My friend reports: "I still don't know what the hell Rovelli believes." This is a bad thing to hear after Rovelli gave a half-hour talk.

... Apparently, Sean Carroll has been promoting Adam Becker's /What Is Real?/, which is ... not a good book. I mean, it's so full of misrepresentation, bad arguments and shoddy research that I can't even endorse it when it makes 101-level points about the history, process or philosophy of science. https://www.sunclipse.org/?p=2658

... One of my colleagues was irritated all through Sean Carroll's talk, and another fell asleep, but those reactions are probably atypical, because we're talking about colleagues of *mine* here.

I am too tired to go to the welcome reception tonight, and I wouldn't have used my drink ticket if I had gone. This might end up being a booze-free conference on my part. Again, me being atypical among physicists.

Back at the APS March Meeting. There is free coffee in the exhibit hall. Limiting myself to one cup to keep myself daylight-synchronized and hold withdrawal at bay for another day.

Foolishly, they provide only *hot* coffee. Do they not realize this is Boston?!

I happened to wander down the publisher row in the exhibit hall, and I got a demo of the new Astrophysics Data System interface. Spiffy! Also, they had a flyer with instructions for command-line use and Python library integration. 😎

Now settling in to hear Chanda Prescod-Weinstein in the "How scientists communicate" session.

Good talk by Prescod-Weinstein. Next up: Michelle Baildon from the MIT Libraries.

... Michelle Baildon's talk got a colleague who hadn't thought about the challenges of information archival to realize it is an interesting topic. Good outcome for a talk!

Harry Collins' talk was also good, though a bit jumpy-abouty in topic (that's a technical term). Interesting analogy between learning language by immersion and how scientists find value in face-to-face conversation in an age of electronic communication. http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/MAR19/Session/F69

... Just mingled at the Physical Review reception. I met a couple editors and had a chat with a pleasant fellow about the rollout of their new Open Access journal. Now, to find the Division of Quantum Information business meeting.

... I will be missing the morning block of the APS March Meeting today. My knee feels particularly unreliable, and stressing it the day before I have to give a talk seems like a bad idea.

Afternoon block of the APS March Meeting. Sitting in the "general quantum information" session. First real "let's dive immediately into the technicalities and stay there for ten minutes" talk of the week. But "channel simulation with port-based teleportation" may be a thing I should read about later.

... "What we get --- believe me --- it's very technical for this amount of time"

ya don't say

At least one speaker is missing.

... Back at the APS March Meeting, where I will be speaking this afternoon. (My abstract: https://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/MAR19/Session/V27.3) The morning was a mess of broken software, flaking hardware, construction noise, traffic, and people wanting to take up three subway seats apiece. Here's hoping the afternoon will go better.

... My talk is over and done with. Whew!

I took a snack break from the session where I had spoken, after my colleague had also presented a part of our work, since I had the sense I was getting hirritable.