Random Thoughts

Board games, where you play on an actual board, were once common in every household. Games have a long history, thousands of years, but board games took off in diversity in the 20th century, thanks to "Monopoly" and then others. It's impossible to predict the future so they may never again reach the peak popularity they once had, or they may stage a resurgence as young people want to take a break from an increasingly digital society. They may even become bigger than ever. I never once played Texas Hold 'em as a young guy in Pennsylvania but in the 2000s it took off nationwide and has now…

Fox News Cameron Russell:http://lynnesoraya.sharedby.co/share/Bqe1ly

Though the presence of Russian influence in social media during the 2016 election was hyped unrealistically (more damaging was their funding of activism against U.S. food and energy, designed to help them compete in Europe) the Federal Election Commission is perceived as being lax in digital advertising. Because they gave exemptions to both Facebook and Google. A new paper shows how they were able to avoid disclosing who paid for advertisements related to the election. The research team analyzed digitized versions of primary-source documents on the Federal Election Commission's…

In synergy with the third season of the hit Netflix series "Stranger Things", Burger King is selling upside-down Whoppers starting today, retro 1980s packaging included. If you are not familiar with the show, and without too many spoilers, "Stranger Things" is a science fiction-horror show revolving around teens in the 1980s. If you are not familiar with Burger King, I suppose it's simple enough to say they sell hamburgers. And want to catch up to rival McDonald's.  Retro is big, the 1980s are to 2019 what the pre-hippie 1960s were to 1974, if you are old enough for that to make any…

RIP to Professor Murray Gell-Mann, who passed away last week and was famed (including a Nobel prize) for quark theory.  I never met him, but if you spent time at Caltech you probably did. He was not like Einstein, I am told, he was approachable if you were a young scientist, but you had to know what you were talking about.  A few years ago I taught a class there, invited by my friend the best-selling author and science journalist Greg Critser, who was an instructor for science journalism at the school. He had previously agreed to be on an AAAS panel I was moderating in San Francisco…

Should you ever get invited to a party at my house in Padova, you will discover something that I otherwise do not publicize much - I am an avid mineral collector. I started as a child, fascinated by the colours and shapes that those shiny crystals could take - a rare instance of Nature betraying its inner secrets, for those shapes, easy to make out by sight or touch, faithfully reproduce the organization of their atomic lattice. I never had a real chance to go dig out specimens myself, or maybe I never really went for it, as I do not fancy the hard digging in unhospitable places such as…

Today we are between what was supposed the be the day Britain left the EU, and Mothering Sunday, more popularly known as Mothers’ Day. How how to link those two? Well, until recently I used to be a regular at a coffee shop which was also visited by adults with learning difficulties accompanied by their carers, most of whom were African ladies. From which a thought arose in my mind. When something goes wrong, one often sees a government official or company spokesperson trying to put their gloss on the situation. They were frequently finish their explanation with the phrase “lessons have…

The Laura and John Arnold Foundation was created by a hedge fund magnate to devote some of their Wall Street wealth to education reform, public pension reform, criminal justice reform, dietary policy, and improving reproducibility in science.  Those are all positive things, so why last year did they also give money to one of the most corrupt, hate-filled, lying, mercenary organizations in America? U.S. Right To Know is an industry front group that exists to attack scientists and undermine public confidence in food and medicine for their donors/clients, who unfailingly sell "alternatives…

If you are in a hurry, I will save you some time. Do not walk, fly at 20,000 MPH to your nearest theater or Fandango or however you get IMAX tickets and see "Apollo 11." I want to be the first to congratulate Todd Douglas Miller on his 2020 Academy Award, because unless someone pumps out a documentary about a minority transgender person with their heart on the outside who escapes North Korea and wins the Olympics, this is going to win. And for good reason. It looks glorious, it feels glorious, it hearkens back to a time when NASA was bold and not a job works program. As a kid who lived a…

As the regulars here already know, I am an employee of the INFN. This is the "Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare", which translates as "National institute for nuclear physics", a slight misnomer of historical origin, as the institute today actually centers its activities on SUB-nuclear physics - i.e. study of elementary particles (but nuclei are still one of the targets!).  The INFN has 20 sections around Italy, and four main laboratories. The "sections" coexist with physics departments of Universities. So, for instance, my office is in the Physics and Astronomy department of the…