Friday, November 13, 2009

Bonjour


  • There's a guy down the street from me with a black Ferrari in his garage, which I find very strange for my neighborhood. But two Veyrons is perhaps weirder.
  • And I learned recently that "The magnetic field is sign that Mercury contains a tiny Black Hole." That's amazing...since the Earth has a magnetic field what does that mean about our core?
  • I don't like it when I see perfectly able-bodied folk press the button which opens a door electrically, ostensibly meant for handicapped individuals as indicated by the conspicuous blue signage. How lazy can you get that you need to expend precious natural resources to open the door for you? It's just the energy to open the door but the significant increase in climate-controlled air exchange over the much shorter time period for which a manually opened door would remain open. For dual doors, the effect is even more significant since usually both doors open in unison, in contrast to the manually opened case. In any case, I was happy to read about efforts in Stockholm to fight the laziness
  • I've been darn busy. Lots of traveling. Various proposals rejected and others submitted. Reviewed multiple papers. Readying one for submission. Got to throw together a proceedings contribution. Absolutely sick of most of my collaborators...they don't do what they say they'll do, or they'll ignore important emails. And no one is doing the work that needs to be done, instead they're off on their super-secret side projects. Got to prepare a talk.
  • I've had a lot to say recently but can't recall it now. I'm hoping by posting this, I'll get back in the blogging-swing of things. You know because blogging is just so rewarding!

5 comments:

apparently said...

I press the door-opening-button not because I am lazy but to avoid touching two door handles that are touched by 5,000 students per day

Angry said...

This raises, at the very least, two questions:

1) To what extent do you avoid touching things that students do? Do you make them turn in work electronically so as not to touch their homework?

2) If you're touching a button that most students use anyway, then what have you solved? If you don't press the button with bare hands (e.g. either gloved hands, or your hip), then couldn't you do similarly with the doors?

CarlBrannen said...

The sad fact is that humans are largely immune to dirt because they're made from the stuff.

Anonymous said...

Good Post! I am a college sophomore with a dual major in Physics and Mathematics @ University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. One of my Professors was discussing about the Mercury spots in one of our classes the other day. By the way, i came across these excellent physics flashcards. Its also a great initiative by the FunnelBrain team. Amazing!!!

CarlBrannen said...

I think that last post was intended to sell flashcards.