Comments on: Here and There

By: Carl Brannen

Carl Brannen — Mon, 02 May 2011 05:19:56 +0000

The accident was a tragedy. Long hair and metal lathes is a bad combination. In addition, no one (student or otherwise) should be using heavy equipment while alone.

By: Sai Ganesh

Sai Ganesh — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 06:54:07 +0000

Sean, your #2 pondering got me thinking along similar lines only to hit upon a Facebook for researchers — ResearchGate. Here’s an NPR article on that http://www.npr.org/2011/04/18/135513803/like-share-learn-facebook-for-scientists. Of course, this is just a first step towards a large collaboration such as the one you mentioned earlier.

By: Herman

Herman — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 09:43:25 +0000

@Ronan lol! Avignon is a great city to visit. Downtown reminded me of the classic computer text game ‘Adventure’ circa late 70′s where there is… “You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike and the old Vatican sitting majestically on top of the hill has one room with the ceiling painted depicting the night sky. Enjoy your sojourn Sean.

By: Ronan

Ronan — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 20:33:18 +0000

I hope no one uses Pont d’Avignon as an analogy for String Theory in the conference

By: Tintin

Tintin — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 18:27:12 +0000

Le Palais des Papes, à Avignon? Couldn’t you have found a more appropriate place to discuss cosmology? I realize that the Vatican thought it appropriate few days ago, to celebrate Galileo’s first unveiling of his telescope, 400 years ago, but I think you are all taking chances with these miscreants . Many “Princes of the Church” are STILL thinking about the “good old days, and I wouldn’t be surprised if, when they have you all gathered in the same room, they will lock the doors, and terminate your conference in a grandiose cosmological auto da fé.

By: dave chamberlin

dave chamberlin — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 14:53:55 +0000

I watched my son win the down payment for his house playing on line poker. Damn, it was exciting. The online sports gambling sites are getting shoved to various countries and transferring money in and out of them is getting increasingly difficult. Bookies are scum, they let people get into debt and then send their vicious collectors after the suckers. On line betters are by the most part like me, throwing 10 bucks on a game to make it interesting. Knowing over the long run we are going to lose slowly, the way I look at it, my “vice” is fun and cheaper than renting a movie. For a while I was even able to gamble at an online book that paired me with someone who wanted the opposite bet and the house take was only one half of one percent. My hundred dollar deposit would last the whole season as long as I kept bets to a small fraction of what I had in my account.
What people don’t want to know about online gambling is that it can be fun and cheap even for the 95 plus percent of us who are going to end up losers. My grown son has moved into the business world with great success, in part due to the skills he learned playing and winning in the fascinating strategy game of Texas hold-em.

By: Mark Weitzman

Mark Weitzman — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 13:26:36 +0000

Please never use the term gambling with reference to wall street. All they know is other peoples money and heads I win tails you lose. As a professional gambler I like 99% of all pros use our own money in an open and fair game ( absent the now fairly rare cheating) . If only the financial world operated with the same principles and integerity of most professional gamblers the world would be a much better place.

By: Albert Zweistein

Albert Zweistein — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 01:43:06 +0000

Sean: “U.S. Federal prosecutors, clearly sitting around bored with nothing better to do, have indicted leaders of online poker sites, and attempted to shut down the sites entirely.”

Note that the ultimate irresponsible gamblers of the financial sector, who destroyed their companies, lost the investments of people who trusted them, nearly destroyed the US economy, and waltzed away with 100s of billions of dollars in their back pockets, are merely questioned a bit by congress and then allowed to continue their unregulated gambling and “bonusing” with abandon.

Who is running this show, one wonders? Looks like an “Inside Job” to me!

Albert Z