diego.blogger.de

this is how my bike in the backyard looked last winter

In a recent talk, a friend gave this quotation:

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." (Bertrand Russell)

The source does not seem to be clear, but usually it is attributed to Bertrand Russell.

To which group do you belong? To which do I belong?

Again, it took me longer than a week to write here. I have been a bit busy. Friday I submitted a paper to PRL, let's see how long it takes to be rejected. Meanwhile no news from Washington, New York Avenue. But I guess in this case no news is good news (but I am sure to receive the rejection within this week - just to be realistic).

Friday some friends came to Berlin and we had a good time including a party. Saturday we went to an exhibition about energy. Although some aspect are not fully precise, I liked it since it picks some aspects as central themes, which we also consider. That's why I hereby officially recommend the exhibition (and all nspeas should visit it).

Currently, I am in Stockholm - it is nice to come back. Today I learned about Vasa, a ship that sank more than 300 years ago close to Stockholm. It is amazing, that such an old ship is preserved in so good conditions. I think Germans can learn a lot from Wasa. In fact the ship is in a sense in line with other examples such as the Titanic.

now, street view also works in Brazil: Link

Recently I have attended a small conference about extreme events. It was interesting. I also met a person from CERN - a particle physicist. If I understood her correctly she investigates the accidents that stop the experiments as happened shortly after starting (it is not about black holes).

I remember that during my studies (ten years ago or so) I had to prepare a presentation about the Higgs Boson - it was a complete disaster. I think I got the worst possible grade without failing. However, at the time the justification for building LHC was the goal of finding this "God particle". Now she told me that the major aim of LHC is not Higgs anymore.
In wikipedia it says: "The Large Hadron Collider was built [...] with the intention of testing various predictions of high-energy physics, including the existence of the hypothesized Higgs boson and of the large family of new particles predicted by supersymmetry."

She told me - pretty certain - that proving the existence of the Higgs boson is not the (primary) intention of LHC anymore. Now I am confused ... who cares?

German Identity, Long Dormant, Reasserts Itself

Die Gartenguerilla erobert die Städte

I ask myself if the world population is a bubble and when it will crash. However, it seems like other people have similar questions.

Yesterday, I had a funny discussion with two friends. We first watched the film "9" which was produced by Tim Burton. It is about nine dolls trying to survive in a post-apocalyptive future.
However, we started a philosophically touched discussion including topics such as the mind-body problem. At certain point I brought information into play. Unfortunately I was not able to come up with some kind of definition (see eg wikipedia). It seems like I really confused them. They tried to attribute it to the mind since a subject is needed to decode information.

PS: Philosophy of information

This morning I read about this (haartez, bbc) in my neighbors journal in the train.
Btw: PIL canceled all shows in germany.