Category: General

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When I lived in Berkeley for my first year I had my fathers Ford Explorer SUV. One day I woke up and found a little piece of paper under the windshield wiper of the car. On this car was a long list of reasons why SUVs were bad (gas guzzling, more dangerous, etc.) Many of these points I agreed with, but what really cracked me up was the last line:

So sell your SUV!

Um, how does selling my SUV fix the problem?
Today I woke up and read that Sarah Palin had spoken:

And so as I thought about this announcement that I wouldn’t run for re-election and what it means for Alaska, I thought about how much fun some governors have as lame ducks… travel around the state, to the Lower 48 (maybe), overseas on international trade – as so many politicians do. And then I thought – that’s what’s wrong – many just accept that lame duck status, hit the road, draw the paycheck, and “milk it”. I’m not putting Alaska through that – I promised efficiencies and effectiveness! ? That’s not how I am wired. I am not wired to operate under the same old “politics as usual.” I promised that four years ago – and I meant it.

and the

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A National Initiative to Build a Quantum Computer

In Vienna, Virginia on April 23-25th a workshop is being held in response to a report, “A Federal Vision for Quantum Information Science” issued by the United States National Science and Technology Council. While this workshop looks, from the outside, like any other typical quantum computing workshop, this is a bit deceiving, as from what I understand this workshop is supposed to provide the impetus for a report arguing for a major spending for quantum information science in the United States, especially from the National Science Foundation. The Quantum Pontiff, unfortunately, is stuck unquantumly pontificating before his intro to computer science theory students, so he won’t be able to attend the workshop. Which is all to say this is as good of place as any to write down my own thoughts on what a national initiative in quantum computing should look like. (Of course my qualifications to make such a judgment are thin at best, being a second-rate pseudo professor from the nether regions of quantum computing. But ain’t blogs great. On the internet no one knows you’re a research assistant professor!)
Continue reading “A National Initiative to Build a Quantum Computer”

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UW: We're Number 1!

Over at Xconomy Ed Lazowska writes about the proposed cuts in higher education here in the state of Washington. There I find that the Washington higher eduction is number one! Number one in terms of the percentage being cut by the (proposed) state budget: 23 to 31 percent among global challenge peer states. But are we really number one or are there other non-global challenge peer states that are getting cut worse? Inquiring minds want to know: which university system is going to win the prestigious “the Tax Man axeth” contest?

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