Paramagnetism and Magnetic Singularity in Exotic Superconductivity Made Simple: Their Origin and Possible Realization
by Lianyi He
Abstract
This paper makes no sense. It only increases the entropy of our universe. It has been withdrawn by the author.
See cond-mat/0506265.
Friday, June 24, 2005
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Culture shock
OK so I've been a bit crap on the posting front lately, I apologise profusely. Anyway I hope I can make up for it with a bit of musing.
I kept getting asked whether I had experienced much culture shock after I arrived in Japan, and to be quite honest, not really. I sometimes joke that is because I am totally uncultured, but I think its more to do with having visited and lived in a lot of different countries during my life, long enough to realise that people are basically the same wherever you go.
There are idiots and smart people, nice people and horrible people, ugly people and beautiful people, they can be open minded or closed minded, and they all eat, sleep and fart like the rest of us. They might look a bit different, and the might attach more or less importance to taking off your shoes when you enter a house, or how scandalous is it to go topless at the beach; but a smile is a smile is a smile, and a frown is a frown is a frown, and they all connect to the same feelings all over the world (and that's a proven scientific fact).
When something that seems weird to you as a fresh off the boat stranger it is almost certainly deeply banal to the locals who run into it every day, and is probably there for a reason (though not always a good reason). I think you can explain a lot of things if you think about the environment people live in. For example, Japan is a crowded country that gets very hot and humid in the summer, ideal breeding ground for disease, so what some might see as an obsession with cleanliness makes a lot of sense.
Anyway I know what you really want to hear are tales of wacky japanese eccentricity, so here are a few things that would have gobsmacked me totally if I wasn't such a cool worldly wise customer:
I kept getting asked whether I had experienced much culture shock after I arrived in Japan, and to be quite honest, not really. I sometimes joke that is because I am totally uncultured, but I think its more to do with having visited and lived in a lot of different countries during my life, long enough to realise that people are basically the same wherever you go.
There are idiots and smart people, nice people and horrible people, ugly people and beautiful people, they can be open minded or closed minded, and they all eat, sleep and fart like the rest of us. They might look a bit different, and the might attach more or less importance to taking off your shoes when you enter a house, or how scandalous is it to go topless at the beach; but a smile is a smile is a smile, and a frown is a frown is a frown, and they all connect to the same feelings all over the world (and that's a proven scientific fact).
When something that seems weird to you as a fresh off the boat stranger it is almost certainly deeply banal to the locals who run into it every day, and is probably there for a reason (though not always a good reason). I think you can explain a lot of things if you think about the environment people live in. For example, Japan is a crowded country that gets very hot and humid in the summer, ideal breeding ground for disease, so what some might see as an obsession with cleanliness makes a lot of sense.
Anyway I know what you really want to hear are tales of wacky japanese eccentricity, so here are a few things that would have gobsmacked me totally if I wasn't such a cool worldly wise customer:
- Electronic toilets. Now I know this is an easy target but I am unable to resist toilet humour! These things not only keep you warm in winter, but provide on command a jet of water to get you squeaky clean, and if you are lucky (i.e. not always), dry your nether regions down with a blast of stinky hot air. I'm telling you, you will never forget your first experience on one of these.
Imagine what went into designing these marvels of technology. Could you get together a bunch of engineers and get them discuss with a straight face the mechanics of clagnut removal? What is the exact angle of the water jet (there are two buttons for different options here, in case you are interested, ladies), how long does it need to squirt for? With how much power? What happens if the targets gets up off the seat prematurely? What if they are on the chubby side? All these questions must have been seriously considered and field tested.
My japanese friends thought I was rather odd to be so obsessed with electronic toilets when I first arrived, but they didn't realise that these aren't so commonplace in the rest of the world! And I am a big schoolboy still so they were partly right. - ATM cash machines don't work in the evening and at weekends! There is a 24 hour shop on every street corner, but you have to pay extra to get at your own money if its not during the working week! WTF?
- Students (and staff) often roll in to work around midday and leave 11pm or midnight. It sort of makes sense to avoid the horrendous rush hour crush on the trains, but it surprised me anyway.
- Lots of new stuff (from room decor to vacuum pumps) looks like it was designed in 1950's America.
- Most TV programs have subtitles and captions and graphics superimposed on screen all the time. Not very funny but different.
- Hostess bars. 'nuff said.
- Karaoke videos. I mean its nice to watch a girl in a bikini frolicking around on the beach and conveniently pointing her chest at the camera, but it doesn't have much to do with the lyrics to American Pie. If you see a Japanese guy with an over the top video camera taking endless pictures of Big Ben or pigeons in Trafalgar square, its probably the backing video for Britney Spears' latest atrocity. Having said that I love karaoke. I have no shame.
- Eating all the chicken. And I mean all. (Actually no I don't, feathers are still not on the menu, but gizzards, hearts, cartilage etc. is fair game.)
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
I am a Japanese School Teacher
No I'm not really, but this guy is, and he writes really funny stuff that you can read until I come up with something interesting to say.
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Monday, May 09, 2005
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Breaking news
Mt. Aso, the volcano we visited a ten days ago is now erupting! When we visited we were prevented from reaching the crater, which is usually open to the public, since it was too dangerous. Evidently Aso-san is feeling restless!
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
More photos
We had a lovely trip to Hiroshima and Kyushu island, first Hiroshima, then Beppu, Aso, and finally Nagasaki before returning back to Osaka. Some more photos are here.
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Nostalgia...
Hey, hey 16k
Sorry for lack of Japan-related posts. I've giving an invited talk at the Japan Physical Society annual meeting next week, hopefully someone will be able to understand me.
Sorry for lack of Japan-related posts. I've giving an invited talk at the Japan Physical Society annual meeting next week, hopefully someone will be able to understand me.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Friday, February 25, 2005
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Sunday, February 13, 2005
Samurai Jazz
Samurai Jazz - Experimental music in Osaka.
The name was probably the best thing about it though!
Friday, February 11, 2005
Health update
Just in case anyone is wondering, I'm absolutely fine now. Nothing like a diet of raw egg to put you back on your toes :). Just kidding, I only had the one (in the photo below).
Sunday, February 06, 2005
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Women in Science
I am not alone
Not that I've been blogging much about science, but since 2005 is apparently the world year of physics, here are a bunch of blogging physicists from around the world:
Quantum Diaries
You might get the erroneous impression that the only thing that matters is high-energy physics, but I am a condensed matter specialist and proud of it! If its extremely cold, solid, has no conceivable applications, and no-one understands it then I'm there baby!
Quantum Diaries
You might get the erroneous impression that the only thing that matters is high-energy physics, but I am a condensed matter specialist and proud of it! If its extremely cold, solid, has no conceivable applications, and no-one understands it then I'm there baby!
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Joke
Why did the employer force his staff to walk between large plates with a high voltage differential?
He didn't want any unionized workers.
He didn't want any unionized workers.
Monday, January 31, 2005
When in Rome, don’t eat sushi.
I am recovering from a close brush with an unpleasant and painful death. OK so it wasn’t that close but it could have been, you know, if it wasn’t for modern medicine and all. Let me explain.
Believe it or not, the giant French hypermarket chain “Carrefour” has tentacles all over the globe, including a store in Osaka, where every Sunday, a selection of fresh imported produce is available, including many types of cheese, paté de foi gras, and other luxuries. Now I am not necessarily blaming the blue cheese for certain, but a day after consuming it, both I and a fellow blue cheese eater were struck down with a fever, which at first I mistook for the `flu (which I also got). After a few days though the fever came back, my tongue started feeling really sore, and it was very painful to eat and drink. Considering that my friend had just been pumped full of antibiotics after getting acute tonsillitis which stopped her from eating and drinking totally, this was slightly alarming. It was also complicated by the fact that I was due to go to Tokyo for a three-day orientation session the next week. So with the help of someone to translate, I decided to brave the Japanese health system.
It appeared that people don’t get ill on Sundays in Japan, since my local hospital was more or less shut, apart from the emergency department, where after registering at the hospital as a new patient, I had a very short wait before being seen by a couple of doctors who seemed even younger than me (though they probably thought the same) and various other nurses and people who chipped in to try to ask me questions in English. Anyway they sent my on my way, telling me I’d got flu and tonsillitis, and with a bunch of pills and instructions to see a doctor in Tokyo immediately if it got worse. Which it did.
Now I’m sure this is a case of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing and all, but I couldn’t help being slightly perturbed that the antibiotic they had given me was penicillin! The first antibiotic ever discovered, by Alexander Fleming in 1929! Surely everything was resistant to that nowadays? It must have been prescribed to death by now!? Maybe it was silly to worry about that since they really gave me a synthetic derivative of penicillin, and I have no idea whether it works well or not, but I was still having thoughts of gangrene in the trenches and having to have my head amputated or something. It still didn’t work though since the next day I arrived in Tokyo feeling absolutely terrible, and my tongue and lips had started to swell up and get covered in sores like mouth ulcers (I’m so very sorry, dear readers, I didn’t take a photo), and my face was swelling up like someone who had botox injections!
So I turned up at the registration desk and very apologetically demanded to see a doctor immediately (a medical doctor, not a proper doctor :-) there were about 40 of them there already). So they promised to send someone with me to the clinic round the corner as soon as the registration had finished. The doctor I saw then spoke quite good English, and with the help of the chap who had come along with me (who was Japanese, but spoke very good English, and French and German!), I managed to lisp out my explanation. After a blood test and chest x-ray which determined that the infection fortunately hadn’t spread to my lungs, he sent me on my way with some more powerful antibiotics. I was immensely relieved that the next day I felt a lot better and the swelling had gone down considerably, and though the flesh-eating bacteria were still munching away at me, they seemed to be losing the battle. I was able more or less to enjoy the rest of the orientation programme, including an unplanned burst of stardom at what turned out to be a Karaoke pub down the road from our (very posh) hotel. My god it’s difficult to persuade French people to sing in public.
Believe it or not, the giant French hypermarket chain “Carrefour” has tentacles all over the globe, including a store in Osaka, where every Sunday, a selection of fresh imported produce is available, including many types of cheese, paté de foi gras, and other luxuries. Now I am not necessarily blaming the blue cheese for certain, but a day after consuming it, both I and a fellow blue cheese eater were struck down with a fever, which at first I mistook for the `flu (which I also got). After a few days though the fever came back, my tongue started feeling really sore, and it was very painful to eat and drink. Considering that my friend had just been pumped full of antibiotics after getting acute tonsillitis which stopped her from eating and drinking totally, this was slightly alarming. It was also complicated by the fact that I was due to go to Tokyo for a three-day orientation session the next week. So with the help of someone to translate, I decided to brave the Japanese health system.
It appeared that people don’t get ill on Sundays in Japan, since my local hospital was more or less shut, apart from the emergency department, where after registering at the hospital as a new patient, I had a very short wait before being seen by a couple of doctors who seemed even younger than me (though they probably thought the same) and various other nurses and people who chipped in to try to ask me questions in English. Anyway they sent my on my way, telling me I’d got flu and tonsillitis, and with a bunch of pills and instructions to see a doctor in Tokyo immediately if it got worse. Which it did.
Now I’m sure this is a case of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing and all, but I couldn’t help being slightly perturbed that the antibiotic they had given me was penicillin! The first antibiotic ever discovered, by Alexander Fleming in 1929! Surely everything was resistant to that nowadays? It must have been prescribed to death by now!? Maybe it was silly to worry about that since they really gave me a synthetic derivative of penicillin, and I have no idea whether it works well or not, but I was still having thoughts of gangrene in the trenches and having to have my head amputated or something. It still didn’t work though since the next day I arrived in Tokyo feeling absolutely terrible, and my tongue and lips had started to swell up and get covered in sores like mouth ulcers (I’m so very sorry, dear readers, I didn’t take a photo), and my face was swelling up like someone who had botox injections!
So I turned up at the registration desk and very apologetically demanded to see a doctor immediately (a medical doctor, not a proper doctor :-) there were about 40 of them there already). So they promised to send someone with me to the clinic round the corner as soon as the registration had finished. The doctor I saw then spoke quite good English, and with the help of the chap who had come along with me (who was Japanese, but spoke very good English, and French and German!), I managed to lisp out my explanation. After a blood test and chest x-ray which determined that the infection fortunately hadn’t spread to my lungs, he sent me on my way with some more powerful antibiotics. I was immensely relieved that the next day I felt a lot better and the swelling had gone down considerably, and though the flesh-eating bacteria were still munching away at me, they seemed to be losing the battle. I was able more or less to enjoy the rest of the orientation programme, including an unplanned burst of stardom at what turned out to be a Karaoke pub down the road from our (very posh) hotel. My god it’s difficult to persuade French people to sing in public.
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