A Quantum Diaries Survivor

Well, this post is about Michael, who besides being a very knowledgeable and successful physicist, possesses another quality I do not have, and for which I envy him a lot: the capacity of expressing praise, and the related contagious enthusiasm he shows for the work of others. 

I worked with him some time ago, and whenever I did something he appreciated, he could find comments that made me feel good.

Well, we are still collaborators in both CDF and CMS, but we haven't worked together for a while now. However, I see he has not changed his style when he praises something. He wrote a post about my own recent posts on physics results by CDF: http://muon.wordpress.com/2006/06/11/tommasos-tips/

In it, he links my site three times, and says he tips his hat for me. Well, what can I say. Thank you!

However, Michael has to share the praise, if there is any to recognize in the few posts I wrote, because he was the one that stimulated me into writing something useful about the physics I would hear at the CDF collaboration meeting.

Also, I was brought back in the right track with my blogging, which had diverted from physics out of laziness… My top priority is indeed outreach: that is the real reason for the existence of this blog. So I have to keep doing physics divulgation here if I can.

Here is the cover of the next issue of Time:

I am sorry if I cannot join the bandwagon in rejoicing for the death of Zarqawi. It's not my way. 

And I must say, to place a red cross on the face of a person executed without trial by a bombing squad is, to my meter of judgement, apology of assassination.

No warning: fine. No trial: of course. No visible attempts to limit the collateral damage, which included at least a three year old girl: well, in the style of "surgery actions" we have come to know.

War is ugly, and you can't make it without staining your hands with red.  But the cover of Time is over the top. It's the kind of "do-it-yourself" justice dear to America two centuries ago. Not what you'd expect from a country that wants to export democracy in the world.

Not even 24 hours after coming back from the Elba island, where I followed a Collaboration Meeting but also had some time to relax, it is already time to plan for summer vacations - and for my summer work schedule.

Plane tickets to Chicago have to be bought well in advance during the summer, and I am actually a bit late with my reservations… There is a reason for that though. 

I know I am going to be at Fermilab during the first week of both July and August, for different reasons, and then again in September. However, I still do not know whether I will participate in a conference at the beginning of September in the Azores islands. If I do, I need to rework my schedule for September. Unfortunately, the decision is not mine, but rests with the CDF Speakers Committee. They told me it will come soon… I wait.

Entangled with all the above are, of course, my family vacation plans. Mariarosa will bring the kids to Cavallino, a place on the litoral just north of the Lido of Venice. We have rented an apartment there from mid-June to mid-July, and I will go back and forth from Padova while my kids play in the beach. After that, we will be in Padola, in the mountains, for another month. During that period I, too, will be on vacation (don't expect too much blogging during that period!).

My father, who needs blood transfusions twice a week, will also spend a month in the mountains from mid July to mid August, if his health allows him to move from Venice. He will be a mountain pass away from Padola - in Sesto val Pusteria, and I will carry him to the hospital in San Candido periodically.

Now what is left to do is buy tickets, do some accounting for my working hours and my vacation days, and next week luggages for Cavallino!