Sic Transit
My previous article was the five hundredth entry on this blog, started on August 10, 2006. I've decided to cease publication of this blog. The computer scientist part of me wanted to hold out for a round number, like 512 (100000000 in base two) [1], but the pressures of my daily activities have become too severe. This blog has been an extracurricular activity, since there is no "blog project" and no corresponding project number to which I can charge my time. At my current billing rate, the five hundred articles on this blog qualify as a six-figure enterprise, so I must qualify for a gold star in pro bono activity.
The title of the article is derived from the Latin phrase, Sic transit gloria mundi. This is translated literally as, "Thus passes the glory of the world," but more descriptively as, "All worldly things are fleeting." I have several filing cabinets in my office full of research reports that were extremely important at the time, but they are now essentially worthless. It's said that only one of ten research projects is found to be worthwhile. In that case, my thirty years at Allied Chemical/Allied Corporation/Allied-Signal/Honeywell may have produced only three years of important work. Perhaps some of these five hundred articles were written in my composite Wonder Years.
As a substitute for this blog, I recommend Jennifer Ouellette's Cocktail Party Physics. Jennifer's articles are highly accessible to the non-specialist, and she writes about many of the same topics as this blog. I'm quite impressed by the length of her articles, and I must confess I'm somewhat envious of her blog; but she's a professional writer, and I'm a mere bench scientist. Another recommended physics-oriented blog with multiple contributors is Cosmic Variance.
*** Note added May, 2010 ***
Dev's Blog can be found now at Tikalon.com. Here's the new location.
Reference:
1. A computer scientist is the type of scientist who transfers $32,768 from one bank account to another to see what happens.