This fit should be a very, very tight linear fit. It is not a tight linear fit.  

Posted: May 8th, 2008 under Physics.
Comments: none

Time to give people updates. As of Monday I’ll be having a badge that says I have limitless access to Brookhaven National Laboratory, where I plan to do my Ph.D work in the Collider Accelerator Physics division. You can find the website here. Thus far, I’ve been shown around by Dr. Vladimir Litvinenko, who runs the show and might be one of the coolest professors I’ve ever met.

This move means that my love of quantum field theory will become peripheral at best, and the energy scale will increase by about nine orders of magnitude. It also means that the number of accelerator physics grad students graduating with me in the entire country can be counted on two hands.  This means the odds of my getting an academic job after I graduate goes through the roof. Which is good. Because I’m too stupid to succeed otherwise.

Anybody who wants to visit me and check out some damn cool physics, just let me know and I can use my mad connections to show off. Most importantly, I’ll be eventually Dr. Webb again, and I’m much happier for it.

Posted: May 5th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 2

Well, they’ve officially found evidence for anthropomorphic damage to the carbon cycle on Earth, reported here and the full Nature article here. This is apparently the first time the theory that the Earth has a natural cycle for dealing with carbon in the atmosphere has gained direct empirical support, and is hopefully a death blow to the people that try to argue that carbon gets eaten by all the trees in Maine or that the tooth fairy takes it away to Fantasy Kingdom. Of course, this won’t stop the people screaming about scientists are lying for whatever reason before demanding their antibiotics for their resistant staph strain, and then blogging about the experience on their semiconductor, thin film magnetism, and optics driven computers.

Posted: April 28th, 2008 under Politics, Science.
Comments: 1

Swedish band The Sounds - Painted By Numbers - http://youtube.com/watch?v=jN41MDONgOA
New one from Los Campesinos! - Death To Los Campesinos! - http://youtube.com/watch?v=Dc4GethJnBg
XTC - Making Plans For Nigel - http://youtube.com/watch?v=0C6bVckO_CM
MGMT - Time To Pretend - http://youtube.com/watch?v=XVnRzEjpUmE
Okkervil River - Unless It Kicks (Live) - http://youtube.com/watch?v=SupBhRp9xp0
Lupe Fiasco - Hip-Hop Saved My Life - http://youtube.com/watch?v=s26EEQ1_nLU
Amy Winehouse - Monkey Man (Live - Jools) - http://youtube.com/watch?v=6DSOM_8A4Nw
An oldie but goodie, love the guitar solo at the end, wish it was longer - Oasis - Some Might Say (Live - White Room) - http://youtube.com/watch?v=wmFg19xMz3I
As long as I am adding classics - The Doves - There Goes The Fear - http://youtube.com/watch?v=CRODW8Vh-MQ
Another favorite - Seu Jorge - Tive Razão (look for special guest appearances)  - http://youtube.com/watch?v=y8NgAVHegDc
Another British band - Hard Fi - Suburban Knights - http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZXwUY_T3BCM
If you like Pete and the Pirates - The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger - http://youtube.com/watch?v=TPUZqcibh4E

-AJ

Posted: April 17th, 2008 under Aakash.
Comments: none

After contemplating my place in life, and courting seriously the notion that I’d be a complete waste were it not for physics, meanwhile realizing I’ve yet to prove my mettle at the subject yet, I come to wild and idle conclusions about what I’d do in ten years. I’d like to try my hand at putting together a course on field theory geared for undergraduates to understand it. I think if I ever have children, I will repeat aphorisms from Thus Spake Zarathustra so that they will repeat them in kindergarten and I can have a parent-teacher conference in which I am asked to stop teaching my four year old Nietzsche. Maybe before I get out of graduate school I can write a review article on a subject I have no formal research background in, just to learn it. Oh, the possibilities are endless…

Posted: April 9th, 2008 under Personal.
Comments: none

I got very, very excited when I found this on sale. They’ve finally reprinted Diplomacy in the US; I was getting to where I was considering ordering it in the UK and paying to ship it over here, but this is a much, much better option. Now looking for six other people in Long Island that want to play…

Posted: April 8th, 2008 under Personal.
Comments: 1

At orientation and visitation weekends, you get to see a lot of great and exciting stuff. Everyone wants to talk to you, there’s free booze and sampler plates as far as the eye can see, and if you’re really really lucky, you will get laid (particularly if you’re going to play football at CU-Boulder). But then you get to graduate school, and reality sets in. Read more »

Posted: April 6th, 2008 under Personal.
Comments: 1

    Thursday and Friday, some of the brightest minds in the world converged on Stony Brook in honor of the new Simons Center, and to honor the achievements of C.N. Yang and Jim Simons. Among the speakers were Yang and Simons themselves, Ed Witten, Juan Maldecena, Cumrun Vafa, John Morgan, Shing-Tung Yau, and others. Read more »

Posted: March 29th, 2008 under Mathematics, Physics.
Comments: 1

    Well, it’s happened again. Another advisor has taken me on and then found that he didn’t have the money to support me. Tom was very up front and apologetic about it, and I know it’s not his fault that his grant wasn’t approved, but it doesn’t make my life any less frustrating. Now I have a relatively short amount of time to find a new advisor, this time pretty far removed from my initial interests, or else *gasp* enter the real world.

In preparation for what now seems inevitable, I consulted with my good friend Gavin and put together my first actual resume geared towards someone who doesn’t have a Ph.D. to read. Surprisingly, I was able to get it up to two pages with my big emphasis on teaching, and there was a certain cool feeling about writing “Distinguished Professor” for two references followed by two successful business people.

All of this has made me feel very introspective about what amounts to my lifelong dream of going into academia to teach and study physics. Watching Tom struggle to get grant money to fund me made me realize that taking on graduate students is a lot more work, struggle and failure than I initially thought it would be, and since getting money is 99% of being a professor, I just don’t think I could handle it. Then I thought of Aikido, and how much I enjoy studying it and teaching it (as well as I can), and realized that the void that physics will leave if I leave it will quickly be filled by Aikido. I plan to stay on Long Island for at least another year to get to Shodan, possibly Nidan, before I leave for warmer climes, and spread Aikido to others.

Basically, I want to teach and learn something that I will always find new nuances to, and as long as I’m always improving myself I think I will be happy, whatever it is that pays the bills.

Posted: March 25th, 2008 under Personal.
Comments: none

    This Saturday, I head back to Georgia for a little break from reality before I come back and attack research and Grad Lab and grading, Oh My! So here’s what the agenda is for this week and Georgia, and people in Georgia take note that I’m coming through. Read more »

Posted: March 10th, 2008 under Personal.
Comments: none