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旧金山-AGU-二零零八

AGU 会议过去了一个多月了. 现补上游记. 这次会议行程安排很忙碌, 礼拜三是最忙碌的一天,由于要站在poster前, 错过了很多很好的Talk. 碰到了很多9707ers, USTCers, CIDER的朋友, 当然还有很多大牛. 吃饭基本上是在Chinatown吃的, 同学们在一起搓饭搓了好几次. 待续. 先干活去了. 接着写.......................................... 周一晚上, 9707ers去岭南小馆腐败, 酒足饭饱之余还照了相. 小倪家的闺女很可爱, 很乖. 周三晚上, 好像还去湖南人家腐败了一次. 周四早上, 几大帅哥靓女陪远道而来专门来看我们的YW一起去了渔人码头. 那天, 风很大, 也很冷, 坐上Cable Car穿梭在窄窄的道路, 爬过一个山坡, 来到了太平洋边上. 真是别有一番风味. 在码头逗留了一段时间, 也去看了这里最有名的一群海豹. 他们懒洋洋地躺着晒太阳, 丝毫不理我们这些人类Fans. 投了几个币用望远镜看海对面的景色 好像还合了不少影. 路过几个海边的礼品店, 还有卖多色海盐的地方, 据说, 这个多色海盐还有浪漫故事.回来还是做cable car, 路过Chinatown去吃了早茶. 很好吃. 周四晚上, 大家继续去Chinatown的湖南人家腐败. 嗯, 老了很多细节记不住了, 倒是几次吃饭还记忆犹新. 我是想写得抒情一点, 写实一点, 不流水账一点, 可是, 家奴文字的能力已经变得生疏了. 看来以后要多多更新博客. 好了, 给大家拜个年!

旧金山·二零零七

参加完Argonne(阿贡)国家实验室的一个Workshop之后,在芝加哥见到了来这里访问的堂兄。因为第二天要去旧金山开“万人大会”,只与堂兄在T.G.I Friday吃了一顿饭后就驱车回家了。据天气预报,芝加哥12月8日,晚上九点下雪。
 
一夜没有合眼,第二天早上五点开车去了机场,还了车。在飞机上,睡得半死,只记得快到Oakland的时候,从窗口眺望,看到一排排的风车。寻思着,在自己家门口也建一个风力发电站,实现儿时梦想。接着又睡着了,等我醒来的时候,飞机已经在陆地上了。San Francisco我又来了。
 
入住,check in,拿到胸牌,晚上很累,睡得像猪一样。
 
太多有意思的Talk和Poster了,接下来几天在Talk与Poster之间作战。经常有这样的感觉:这世界还有这么多人做类似的工作,虽然大家有竞争关系,但是竟然有像见到惺惺相惜的战友的感觉。周三上午,我的Poster,从早8点一直站到12点,讲到口干舌燥。有幸与不少是牛人的和还暂且不是牛人的同行们有过不少愉快的交谈。下午接近六点时,真正收poster,以为来自澳大利亚国立大学的牛人叫住我,说:“我已经找你找了好久了,你能给我讲一下吗?”。真是受宠若惊,赶紧把poster 铺在地上跟他讲了一通。后来知道他是在给每个poster 打分的。
 
一个晚上,科大9707八位同学一起去吃饭,其乐融融。本来想早点去占个位置,最后导致weifu差点走到太平洋,我在茫茫人海中找他。岭南小馆的饭菜的确不错哦,吃得很爽。happyliu因为有重要的事情缺席了,不过她还是在我们酒足饭饱之后,与我们在某个街头碰面了,好像还和了影。
 
周四,我就回去了,错过了很多好talk和poster,只因为第二天有一门考试。
 
 

AGU meeting

每年的九月总是最忙的,deadline还是deadline。不知道今年在旧金山能够看到很多同学。。。。

刚刚恢复

终于解放了,哈哈。回到家里,第一天竟然睡了11个小时,又回到了猪一样的生活。
今天早上去送一个朋友到机场,回来后又是蒙头大睡,醒来又是中午了。
 
 
 

又是AGU

时间过得真快呀,又是一年的AGU。我的博客也可能只有AGU的时候才能长几颗草。
今年定旅馆时,由于操作失误,定到了SF机场那里,离会场很远很远,看来得坐地铁打发时间了。Priceline还不让改,失策失策。

周四晚,9707留守北美的xdjm小酌一杯如何?

抓紧时间准备Presentation了......又是一个寒冷的长夜

东风破 苏轼


东风破 苏轼 

 

一盏离愁 孤单窗前自鬓头 

奄奄门后 人未走 

月圆寂寞 旧地重游 

夜半清醒泪 烛火空留 

一壶漂泊浪迹天涯难入喉 

君去后 酒暖思谁瘦 

水向东流 三春如梦向谁偷 

花开却错 谁家琵琶东风破 

岁月流离 不解时候 

仍记总角幼 

琴幽幽 人幽幽 

琵琶一曲东风破 

枫染红尘谁看透 

篱笆古道曾走 

荒烟漫草年头 

分飞后

Ludwig Boltzmann逝世一百周年纪念

一百年前的九月份,玻尔兹曼,这位伟大的物理学家在与他妻子和女儿在海滨度假的时候结束了自己富有创造力的生命。因为理论长期地不被承认和受到学术上对手的批评,使他承受很大的压力,最终由于精神抑郁而在旅馆上吊自杀。当时,他的妻子和女儿在游泳池游泳。他的离去刚好在他的理论被实验证明之前,很可惜的是,他无法知道,尽管他一直深信他的理论是正确的。

在此纪念一些这位伟大的物理学家,感谢他为我们带来热力学第二定律以及其它联系微观世界与宏观世界的理论。

A mathematician will recognize Cauchy, Gauss, Jacobi, or Helmholtz after reading a few pages, just as musicians recognize, from the first few bars, Mozart, Beethoven or Schubert.

 ~ Quoted in A Koestler, The Act of Creation

Born: February 20, 1844 in Vienna, Austria
Died: October 5, 1906 in Duino, Austria (now Italy)

Ludwig Boltzmann's father was a taxation official. Boltzmann was awarded a doctorate from the University of Vienna in 1866 for a thesis on the kinetic theory of gases supervised by Josef Stefan. After obtaining his doctorate, he became an assistant to his teacher Josef Stefan. 

Boltzmann taught at Graz, moved to Heidelberg and then to Berlin. In these places he studied under Bunsen, Kirchhoff and Helmholtz. 

In 1869 Boltzmann was appointed to a chair of theoretical physics at Graz. He held this post for four years then, in 1873, he accepted the chair of mathematics at Vienna. He did not stay very long in any place and after three years he was back in Graz, this time in the chair of experimental physics. 

Boltzmann, at least half jokingly, used to say that the reason he moved around so much was that he was born during the dying hours of a Mardi Gras ball. It was only half joking since he did feel that his nature made him subject to rapid swings between happiness and sadness. His personality certainly had a major impact on the direction that his career took and personal relationships, where he was always very soft-hearted, played a big part. He suffered from an alternation of depressed moods with elevated, expansive or irritable moods. Indeed his physical appearance, being short and stout with curly hair, seemed to fit his personality. His fiancée called him her "sweet fat darling". 

After another three years, in 1894, Boltzmann moved back to Vienna, this time to the chair of theoretical physics which became vacant on the death of his teacher Josef Stefan. However, the following year Ernst Mach was appointed to the chair of history and philosophy of science at Vienna. Boltzmann had many scientific opponents but, to Boltzmann, Mach was more than a scientific opponent as the two were on bad personal terms. 

In 1900, because of his dislike of working with Mach, Boltzmann moved to Leipzig but here he became a colleague of his strongest scientific opponent Wilhelm Ostwald. Despite their scientific differences Boltzmann and Ostwald were on good personal terms. Despite this, depressed by scientific arguments with Ostwald which are described below Boltzmann unsuccessfully attempted suicide during his time in Leipzig. 

In 1901 Mach retired from Vienna due to ill health, and because of this Boltzmann's reason for moving from Vienna had gone. In 1902 he returned to Vienna to his chair of theoretical physics which had not been filled in the intervening period. In addition to his teaching in mathematical physics, Boltzmann was given Mach's philosophy course to teach. His philosophy lectures quickly became famous with the audience soon being too large for the biggest lecture hall available. In fact because of the fame of these lectures Boltzmann was invited to the Palace of Franz Josef. 

Boltzmann's fame is based on his invention of statistical mechanics. This he did independently of Willard Gibbs. Their theories connected the properties and behaviour of atoms and molecules with the large scale properties and behaviour of the substances of which they were the building blocks. 

Boltzmann obtained the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution in 1871, namely the average energy of motion of a molecule is the same for each direction. He was one of the first to recognise the importance of Maxwell's electromagnetic theory. 

In 1884 the work of Josef Stefan was developed by Boltzmann who showed how Josef Stefan's empirical T4 law for black body radiation, formulated in 1879, could be derived from the principles of thermodynamics. 

Boltzmann worked on statistical mechanics using probability to describe how the properties of atoms determine the properties of matter. In particular his work relates to the Second Law of Thermodynamics which he derived from the principles of mechanics in the 1890s. 

The equations of Newtonian mechanics are reversible in time and Poincaré proved that if a mechanical system is in a given state it will return infinitely often to a state arbitrarily close to the given one. Zermelo deduced that the Second Law of Thermodynamics is impossible in a mechanical system. Boltzmann asserted that entropy increases almost always, rather than always. However he believed that Poincaré's result, although correct in theory, was in practice impossible to observe since the time before a system returns to near its original state was too long. 

Boltzmann's ideas were not accepted by many scientists. In 1895, at a scientific meeting in Lübeck, Wilhelm Ostwald presented a paper in which he stated:- 

The actual irreversibility of natural phenomena thus proves the existence of processes that cannot be described by mechanical equations, and with this the verdict on scientific materialism is settled. 

Sommerfeld, who was at the meeting, described the resulting battle between Ostwald and Boltzmann. Sommerfeld wrote:- 

 ... Boltzmann was seconded by Felix Klein. The battle between Boltzmann and Ostwald resembled the battle of the bull with the supple fighter. However, this time the bull was victorious ... . The arguments of Boltzmann carried the day. We, the young mathematicians of that time, were all on the side of Boltzmann... . 

Ostwald led the opposition to Boltzmann's ideas which were opposed by many European scientists, they misunderstood them, not fully grasping the statistical nature of his reasoning. However some, including Mach, thought the arguments were too violent, and this certainly appeared to be the case when Boltzmann attempted suicide while a colleague of Ostwald. 

In 1904 Boltzmann visited the World's Fair in St Louis, USA. He lectured on applied mathematics and then went on to visit Berkeley and Stanford. Unfortunately he failed to realise that the new discoveries concerning radiation that he learnt about on this visit were about to prove his theories correct. 

Boltzmann continued to defend his belief in atomic structure and in a 1905 publication Populäre Schriften he tried to explain how the physical world could be described by differential equations which represented the macroscopic view without representing the underlying atomic structure. :- 

May I be excused for saying with banality that the forest hides the trees for those who think that they disengage themselves from atomistics by the consideration of differential equations. 

Attacks on his work continued and he began to feel that his life's work was about to collapse despite his defence of his theories. Depressed and in bad health, Boltzmann committed suicide just before experiment verified his work. 

On holiday with his wife and daughter at the Bay of Duino near Trieste, he hanged himself while his wife and daughter were swimming. However the cause of his suicide may have been wrongly attributed to the lack of acceptance of his ideas. We will never know the real cause which may have been the result of mental illness causing his depression.

Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/%7Ehistory/Mathematicians/Boltzmann.html

References

Biography in Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New York 1970-1990). 
Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica. (WWW version) 

Books:
J Blackmore (ed.), Ludwig Boltzmann : his later life and philosophy, 1900-1906 (Dordrecht, 1995). 

E Broda, Ludwig Boltzmann: Mensch, Physiker, Philosoph (Berlin, 1955). 

E Broda and L Gray, Ludwig Boltzmann : man, physicist, philosopher (Woodbridge, 1983). 

C Jungnickel and R McCormmach, Intellectual Mastery of Nature, 2 Volumes (Chicago, 1986). 

Articles:
Boltzmann, Ludwig, 1844-1906, Physics today 45 (1992), 44-51. 

D Flamm, Ludwig Boltzmann and his influence on science, Stud. Hist. Philos. Sci. 14 (1983), 255-278. 


好久没更新了

看了看,已经差不多一年的时间没有更新了,时间过得真快啊。
好久没有上来讲讲,也不知道讲啥。

快中秋了,说句大家中秋节快乐!

AGU 聚会 (续)

最近记性不好, 在忘记这些美好回忆之前,还是要记下这些点点滴滴把。

我的poster 在星期三, 因此前两天都在听报告。

第一天,来到了旅馆, 很久没有那种在大学宿舍里的感觉,我与Zhangzhu, Huff 竟然要同居一室,虽然很累,但是还是卧谈了很久。这里需要插播一下一件失而复得的故事。 到Thai stick 吃过饭之后,回到宿舍,翻看钱包竟然发现我的ICard 不见了,就是UIUC的University ID。想想可能是刚才结账的时候丢的。于是拉上穿着拖鞋的Zhangzhu 又去了Thai Stick. 结果是令人失望的,那里没有我的ICard. 悻然地往回走, 那个时候已经差不多10点了,大街上行人不多,但是有几个黑人站在路口徘徊, 人生地不熟的,还是有些害怕。寻思着用钱包的场景, 倒数第二次用的时候是付shuttle的钱。 回到旅馆门口,下意识地往刚才下车的地方看看,现在已经park了一辆车。 突然发现一个闪闪发光的东西,心里一阵激动, 这就是。。。。,真的是也。 那种感觉真的是好的!这就是失而复得的故事。 结论:什么东西失去才会去珍惜, 失而复得,会更加珍惜。

星期一,听完上午的报告之后,在大厅里面碰到了Junhua和Xiaoyan, 故友重逢, 真的很开心。感觉大家都变pp 或者 帅了。Zhangzhu 被夸变瘦了, 而我变胖了。大家初步约好了聚会时间。下午,碰到了Risheng和他爱人, 很幸福的一对。赫赫

星期二,久违的 fufu来了,一点都没变,还是那么瘦。他也要加入我们的"宿舍"。

星期三,我的poster, 在poster前面守了一个上午,来来去去不少人看了poster也听了我的presentation. 下午还是照例去听报告,了解一下同行们在最什么还是有好处的。晚上我们一行人去湖南人家吃饭,也合了个影。大家聊了很多,数了数在美国的同学也有十几个人了。希望来年有个更大的聚会。

星期四, 照样听报告,看poster。Junhua作了AGU的第一个报告,做的很好。俺虽然听不懂,但还是去捧场了,照了一些照片,可惜很模糊。之后,看她跟人讨论问题, 就去吃饭了。

星期五, 下午与Zhangzhu 与 Fufu 去愚人码头等附近地区玩了一下,没到金门大桥, 最后到了一个沙滩旁边坐下,任凭海风吹。喜欢这种感觉。静静的, 只听到海浪拍打海岸, 海鸥轻快地划出弧线。那里可以看到金门大桥,很壮观。我们谈风月谈理想。

星期六, 打道回府. Champaign雪下得很大,然后一行人去Chinatown Buffet 腐败。


AGU, 旧金山, 同学聚会, 唐人街

先占个位置, 以免又偷懒不更新博客, 明天考试过后再来罗嗦几句.
----开始罗嗦了!
话说公元二零零五年的AGU Fall meeting, 江湖上早有传闻(传闻来源于 flyingbird的博客: http://flyingbird99.yculblog.com/ )九七级合肥南七科大有大约6位豪杰将在旧金山相会, 与武林同行交换和切磋研究心得.

十二月四日, BB所在的Champaign-Urbana白雪皑皑. 一番腾云驾雾之后, 到了一个叫Dallas的地方, 在这里竟然与同窗张柱偶遇. 张柱消瘦了许多, 或许是最近练功太累了. 同窗异地重逢甚是欢喜. 飞机又载着我们一行几人前往目的地--旧金山. 为了迎接即将到来的会议而且我们几个人刚好坐在一排, 我们切磋牌技热身. 时间过得飞快, 几副牌的功夫, 飞机已经到了目的地. 此时已经是傍晚时分.

刚到目的地, 发现许多貌似同仁的人群, 他们背着修炼正果-poster, 也如我们一样, 匆匆赶往 Hotel. 此时旧金山的天空中已经浸染了大会前紧张的气氛. 匆匆入住Hotel之后, 已是饥肠辘辘. 与Huff, 张柱一起到hotel附近的Thai Stick旅馆吃饭. 旅馆的一位服务生很是漂亮, 我与Huff已无心欣赏(原因不详), 但张柱的确很感兴趣, 可惜有缘相逢, 无缘相识. 当我们在周五再次去的时候, 那位服务生已不在,Zhu感觉饭菜也索然无味了.

(该吃饭了, 下回再分解)


螃蟹

今天去东方店买东西, 竟然发现有螃蟹. 难得. 赶紧挑了几只活蹦乱跳的, 不知道是肥还是瘦. 还问了旁边的一位大姐如何挑螃蟹.

大约1年多没有吃螃蟹了, 甚是想念. 回去用清水加盐加醋给螃蟹消消毒, 然后想起今晚要去学车, 于是想着等我回来再杀, lp估计不敢.

回到学校, 教练还没到, 于是给lp打了电话问, 该如何处置螃蟹, 清蒸还是煮. lp选择煮. 我说等我回去把螃蟹杀掉就煮. 谁料到lp已经把螃蟹切掉了, 还不好意思地说, 她怎么这么残忍, 活生生地把螃蟹切成两半. 我很惊讶, 看来不能小看小女生.

前几天给家里打了很多电话, 知道家里人都好, 也就放心了.


Bless my family

昨天打电话才知道最近家里发生了一些事情, 昨晚第三次在电话里听到我妈哭得说不出话来. 第一次是在我快要离开中国时, 第二次是在我过年时与我妈视频聊天时. 但是这次, 增加了我心理上的不安. 昨晚, 一夜无眠. 我跟我妈说我刚跟我三姐打过电话, 我妈还是忍不住跟我讲了一些事情. 以前都没有跟我说过, 我以为我三姐生了宝宝之后会很幸福. 昨晚跟三姐打电话时, 跟她讲了一下最近的情况, 以及要买车的事情. 从三姐口中还得知我爸最近正在拔牙, 要戴满口的假牙; 我妈要做一个小手术, 眼睛的. 她由于跟我年龄最接近, 在兄弟姐妹中跟我比较亲, 但是我真的不知道她在承受这样的苦, 她在电话中也没有透露这一点. 最近她在QQ中给我留言, 我也因为很忙和时差关系, 没有怎么跟她聊. 她说她的小宝宝很可爱, 现在已经会走路了, 还会叫奶奶, 但是还不会叫爷爷. 不知道会不会叫舅舅. 还有我哥的宝宝, 都是在我来美之后不久出生的, 我都没有见过. 我姐说要发一些照片给我, 还有小宝宝刚刚学会走路的录像.
 
今日重阳, 登高望回家的路. 愿上天祝我的家人平平安安!
 

安全第一, bless 受伤的朋友

昨晚去看望受伤的朋友, 他的头部受伤, 下巴骨折, 现在不能张嘴. 所以我买了一些东西, 黑芝麻糊, 荔枝, 
给他好好补补, 留了这么多血, 该好好修养. 医生叫他休息大概100天左右.

事情大概是这样的:

他上星期四晚 11 点多于 Clark & Fifth (near Far East) 被人打晕,
抢走身上所有东西。 几十分钟后才醒过来报警。

他家就住我家西边两个block, 想不到这里也这么不安全, 以后晚上十一二点回去的时候该叫safe ride 服务了.

各位在美国的兄弟姐妹要多多注意安全啊!

九·一八

勿忘国耻! 为中华之崛起而读书! 向抗日的英雄们致敬, 今日的太平盛世是用您们的鲜血换来的.
 
中秋节, 举家团圆的日子, 想起家乡的两鬓白发的父母, 哥哥姐姐, 还有可爱的外甥, 侄子们. 喝着从家乡带来的茶, 举杯望明月!
 
 
 
 

Canoe trip

上周末, 系里组织field trip, 其中最吸引人的就是Canoe Trip, 还从来没有划过.
 
早上八点出发, 先到一个UI Geology的校友家里, 在那里我看到了 cummingbird, 第一次看到, 感觉象蜜蜂, 只是嘴巴尖一些, 个头大一些. 听说它的翅膀拍击速度世界第一.
 
然后到了一个 公园, 地貌保留地, 听说经常有童子军过来camping.
 
吃过午饭, 一阵shower过后, 天气格外地好, 太阳马上把路面晒干了. 背上独木舟, 直奔小溪.
 
原以为这是很简单的事情, 想不到独木舟很难控制, 两个人不协调就原地打转. 后来终于掌握了一些窍门. 有些地方太浅了, 只能托着canoe步行. 中途停下来看了有些沉积地层.
 
折腾了3个小时, 快上岸的时候经过一个大湖. 由于没有经验, 把坐在我后面的 David 弄到了湖里. 我先上岸的, 想不到我一拉Canoe, Canoe就翻了. David得到了一次免费的Shower. 可是他不是第一个, 后面陆陆续续有两人功亏一篑, 也掉进了河里.
 
最不幸的是我忘记了带相机.
 
没有照片.
 
手机收到了, 不过在我的office竟然一格信号都没有. 气人.
 
 

从华盛顿DC归来

很累, 在卡内基研究所(CIW)做了两天的通宵实验. 去了白宫及附近看了看, 很不错. 照了一些照片, 其中风景不错, 但是人嘛, 两个通宵之后, 可以想象, 破坏了美丽的风景.


佛曰: 善哉

最近忙着搬家, 历经千辛万苦, 终于找到了搬家空挡期间的临时住房.
过一个星期要去DC去做实验, 一个星期左右.
明天地毯公司过来洗地毯, landlord需要专业洗地毯公司的receipt,要不狂扣钱, 没有办法, 大出血!
今天晚上几个朋友帮我一起搬东西, 计划好, 搬完东西之后, 请他们吃顿饭! 已经很久没有出去奢侈了!
流水帐记录完毕!
佛曰: 善哉!

Google地图: 我家在江边

我家在江边, Google的卫星地图太强了.
 
现在才真正仔细地看到我家原来三面都是山, 南面是瓯江.
 
小时候的我, 经常会问大人山的那一边是什么? 江的那一边是什么?
 
得到的回答是, 山的那边还是山, 江的那边是海. 于是我对远山和大海充满了憧憬!
 

风吹树梢动

但远处的树梢却没有动,怎么会有风? 时有风吹树梢动,风动乎,树动乎, 非风动,非树动,乃仗剑者心动!

人在学海漂泊, 经常遇到如此心境. 在做实验前, 经常会预想一些结果, 但有时结果难免事与愿违. 然则, 此时, 我, 仗剑者, 会心动, 只要结果与预想有些吻合, 就欣喜地对自己说: 我看到风动了, 因为树动了. 昨日的昨日, 真是如此, 看到曲线有些不连续, 就断定相变发生, 孰知仔细分析过后, 发现那时正在减压.

阿弥陀佛, 只能再设计一个实验了.

老照片

说起老照片, 我有一张历史最悠久的老照片, 地点是在我家后面的猫儿山上, 我当时大概4-6岁.
 
那个时候还不知道相机是何物, 只知道大人们领着我去玩很高兴. 照片是我姐夫(可能那个时候他们还没有结婚)排的, 他是摄影高手.
 
记忆中模糊的情景是这样:
 
我与姐姐, 姐夫来到了我家北面的小山上, 一堆乱石中有一个石头特别显眼. 他们在那里照相的时候, 我就跑到那个"大"石头旁, 费了九牛二虎之力爬到了那个比我个头高许多的石头上, 学着电视里人骑马的样子,嘴里叫着 "驾驾" . 于是我姐夫抓拍了我当时的情形.
 
之后, 很久, 我上初中时, 到姐夫家串门, 他们拿出照片给我看, 说了当时的情形. 
 
这是我最早的照片了吧. 再早的可能就没有了.
 
再次感叹, 数码时候为何不早点 到来!