the grand challenge

Classes seem to be getting off to a rather slow start... I tagged along to "intro to plasma physics" today, though, and found it quite thrilling. There seems to be only one person actually in the course, and something like four of us hangers-on.

"As I hope all of you know already, there are four states of matter, the fourth being plasma. After all, 99% of the [observed] matter in the universe is in the plasma state."

And thereby my upstart sixth-grade complaint that "no, there are more than three states..." was vindicated. But now there are at least five, counting Bose-Einstein Condensate. Anyway...

"... and that is the grand challenge of plasma physics: nuclear fusion. This will be the main thrust of this course."

The instructor scrawled on the blackboard:

D⁺ + T⁺ → He⁺⁺ + n + 17.6 MeV

"...the most basic fusion reaction... and it clearly works."

welcome to Starfleet Academy.

"Switzerland and Everything After" — Bratislava, Slovakia

On Sunday, August 31, 2003, I packed up the last of my things -- I was pretty much living in a 'Citroën Berlingo' at this point in time, at CERN on the Swiss/French border -- and got on the bus. I took the 18-hour all-night bus from Geneva, through Lichtenstein and Austria, to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. I arrived there in the morning, bought a telephone card, and called Braño.

Bratislava has a castle on a hill, on the banks of the Danube river:

The capitol building:

The National Opera house:

The first night in Slovakia, Brano took me to a "press conference" that turned out to be an all-night party sponsored by MTV, an Israeli sports apparel company called Kenvelo, the Orange mobile telephone operator, and several other companies. Brano works for a local radio station as a radio personality / entertainment editor.

Brano took an interview for the radio:

Everybody who's anybody in Slovakia drinks the Mojito. MTV bought us many.

Various Bratislava scenes:

Braño on his way to work at FUN Radio:

Just in case you need a map—here's the journey from Geneva to Bratislava:

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