11 posts from January 2007

I have a large backlog of podcasts from NPR's Science Friday series but an episode came up this week called High Energy Physics and being interested in learning everything I can about physics I skipped about two weeks of old podcasts just to listen to this one. In all honesty, I was a little disappointed by some of the content. It's only 34 minutes long - listen through it and hear if you can spot what I think was the real unfortunate part of this podcast.

QED, done. Really, truly fascinating stuff. I'll probably come up with questions over the next week or two so I'm keeping it in my bag so I can look stuff up. Also joining the bag is the next lesson, The Trouble with Physics.

Also interesting considering I know little to nothing about string theory (not that I ever claimed to know anything about quantum electrodynamics either) but the string theory bubble has been growing (and hubbub about an experiment at the LHC which would prove or disprove it) and I should probably learn more about it. I picked up two more old (from '62 and '70-something) Feynman physics books the other day at Phoenix Used Books in Noe Valley. Particularly interesting because they actually have equations in them (unlike most of the Feynman I've encountered so far). I've got a lot of non-Feynman to read as well so I'm trying to go back and forth.

Also, I'm thinking of giving this Physics/Cosmology group a go next Wednesday. It's at 7PM at Au Coquelet, 2000 University, in Berkeley. Assuming it's always posted on craigslist, this page should list the upcoming meetings. It's squarely interferes with one of my classes at CCSF (pun intended) but I think I can go without for a class to see if this is worth attending on a regular basis.

Don't be silly, of course I know this is taking it to the next level of geek. But it's fantastic!

How do you beat writer's block? 
Submitted by marvel is my pen name.

Don't start at the beginning. I can never go from point a to point b when writing anything so I go from point x to z, then I realize that I can do point a to y, z to b, etc. From there filling in the gaps is easy.

I find it particularly fascinating that you really couldn't do this without a lot of retyping until the age of the word processor. I only adopted this policy recently since I'd been taught to start at the beginning growing up, just like everybody else, even though I the only thing I ever learned to type on was a word processor (all you old people can groan now). I wonder if it's really necessary to teach starting at the beginning these days or if it's probably still worthwhile so kids don't just write all the interesting and fun bits and ignore the rest of the writing which is something I definitely would have done if given the chance.

You should be thankful that there's a Final Fantasy group on vox. Otherwise you would never have the chance to see these fully-awesome fan movies.

That's right. Star Wars IV, V and VI on laserdisc. Plus Blade Runner and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. For $1. At a garage sale.

We ♥ Wii gets [this is good]'d! Go us!

For those of us in San Francisco: Goat Hill pizza has ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT pizza at their Potrero location on Monday nights (5pm-10pm) and I reckon we'll be headed over there tonight. Comment or something and I'll let you know when we're going as soon as I figure it out.

Strictly for looking at, there are only TWO on the entire show floor.