The Planck Satellite team has won the 2018 Gruber Cosmology Prize!
Statuses
Mallorca Triathlon 2018
Hayakawa et al, Sunspot Drawings by Japanese Official Astronomers in 1749-1750 — better figures than most papers on the arXiv! https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.08614
Sri Lankan hoppers for brunch courtesy Weligama at The Pear Tree Café, Battersea Park.
Academic friends: when you post about a paper on the arXiv, please link to the web page for the abstract, not the pdf download.
The illusion of time: “Andrew Jaffe probes Carlo Rovelli’s study arguing that physics deconstructs our sense of time.”
I saw Facebook’s “Protecting Your Information” top-post today, which I think means that Cambridge Analytica didn’t use my data to overhype their lame data science and amoral political consulting.
This morning, my 2 1/2-year old daughter asked me about telescopes. Beaming.
The U.K. Is Doing Just Fine, Thanks – The Wall Street Journal
“For a country supposedly crawling out of the ruins of the Brexit vote, the U.K. has been having a strikingly good year so far.”
But, um, Brexit hasn’t happened yet.
Yes, John Bolton Really Is That Dangerous
“There are few people more likely to lead the country into war…”
Yikes: I remember Bolton’s terrifying talking head from the bad old Bush days (let’s use this as a reminder not to valorize Bush merely because he wasn’t as bad as Trump).
In Brexit Give-and-Take, Britain Gives and the E.U. Takes
“They need us more than we need them”?
Lucky enough to be invited to his house for dinner a while back, where he showed off his Presidential Medal of Freedom, presented to him by Obama in 2009.
Giant redwood, Armstrong State Reserve
Staring Down from Tilden Park
Over the SF Bay
Just heard that the University of Chicago will be shutting down the historic and beautiful Yerkes Observatory later this year. Sad, but probably realistic. (And an opportunity for a very rich amateur astronomer?)
Golden Gate Bridge
“Fish & Reptiles — Fins & Fangs” in Yucca Valley, CA. Pet shop or restaurant?
Drove through Boron, CA, last week: world capital of Borax, and I guess one of the few towns named after an element of the periodic table other than gold or silver.
Cholla Cactus Garden, Joshua Tree National Park. Not the view I was expecting to post.
I am currently in the midst of 6 weeks of shared parental leave (yes, one of the positive things about UK higher-ed employment). But if I weren’t, I would be participating in the coming @ucu strike over the decimation of our pension. #UCUstrike #USSstrike
Watching a high-speed chase on local LA news (about 20 minutes and counting) feels simultaneously creepy, inappropriate, and strangely compelling.
A comprehensive explanation of the pseudo-crisis that is “forcing” UK universities to severely cut our pensions — and, hence, why we are striking in return. Made in Westminster – Sean Wallis – The Convention for Higher Education
Via @DrBrianKeating: What a treat! @defjaf gives @ucsdcosmology a private lesson on his epochal paper with Bond and @LloydEKnox, published 20 years ago this year! twitter.com
This doesn’t capture the wonderful disorientation inside Do-Ho Suh’s “Fallen Star” at @UCSDJacobs with @antoniogm and @DrBrianKeating.
Surprisingly difficult to find halloumi in California — it seems to be a specialty item here (you can get it at the corner store in London).
In the second week of my visit to the @ucsdcosmology group, enjoying the science (and unseasonably warm temperatures) with @DrBrianKeating and other theorists, observers, experimentalists and visitors
Anecdotal evidence that macOS 10.13.2 supplemental update (Meltdown/Spectre) is extra-slow on Fusion Drives. Could this be a stealth APFS test?