Yesterday I had the honor of meeting Fidel Castro’s son–he is a physicist. Can you pick him out from the lineup?

Yes, the ice is melting in the relationship between our two countries.

The one that reflects my public persona these days–it’s here.

A really excellent news piece in Nature, here. My own take is that the development of controlled fusion energy is critical to the long term survival of humans. Apparently some venture capital folks agree….

Absolutely mesmerizing…photographer Aram Pan brings back HD video from North Korea. Enjoy!

From Vox, interview is here. I’ve blogged on this topic previously here. Not much to add except the notion of epistomological closure seems to be important. That is hanging out with like-minded conspiracy theorists seems to harden belief in the conspiracy theory.

The other interesting tidbit from the Cass Sunstein video is the notion that when the authorities deny a conspiracy theory, that also acts to harden belief in the believers.

Provost and Deans, George Mason University 2014

My colleagues and I got together for our annual informal photo just prior to commencement this morning. These are wonderful folks to work with. Today’s ceremony marks the end of my 16th year in this position. It’s been an incredibly fulfilling job. Happy Summer!

Blogposts will be scarce…

Science Magazine’s Adrian Cho has the story, here. This is a long complicated tale….when I was up on the Hill in the late 1970’s, fusion energy was in my portfolio. My own opinion is that if human’s are to thrive and eventually colonize space, we’re going to have to figure out how to do this.

The report estimates that 1 in 68 children has autism spectrum disorder. The announcement is here. The actual report is here. There is a great deal of geographic heterogeneity in the data (Alabama 1/175, New Jersey 1/45) which I suspect has more to do with general differences in health care delivery rather than the environment.

The change in the prevalence is indeed worrying. One has to wonder whether this is a real increase or rather represents increased awareness of autism among those doing the diagnosing. It would also be very interesting to see the global data if it exists. I guess the other question I would have is what percentage of those diagnosed are high functioning (as in Aspergers).

1. Max Tegmark’s book on multiverses
2. Simon Winder’s personal travelogue history of Habsburg Europe, Danubia
3. Thomas Piketty’s new book on inequality, Capital in the 21st Century
4. Gerald K. O’Neill’s 1976 book on space colonies, The High Frontier