Looking Right Then Left

More Holland

2010-04-17T21:09:00.001+01:00

Rather than hang out with war criminals in the Hague, I checked out the M.C. Escher museum.

Here's the beautiful square in Amsterdam.

At least the part of the city that isn't under construction is pretty enough.

The little red house belongs to someone who doesn't like property taxes.

Newtonmania in Leiden

2010-04-15T23:41:00.001+01:00

Leiden's science museum was one of the greatest ever. There were tons of physics toys to play with for "Newtonmania," and it was free.

This is the apple that fell on Newton's head.

This is some boring book Newton wrote.

Fun with the brachistochrone. Ila knows the lion by its claw.

Keukenhof

2010-04-14T21:50:00.001+01:00

I took an extended weekend to visit Holland and Belgium. Ila, a Caltech friend, is studying in Leiden, giving me a good excuse to have a look around. Without purposely planning it, my trip coincided nicely with tulip season, so we went to Keukenhof to see the flowers. I came away with many more photos than I care to post. Here are just a few.

Food

2010-04-05T23:44:00.001+01:00

Sometimes people are shocked when they hear about the awesome Caltech cooking class. In addition to furthering my love of physics. Tech instilled a love of beef tenderloin. I finally found a butcher that will sell it at a reasonable price in Oxford, so I made a feast. I can't recommend Meatmaster highly enough.

Love Never Dies

2010-03-23T17:08:00.002Z

One of the more surreal aspects of living in Oxford is that on a whim I can pop into London to see Andrew Lloyd Webber's new sequel to Phantom of the Opera. I was well aware that the reviews were lukewarm, but I figured the novelty of seeing the Phantom in Coney Island would make it all worthwhile. Indeed the plot is a little silly, but the score is catchy and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Boar's Hill Walk

2010-03-19T16:48:00.001Z

About a month ago I went on a stroll to Boar's Hill, just outside of Oxford. Some of my buddies forgot that when it rains every day, it makes things muddy. Less than 24 hours before the hike, Joe O'Shea had actually purchased some brand new Wellingtons [boots] for a research trip to Scotland. By the time this picture was taken he was really regretting leaving them at home.

Crayfishin'

2010-03-16T17:21:00.001Z

Pre-Dinner

2010-03-15T22:49:00.001Z

Dinner

2010-03-14T17:17:00.003Z

I've been pretty bad about posting lately. I have been working a fair bit, and everything seems less photogenic when it's dark and rainy. Since it's finally staying light past 6 pm again and the sun is popping out from time to time, I'm resolving to post a photo every few days. Here's dinner from a week ago. American crayfish have invaded the Thames, pushing out the British species. This means you're allowed (and encouraged) to eat the much larger American ones.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-29T18:06:00.005Z

Until recently I was convinced that the stereotype of British rainy days was over-exaggerated. Oh how this last month has proven me wrong. I try to strategically time my bike rides to and from work, but every few days I mess up get drenched. Thankfully the rain held off on Thanksgiving, and more importantly during the Rhodes/Marshall football game.

Several months ago I ambitiously decided to organize a Thanksgiving dinner for the American Rhodes Scholars. After being chided as a jingoist, the event grew to include all interested Rhodes Scholars, which at the end of the day was very nearly 100 people. I wasn't foolish enough to take this on alone, so I roped Sarah Miller into doing all the hard work. After a fair bit of stress and a full day in the kitchen, we managed to prepare a pretty darn good meal with all of the real 'murican favorites - rolls, cornbread, green salad, mac 'n cheese, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, sweet potato and marshmallow casserole, quiche (for the vegetarians), stuffing, cranberry sauce, and of course turkey (9 turkey breasts and 3 whole turkeys). As always, the football game was good fun (and the Rhodies won).

Chalkboard

2009-10-30T18:16:00.001Z

Somehow grungy algebra is more tolerable on a chalkboard.

Lake District

2009-10-24T14:04:00.004+01:00

I went walking in the Lake District (Northwest England) last weekend with the Oxford University Walking Club. We climbed a couple of little hills called Scafell and Old Man Coniston. Only when I got home and checked wikipedia did I realize that they're basically the tallest hills in all of England.

The weather on Saturday was gorgeous, but Sunday was a little more characteristically English. In the future I think I may have to be a little more serious about taking the advice to put on full waterproof gear.

Housewarming BBQ

2009-10-22T00:41:00.004+01:00

I've been pretty delinquent about posting updates. Here are some photos from the housewarming BBQ Clara and I threw back when Oxford was still sunny.

The door to the rooftop patio

Deals!!!

2009-09-29T23:00:00.004+01:00

Over the last week or so I've scored a few awesome deals. My new place is next door to the grocery store, so I can poke my head in at the end of the day and buy the spoiling food for dirt cheap. Usually it just means a loaf of bread for 10 or 15 pence, but one night I hit the jackpot.

80 pence for all of this

Though I've snagged some impressive deals in my time, nothing comes close to the most recent addition to my room. The other day Clara shot me an email ordering me to check out her department's dumpster. I reluctantly investigated, expecting to find a pile of rocks or a toilet brush. Instead I was met by this beauty:

She had to spend a few days in a garage at Rhodes House then in the hallway of a friend's place before I finally managed to get her down the Cowley Road. A surprising number of people stopped to stare as three of my friends and I passed by with her on our shoulders. The three of us from nerd schools (MIT and Caltech) didn't see what was so special about the sight, but apparently Oxonians aren't used to resourcefulness.

Around Oxford

2009-09-19T15:01:00.005+01:00

Last weekend was "Open Doors Oxford." Most colleges and historic buildings are open to the public. I was excited that All Souls College was open, so I took a little tour of the grounds. I've become conditioned to Oxford's beauty so I actually found the college to be anticlimactic.

The Natural History Museum's hands-on insect exhibit proved more exciting.

Yes, I realize spiders are arachnids.

Just in case the tarantula doesn't make you jealous, my banana pancakes should do the trick.

Internet!

2009-09-04T21:32:00.001+01:00

After nearly a month without it, I finally have internet in my apartment. Goodbye productivity.

Romania and Switzerland

2009-08-28T17:05:00.006+01:00

My vacation was quite nice (photos here), but I returned to an apartment that still lacks internet. I blame Clara. Even now that I've taken charge of the problem it's still taking a remarkably long time to sort out. Without internet at home I've been slow updating this blog, instead using the time to read a few non-technical leisure books. It had been quite some time since I'd sat down with anything that wasn't math or science.

Romania was quite interesting and beautiful. I was particularly intrigued to see the bizarre mixture of classical beauty, modern developments, and derelict neighborhoods. Many Bucharest buildings once had grand facades, on par with anything you would have found in Paris at the turn of the 20th century. Today most of those facades are dilapidated. Some of the buildings have been fixed up, and there is ongoing work to improve other sections of the city. Unfortunately there is still a long way to go. Stray dogs roam city streets, and there are stretches of road lined with run-down communist block apartment buildings. My friend from Caltech, Alex, lives near the (in)famous People's Palace. Her parents are artists, and have been beautifully renovating their home. Let's hope some more people follow their lead.

Alex's Home

After a day and a half in Bucharest, we went to the town of Sinaia to the Royal Castle called Peleş. Peleş was gorgeous and is arguably the prettiest castle I've ever seen.

Peleş (the ş makes an "sh" sound)

That night I caught a ride with Dan, one of Alex's friends (and a current Caltech grad student), to the town of Sibiu in the heart of Transylvania. Romania notoriously has difficulties developing their roads, so I was surprised and impressed when we hit stretches of modern highway lined with the occasional glowing gas station. It was virtually indistinguishable from roads through the middle of Missouri. Other roads matched the reputation a little better, especially the ones with horse-drawn wooden carriages (complete with wooden spokeless wheels). I did some sightseeing in Sibiu then train hopped to the town of Braşov. Not far from Braşov is a town called Bran, which boasts an old castle on a mountain. This castle was commandeered by Hollywood, making it "Dracula's Castle" despite virtually no link to the historical dracula (Vlad Ţepeş). While nowhere near as impressive as Peleş, I felt compelled to pay the castle a visit.

After a little more Romanian sightseeing I caught a flight to Geneva, where I rendezvoused with an Oxford friend, Jessica, and her undergrad friend, Doug. Doug's now a physics grad student working at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. My couple of days in Switzerland were great fun, but quite a bit pricier than my Eastern European adventure. Doug hooked us up with a tour of the accelerator, an outing to Gruyère, and a hike in the Jura Mountains.

A chamois in the Juras

I'm back, briefly

2009-08-10T16:38:00.003+01:00

After dropping off the face of the internet for a month, I decided to finally update things. My parents, grandparents and I went on a great Mediterranean vacation a few weeks ago. I decided to cram one more little vacation in this summer since I still want to see a few more things in Europe. I head to Romania tomorrow, followed by two days in Geneva (to see the LHC!). Additionally, I just moved into a new place in Oxford that I'm sharing with three buddies. It's pretty nice, though the moving process is always a bit of a hassle. I spent the morning on the phone with utilities, praising the great 0845 and 0870 phone numbers. These prefixes are about as costly as a 900 number, but not quite as exhilarating (so I'm told).

The New Place

Stow-in-the-Wold

2009-07-09T01:41:00.007+01:00

Last Saturday I rode my bike to Stow-in-the-Wold. I wound through a series of villages on my way there. Most of these villages were quiet and beautiful, but Eynsham was a little more lively. I actually had to take a detour because the roads were being used for a local "shirt race," which was basically part pub crawl, part parade, part soap box derby, and part costume party. I had my point and shoot with me so I shot a few photos of the ridiculousness before turning around and finding a new path.

The rest of the scenery was a little more stereotypically British.

White Horse Photo

2009-06-30T00:32:00.000+01:00

You can just barely make out part of the white horse at the top of the photo.

White Horse

2009-06-28T13:53:00.003+01:00

I was thinking about camping out Friday night for Saturday Wimbledon tickets, but the forecast was rain Friday night and all day Saturday. I should know better than to change my plans for forecasts. Saturday turned out to be sunny and gorgeous. All was not lost because I got to take a nice little bike ride. Clara and I rode to the White Horse Hill about 22 miles away from Oxford. It has a doozie of a climb at the end of the route.

The hill is very chalky, so long ago people would dig ditches and make chalk pictures. The National Trust now keeps some of these preserved. The Uffington White Horse is one of the largest, but there are many of these hill figures across the English Countryside. Clara (the geologist) tried to tell me something about the hills, but I just heard "blah blah blah strike and dip blah blah blah." Some people need to learn how to not talk about technical stuff when others clearly aren't following and aren't interested. [edit: (sarcasm)]

Pembrokeshire

2009-06-14T23:30:00.003+01:00

I've failed to update for a while, so to appease the family I'll link to lots of photos this time. Over the weekend I went with some friends to the Pembrokeshire Coast in Wales. My walking trip to Wales made me think pretty highly of the region. After this trip I think it's fair to say I'm officially in love with Wales. We stayed at a youth hostel right on the coast in a little town called Broad Haven, giving us great access to the beach and the coastal walking path. I even took a dip in the ocean and didn't get hypothermia. More photos of the adventures are available here .

Lazy Weekend

2009-05-31T22:21:00.007+01:00

In order to finally kill the rumor that I'm just lounging around in England, I planned a busy weekend. Saturday and Sunday in Oxford were gorgeous - sunny and ~70 degrees (in American units), so I soaked up about 14 hours of sun thanks to a picnic, punting, tennis, and an ultimate (frisbee) tournament.

Punting is a silly tradition wherein people pile in long flat boats as one poor guy has to propel the boat in the most inefficient possible manner. It's usually fun because people have pretty poor control over their boats ("punts"), leading to amusing situations. Unfortunately I was so good at guiding our punt that my friends just got bored.

After a disappointing second place finish in the spring league, the ChUniv ultimate team showed up to the "Cuppers" tournament ready for redemption. The tourney was on small pitches with just 5 on a side, or, in the case of ChUniv, 4 on a side until the others finally showed up. It was an exhausting day of 7 games. We were just too knackered by the semifinals to keep up with the slightly more organized, uniformed, practiced teams. At least I connected on my first successful hammer to the end zone.

Our Motley Crew

Wake up, frosh!

2009-05-27T16:15:00.004+01:00

It's ditch day! Well it's not ditch day for me, but it is for the folks at Tech. If you want to share in the fun, you can try to crack this puzzle, which is part of my friend Matt Grau's stack.

Obtain the 8 digit decimal number from the following:

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000010010010010010010010010010101010000
000001001101101101001101101101001010100000
000010011011010010001001000000010100000000
000100010000000000010000000000100000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000001010101101000000000000000
000000000000000110001000010000000000000000
000000000000000000010000100000000000000000
000000000000000000100000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000010101011101000000000000000000000
000000001100010000010000000000000000000000
000000001000100000100000000000000000000000
000000000001000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000101001011101000000000000000000000000000
011000110000010000000000000000000000000000
110000000000100000000000000000000000000001
100000000001000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000101
010111101000000000000000000000000000010000
100000010000000000000000000000000000100001
000000100000000000000000000000000000000010
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000010100101110101
101000000000000000000000011000010000001000
010000000000000000000000000000000000010000
100000000000000000000000000000000000100000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000010100101101011101000
000000000000000000001100010000010000010000
000000000000000000011000000000100000100000
000000000000000000000000000001000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000001010010110010111101011101000000000
011111100001000001100000010000010000000000
011010000000000000000000100000100000000000
100000000000000000000001000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000001010111100
101100101110010111010110010000000100000011
000011000001100000100001100000001000000010
000000000001000001000011000000010000000100
000000000010000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000

Ditch Day Photos

Rectory Farms

2009-05-25T01:24:00.005+01:00

On Saturday Melis and I rode our bikes to Rectory Farms, a self-pick farm about 5 miles outside of Oxford. Asparagus and strawberries were in season. The rest is better told with pictures.

Before

After

The Good Stuff

I also played tennis on grass for the first time. It was quite the experience.

Another Sunny Day

2009-05-24T13:48:00.002+01:00

This is the second amazing sunny day in a row, and they both fell on the weekend! I'm going outside to enjoy it. Will post more later.

Walking in Wales

2009-05-13T22:41:00.004+01:00

I'm a little slow posting about my weekend in Wales. It was a great trip! If only the "Walking Club" had a slightly more masculine name (like "Hiking Club" perhaps) I may have joined sooner. We headed out in a minibus (read 15-passenger van) on Friday evening, stopped off at a pub for dinner, then arrive at our hut that night. The English walking tradition mixes and matches components of camping, backpacking, and hiking. Instead of actually camping, people stay in these nice little cabins, complete with sleeping pads, showers, kitchens, and even electricity. They're quite cheap (£5-7/night/person), and I wouldn't be surprised if it costs that much to find a place to legally camp. On Saturday we drove to a mountain called Cadair Idris, which we summited right as it got windy and rainy. It was actually quite nice since I enjoy the wind at the top. Most of the others in the group took along huge day packs with first aid kits, emergency shelters, rope, etc. This all seemed a little excessive to me, so I took my camera instead. I think it was a good choice.

Cadair Idris

The trip was particularly notable because it was the first time I'd hung out with as an American in a group of primarily Brits. It was an experience I thought I'd have more of, and was quite fun, especially since I could easily divert any America-ribbing by bringing up the Welsh. I was incredibly ignorant of the English-Welsh relations - so ignorant that I thought Wales and England were nearly the same. I mean I knew that they were different, but didn't completely realize that the Welsh have a language that looks like this and is still taught in their schools.

I always thought of the English as being more different from the Scottish and the Northern Irish, but my hiking buddies were quick to inform me that the Welsh are a bunch of sheep-shaggers. As best I can tell the general view is that Arkansas:USA as Wales:Britain, with all due respect to all insulted parties. More photos are available in my picasa album below.

Wales

In other news, this afternoon was the finals of the College ultimate frisbee tournament. I've been playing on the Christ Church and Univ joint team (ChUniv) since last term. We've been doing remarkably well thanks to a couple of great handlers, but we couldn't hold on today. It turns out that some of the teams actually practice, which should definitely be illegal. I'll have to start getting in better shape for our chance at revenge. There's a day long tournament in a few weeks. Expect to hear a victory story soon.

Energy Frontier Research Centers

2009-05-08T16:25:00.002+01:00

The DOE announced that money is starting to flow towards some of the major solar energy challenges. Specifically, 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers are being created at universities, national labs, and a few other nonprofit and for-profit R&D labs. A very significant amount of the money seems to be directed at developing a better understanding of materials science problems - nanostructured materials, novel compositions, catalyst design, etc. I was pleased to see several centers highlighting attempts to incorporate major theory efforts to simulate and rationally design materials. Synopses of the center goals are available here.

On this side of the pond I've put off explicitly thinking about solar stuff in order to focus in on more fundamental physics. I'm convinced it's a necessary investment. David Logan has been teaching me to think in terms of diagrams and Green's functions, and I'm starting some simulation work with Mark Wilson to better understand nanostructured crystal formation.

I'm off to Wales for the weekend to do some walking in the Cambrian Mountains. I'll post a photo or two upon my return.

The Street Where I Live

2009-05-04T22:15:00.002+01:00

I'd heard that my beautiful little Magpie Lane once had a slightly less pleasant name (and reputation). A friend just directed me to the wikipedia page that elaborates on the history. Warning: medieval names were fairly blunt and in this case vulgar.

Pole-vaulting

2009-05-01T23:53:00.005+01:00

I've known some people who seem to think that pole-vaulting is an impressive skill. They've tried to convince me that it's actually difficult. Today I uncovered the truth about their "sport." It's easy.

Clara claims to be an expert pole-vaulter, so I let her accompany me as a witness of my awesomeness. She tells me that I'm a natural. I think the photos make that obvious.

Naturally the photo prompts a few questions.

1) Todd, why are your legs so beautiful?

I use copious amounts of sunscreen on my legs. Skin cancer is no laughing matter.

2) Todd, how are you so good?

Like most things in life, my success is a direct result of the fact that my momma read lots of books to me when I was a kid.

3) Wow, are you really clearing 13 feet?

Yes.

After I showed them how it's done, Clara and Andrew "Stobo" Sniderman attempted to match my feat.

One of these people is an "expert" and the other was vaulting for his/her first time. Which is which? I bet you can't even tell, which just shows how easy it is.

Sheeps

2009-04-26T14:05:00.006+01:00

Awww

Bill and Tom

2009-04-25T01:18:00.003+01:00

As I walked to my office today a couple of kids on bikes yelled out "Hey Todd." I looked up to see two of my math students from the park. They didn't stick around long enough for another lesson, but I'm sure we'll have another chance.

Feelin' old

2009-04-24T00:23:00.005+01:00

I went to a birthday party today for my friend Sarah. I spent a few hours helping to make homemade linguine and tortellini for the party. Naturally it was a big hit, and like usual a large chuck of the credit goes to Jason.

In addition to the celebration of Sarah's birth, I got to celebrate the birth of Adam Thomas Gingrich, making me Uncle Todd. I ate an extra hunk of cake for Adam. Congrats, Mark and Kari (as if you have time to read lame blogs).

Mmm linguine

Spring

2009-04-20T19:41:00.003+01:00

We've had some beautiful weather the last few days, which makes me thankful for my semi-private garden at Rhodes House. It's pretty awesome.

Judy Knudson

2009-04-20T10:33:00.002+01:00

Judy Knudson, my piano teacher from back in the day, came to Oxford over the weekend. I'll be lazy and steal her work. She wrote about the visit in her blog.

Easter

2009-04-14T00:19:00.004+01:00

I went to the Trout for Easter lunch. The nearby playground was too tempting to pass up. That's me in the orange. Check out that good form.

Why people shouldn't mess with me

2009-04-09T00:46:00.011+01:00

Today was a beautiful day in Oxford, so I laid out in University Parks to read. Not long after I'd started, five teenage kids sat on a bench near me. Shortly thereafter I started noticing a bunch of pebbles landing around me. I ignored the kids for a while, assuming they'd get bored soon enough. After all, they had pretty pathetic aim. Eventually they did get bored, but just bored enough to up the stakes. They started creeping closer, wondering how close they could get before I'd finally notice them. Eventually when the most obnoxious of the little runts got a few feet away from me I informed him that I wasn't an idiot and would appreciate it if he and his little wanker friends would kindly leave me along. Naturally they then started playing the "what are you talking about I don't know anything about pebbles" card. After a little more verbal pestering they finally ran along.

About five minutes later they returned with friends. I'd already learned they were only 15 and they weren't hostile, so I was more annoyed than intimidated. From my original encounter it was clear that they were bored and just wanting someone to pester and talk to for entertainment, so I developed a good plan. As they approached I told them I'd talk only if they could solve a maths problem I gave them. I wrote down an infinite geometric series and asked them to find the sum

They were fairly bright and one of them quickly told me it was one. The others argued with him saying it wasn't really one, it was naught point nine repeating. I then proceeded to demonstrate the equivalence of the two. By this point in time the most obnoxious of the group had grown bored. He seemed a little obsessed with his recently discovered genitalia, so he preferred drawing pictures all over my paper while I regaled the others in some more maths. Several of them were vaguely familiar with the notion of differentiation, so we talked about basic calculus, the exponential function, the concept of Taylor series, etc. It worked out quite nicely since the interested guys kept the others in check. Eventually the group ran along, but I convinced three of them to stick around long enough to see the derivation for what is perhaps the most beautiful formula of elementary mathematics.

Back in Oxford

2009-04-08T23:25:00.004+01:00

I've finally returned to Oxford. Thanks to everyone who made my American tour so much fun, especially all of the folks who hosted me for one or more nights. And now for the abbreviated recap.

The Hertz Symposium was incredible. The conference brought together a lot of really bright folks doing incredible work in all of the physical science (condensed matter, atomic physics, quantum computing, theoretical chemistry, biochemistry, organic and inorganic chem, systems biology, mathematical biology, etc.). It was great to see such a broad range of topics all presented at a high level. Bill Gates spoke the first night about his foundation and its work. He was very impressive. Gates is extremely well-read (he visited every poster presentation where he asked pertinent questions) and thoughtful. For example, when discussing malaria eradication, Gates discussed how it is important to model the effects of proposed plans to ensure that knockout punch can be delivered before a superbug could evolve. Other speakers included Jay Keasling and Xiaowei Zhuang talking respectively about engineering yeast to synthesize anti-malarial drugs and super-resolution optical imaging.

After the conference I hung out in the South Bay area with Anthony Chong, went to the touristy sites in the city with Sarah Stokes and her friend, hung out with Ryan and Kayte, then checked out Lawrence Berkeley Lab with Jordan Katz. It was great fun hopping from friend to friend. I tried to move on to the next before wearing out my welcome. Hopefully I was successful in that regard.

From SF I flew to St. Louis and met up with Gina Gage, who is now in architecture school at Wash U. My mom and sister joined me in St. Louis to go to the City Museum, a museum which is hardly a museum. It's really an abandoned warehouse turned into a giant fun house.

After a brief stopover in Columbia the family drove up to Iowa to visit Mark and Kari. What Iowa lacks in beauty it made up for in food. We ate at a restaurant called the Machine Shed, which was supposed to serve as a tribute to farmers. My all you can eat catfish dinner came out with two whole catfish. After struggling to put those away they came out and offered me more. Family time was rounded out with a visit to my momma's famous hometown then finally a few days at home.

Gifts for my soon-to-be nephew

The final leg of my journey was at Caltech. It's remarkable just how fun the place can be when there's no homework. In addition to meeting up with far too many friends to count, I got to partake in the prefrosh weekend activities - capture the flag, ruddock's hot tub, deconstruction, open mic night, etc etc etc.

Deconstruction - yes, I know this is horrible.

More photos are up on facebook.

Visiting Friends

2009-03-25T03:20:00.002Z

These are the cool friends I hang out with.

Ryan: Our marriage really didn't recharge our relationship like I hoped it would.
Kayte: I know. We should have a baby.

California's been awesome. I got a great view of the whole Bay area from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab today. Tomorrow I head back to Missouri.

Going on Tour

2009-03-19T00:36:00.002Z

I'm hitting the road. Wish me luck.

19 March - 22 March: Santa Clara, CA
22 March - 23 March: Saratoga, CA
23 March - 24 March: Berkeley, CA
24 March - 25 March: Oakland, CA
25 March - 26 March: St. Louis, MO
26 March - 27 March: Columbia, MO
27 March - 31 March: Des Moines, IA; Graham, MO; who knows?
1 April - 6 April: Pasadena, CA
7 April: Oxford

Reading below level

2009-03-17T14:03:00.003Z

When I was a kid I'd always flip to the back of my books to feel warm and fuzzy about the fact that it claimed to be for older students. I think I've peaked and will never have those warm fuzzy feelings again. From the latest two books I've been reading:

"This introduction to the theory of elementary particles is intended primarily for advanced undergraduates who are majoring in physics."

"This book is aimed at final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students of both chemistry and of physics."

Arguably I'm basically at level, not really below. Still I can tell that I'm not going to last much longer in this fight.

Walking

2009-03-09T00:03:00.006Z

Among the more peculiar British ideas is the notion that aimlessly walking around the countryside is a leisure activity. Thanks to some ridiculous Common Law traditions, there is an enormous network of public footpaths criss-crossing virtually every field. So basically it's like hiking in the US except without the wilderness and with quite a lot of sheep poop.

A little websearching informed me that I could join in the national pastime with the Oxford Walking Club on their outing to the Cotswolds (pretty hills ~30 miles from Oxford). We met at 9 am at the train station, rode to Moreton-in-Marsh, then started our walk. To make a long story short, I learned two important things:

1. Moreton-in-Marsh is appropriately named.
2. The weather really does suck.

To elaborate on the latter we had sun, pouring rain, more sun, a driving thunderstorm, a little snow, then more sun. Next time I'm certainly bringing my rain pants (trousers). We finished off the roughly 15 mile trek with a sprint to just barely catch the train.

We got to walk across our fair share of these muddy plowed fields.

Sunny Lunch Break

I got back to Oxford just in time to turn the pages at an excellent concert given by Clara, Nadine Levin, and Aaron Mertz. They played Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 49. To say I was impressed would be a bit of an understatement. I had plenty of trouble just keeping up with the music to know when to turn the pages. It's a good thing they insisted that I show up and practice once last week.

Patent Markets?

2009-03-06T00:08:00.003Z

The latest issue of Science Magazine has a short paper from a Caltech prof suggesting that winner take all patent systems (like ours) do not encourage innovation to the same degree that a market system would. The rough thinking is that scientists are not particularly motivated to work on the really really hard problems because they assume there is probably someone better who will beat them to the prize. If they could get a stake in their partial solution, the market would be flooded with more scientists tackling the big money issues, or so the theory goes. The results really aren't all that surprising, but the researchers did some cool little social science experiments (probably on my friends) to demonstrate. Unfortunately, the devil's probably in the details. It's hard to imagine dealing with the technicalities of moving to a market-based patent system.

Blue Screen

2009-03-05T13:49:00.001Z

This isn't exactly what I like to wake up to. It seems to be stable for now. My only recent install was cygwin, and I can't imagine that the problem is stemming from that. Perhaps some of my hardware if flaking out.

Sunday Ride Through the Countryside

2009-03-01T18:28:00.002Z

I've been too wimpy to ride my bike much through the winter. I recently discovered just how out of shape I'd become when I started playing for my college's club Ultimate Frisbee team. Since the weather has been getting nicer I decided it was time to get back in the saddle.

I went out solo with a hand drawn map (no printer in my room). It was pretty brilliant, but actually worked ok. I only had to get off my bike a few times to figure out where I was. Eventually I ended up in some little village called Islip, which was gorgeous in a very quaint way (no photos unfortunately). I tried to turn my trip into a loop, but I ran into a highway and figured it was a little wiser to just backtrack for today. I really should go out with the cycling club or some other group that knows the roads.

Some guy named Gordon

2009-02-27T16:42:00.002Z

Just about a week ago I got three copies of the following email about something called the Romanes Lecture.

ROMANES LECTURE

A senior member of the cabinet will be coming to Oxford on Friday 27 February to deliver the Romanes Lecture, which will take place in the Sheldonian Theatre at 1pm. The subject of the lecture will be science.

The prestigious Romanes Lecture continues to attract distinguished public figures and world leaders to speak on topics relating to Science, Art or Literature. Romanes Lecturers in recent years have included the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, Rt Hon Tony Blair and Nobel Laureate, Muhammad Yunus.

Entry is by ticket only. Early booking is recommended.

Apparently other people realized this was code for "The Prime Minister is coming." I was a little less perceptive and just thought, "oh cool, a science lecture in the Sheldonian (a beautiful old Christopher Wren building)." So I went to the talk today and it was indeed the Right Honourable Gordon Brown talking about science. Brown basically discussed how science has driven technological innovation and hence the economy and how Britain (as the leader in science - ha) needs to elevate science's importance and push it in the schools. I can't say I was really impressed by the talk so much as impressed by the fact that he chose science as the topic.

The only concrete thing from the talk that impressed me was a discussion of how they want to offer science teaching jobs to people in high tech fields suffering from redundancies (British for layoffs). It's an appealing idea that you could use the economic slump to entice good scientists and technologists into the classroom, but there are a few problems. First, the current people in those classrooms won't be very happy about the implication that they can't do their jobs well enough. Perhaps more importantly, with the huge surge of funding Obama and Brown are throwing at science, there may actually be plenty of science jobs for the next few years. It will be after the funding surge that we really have the surplus of scientists looking for work.

Tea Party

2009-02-23T19:16:00.003Z

I've returned from my weekend in Cambridge. Six Techers (including 5 Lloydies) are doing a term of study abroad at Cambridge, plus my friend Vivek (another Lloydie) is there all year on a Churchill Fellowship. I woke up bright and early Saturday and boarded the infamous X5 bus. While the cities are only 85 miles apart, the X5 manages to drive around enough roundabouts to lengthen the journey into a 3.5 hour affair. Apparently back in the day there was a direct train route, but now one has to connect through London to use the train - an expensive and time-consuming affair. At least everyone thinks that the X5 is such a horrible option that it's cheap (I got my round trip ticket for £4.50).

Sunday was a beautiful sunny day, so we walked to a nearby hamlet called Grantchester. Apparently the thing to do is to have a tea party at the Orchard Tea Garden there. The special clotted cream ran out right before we got to the front of the line, so I refused to get tea and scones. My friends were a little better at acting British. Ellen has the dainty tea-drinking down, and Matt's tried to blend in with his dorky tweed jacket.

In addition to the tea party, I spent some time wandering around the Cambridge colleges. Matt showed me Dirac's Nobel Prize in St. John's Library, and we checked out Trinity, which was pretty impressive. The word on the street is that Trinity's wine collection is worth more than the University of Cambridge's endowment. Ok, well I don't think that's actually the word on the street, but it's something ridiculous like that. I wanted to stick around for Sunday night's Formal Hall at St. John's. The X5 doesn't run late enough for me to have caught it after dinner, so I did what any reasonable person would do. I caught the 5:30 am Monday morning bus, which got me to Oxford just in time for class today. I tried to give myself plenty of time to catch the bus since I knew I'd miss my class if I didn't get the first bus. As I tried to exit the main gates of Matt's castle, I found the door padlocked. I'd misunderstood his directions and had to go back to another gate. I got to the park next to the bus stop at 5:27 and saw the bus across the way. I usually don't like to stoop to running when I'm in a hurry, but the last thing I wanted to do was watch the bus pull away from the other side of the park. I boarded at 5:29, and we pulled away right at 5:30. I'm pretty sure I was asleep by 5:32.

Off to Cambridge

2009-02-21T06:35:00.004Z

I'm up early this morning to catch a bus to Cambridge. I have trouble remembering how I survived on this type of sleep cycle in high school. Sorry that you still have to do it, Rebecca. At least I'm getting my first (non-all-nighter) sunrise in years.

Changing Caltech

2009-02-17T00:04:00.003Z

I remember this view when it wasn't marred by the red monstrosity. Back in the day only Millikan looked ugly.

Smuggled Food

2009-02-15T16:50:00.003Z

It's been another fairly uneventful week in Oxford. To spice things up a bit, last night I broke out my box of jello. The Brits sell jello as a brick of superconcentrated gel that is lacking in all of the delicious artificial flavoring I crave. Luckily, over Christmas my momma gave me a box full of real Jello, which I smuggled into the UK. My East Coast friends think I'm weird since they don't understand the brilliant concept of Jello salads, but I'm sure all of the other Midwesterners are jealous.

On the academic front, I've been reading some tensor calculus lately. It sort of makes me angry that I didn't even have to study it at Tech. It's pretty sad that I was 23 years old before I realized that tensors would allow one to just write down all of those handy div, grad, curl relations in different coordinate systems. Why were Christoffel symbols not included in Core somewhere? Tech's obviously become too easy. I'm also trying to read a little more Condensed Matter Field Theory before I start up research (up until this point I've just been pretty free to read books without doing research). Technically I'm supposed to start working on a project around April, but I'm visiting with a few people this week to throw around ideas.

I still need to get out and do a little more traveling this term. I am hoping to visit Green's windmill in Nottingham (yes, this is the Green of Green's Theorem, Green's Functions, etc. fame). Apparently he was a miller who studied math(s) on his own and didn't enter Cambridge as an undergrad until he was 40 years old. I think I may also take a short trip to Cambridge next weekend.

Middle of Term

2009-02-09T21:06:00.003Z

Well it should now be clear that I'm in the middle of term based on my infrequent posting and lack of travels. I'm not particularly busy like I was at Tech, but somehow the daily routine seems unworthy of comment. I go to a lecture or two, read a little, tinker around with some code, cook dinner, then read a bit more. It's a good routine, just not one that makes for riveting blog posts.

We have had some notable weather as of late. A few recent mornings I awoke to a blanket of snow, but now the snow has just morphed into cold rain. It's a good thing I dropped 15 quid on a sturdy umbrella.

Now for some pseudo-random good things that have happened lately.

1. I will soon be purchasing a new camera thanks to an insurance check.

2. I couldn't find an alfredo sauce in the grocery store tonight, so I tried to whip up a white sauce from scratch. It actually worked fairly well. Thanks Tom Mannion.

3. I shared some good food and good jazz with my friend Andrew Hammond tonight.

4. I'll be visiting the States in late March and early April. I have a conference in the San Francisco area, but I'm also going to swing visits to Missouri and Pasadena.

5. I've discovered an earth-shattering result. It looks as if a 2d Ising Model has a phase transition. I bet no one's ever noticed this before.

Snow!

2009-02-02T18:45:00.004Z

Ok, so it's not all that much snow in Oxford, but it is still pretty.

Our House is a Very Very Very Fine House

2009-02-01T01:03:00.002Z

I don't know that I officially shared my plans to stay in Oxford for a second year. There was some uncertainty since I am anxious to start my PhD program before I go gray. Luckily, my blonde hair fools me into thinking I have plenty of time. My course of study has been officially changed to a 2 year M.Sc. by Research in Theoretical Chemistry. It's a pretty sweet deal since right now I still have a lot of time to read whatever I want (a little stat mech, some field theory, and more complex analysis for those interested).

An even sweeter deal is that I have found a place to stay next year. My room this year is conveniently in the middle of the City Centre, but unfortunately there is no common space (aside from the kitchen and bathroom) in my house. Since Univ (my College) kicks me out to far away housing next year anyways, I decided to get a house with a few of my close friends. This way I will have a much homier place, complete with a nice kitchen and living room. This past week, Ben, Scott, Clara, and I succeeded in securing a place for next year. It's pretty exciting. We got a four bedroom flat that's probably about a mile outside of City Centre down the Cowley Road. It's a pretty vibrant area of town, and with a bike it isn't far at all. Plus, the flat is right next to the best grocery store.

Happy New Year Version 2

2009-01-26T00:05:00.002Z

My life has been fairly boring so I haven't really reported anything for a while, but tonight I took a break from my renormalization group reading to celebrate the lunar new year with friends. We made lots of tasty dumplings. I think I ate enough of them to guarantee myself a good luck in the new year.

I work sometimes too

2009-01-17T00:37:00.004Z

I realized that my blog suggests that I just hang out and travel. While this is a fairly good approximation for reality, from time to time I do a little work. I just figured I should clear that up so that any little kids reading my blog can realize that they still have to do their math(s) homework if they want to be as cool as me (yes, I'm talking to you, Amanda).

I'm finally close to understanding Feynman diagrams. Naturally I'm excited, even if it is a little pathetic that I haven't covered them yet.

Paris Without Photos

2009-01-15T16:49:00.005Z

My little jaunt to Paris turned out to be slightly more expensive than I'd anticipated. Concerned about the safety of my camera in a hostel, I'd booked a Parisian hotel. Sure enough, the first time I was foolish enough to briefly leave the camera in my locked room was also the last. A slick inside job or another guest with decent lock picking skills means I no longer have my great photos of Paris ... or my 40D. Until I splurge on a new one (the new 50 D is so tempting now), I'll have to beef up my rhetorical skills as I rely less on photos.

Before going to Paris I'd heard plenty of rumors about Parisians who are rude to Americans and refuse to speak English even when they can. I discounted these rumors as a few isolated situations, but unfortunately my experiences matched the rumors much better than the romanticized images of Paris. This certainly was not Copenhagen where anybody on the street will happily speak to you in flawless English. Perhaps I was just foolish to go to a country where the extent of my language knowledge was a very poorly pronounced "Je ne parle pas Francais." After all, my American countrymen are not exactly kind to the foreigner who walks into a random store without speaking a word of English. Luckily, on Monday I met up with some French-speaking Rhodes friends. I don't think I've ever been so happy to see Andrew Hammond's cheery face. The only thing better was seeing his face after I'd refer to walking down Avenue des Champs-Élysées as the "Champs walk."

Despite Paris's old subway trains, cold subways, disagreeable people, and camera thiefs, there actually are a few (mildly) redeeming things the city has to offer. Most notable are the banana and nutella crepes. If some genius were to introduce the idea of also loading these things up with fresh strawberries and whipped cream, France could be almost as cool as the US. The second most notable thing in Paris might be the Louvre if those jerks would have been open on Tuesdays as the 2006 Frommer's "Paris Day By Day" guide claims. Since the Louvre was out, the Musee d'Orsay, a giant train station turned art museum, wins the prize. I think in the matter of about an hour here I saw more impressionist masterpieces than I had in my whole life in London, New York, DC, Chicago, and St. Louis combined.

This is where I would enter tons of awesome photos.

Now I'm going to completely mess up the flow of this whole story since I just recalled the photo of West End London that I intended to post. I had a really early train to Paris on Sunday, so I spent Saturday in London with several Caltech friends. I managed to snag us all half-price Avenue Q tickets. Yet another reason London is much cooler than Paris. Sorry Andrew.

Paris

2009-01-09T01:35:00.002Z

I have a friend named Vivek who lived in Lloyd House with me. He is at Cambridge studying for a year. I called him today proposing that we go to Paris in two days. It's going to be awesome. The end.

Edinburgh

2009-01-04T00:50:00.007Z

I've returned from about four days in Edinburgh. I met up with Jake and Chantal (two friends from Caltech) who were kind enough to show me around. Highlights were

Haggis, neeps, and tatties

Harry Potter's Birthplace

New Years Fireworks over the Castle

Arthur's Seat

Spending time with Jake and Chantal

I spent my last night in Edinburgh with Roko, another (non-intersecting) friend from Caltech. Roko was a Cambridge student who spent a summer doing a SURF research project at Tech. I hadn't realized it, but he is now a graduate student at Edinburgh. Thanks to the wonders of the Facebook, he saw that I was coming to town and we were able to reconnect.

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T18:52:00.000Z

I'm in Edinburgh. It's cold. The end.

Real Christmas in the heart of Real America

2008-12-29T04:41:00.006Z

My original plans were to spend Christmas in England. I even started preparing my dear parents for this disappointment in the early summer. My parents are crafty though, and managed to convince me that it was my sister, not them, that wanted me to come home.

It was nice to be back home for a few days, even if it did require some marathon traveling. I was able to stock up on the American essentials (Jello, Chex Mix, cheap gummy bears, Hawaiian Punch) while playing some family board games. Let's hope that the fun was more than enough to compensate for tomorrow's travels: Columbia to St Louis by van, St. Louis to London via Chicago by air, London to Oxford by coach, Oxford to Edinburgh by train. It will be a small miracle if I manage to time my sleep cycle such that I am awake for the Edinburgh New Years.

Christmas at Cumberland Lodge

2008-12-22T00:14:00.003Z

Cumberland Lodge

Cumberland Lodge on the Inside

King George III (The One We're Supposed to Hate)

Windsor Castle

More Views of Copenhagen

2008-12-22T00:00:00.003Z

Last Thursday I enjoyed a few patches of blue skies as I walked off the beaten path a little.

Denmark

2008-12-17T21:17:00.012Z

I came to Denmark expecting to find of people who once worshiped Oden as their god. Instead, the Danes seem to worship this man.

Hans Christian Anderson

In fact, despite being named after Oden, the town of Odense is really known as the the brithplace of Hans Christian Anderson. Hans's bust and portrait seems to be found all over the country. I was naïve enough to believe that Niels Bohr must be the most famous Dane of all time. Unfortunately, I've struggled to find a single Bohr portrait among the sea of Andersons. While Copenhagen lends its name to a major interpretation of quantum mechanics, it seems the town has not bothered to build a monument or museum to honor the feat. Children's stories apparently are a little more inspiring for sculptors and tourists.

The Little Mermaid (A H.C. Anderson story of course)

In my infinite wisdom, I failed to note that Copenhagen lies to the North of Oxford. Those who are a tad sharper than I was will immediately realize that this means Copenhagen is even colder and darker than Oxford. Luckily, Copenhagen is full of gorgeous warm churches. This church was especially pretty, but due to its poor hours, it will not be remembered for its beauty.

The-Church-Which-Was-Not-Open-When-Todd-Was-Cold

After modern theories of electronic structure, the next most Danish thing most people think of are Danishes. In this respect I was not let down. The bakeries were most excellent, and were only mildly overpriced (a major improvement over the horrendously overpriced normal food).

You Should Be Jealous

Once I had warmed up in the churches and filled up on Danishes, I was able to see some of the most important Copenhagen sights: silly little painted houses. Actually the houses are very cute, and introduce a little bit of color to the otherwise dark winter city (the sun has been setting around 3:30 pm).

Silly Little Painted Houses

After tromping around town seeing all of the stupid things Clara wanted to see, I finally directed us towards one of the real jewels of Copenhagen, Ørsted Parken. Ørsted, you'll recall, recognized that changing electric currents caused his compass needle to move. He brilliantly recognized this as an indication that electricity and magnetism are fundamentally linked. The hoodlums of Copenhagen have slightly less respect for the greatness of this discovery, but I tried my best to cover the graffiti as I paid homage.

Todd and Ørsted

Despite the cold and dark, there was one big advantage to visiting Denmark in the winter - Christmas. The Danes love Christmas festivities. Every little street in Odense and Copenhagen was decorated cheerily, in a way that seemed much more cozy and sincere than the American mega-decorations.

Danes Love Christmas

After getting bored with Copenhagen, it was time to venture outside the city a little to the Frederiksborg Castle. The 17th Century royal castle demonstrated that the old kings were really quite smart. While everyone else was worried about stupid things like getting their next meal, the kings were thinking ahead, building mansions to rake in the 21st Century tourism money.

Not the Castle. This is just a small building near the castle.

København

2008-12-16T19:27:00.003Z

I've moved on to København for a few days. Aside from the fact that it is cold and there are only a few precious hours of daylight, it's quite fun. I'm staying with Masha (a friend from Caltech) in the most posh student dorms ever. On my first day in town Clara and I roamed the city on foot, checking out the city hall building, several (warm) churches, and the little mermaid. We also managed to find a traditional Danish lunch (pickled herring on rugbrød bread). I've got to run to go to a castle now, but I'll get more photos up eventually.

Photos from Odense Denmark

2008-12-14T16:05:00.009Z

My Odense Host, Daniel Stolper

Good Morning from Odense

2008-12-13T11:08:00.004Z

I arrived in Odense Denmark last night. Clara and I were brilliant and didn't realize that the +45 country prefix for phone numbers actually means 0045. Luckily we had written down our host's address, so rather than call him we just wandered to his house and knocked on his door.

Odense is a cute little town. This morning we went to a bakery early which matched my illusions of Danish villages perfectly, down to the uber-blonde girl working there. I'm going to continue my sightseeing, but I should have a photos to share in the next day or two.

My Turn

2008-12-11T09:42:00.002Z

For the last few weeks some of my more politically minded friends have been getting excited by Obama's latest appointments. More often than not this sends me to wikipedia to figure out who the person is since I've never really heard of them. Now I think the tables are finally flipped. Steve Chu is reportedly going to be nominated to be Secretary of Energy. This is incredibly good news. He has a solid physics background and is devoted to using science (and scientists) to attack climate problems.

In more personal news, I'm flying to Copenhagen tomorrow for a brief holiday and a visit with friends. I'll try to update from Denmark.

Secret Santa

2008-12-05T14:19:00.003Z

My Rhodes class had a Christmas party last night. Due to safety concerns, my generation was robbed of the excitement of chemistry sets, fortunately my secret santa managed to find a Violent Volcano kit (complete with enclosed safety glasses). It's pretty awesome!

Football (aka Rhodies Win)

2008-12-03T01:05:00.004Z

I failed to post an update about the Rhodes v. Marshall football game, actually games as it turned out. There was such a great showing, that we played two 7 on 7 games simultaneously. The Rhodes Scholars were of course sportsmanlike (and quite talented I might add). I wish as much could be said for the Marshalls. Unfortunately, through some weasling, the Marshalls managed to win one game 6-4, but the Rhodies won the other game handily. Computing the point differential between the two games, it's pretty clear that the Rhodies came out as victors. Apparently this claim has made waves amongst the Marshalls, who have difficulties admitting that they're second best.

Mr Ben Carmichael (M) is stopped by Mr George Olive III (R)

Happy Thanksgiving (Two Days Late)

2008-11-29T10:37:00.004Z

My mommy wasn't here to feed me this Thanksgiving, so I was lucky that she managed to teach me some basic cooking skills over the years. I was a little too lazy to make a turkey. Instead my friends and I celebrated with the second most American meal ever - pizza. Melis had the brilliant idea to make one of them Thanksgiving-inspired. It was a great meal with good friends, plus I now have leftovers.

Sweet Potato Pizza

Todd's Normal Pizza

Finished Products

Today the Marshall Scholars are meeting in Oxford to celebrate Thanksgiving. Part of their celebration includes their annual American football defeat at the hands of the more physically vigorous scholars. I'm looking forward to doing my part.

A Visitor From That Other Institute

2008-11-25T14:27:00.003Z

A newly minted Marhsall Scholar from MIT, David Reshef, arrived yesterday for a visit. Even though he happens to date my friend Clara, I'm thoroughly convinced that he came to visit me, not her. We had a blast talking science and generally reveling in nerdiness. David was lucky to attend last year's TED conference. These conferences are supposed to be on "ideas worth spreading" by "the world's greatest thinkers and doers." One of the coolest aspects of the conferences (at least for a schmuck like me who doesn't get invited) is that many of the best presentations are posted online. David reminded me of one of my favorite presentations I'd watched. In it, a guy named Blaise Aguera y Arcas shows how millions of publicly shared photos online can be combined in order to reconstruct three dimensional models of major landmarks. He takes the example of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. By collecting what are essentially touristy photographs taken from different views, in different lighting conditions, and with different obstructing faces blocking out parts of the cathedral, Blaise constructs a single model of the building. It's a pretty impressive demonstration.

Annotated Panorama!

2008-11-16T15:48:00.001Z

Panorama!

2008-11-15T23:18:00.002Z

Oxford can be pretty

2008-11-15T17:01:00.005Z

aka Hey look, it's not raining today.

High Table

2008-11-15T09:30:00.004Z

I had my first High Table experience last night. For those who don't know, the class system is alive and well in the UK. I suspect that one of the favourite pastimes of Oxford fellows is to sit around dreaming up new ways to symbolically demonstrate their superiority. Luckily, Mason Porter (Lloyd House '98) has risen the ranks and was able to invite me to join the fellows for dinner at Somerville College. For full disclosure, I must admit that we were actually seated at "Lower High," which is physically on the same level as the commoners. Of course the true High Table is physically elevated, but it was a crowded guest night and even Mason has a few more social rungs to climb.

Catching up with Mason was good fun. Mason was back at Tech as a postdoc during my tenure there. He is an aficionado of Caltech pranks and also was research mentor to several of my best friends, so we had plenty of nerdy topics to discuss while eating chocolate in the Senior Common Room (SCR) after dinner.

My blog has become a battleground

2008-11-09T14:00:00.005Z

It seems that one of my friends, Andrea DenHoed, has decided that an effective way to force me into making a website for her is to direct the other Rhodes Scholars to my blog. Of course, my Caltech readers will recognize this as a stupid strategy since they know I was a pathetic excuse for a Techer. I am hardly able to make a simple html page, much less the sort of JavaScript she desires. A normal person might be slightly upset by her feeble attempts to embarrass me, but it's hard to be upset with someone who looks as goofy as this.

Saturday Fun

2008-11-08T22:21:00.008Z

I finally went out cycling with the Oxford Club. It was fun and felt good to go on a decent ride again. Cycling certainly was a good way to see some of the English countryside, even though I managed to get a flat.

After the ride Clara and I went to Port Meadow (a giant meadow of common land for grazing). Note the difference between how some people treat animals.

Miss Blättler is mean.

Mr Gingrich is nice.

The Folks Come To Visit

2008-11-07T16:03:00.008Z

My parents came to visit Sunday night through Wednesday morning, which was a lot of fun. We managed to make it to wander around Oxford seeing the sights and reveling in the old buildings. I also managed to bribe some friends into joining us for formal dinners at Magdalen, Univ, and Oriel. Special thanks go to Jason Bello, Clara Blättler, Andrew Hammond, Scott Thompson, Melis Anahtar, Deep Shah, and Nadine Levin for providing the company and dispelling the nasty rumour that I'm completely antisocial.

Tuesday night gave me another chance to prove that the skeptics were wrong when they told me I was stupid for buying such a hideous tie.

Texas is blue (until they started counting the votes outside of Austin)

It's not yet clear if my promised science funding will materialize, but at least Mr Obama ushered in one instantaneous change - it's now socially acceptable for me to wear my awesome tie over here. Well perhaps not socially acceptable, but I'm not quite as scared about being thrown into a gutter now.

Finally, it seems that my metal oxide paper from Nate Lewis's group has been published. Don't everyone rush to read it at the same time, but for the sake of my most devout followers it can be found here.

Photos

2008-11-04T00:05:00.002Z

New photos from London are posted on my facebook site. Even people without a facebook account can view them by clicking here.

Weekend in London

2008-11-03T00:55:00.003Z

I just returned from a Weekend in London. In brief: google party, Les Mis, Michael Faraday's lab, Techers at UCL, British Museum. Photos will hopefully follow, but my parents are in town visiting. Unfortunately for my faithful blog followers (ie Ben Eidelson and his fan club) I'm going to spend some extra time with my parents at the expense of the blog.

Catech Wins

2008-10-29T11:21:00.001Z

"Despite Caltech's reputation, Cal Lutheran men's soccer coach Dan Kuntz always warns his players not to take the Beavers for granted.

Kuntz warns them not to view the games as automatic wins on the schedule.

But Kuntz knew there may come a time when the message didn't get through.

That time arrived last week as the Kingsmen suffered their first loss to Caltech in school history.

Tyler Volkoff's game-winning goal with 24 seconds remaining gave Caltech a 1-0 win — its first over CLU in 35 meetings."

Good Luck Tom!

2008-10-28T19:17:00.002Z

Sometimes people think I'm "hard core" because I made it through Caltech. They should meet my friend Tom. If you happen to be in Austin tomorrow then you're in luck because you actually can meet him. He's giving what's sure to be an awesome seminar. I'm pretty sure he explained this stuff to me over dinner at Burger Continental, but I can't say I understand it yet.

Working Dynamical Systems: A geometric viewpoint of quantum mechanics and the semiclassical limit

by Tom Mainiero (UT Austin ) in RLM 10.176
4:00 pm Wednesday, October 29, 2008

We present a viewpoint of quantum mechanics that reveals its underlying geometry and renders it (in some sense) a special case of classical mechanics. Using this viewpoint we describe the semiclassical limit and the resulting fiber bundle structure. This construction allows us to "imbed" the classical phase space into our quantum system, shows the semiclassical limit may not be global, and presents us with a picture of how certain quantum symmetries can "break" and lead to chaotic classical dynamics.

Revelation of the Day

2008-10-28T19:10:00.001Z

Umbrellas are not just for wimps. They are also for gentlemen and scholars.

Calculus of Variations

2008-10-27T00:00:00.008Z

First I suppose I should mention that the Rhodes "Coming Up Dinner" was this past Friday. It's a fancy (black tie) event to celebrate the new class. Naturally it was quite fun, and I got another chance to practice my bow tying skills.

Now to the fun stuff. After dinner with some Rhodies tonight I went to grab desert with Melis Anahtar and Shayak Sarkar. They humoured me by intently watching as I scrawled out (on a napkin, of course) a very rushed and incomplete description of the Brachistochrone Problem and the Calculus of Variations. I went on to describe basic classical mechanics. By this point I was quite excited. It almost felt like I was back at Tech! Then we left, but not without agreeing to discuss this stuff another time. I definitely have to show them the analogies between classical Poisson Brackets and Quantum Mechanical commutators.

Mobile

2008-10-24T00:58:00.003+01:00

It's hard to believe that getting a mobile phone is such a hassle, but I have finally acquired one. The American Rhodies were quite stupid in how we went about it, but that's all moot now. In the UK you basically have three options: pay as you go, monthly contracts, and 18 month contracts. Monthly is preferred by people like me because you get close to contract rates (pay as you go is quite expensive) but you can cancel your contract with just 30 days notice. The difficulty is that US credit history does not translate to the UK, so with my bank card came a brand new undefined credit history. Now of course I wasn't buying my phone plan on credit, but some genius over here decided that it is reasonable to run credit checks on each potential new customer. I'd have been more than happy to just pay 6 months up front, in cash even, but that's not an option. So after having my credit rejected about 4 times by several companies (which surely isn't helping the credit rating any), I finally ended up getting vodafone (with help from Rhodes House) to let me sign up for a £15/month plan. They had to take a refundable £100 deposit and I had to pay another £25 for the phone, but at least I can now make a few phone calls ... once my mom buys me some friends to call.

Harry Potter Dining Hall!

2008-10-21T17:12:00.004+01:00

Last night I dined at Christ Church. Christ Church is of course best known for being the college of Prof. Niles Pierce. It turns out that some little-known film series called Harry Potter was also filmed there.

Today I was thrilled to discover that British people are correctly proportioned. I went to Marks and Spencer and found that 14.5" neck size shirts are in fact common here. What's more is that the standard sleeve length for such shirts is exactly my size. As if that wasn't enough, the shirts were reasonably priced (four new shirts for just £34). Now that I have some fruity patterned shirts with spread collars I can blend in perfectly with the Brits.

Matriculation

2008-10-18T14:28:00.002+01:00

Today was matriculation (starting at 8 am!). The event is quite bizarre, involving costumes with silly gowns and a Latin speech. I suppose these things are prerequisites for studying theoretical chemistry.

Loads of photos are now posted on my facebook site (not just matriculation photos). Follow this link if you don't have a facebook account.

Also, I got a new bike yesterday. Riding on the left side of the road is fun.

The Union

2008-10-17T00:59:00.005+01:00

I went to a debate at the Oxford Union tonight. The Union is an exorbitantly expensive student debating club (£99 for a year or ~£170 for life) with a bunch of future politicians trying to act like MPs. Luckily, in an attempt to entice new members, the Union is free for the first two weeks. The speeches were quite amusing, and the big shots were really quite good. The debate tonight was (unsurprisingly) over whether or not there should be confidence in her Majesty's government. Five MPs were present to debate, making the experience the closest to a House of Parliament debate as I am likely to come.

Soccer

2008-10-13T17:05:00.001+01:00

I'm out of shape and Brits are good at soccer. I think my soreness this morning indicates that I'd be better off with the cycling club.

Shankar

2008-10-12T02:25:00.002+01:00

On Sunday I'm trying out for Univ's football (read soccer) team. My hope is to be able to make the B or C team so that I can play for fun but not practice too much. We'll see if my 8th grade skills are still with me. Also, I may have progress on the cycling front. I've located a cycle of interest and have heard rumours of a secret Univ storage place for nice cycles.

Disclaimer: The following will not make sense to people who have not studied physics at the University level. I've really just included it to impress Jon Arnold, Matt Grau, and a few other Caltech nerds.

Wow, I met Shankar's daughter (a 2nd year Rhodie) tonight at Balliol college's bop! By Shankar I mean the Shankar. Luckily she wasn't too taken aback by my awe. She must be used to meeting a bunch of lame physicists who look up to her father.

Dress Like Your National Stereotype Bop

2008-10-11T00:48:00.004+01:00

Since our markets are sucking, I figure it's up to me to remind people that America is freedom, even if it leads to an international catastrophe. As part of my America day, I enjoyed a £4.99 all-you-can-eat Pizza Hut lunch buffet followed closely by a food coma and nap. After a dinner with my fellow Americans I represented the US of A at the "Dress Like Your National Sterotype Bop" (what Oxonians call a party).

Repping Missouri

2008-10-09T23:02:00.005+01:00

Today I decided to wear my obnoxiously bright yellow Missouri sweatshirt. I figure that Missouri's football excellence, entitles me to represent the school abroad. As I walked down High Street, two groups of Americans stopped me to comment on the shirt. It was amusing to see how many midwesterns are actually crawling around this place.

Tonight was a formal graduate student dinner in the main dining hall. I've been eating in the hall this whole week for lunch and dinner, but my meals have been cafeteria style until tonight. Tonight was actually a fully waited (Harry Potter style) meal. We naturally had to dress smart, and the master got up and gave a Dumbledorean welcome address before the meal. It was quite fun, so I'm going to have to sign up this Sunday's formal hall too.

I suppose the biggest news of the day is that I have finally made myself look respectable again. After my wreck I was unable to shave for quite some time. It was rather amusing watching people I met restrain their impulses to call me a slob.

Luckily, the scar cleared up enough that I felt comfortable shaving before the formal dinner. Now I look like my dapper old self.

Thank you Dr. Croll

Not Much to Report

2008-10-08T19:47:00.002+01:00

I have met with the folks in the Theoretical Chemistry Group, and it looks like everything is planned out nicely. My first lecture will be next Tuesday. After seeing the Quantum syllabus I was kicking myself for not shipping Cohen-Tannoudji over, but alas I have discovered a wonderful consequence of the horribly inefficient redundancy of the college system. Each college has its own library, each of which has several copies of the classics. Univ's library had 5 copies of both Volumes 1 and 2 waiting for me. The Physics and Chemistry selections were actually quite impressive because there were so many available copies of the classic texts. I'm used to a system in which the library would only own ~3 copies of the classics, and would put these on reserve. Looks like mom and dad won't have to ship any books over after all.

Last night the Univ grad freshers (first years) had a barbecue at the college boathouse, which is a very impressive building on the river. The old boat house was unremarkable, but some animal rights protesters burned it down several years ago. Univ has finally rebuilt a new one, and decided to put people in it as protection. Surely animal rights people will respect the rights of the humans living there, right?

Every Wednesday we have tea at Rhodes House along with cake supplied by Sheila and John (Rhodes House employees). Apparently they have a little contest over whose cake is superior. I suppose I need to be careful to not take sides and just eat some of each.

Boxes and Trivia Night

2008-10-07T00:00:00.007+01:00

This morning my boxes were finally delivered! Everyone will be pleased to know that I will have clean underwear tomorrow and didn't even have to do the last minute laundry I thought might be necessary. Most of my stuff is unpacked, so it's starting to feel a little more like home. When picking up my stuff from the porter's lodge, Bob (the porter) called me by name. I was shocked and impressed that he's memorized faces and names so quickly. Perhaps he just watches me on the CCTV's.

Before

After

I suppose I ought to share one or two (ok, three to be exact) more shots from outside my room, as they are slightly more photogenic. The following were taken inside Univ (colloquially known as Todd's castle).

Tonight was Trivia Night in the MCR. Naturally I formed an all star team of a Brit, an Aussie, a Kiwi, a Greek, and two Americans. Unsurprisingly, the American influence led us to victory, scoring me a sweet University College tote bag and some chocolates. Tomorrow is my first meeting with Prof Logan, so I can start thinking about adding some work to my fun.

I <3 Rhodes House

2008-10-05T10:23:00.001+01:00

Saturday was the Rhodes House orientation, which was great fun. Rhodes House is basically a mansion to house the business of the Rhodes Trust and to provide a place for Rhodes Scholars to relax. Conveniently it is right next to the chemistry building, so I will be able to swing by for afternoon tea.

Yesterday afternoon was the annual Rhodes auction, which was quite amusing. True to my stingy ways, I didn't pick up anything from the auction, but I did get a new pullover sweater for £5 from the fixed price room. My boxes are unlikely to arrive until Monday, so my hope is that the sweater can tide me over until I can get some clean clothes.

Today I have the first events with my Middle Common Room (MCR), which is basically the graduate student organization of the college. It should be a great chance to meet some people outside of the Rhodes circle, and it will be my first time to eat in the hall.

PS It's raining.

The First Photos

2008-10-03T18:36:00.001+01:00

My view of High Street from outside my house.

The "Street" Where I Live (Magpie Lane)

My Desk and Window

Bed and Sink

I've Arrived

2008-10-03T14:20:00.001+01:00

We arrived in Oxford bright and early yesterday morning. I managed to get little more than an hours sleep on the flight, but the consensus was that we needed to stay awake until about 8 pm before crashing, thereby getting onto our new sleep cycles. I moved into my room at University College (Univ). The room is quite large and quaint with an excellent location. I will post photos once I obtain internet access in my room (in the mean time I use the internet at Rhodes House).

I spent much of the day wandering around Oxford with Clara, the other American Rhodes Scholar in Univ. We managed to purchase some of the essentials while getting a general lay of the land.

At night, I discovered that my father had been attempting to contact me for quite a while to inform me that my shipped boxes were held up in customs. I failed to fill out the proper forms, and fixing the problem proved to be quite difficult with no internet access, phone, scanner, etc. Eventually I put it off until morning and crashed for the night. This was a wise decision since the task was quick and easy once I went to Rhodes House this morning.

I'm going to resume wandering while trying to acquire a few more essentials. It may be a few days before I post a substantial update, but I promise there will be pictures eventually.

Bon Voyage

2008-10-01T14:48:00.000+01:00

DC has been incredible. Yesterday we had an excellent breakfast with some senators, and an afternoon talk by Justice Souter. In between I managed to squeeze in the fasted tour of the National Mall ever recorded by man. We head over to Oxford this afternoon and arrive bright and early Thursday morning.

For those following by cat/bike adventure, I received some very amusing news last night. The cat (Bob) actually lived! He had to have one leg amputated, but is otherwise doing quite well. Now whenever anyone asks me about my scar I can just tell them I got it saving Bob's life.

DC

2008-09-28T05:00:00.000+01:00

I had to wake up early for a 6 am flight to DC for the Rhodes "Bon Voyage Weekend." I connected through Memphis, which was amusing because the B-team journalists coming from the Oxford, MS debates last night all seemed to end up on my plane. This weekend we get to meet tons of Rhodes Scholars past and present. It's all a little overwhelming, but we have good food and good company.
I'm still recovering fairly well from my bike wreck four days ago. My big cut on my chin seems to be healing nicely even though I feel a little silly having to sport scruffy facial hair while meeting people. The cut on my inner lip is quite aggravating, but I've rediscovered the wonder of benzocaine.

Missouri

2008-09-07T23:05:00.001+01:00

I am home in Missouri until September 27.