Simple Country Physicist

OK. Having managed to survive the first real morning of Daylight Savings Time, I am awake enough to take intellectual nourishment and even regurgitate some acerbic commentary.

I see that the Great State of New Mexico will vote tomorrow on a resolution to declare Pluto a planet.[Link] The resolution was reintroduced by Joni Marie Gutierrez of Dona Ana County. AS memory serves Dona Ana County contains Dona Ana pass and the cities of Los Cruces and Mesilla, both excellent examples of New Mexico civilization. The resolution also calls for March 13, the birthday anniversary of Percival Lowell, to be Pluto Planet Day in New Mexico. A boo yah for New Mexico if they pass the resolution. Now I wonder is Ms. Gutierrez is interested in standing for President? She would certainly be a better choice than any of the other democrats I have heard about.

The Yankee government Fish and Wildlife Service has elaborated on their guidance to employees that there are no polar bears.[Link] The reportage seems to be saying that the Yankee government has told their nerds who are attending conferences on matters climate related not to discuss anything not in compliance with Yankee government policy. This is a fairly common Yankee government knee jerk reasoning that anyone with a graduate degree in science is unable to understand political reality, whereas any political appointee with a degree in anything from an Ivy League shul is. One hopes this will not turn into the same debacle that we had last year over administration appointees censoring technical manuscripts, especially when it emerged the appointee in question had failed in attempts to obtain a liberal arts baccalaureate.

As I say, this is a fairly standard Yankee government practice. In my day, three of the prerequisites to attending any nerd conference, unless sponsored by the Yankee government itself, were to attend cautionary briefings on (a) not talking to foreigners – security concerns, (b) not talking to the media – policy concerns – a list of what could not be talked about specifically was always provided and repeated dronishly, and (c) not talking about what you did with anyone. No wonder so many young people just went sightseeing and carousing, leaving the old flatulences to have corner conversations with long standing colleagues. Such is the persisting Yankee government suppression of science.

More interestingly, there is a report of scientists not using the facilities of Web 2.0.[Link] The reportage is English and hence valuable for a differing viewpoint. The striking but unreported thing is that much of what is talked about as available deals with activities that are not traditionally performed by scientists but by librarians. In particular, I noted cataloging, citations, and cross referencing. While the reporter did note that there was a critical mass effect here,impeded by current funding practices, such are only partly applicable. After all, scientists were some of the first users of the internet, but in ways extending their existing practices. So part of the problem appears to be what is commonly called Not Invented Here or Cultural (their term, not mine) Impedance Mismatch. Maybe it the Web 2.0 practices were closer to what scientists want to do? And maybe if all the librarians weren’t looking for other work?