Later today I hop in an airplane to fly to the antipodes, or at least to Australia. (The actual antipodes would be in the middle of an ocean.) Looking forward to it, as this will mean I’ve visited every non-Antarctic continent at least once.
But the reason I’m blogging about it is because I’ll be giving some public talks, and it would be great if any local CV readers dropped by to say hi. I’ll be hitting three different cities:
With all these public talks in a row, you would almost think I’m touring in support of some sort of book. That was part of the original idea, but now the book won’t be officially released until January 7. So instead I’ll just be talking in support of … Science! And trying to stay clear of dangerous creatures.
p.s. Wow, I almost did an incredibly boneheaded thing by showing up at the airport without a visa. Why in the world do you need a visa to go from the USA to Australia? I thought it was like a southern version of Canada. Fortunately, when you check in online you get “reminded” that a visa is required; even more fortunately, there is an online instant-visa service that seems to work. This is why I’m a theoretical physicist and not put in charge of anything important.
Low 30s – tempting beach weather!
Perhaps you’ve forgotten that we backwards Americans still use Fahrenheit 🙂 Being scientists might make us familiar with meters and kilograms, but of course Kelvin is the temperature scale (which makes low 30s sound even less tempting).
Of course, since Sean is a theorist perhaps he measures temperature in eV, in which case low 30s would vaporize him and ionize the atoms.
Hi Sean,
I’ll be coming to your talk at Sydney University, looking forward to it.
Cheers, Paul.
I’d be interested to hear about the response to your talk from people with a real grasp of the technical issues. In the US, working on something like the arrow of time is considered something for girly-men. In the UK, where [happy land!] Feynmanitis has never been endemic, it’s quite acceptable. Let’s hope that the Australians follow the latter example.
Hello, I’m taking the liberty of responding to a post about your views on cosmology (copied from my comment on 3QD)
My explanation for why distant type 1A supernovae appear to be moving faster than they should be: maybe, instead of one Big Bang there were a series of Big Bangs. If the type 1A supernovae were the ejecta from a more powerful Big Bang than the one we came from, or from a Big Bang that originated from a nucleus that was itself an ejectum from an earlier Big Bang, you’d expect them to be travelling faster relative to us.
Anyone?
I was in Melbourne in 1995 for a conference on gravitational lenses. Near the university,
there are MANY restaurants, almost all good, almost all cheap, and a huge variety of food.
Also, keep in mind that it is considered IMPOLITE in Australia to tip, especially at restaurants.
Can you find out why the beer is called Two Dogs?
Hi Sean,
Talk was great and it was nice meeting you.
My wife did something even worse than going to the airport w/o a visa. In 1996, she got on an airplane in Chicago on Saturday, for a talk in Australia scheduled for Monday or Tuesday. She had to change planes in LA, and when she tried to check in, in LA on Saturday night, she learned she needed a visa. Because the airline would have had to fly her home for free if she was not allowed in the country, they wouldn’t let her check in or board.. She called home kind of frantic. Fortunately, her host in Oz was well connected with the Foreign Ministry, and after some back and forth, he found someone in the ministry on Sunday who called Qantas and assured them that she would have a visa when she landed. She got on the flight Sunday night and gave the talk, I think a day late; but it was a bit exciting, and she had to spend the night with a friend in LA while this was sorted out.
Whoo! Welcome to the Land of Oz!
Will be at the Melbourne lecture, see you there!
Yep,
You need a Visa because USA slapped one on us, we even need to get the VISA before we leave to USA now. So I’m happy that USA people need to get a VISA since it’s payback for what USA did to Australian travellers ;)))