My friend Scott Aaronson tells me that this is the best popularization of QFT he has read. That endorsement is more than good enough for me.

I've literally cleared my calendar for this. Sean's first volume was marvelous 3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2…

Born #OTD 1918: Richard Feynman, probably the most original American-born theoretical physicist of the postwar generation. Feynman made major contributions to quantum electrodynamics, superfluidity and the theory of weak interactions, along with several minor ones.

Feynman's moment of epiphany about the Lagrangian in QM as recounted in his Nobel lecture. 'You Americans are always trying to find out how something can be used. That's a good way to discover things.' nobelprize.org/prizes/physics…

Almost the perfect combination of book smarts and street smarts. From string theory to trading to education to philanthropic big science, Simons's life cut a huge arc. RIP.

wsj.com/arts-culture/b…

One of many beautiful pieces of writing in 'Chaos'.

[History of Physics]

How the unlikely friendship of Pauli and Jung led to the discovery of CPT symmetry

Arthur I. Miller

nature.com/articles/s4225…

Is there a good history of the DoD?

I am writing a post on the Middle East conflict for 3 Quarks Daily as seen through the lens of Errol Morris and Robert McNamara's Fog of War'. Given the topic I expect it to make both sides unhappy.

Proselytizing Dick's book in a local coffee shop. The barista got the AI analogy right and said he would order a copy.

Good analogy.

The points Macron makes in this interview came up in several conversations I’ve had over the last few months - when the same points are made by different knowledgable people, I listen. The consensus appears to be that the chance of NATO being drawn into conflict in Europe with…

8.V

On this day in 1794, the French chemist Lavoisier was tried by a revolutionary tribunal and executed by guillotine. His friend Lagrange commented:

'It took only a moment to cause this head to fall and a hundred years will not suffice to produce its like.'

Oppenheimer in a letter to Eleanor Roosevelt in 1950.

A rather novel and striking application of the definitions of hardware and software.

Always striking.

'A great company is not conquered from without until it dies from within.' - Will Durant with a slight rephrasing