Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Here it goes again

I am back in my office at PI. There was indeed a guy sitting at the next desk (see footnote [1]), but he was only temporarily visiting for the weekend workshop on Origins and Observations of Primordial Non-Gaussianity - apparently the presently hottest topic in Cosmology. Should I find the time, I will write a post on it sooner or later.

The copy of the OpenLab 2007 arrived, which looks very nice in the bookshelf next to the 2006 edition, and I am looking forward to the 2008 version. Besides this, bills are piling up in my mail slot, papers are still piling up on my desk, and snow is still piling up in the parking lots. Speaking of snow, you might want to meet the man who wants even more snow. Compared to last year this winter has been very mild, so congratulations, Canada for preserving your national Igloo.

The previously photographed potholy street now has an orange warning sign saying 'ROUGH ROAD'. Since running on snow isn't much fun, and the indoor track in Waterloo was closed due to an ice hockey championship (or something like this), I retreated to running on the treadmill. This is admittedly one of the most depressing sport scenarios I can imagine, but one finds vision even in PI's gym, if only because the equipment apparently comes from a company with name 'VISION'.

Oops, I'm running late for the colloq.

OK, Go

11 comments:

  1. Faith (Ussher's chronology) demands the universe boostrapped nightfall preceding 23 October 4004 BC. This contradicts the entire observable structure and composition of reality from locality through the Big Bang some 14.7 billion light-years distant.

    Faith and empirical reality unite if the universe is zero years old. Everything only exists NOW. One need not - absolutely should not! - consider any past or future. Faith-based reality has been exponentially adopted by US government spending to great effect.

    Gaussian? Why not Lorentzian?

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  2. Um, that was a rather unfortunate first post. Anyway...

    I actually much prefer indoor exercise, for all the usual reasons---climate control, ability to read at the same time, avoidance of sunburns, etc. Maybe if I were able to stand podcasts a bit more, I could listen to them while running outdoors, but the rate of information retrieval is so slow and un-skimmable... *shrug*.

    P.S.: thanks for putting that video there; although I understand it's somewhat popular, I wouldn't have caught it anywhere else, and it was somewhat amusing.

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  3. Yeah, Uncle Al is most often somewhat odd. But he's right, reality is faith based. Let's hope we never lose this faith.

    I actually can't recall how I came across the video, I think I was looking for something completely else. The choreography is pretty good, isn't it?

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  4. Offtopic: I was reading this weeks Zeit, and saw a job advert for a Proffessorship in Hannover (phenomenological QG, hence I felt I might drop by here to mention it ;)) which explicitly mentions Loop Quantum Gravity! Woot! There is a job market after all! It's even in the paper! :D

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  5. Hi Frank,

    Thanks for letting me know. I believe you are the fourth or fifth who does so...

    Best,

    B.

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  6. Hahaha, should have guessed :)

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  7. Uncle Al is most often somewhat odd.

    http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-03-12-voa60.cfm

    In the future, everybody will agree with Uncle Al. Be afraid, be very afraid. "8^>)

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  8. In the future, everybody will agree with Uncle Al. Be afraid, be very afraid.

    As long as there is a future, one and only one, I can cope.

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  9. "As long as there is a future, one and only one, I can cope."

    But loops via sedenion and above zero divisor sleeper cells ruin that hope. (doing my best Uncle Al via Tony Smith impersonation)

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  10. I hate treadmill running even with my ipod; outside I never run with an ipod, never need to run with my ipod.

    Lately I've found something even more boring than running on a treadmill - a rowing machine.

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  11. Hi Michael,

    The only inside workout that I found okay are stationary bikes, one can read while 'biking'. It probably depends though on the gym and/or whether one likes watching TV. PI's gym has a view on the 'reflecting pool' -filled with snow at this time of the year - and a concrete wall, which isn't exactly so great, but it's great to have an exercise room to begin with (so I don't need to get a membership elsewhere that I'd only use two months of the year anyhow). The worst thing about treadmills though is getting off and having the impression walls move towards you. Best,

    B.

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