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: