My grandmother was born in 1911 in Shepetivka, Ukraine, when it was part of the Russian empire. At a time of pogroms against the Jewish population, she fled to the US after WWI, following her father who had made it to New York before the war.
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I only just realised that there are two different von Mises.
Things made a lot more sense when I discovered that statistician Richard was different from his brother, free-market-musketeer Ludwig.
(Perhaps I should have written “I was today years old when…” but I couldn’t quite bring myself to do that.)
It is surprisingly difficult to correctly typeset “rock ’n’ roll” nowadays.
How have I only just found out about The Paranoid Style? Thank you for existing, @paranoiacs.
Taking a place in my heart/brain/ears with @wussymusic and @TheMekons.
Etaoin Shrdlu
I’ve succumbed.
Wordle 201 3/6*
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This excited me more than it probably should have.
What a spectacular view of #JWST flying off on its own and unfurling its sails. Left me a bit choked up.
DIY festive cheer, c. 2021.
(Yes, positive, for both adults in the house.)
Why would anyone prefer “𝚫” over “∇²” for the Laplacian operator?
Was just asked by a funding agency for whom I have written a grant review to change “young researcher” to “early career researcher”. I think this was a good catch and an appropriate request, but still somehow feels weird.
My first in-person @imperialphysics teaching at the front of a lecture theatre in almost two years. Whew.
Lucky to be visiting @Sissaschool in Trieste just in time for a colloquium by newly minted Nobel Physics laureate Giorgio Parisi.
Done with 3+5 hours of @ImperialPhysics tutorials in 1+1 days. Fun, but exhausting.
Today is my first day no longer the head of the @ImperialAstro group after 5.75 years — finally time to rest. Best of luck, and commiserations, to new head @AlanHeavens…
I liked Coach Beard’s Scorsese “After Hours” London escapades, but I really loved the Declan Patrick Aloysius McManus pseudonym and “Nightclub Jitters” by the Replacements. #TedLasso
I have now been living, working, teaching, writing, and researching in the UK for twenty years, from just pre-9/11 to post-Brexit and mid-pandemic.
It’s home, though I’d describe myself as a Londoner, rather than British. And I’m still a foreigner (though my kids aren’t).
If you have the right connections, someone will transport xiao long bao across London from Din Tai Fung to a supermarket parking lot for you.
It turns out the end of the rainbow has been in Richmond Park all along.
I get much more nervous when I have to talk about management and admin than science.
It is the summer solstice so time for my annual reminiscence of seeing Sun Ra and Don Cherry celebrate the rising sun from Battery Park in Manhattan with @disquiet in 1989.
I am pretty sure I (we?) then stayed up to see Tito Puente and Koko Taylor at Summerstage in Central Park that night.
I still remember dancing in the stands to “Oye cómo va”.
RIP George Stranahan, founder and benefactor of the Aspen Center for Physics, and owner of Hunter Thompson’s favourite bar (both of which I’ve had the pleasure of visiting a few times). h/t Will Kinney @WKCosmo.
The local pigeons seem to be addicted to these berries growing on the tree in our garden.
The only even remotely legitimate argument for keeping the filibuster is that we might need it in two years.
Every time I listen to, say, “Here Comes The Sun”, or “Something”, I think how maddening it must have been for George Harrison to know that he was only the third best songwriter in the Beatles.
Unpacking my library, 16 months after moving in.
Bonus points if you can recognise any books.
Projects.
Took advantage of the first truly beautiful Spring day to wander down to Canbury Gardens for lunch — and found them filming #TedLasso (one of our favorites, and not just because they make it in the neighborhood).
I admit I’ve mostly been trashing the emails from the Democratic National Committee — but the one from Bowzer, I read.
To slightly misappropriate an excellent phrase from politics here in the UK, McConnell’s appalling, unsurprising and self-serving near-simultaneous acquittal and condemnation of Trump is the purest example of cakeism — and it will probably work.