Pre-March Meeting Post

First of all, let me say this:



That said, one of the talks I'm most looking forward to is this one, regarding the spurious measurement of superluminal neutrinos by OPERA, which I'm sure you've heard about by now. Coincidentally, OPERA has recently announced possible discovery of their source of error and further tests. I imagine the question-and-answer session will be entertaining. Besides that, I'll bounce around talks about topological insulators, computational physics, and physics education.

And, by the way, yes, I am presenting. Just search my native name in the "Speakers" index. Like any scientific abstract, it'll be impossible to understand without reading reams of papers beforehand. I fly out early Sunday morning and get back Friday night. There will likely be a Second Annual Tin-Foil Hat Award post shortly thereafter.

Caturday Kitteh Comic

by Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.

How People See Nyan Cat

If you have been on facebook at any point in the last two or three weeks, you've doubtlessly encountered one of these things in your feed. And like someone playing a pair of jokers in a game of Texas Hold'em, this is my attempt at ruining the fun for everyone:


(created in collaboration; name currently withheld)

In Which a Tribute to Whitney Houston Goes Astray, or Mariah Carey's Greatest Hits

Anyone connected to the Internet today found out that troubled diva Whitney Houston died today. More shocking than, say, Amy Whinehouse, though I guess longtime celebrity gossip followers like myself weren't completely taken by surprise. Her legacy is carried on by every hack contestant on American Idol, gag real to winner. When looking through her oeuvre on YouTube, I noticed that besides her immortal version of "I Will Always Love You," her repertoire never matched her chops. Pre-Bodyguard, it's neon pink 80s and schlock-y ballads. Post-Bodyguard, she covered Chaka Khan and then sang on more uninspired tracks.

Then I noticed the "Other Videos" bar on the right of the screen and was reminded of the greatness of Mariah Carey, 90s Diva Supreme. I had largely forgotten just how great her lead singles were from 1990 through Daydream. Forget Janet--I'd put her stuff up against Michael Jackson's solo career. Don't believe me? Here's a blog-post-YouTube-mixtape:



That's already a damn impressive mixtape, and that's just the stuff she made that I like (some hits are noticeably absent) when she was still married to Tommy Mottola. (She's, of course, now Wild'n Out with Nick Cannon.) Admittedly, allowing the last 15 years might only add two or three songs to the list.

I never realized I was such a Mariah Carey fan, but that's just some undeniable quality, right there. MIMI FOR LIFE I GUESS!!!

Some Updates on PG&E and the Public Utilities Commission

A trio of articles from today's San Francisco Chronicle:

PG&E should pay for gas upgrade, agency says

PG&E wants customers to pay almost 90 percent of the cost, adding nearly $2 to a typical customer's monthly bill by 2014. The Division of Ratepayer Advocates [an independent division of the California Public Utilities Commission] said changes to the plan could lower the price tag to $621 million, and contended that shareholders should foot the entire bill.

Heads should roll if PG&E ends up succeeding at passing off any of the cost to its customers. Their management chose profits over minimal safety standards and now expect us to foot the bill? I can't imagine any California resident not being outraged. Meanwhile, PG&E is playing Russian roulette with our lives, as we sit on miles of pipeline that could erupt at any moment.

Speaking of pipelines...

PG&E finds more gas lines that weren't checked

PG&E said in December that it had undertaken a systemwide review after workers found gaps in its maps of distribution lines in Pittsburg, Brentwood, Concord, Danville, Byron and Discovery Bay, which meant that entire neighborhoods were never checked for leaks. Federal law requires distribution lines to be inspected once every five years.

(When was the last time that those lines were checked, if ever?)

Let's end on a positive note:

Lawmaker blasts PUC president over PG&E inquiry

"I ask that you step aside to ensure the credibility of the proceedings in the PG&E case," Assemblyman Jerry Hill told President Michael Peevey during the public comment portion of a commission hearing in San Francisco.

"By refusing to do so," Hill said, "you would be sustaining a culture of complacency that you have pledged to end."

After the meeting, Peevey said he would not recuse himself from the matter, and said he had no more conflicts of interest than people on the commission's staff.

Did I say "positive"? I meant "infuriating."

Latest on Occupy Oakland

I suppose I've been negligent posting links about Occupy Oakland, though the national media has covered it to a degree where I didn't really need to mention it. The protest over the weekend might not get the same level of coverage, so I'll do my part to promote news about the protests. I haven't participated in any of it; the closest I've come has been when I walked by Ogawa Plaza on an afternoon a few days before the infamous police reaction occured, and further when I walked by the Occupy Cal encampments at the steps of Sproul Hall, a few hours after the confrontation with police (which made the Colbert Report).

Reading today's local news, it appears that 400 (!!!) people were arrested Saturday night. Some protesters responded violently to the police, and some even vandalized city hall. These actions, perhaps wrongly, make it easier for people to write off the entirety of the protesters as extremists and hippies and knuckleheads. The advantage of a centralized movement, as opposed to a viral one such as this, is that participants can be held accountable for not following the tenets of non-violent protest.

That said, it's also quite easy to vilify the police after reading five more journalist arrests. Gavin Aronsen of Mother Jones has a report on his experience as a member of a group that was corralled and then arrested en masse, or "kettled." Also on MoJo is this collection of photos by a journalist who apparently narrowly avoided arrest.

Caturday Kitteh Comic... Kind'a