http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/7988549.stm
Hopefully more states will follow suit.
Peace, Love, Unity
Tuesday 7 April 2009
Progress
Sometimes it's nice to see some progress around the world. Following on from Sweden on April 1st, and Iowa on 3rd of April, Vermont is going to legalise same-sex marriage. It will be legal as of September 1st.
Sunday 5 April 2009
The Approaching Curve
Again, it has been a fair amount of time since I last said anything (and after making the statement that I intended to update often, which has clearly been shrouded in doubt). In that amount of time I have finished another semester of physics-related fun. I managed to cover three experiments, and write a report and give a presentation on one of those (Crystal Identification using a Transmission Electron Microscope ;) ), as well as survive around 80 lectures.
Now, the time has come for me to study religiously. In retrospect, I should have done a hell of a lot more studying throughout the courses in order to relax a bit more now. Trying to cram 9 courses into a month is a ridiculous task, but one I will have to take on.
The title of this particular entry is loaded with allusions. The name itself is taken from a song by the band Rise Against. In my mind a curve has the image of - as well as a change in direction - a challenging obstacle that has to be passed to get to a destination i.e. the exams looming over this otherwise quite appealing springtime. It also alludes to the minimum (or maximum) of a parabola, which is etched in my mind at the moment as I study both time-independent and time-dependent perturbation theory, with my very good friend simple harmonic motion appearing all over the place as a powerful example.
It turns out that Advanced and Relatavistic Quantum Mechanics is a hard subject to master. The basic principles behind it are fairly straightforward, and I'm sure that anyone with a basic understanding of quantum mechanics could understand the ideas with ease. Using it is a completely different situation altogether, and one I fear I may not manage in time. And then there is General Relativity. That's somewhat easier for me, which is good, but it's still taking a lot of time to cover all the ground that I need to.
Other things that have been going on in recent times include an interview with The King Blues and another with Justin Sane of Anti-Flag and Johnny 5 from The Flobots. The former is already up at the We Control Tomorrow website, and the latter should be up very soon - hopefully tomorrow. As soon as all this uni stuff is finished for another academic year I'm going to get cracking on making a website. It'll be a huge feat, considering I have done nothing of the sort before.
Other than that, there is a chance I'll be doing more research this year. Again it'll be with the Particle Physics Experimental Group at the University of Glasgow, although this time I'm hoping I'll be able to do a computer-based piece of research with aims of whittling down the mass of the Higgs Boson (~114GeV is the prediction by my potential supervisor), rather than more detector-based research, since there is too much solid state physics involved in that for my liking.
I may well increase the frequency of posts here by introducing more posts about the things that are pissing me off. For example, the recent ignorant claims of the much revered Pope Benedict XVI. The very suggestion that condoms are not only ineffective, but put you at a greater risk of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS, is one that should send a wave of disgust through the world. How anyone can let their superstitions bring potential disease and death on the world is beyond me. This problem is even worse when you realise that this imbecile actually influences many people around the world, especially in places like Africa where AIDS is rampant.
I'll keep my eyes peeled for this sort of nonsense and update accordingly. Until then...
Peace
Now, the time has come for me to study religiously. In retrospect, I should have done a hell of a lot more studying throughout the courses in order to relax a bit more now. Trying to cram 9 courses into a month is a ridiculous task, but one I will have to take on.
The title of this particular entry is loaded with allusions. The name itself is taken from a song by the band Rise Against. In my mind a curve has the image of - as well as a change in direction - a challenging obstacle that has to be passed to get to a destination i.e. the exams looming over this otherwise quite appealing springtime. It also alludes to the minimum (or maximum) of a parabola, which is etched in my mind at the moment as I study both time-independent and time-dependent perturbation theory, with my very good friend simple harmonic motion appearing all over the place as a powerful example.
It turns out that Advanced and Relatavistic Quantum Mechanics is a hard subject to master. The basic principles behind it are fairly straightforward, and I'm sure that anyone with a basic understanding of quantum mechanics could understand the ideas with ease. Using it is a completely different situation altogether, and one I fear I may not manage in time. And then there is General Relativity. That's somewhat easier for me, which is good, but it's still taking a lot of time to cover all the ground that I need to.
Other things that have been going on in recent times include an interview with The King Blues and another with Justin Sane of Anti-Flag and Johnny 5 from The Flobots. The former is already up at the We Control Tomorrow website, and the latter should be up very soon - hopefully tomorrow. As soon as all this uni stuff is finished for another academic year I'm going to get cracking on making a website. It'll be a huge feat, considering I have done nothing of the sort before.
Other than that, there is a chance I'll be doing more research this year. Again it'll be with the Particle Physics Experimental Group at the University of Glasgow, although this time I'm hoping I'll be able to do a computer-based piece of research with aims of whittling down the mass of the Higgs Boson (~114GeV is the prediction by my potential supervisor), rather than more detector-based research, since there is too much solid state physics involved in that for my liking.
I may well increase the frequency of posts here by introducing more posts about the things that are pissing me off. For example, the recent ignorant claims of the much revered Pope Benedict XVI. The very suggestion that condoms are not only ineffective, but put you at a greater risk of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS, is one that should send a wave of disgust through the world. How anyone can let their superstitions bring potential disease and death on the world is beyond me. This problem is even worse when you realise that this imbecile actually influences many people around the world, especially in places like Africa where AIDS is rampant.
I'll keep my eyes peeled for this sort of nonsense and update accordingly. Until then...
Peace
Wednesday 14 January 2009
First post this year....
Yep, it certainly is. I have been a little absent from posting in the last 4 weeks or so.
Christmas and New Year were fairly quiet affairs and for the majority of my time off university I was working. It wasn't all bad, and when I get my pay in a couple of weeks it'll really pay off.
I returned to university again on Monday. So far I'm more motivated than I was before Christmas, which may well be down to the fact that I feel these courses are more my style. They mainly oriented around relativity and nuclear/particle physics. The only additional course is Mathematical Methods II, which seems alright and gives me more of a foundation to deal with the maths in the other courses.
The exams, although not imminent, are not really all that far away. If my plans to get an A are to succeed then I really need to put all the work in now to keep on top of the current work and understand it as well as go over last semesters courses and understand them fully. It's really last semesters stuff that I'm most concerned about. I don't know any of them all that thoroughly, and I'll need to change that over the next few weeks. I have this weekend off so I might use that as a catch-up for last semester.
I'm feeling rather ambitious just now too. I want to write music and I want to have a band sorted out. I would also quite like to try my hand at writing this year perhaps, although that would probably best be left until after the exams in May.
On the band front I am a tad worried. I have some very good friends that want to start a band but their musical abilities are either very very limited or they have other priorities. I wouldn't want to disappoint them by forming a band elsewhere, but simultaneously I'm concerned about what I can achieve if constrained in such a way. I see a deadline of about 18 months down the line to get a band sorted out and get some touring in. Seems like quite an ambitious timescale, but near the end of this year I will likely be thinking about PhD positions in different institutions and may well actually be applying.
I also inadvertently said to two separate friends of mine that I would start a band with them at different times. Unfortunately both of them have intentions of playing (almost) the same instrument. This is a problem I'm not sure how to solve. I desperately dislike disappointing friends. Should maybe play it by ear - no pun intended.
In separate news, it's only 6 days until the new President of the USA is inaugurated. That may well bring a lot of news, and could prompt me to publish one of my rant blogs should I feel it's warranted. Although as stated in previous posts Obama was the man I thought was best for the job. Of course, he is still a politician so all eyes should be on him throughout his leadership.
I think I'll leave it at that for the time being and go do a little bit of studying. There's lots to learn and understand and so little time in which to achieve that.
Until next time,
Peace, Love and Unity.
Christmas and New Year were fairly quiet affairs and for the majority of my time off university I was working. It wasn't all bad, and when I get my pay in a couple of weeks it'll really pay off.
I returned to university again on Monday. So far I'm more motivated than I was before Christmas, which may well be down to the fact that I feel these courses are more my style. They mainly oriented around relativity and nuclear/particle physics. The only additional course is Mathematical Methods II, which seems alright and gives me more of a foundation to deal with the maths in the other courses.
The exams, although not imminent, are not really all that far away. If my plans to get an A are to succeed then I really need to put all the work in now to keep on top of the current work and understand it as well as go over last semesters courses and understand them fully. It's really last semesters stuff that I'm most concerned about. I don't know any of them all that thoroughly, and I'll need to change that over the next few weeks. I have this weekend off so I might use that as a catch-up for last semester.
I'm feeling rather ambitious just now too. I want to write music and I want to have a band sorted out. I would also quite like to try my hand at writing this year perhaps, although that would probably best be left until after the exams in May.
On the band front I am a tad worried. I have some very good friends that want to start a band but their musical abilities are either very very limited or they have other priorities. I wouldn't want to disappoint them by forming a band elsewhere, but simultaneously I'm concerned about what I can achieve if constrained in such a way. I see a deadline of about 18 months down the line to get a band sorted out and get some touring in. Seems like quite an ambitious timescale, but near the end of this year I will likely be thinking about PhD positions in different institutions and may well actually be applying.
I also inadvertently said to two separate friends of mine that I would start a band with them at different times. Unfortunately both of them have intentions of playing (almost) the same instrument. This is a problem I'm not sure how to solve. I desperately dislike disappointing friends. Should maybe play it by ear - no pun intended.
In separate news, it's only 6 days until the new President of the USA is inaugurated. That may well bring a lot of news, and could prompt me to publish one of my rant blogs should I feel it's warranted. Although as stated in previous posts Obama was the man I thought was best for the job. Of course, he is still a politician so all eyes should be on him throughout his leadership.
I think I'll leave it at that for the time being and go do a little bit of studying. There's lots to learn and understand and so little time in which to achieve that.
Until next time,
Peace, Love and Unity.
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