Thane Plambeck

NYT

"Einstein solved problems that people weren't even asking or appreciating were problems," said Dr. Edward Witten of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., Einstein's stomping grounds for the last 32 years of his life. "It could be there are big questions nobody is asking, but there are so many more people in physics it's less likely big questions could go unasked."

But you never know.

"One thing about Einstein is he was a surprise," said Dr. Witten, chuckling.

"Who am I to say that somebody couldn't come along with a whole completely new way of thinking?"

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Etruscan Archaeological Museum, Orvieto

chainsaw writes

Last night while driving down the Joe DiMaggio Highway (West Side Highway) in Manhattan, I saw a black Ford Explorer with the following (New York) license plate:

YYUUUU

To which I replied, "Not quite, buddy." Bear in mind that, depending on the driver, the enumeration might be (3 4, 3 5).

How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs

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Cellphone photo transmittal

By accident, I figured out how to use my overly complicated cellphone to email myself a digital photo.

I have to "Sign in" to an AOL messenger account, first. Then I can send photos as email attachments.

I have a dim memory of having created the AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) account when trying to figure out how to transmit the photos the first time (over a month ago), but I'm not sure why I did it. There's nothing in the manual about creating such an account. There's nothing in the manual that's useful at all, in fact.

Scissors, TX

map

Sally Snow

On our flight from Atlanta to Rome, they announced that one of our flight attendants would be retiring when we landed. She had been with Delta airlines since 1968. They passed around a book for passengers to sign:

I could only think of all those movies where a police officer or "detective" is nearing retirement. It's a sure sign that the s*** is about to hit the fan for that particular peace officer.

But there weren't any problems.

Experimental Researches in Electricity

By Michael Faraday: read November 24, 1831.

These considerations, with their consequence, the hope of obtaining electricity from ordinary magnetism, have stimulated me at various times to investigate experimentally the inductive effect of electric currents. I lately arrived at positive results; and not only had my hopes fulfilled, but obtained a key which appeared to me to open out a full explanation of Arago’s magnetic phenomena, and also to discover a new state, which may probably have great influence in some of the most important effects of electric currents...

link (PDF) and RIGB home page

The Pantheon

The coolest building I've ever stepped into.

I had no idea it's so big. Since we had just had a little trouble finding it on the map, I thought, "OK, well, it's a little building, maybe we just walked past it..."

Then I looked up and saw it looming.

On Bullshit

One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern. We have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, as Harry Frankfurt writes, "we have no theory..."

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Crooked house, Parco dei Mostri [Park of the Monsters], Bomarzo

A little Disneyland from the year 1552. The crooked house floor slants about 20 degrees I think. Although the inside walls are undecorated today, it's easy to imagine a 16th century trickster painting and decorating it to enhance the illusion of being tugged on by unseen forces when you're standing inside it.

Gloria enters it over the bridge that leads into its second floor:

One monstrous sculpture:

parco dei mostri (google search)

Cole and Owen on the Spanish Steps

Etruscan Archaeological Museum, Orvieto

Shockheaded Peter

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pocket universe

From an article ["String theorist explores dark energy and our unique 'pocket' of the universe"] and interview with my neighbor on his new book:

Today, string theory has become a serious controversy even within the physics mainstream. The number of possible energy states-10^500 [ten raised to the power of five hundred]-inherent in string theory is ''totally unexpected,'' Susskind says. ''There was constantly a sense that there would only be one, or some very small number, of legitimate solutions of the theory. Ed Witten [a physicist famed for his mathematical prowess] worked very hard to show that there was only a very small number, and he failed-failed completely.''

The dust isn't likely to settle soon. Says Susskind: ''More and more as time goes on, the opponents of the idea admit that they are simply in a state of depression and desperation. More and more people are starting to think about this possibility. But it's been a major sea change in the attitudes of theoretical physicists. ... It means we have a mathematical framework to think about it. We have a basic set of precise concepts to think about it, and it means that in time we will know the truth.''

Useful term in Umbria in February

catena neve [snow chains]

Cow Magnets (via Roger)

Cow magnets are popular with dairy farmers and veterinarians to help prevent Hardware Disease in their cattle. While grazing, cows eat everything from grass and dirt to nails, staples and bits of bailing wire (referred to as tramp iron). Tramp iron tends to lodge in the honeycombed walls of the recticulum, threatening the surrounding vital organs and causing irritation and inflammation, known as Hardware Disease.

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Physics Seminar Videos

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[And that's it for awhile on this blog. I'm going to Italy, leaving the laptop at home]

Hat Problem

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Life on Mars (?)

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