On being anal
It took me a while to come to the realization that I need to vent over this subject right here, on my blog, no matter how petty, ridiculous and irrelevant…
Massimo
My lost chapter
Dear Editor, It is now almost one year since I submitted to you the chapter that you solicited from me as a contribution to the upcoming volume “Real cool phases…
Hi, I am Jack, and I am a recovering socialist
Canadian New Democratic Party (NDP) held in Vancouver its fiftieth national congress since its foundation. It is presently Canada’s official opposition in the House of Commons, and arguably one of…
Does not get much sillier than this…
… aka, the xkcd wikipedia meme All right, it has been a while since last time I did this kind of stuff. I saw it at VWXYNOT? (where else, eh…
Free agent professor
If you’re a college or university teacher, whom do you work for ?” Thus begins Stanley Fish‘s latest New York Times editorial on the subject of academia. Here are a…
iPad on the road
In a recent post, I stated my intent of purchasing an iPad2 as soon as it would become available in Canada, and expounded why I deem it as the optimal…
The face of a nation
This editorial cartoon, published on the Canadian National Post of May 18 2011, has prompted the Italian ambassador to Canada to write a letter to the newspaper, stating his displeasure…
Killing me softly with his (referee) report
Dear Colleague, given that every other day we seem to be telling each other appalling stories of disgraceful article refereeing to which we are subjected, I think we should all…
Dissecting the 2011 vote
Having reaffirmed once again my inability at making accurate predictions, I am going to offer now my very personal reading of the results of the general election held in Canada…
Another election prediction
“Good predictions are only made by luck” (anonymous… nah, it’s me) You would think that, given my ability at guessing the outcome of elections, I would have given up by…
My thoughts on CCP
The Division of Computational Physics of the American Physical Society has now its own blog, brought to you by its very own executive committee, of which I am presently a…
Make up your mind, already !
Academic job seekers are sometimes in the fortunate position of choosing one of several job offers (not often these days, given the difficult job market). This happens both at the…
Great blog. By the way, you are full of it.
Last week I was in Dallas, at the annual March meeting of the American Physical Society, attended by members of the Division of Condensed Matter and Computational physics. For different…
Dear flight attendant
… or airline employee standing behind your airline’s counter at the gate, or customer service desk, or checking in my luggage and issuing my boarding card(s), or talking to me…
The mantra of flexibility
In the Italy where I grew up (in the 70s and 80s), most jobs were for life. Most workers, not just government or state ones but also those employed in…