Aaron H. Swartz was one of the most outspoken and hands-on activists for the transparency movement, which I largely support. He was especially active with open access issues and copyright reform.  He was part of the team that built an early version of Reddit and the widely-used RSS protocol, which he worked on at age 14, and there is more to his name inspite of his young age.  But he committed suicide in New York last Friday. 

That black holes radiate Hawking radiation (which should actually be called Unruh radiation) is almost established knowledge although it has not been experimentally confirmed.  The radiation, as of now, is founded on the consistency of the thermodynamics of, for example, black holes.  The radiation being also found around string theory black holes for example adds confidence.

Guilty feeling Germans doubting all, asking the profound and not accepting the silly answers, starting out thinking that science, physics is important.  Muhō decided to live as a homeless monk in a park in central Osaka in 2001.  Since then he sits, in order to sit, and he achieved perhaps more that way than all my science can ever do.

 

Hey smart gals, you know that there are two types of nerds:  The creepy type you want nothing to do with, and the one you would like to have a go at, because they are damn smart too.  But you need to tell them apart real fast, like before the wrong type becomes your stalker, which happens with hyperspace velocity!  And yes, the type you want is rare.

 

Outrage about another school shooting does its part to increase vigilance against the odd ones out, the misfits soiling the norm of usual irrationality, the a-socials, the depressed, the autistic, the evil psychopaths.  Gate keeping HR departments homogenize the workforce.  “Professionalism” cleans academia of all that does not perform under the marketing paradigm.