Haiku Monday - Invisible Failure

Invisible Failure

I work and I toil

My invisible failure

Time wasted untold

Punk Rock Friday - To Save my Soul

I am having a crappy day.  LBS was a terror this morning - fighting about what pants to wear - even though he picked them out.  Same thing every day this week. I am really just done with dealing with.  Beautiful Wife is under a galaxy-load of stress from work and was not a pleasant women this morning.  This irked me more than usual and we fought.  I was a complete jerk - she reciprocated my kindness.  I only got about 5 hours of sleep - I was working until midnight just like I have every night this week.  I am tired, drained, and feeling a bit thin in the soul.  I feel simultaneously like I need a good stiff whiskey, a gallon of coffee, and twenty nights worth of sleep.

So to try and soothe my soul a bit I thought I would pull Punk Rock Friday out of the dusty corner I put it in.  Here we go:

Ducky Boys - For the Underdogs:


Flogging Molly - The Worst Day Since Yesterday:


Dropkick Murphys - Bar Room Hero:


Rancid - Fall Back Down:

Great Irish Physicists and Scientists - Redux

Note this was originally posted 3/17/2011. Here is the original link: Great Irish Physicists and Scientists

In honor of St. Patrick's Day (my favorite holiday), I thought I would compile a list of great Irish physicists and scientists.  I will focus on physicists but will include a few other scientists for good measure.  Greatness and therefore inclusion in this list will be measured by me simply by my opinion.  How's is that for scientific!

George FitzGerald

George FitzGerald

His claim to fame is the FitzGerald-Lorentz length contraction - the decrease of the length of an objection (along the direction of motion) with non-zero velocity relative to an observer.  This is an important result of Einstein's special theory of relativity.  Born in Dublin, he was a professor at Trinity College.

George Stoney

Stoney, from County Offaly, is the man who introduced both the concept and the word "electron" for the fundamental unit of electricity.  Also a professor at Trinity College.

Ernest Walton

Ernest Walton

Walton is credited to be the first person to (artificially) split an atom and therefore ushered in the nuclear age.  He was a student of Rutherford at the Cavendish lab at Cambridge. Went on to a professorship also at Trinity college.  He won the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics, along with Sir John Douglas Cockcroft "for their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles."  Currently the only Irishman to have won a Nobel Prize in science.

Frederick Trouton 

Trouton is most famous for Trouton's rule, which states that for various liquids, the entropy of vaporization is same: approximately 88 J/(K mol).  Trouton's rule is typically used to estimate the entropy of vaporization for liquids due to its simple form.  Trouton, born in Dublin, studied physics at Trinity College, where he also received his first academic appointment upon graduation.  He went on to a professorship at Imperial College London.

Sir George Stokes

James Hamilton

Hamilton, born in Sligo, was an early contributor to S-matrix theory.  He went on to make significant contribution to the understanding of the strong nuclear force, specifically in the area of meson-nucleon and meson-meson interactions.  Hamilton held appointments at Cambridge, University College London and the Neils Bohr Institute.

Sir George Stokes

Yes, he is that Stokes - from Navier-Stokes equations (fluid dynamics) and Stokes' Theorem (differential geometry).  Born in Sligo, Stokes was a professor of mathematics at Cambridge.  A contemporary of Lord Kelvin and James Maxwell, Stokes made significant contributions to a variety of fields, including mathematics, fluid dynamics, optics, spectroscopy and chemistry.

William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) 

Thomson, born in Belfast, was knighted by Queen Victoria was later elevated to Baron Kelvin of Lorgs and is best known as Lord Kelvin. He made major contributions to astrophysics, fluid dynamics, naval engineering, but he is most known for his contributions to thermodynamics, specifically that there is a lower bound to temperature.  The kelvin scale of temperature is named after Thomson.

Erwin Schrödinger

Aha!  And you thought he was Austrian.  Well he was, but he was also a naturalized citizen of Ireland.  Schrödinger, famous for his contributions to quantum mechanics (hence the Schrödinger equation) and is in fact considered one of the "fathers" of quantum mechanics.  Schrödinger became a naturalized citizen of Ireland during his 17 years in Dublin, during which he helped to establish the Institute for Advanced Studies and was the Director of the School of Theoretical Physics.

Robert Boyle

Yes, the father of modern chemistry was indeed Irish.  Boyle was born in Waterford County.  He is most famous for Boyle's Law, which says that for a closed system at constant temperature, the pressure is inversely proportional to the volume.  This is something that every high school kid taking chemistry is well aware of.

I am sure there are plenty of others.  Sorry to anyone I have missed!

Happy Pi Day! Fun and Facts about Pi

Pi - you know it from all those boring math classes you had to take in school... But Pi is actually much cooler than math class.  Did you know that?  Also, today, March 14 is international Pi day!  No, not pie.  Though I think it is perfectly okay to celebrate Pi day with pie.

Why is it Pi day?  Well, simply because March 14 or 3/14 is the first three digits in the number Pi.  Technically, Pi day starts at 1:59 pm (since the next three digits after 3.14 is 159 [making the first 6 digits 3.14159]).

So, what is Pi?

Pi is simply defined as the ratio of the circumference of a circle (technically a Euclidean circle - circumference is simply the length around the circle) to its diameter.  Remember diameter is just the straight line distance across a circle through its center.  Said less mathy - Pi is the number of times the diameter of a circle will wrap around the circumference.

Pi is also an irrational number.  That simply means it cannot be expressed as a simple fraction (like 22/7 for instance).  Therefore, when you write Pi as a decimal it never ends and it never repeats.  Crazy right?  It just keeps going on forever.

Some interesting facts about Pi:

• Albert Einstein was born on Pi day - 3/14/1879
• Pi has been studied for over 4000 years dating back to the Babylonians in approximated 2000 BC
• Beginning at position 762 in Pi, there are six nines in a row.  This is called the Feynman point.
• In 1897, the Indiana State Legislature tried to "square the circle," and therefore legislate the value of pi.
• Pi occurs extensively in Physics (and other sciences) especially when a formula or problem has rotational or spherical symmetry involved.

Well, I am going to go and find out where I am going to eat pie for lunch today.  I am suddenly very hungry.  I leave you with a math joke:

Spring Break - not so much of a break

No, I actually didn't give any homework.  But they have a midterm the first class after spring break! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

So, I am on Spring Break this week from teaching.  Yeah, it just is not as cool as it was when I was a student.  I never went anywhere warm (I was a poor punk rock kid in college), but I had a week off of classes where all I had to do was work my 3 jobs.  I could catch up on sleep, go out drinking every night (well that wasn't much of a change) - basically just screw around more than normal.

As a professor... now my spring break consists of catching up on all the work I put off because it could wait until spring break, grading all those things I need to grade, tracking down students who are failing, finishing up research projects that get left half finished, finishing up proposals that are due soon, and falling asleep earlier than expected... E X C I T I N G, right?

Teaching has also taught me a lot about statistics.  I have just under 400 students in my lecture.  With 400 students you basically get the full range of types of humans.  Every crazy little nuance in the human character is likely to be present.  And they all come to me with their problems regarding this class... because, well, I am in charge am I not?

So far during this semester I have had:
-students cry during my quizzes and exams (yes, more than one...)
-a student try to cyberbully me by email (it was truly hilarious)
-students asking to stay in my class while in jail
-students try to get me to get them jobs... (WTH... you know me 6 weeks and you want me to try and pull string for you?????)

And you want to know the most frustrating part of it all - I have to act like an adult.  I have to follow the rules.  I have to be the one to do the right thing concerning it every time.  It takes so much more work to be stuck being the mature, responsible one in the student-teacher relationship.  Annoying.

Because I just don't have enough to do...

Oh new year, you make me kinda crazy...

But in a good way, I suppose.  So, with the first of the year, I started not one but two new jobs...  Like I needed any more to do.

I am no longer a postdoc!  HURRAY!  The world rejoices.  I am a Research Professor now, which is cool.  But basically, nothing has changed for my job.  I still do a huge amount of research.  I just get paid to the research by this big name state university.  A Research Professor is not what we call a Tenure Track position.  That is, I am not teaching any classes.  I am just doing research.  I wish I was Tenure Track, but I know I will get there eventually.

However, I have started as an Adjunct Professor at another, lesser big name university.  Teaching an introductory astronomy course.  Which has been a whirlwind, to say the least.  I teach an hour and a half lecture twice a week and a two hour lab once a week.  That doesn't count all the preparation, driving to and from one job to another, and dealing with the insanity that is college students in the digital age.  It appears that simply having an email address is cause enough for them to think I will solve all their problems for them... I am slightly annoyed.

Yesterday, I had my first lab and lecture.  Lecture went fantastic.  It was everything I remember loving about teaching.  Lab, on the other hand, was a sort of fiasco.  There may or may not have been a crying student...

Either way, I am really happy with how the new year has started, but I am so damn busy... I think I dreamed last night about getting a good night sleep.  That is sad.

In little munchkin news, Sweet Little Hellion has started to be hardcore potty trained.  We are probably going to forgo the nighttime Pullup this weekend since she has started asking to not wear it... I am so ready to be diaper free in the Berserker Clan.  S O  R E A D Y !

Punk Rock Friday - Mommy's Little Monster

From the great documentary - Another State of Mind - here is a nice video from 1983 of Social Distortion playing Mommy's Little Monster in Winnipeg, Canada.

Work Work, Zug Zug

Sorry all, I have been traveling for work - gallivanting across the US presenting my work at a conference.  Drinking free beer, being jet-lagged, and missing my family.  Previous to that, I was busting my butt to finish that work.  Then I got a nasty cold from all the dumb, germy people who go on planes right when I get back home. I will have a post up on the recent CERN results on the finding the Higgs boson later today.  EDIT: Actually, for some reason it appeared below this one... blogger has weird freaking software on the backend I guess... very confusing.

PS - I was in San Francisco when the Mythbusters shot a cannon ball into someones house on accident.  Coincidence or not - you decide????

Searching for the Higgs boson - new LHC results

Some of you may have heard that 2 of the experiments at CERN (the European particle collider built to find the Higgs boson).

So, what is the Higgs boson?  Well, in the standard model of particle physics, the Higgs boson is the particle which couples to everything else and gives those particles mass.  It is a strange notion of quantum field theory and may be difficult to understand.  Basically, the language of particle physics is quantum field theory.  Quantum field theory tells us interactions between particles are mediated by bosons.  For a more concrete example, electromagnetic interactions are mediated by photons (the interaction (or gauge) boson of quantum electrodynamics - the quantum field theory that describes electromagnetic interactions).  So, when two like charges repel each other - they two charges are exchanging a bunch of photons to accomplish that interaction.  I hope that helps in some way.

Here is a summary of particle interactions in the standard model:

There is a great video put out by Fermilab (a US particle physics lab) on searching for the Higgs and how it is done:


So, recent results by two different experiments at CERN, ATLAS and CMS, both have constrained the mass of the Higgs to a much smaller region.  CMS gives the limits of 115-127 GeV/c² and ATLAS gives the limits of 116-131 GeV/c². 

For those with a little more interest here are some plots from Sean Carrol's blog (he borrowed from others, so follow the trail down the rabbit hole if you like!).

 Here are the ATLAS preliminary results:

And the CMS preliminary results:

The way you read these plots is this: Any time the black dotted line dips below 1 on the vertical scale, these mass regions for the Higgs are excluded.  Anytime the black line dotted line rises above the yellow shaded region, there is increased confidence the Higgs may be hiding in there.

ATLAS is seeing a peak at approximately 126 GeV/c², while CMS is observes a peak at about 124 GeV/c².

Guido Tonelli, the Spokesperson for CMS said this at the CERN Higgs Seminar:

"…we observe in our data a modest excess of events between 115 and 127 GeV that appears, quite consistently, in five independent channels. The excess is most compatible with a SM Higgs hypothesis in the vicinity of 124 GeV and below, but the statistical significance (2.6 sigma local and 1.9 sigma global after correcting for the LEE in the low mass region) is not large enough to say anything conclusive."

While Fabiola Gianotti, the ATLAS Spokesperson said this (also at the CERN Higgs Seminar):

"We observe an excess of events around m_H ~ 126 GeV:   local significance of 3.6 sigma, with contributions from the  H –>2 gammas (2.8 sigma), H –> ZZ –>4l (2.1 sigma), H –> WW –> lvlv (1.4 sigma), SM Higgs expectation: 2.4 sigma local –> observed excess compatible with signal strength, the global significance (taking account Look-Elsewhere-Effect) is ~2.3 sigma"

So, the big take away is that the LHC is closing in on the Higgs, but there is still a lot of data to collect next year.  It should also be noted that the LHC just finished the 2011 runs about 6 weeks ago.  So these results are very preliminary, but also very promising!

Toys I want for Christmas

So, I was thinking about Christmas gifts last night for my kids.  Which led to thinking of stuff I want.  I really like buying my kids toys, because they are just so damn cool.  Plus, I am bigger than them and can make them share them with me.  Because, you know I am just a big kid anyways.  And I am mean.

My wife knows this, which is why she bought me a giant 2.5 foot wide Millennium Falcon as a special gift when my daughter was born.  Why would I get a gift, you ask?  Because I was such an awesome husband during her pregnancy - taking care of the house and our son, so she could be a little less miserable.  So, here is what she got me:

From Amazon

Yeah, that is right, it is over 2 and a half feet long and it is awesome!

Anyways, so what would be on my Christmas list if I was rich and awesome and didn't actually need things - cool toys of course.

Keeping in the Star Wars theme, I would go with this next:

While tactically the worst possible design for a troop transport - I dig the AT-AT.

 Then, maybe the electronic Boba Fett helmet, cause Fett is Bad (yeah, bad with a capital B):

Pew pew, then blast off with my jet pack!

To class the joint up a bit - some sweet ice cube trays:

When I am drinking my whiskey, I would pretend Han is getting drunk with me too!

Now, some weaponry to accompany my drunken self with my Boba Fett helmet on (because we all know that would happen):

It shoots 35 feet!  No one would be safe in my house!

And for when things really get out of control:

A rubber band gun shaped like an AK-47 - YES PLEASE!

So, am I missing anything?

Also, does anyone have any good board game recommendations?  The wife and I want to restock our board games (we lost a bunch in the floods).  Needs to be able to be played by 2 players - something strategic and fun is what I am thinking.  Was thinking about Dominion.. any thoughts from the interwebz people?  Thanks in advance.

Thanksgiving - the aftermath

Turkey Sacrifice by flikr user gusset (used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Great title, is it not?

So, I have been very far away from reading and writing blogs lately.  Sorry about that.  Busy with trying to get work finished before our Thanksgiving famication to Wisconsin.  Yep just made that word famication up.  No, it is not a vacation.  Since I spend all my time trying to relax but never getting to because I have to drive to or from some family members house every day.  I don't know why I bother flying home, I spent a total of 10 hours in cars driving to different family members' homes for a 6 day visit.

When I first got married I thought it was nice that my in-laws lived an hour from my parents.  Thank you world for clearing that misconception up.

Actually other than the usual holiday family insanity, it was a great trip.  I spent a lot of time with friends I haven't seen in a long time and got to catch up.  I also got to party like the rock star that I am.  Let me explain.

So, Thanksgiving Day I had our celebration with my in-laws at my mother-in-laws house.  My last visit with her was a disaster.  I thought I did, but I never really went into it on here like I had planned.  The quick and dirty of it is that she blew up at me about something that was not my doing (actually her daughter, my wife's fault) then proceeded to basically say she doesn't like me, never has.  In my ever mature nature, I let her know the same thing right back with a few fuck yous thrown in for good measure.  It basically ended with me conceding that I need to be more thankful to her and her conceding nothing.  Win some, lose some.  Oh well.

So, I was more than a little nervous about this visit. It went fine (from my point of view anyway).

I don't know... it's funny. Photo by flikr user wisze (used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

After Thanksgiving Day, we drove up to my parents to celebrate my birthday.  Which was a blast!  My brother and his wife and kids came over.  The kids sang happy birthday to me, we had cake, a good time was had by all.  My parents watched the kids in the evening while Beautiful Wife and I went out for a few beers with my brother and my best friend.  The four of us met out at an Irish pub where a good friend of mine was singing and playing guitar.  We drank and were merry til 3 am... Yes, I partied like a rock star till 3 am.  3.A.M

I haven't seen 3 AM without a sick kid in 5 years. I was hurting on Saturday.  Especially when Turkey Day round 2 started at 10 am with family showing up. Ouch.

After a turkey lunch I had dinner plans.  One of my best friends from college married a girl this summer from my neck of the woods, so BW and I got to get together for dinner.  It was great seeing a great old friend.  And I got out of the house sans kidlets 2 nights in a row.  That also hasn't happened in over 4 years.  It was great.

The next morning we did Christmas for the kids with my family since they won't see them on Christmas.  We do Thanksgiving instead of Christmas these days because it is just easier.

So, for you folks keeping track at home.  Those 4 days consisted of: Thanksgiving, Birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas.

Can I just skip holidays/celebrations for a few months...  Please?

Haiku Monday - Ode to DST

Ode to DST
Daylight Savings Time
Darkness envelopes my evenings
Who needs light at 6? 

EDIT:  I spelled Haiku wrong in the title... I guess that is about as good of a ringing endorsement for the topic as any.  WOW, I need an editor.

Punk Rock Fathers - the other F word & Punk Rock Friday

A possibly really great documentary is coming out called The Other F-word:

Shamelessly stolen from their Facebook page.

It is an exploration of how men, who grew up saying fuck off to authority, are now fathers and have to deal with raising a child.  How they rectify fatherhood with their so-called punk rock beliefs.  It looks at some pretty big names in the punk rock world with interviews, from the road and home, and examines all of their different attitudes, parenting styles, and beliefs on parenting.

From their website:

"The Other F Word is a raucous, eye-opening, sad and unexpectedly wise look at veteran punk rockers as they adapt to the challenges of fatherhood. To be sure, watching foul- mouthed, colorfully inked musicians attempt to fit themselves into Ward Cleaver's smoking jacket provides for some consistently hilarious situational comedy, but the film's deeper delving into a whole generation of artists clumsily making amends for their own absentee parents could strike a resonant note with anyone (punk or not) who's stumbled headfirst into family life."

- Andrew Barker, Variety

Wow, seems right up my alley!  Being the punk rock father and scientist that I am.  I am very excited to try and see this.  I will likely have to wait a very long time as they are only screening in NYC and LA right now.  And to that I say Fuck You Hollywood.  One would think that a movie about punk rock might try and be a little more DIY with distribution.  But, alas, it is still done by non-punk people.  At least the production was done independent and that means no big movie studio trying to make it Hollywood.

So for Punk Rock Friday, I present songs by two of the father's featured in the film.

The first (actually two) is by Bad Religion, whose singer Greg Graffin is featured in the film. Graffin was originally from my home state (Wisconsin) and spent part of his youth there.  He has two kids and has been the front man for Bad Religion since 1979 (He's old!).

Here are two version of Sorrow by Bad Religion:

Live in 2009


Acoustic


Next up is Duane Peters, legendary punk rocker and professional skater.  Peters 20 year-old son Chess (Chelsea) Peters was killed in a car accident on July 6, 2007.  A horrible, unthinkable thing to have happen.  Duane put out a whole record of songs for his son.  We are not going to go that route, because it makes me a little misty eyed.  There is real grief in that record and it hits home for me for some reason.



So I present to you (one of) my favorite US Bombs song,  Jaks
 

The Painful Truth of xkcd

Nothing like a geek comic make me feel old:

The Potty Training Blues

Photo by Flickr user AmberStocel (CC  BY-ND 2.0)

Poop is all over the house these days... not much has really changed since I wrote back in July about a potty misadventure.

Well at least that is the way it feels to me.  Sweet Little Hellion is two and a half now.  She has been potty training steadily these past 2 months.  Overall it is going okay.  At school she is a rock star.  At home, it is very hit or miss.  The at home part is largely parenting fail.  With Little Berserker Spawn (4 year old boy) potty training was pretty on point.  He was first born and his sister was still an infant.  I like infants.  They make funny faces, they snuggle and they don't talk back, hit, bite, scream, or whine.  At least not as much as a 2 year old does...

Our lives are just too insane and we cannot give SLH all the attention for potty training she needs.  She is also so very easy going, that things like a giant turd sandwich in her Dora undies don't bother her much...

It has been bringing me increasing frustration these past 2 weeks.  There is nothing I find worse then poop-filled underwear.  I don't mind diapers or poopy diapers.  Not a big deal to me at all.  But having to clean out underwear... disgusting.  And SLH knows that it frustrates me.  She feels bad about it.  Which makes me feel awful for being such a selfish jackhole.

So as a first step in trying to get her along the road to diaper-less bliss, we are trying to get her to just tell us she has poopy pants.  And when she tells me, I force a smile and lay on the praise for telling me.  She asks me if I am happy in her little angelic voice, "Daddy happy?"  And I respond that I am happy she told me and that next time let's use the potty!

That is right, I have to tell my two and a half year old daughter that I am happy about her poopy underwear...

Oh yeah, potty training is all stickers, smiles, bunnies and bears.  Photo credit: flicker user byte

Going along with the whole poop motif I have going on... what can I say - I am pure C-L-A-S-S!  SLH has this horrible timing issue of her bowels.  She poops every morning 2 minutes before we need to leave the house for daycare and work...  E V E R Y  M O R N I N G...  It doesn't matter when I try to leave.  It doesn't matter what day of the week.  I could try and trick her and leave for work an hour earlier... she would have the brown stinkies...

Did I mention I am the sole adult responsible for the morning (mis)adventures of getting to daycare?  BW leaves before us because she works much further away.  The kids go to daycare just down the block from my office, so I am the head honcho for mornings.  YEAH FOR ME ON MORNING TURD DUTY!

Haiku Monday - Halloween!

 Halloween

All hallows eve, YAR!

A pirate and a clone say

More candy please, Dad

From soil-net.com (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Punk Rock Friday - New Direction by the Gorilla Biscuits

By Andy McKay [CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC-BY-2.5], via Wikimedia Commons

What do you mean it's time
Time for me to grow up?
I don't want any part
It's right to follow my heart
The new kids ran
Ran out the back door fast
And the bands that came before
They had their noses in the air
Pretending that they cared about our scene
Just because our money's green
I'll tell you stage dives
Make me feel more alive
Than coded messages in slowed down songs

Now you're so ashamed
Now I'm so ashamed of you
We believed the same things
You stand to the side
Rebirth of hardcore pride
It all came true
Too bad you can't see
All the good things that I see

Back in, back in the days
when I'd wait tosee the old bands play
It didn't seem like wasted days
I was so sincere, but now I see more clearly
Music's only work to them. It's not to me
So I say, hats off to bands that change
Good luck, go your own way 
Why play for us, if your heart's not in it? 
Cause what might seem dumb to you
is pounding in my heart.

Now you're so ashamed,
Now you're so ashamed of you
We believed the same things.
You stand to the side
Rebirth of hardcore pride
It all came true
Too bad you can't see
No, you just can't fucking see it.

Now you just turn your back
You said I don't want it anymore
Old friends you attack
Our pain out of touch. You don't get it do you?
New stage, new ideas.
You don't have to make excuses for us
Sitting there looking back, I'm scared
Don't spoil memories of the way things

Haiku Monday - Wrong Age

Picture Credit: James Vaughan, CC BY-SA 2.0

Wrong Age

Simple life for me

Kids are better than adults

Gray is for the weak

Good luck deciphering this one people... well it is really not all that deep, I am just sort of mentally slow and prone to thinking much too highly of myself.

Stupid People

One of my favorite things in life is the whole notion of the Darwin Awards.  The Darwin Awards salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who accidentally remove themselves from it...

Taken from their website:

In the spirit of Charles Darwin, the Darwin Awards commemorate individuals who protect our gene pool by making the ultimate sacrifice of their own lives. Darwin Award winners eliminate themselves in an extraordinarily idiotic manner, thereby improving our species' chances of long-term survival. 

 They were started by Wendy Northcutt and have evolved into an annual book.  There are some real gems out there - like the one where two professional racecar mechanics put methanol in a 55 gallon drum and tried to ride it like Wile E. Coyote.

But, I bring to you today someone who just missed the cut for the Darwin Awards:

Haiku Monday - No Coffee?

No Coffee?

Truly horrible event

No work coffee on Monday? 

 Brain weeps like fall leaves