April 6, 2006

April 3, 2006

Carlo De Marzo Obituary

He passed away back in September, but his obituary just appeared in the CERN Courier. He was involved with MACRO, Antares, PAMELA, and NEMO.

Posted by duver001 at 12:30 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

February 13, 2006

FYI: Marty Israel

From Jason Link:

"I just got off the phone with Bob [Binns] about Marty Israel. He was administering a test to his class when he experienced severe chest pains. He went down to the main office to have an ambulance bring him to Barnes Hospital. It appears he suffered a heart attack, but due in part to his quick response in getting to the hospital, the doctors believe he is going to be fine. He is now in the intensive care cardiac ward and will probably remain there for a few days before transferring to another room in the hospital for some more surveillance."

From Bob Binns:

"Many of you know that Marty had a heart attack yesterday. He was in class around 1:15 pm when he experienced severe chest pains. An ambulance was called and he was rushed to Barnes Hospital and his friend, Sandor Kovacs, who is the head of cardiology, got him treatment very quickly. He had blockage of an artery and two stints were placed in the artery. I saw him around 3:45pm after the procedure. He was conscious and was concerned about a talk that he was supposed to give to boy scouts last night. Sandor told me that the prognosis was very good for recovery. There was some damage to the heart muscle but it was not extensive. I understand from Cliff Will that Marty experienced some additional heart pains last night, but I do not know the significance of that. As of last night the expectation was that he would be in intensive care for 1-2 days and then move to another floor for another 1-2 days. I will keep you informed as I know more."

Again from Bob, refering to the night of 2/13:
"Marty had a rough night last night with chest pains during at least part of the time. This morning they did another heart catheterization procedure to see if there were additional problems. They did not see any new problems. I think that Marty was encouraged. Margaret flew back from San Diego and arrived after midnight last night. Margaret and Elisa were with him when I left the hospital. I relayed to him your many thoughts of concern, prayers, and best wishes and he appreciated them all."

From Bob Binns again, on the 15th:
"Marty called a few minutes ago and told me that he had not had any additional chest pains since yesterday morning. Furthermore, yesterday (it must have been in the afternoon or evening) his doctor released him from ICU. He is still in the ICU, but only because there is not yet a bed available in what I think is a Cardiac care unit at Barnes. He was very upbeat and sounded good."

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February 6, 2006

Meet the censor at NASA HQ

As mentioned in the popular news coverage, NASA public affairs officer George Deutsch sent out a memo insisting that the word "theory" be included with every mention of the Big Bang.

His memo reads:

"The Big Bang is "not proven fact; it is opinion," Mr. Deutsch wrote, adding, "It is not NASA's place, nor should it be to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator." "This is more than a science issue, it is a religious issue. And I would hate to think that young people would only be getting one-half of this debate from NASA. That would mean we had failed to properly educate the very people who rely on us for factual information the most."

Wow! Read what else Mr. Deutsch has to say here on salon's blogs. So, we have a 24 year old journalism student from Texas A&M censoring NASA scientists. What qualifications does Deutsch have? He appears to have been an intern in the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign.

Posted by duver001 at 11:37 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 25, 2006

Code management systems

There comes a time in every experiment in which you need a code software repository. There will be people fiddling with the Monte Carlo in California, and the calibration and pedestal subtraction in Illinois. What you need is a modern, easy-to-use, and easy-to-manage CMS. This article on how to choose an open source CMS, I found to be useful. Granted, I'm not a CMS expert though.

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January 20, 2006

Readership

After finding out that there is some readership out there, I now solemnly promise that I will update this more often! Thanks much!

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August 2, 2005

This will be known as the wet ICRC

Drove up from Bombay to Pune this morning. The road had quite a bit of damage from the rains. Met a few of my colleagues up here. Lots more are sending emails wondering about conditions here in India. Not too bad I have to say.

Posted by duver001 at 4:32 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 6, 2005

New DuVernois Blog on Comsic Ray Physics

Hello,

Although I have a general-interest blog that sometimes covers physics issues, including cosmic rays, I would like to start this one up specific to cosmic-ray physics and astrophysics. This is my area of research, though I will try to keep the blog fairly non-technical, or at least dual-use.

Cheers,
Mike DuVernois

Posted by duver001 at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)