¶Renee and I are playing planes, trains, and automobiles today as we head home. Actually, it’s train (T, red line), bus (T, silver line), plane (BOS->DTW), car (DTW->home).
Stream
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/2022/04/24 at 5:16 PM
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¶Another great find in Harvard Square, this wonderfully understated plaque honoring Tom Magliozzi, “Clack,” of the Tappet brothers and Car Talk fame. Renee and I used to love listening to their show on long drives to and from Florida. Tom was born in East Cambridge and both are MIT alums. Unique and hilarious.
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/2022/04/24 at 2:39 PM
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(nih.gov)
¶“A sample of approximately 4 million W boson candidates is used to obtain [a mass W bosun], the precision of which exceeds that of all previous measurements combined....This measurement is in significant tension with the standard model expectation.”
¶I love science, both the knowledge and the process of science. This paper, published with nearly 400 authors and in Science, likely the world’s most respected peer-reviewed scientific journal, presents surprising results on the mass of W bosuns that lie way outside the value predicted by the standard model of physics. As such, it puts that model—which has guided physics research and understanding for decades—on the ropes.
¶But, the process of science won’t let anyone jump to conclusions, not even four hundred authors writing in this journal. Nope, in a way, this paper really just kicks the process into the next gear. Testing and the oh-so-important work to verify the results come next. And, with this sort of work, that will take years.
¶So, is Frazier down?
¶Maybe, but in science and boxing, that doesn’t mean the fight is over. This paper probably represents an early knockdown of the standard model (it’s not the first). It took six for Foreman to be declared the winner over Frazier. So, now we wait. In the meantime, enjoy knowing that a revolution in our understanding of physics may be underway.
¶That doesn’t mean the parlor games can’t start now, though. And surely they have. Has Frazier fallen? We’ll know someday, because…science.
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/2022/04/24 on April 26, 2022 at 12:38 AM
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¶Starting the morning with lattes at Tatte.
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/2022/04/23 at 1:49 PM
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¶He really is. And the Celtics won again tonight, putting the Nets down 3-0 in the series.
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/2022/04/23 on April 24, 2022 at 3:20 AM
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¶I was trying to capture the spirit of the thing, but the lighting was seriously horrible for our post-game selfie. I’ll take it, though.
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/2022/04/23 on April 24, 2022 at 3:16 AM
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¶Who let these knuckleheads into the game?
¶It’s funny, the Hanson brothers are like Mickey Mouse for middle-aged hockey fans. Every guy sitting around us started cheering once we realized the Hansons were surveying our section like they were looking for the fan who threw the car keys (or was it a tire chain or monkey wrench?) at Jeff.
¶As a serious Slap Shot fan, I had one question, though.
¶Why was Ogie Ogilthorpe helping them?
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/2022/04/23 on April 24, 2022 at 3:13 AM
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¶We headed into Boston after lunch for the Bruins game. The trip was interesting—we learned at the last minute that the red line was down for the weekend. They had a free bus shuttle running to take people to one of the main stops in Boston, which was great, but the traffic and number of people made it a bit of an adventure. We left quite early, but arrived right as the game was getting underway.
¶Bruins won 3-1.
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/2022/04/23 on April 24, 2022 at 2:40 AM
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¶Renee and I explored Harvard Square a bit before meeting Jonathan for lunch, checking out a few areas we hadn’t noticed before. Found a Patagonia store. I love their clothes and their corporate philosophy, but, wow, everything is so expensive!
photo published in
/2022/04/23 on April 24, 2022 at 2:33 AM
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¶I had no idea how many different species of hummingbirds exist in the world. Hundreds.
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/2022/04/22 at 9:45 PM
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¶Shame on me for not documenting the name of this extinct marine mammal…I was too busy trying to catch Renee as she stood in the center of the frame.
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/2022/04/22 at 9:22 PM
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¶We met Jonathan for lunch in Harvard Square, dropped our bags in his dorm room, and headed to the Harvard Museum of Natural History. This is the third museum we’ve visited since he started here. It was fantastic, just like the others.
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/2022/04/22 at 9:21 PM
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¶There’s a lot to see in this photo!
¶Our flight path took us north of Detroit, across the Detroit River and into Canada. This photo is looking south downriver, with Canada to the left and the United States to the right. Fighting Island (Canada) is in the foreground in the river and Grosse Ile (United States) is in the background.
¶The twin plumes of the Fermi Nuclear Power Plant on the western shore of Lake Erie are just visible in the background.
¶And you can see the moon just off the winglet.
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/2022/04/22 at 9:10 PM
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¶This is usually when I’d take a picture of Jake looking out the window. I miss that. I am enjoying having the window seat, though.
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/2022/04/22 at 11:26 AM
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¶Renee and I are on an early morning airport mission today, by ourselves. We’re headed to Boston to visit Jonathan for the weekend, and Jake is staying home with Grandma.
¶It’s been a long time since we travelled without the boys. Feels a little weird.
¶But, security was less stressful, as we only had to worry about ourselves.
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/2022/04/22 at 10:57 AM
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(cnbc.com)
¶“Florida law dictates that special districts created by the legislature can only be dissolved with a majority vote of the district’s landowners. For Reedy Creek, that’s the Walt Disney Company.”
¶This is political theatre at its worst. DeSantis isn’t just dancing for the camera, he’s doing so knowing that the bill is legally dead on arrival in the courts. We haven’t heard from Disney yet, so I suppose it’s possible they will accept the loss of the district in exchange for something. I seriously doubt that, though, and I doubt Orlando taxpayers are happy about absorbing a billion dollars of debt.
¶Part of me hopes DeSantis presses forward with his clown show, just so we can watch Disney kick his ass. The lawyers are already on it, I’m sure. Moron.
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/2022/04/22 at 10:40 AM
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¶We had some pretty great pizza at the Stoked Pizza Company in Cambridge tonight. Great pizza, and a decent beer selection to boot. I had the Night Shift Whirlpool, which was a little more citrusy than I expected, but was still very good.
photo published in
/2022/04/22 on April 23, 2022 at 12:30 AM
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¶I don’t have to fill up very often, but, when I do, Costco usually saves me at least a quarter per gallon.
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/2022/04/21 at 11:34 PM
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¶“[I]t’s time to love RSS again.”
¶I fell in love with RSS when I started my first blog in 2004 (Promote the Progress, one of the three original patent blogs started during January of that year). It fascinated me as a tool for consumption and distribution of content. I’ve loved it ever since and still use it extensively today. I read this post from Dave Winer (who invented RSS) with my feed aggregator (NetNewsWire). I’ve also built it into Daystream from the beginning. I’m glad to hear Dave’s fixing to shine a light on it again.
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/2022/04/21 at 10:43 AM
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¶It takes significant time and money to earn your pilot’s certificate. And everyone I know that has done it will tell you that the FAA doesn’t mess around when it comes to enforcing rules and regulating pilots. This idiot got exactly what he deserved.
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/2022/04/21 on April 22, 2022 at 1:43 AM
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¶I love everything about this, including the fact that the research was supported by the federal government. I’m sure, sooner or later, some anti-science, clueless politician will cite it as an example of wasteful spending on basic research.
link published in
/2022/04/21 on April 22, 2022 at 1:18 AM
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¶Disney should grant immediate and automatic licenses for such uses, and tell YouTube to adjust its algorithm accordingly.
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/2022/04/21 on April 22, 2022 at 1:03 AM
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¶I couldn’t resist, had to order a slice of coconut cream pie for dessert.
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/2022/04/19 at 11:32 PM
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(vox.com)
¶Netflix is no longer our most-used streaming service, although we do still subscribe. We seem to be watching Prime video more and more, lately.
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/2022/04/19 on April 20, 2022 at 2:42 AM
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¶Spring in the Midwest can be a little crazy. Snow arrived right on schedule this afternoon. And we’re supposed to hit eighty degrees this weekend.
¶By the way, I’ve been watching that caulking gun on the ledge in the photo for at least a few months now. They did some work on the gutters on the building next to my office awhile back, and one of the workers left it behind. So there it sits, four or five stories off the ground and out of view from nearly everyone. Something tells me it’s going to sit there for quite awhile. I can’t imagine they repair gutters or the roof on that building very often, and it looks like it’s shielded from the wind pretty well (I think it would take quite a gust to knock it down anyways). Months at least, maybe years. We’ll see.
photo published in
/2022/04/18 at 5:29 PM
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