No response till the last day!

Please do write a comment if you'd like to attend and whether you'd like to discuss a particular topic or just want the first one to be social, suitability of time and place, etc.

The location should be an address, so it can be displayed on the map.

"All right," you say, "that just seems weird." You pause. "So it's probably something quantum."

Indeed it is.

Don't oriented oscillating E,B fields explain this adequately at the macroscopic level? If you orient a polarizer at an angle theta to the orientation of the E field of the electromagnetic wave (i.e. light), the field gets projected as Ecos(theta) (the component perpendicular to the polarizer gets absorbed) and so the intensity goes as E^2cos^2(theta). That obeys the same mathematics without invoking the quantum magic wand.

I haven't seen meditative practices described much here and I've known first hand how they can help with this level of introspection. So, for those who might wish to try, I'll briefly describe the plain instruction given to zen students. If you want to read in a bit more detail, the thin book "zen in plain English" is an excellent intro.

Sit in a quiet place, with lights dimmed, facing a wall, with your back straight (ex: use a cushion for lower back support). Half-close your eye lids. Adjust your breathing by taking a few deep breaths and then fall back to natural effortless breathing. Count your exhalations. Inhale-1-inhale-2-inhale-3...10 and cycle back to 1. If you lose count in the middle (yes you will) just start again at 1. Try this for at least 5mins. You can go up to 30 mins. That's all!

You can stop reading and try it.

When I began (don't laugh) I barely could count to 3. Here's how it went -

Inhale-1-inhale-2 ... what am I doing? What is this supposed to get me? Never stared at a wall before. Oh drats, back to 1.

Inhale-1-inhale-2... the plaster on the wall looks like a gorgon's face ... wonder what the others are thinking about .... Where was I? .. ok focus. 1..

Inhale-1-inhale-2... Damn is this what the famous sages did day in and day out? ... Oh shit lost it again. Am I that incapable of focusing? .. Ok back to 1

Inhale-1-inhale-2... Wait did I just chastise myself for something so trivial as counting my breath? .. (sigh) back to 1.

(Slowly the noise comes down and you get more real noise.)

Inhale-1-inhale-2 ... should I be taking deep breaths? Was the previous one long enough? ... Ok ok just sit and breathe ... Back to 1 ...

..... and so it goes. Just try it. The "back to 1" breakpoint works like a lens into your thought stream.

PS: apologies for the rough post. Just thought of writing this while on the bus.

Oh, what fun! I get to correct the new guy that everyone admires :)

Do not take the suggestion in parent because it would take time away from the time-tested way of testing one's competence with technical material: doing calculations and proving theorems. About half of the work that goes into the production of a technical textbook should go into the creation of exercises that ask the reader to prove theorems and do calculations. There is in fact a well-regarded series of textbook supplements called Schaum's Outlines that are nothing but exercises.

Although the most effective learners will tend to spend a lot of their learning time proving theorems and doing calculations of their own choosing, it is important for the student of a technical subject to own textbooks with lots of exercises created by masters of the craft because (especially in the beginning) the student will sometimes lack the knowledge and (vitally) the motivation (specifically, the curiosity) required to choose the theorems and calculations from the space of all possible theorems and calculations in the subject.

I may be experiencing a fluke, but it appears that my university's library's website allows any computer to use it as proxy for viewing and downloading articles from many paywalled sites (in fact, every site it gives me access to with my student login, which is a very large selection). I only discovered this by accident, and I'm hoping it isn't unintentional on their part. If anybody is interested, the address is here. If you try it and it doesn't work, please tell me.

ETA: It appears that my browser simply cached my login, and that this service is unfortunately not actually available to the general public. Sorry for any confusion.