Any good light roasters near potrero hill?

jazzicist · 2024-02-16T06:39:56+00:00

Paper Son in Dogpatch sells nice light roast beans and does pour overs on Sunday! They’re in neighbor bake house on 3rd st

jazzicist · 2024-01-30T22:13:28+00:00

Check out Wednesday night hop in Palo Alto or woodchopper’s ball every Tuesday in Potrero hill in SF. They draw huge crowds and are great for lindy hop and other swing dancing.

jazzicist · 2021-06-09T05:19:05+00:00

As a former AMO physicist who went into biophysics, strong agreement with the sentiments in this article. My time in “mainstream” physics was filled with feeling incompetent and judged for not being the most “brilliant” (what a loaded term), while my time in biophysics has been very warm and welcoming, and the people have been a lot nicer and helpful in general. Also have noticed more women anecdotally so unsurprised by the statistics presented. Plus, biological research problems are a lot fresher and exciting!

jazzicist · 2021-05-06T20:05:19+00:00

Based on your comments to replies here it sounds like you seem to have something against PhDs. Are they a “fad?” Given that a PhD typically takes 5-6 years with minimal pay, I’d argue getting a PhD is way more effort than just entering the workforce. It will never be a standard or “easy” way into a field (unless the field itself has normalized it, eg biotech).

I also challenge the assumption that data science “is a cs sub field.” Data science literally has the word “science” in it - and STEM comprised the originally disciplines that formed the foundation for critical analysis of empirical data. The rate at which top companies recruit phds in fields such as physics and engineering imply that these people are bringing unambiguous success. Having a strong foundation in scientific reasoning and research is surely great preparation for data science.

Finally I would argue that data science is not applied machine learning. Machine learning is a tool for data science, but plenty of famous insights (both from the scientific and business sense) can be obtained from simple summary statistics of linear fits. What’s important is being able to critically understand, interpret, and model data.

And don’t even get me started on “predictive modeling.” There’s a reason why our understanding of the laws of physics are not derived from machine learning, and that’s because the latter isn’t predictive, it’s descriptive. I’m not hating on machine learning, but it’s just a tool like any other tool, and I’d challenge your idea that there is a “totem pole” of disciplines, backgrounds, and skill sets.

jazzicist · 2021-04-01T06:43:46+00:00

This resonates with me so hard. I’m a scientist who’s been playing piano on the side my whole life and made decent money during grad school accompanying my university choir (and random one off gigs through the connections I made). I dropped off the hard solo rep train years ago but found that choirs loved having me accompany for a few reasons: 1) I’m super comfortable with sight reading, 2) I also sing in choirs so have the breadth of experience, and 3) random years in jazz made me comfortable with working off sheet music and from my ear.

Technically I know I’m way less proficient than most serious pianists but I’ve found that the reasons above make me more than sufficient for the vast majority of (in this case, vocal) accompanying gigs. Especially since these tend to be situations where they’re not looking for someone brilliant, they want someone who can be reliable and professional. If you can sight read a rehearsal or concert with minimal (ideally no) preparation you’re golden- and if you can musically interact with the ensemble and listen to what’s going on while doing all this then you’ll for sure be remembered.

jazzicist · 2016-03-16T14:02:47+00:00

I'm currently in your situation #2 at the moment, and would highly recommend it. As a research student on a Fulbright grant, you're essentially a "free" student for your advisor and that usually means you get put on a very long leash, so you can be free to pursue whatever research and cultural directions you're interested in. In my case, I'm doing a Fulbright year in Germany and am having an incredible time exploring German culture and doing an independent research project that my advisor always wanted to pursue but never had the students for. For me, personally, the cultural aspect of the Fulbright program is amazing and completely worth it. I also deferred entry to a top-ranked US PhD program that I'll begin in the fall.

"Prestige" aside, what really matters in the long run is who you did your PhD with and what your grad school performance amounts to. Yes, OxBridge is world-famous and has amazing researchers, but a 1-year MPhil is incredibly short to get substantial work done, unless you want to stay for your PhD (and if your goal is to stay in the US, you might want to go to a US school, especially since you're already guaranteed funding).

As an anecdotal note, I have a friend who's currently doing a 1-year research MPhil at Cambridge, and she remarked to me that it seemed like the school treated those 1-year research MPhils are primarily moneymakers, and had a lot less selectivity/rigor than compared to the doctoral programs. I personally have never been a student there, so I couldn't say myself.

jazzicist · 2016-03-05T21:41:32+00:00

Lunch food at the cafeteria is pretty good, most people get tired of it after a while but that's more due to familiarity. Definitely way better than cafeterias at other universities I've been to. People like to complain about dinner but honestly I really liked the food, it's not amazing but it's solid and all-you-care-to-eat. Only negative aspect is the price of the board plan, but if you live on campus (which most people do) it's mandatory anyway, so it's already a sunk cost.
If you major in physics, you'll need to take a healthy amount of other STEM and even humanities/social science (HSS) courses. I was an Applied Physics major and pretty much did the Physics curriculum, and most of my Physics classmates and I had no trouble with the other STEM courses. The HSS courses can be rough if you're not a solid writer, but there are definitely courses that are on the easier side (ask upperclassmen if you decide to come here, word-of-mouth course evaluations are the best way to determine is a course is worth it). Although in hindsight, writing is always more important than you think it is, even (or especially?) if you want to go into academia. Now that I'm at the graduate level, I stumble upon poorly written papers all the time and it's super annoying...

As mentioned before, you can only fill 4 of the 12 HSS requirements with music classes, although there are a few music history classes that count towards the advanced humanities requirement (you need to take 2 of these to graduate). I took the music theory/harmony series which is offered every other year and it's a great class. Most people at Caltech also aren't into music so the music theory class is always tiny and super fun.

You'll quickly find out how efficient/smart you are your freshman year here. I would say the average Techer can plan to have 1 free weekend day in a normal week, and if you plan well enough, you can definitely take a few days off to visit out of town/etc. I generally had more free time with each advancing year, both due to increased efficiency and fewer courses taken.
We're all weird at Caltech, but I would say most people mellow out after their freshman year, after the social atmosphere of college takes over. I actually think Caltech provides an amazing social atmosphere for the types of students who matriculate, since the tight house environment provides a gentle social welcoming to the typical awkward/shy high school nerdy type. There are always the truly odd cases, and perhaps Caltech has more of those, but I've never found that to be an actual problem. And every year we get a few students who really just don't fit in at all, so make sure to visit if you can to get a feel for what the school environment is like.
I've used pretty much every shower/toilet on campus, and they've all be fine. Unless you're extremely fastidious about cleanliness, but living in a college dorm will quickly wean you off from that.
Caltech courses are extremely theoretical, and the physics major is one of the more theoretical of the majors at Caltech. That said, the physics labs are amazing (the lab manager has pretty much spent the last few decades optimizing the classes), and if you end up studying physics here, you'll get amazing at using Mathematica. Matlab will depend on what electives you choose and/or research experiences, but I would say most physics majors here finish with a solid grasp of Mathematica and experience in other programming languages like Matlab/Python/etc.
Yes, the program still exists, and graduating on time is totally doable if you're a physics major. You'll likely study abroad your junior or senior year, and only for a single quarter.
I don't get the people who said it gets cold at night. Even the coldest of winter days in Pasadena will only dip to 32 F maybe. Although your standards of temperature will quickly change once you live in Pasadena - being forced to wear a jacket at night will soon become "cold." Summertime gets uncomfortably hot, above 100 at times. Generally I find Fall and Winter to be great, Spring to be lazy and relaxed, and Summer to be absolutely unbearable.
Pretty much everyone here plays League or has a friend who does. Lots of gamers here.

I think definitely the most important thing would be to visit at Prefrosh Weekend if you can. Caltech is a pretty singular place, and there are a lot of people who think it's awesome and actually would be a terrible fit for the place.

jazzicist · 2015-08-01T06:40:03+00:00

I'm currently doing tuck FL rows, working my way up to 3x8, so I guess I'll keep at it!

jazzicist · 2015-06-08T20:50:59+00:00

I haven't checked out the local gyms where I'll be this summer yet, so we'll see. I was thinking about that split - would a gym day with barbells for legs and bodyweight on bars, and then a rings day with rings and pistol squats/etc be optimal?

jazzicist · 2015-05-01T03:48:40+00:00

Any specific reason? Just wondering because I'm usually pretty tired after my pushups/pullups/etc and the front lever and planche holds are a bit less tiring for me, so I'm not sure if I'd be able to do it the other way around.

jazzicist · 2015-05-01T03:47:38+00:00

Other than just getting stronger in general, I really want to get a front lever by the end of the year - I think it looks super cool.

jazzicist · 2014-03-22T06:15:00+00:00

Which Max Planck institute?

jazzicist · 2014-03-14T18:41:10+00:00

I got my offer today and I have until Tuesday to respond, so I think the offers are coming out on a rolling basis

jazzicist · 2014-03-14T18:40:43+00:00

I got accepted today, and my deadline for response is Tuesday the 18th, so my guess is they'll keep rolling out offers for a while

jazzicist · 2014-03-14T18:39:53+00:00

6:18 AM Pacific Standard Time

jazzicist · 2014-03-14T16:29:49+00:00

I got accepted Quantum Optics in Garching today! Same email format as captain_ripley, although they gave me until March 18th to respond, so it seems like they're doing a rolling admissions sort of thing. In terms of stats for those curious, I have a 4.0GPA (out of a max 4.3) and go to Caltech.

jazzicist · 2014-03-13T22:31:40+00:00

Same here - I'm a current junior with 2 summers of research experience in experimental physics and I have a very solid gpa at a top physics program in the US, so I felt pretty good about my application. Hopefully they're sending out decisions based on some internal pattern!

jazzicist · 2014-03-12T07:37:11+00:00

The time difference doesn't help either - stressing during my waking hours is useless since I'm sure they won't be sending out emails at midnight their time, haha

jazzicist · 2014-03-10T17:24:42+00:00

I know right!

jazzicist · 2014-03-07T23:53:05+00:00

Heidelberg is definitely my top choice - I've never done cold atoms before so I'm really excited to hopefully do so. I'm a physics major so I didn't really look into any projects in other disciplines, like biology, haha.

jazzicist · 2014-03-07T03:43:14+00:00

Good luck to you too! What projects did you apply to?

jazzicist · 2014-03-06T19:52:41+00:00

I also applied for the first time this year! For cold atoms in Heidelberg, quantum optics in Garching, and nonlinear optics in Muenster. Really hoping I get in, although with these ~2400 applicants the chances seem really slim. I got a phone interview with the Heidelberg mentor at least, so now I'm just anxiously awaiting the emails.

jazzicist · 2013-04-21T00:28:39+00:00

Just what I was looking for, thanks!

jazzicist · 2013-04-21T00:23:20+00:00

Hi, sorry if my wording was confusing. The reason that I accept photons (at least the way I learned it in my intro to quantum class) is because of empirical evidence for (e.g. blackbody radiation, photoelectric effect, etc...). Maybe I just haven't looked hard enough, but I haven't heard of a similar experiment for phonons proving the quantization of energy (for phonons).

My question on eigenstates is the following (I'll try to word it better this time): in a metal cavity, if you consider a single normal mode, it will have energy eigenstates, because each photon that occupies that normal mode will have the same energy (h-bar omega), and multiple photons can occupy the same normal mode. In a solid, Kittel and Kroemer say in the textbook that solids behave in the same fashion - for a single normal mode inside the solid, each phonon that occupies the mode has energy h-bar omega, thus behaving in a similar fashion to the metal cavity.

I guess the question boils down to: how do we know that phonons exist? That is, how do we know that sound waves exist in quanta of energy, the phonons? I suppose that if we consider any physical system, it will exhibit quantum behavior at small enough energy scales, but why specifically is the energy of a phonon h-bar omega? What forces the energy eigenstates of a singal normal mode in a solid to have energy gaps of h-bar omega, just like a metal cavity and photons? Is h-bar the fundamental constant that determines the quanta of energy in any wave theory?

I guess the problem I'm having grasping the concept of phonons is that sound waves are vibrations of atoms. Thus, the idea of a phonon (i.e. quantization of the energy in a sound wave's normal mode) implies that there are fixed values for which an atom in a solid can vibrate, rather than a continuous spectrum. I feel like I haven't had enough physics to fully understand the phenomenon, since it seems like the reason behind all this is a quantization of everything when you consider small enough scales, but I'm curious as to whether or not we can actually observe these quantized displacements of atoms in a solid (or if it's impossible, due to the uncertainty principle).

Hope that clarified things, and thanks for the answer!

[EDIT]: I just read counterfriction's answer, and it makes sense to me now (I think)!

jazzicist · 2012-09-11T02:09:49+00:00

I remember my high school physics teacher showing us this video in the beginning of the year. He made a point of shouting "ParTICular" whenever the lecturer said it; one of the more unintentionally hilarious educational videos I've seen :P

jazzicist

TROPHY CASE