Fantastic 5th

I'm watching the latest Fantastic 4 movie with Gwerin, and the defense department asked Reid Richards to do a science thingy for national security. Instead, he refers the good General to Dr. So and So, head of the physics department at Brown. That's right, Brown!! Now I know I made the right decision to come here! I mean, basically, the Fantastic 4 refer to, in some way or another, ME. I'm practically the Fantastic 5th! Now what powers do/could I have...

In the interest of blog participation, please, tell me what power you think I should have, and/or what power you would have, had Reid Richards referred the welfare of the world to you...

Spam 4 cheap $$!!

Spam filters, I imagine, use some sort of algorithm to detect what it should consider spam or not. Subject lines and email content that include references to Viagara, Penis Enlargement, Cialis, Erections, and any number of symbols used to spell out those and other 'buzz' words. The Brown spam filter works much this way. However, that leads me to wonder what people in the Medical school do, and what about people who study anatomy or biology or sexual psychology or whatever do? I imagine a lot of their emails get marked as spam. Do they have to disguise their emails by changing words like 'penis' to say... 'puppy'? Do they send emails regarding the psychological effects of puppy size, so that their messages get through? A spam filter can't tell the difference between 'Viagara 4 low cost! Huge, fast effects now!' and 'regarding paper on effects of cost of Viagara on low income men in their 40's' or whatever.

It's probably not fair.

I'm just saying.

Dark Matter really is dark!

Hi, it's been awhile, but I've been busy. Hm. Understatement of the year I think. 14 hour days start to get to you.. In fact, I've noticed that all this fancy learnin' has actually begun to push other information out of my head. When I was a kid I was able to remember license plates of all my friends and their parents. I remembered telephone numbers from when I was a kid... Now all that is gone (though not really missed). Now I forget conversations and events, I forget when they happened, something that happened two days ago I claim happened weeks ago... I'm actually becoming an absent minded graduate student. Anyway, hopefully it's not all for naught. I've come to the conclusion that graduate school, so far anyway, would be very satisfying if it weren't for the classes. On that note, I'll segue to a discussion of my research....

Dark matter. I'm working on an experiment called LUX, which I think stands for some amalgamation of liquid, underground, and xenon. Of course, the underground isn't liquid, the xenon is.... Anyway, this is an experiment to detect dark matter directly. Dark matter has been detected indirectly, which is why it was postulated to begin with. Dark matter was theorized to account for the rotation of galaxies among other things. Gravity (Newton's, as well as Einstein's General Relativity) tell us how galaxies should rotate given a certain amount of mass at their centers. However, galaxies rotate differently than these theories predict for the amount of mass that we can see. The key here is 'see'. We look at a galaxy with visible light telescopes, as well as X-Ray telescopes (among others) and can see how much regular matter is there, because it glows (because it has some non-zero temperature). When it glows, it is releasing radiation, some of which we can see (stars), and some of which is in the non-visible part of the spectrum, which we 'see' with X-Ray telescopes. Anyway, the point is, we can tell how much regular matter is in a galaxy, but it behaves as if there is more matter there. This cannot necessarily be described with just a black hole, which can be very massive, and as light doesn't not escape it, very dark. However, we can tell the size of the black hole at the center of galaxies by the Hawking radiation emanating from it's event horizon (this is radiation emitted from matter that is accelerated towards the black hole). Also, the galaxy appears to rotate not as if there is some extra matter can't see at the middle, but as if it is distributed in a sphere extending in a 'halo' around the galaxy! Since we can't see what matter could be doing this, we postulate that it is dark. This means that it doesn't give off radiation like the normal matter that we're made of, as well as the stars and all the other glowing matter that I mentioned earlier (known as baryonic matter). This implies that it doesn't interact with regular matter via the electromagnetic force, which causes the radiation that we see. So we think that it must be weakly interacting, yet still very massive. This gives rise to the particle known as a WIMP (Weakly Interacting Massive Particle), which we believe is dark matter!

So, LUX is an experiment to detect WIMPs. Remember, they're weakly interacting, not non-interacting. So we try to detect how they interact with regular matter by bumping into the nucleus, rather than the electrons around the nucleus, which is predominantly how baryonic matter interacts. The basic setup for the experiment is a bucket of liquied xenon (very large nucleus, good for WIMPS to bump into) that is very cold, and quiet. When a WIMP streams through the detector (they're streaming through all of us right now, without interacting, or barely interacting with us) it may bump into the xenon nucleus, which gets heated up slightly from the interaction, and emits radiation (light) that we detect. That's it, pretty simple huh? Yes and no. There is a lot of other stuff streaming through us right now, besides WIMPs, which is more strongly interacting. So if we were to turn our detector on right now, on the surface, without any shielding, it would light up like a Christmas tree. This is because all the other particles (cosmogenic muons from the sun, radiation from normal matter that decays in and around us, etc.) interact in the detector too, causing a lot of background noise (signals we don't care about, that are not WIMPS). So we put massive water shields around the detector and go deep underground where most of the radiation from the sun cannot reach. The water shield absorbs most of the radiation from the cavern rock and all the other stuff in the room. Then we use very clever veto techniques to rule out interactions as being WIMPs. For example, a neutron that decayed from the cavern wall might enter the detector, but it when it hits the xenon nucleus it will impart a lot more energy than a WIMP, so we call it a high energy veto, which means anything depositing energy over a certain threshold, is not a WIMP, so we ignore it. Also, WIMPs are so weakly interacting, they are sure to interact only once in the detector, if at all. Other particles like neutrons may interact more than once. So we use a multiple scatter veto to rule them out. Many other techniques like this are used to sift out signals that we know aren't WIMPs, to look for ones that might be.

So far, experiments like this one haven't turned up any verifiable detection of dark matter WIMPs, but LUX will be the most sensitive dark matter detector in the world when it is turned on. Even if it doesn't see anything, we'll be able to rule out a lot of theories for dark matter, which is just as exciting, because it opens up new physics. The great thing about experimental physics is that whether your see what your were looking for or not, you have revealed some great truth about nature that will keep theorists busy for years.

Anyway, that should be enough to keep you busy for awhile, please post any questions, as I'm sure you will have some, unless this is completely uninteresting to you, in which case, thanks for reading anyway.

Fat Guy On A Bike

I've been waiting to write this post until I had enough concrete evidence that he in fact, exists. Every morning and evening, when the lighting is just right, you can see a fat guy on a bike ride past my house. He's a rotund fellow and is often seen with a blue backpack. His ride is slow, but silent. I've collected the following evidence of FGOAB (These images have been enhanced):

This first documented sighting was in the early morning. You can see FGOAB riding by over the kid with black shirt's shoulder.

These next three were all taken at night as FGOAB crossed the street in front of the house, and then rode by. I have enhanced the details so that you can see the FGOAB.


I think you can also see FGOAB in this photo...



So there you have it. I'm not crazy. There really is a Fat Guy On A Bike in my neighborhood. As of yet I haven't heard of him harming anyone... but it's only a matter of time....

9 Manliest Names Ever

Cosmic Variance points to this article listing the 9 manliest names ever. Of special interest to me is Max Planck. I use his name literally every day as he helped develop quantum mechanics and has an oft used constant named after him. Also noted is the idea that Max Planck would have been an awesome pirate name.
"yaarrr, walk the my last name!"
awesome.

This leads me to the formulation of the 'porn name'. Your porn name is constructed by taking your middle name and following it with the street you grew up on. Keep in mind not all are winners. I am Jonathan Main. Not too bad. Alternatively, Jonathan Mercury if you use the street I lived on briefly in Arizona. Better.

Everyone, submit your porn names into the comment section of this post. The person with the best porn name will immediately grow a mustache and/or perm.

the ideal applicant will have 5-7 years experience as a buddhist...

Steve and I recently came to the conclusion that the occupational landscape in the time of the Buddha was a bit more bleak than it is in modern day America. That being said, some new guidelines were drawn up for the definition of good and bad goals to have in life. We decided that one shouldn't be stuck in a crappy job that is not satisfying, and as a good buddhist, be encouraged to become peace with it. Instead, the following list of good and bad goals in life, should help guide you:

Good Goals:
Secure on occupation that is both intellectually and spiritually satisfying.
Work related goals that one enjoys working towards.

Bad Goals:
Nice car.
Big house.

The idea is that one should enjoy and be satisfied during the pursuit of goals, not only be satisfied with the attainment of goals. Don't work towards a promotion to a position that you don't want to do because it pays more. Do what makes you happy, and be happy with that.

This life lesson brought to you by... "The Dharma! Ride The Way!"

General Petraeus, or General Delicate Flower?

The Times online has a great article http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1663424,00.html?cnn=yes
on the blasphemous headline that everyone is talking about: "General Petraeus, or General Betray Us?". The article makes a good point that Republicans would rather discuss etiquette than the war. They are even demanding that politicians publicly denounce and condemn the article. Why would anyone demand that a person condemn something which they have nothing to do with?

I am getting more an more disillusioned with politics each day. If it weren't so damned inconvenient, I'd move.

should we stay or should we go...

...now.

So Erin and I were all set to move out of our house because it became evident that we could not afford the rent. We were all set to sign the lease on a new apartment in Providence when.... our current landlady came to us with an offer. She decreased the rent of our house from $1500 to $1000 per month because she wanted us to finish the lease. Her claim is that she wants someone in the house in the winter to keep it from going into disrepair. This is a little funny, because if anything ever needs repair we call her anyway... but we'll take it.

The thing is, we were excited to move. The prospect of saving so much money on our bills that we could actually afford to enjoy life with our meager earnings had grown on us. So, we will stay in the house, the drastic decrease in rent has meant that we can in fact afford to enjoy life a little... and then in the spring when our lease is up we'll move to Providence near Brown where I will get rid of my car (thereby saving more money) and Erin will get a job locally, and then the plan is to live happily ever after.

As long as our future landlord doesn't kick us out because our birds occasionally like to sing...
and scream.

Good news for now though: I get to have cable in a couple months, and eventually I can buy beer again. TV and beer. I'm becoming Al Bundy.

What's wrong with this country? Pt.2

See below for part 1, or read out of order, no biggie.
Both of these news snippets were stolen from like minded Mark at Cosmic Variance.

Legislation is in the works in Louisiana to put a ban on wearing baggy clothes. Apparently it accompanies bad, delinquent behavior, and if we tighten the clothes of our youth then they will behave better. What bothers me is how this kind of thing occurs with every generation, and this one could be seen as racially motivated, but really it's more of a generation gap. It doesn't matter what people wear or how they wear it, what matters is how they behave.

What's wrong with this country? Pt.1

The way this blog is listed you will probably read part 2 first, but that's okay because the order isn't relevant. This first bit is reminiscent of the Florida debacle a few weeks ago, but is higher profile and sort of strange. The news is that senator Larry Craig plead guilty to lewd misconduct by supposedly making sexual advances on an undercover police officer. He is being pressed to resign as senator while he argues that he should not have plead guilty at all. The worst part is that the police report states that the lewd misconduct was tapping feet with the officer in the adjacent stall and *gasp* waving at him under the stall barrier. This reeks more of extortion than anything, how is that lewd and gay misconduct? It doesn't even fit the definition of sexual harassment and could easily be regarded as a misunderstanding. Maybe all he wanted was toilet paper. I'm not saying that's the case, but it you can't really get much out of that kind of behavior. The cherry on this whole ridiculous case is that the Senate is asking him to resign for it, rather than focusing on his hypocrisy. If the incident really was a sexual advance (and popular opinion says it was, even though consensual) then it is badly out of character for a senator who is against gay rights. I don't have any problem with a senator being horny (well I do if he acts out inappropriately because of it), the real issue is a senator whose opinion can't be trusted.

Also, who the hell is against gay rights these days? Come on, get with the times...

China bans unregulated reincarnation

I don't want this blog to become exclusively anti-China, but I can't help it if the Chinese government keeps doing stupid things for me to blog about. The latest news: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20227400/site/newsweek/
A new law in China will take effect next month that bans reincarnation without government permission. At first this seems incredibly silly, until you read on about China's motives. The Dalai Lama is getting old, and when he dies he will be reincarnated, supposedly in Tibet. However, Tibet is under China's control, and so with this new law, they can then choose who the new Dalai Lama will be. In retaliation the current Dalai Lama has decided that he will not be reincarnated in Tibet while it is under Chinese rule. Of course, this whole thing is rather ridiculous, in fact, why does China have control over Tibet anyway? I mean, why would they want to control a bunch of Buddhist monks at the base of a giant, impassable mountain? In any event, the Chinese government is ridiculous and they should stop picking on Buddhist monks.

myPhone, Seattle

It happened. It actually happened. Well in advance of my birthday I have been gifted an iPhone from Mike and Wendi. While I typically don't like (or at least don't feel good about) accepting generous gifts, I wanted and iPhone so bad that I had no qualms accepting this one.

This gift was given to Erin and I for our birthdays while we visited them last weekend in Seattle, WA. It was a really fun trip, and very interesting. I was really impressed with the architecture of the new houses going up out there. It had the feel of a housing development that I had been used to in Arizona, but vertical (on the mountains for the views) and not every house was the same. Different models next to each other (though very close together) and the styles were very cool. Sort of a rugged country architecture, with a modern feel. A lot better than the adobe clay walls in the southwest, and even better than the victorian or colonial style houses of the northeast. Another interesting thing was the way the communities were arranged. Everybody wants a view of the mountains out there, so on a small mountain where houses are going up, they'll start with low income apartments on the bottom, then townhouses, small houses, large houses, and then mansions on the top of the mountain. It was oddly reminiscent of labor union days and segregation by income.

There were lots of other cool things on the trip that I can't mention here, except to say that it was all very fun, and I got an iPhone.

Chinese Immigrants (and others...)

So I should note that the previous post has a few things I call 'jokes' in it. These 'jokes' are hidden among serious non 'joke' content, and are thus hard to find. I'll give you a hint: I don't think all Chinese people look alike. But that comment about the Chinese food is both a joke, and serious. Moving on...

A few days ago my mom sent me a forwarded email from some racist nationalist friend of hers. It was one of those emails disguised as a joke, but in this case the truth behind the joke was no good at all. It went something like this:

"How businesses should answer their phone:
'Press 1 for english,
Press 2 to wait until you learn english'
Remember, two people died for us, jesus and the american soldier. If you think that's pretty sweet, forward this to everyone you know so that they can share in your anti-immigration-for-jesus-campaign" I paraphrase that last bit, which was accompanied by a bunch of pictures of bald eagles and american flags.

The trouble isn't in that last bit, which is completely irrelevant to the point of the email, it's in the 'joke' at the beginning. Allow me to address the issue of immigration, and from now on, regardless of your stance on jesus and supporting the troops, you can feel bad about yourself for how you treat non-americans.

Our ancestors were immigrants once, it is their blood and culture that make america what it is today. If you look back on the relatively recent Irish immigration, they were treated very poorly when they first got here, but have now assimilated into american culture and added to it in significant ways. Complaining that hispanic people are only coming here to get jobs is silly. That's why our ancestors came here, don't be such a jerk. Complaining that they should learn english is also silly. Another reason they come to american is for an education. They don't take english classes in high school. Americans should crawl down off their pedestal for minute. All other countries speak several different languages. We're the lazy ones. We should know spanish because that is the language of our neighbors. Especially given our wealthy status, education should be no problem (it is a problem, but not when it comes to learning other languages, that's taught in high schools all over the country). So to conclude this rant, immigration isn't bad, americans are bad because of the way they treat immigrants and each other. If a mexican is going to make my electronics I'd rather he do it as an american citizen, making a decent living and being able to support his family.

Anti-Chinese Sentiments

I have recently learned that the Chinese government (People's Republic of China) censors my blog. Of course censorship of the internet (and everything else) in China is a big problem and apparently blogs pose a threat to the Chinese government in particular. Apparently, any blog on blogspot (which, you'll notice, this blog is hosted by) is completely off limits in China. It seems silly for the Chinese government to censor my blog, a relatively harmless and meager collection of posts. So, I've decided to give them something worth censoring:

The Chinese government is bad.
Communism is an inherently flawed ideal, and not in the best interest of the individual.
All Chinese people look alike.
While China boasts a growing economy it lacks the safety standards that make its products suitable for civilized nations.
The Olympics should not be held in Beijing because of the poor air quality.
The Chinese are bad for the environment.
No matter how much Chinese food I eat, I'm always hungry 20 minutes later.
The Chinese government stole Jack Bauer.

Please feel free to add your own defamations of the Chinese government to the comments section.

The egg came before the chicken, now what the hell is a pre-chicken?

Okay, the egg came before the chicken, and here's why: What we define as a chicken came about through a gradual series of mutations from some other animal. There is a threshold that separates what we call a chicken from its ancestor. One genetic mutation between chicken, and not chicken. That mutation occurs at conception, and so the egg contains the mutated animal that is a chicken, laid by it's non-mutated parent, not a chicken. QED.

Now that we have an answer for that, we can finally move on to other questions about existence, like what should we call the strange monster that came before the egg (Pre-chicken)? And how is that related to what McDonald's used to make McNuggets out of before they switched to 100% real chicken?

The Ultimate 747 Gambit

I have recently finished reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and while some of his arguments are loosely backed up in my opinion, he does a much better job than his adversaries in the debate. One particular argument of his against the existence of god also refutes a common theological argument for the existence of god. This is that life in all of its complexity is so improbable, that were it to come about by chance it would be similar to a hurricane sweeping through a junkyard and assembling a Boeing 747. Therefore god exists, QED. Of course this is silly because if life is too complex, and therefore to improbable to not have a designer, then by definition the designer must be more complex than what is designed. This, according to Dawkins, is the ultimate 747. The end of the argument rests on what created god, if life can't appear by chance, then neither can god by that argument, and so on.

Dawkins' more important point in this section is that nobody is arguing that life came about by chance. Theologians often assume that it is chance or god. Scientists, one in particular, have come up with a way life could have come about that is neither intelligently designed, nor by chance. This of course, is evolution by natural selection. Notice how I didn't say the theory of evolution. It is as well tested as any of the theories that have given us fantastic advances in technology, and is therefore scientific fact. Evolution by natural selection does not involve any highly improbable events, only a series of slightly improbable events, namely genetic mutations. And the fact is, many of these mutations occur all the time, only some of them lead to more favorable living conditions for the host. This isn't a sharp spike, but a gradual incline in complexity that requires neither great chance, nor god. This is like a hurricane gradually moving parts in a million junkyards, over millions of years. In the end this is a very good argument for the improbability of god, and the lack of a need for god at all.

buttons! everywhere! i can't take it anymore!

It has come to my attention via slashdot http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/07/07/25/1338237.shtml that Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, hates buttons. This explains the real reason for releasing the iphone. An attempt to enter Apple into a growing cellphone market? No, an attack against buttons. I'm sure that if you checked his wardrobe you'd find an alarming lack of buttoned clothing. No dress shirts, just turtlenecks. Coats? only with zippers and velcro... This is just another case of the genius being a little insane....

I'm sure in the future we'll find out that Bill Gates has a secret hatred for usability.

quality over quantity

It has come to light that, since the 1990's, science and engineering research in the US has plateaued. Apparently, overseas research has been enjoying a rapid increase in publications. However, the silver lining is that citations of US publications has increased such that Americans are more cited than anyone else. This seems to me to be an issue of quantity versus quality. We may have plateaued in terms of quantity (though of course, there is a rise in PhDs granted) but we have steadily increased in quality of publications. Some day, I'll do my part to help that plateau as well.

newish house photos

This post, see the outside of our new house! Also, special shots of the downstairs!

As a special treat, try and spot the cute doggie in all of the outside pictures!

Clone drug wars

I just read on Slashdot that scientists in Korea are going to clone drug sniffing dogs. This is surprising to me because I thought cloning was taboo except for British scientists and poor cancer prone sheep. I also read that a cool mammoth carcass was found in permafrost in Siberia, and scientists want to get its DNA and clone it too! What's with people trying to clone things all of a sudden?! So I'm thinking, you have drug sniffing dog DNA, and you have mammoth DNA, so why not... y'know... drug sniffing mammoth dogs!

Think about it.

party success!

Hey everyone, thanks to all of you who came out to mine and Erin's 4th of July party (on the 7th, of course). It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed seeing so many of of favorite people in one backyard! Special thanks to everyone who brought something for the party (which was basically everyone I think, since Erin and I have no money). It would have been a grumpy party without food and drinks.

Dave, don't worry, your veggie platter was a huge success.

iphone? iwant!

So it's been a couple of days since the release of the iPhone, and it's time for me to separate myself from the pack. I want one. No, I don't think that it isn't worth all the hype, I think it's plenty worth the hype. This thing is the mother of all gadgets. It makes all those normal, prosaic gadgets look like analog devices, or light paper weights. So, with this in mind, I've decided to refer to my current cellphone as an hPhone until I get my hands on an iPhone. Wish me luck.

footloose

So I know it's late (9:50pm is the new 1:50am) but I just had a revelation: Putting your feet up and kicking your shoes off, is one of the best, most relaxing feelings ever. Even though my feet are up, as previously stipulated, and the pressure is off of their balls (always nice), the relaxtion teapot isn't whistling until the shoes come off. (not like when the gloves come off). I can't really explain what does it, but I'm not truly relaxed until the last shoe drops (I love puns, it's true).

.....

Did I say 'relaxation teapot'?

Goodnight.

I knew it!

This is kind of old, and I know that I've already posted an onion article this month, but I want everyone I know to read this, and then give me some credit. Science is hard.

National Science Foundation: Science Hard

Email? No no, too high tech for me.

After a massive cyber attack on the Pentagon wednesday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates responded to a reporter's question of whether or not his own email was compromised, with the following gem:
"I don't do email. I'm a very low-tech person"
I can think of one other person I know who doesn't use email. Her name is Nana. Now don't get me wrong, Nana's a great Nana, but probably not a good Secretary of Defense. I am utterly apalled that someone with that much responsibility for our nation doesn't even use email. Email, given the state of technology these days, is pretty damn low-tech. My mom uses it, 'nough said. So if email is too high-tech for Gates (don't let the irony of his name escape you) what else is over his head? Radio Frequency Identification? Wireless network encryption? Digital face and voice recognition? Microwave ovens? Bronze and iron tools?

"Secretary Gates, what security measures might you take upon learning that terrorists can use simple razor blades to hijack airplanes?"
"Oh I don't use razor blades, I shave with the sharp edge of a stone. I'm a very low-tech person"

The point is, people responsible for defending our nation should at least be as tech-savvy as the people trying attack it.

how to fight global warming, 'Texas' style

Finally, President Bush takes the global warming threat seriously. Kyoto protocol? No. Carbon cap? Nah. Alternative fuel and emissions control? Nope....

Addressing Climate Crisis, Bush Calls For Development Of National Air Conditioner

Bush: 1
Global Warming: 0

Philosophy

If a grad student falls asleep in a lab, and there is no one around to berate him, does he still get paid?

Lawnmower man, Cascade B

So after work today I cinched up my productivity belt, and mowed the lawn for the first time, and with a new lawnmower no less (thanks to Mom and Henry for the landscaping financial support). I found that mowing the lawn is far far worse than mowing my lawn. The difference is subtle, but very important. I almost found myself in a hurry to get home to cut the grass, which I have never done before, ever. My apologies to my mother for the fuss I put up all those years as a kid when she paid me the tirelessly negotiated, though still overpriced fee of $17 to mow our small lawn. I have to admit though, the novelty of my lawn wore of quickly and I found myself tempted to cut corners (or more precisely, not cut corners) near the end. The responsible adult in my won out nonetheless, and the lawn looks.... well... shorter.

In physics news, it appears that the folks at Fermilab have discovered yet another particle, the Cascade B. This is suspiciously close to the end of the Tevatron collider at Fermilab, but they are apparently proving that they still have the mustard to do some groundbreaking physics, even while the much anticipated replacement, the LHC, is about to come online. The Cascade B is a baryon (which is similar to a proton and neutron, what we're made of) that has a quark from each family (bottom, down, and strange). This is the first such 'trinity' particle discovered, and was predicted by the standard model. This discovery comes with rumors that the Tevatron has seen the Higgs Boson, which is the holy grail of particle physics, and is what the LHC was built to look for. The Higgs (nicknamed the 'God particle') is what is believed to be responsible for giving matter its mass. It also is responsible for why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe. All in all, very big news in high energy physics. I'm sure most of this is quite confusing to all of you, so if anyone wants me to explain something or anything in further detail, please don't hesitate to ask. Thanks for reading!

Jerms Blog Grand Opening!!

'Grand' may be a stretch, but here it is. This blog will be me creative outlet to the world, and a way for my friends and family to keep up with what I'm doing/thinking and to to comment/berate me for procrastinating or not spending my time on more useful and productive things. But hey, this is my creative outlet! Back off!

So to catch you up, I'm studying to get my Ph.D. in physics at Brown University. I start classes in the fall, but in the meantime I am working in the particle astrophysics group on an experiment to search for dark matter. A physics post describing tall of this and more is sure to follow. I live in Wrentham, MA with my future wife Erin and our three rabbits, four parrots, and one dog. Erin is an artist who spends her day job working for the town of Westford recreation department. We both have commutes (her more than I) to work, but we love our little town, and our little house. In fact, we love not living in an apartment with neighbors.

Okay, so that should be a good start, more information to follow in future posts, please comment and all that!