Brief notes from Ithaca

Our front page seems to be empty, and while I don't have the time to write anything careful or detailed at the moment, here are some brief notes.

I have moved to Ithaca and my classes will be starting within the week. I've already talked with Maxim Perelstein a bit about getting started with the particle theory group. I'll have more to say about this in the near future, I hope.

One very recent bit of physics news is that the "cold" technology option for the next Linear Collider has been chosen by the ITRP (International Technology Recommendation Panel). See the press release here. The last overview I heard on the different options, at the April APS meeting, claimed that they are pretty comparable in terms of both price and physics capabilities. However, people at both Fermilab and here at Cornell are happy that the cold option was chosen, as both groups are hoping that they can play a major role in the Linear Collider (and are hoping to have it at a site near their respective campuses). [I have some opinions about the merits of various possible Linear Collider locations, but it would probably be unwise to explain them here.]

A couple of things recently have reminded me of a particularly nice passage in Nabokov's Ada, so I suggest checking out Ada Online, clicking "Part One, Chapter 12," scrolling down to the marker 74.20, and reading to the end of the chapter. It's a beautiful passage; if you think so too, get a copy of the book and read it. (But start with Pale Fire.)

Also on a literary note, I'm reading Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native and it's very good. And maybe it inspired a Jimi Hendrix song? ("The dark objects on the earth that lay towards the sun were overspread by a purple haze, against which groups of wailing gnats shone out, rising upwards and dancing about like sparks of fire.") Umm, yeah. Perhaps I'll have something more intelligent to say in a future post.