Author: dabacon

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Self Cleaning Hyperbolic Tweed Clothing for Academics

Some days it seems the universe is trying to tell you something. The last few days, this has apparently been something to do with clothing:

  • Self cleaning clothes. I really need these as I am in a constant battle with mustard.
  • Via Three-Toed Sloth, A Call for Professional Attire on dressing in academia. Recently my dog ate the elbows out of a new sweater, so I now have a sweater with patched elbows, the ultimate in professorial attire, I suppose. Sadly the article doesn’t take the argument to its conclusion and require that not just profs wear fancy clothes, but that students also be required to wear uniforms of less sophistication, so that those little rats know their place in life.
  • In a related note, New York’s fashion week features tweed. So take that you scruffy enforcer of suits and ties: soon professorial tweed will be all the rage.
  • Crocheted models of hyperbolic space. Impressive, but I’m still waiting for “Crocheted models of eleven dimensional space time.” On a related note, knitting and cellular automata.
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Will the Presidential Candidates Debate Science?

The U.S. presidential candidates been invited to a debate on science. Will they come? I don’t know, but the thought of Mike Huckabee using biblical references in discussing science could lead to some very fun sentences. For example, if he wanted to get apocrypha-l, when talking about the bioethics of artificial wombs, he could bring up the Gospel of Thomas 15:

Jesus said, “When you see one who was not born of woman, fall on your faces and worship. That one is your Father.”

Of course, Mike Huckabee didn’t major in math, so I worry that he won’t attend for fear that the debate might test his calculating abilities (math phobia burns wide and deep.)

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Superconducting Qubit Fidelities Improve

New results out of the Martinis lab at UCSB have shown single qubit gate fidelities of 0.98 for a superconducting phase qubit. This is significantly better than previous single qubit gate fidelities in their system and in any other superconducting qubit system. It is an extremely impressive number. (Seems that carefully crafted microwaves pulses were a big help in getting the gate fidelity to this level.) Martinis is speaking at SQUINT 2008, but just in a tutorial section. Maybe we will get lucky and a bit of these new fidelities will leak into his talk.

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Must Pass Texas

As a native Californian, my sworn enemy is the state of Texas. Thus it gives me great pleasure to see that the state of Washington is tied with Texas in venture capital funding. Soon, Seattle, will rule the world! Okay, maybe not. But I love Oren Etzioni’s comment on comparing Silicon Valley to Seattle:

Mr. Etzioni says Seattle has at least one advantage over its storied counterpart in California. “People aren’t distracted by too much sunshine,” he said. “They sit in their offices or garages and get creative.”

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Two Body Problem of a Different Kind

Two faculty postions in experimental Quantum Information and Nanoscience are being advertised at the University of Bristol. The positions are a part of the Centre (not sure what that word is) for Quantum Photonics and will be housed in the new £11M Nanoscience & Quantum Information Building. Since quantum and nano are so small they should be able to cram a lot of work in this new building! Oh wait, that’s not how it works.
Continue reading “Two Body Problem of a Different Kind”

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Delegate Strategy Questions

An interesting odd/even effect:

Although no official count was available early Wednesday, state Democratic party officials predict that Clinton will get 20 to 30 more delegates when all results are in. Because of the relatively close finish, they are likely to split delegates in most of the congressional districts with an even number of delegates, while Clinton will pick up an extra delegate in districts that offer an odd number.

So did the campaign’s know about this effect and spend more money and put in more effort in districts with an odd number of delegates? Is that even the correct strategy?