Tuesday, June 14, 2011

"What Life Is Like As A Scientist In Congress"

Bill Foster is up for this talk at TIPP Conference.

He shows video introduction of himself by Barack Obama during his last run at congressional office.

He shows his timeline: Businessman, then physicist, then politicians.

Shows his business beginnings, and his work towards his PhD. He mainly work at the CDF as a physicist. Shows photo of CDF central tracking chamber. He goes on to show several of the stuff he worked on while at Fermilab.

Why did he go into politics?

His excuse was that it is in his genes.

He describes life as a congressman - not glamorous. He shows pictures of his efficiency apartment while in Washington DC.

His pleasant surprise : "I actually do like people!"

"Our economy had many of the properties of an oscillating analog circuit"

"There are no controlled experiments in politics" - no way we can check what would happen without such-and-such being done.

He shows example of negative feedback loop in the housing market bubble.

It was a fascinating talk, and how politicians simply don't quite grasp quantitative versus qualitative information.

Zz.

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