Monthly Archives: May 2009

iMpressed

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newyorker_june_09The cover of the June 1st edition of the New Yorker (see right) was done by artist Jorge Columbo on an iPhone, using an application called Brushes. (Story here and here*.) This all smacks of (more) free iPhone advertising, on the surface, but there’s something impressive here.

The New Yorker’s website displays a video of the layering of paint brush strokes that he did, showing the process of constructing the art. I’m impressed. Not by the iPhone aspect of it so much as the painting technique and approach itself, especially in such a small space, and that he did it while standing there looking at the subject for the scene in question. It is fascinating to see his strokes. Have a look: […] Click to continue reading this post →

Categorically Not! – Awesome

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cat_not_optical_puzzleThe next Categorically Not! is this coming Sunday May 29th. The Categorically Not! series of events that are held at the Santa Monica Art Studios, (with occasional exceptions). It’s a series – started and run by science writer K. C. Cole – of fun and informative conversations deliberately ignoring the traditional boundaries between art, science, humanities, and other subjects. I strongly encourage you to come to them if you’re in the area. Here is the website that describes past ones, and upcoming ones. See also the links at the end of the post for some announcements and descriptions (and even video) of previous events. (Image above right is from the excellent Categorically Not! – Really? event back in April 2006, described in an earlier post here. It was all about illusion, with examples from the world of optical illusions, and from literature.)

The theme this month is Awesome. Here’s the description from K C Cole:
[…] Click to continue reading this post →

LHC News

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lhc_and_mont_blancJester at Resonaances reports on a talk by Jörg Wenninger about the progress at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

There’s information about the repairs, more thoughts about the accident last year, and somewhat frightening news about issues of quality control on some of the manufacturing of crucial parts that may haunt the entire project for some time to come. […] Click to continue reading this post →

Go! Now! Get a Galileoscope!

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I just learned from Phil’s blog that the Galileoscopes I mentioned to you some months back (remember? International Year of Astronomy? Not just Darwin year?) are ready for shipping. There were issues with production at first, but now they are ready. The key issue right now seems to be that they are in danger of having to stop production of these lovely things if they don’t get lots of orders by May 31st. Ack!

So please please consider sending in a order for one or a few. Imagine what a delightfully unusual gift it would make for someone. Either someone you know, or someone you don’t know like a neighbour, your local school, church (yes!) or community center, or… even that special someone who you’d like to get to know – what an icebreaker, eh? Here’s a picture from the site of what a happy owner’ll have after assembling it:

galileoscope_kit_box

It is easy to put together, gives a new window onto the world above your head, and […] Click to continue reading this post →

Remind Me Not To Do This Again…

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film_notesI’ve just finished two days of staring for long stretches at the computer screen, reviewing all my footage for the films, (see also here) making careful notes about which takes I like, which I don’t, which are salvageable, which are a total mess, suggestions for cut away shots, transitions, other edits, etc, etc, etc… These notes are for my film editor, who will now take the hard drive of all the footage to begin cutting the first rough versions of the films.

It was a time-consuming process, with the additional complication from the fact that the Industry is in some disarray when it comes to high definition (HD) formats. Largely due to the explosion of technology, the move to, and the demand for the format from the consumer TV world, there is no universal standard for how different camera manufacturers (and even the different models of a given manufacturer) save the files they make, and for how to get those files safely and reliably off the camera and on to your computer in a way that allows you to view them. Different flavours of […] Click to continue reading this post →

Fair Play

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Yesterday saw my annual stint of judging at the California State Science Fair. Somehow it managed to sneak up on me this year, and so I did not get to do what I planned to do, which is encourage one or two scientist/engineer friends of mine in the area to sign up to get involved, since it is such fun and quite rewarding (ahem: Michelle P., Amy M., mark your calendars for next year! I’m going to come a-calling…) See earlier posts (e.g., here, here) for science fair descriptions, and the fair’s own site with lots of photos each year is here.

(Ok, there’s the whole getting up in time to arrive there by 7:00am or so. That bit is less than good, perhaps.) I arrived a bit later than 7:00, due to some breakfast procrastination that science_center_parkingI somehow sometimes manage to do even when I wake up with plenty of time (a whole hour this time) to get ready. My plan to simply set out by 6:10am and pleasantly walk/bike and bus down (my usual mode) was thwarted by this and so I had to take a somewhat quicker mode of transport, launching out of the batcave in a hurry at 6:50am! By 7:15am the parents and students in their SUVs and minivans were arriving at the California Science Center in droves, and so this meant that parking was a bit more of a challenge that it would have been 15 minutes earlier. But as you can perhaps see on the right (click for larger view), it all worked out in the end… ( 🙂 )

Here’s a shot of the annual morning briefing of the volunteer judges (all well fed, […] Click to continue reading this post →

Bakin’

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bread_baked

So I decided to experiment. Saturday started with me spontaneously mixing some ingredients together. There’s about two tablespoons of shortening, and of butter, and a sprinkling of sea salt. I put in one or two of the cups of flour and hand blended this all together. Then I mixed in a cup or so of the yeast culture that has previously featured in a few blog posts (here, here, and here). I’m sort of following my usual bread recipe that I’ve made in the past several years (with dried yeast as a starter) with a few adjustments here and there, trying to accommodate the different kind of […] Click to continue reading this post →

The Big Day!

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Herschel & Planck Ariane 5 ECA V188 Launch CampaignTomorrow is the Big Day. For what? The launch of Planck and Herschel – Major new windows on our universe. Keep your fingers crossed for luck!

They’re on the launch pad right now. See here.

So, what are the missions and objectives of these fine spacecraft, I hear you ask.

Well, from the Planck site: […] Click to continue reading this post →

Down The Line on Strings

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The (spoof) phone-in “Down The Line” on Radio 4 last week was brilliant! It featured a guest talking about science, with a particular focus on his dislike of string theory, and with the callers (the usual brilliant cross section of UK phone-in archetypes) taking the discussion all over the place: Doctor Who, soccer, “female scientists”, gay daleks, and so on and so forth.

My favourite question: “Why do they have to keep mucking about with the […] Click to continue reading this post →