A little over a year ago we had great fun with Lurker Day, in which folks who read the blog but rarely comment were invited to bust out of their shell a little bit, say hi, and tell us why they think the blog is so wonderful. (At Cosmic Variance, we’re all about positive energy.) Now we are informed by Dr. Free-Ride that the second week in January has been declared De-Lurking Week. A whole week! Just to de-lurk. Seems a bit extravagant, but we must go along with what the blogosphere orders.
So leave a comment, especially if you usually don’t. This should fill some time while I am presently too busy to complete planned posts on gourmet chocolate, how to write a research paper, path-dependent utility, nationalism, understanding, moral humanism, and the beginning of the universe. There’s some incentive for you.
Note: Following Phil Plait’s suggestion, we’re experimenting with the wp-cache plugin. This speeds up performance by storing pages in a cache, rather than dynamically generating them each time they are accessed. The downside seems to be that comments don’t show up as long as the pages are cached. So we’ve set them to be cached for about three minutes, after which your comments should appear. There’s got to be a better way…
Why am I a lurker? I guess it’s the shaudenfraude from seeing hundreds of physicists struggle for years, seemingly for nothing.
I’m a second year physics undergrad student. I find that for the most part, I’m more interested in the “bigger picture” aspects of physics instead of the technical/engineering/semantic aspects of it. I mean, I like knowing what the wave is and how it works (it really is a beautiful thing) but I often find I lose interest once the equations become less inteligible (Fourier be damned!). So to keep up my interest, I read stuff like Feynman or Weinberg and, if I don’t have as much time, I check this blog.
I’m a physics undergrad, and I’ve only started reading this blog very recently. This is the perfect blog for physics news and commentary. I am also a big fan of skepticism.
David (#17): Yep, you should work on ATLAS for your PhD. Definitely! It’s going to be an exciting ride and your timing couldn’t be better.
It’s not really about lurking is it? I mean when you read Scientific American or National Geographic, your not really a lurker are you? I love all the access to real hard science that borders between something between popular science and the real journals.
I studied zoology while at UC Davis and since then have been involved almost exclusively in the IT business. I’ve always kept an interest in various sciences though and strongly appreciate these wells of information. But it is difficult to keep up with them, let alone make comments. That doesn’t mean that I’m not thankful though. I’m actually always amazed at how you guys can find the time to read so much other stuff, do your own work and blog. WOW!
Keep up the great work.
I still can’t get over the fact that you got Richard Feynman’s desk!
David (#17): JoAnne is right to be excited about the LHC (I am also), but should you decide to do astroparticle experiment, you will also be involved in a field at the most exciting time so far.
I’m a physics/philosophy student in Australia. I hated blogs till i started reading this one(hows that for a compliment!). I’ve learned a lot and just wanted to say thanks.
Hoorah for physics-interested high school juniors.
This blog fills me with joy.
I am a recent college grad with a degree in Biochemistry and Psychology. My senior thesis was in the functionality of SSRI’s and the biochemical basis of some of the side effects. There was a fair amount of biophiysics involved in my analysis, and a professor let me know about this site as a place to get my brain thinking about physics.
Hi, this is a materials scientist interested in physics and cosmology at the lay-person level.
I am a lurker because I do not think that I know enough to contribute anything of significance…however, I do enjoy reading the comments section and realizing about the general openness of the community of regular commenters…
I have been reading this blog for many months now and let me tell you that this is my favorite pass-time whenever I am supposed to “write proposals to get my research program started” and procrastinate instead…
I believe this blog is contributing in a great manner towards increasing the lay persons’ awareness of the fascinating problems physicists and cosmologist are currently facing…additionally, it is refreshing to see that physicists are just like regular guys (and gals), the only difference being that they perhaps have the coolest job in the world….
Keep up the great great work!
Hi,
I’m z.king, and although I’ve posted a few comments, I mostly lurk. That’s because if I didn’t, I’d get banned like Lubos.
I have a Bachelors in math, and maybe someday I’ll be a mathematician, but probably not. And that’s a real shame, because with better credentials, I would be better equipped for smackdowns on Sean.
I read this blog because Sean is a big rockstar, and also because I have an inferiority complex about not getting a real degree in physics.
What I’d really like to do is attend one of Sean’s lectures so I could heckle him until the cops came and gave me a trespass warning.
Lastly, allow me to say, physicists are punks, and mathematicians rule.
Hi there. Colour me de-lurkified. I’m a student in Computer Science and Computer Engineering. I have no idea why I read this blug so often, as theoretical physics (much like material science) scares the shit out of me. That being said, your blog is insightful, interesting and well-written. Keep up the great work.
I came because you had posted one of my favourite Pynchon quotes:
“Gentlemen,” advises this ominous Shadow, “— you have fallen, willy-nilly, among a race who not only devour Astronomers as a matter of habitual Diet, but may also make of them vile miniature ‘Sandwiches,’ and then lay them upon a mahogany Sideboard whose Price they never knew, and then forget to eat them. Your only hope, in this room, is to impersonate so perfectly what they assume you to be, that instincts of Predation will be overcome by those of Boredom.”
And have stayed because it works for me–I’m not a scientist (I’m a land use planner) but I have read the Feyman Lectures on Physics.
I’m 99% done with my undergraduate degree in physics (all my physics classes are done). I’ve been reading for about six months now and I like the mix of topics here, especially because I don’t have the inclination to seriously study string theory any more than reading some of Brian Greene’s books. With this blog, I get some interesting news and none of the horrible mathematical tedium! Keep it up, everybody–this demi-layman really appreciates it.
I am a great fan of your blog, and I have left some comments before (and I have linked to it a lot of times!), so I’m not officially a lurker here. But my comments have been so few that I think I need to de-lurk.
So there!
I’m a non-scientist who came across physics (the cool kind, not the kind you learn in high school) too late in life to make it a career. But I did come across it, and now I’m hooked, so I read all I can, including your blog.
I’m also a total lurker, because if I did ever comment, it would mainly be to ask for explanations of the many things I don’t (and probably will never) understand.
Maybe I should comment, though, because where else can a sports producer go to discuss her excitement about the LHC?
Physics grad student (first year) at Berkeley—lurker since the Preposterous Universe days. JoAnne probably doesn’t remember me from the SLAC SULI program two summers ago, but I enjoyed her talk there! Ah, one day I will understand the hierarchy problem… but will the LHC have it solved by then?
I’m a lurker because I can’t always tell the difference between those explaining the meaning of the universe on a few onion peels and the “serious” physicists around here :-), in spite of having worked my way through all 3 volumes of Alonso-Finn’s Fundamental University Physics some odd 25 years ago as an undergraduate student. Alas, bad friends led me up the path of the dismal science, but I never lost my interest in physics (the real Queen of Sciences, whatever those math boys and girls say)!
Hi! I’m a physics masters student at the University of the Philippines trying to finish my thesis..and I lurk because i get to read about things that really interests me : gravity and dark energy (no my thesis is not about those things, we dont have g.r. or cosmology people in our university. im doing some semiclassical physics instead.)
Keep up the good work!
Hi – long-time listener, first-time caller.
I’m now working on bringing some nice new open access journals to cover all of physics, but have been reading the blog for about 2 years. Hugely enjoyable, but where do you find all the time?!
Chris Leonard
PhysMath Central
Long time reader, very seldom comment.
I read here for physics, cosmology etc.
Keep up the good work!
I’m an undergrad at the University of Chicago, and I’m a lurker. I love physics! I like blogs, too, and of physics blogs, I think yours is just right. It’s like the right bowl of porridge… not too hot, not too cold, not too fast, not too slow.
Hi Everyone!
I’m a physics PhD candidate who gets a kick out of seeing everyone else’s spin on things. I lurk about a couple of days a week looking for some interesting tidbits. Unlike other blogs, I appreciate that you guys(and girls) tend to be more open in your views. Even if you disagree with a theory, I have yet to see any “This theory is total crap solely because I want it to be” type comments (i.e. shooting down a concept without a solid logical basis for doing so). There are an alarming number of statements along those lines on other blogs(and not just about strings) from people I would otherwise consider to be first-rate scientists.
-Eric
Hello,
I’m a first year grad student in planetary science with a physics/astro background. A friend of mine from undergrad pointed me to this blog about a year ago. CV was the “gateway blog”; now I am thoroughly addicted to science blogs of all types.