A Quantum Diaries Survivor

Just a link to a post by Gianandrea Giacoma on the site of the sci.bzaar.net workshop, an event about which I wrote here, here and here.

In the post, Gian uses very kind words to introduce a video on my thoughts on the need of horizontality in scientific blogs. I already posted a link to my video yesterday (beware, it is in Italian - I will try to find the time for an English version though, or at least provide a transcript in English), but the one on the sci.bzaar.net site does not need to be downloaded before playing - a huge bonus since you might get bored halfway through (oh well, damned if you do. It’s just 7 minutes).

On Saturday, May 15th, a conference called “sci.bzaar.net” will take place in Milano. It will bring together a restricted group of researchers, psychologists, bloggers, designers, physicists, writers, philosophers, computer scientists and web experts, who will discuss scientific divulgation, production of knowledge, and open culture in the academic world.

I will not be there in person, but a video I produced for the event will be shown - and I will connect with skype or some other means to take questions. You can see the agenda of the workshop here.

In addition, I produced for the web site of the event another short video where I discuss the importance of horizontality in a blog aimed at scientific divulgation. Unfortunately, I only have a version in Italian so far (the event is aimed at an italian public). I will paste below a writeup as I have the time, but if you are interested you can see me in the 7-minutes video here (beware though, it is kind of heavy - 500 Mbytes!).

Although ten short meaningless posts won’t outvalue a longer thoughtful one, for today I stick with the former. So let me just paste here a link to a post about me at sci.bzaar.net, the site of a workshop I will attend virtually next week.

In a few days I plan to provide the site owner, Gianandrea Giacoma, with a couple of short videos where I discuss some limits of blogs in the context of scientific outreach. If I am not too lazy I will produce an English version of those (the event is for an italian audience).

I have been invited by David Orban, a friend and fellow blogger, to speak on the divulgation of Science next May 17th at the Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milano, at a meeting called SCI(bzaar)NET. The event, organized by Gianandrea Giacoma, is described in its web site as (my translation)

“Subjects active in the net meet in a new way to ponder on the challenges that Internet poses to scientific divulgation, production of knowledge, and Open Culture in the academic world.”

The meeting will have three main threads:

1. The hunger of scientific outreach: scientific research and the fast technological evolution are increasingly becoming, as is evident to all, among the main factors of change in the world and in our daily life. For these reasons a growing number of people, fascinated and awed, feel the need to understand and make their own opinion on the matter.
2. Production of knowledge: if internet is historically connected to the academic world, on the other hand one cannot claim that the majority of researchers as indivudials and the italian University institutions have adopted these new instruments for a more advanced presence online and a more effective handling of knowledge, students, researchers, and professors.
3. Open Culture: the growing impact of legal, economical, organizational and cultural scenarios of a diffusion of Open Culture in Universities under the pressure of internet.

I will contribute with a video, because I unfortunately cannot be there in person… On the following morning I am leaving to New Mexico for PPC 2008;. I am planning to post the video here, with a transcription (the language of the meeting is Italian…). The subject of my talk will be “Fare divulgazione scientifica con un blog: opportunita’ e limiti” (doing scientific outreach with a blog: opportunities and limits).

UPDATE - the name of this post has been modified according to the request of G.Giacoma on 4/23, reflecting the final name of the event.

No, I am not going to comment further on this internet bubble, which will one day blow but which is still continuing to grow. I just wish to direct those of you who want to get a more complete picture to a few sites where the matter is still attended to. In particular, a few sites have published, in original or translated form, a comment left by Alvaro de Rujula to Carlucci’s blog, and another left by Giorgio Parisi. In the meantime, italian newspapers have continued to cover the matter with their usual biased perspective (Libero discussing the many errors of Maiani in his career, others concentrating on the gaffes of Carlucci).

• Carlucci’s blog has the original comment by Parisi (apparently unaccessible now) and still accessible  answers by Parisi and de Rujula to her further attacks. I bet she will soon close that thread too, because she has not collected a single positive comment in a thread now counting more than 130 contributions.
• A very complete account can be found in English in Gravitas free zone. There, you will find linked newspaper clips in pdf format among other interesting documentation on the matter.
• For other sites, just google around - posting on the matter has become an instant pastime among blogging physicists in Italy. If you can read italian, Dr Psycho’s live journal is certainly worth a visit.

Yesterday I wrote about on. Gabriella Carlucci, an ex-showgirl and now a politician for Forza Italia, Silvio Berlusconi’s party-company, and mentioned her failed occasion of shutting up when she insulted Luciano Maiani’s career in the Senate commission where the latter’s appointment was being discussed.

I have to thank Andrea Giammanco who pointed me to the blog of Pietro Folena (in italian), where the whole text of the infamous allegations by on.Carlucci is reported, along with an answer by none less than Nobel laureate Sheldon Glashow, who sent a indignant letter to italian premier Romano Prodi, expressing his disgust for the allegations of incompetence moved to a stellar scientist (his adjective) such as Maiani.

In the interest of disclosing just how far these dwarfs and dancers of the italian right will go to please their master, I paste below a translation of Carlucci’s statement, followed by the original text of Sheldon Glashow’s letter (more…)

1. The United States does not torture. That is stuff for fascist sudamerican countries, and of course the US are above that.
2. It is in principle possible to store large amounts of greenhouse gases underground, and possibly fight successfully the global warming threats our world is facing.
3. Forza Italia, Silvio Berlusconi’s party, will not be terminated, as he had previously announced, but will constitute the basis of a new movement. Repubblica reports that Silvio appears still unsure on the name of the new political entity which will gradually substitute FI.  The man is for sure a bit more lazy with restyling than with liftings, but he is catching up. This weekend he announces a poll in all italian cities, where the name of the party will be chosen. Here the three choices he mentioned:
   1. “Popolo delle libertà”.
   2. “Partito del popolo delle libertà”.
   3. “Partito del popolo italiano delle libertà”. No kidding. I wonder if one can instead chose something more descriptive, like the bold “Partito italiano libero del libero popolo partitico italiano della libertà”, or something similarly easy and catchy. Should be fun to see people amassing at the poll booths for such a crucial step in the final crowning of italian democracy.
4. Homeopathy is losing ground, and will soon be confined to its place in the shelves of pseudosciences. New evidence and a critical review of past results (also published on the prestigious The Lancet)  shows that the vast majority of double blind tests with placebos confirm what many had known for decades: it is a scam! Nyaah nyaah!

After overwhelming requests, I hereby make available the slides of yesterday’s lecture on the web. Beware: they are in italian, they are probably inaccurate here and there, they have not been proofread, and finally, they are nothing special… But here you go: they are viewable online here.

Actually, since it is a single file, you also get to see -in world premiere- the slides of the second lecture, which I will give tomorrow. In case you should find some blatant mistake or nagging inaccuracy, please let me know today before 10PM UT. Thank you.

UPDATE: I was asked to provide a file readily downloadable. Get it here.

A short list of interesting things I have read around the web recently:

• An experiment in levitation for the decaging system of LISA, with a video demonstration, in meccablog.
• A discussion of the tension in global standard model fits determining the unknown value of the Higgs mass in Resonaances.
• The BCS theory on superconductivity turned 50. Read about Bardeen’s discovery at Cocktail Party Physics.
• Chad at Uncertain Principles is #1. At least he is on a narrow list of topics. I think I will try the game myself…
• On the arrow of time and black hole radiation, a nice post at Backreaction.
• A list of exhibits is being compiled by Louise to show how legitimate it is to doubt of the constancy of light speed.
• A disturbing electoral poster won Switzerland’s elections last Sunday is discussed (in Italian, but you can get to see it nonetheless) in Marco’s Borborigmi.

Today this blog passed the respectable mark of 1,000 posts. Time for a small summary of traffic here.

• 1000 posts
• almost exactly 300,000 visits
• on for 630 days
• about 700 incoming links from around the web
• more than 4,000 honest comments (there’s a few from spam that I was unable to remove)
• on average weekdays, about 900 visits/day
• on weekends, more like 600
• about 200 spam comments a day - if you ever commented and did not see your comment appear: it’s gone, baby.

A warm thank you all for your interest in what is discussed here, and for your valuable contribution. You know it counts in making this site more useful and more entertaining!

I use this occasion to invite any of you who wish to discuss a topic in physics or astrophysics - but other sciences might be welcome - in a manner accessible to laypersons to let me know if you are willing to write a guest post. Guest posts get a link from the reserved tab (see above), and are a nice addition to this blog.

Ah, and: certified crackpots are encouraged to apply, provided they keep things simple, clear, and they declare their availability to stand by their post by answering any incoming comment or criticism on their pet theory.