Category Archives: Uncategorized

Fascism and the Current National Emergency

After the election it seemed to me that it would be a good idea to ignore what Trump tweeted or said, and wait to see what he and the people he surrounded himself with would actually do. We’ve been finding … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 52 Comments

Various and Sundry

A few links for your weekend reading: If you just can’t get enough of the Multiverse, Inference has commentary on Max Tegmark from Daniel Kleitman and Sheldon Glashow. Coverage of the important topic of blackboards is to be found here. … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 59 Comments

What Graduate School in Theoretical Physics is Really Like

I’m about to head off for a short New Year’s vacation in West Texas, but wanted to recommend a wonderful article that just appeared at Nautilus. It’s a memoir by Bob Henderson (who I met when he wrote about me, … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 47 Comments

Various Links

A grab-bag of unrelated topics and links: Continuing the subject of budget cuts from the last posting, I heard today that the NSA is not funding this year the grant program that the AMS has been running for it, called … Continue reading

Posted in Langlands, Multiverse Mania, Uncategorized | 29 Comments

HEP Theory Letter

A couple weeks ago a large group of US HEP theorists wrote a letter to the DOE High Energy Physics Advisory Panel (HEPAP) (available at page 7 here) expressing alarm at trends in DOE funding of HEP theory, ending with … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 28 Comments

Breakthrough Prizes 2017

The 2017 Breakthrough Prizes have just been announced, here are the winners and a few comments. Note that I’m leaving the usual singing of praise of the many virtues of the laureates to others, since there should soon be a … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 72 Comments

Various Links

A few pre-Thanksgiving items: International Journal of Modern Physics A has a new issue with “Featured Topic” part I of a discussion of the proposed Chinese supercollider project. The high profile contributions are from C. N. Yang, China should not … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 21 Comments

What Math Do You Need For Physics?

Chad Orzel has a very sensible piece at Forbes, headlined What Math Do You Need For Physics? It Depends, which addresses the question of what math a physicist like him (experimental AMO physics) really needs. I’m glad to see that … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 53 Comments

String theory might be about to finally be killed off

News site TechEye is reporting that String theory might be about to finally be killed off, with a story that starts off The world’s top boffins are debating finally killing off one of the more elegant scientific theories about the … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 23 Comments

The Day After

The last few months have not been helpful for my sanity (and I think for that of a large number of other Americans). My three-point program to return to better mental health is to: Write one last blog post about … Continue reading

Posted in Favorite Old Posts, Uncategorized | Comments Off on The Day After