meteors, prime ministers, neutrinos, filmvisningar

We had a pretty good Leonids viewing here in Berkeley. I had planned to just go up to the roof, stick my down sleeping bag in the rooftop hammock, from which the sky fills one's field of view entirely, but it soon became clear that many housemembers were also interested in meteor-watching. We set out on a trail that begins pretty much right behind our house, climbing up through the eucalyptus behind Clark-Kerr Campus, up into the Berkeley Hills. The whole city was awash with meteor-viewers; we directed a few confused frosh who were "looking for the meteor shower," and when a good meteor went by, a coordinated "OOOOH, AHHH" could be heard to rise from all directions. This was very amusing. Set down some blankets in the fields next to LBL, had a tremendous view of the whole Golden Gate, the city lights of SF and Oakland and the Bay Bridge to the west, and a good view of the sky, too. Saw a few really impressive meteors, and a smattering of lesser ones. Reminded me of climbing Mt. Sinai during the Perseids. Returned home 04:00.

Tonight just heard Ehud Barak (former prime minister of Israel, of camp david fame) speak at Zellerbach. Quite a good talk, and some hard, direct questions. Unfortunately it's not his party in power there... I'm planning to type up report on this talk, although there's half a chance I won't get around to it.

Also attended this year's Emilio Segrè lecture today, given by Masatoshi Koshiba, winner of 2002 nobel prize in physics for the KamiokaNDE neutrino experiments. I was pleased to understand the talk pretty well, having a) worked on the AMANDA neutrino detector, b) taken particle physics, and c) given a talk on supernova neutrino astronomy. He ended with an open challenge which I thought was pretty cool.

All in all a good day in Berkeley.

Tomorrow I am having a `filmvisning' of the Danish film Italian for Beginners here in the house for my Scandinavian language (100A) and literature (R5B) classes and some invited friends... and of course the housemates. I think a lot of people will be coming, so it should be fun. I'll try to make glögg and maybe even norwegian waffles. If it goes well I am thinking of establishing a regular film series. Then on thursday apparently I have been chosen to represent Sweden at a ``study abroad dinner'' at Clark-Kerr Campus where I will head a table of individuals interested in going to that country. Exciting.

daily cal column?

So, it's that time of the year again: the Daily Californian is looking for columnists. I've long thought it would be cool to be a columnist (although actually I suspect my inclination is actually towards journalism, not, eh, columnism) and several of my friends are quite supportive of the idea. So, I open up the floor for you to opine upon the query: if you had a column, what would you do with it?