Posting is slow, partly because of other commitments, and also because my co-bloggers are poopyheads. So this is as good a time as any to resurrect our occasional de-lurking threads, in which loyal readers who tend not to comment on ordinary posts can peek their heads up and introduce themselves. If you see your shadow, it’s six more weeks of winter.
Don’t worry, there are great things ahead, including some potentially very cool guest blogging (you know who you are). And you are welcome to take the opportunity here to advertise important events or links that you think people should know about — for example, Chanda points us to the 2008 joint annual meeting of the National Society for Black Physicists and the National Society of Hispanic Physicists to be held in Washington DC on February 20-24, 2008. And I can point you to the upcoming Categorically Not in Santa Monica on January 27, featuring what promises to be a lively discussion on Hollywood Physics. Stuff like that.
Martin wrote:
Like to read blogs before breakfast to start my brain working.
That’s odd, I usually read blogs for the opposite reason.
Ich bin ein high school teacher of earth/space science, my second career after a stint as a wellsite geologist in the Rocky Mountains. I read blogs, I read books, I watch shows so when the stranger topics of cosmology come up with my students (“Couldn’t we just lower a camera on a really strong cable into a black hole to see what’s there?”), I gotta have a bit of ammo to fend them off. That and my own natural curiosity (you know, that ingrained characteristic of young children that pretty much gets squashed out of them by 6th or 7th grade) bring me here at least once a day.
Thanks for what you do. I think I may actually have posted once. I’ll have to try it again some time.
Hi.
Conceptually-based fine artist. What the hell am I doing here? Despite being a math troglodyte I read everything I can about physics. I am facinated and inspired by it. I watched Sean’s Dark Matter lectures with white knuckle excitment. No really. Anyway, I’m not really a lurker since I just started reading, but let’s face it, I’m a lurker.
Brendan
Hi
I discover this blog about a year and half ago when I was searching for some GR notes for my GR undergrad GR course. As you might have guessed I end up reading Sean’s notes. I’ve been a regular reader of Cosmic Variance ever since. Now I am a postgraduate student in cosmology.
Hi,
I’m currently a third year math/physics double major who has slinked about in the shadows for about a year and a half now. I’ve yet to post before now since…well, I rarely have anything pertinent to add. I love the broad focus of the site – I live in the midwest, so the rationalism vs. piety topics are of particular interest to me. Also, I thoroughly enjoyed the Unsolicited Advice posts, as soon enough I’ll be going through all the grad school rigmarole. Many thanks for the great blog.
Hi Sean. I’m a Mathematical/numerical relativity postdoc and long-time lurker. I appreciate the many great posts on this site.
I’m a community college English teacher who’s fascinated by cosmology. I’m always impressed by how well y’all write.
Hi Sean. I’m an Electrical Engineer down here in Flawwda. I’ve been lurking around here on CV for almost a year now. I check it every day for new stuff. I get a kick out of plenty of the jokes and the stories by Julianne and I usually post links to CV on a discussion/porn forum (I know it sounds weird, but I swear the discussions are not about porn LOL) that I visit: http://thafam.net I just have to say, that I absolutely loved the obtusely technical discussion with Lee Smolin on here a few weeks ago. Didn’t understand much but it was very fascinating to see it play out. I love the politico blogs here as well, I tend to trust the opinions of people smarter than I am, so thanks.
Hi Sean,
Love Cosmic Variance. Keep up the great work.
I am an economist (Berkeley) with a background in computer science (Rutgers). I love physics. It was a toss up between a PhD in physics and economics. Econ won out because the problems of development are more tractable.
Cheers,
Atanu
I’m a first year physics grad student at Rutgers and a huge fan of this site. Especially all the posts about particles, fields & strings, cosmology, academia and religion. I started off following Mark and Sean from the Orange Quark and Preposterous Universe days.
My recent fav. was the series on the making of a paper. Some of the posts on CV that have had the biggest impact on me: The God Conundrum (some of the clearest writing I’ve read on the topic of religion), Quantum Interrogation (I agree.. QM is the coolest thing ever invented) and Dark Matter Exists (My jaw dropped open as I finally ‘got it’. Then I promptly tried to explain it to everyone I knew. Believe me, if it can get my mom interested in science, it’s an awesome post!) And of course, the series on getting in to grad school!
Sean, I already own your GR textbook (though I’ve yet to take a class in it), but if you ever get around to writing a book on religion, I’d buy it!
So yeah, thank you guys for taking the time to blow my mind, and for keeping me generally fascinated.
Regular reader, rare commenter. I’m a Maths teacher in Cambridge, UK. I’m supposedly a “Pure” Mathematician (Elliptic Curves, Number Theory, Cryptography) and my Physics knowledge is very scant, but I still love Cosmis Variance because it’s just not quite impenetrable, given a bit of reading around the subjects discussed in the posts. I’m trying to learn more Physics, thanks largely to fun Physics writers like the guys on here and Richard Feynmann.
My favourite posts are the ones about academic politics and rituals (paper writing, conferences, talks etc.) which require no background reading and are consistently entertaining and enlightening.
Thanks, folks — it’s particularly nice to hear about specific posts that people enjoyed. (One might fall into the trap that it would be equally useful to hear about posts that people didn’t enjoy — but in fact that just makes the bloggers grumpy and uninspired.)
I work in information management for a large company. I think this is almost always an interesting site and tend to check it daily. I first encountered it as the location of some of the more balanced reaction to the Lee Smolin and Peter Woit books. Suppose I must have lurked ever since.
I rekindled my interest in astrophysics after attending a lecture by Dutch physicist Robbert Dijkgraaf. I think this is just such an amazing time to follow science – particularly cosmology, astrophysics and the like; so much happening, and so accessible to the non-specialist via web resources.
I can recommend Serkan Cabi’s excellent page of links to physics resources on the web. Do see the material available at KITP, and the Perimeter Institute – as ever varying from most accessible to totally arcane.
Is it appropriate to suggest Guest Bloggers? I listened to some excellent cosmology lectures by George Ellis at the ASTI Online Lectures site (lectures there from Joanne Hewett too). George Ellis is a cosmologist, but is also a Templeton Prize winner, so he has things in common with Sean, as well as some significant “opposites”.
Hello Sean. Cosmic Variance is the first on my list of daily don’t-miss links, just ahead of Perez Hilton Hollywood Gossip, so you should be very proud of yourself. I make what little living I make, at the game of bridge.
If I had tried much much harder at University of Toronto many many years ago, I might have made myself into a mediocre physicist, but at least I retained some interest in maths and physics.
My favourite postings are those which result in long argumentative threads, that you have to close down because they have degenerated into name-calling and bratty behaviour; those crack me up because they remind me of people arguing at the bridge table.
Oh I also like reading reading references to the Perimeter Institute, out of national pride and because I have a friend who is some kind of big deal there.
Nobody noticed Odani of the Faith (No. 14)? I thought it was sarcasm, maybe it is, it must be too thick for me. It’s funny as heck though, LOL don’t know if it was supposed to be! LOL @ a Non-Apostolic church telling us that we are all going to hell. Oh, the irony! LOL
Hello,
I am called Claire.
I am a female person who reads this blog when I can (I may have actually de-lurked a couple of times a few weeks ago, if I remember).
I have a part-time day job and a hobby web-site. I studied physics more formally, along side Human Physiology, at elementary level in the 80’s and 90’s at college. I own about 80 various different types of physics text books, which include a small amount of popular physics. My favourite one this last four years has been, Electromagnetism for Engineers by P Hammond.
I suppose really, I am sort of completely de-lurked now.
Thanks
Claire
Hello Sean!
I’m a mechanical engineer who works in CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and artist (painter) who reads the posts in this blog quite often. I’ve always been a fan of science in general and physics in particular. I try to learn about it my spare time, which is not much lately due to the fact that I have a 1-year old daughter. I come from South America, live in NJ and work in NYC. Politically my ideas are closer to Libertarian Socialism, so unlike ‘incog the Great” I tend to find the political discussions and endorsements here not very useful and a little naive. The science posts, on the other hand, are brilliant, and this site usually provides me with plenty of food for thought. I read your textbook on General Relativity in the process of teaching myself GR (a very hard subject) and will just say I found it fantastic.
Thank you,
José
I’m an IT consultant interested in maths & science. In occasionally venturing to post a reply in this excellent blog (and others) I sometimes feel like a sparrow hopping about between the feet of eagles.
But then not all discussions are heavy duty physics, and perhaps a few posts by amateurs leavens the mix and even encourages more reticent professionals to put in their oar in who might otherwise stay silent, provided we amateurs know our place and have the good manners not to try and hog the limelight (which alas not all do!)
I’m a 4th year undergrad physics major at the Univ. of Chicago.
Some days, upon reflection, I find myself amused to discover that all of my small talk was fueled by some admixture of CV, xkcd, NPR, or our friend… Ezra Klein.
So, thanks.
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Heh — I’m a physicist or an astronomer or maybe an atmospheric scientist or maybe an engineer, depending on what’s needed at any given moment. I gots me my PhD and I’m working for JPL and I have CV in my “diversions” folder – into which I dive occasionally whenever I have a moment.
Found this blog-post today, so that tells you how often I really have a look.
By the time I read a post, everything I’d like to comment has usually already been said — and usually better then I could’ve done it. So I lurk, nod my head (or shake it as matters may be) and read on.
In a Sturgeon’ian universe, CV is definitely in the ten percent.
Ahoy Sean, I suppose I’m in the lurking category. Hey, I’m currently working through your book, it’s quite lucid! I should share links to a couple of physics-related panels of the webcomic Dresden Codak, this one and this one. Cheers from Santa Cruz,
-Nick
I am a female biology grad student in an institute which has a renowned (and dominating!) physics department.
Comic Variance allows me to surprise the snooty physics grad students with my knowledge of the “latest” in their fields.
Of course this leaves them lasting psychological scars from which they never recover.(how come *she* knew that before *I* did?) but then life is never fair is it? 🙂
Just kidding! I love this blog. I just wish there was something like this for cell biology!
My background is in math (undergraduate) and computer science (graduate) and I have been working in the fields of computer science and telecomunications for over 25 years.
With an interest in physics and cosmology for all that time, and now on the verge of retirement, I am independently pursing the study of astrophysics and cosmology. Cosmic Variance has provided valuable information in this pursuit.
Chemicalscum: just for the record, no, not that Martin.