Category Archives: Go Ahead, Waste Your Time

Your Guide to Australian Slang for QIP Sydney

Posted on January 10, 2015 by sflammia

To everyone that’s attending QIP, welcome to Sydney! Since I’ve already had to clarify a number of the finer points of Australian slang to my fellow attendees, I thought I would solve the general problem and simply post a helpful dictionary that translates some … Continue reading →

Posted in Go Ahead, Waste Your Time | 8 Comments

Sailing Stones: Mystery No More

Posted on September 9, 2014 by dabacon

My first research project, my first research paper, was on a perplexing phenomenon: the sliding rocks of Death Valley’s Racetrack playa. Racetrack playa is a large desolate dry lake bed that has one distinguishing feature above and beyond its amazing … Continue reading →

Posted in Geology, Go Ahead, Waste Your Time | 1 Comment

Portrait of an Academic at a Midlife Crisis

Posted on October 24, 2013 by dabacon

Citations are the currency of academia. But the currency of your heart is another thing altogether. With apologies to my co-authors, here is a plot of my paper citations versus my own subjective rating of the paper. Hover over the … Continue reading →

Posted in Go Ahead, Waste Your Time, Quantum Computing, Self: Meet Center. Center: Meet Self. | 1 Comment

Why I Left Academia

Posted on September 22, 2013 by dabacon

TLDR: scroll here for the pretty interactive picture. Over two years ago I abandoned my post at the University of Washington as a assistant research professor studying quantum computing and started a new career as a software developer for Google. … Continue reading →

Posted in Extralusionary Intelligence, Go Ahead, Waste Your Time, Off The Deep End, Programming, Self: Meet Center. Center: Meet Self., The Loony Bin Called Academia | 12 Comments

4 Pages

Posted on May 8, 2013 by dabacon

Walk up to a physicist at a party (we could add a conditional about the amount of beer consumed by the physicist at this point, but that would be redundant, it is a party after all), and say to him or … Continue reading →

Posted in Go Ahead, Waste Your Time, Off The Deep End, Physics, Quantum, The Loony Bin Called Academia | 4 Comments

Ig Nobels 2011

Posted on September 29, 2011 by sflammia

Yes, it’s that time of year again. The Ig Nobel Prize ceremony was held this evening at Harvard. My favorite is the winner of the Ig Nobel Peace Prize, which went to Arturas Zuokas, the mayor of Vilnius, Lithuania, for … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcement, Funny Ha Ha, Go Ahead, Waste Your Time, Off The Deep End | 5 Comments

TEDxCaltech Videos

Posted on February 16, 2011 by dabacon

Coming online now: http://tedxcaltech.com/. See the Optimizer pontificate about P versus NP (now who can verify the Feynman quote at the beginning?) and two prestigious professors goof around:

Posted in Caltech, Go Ahead, Waste Your Time, Physics, Quantum Computing | 1 Comment

TEDxCaltech Streaming Link

Posted on January 14, 2011 by dabacon

TEDxCaltech streaming

Posted in Caltech, Go Ahead, Waste Your Time, Physics, Science | Leave a comment

Consequence of the Concept of the Universe as a Computer

Posted on December 21, 2010 by dabacon

The ACM’s Ubiquity has been running a symposium on the question What is Computation?. Amusingly they let a slacker like me take a shot at the question and my essay has now been posted: Computation and Fundamental Physics. As a … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Science, Go Ahead, Waste Your Time, Off The Deep End, Physics, Quantum Computing | 4 Comments

Seth Lloyd at IQC

Posted on December 20, 2010 by dabacon

Some fun short clips of Seth Lloyd at the IQC. Love the first one. Disagree with the second one. The third is a great hope. Disagree strong with the fourth one (since I think the definition of a computer must … Continue reading →

Posted in Go Ahead, Waste Your Time, Quantum Computing | 7 Comments