Pi Day and why American Dates are Wrong

So it's currently "Pi Day", 14th of March or 3/14 as Americans write it.  The name comes since the first three digits of π are 3.14.  Last year got more attention than usual, as it was 3/14/15 (to go with π = 3.14159...), though including rounding you could say that this year should be more appealing.  In either case, permit me to use the occaision for a brief and somewhat pointless tirade on writing dates.

Korea

Well, once again I have returned from a conference and not maintained my posting schedule.  My excuse this time is that I was moving countries, and for the first time going to one where English is not the main language.  I am now in the Republic of Korea, with what is probably my last postdoc.  And it is certainly quite a new experience.

Disappointing Titles

Sometimes, articles just don't live up to their titles.  In this case, I saw a headline on the BBC, Indian prisoners win right to cricket, which greatly amused me.  Then I actually clicked on the link, and found that it was not about being allowed to play cricket, but rather to watch the ongoing Cricket World Cup.  And I can't even get properly angry about them being given access to pay TV, as it will only apply to those awaiting trial.  Oh well.  At least they're sure to have matches to watch; if this had been an English gaol, by the time things were set up England would likely be eliminated on current form.

Leonard Nimoy Makes His Final Journey

I woke up this morning to the sad news that Leonard Nimoy has died at 83.  Nimoy had a long career in TV and Film in front and behind the camera, but will always be remembered as Spock from Star Trek.

As I have mentioned before, I never got into Trek like I did other Science Fiction works.  I haven't even seen all the films (not even all the good ones).  But I've long respected the show for it's rare success in taking SF ideas to mainstream audiences.  And while there where many aspects to that, Nimoy's performance was clearly a big part; even people with little interest in SF know who Spock is.  That is the mark of a great character and a great actor.

For myself, I will perhaps remember Nimoy most for comparatively lesser roles.  His guest appearances as himself on The Simpsons were the first time I "saw" him, and thus stick in my mind.  His similar appearances on Futurama were even better.  And he played a small but powerful guest part in Fringe, only in a couple of episodes but they carried great weight.

Nimoy is the third member of the main seven Star Trek original actors to die, after DeForest Kelly and James Doohan.  With the 50th anniversary of the show coming next year, there's some additional sadness that the cast will be one smaller for those celebrations.  Additionally, with William Shatner apparently confirmed for the next reboot movie it seems we have also been denied a chance to see those two together on screen one last time.  But they will long be remembered, and ultimately, that is all that most of us can hope for.

Winter

So, I finally returned to Melbourne on Tuesday, after over nine weeks of travel.  It's been fun, with a nice selection of conferences, as well as seeing new places and old friends.  Of course, now that I'm back I have little excuse to not be hard at work.  In particular, I have three projects in progress that need to be completed soon, two of them having run to well over a year in length.  Unfortunately I'm still horribly jet-lagged from my travel; I've only managed to rise before midday once since my return, and that hurts my output.

One Year Anniversary!

So, I've managed to stick with this blogging thing for a year.  With 120 posts, that's nearly one every three days!  Unfortunately they tend to be rather clumpy, with far to many dead weeks.

It's been an eventful year for me; I travelled to a different continent and, indeed, hemisphere; started a new job; had an abstract rejected from a conference for the first time (boo!); learnt that I really, really need to get air conditioning for my apartment; and attended my first conference in a non-English speaking country.  It's also been an interesting year in particle physics, with the discovery of the Higgs providing a lot of excitement but the lack of hints for BSM physics casting a shadow over the field.

Looking to the year ahead, then, here's to a more regular update schedule here; more papers this year than the last; and hopefully something pointing to new physics from our experimental colleagues!

New Year, New Thoughts

I'm generally not one for New Year's Resolutions.  Still, this time around I do at least have an obvious one: update this blog more often.  It's not as if I'm lacking in ideas; I have several partially-written posts, some of them over a month old.  I also have several series I've started, that are currently orphaned.  (I do intend to get back to all of them.)

Part of the whole issue relates to work.  Last year was a bad year for me in terms of work, and when that's the case it's harder for me to feel motivated to work on the blog; this is, after all, a hobby.  That's why more regular updates are only my second resolution.  Related is the whole issue of reading; I talked about this early in December, and it was not until last weekend that I finally got on top of this again.  Right now, my to-read pile consists of three papers, all of which went up on the arXiv today.  To put that into perspective, a week ago I had thirty-four papers to read, some of which dated back to November.  Plus, there where an additional seventeen papers I felt it worth downloading from last week; you can guess what I've spent the holiday season doing.

In all, 2012 really wasn't a good year for me.  Sure, I started my new job, but I'm still not really comfortable with Melbourne; not in the way I was with Vancouver, at least.  My publication record was anaemic, I was rejected by a conference for the first time ever, and I still haven't properly explored my new home city.  What really hurts is I know the flaws that caused many of these problems, and more to the point I know I can deal with them better.  But on the flip side, that also means I can be hopeful that this new year will be better than the last.

Happy New Calendar Day to you all!

See Ceefax No More

So I find to my surprise that Ceefax has been officially turned off:

BBC Ceefax, the world's first teletext service, has completed its final broadcast after 38 years on air.

Ceefax was launched on 23 September 1974 to give BBC viewers the chance to check the latest news headlines, sports scores, weather forecast or TV listings - in a pre-internet era where the only alternative was to wait for the next TV or radio bulletin to be aired. 

I say surprising not least because I wasn't aware it was still running.  Indeed, during my entire time as a student (under- and postgrad) I never owned a TV and rarely watched one, and I pretty much forgot the whole concept of teletext existed.  I guess it's like returning home and finding that one of the playgrounds of your youth that'd faded from your mind was torn down and rebuilt; makes you feel old.

Accommodation and the Provision Thereof

So I've finally found a permanent place to stay here in Australia.  I signed the lease on Thursday, and move in next week.

Once I've settled in, I'll be able to enjoy living in my own place for the first time in a month; but if you consider all the stress I had during my last month in Vancouver, it's really longer than that.  I still need to convince myself that my new place is home, but I've done that before and it shouldn't be too hard.

All this leaves me with no more excuses about getting work done; nor for blogging.  I have several things in the mix, including the long-postponed review of Crawl that's about one-third done.  I hope it will be a productive Spring and Summer!

Two Months

I finish my current contract on August 31^st.

It always sneaks up on me.  Only two months left before I leave Vancouver and head for Melbourne.  Among other things, I need to start seriously packing.  But simply the realisation of how little time I have left here has made me suddenly sad.

Conference Talks

I've been in Calgary since Sunday, and most of my time has thus been spent either listening to talks or writing my own.  Sadly, this means all I've seen so far is the University, though I will have time to do some proper exploring before I return home.  The one nice thing about this conference has been the weather, especially compared to the same conference last year or even Pittsburgh in May.

It's Impossible to Disagree

I've just found out about Aumann's Agreement Theorem, a mathematical proof that (rational) people cannot agree to disagree.  That's got to be up there with the Banach-Tarski paradox for mathematical results that make me laugh.