The Revolution that Never Happened

The NYPD bought 10 Segways. I'm not sure why, other than being nice for the tourists. I remember a few years ago seeing the five-oh in Chicago rolling about with them, and it makes you want to laugh.

This was the machine that was supposed to revolutionize our cities and society on a whole.

Years have passed and no one has really taken notice, other than a few Police Departments, and many countries have banned them completely pending new legislation or safety studies.

For now, the Segway will be continued to be used by G.O.B. or Bananagrabbers.

More HEP Hype

The Times has a thorough article (and video!) on the LHC at CERN. The author does a good job of tackling the importance of this machine, and what it means to the field of High Energy Physics, if not physics alone.

Many of my former colleagues are working on the experiments at LHC, and everyone seems hopeful, but kinda scared. I think people are well aware of the problems that will inherently come with a negative result on the Higgs Boson discovery.

Still, that time is a few years away, and we can marvel at the machines that are being built, and they are impressive. A few years ago I worked on ZEUS at DESY, and I remember the first time I got to ride the elevator down to the pit and saw the entire experiment. At the time, it was being upgraded (including the particle detectors we had built!), so I saw the entire machine, all several stories of it. Absolutely incredible that people can make such an incredible machine, so intricate and detailed. It's nothing short of a miracle that it works.

A Slap on the Wrist

Today was the first day of the summer semester, and I'm teaching the lab component of a physics course, mostly classical mechanics.

It went pretty smoothly, and the students seem cool. It's totally different teaching in the summer, as many of the students are more laid back and are not NYU folks. It looks like it will be a fun semester.

Yesterday I played in my first game in softball. I got in the lineup as DH and went 3 for 4 with a triple and two singles. After one of my singles, I rounded second and went for third, there was incoming throw and I slid hard. A bit too hard, as I jammed my wrist. It didn't hurt that bad during the rest of the game, but when I came home, it's been really hurting since. It's even a bit swollen. I don't think it's anything too serious, as I am able to use it, I just don't have the full range of motion. Hopefully, it will be ok by next week.

If a Butterfly Flaps it's Wings...

OK, it's not exactly the butterfly effect, but there's an interesting article in Nature that clearly correlates intense storms in Eastern Africa with hurricanes in the Atlantic (some of which go on to make it to the USA).

I think that this is a great example of how sharing data and looking for trends in seemingly unrelated phenomena can give profound results.

The Boys of Summer

The Best Softball Park in the World
Originally uploaded by subatomicfilms.

I got invited to play softball on my profs team recently. Unfortunately, the NY Showbiz League (dudes that work in the entertainment industry) plays Tuesday afternoons, and I had class at that time. Yesterday was the first time I could make it. Unfortunately, I joined quite late so most of the team is already made up.

I took some batting practice and fielding and got a few good hits out. I still don't have my fielding confidence back yet, but it will come with time. I haven't played in like 3 years!

It felt great to be back on the field, and playing. Make no mistake though, the guys on these teams can play. It's easily the most skilled and competitive league I've seen, but it's still fun.

The games are played in Central Park to throngs of tourists, so there's a bit of a crowd sometimes. Either way, I'm a bit beatup today, but it feels great. Hopefully, I'll get in the lineup next week.

I was Chekov

The Times has a wonderful piece about life in the Control Room of an experiment over at RHIC (Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider) on Long Island.

The pic on the left shows real time heavy-ion collisions on the experiment that I used to work on, PHOBOS.

On some shifts, it would just be me and someone else looking over this awesome experiment, hoping nothing would go wrong. The hourly checklists involve a series of readings/measurements of various status reports. It was pretty boring, but one could usually get a lot of work done during the down time or get into great conversations with colleagues.

Either way, good times were had, even if it was 3am in the dead of winter.

This Quarter Kills Fascists

Back in 2004, the Canadian Mint released into distribution a special quarter that had a red poppy placed on it. The poppy is what many Canadians wear around November 11 to honour and remember soldiers that fought in the World Wars. Pretty pretty quarters, if I say so myself.


Some US army contractors were working in Canada when the coins were released, and became increasingly paranoid about the nature of the quarters. They were convinced that people planted them on their person, and the red poppy part was some sort of "nanotechnology" radio-frequency spy device. I couldn't make this shit up if I tried.

Spencer Tunick is at it Again

Brooklyn reppin' photographer Spencer Tunick is back with his large concept nudes again. This time in Mexico City. About 18*10^3 people showed up to take their clothes off for art's sake this past weekend.

I don't know, I'm a bit bored by him and his work now. I mean, I can't deny the immense audacity and beauty of some of them, but it just seems old-hat.

What I find interesting is not the photographer, but the thousands of people that are willing to do this (full disclosure, I signed up to be a model years ago).

Perhaps it was the documentary Naked States that really turned me off of him. He just seems too pompous, arrogant, and not willing to take a stand. Probably not fair to someone to judge them off of a documentary, but I will in this case. If you haven't seen his work, it's worth a glance over here.

On Vacation...

I will be busy communing with nature up in the Catskills this weekend. Try not to be jealous.

Sarah Polley - Malick Fan

Growing up on the CBC, it's hard not to know who Sarah Polley is. She was in Road to Avonlea (the sequel to Anne of Green Gables), and was also a North York resident my same age. As it turns out, she went to school with some of my friends, but our paths have never crossed.


I've always respected her work and the roles she chooses. You perhaps know her from Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter or the fun Dawn of the Dead remake a couple of years ago. I personally loved her in the not too often seen My Life Without Me. You may not know that she was originally cast to be Kate Hudson's character in Almost Famous, which she walked away from.

Anyways, she's behind the camera now, and her new feature Away from Her opens up soon. Watch for a Snob Movie review soon.

The Times has an article on her and her life in the industry. What does she attribute to re-sparking her love of movies? Watching Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line.

“It literally lifted and carried me out of this depression, and I had no idea movies could do that"