The say of the week March 19, 2009
Posted by dorigo in games, humor, internet, italian blogs, physics, science.Tags: humor, sentences
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“Questi c’hanno sistematici che fanno provincia”
[These fellas have got county-wide systematics]
(Xisy, from a comment in M.Dal Mastro’s blog)
What’s hot around February 10, 2009
Posted by dorigo in astronomy, Blogroll, cosmology, internet, italian blogs, mathematics, news, physics, science.Tags: Blogroll, LHC, pioneer anomaly, quirks, singularity, turbulence
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For lack of interesting topics to blog about, I refer you to a short list of bloggers who have produced readable material in the last few days:
- The always witty Resonaances has produced an informative post on Quirks.
- My friend David Orban describes the recently-instituted singularity University
- Stefan explains other types of singularities, those you can find in your kitchen!
- Dmitry has an outstanding post out today about the physics of turbulence, with four mini-pieces on the Reynolds number, viscosity, universality and intermittency. Worth a visit, if even just for the pics!
- Marco discusses the long winter of LHC. Sorry, in italian.
- Peter discusses the same issue in English.
- Marni points out a direct explanation of the Pioneer anomaly with the difference between atomic clock time and astronomical time. Or, if you will, a change of the speed of light with time!
The other Dorigo blogger February 8, 2009
Posted by dorigo in italian blogs, personal.Tags: blogging, family, filippo
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Just a quick post to mention here the blogging activity of my son Filippo (9 years old), who has started to write short posts on matters of his interest. I suggested it as a writing exercise, since I believe he does not do enough of it at school -mind you, it is a good school, but I think Filippo’s skills will benefit from this stimulating homework.
Of course, he is writing in Italian, and in any case I doubt you are interested in his ideas. However, since this blog is also read by a few relatives of ours, I just thought I’d place a link here… Sorry for the nuisance, back to physics blogging tomorrow!
Selected holiday links December 27, 2008
Posted by dorigo in astronomy, Blogroll, chess, cosmology, internet, italian blogs, news, physics, politics, science.Tags: ATIC, Blogroll, chess, internet, Pamela
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Being too lazy to generate content while relaxing after a day on the ski slopes in Padola, I am offering you a few selected links that are worth a visit. Not all about physics, and not all recent -that’s what you get from a very erratic web surfer.
- Tim Krabbé, the dutch novelist and chessplayer, has a very interesting piece on the very peculiar chess problem stipulation called the worst possible move. It now appears that, while the game of chess is virtually unexhaustible -at least for us humans-, we now have an answer to what is the worst possible move you can make in a chess game. Or, at least, we get very close to the best of the worst, with Sampsa Lahtonen’s 1.Qxc4+, a move by white that forces black to administer mate in one, when all the other 52 possible moves by white would have mated black.
- David Orban, my futurologist friend, spoke at the italian parliament on December 12th on internet and new technologies and their use. He offers a report (which includes two video clips), but it is currently only in the italian version of his blog. You can easily translate the text using the web’s http://translate.google.com powerful tools, while for the video… hehm. Maybe in the web 3.0.
- Michael Schmitt, a professor at Northwestern University and a colleague in CMS and CDF, is back in blogging mood, hopefully to stay. He has started back with momentum with a few very interesting posts, the last of which is about Dark Matter as a Quantum Liquid. Welcome back Michael!
- The always excellent Resonaances has yet another post on the Pamela/Atic anomalies out, and this one can’t be missed any more than could the previous ones. Highly recommended.
Davide for President! December 18, 2008
Posted by dorigo in Blogroll, italian blogs, news, personal, politics.Tags: italian politics, venice, Zoggia
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I know, most of my readers come here for the physics, and most of them are not interested in italian politics. Why, I myself am rather disgusted by it -mostly because of the laws that our government is passing, which are coherently going in the direction of creating a classist society.
But politics is not bad by itself. Rather, it is a noble occupation, which unfortunately often corrupts itself, becoming malpractice. But I do believe that there are good and bad politicians: not all are corrupt, not all are there to do their private interests.
Next spring italians will be called to renew the local administration in many cities and provinces. And I salute with enthusiasm the candidacy of Davide Zoggia (see picture, right) for President of the Province of Venice. Davide is a friend, but he most of all is one of those rare politicians who are moved solely by the will to improve our society for the benefit of all. He has led the Province of Venice excellently in the last four years, obtaining the respect of his enemies and managing well the difficult reality of Venice and its hinterland.
So, this blog supports Davide Zoggia. Please visit his blog if you want to know more about him and his projects.
A couple of media bites for italians and russians November 18, 2008
Posted by dorigo in Blogroll, internet, italian blogs, language, news, personal, physics, science.Tags: anomalous muons, CDF, interviews, news
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Just for the record, allow me to point out here a couple of media bites on the anomalous muon signal published by CDF. They would be easy to miss otherwise, unless you speak russian or italian; in the latter case, even if you do.
The first is an article just appeared online and in print on the russian edition of Newsweek. It profusely quotes me as well as Peter Woit, and it focusses on the aftermath of the CDF publication rather than on the analysis itself. I obtained a rather fallacious italian translation with google, but you may try your luck with your own mother tongue.
The second is a radio interview I will be giving this Saturday (Nov. 22) on Radio Città Fujiko (at 10.30-11.30AM italian time, on the FM at 103.1MHz), in a science popularization program called “Caccia al Fotone” (photon hunt). I do not know the details of what we will discuss, although I know it will loosely center on the tentative new physics signal unearthed by the CDF collaboration a fortnight ago. If you are interested, you can SMS your questions to the radio at 333-1809494, or via email at cacciafotone@radiocittafujiko.it . The program has its own blog too.
Streaming video on scientific divulgation May 13, 2008
Posted by dorigo in Blogroll, internet, italian blogs, news, personal, science.Tags: outreach, sci.bzaar.net, scientific blogging, video
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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).
A video on scientific blogging May 12, 2008
Posted by dorigo in Blogroll, internet, italian blogs, news, personal, physics, science.Tags: events, open culture, sci.bzaar.net, scientific blogging, workshops
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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!).
About me at Sci.bzaar.net May 5, 2008
Posted by dorigo in Blogroll, internet, italian blogs, news, personal, science.comments closed
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).
SCI(bzaar)NET April 15, 2008
Posted by dorigo in Blogroll, computers, internet, italian blogs, news, personal, physics, science, travel.comments closed
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
A Quantum Diaries Survivor 