Democratic EU
(Sorry for the long post. Summary: the EU is no less democratic than the UK ( Read more... ) -
Canvassing
I posted yesterday to Facebook, but I think it probably better belongs here...
On Sunday afternoon, I helped out canvassing (knocking on doors) for Britain Stronger in Europe. This is the first time I ever did anything like that, and I must admit I quite enjoyed it. It was a bit scary to have to talk to all those people, though most weren't home ( Read more... ) -
Exciting non-discovery from the LHC
In my occasional efforts to keep you abreast of the latest results from the LHC, you might find this paper on heffalon production of interest - even if a day late. I thought the experimental methodology exceptionally robust, though there is an acknowledged fine-tuning problem with their theoretical model. C. Robin, W. T. Pooh, and Piglet will have ( Read more... ) -
PCC Elections
I enjoy elections and think it is important to vote. So much so, I vote in two different countries where I am eligible to vote.
But I don't agree with today's PCC (Police and Crime Commissioner) elections. I think criminal justice is the one of the worst things to make directly elected (just look at elected prosecutors and judges in the US). So, I' ( Read more... ) -
Discovery, but is it a Higgs?
After months of equivocation ("hints"), we can finally say that we have discovered somethingIt was all very exciting. I'm not used to hearing applause in the middle of a physics presentation. And the second time (ATLAS), they were applauding the number ("5.0σ") that I helped determine ( Read more... ) -
Higgs excitement
Today was an exciting day. Finally we can see our our new Higgs search results public, and we can see what CMS have seen and compare. As everyone keeps emphasising, we haven't discovered the Higgs. ATLAS has seen a fairly large "excess" and CMS have a couple of moderate excesses, one of which matches ours at a mass of 126 GeV ( Read more... ) -
The Asimov data set
I've been a fan of Isaac Asimov since I was a teenager. I read all his short stories and novels I could get my hands on, and it was probably his essays on science that did the most to get me interested in physics. So I have found it immensely cool that his name is being bandied about in so many discussions in the ATLAS combined Higgs search group ( Read more... ) -
ATLAS shifts
I'm on shift controlling LHC's ATLAS detector! There are about 15 of us, but I'm in charge of the Run Control system that is in overall control, so I say I'm the most important.
I must say that, compared to DELPHI and BaBar, the ATLAS control room looks like a control room should with everyone in serried ranks facing the giant screen wall at the ( Read more... ) -
TiVo
There's good news and bad news.
The good news is much-anticipated: the first new TiVo model in the UK for a decade, and it arrived today! (According to the engineer, I'm the first customer to get one in Oxford.) It is very whizzy with dual-tuner HD recording direct from the cable and integration with the on-demand services, YouTube, etc. It has ( Read more... )