Found art in a coffee shop bathroom in Seoul.

I finally got my new camera. It’s a Panasonic TZ5. I ordered it with some trepidation from buydig.com but it came in less than twenty four hours. No tax, free shipping. Can’t beat that!

A very fat (pregnant?) cat at the beach in Tel Aviv.

Currently in: Israel

Ok, so I’m actually back home now. I got distracted and never managed to actually post this while I way away. Pictures to come soon.

Below is my application to join the LFHCfS. I sent it in a week ago and have heard back nothing at all. I thought perhaps the email got lost since the attached picture was quite large so I wrote them a reminder yesterady—still nothing. Several other members have appeared since my application. I feel so unloved.

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I would like to join the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists. The attached photo should attest to the luxuriant flowingness of my hair. I am a physicist working for IBM Research on quantum information theory. My scientific credentials are demonstrated by this url, which lists my papers archived on the quant-ph archive: http://arxiv.org/find/quant-ph/1/au:+Smolin_J/0/1/0/all/0/1. I was also the 2006 Time Magazine Person of the Year.

My application is somewhat urgent, as a colleague of mine has vowed to cut my hair for me if I do not do it myself as of tax day (April 15) 2008. Though I cannot be sure if this would-be Delilah will make good his threat, I feel I should join the LFHCfS while I am still able.

Sincerely,

John A. Smolin

(A note on my mustache: The mustache was produced by the expedient act of shaving off the rest of my beard. This has done as a “costume” for a Yacht-rock Karaoke night representing my best attempt to look like a 1970s porn star. Though its tenure was brief, it did, for one brief shining night, flow luxuriantly forth from atop my upper lip.)

Informational purposes only, indeed.

Finally, a professional society I actually want to join: The Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists™.  I just have to find the right picture “in which the luxuriant, flowing hair is CLEARLY evident” and I’ll be ready to sign up.