Archive for the 'fun' Category

My Springfield Persona

Published
by
Clifford
on August 15, 2007
in fun, movies and personal
. 10 Comments

cvj simpsons avatarThis was the best I could do for a Simpsons avatar for me. (Click for larger.)

(I usually wear plain things with nothing written on them, but I suppose this particular design will do, for fun! Also, I could not really find the right hair.)

So what’s yours like? (Email me them and I’ll post them in the comments if you like. Or give a link to one on your page.)

-cvj

P.S. The movie? Oh, it’s a pretty good extended Simpsons episode. I don’t know if it qualifies as a movie to see in the cinema, but then there’s an awful lot of really bad stuff out there that supposedly qualifies and can’t hold a candle to even a half hour Simpsons episode. Fun with a group out for a lark, I’d say.

Stargazing

Published
by
Clifford
on August 13, 2007
in Los Angeles, astronomy, film, fun, hiking and movies
. 8 Comments

(Shooting stars, that is. In other words, meteors. I’ll get to them eventually [or jump].)

runyon canyon bench

The evening started with a 10:15pm movie at the Arclight. I saw the excellent biopic “Talk to Me”, (all about Petey Green and his manager Dewey Hughes) which arclight cinemashappened to star two actors whose work I like a great deal, Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor, who both seem to grow and get better and stronger with every performance. I could be very wrong, but they’re also both among that (much) shorter list of actors who seem to me like people it would be interesting to get to know and talk to as well (missed a chance earlier this year with the latter, who was rumoured to be one of the people they were trying to get to take part in that New York shoot for King Magazine I told you about here and here).

Then, at 12:30am I wandered over to my “local” (well, they treat me like one, which is good), and favourite English pub outside of England - the Cat and Fiddle. Said hi to and chatted briefly with the guy at the door (about Stephen cat and fiddleDonaldson books, of all things) and then ordered my customary thirst-quenching Hoegaarden and sat in the lovely courtyard for a while, reading some detailed notes of a series of what turned out to be startlingly excellent computations by my student Jeff Pennington. (Well, I don’t know if I should not call him my student any more. He’s graduated now and is off to do graduate work up North.) The Cat was relatively quiet (as it can be late on a Sunday night - it’s a very conservative town when it comes to staying up late; my theory is that it is partly because of all those early starts for shoots - and everybody seems to be connected to the Industry in some way), although I did get treated to the conversations of a group of people at the table near my bench. It seemed that all of a sudden, I was immersed in an episode of Entourage. The five women, dressed in severe (for a Sunday night) regulation “high powered 30-something person out on the town in Hollywood” outfits - more of the scary heel height and mercifully less flesh than the 10 years younger equivalent - seemed to be unabashedly discussing their various liaisons with members of the opposite sex, and two of the men from the group stepped aside (in my direction) to have a conversation about “the deal”, where one guy seemed to be seeking reassurance that he could pull off asking someone for 60 million. Ah, yes. It’s good to be back. Been several weeks since I intersected with this stuff.

The next stop - meteors. There’s nothing like a romantic evening under the stars - even if it’s a solo outing. I went to Runyon Canyon Park of course, getting there at about 1:45am. As I’ve mentioned before, it is another of those LA gems that most Continue reading ‘Stargazing’

Perseids!

Published
by
Clifford
on August 10, 2007
in astronomy, fun and science
. 3 Comments

Over the next few nights, you should have a good chance of seeing some of the Perseid meteor shower. They’re going to put on a rather splendid show this year, I hear. From the NASA news site, I’ve grabbed a a diagram of the region of the sky (containing the constellation Perseus, of course - that’s where they’ll seem to be coming from, and so that’s what gives them their name) that you ought to be looking toward. (The red dot is not a star, but the central point of (apparent) origin, and the red lines are some example paths of the streakers that you’ll see):

perseids where to look

Concerned that you don’t know enough astronomy? No idea in any amount of detail Continue reading ‘Perseids!’

My Superpowers Revealed

Published
by
Clifford
on August 9, 2007
in fun, personal, science, television and work
. 5 Comments

Ok, I can’t resist. From an earlier post:

…and of course video footage of me effortlessly squashing a star much larger than our own sun down into a tiny space should help out enormously later on with classroom control, and so forth…

Since my cover is now blown, here are some stills** (click for larger) from Tuesday’s (unexpected) episode of the History Channel’s “The Universe”*:
Continue reading ‘My Superpowers Revealed’

A Bundle of Laughs?

Published
by
Clifford
on July 18, 2007
in film, fun and mathematics
. 18 Comments

To a first approximation, this will not be funny at all to any of you:

gerbes at aspen

I giggled at it, I will confess. I can never get enough insertions of gerbes into a sentence. There’s just something about the total abstractness of the mathematical Continue reading ‘A Bundle of Laughs?’

Henri Poincaré and the Order of the Polynomial

Published
by
Clifford
on July 13, 2007
in Los Angeles, books, fun, humour and movies
. 14 Comments

I’m conflicted. I read the first Harry Potter book and decided that while it is a good thing that many people are reading more as a result of them, I could not really recommend it highly as great work because it’s just so derivative. Having grown up reading all those boarding school books J. K. Rowling borrowed from (for example) without adding anything to them much, I was frustrated

Well, of course, in the scheme of things, it does not matter. Not all things we like have to be Great Works. And I eventually convinced myself that there’s nothing wrong with people (who did not read those works that she’s imitating) discovering the genre for themselves in the pages of her books. Then others told me that the books got better. harry potter special relativityThey got darker, and more grown up (do they approach the excellence and relative originality of the once largely ignored Philip Pullman books I wonder?), and better written, I’ve been told, by people whose opinion I trust. Well, good.

The films came out and they were all very ho-hum and then happily Chris Columbus stopped directing them after the first two and - Wow! They were suddenly really rather good. (The third one was by the wonderful Alfonso Cuarón, so - of course!) (Clickable above right for clarity: Extract from my own attempt to tap into the mania some years back by using characters from the books/films to illustrate the derivation of time dilation in a class on Special Relativity.)

Anyway, I saw the fifth one last night*, and I was very impressed with it as a film. Not having read the book, I find myself hoping that there was more to it than the film, since it still seems all rather derivative. There’s a bit of 1984 and a lot of Lord of the Rings mixed in with the Boarding School motif. I suspect that’s all as a result of stripping it down to look for something to hang a film on? I’m going to assume that, since there’s an awful lot of transparent (but entertaining) dark motifs about the Continue reading ‘Henri Poincaré and the Order of the Polynomial’

Not Quite Everything

Published
by
Clifford
on July 11, 2007
in fun and science
. 25 Comments

Yeah, it’s important what we do… but let’s not misname it:

Thad Guy Cartoon Theory of Everything

See more of Thad’s work here.

-cvj

iPhone Madness

Published
by
Clifford
on June 30, 2007
in Los Angeles, fun, gadgets and technology
. 3 Comments

As you might have guessed, I could not resist having a look at the line for the iphone at the Grove shopping mall/village/whatever. Here’s an overhead shot of a cluster near the Apple Store’s entrance just after the launch at 6:00pm:

iphone madness

(Click for larger.)

line for iphoneWhat you can’t hear is people cheering as people either enter or emerge (with their new acquisition) from the store (I’m not sure which). It’s not everyday you see this many people (in a very long line indeed - see one of four segments at right) waiting to shell out so much money for something that they all know will be very obsolete a year from now. They just want to be part of what is (seriously for a moment Continue reading ‘iPhone Madness’

A Moment of Science

Published
by
Clifford
on June 26, 2007
in fun, science, science and society and science education
. 1 Comment

I know nothing about Mr Wizard (Donald Herbert), largely because I grew up elsewhere. Many of you do, however. Even if not*, this (from Rebecca at Skepchicks) is worth pursuing**:


rebecca on mr wizard

(Click to follow over to YouTube.)

“Ultimately, the point is to flood YouTube with videos of people doing fun and entertaining science experiments. Woo hoo!”

Continue reading ‘A Moment of Science’

Live Re-Entry

Published
by
Clifford
on June 22, 2007
in Los Angeles, entertainment and fun
. 5 Comments

space shuttle flyingThis is actually a bit exciting! While eating lunch at home, I’m reading the live updates* on the space shuttle’s preparations for re-entry, since it is going to land in California. It actually might fly overhead while supersonic and we’ll get a sonic boom.

It is currently doing its series of rolls (times are in EDT):

Continue reading ‘Live Re-Entry’

Gotta Love the Arclight!

Published
by
Clifford
on June 21, 2007
in Los Angeles and fun
. 2 Comments

silver surfer arclightsilver surfer arclightWhat was he surfing on anyway? Magnetic fields? Or just an all-pervasive Jack Kirby/Stan Lee medium? Or perhaps I’m making the same mistake that Nineteenth Century physicists made, thinking that light waves needed a medium in which to propagate? That’s it! The Silver Surfer needs nothing to surf on… Huh, why did I not think of that before?

silver surfer arclight

Pity the film (which is on in the Arclight’s wonderful Dome, too!) will probably suck like a Dyson.

-cvj

Name That Particle!

Published
by
Clifford
on June 15, 2007
in fun and science
. 6 Comments

As a followup to the post on Roz Chast’s Symmetry magazine cartoons, I get to tell you* about a fun competition! The prize? A Roz Chast autographed copy of the May edition of Symmetry magazine (yes, that’s the one she did the cover for) and an appearance in a later edition of the magazine!

You can find the entry details at Symmetry magazine here, and I quote:

roz chast on physicsFlerbs? Marteenies?? Tom, Dick, and Harry???

Cartoonist Roz Chast has busted the field of particle physics wide open with her pioneering cover for this issue of symmetry. We say it’s about time: Why limit ourselves to the same old list of particles that have actually been discovered, or at least properly theorized? So here’s the challenge: Invent an elementary particle and tell us what it does in 30 words or fewer. A drawing would be nice, but not mandatory. [...]

So go ahead and send in your entries! If you like, come back here and tell us about Continue reading ‘Name That Particle!’

Amusement With Physics

Published
by
Clifford
on June 11, 2007
in fun, science and science education
. 10 Comments

I learned from an NPR report today on Day to Day (by Robin Sussingham) that around the country there’s a nice combination of physics and fun going on in various amusement parks! You can hear the story here. From the website:

roller coasterPhysics students in Utah recently attended an event where they learned about concepts like acceleration, velocity, magnetism, and centripetal force.

But this was no boring science fair: It was Physics Day at the Lagoon Amusement Park, north of Salt Lake City. The kids tested theories by riding roller coasters and dropping raw eggs from the towering Sky Coaster ride.

One Utah high school that takes part in “amusement park physics” reports that it now needs three full-time physics teachers to meet growing student interest.

(”Boring science fair”. The cheek. Science fairs can be fun! Anyway, moving on…) It’s an interesting report. It’s been going on for some time, and this event is organized by the Utah State University Physics Department. I also found a report in the Deseret Morning News by Tammy Walquist, which was quite informative. (Photo above by Laura Seitz, of Jessica Rocha (left) and Shelese Sheffield, Kaysville Junior High eighth-graders, is from the article.) An extract:
Continue reading ‘Amusement With Physics’

That Ain’t Workin’

Published
by
Clifford
on June 1, 2007
in fun, humour, string theory and work
. 1 Comment

dire straitsRemember the Tune “Money for Nothing”, by Dire Straits? It was a big hit in the 80s. (Remember those?) Well, Warren of the new blog A Strange Universe* wrote a rather brilliant physics version of it, to be sung to the same tune. The “stringer” is the object of the ridicule of the song’s character. The original post is here, where he’ll tell you his thoughts on the song. I can’t resist (I hope he forgives me) posting the entire thing here, rather than an extract, which would break up its impact. (Original song’s lyrics are here, by the way, for comparison.)

So here it is:
Continue reading ‘That Ain’t Workin’’

Poor Pluto!

Published
by
Clifford
on May 31, 2007
in art, astronomy, fun, humour, planets and science
. 16 Comments

Remember our discussions of Pluto’s demotion/reclassification? (Lots of link reminders at bottom of post.) Well, here’s a sad (and amusing) image* created by artist Mathias Pedersen:

poor pluto mathias pedersen


You can see a high resolution version of this image here. Don’t forget to look at more of the graphic art of Mathias Pedersen**.

Poor Pluto indeed!

(Take some time to appreciate how good a job he’s done on colours and other Continue reading ‘Poor Pluto!’

Weekend Hunter-Gatherer

Published
by
Clifford
on May 29, 2007
in Los Angeles, food and drink and fun
. 2 Comments

Well, I’ll leave the hunting aside and focus on the gathering. Some results, from Sunday’s Hollywood Farmer’s Market:

basket of vegetables

The market was about the same as it usually is every weekend, even for Memorial Day Continue reading ‘Weekend Hunter-Gatherer’

Science Fair Video

Published
by
Clifford
on May 24, 2007
in Los Angeles, fun, science, science education and work
. 5 Comments

It turns out* that the local NBC affiliate did a piece on the California State Science Fair (which I reported on yesterday). There’s a brief overview, shots of some of the students talking at their displays during the judging, and interviews with some of the students. It’s rather good. Link to it here (unfortunately you have to let it play a brief ad first).

nbc student interviews at california state science fair   nbc student interviews at california state science fair   nbc student interviews at california state science fair   nbc student interviews at california state science fair

-cvj

(*Thanks, Chris Gould!)

Continue reading ‘Science Fair Video’

A Fair Bit of Fun with Science

Published
by
Clifford
on May 23, 2007
in Los Angeles, fun, science, science education and work
. 12 Comments

Yesterday was a full day indeed. The main event? The California State Science Fair. The venue? The California Science Center (just across the road from USC). Here’s a picture of it in case you’ve never been:

california science center
(Click for larger view.) California Science Center (with one of my personal emergency escape crafts cleverly disguised somewhere in the picture - all scientists have emergency escape craft, by the way - along with our plans to take over the world, our lab coat, and so forth…)

science fair briefing of judgingThe time? 7:00am. Yes, we start early, as there is a lot to do for the long morning. The judges all gather in the IMAX theatre for a briefing about the ins and outs of the organization this year, the times at which various things will happen, and a reminder about some of the finer points of judging.

At 8:00am we broke up into groups of judges who will judge various sections. Mine was Applied Mechanics and Structures - Senior. Here, we decided on our collective strategy concerning how we’ll go around the various displays, making sure at least five judges (there were ten of us in total) see each project once in the first round of interviews. We’ll compare notes during the break at 11:00am, agree which ones we should all have seen - in order to focus on deciding which ones get which prizes or honourable mentions. I forgot to take a picture of our group of judges sitting around the table chatting. Most of the judges in my group were people from the aerospace industry, I gathered. About three or four people were new to the whole thing, and so some of us explained a bit about the things that we ought to be looking out for in the judging. This also (given the section were were to judge, and given the makeup of the judging panel - many coming from an industry where the place where the science and engineering are quite thoroughly - and necessarily - mixed together) leads to discussion about making sure to distinguish between a great science project and a great engineering project. It’s also good to be aware, when making comparisons, of the vast differences in resources that some entrants have access to. These two things, to my mind, are very important (and we all agreed). A kid (especially one with access to lots of resources, for example) can dazzle an unwary judge with lots of fancy cool equipment and build something that is truly wonderful and admirable, but that does not necessarily mean that they would have done as much science as the next entrant who has done some very careful scientific experimentation with a innovative way of answering a clearly stated question, but in a less spectacular setting - perhaps mostly using more affordable household items.

science fair students
(Click for larger view.) Overview shot of one of the sections, with poster displays.

Well, with that in mind, we all went off to meet the youngsters! See the project listings here. This is the best part, of course… talking with all those enthusiastic young people Continue reading ‘A Fair Bit of Fun with Science’

Tales From The Industry XI - The Universe

Published
by
Clifford
on May 14, 2007
in Los Angeles, entertainment, fun, science, science education and work
. 1 Comment

The History Channel is diversifying a bit, and doing their first science show. It will be called “The Universe” and will premiere on Tuesday, May 29, 2007 at 9pm ET. It will be a series of 13 episodes. Here’s a blurb I found on the web:

It’s been fifty years since man first ventured into outer space. Now we have robots on Mars, telescopes capturing the birth of the stars and their collapse into black holes, and probes slamming into comets at hyperspeed. What we’ve learned has completely changed our understanding of the universe and our relationship with it – we once thought ourselves to be at the center, now we know we are a small, small spec. This epic series throws light on all the known universe and out to the edge of the unknown – what’s going on out there, what is our place, and is there life outside of Earth?

history channel shootI like the idea of more TV channels (besides the usual suspects like PBS or Discovery) getting involved in making shows that have more science, so given the end that it serves (see the about page) -and because it is interesting and fun work- I was happy to help out when I got a call to do some interviews to camera for use in the show. (The other show I did some segments for last year -see here and here- turns out to be part of a (reportedly somewhat saucy) variety and comedy show, I’ve since heard! It will air on another channel in the Fall, and I’ll tell you more about it then. )

We recorded on Thursday. The original plan was to record in a house in the Hollywood Hills, with access to some Griffith Park backdrop to shoot some b-roll of me doing a bit of hiking, but the fire put a stop to that. Instead, we found another location - a house with a lovely garden overlooking the Topanga wilderness. (Actually, they wondered whether we could use my house and garden, but I decided that the garden was not ready for prime time yet, having just begun to come out of its Winter slump where there was hardly any rainfall… So it remains still just between me and you my dear blog readers, ok? In the end, it would not have worked anyway since on Thursday there was still a lot of activity from helicopters en route to patrolling the Griffith park embers… not good for filming!)

How did it go? Ok, it started well. There were two separate settings, for two separate Continue reading ‘Tales From The Industry XI - The Universe’

Penguin Opportunity?

Published
by
Clifford
on May 14, 2007
in academia, entertainment, fun and science
. 8 Comments

So I don’t know whether you’ve noticed or not, but there’s been an awful lot of penguin movies (or movies with a big penguin component) recently. There’s yet another one to come out soon about surfing penguins. I’m slightly annoyed by it already, and I can’t really tell you why. It could turn out to be good, I suppose…

So I got to thinking that this could be theoretical physics’ big break! We can pitch our own penguin movie, since we have up our collective sleeve…

The penguin diagram!

penguin diagram

This is a type of “Feynman diagram” describing how various particles interact with each other in a specific process. (More on Feynman diagrams here, for example.) What does it have to do with Penguins? Well, this picture I got from Wikipedia might help:

penguin diagram

melissa franklinjohn ellisApparently, John Ellis is responsible for their appearance in the literature, pushed along by Melissa Franklin. The usual suspects were involved too (drinks, a pub, darts, etc…) From the Wikipedia article here is the story, in (we’re told) John’s words:

Continue reading ‘Penguin Opportunity?’

Heart Sign

Published
by
Clifford
on May 5, 2007
in fun
. 1 Comment

Here’s one I’ve definitely not seen before:

heart sign

I’m particularly amused by the fact that the thing the heart is plugged into looks like the power supply for a mac laptop.

-cvj

When Worlds Collide, III

Published
by
Clifford
on April 27, 2007
in black people in science, fun, science and society and science in the media
. 11 Comments

Well, the cat’s out of the bag. Since Tuesday, in fact. What am I talking about? I’m going to get so beaten up in the playground for this…

casino royaleWell, I did a post a while ago about a trip I did to New York to take part in a day long shoot for a magazine, all dressed up in my tuxedo on a “Casino Royale” themed set. You can read about it in full here. What was the point? Reaching out. More science in the public domain, and on the lips of the regular person on the street. The usual things you know (from my writing here and elsewhere) that I’m passionate about. The readership of the magazine in question is not commonly exposed to images of scientists. The world of science and practicing scientists hardly intersects with the world of R&B, hip-hop, sports, fashion, the primary foci of this magazine and many others. I see no reason why not, but those who work in the media that control most of the images we see think otherwise.

Except for some creative people at King magazine. King magazine is a men’s magazine aimed primarily at young African Americans. (See a Wikipedia summary here, and the magazine website here. Warning! This is a men’s magazine aimed at a very specific demographic/readership, and while it does not warrant being on those shelves in the store that are behind the black glass, it is decorated from cover to interior in a manner that is… shall we say “somewhat differently” from the magazines I usually point to, such as SEED, National Geographic, or Scientific American! Ok?)

Every year, King magazine does a feature shoot of a group of people making interesting noises in their respective fields, people that you’ve either heard from (if you’re into those fields, and sometimes even not) or that they expect you’ll hear from soon. It’s all glossy and fun and so forth, and they decided (to my lasting surprise) to call me and ask if I’d take part. Hence the New York trip. The magazine is out on the stands now (June edition), and you can go and look at it.

I took the liberty of making some scans of the pictures for you (I hope the magazine’s staff don’t mind!), since I’d teased you so much in the last post with some of the shots I took, but could not reveal details about who was in the group, etc. There’s more in the actual magazine, such as quotes from the subjects about their work, life, etc.

So here goes:

Continue reading ‘When Worlds Collide, III’

Best Of The Day

Published
by
Clifford
on April 1, 2007
in fun and humour
. 12 Comments

So far today, the three best April Fool’s Day jokes I’ve heard or read have been as follows:

  • On NPR’s Morning Edition this morning, they had a good piece about new regulation to limit mobile phone ring tones in New York:

    mobile phoneThe city’s Center for Reduction of Noise Pollution issued a public call to action last month, citing an increased number of confrontations spawned by a new phenomenon: It’s called “ring rage,” and it involves strangers getting into fights over obnoxious cell phone ringtones.

    David Yassky, a member of the New York City Council for the 33rd District in Brooklyn, has proposed a bill to regulate cell phone rings.

    Distracting ringtones in the workplace cost the economy more than $1.2 billion each year, says Yassky. His bill mandates that New York residents choose between four more palatable rings, custom-made by the city.

    The audio of the interview is here (along with the funny ringtones). NPR almost completely ruined the idea by being too obvious (you could almost hear them going “eh!?”, “eh!?”, after every sentence), not choosing a credible-sounding interviewee as the main subject, and then immediately reminding you of the date at the end of the interview. Are they afraid people will sue? It’s such a shame they had to be so obvious.

    • Much better was the following:
    Continue reading ‘Best Of The Day’

Almost Can’t Bear It

Published
by
Clifford
on March 26, 2007
in environment and fun
. 20 Comments

knut the bear
Oh my. I’m a sucker for cute bears*. I admit it. My head almost explodes with Continue reading ‘Almost Can’t Bear It’

RoboCup

Published
by
Clifford
on March 22, 2007
in fun and technology
. 11 Comments

So on Wednesday night while cooking dinner I was listening with half an ear to Talk of the Nation, on NPR, and at some point found that I was listening to a discussion about robots. They were talking to Lee Gutkind about his new book about robots, and about the future, and robots as tools, and interfacing with robots and so forth. All very interesting, all bruno robot made somewhat more engaging by the very deliberate way the interviewee spoke, taking great care with every sentence he uttered. This feat rather kept my attention more than the material, which I’ll hasten to add was not uninteresting -and certainly a topic I spent a lot of my youth dreaming about especially given all the Asimov books I used to devour- but my focus was elsewhere I suppose. You can listen to the program here, and it is all certainly worth thinking about, it is a very serious and important topic, and robots (although mostly not in the form we see in our dramas on tv and in the cinema) may well dominate our society the way computers have become so central to us right now… so go right ahead and listen to what he has to say.

What finally grabbed me, this time, was not the serious “issue” material. It was this: Continue reading ‘RoboCup’

Teacup Mashup

Published
by
Clifford
on March 13, 2007
in fun, humour and string theory
. 6 Comments

storm in a teacup… and now, thanks to the Talented Ms Bee (a genius DJ/MC in the making if there ever was one), you can carry around on your ipod an audio pastiche of some of the choicest (sometimes unfortunate!) phrases said during the “storm in a teacup”:

The excellent mp3 file is: Continue reading ‘Teacup Mashup’

When Worlds Collide, II

Published
by
Clifford
on March 9, 2007
in academia, black people in science, fun, minorities in science, personal, science, science and society, science in the media and travel
. 12 Comments

I think I ought to explain, as promised, why I am in New York. The first thing to mention is that I wrote the previous post in this miniseries (it was written on a flight to Dublin, and finally posted when I returned) before I knew about any of what I’m about to tell you, so it is rather funny to me…

casino royale shoot

The week that I returned from Dublin I noticed a phone message from an editor of a magazine asking me to return their call. A couple of days later I learned what it was about. It’s a magazine that largely focuses on buzz about people and projects in the entertainment and fashion industry - Music (R&B, Hip Hop mostly), Movies and TV, etc., as far as I can tell, along with some coverage of parts of the business world. Its readership is mostly younger African American males, I think. As far as I can tell, the intention is not to be about those things in particular, but it is largely reflecting the interests of the readership it is targeted at. It’s a major product, jumping out at you immediately when you are in the magazine store (the striking picture of a woman on the front helps it grab your attention, of course).

Each year, the magazine does a special issue featuring a group of individuals who are doing “major things” in the industries I mentioned above. It is a combination of a focus on new talent that’s about to become more widely known, or just bringing to readers’ attention the existence of some of the people who are making significant impact in what they’re doing.

Somehow - I do not know how - they got my name. It turns out that they spent some time reading some of things I’ve written here at Asymptotia too. Now normally, you’d expect things to stop at that point, but in fact it did not. They decided to broaden things out a bit and include me (if I was willing) in this year’s feature issue.

I thought about it for a day. It is quite an honour to be approached, and I’m also impressed that the magazine’s editors are being creative in this way (it would be easy Continue reading ‘When Worlds Collide, II’

Grindhouse Marathon

Published
by
Clifford
on March 4, 2007
in Los Angeles, fun and movies
. 1 Comment

I just learned of this festival, starting tonight at the New Beverly Cinema. I thought I should tell you about it in case you’re able to go. Also, it’s just fun to remember some of the movies in this genre, or some of the modern movies that celebrate, quote from, or were otherwise influenced by them. The festival should be a lot of fun!

It’s a Quentin Tarantino project, and there’s more at the cinema’s website, and an truly excellent post about it at the blog “Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule”, which early on has this excellent paragraph:

the mack posterThe director has responded to the New Beverly’s generosity by lining up a gut-bucket cornucopia of authentic grindhouse trash cinema to celebrate not only his supermanchu poster upcoming movie, but the whole experience of seeing sleazy cinema classics in the only movie house left in L.A. (outside of the Vine on Hollywood Boulevard) that feels physically, spatially and, yes, spiritually related to the downtown second-run trash palaces that fed Tarantino’s (and everyone else’s) desire for this kind of rotgut, low-rent fun to begin with.

…and then goes on to do a wonderful thing by finding as many of the original movie posters (or related artwork) for each movie. It’s great to look at, and there’s a rather Continue reading ‘Grindhouse Marathon’

New Directions in Real Estate?

Published
by
Clifford
on February 23, 2007
in fun, humour, science and string theory
. 17 Comments

keats real estate imageOn NPR’s finance programme Marketplace yesterday, there was a somewhat unusual piece. It seems that conceptual artist Jonathan Keats is making some money by selling the extra dimensional rights to various properties in San Francisco! (You can see him at the Modernism Gallery there1).

Since there’s no known way to build on or otherwise occupy this new extra dimensional property (let me explain a bit further in an enormous footnote2), the prices are awfully reasonable. Here’s a transcript of a transaction that I found on their website. Reporter Nathaneal Johnson is observing a sale to punters Oscar Villalon and Mary Ladd:

Continue reading ‘New Directions in Real Estate?’

B Flat, but Stay Sharp

Published
by
Clifford
on February 16, 2007
in fun, humour and music
. 14 Comments

b flat key

Bâ™­, C, D, Eâ™­, F, G, A, Bâ™­

There’s something that resonates with me about the B flat scale. I don’t know why. I like the sound and feel of it. A lot of pieces of music are written in it (although I do not know if it is actually the most popular key), incidentally, and so I imagine that others like it a lot too. I wonder why that is? Is it just the result of convention? Is there something about the way we (those who like it a lot) are constructed that fits that frequency rather well?

Consider having a listen to Robert Krulwich’s NPR piece called “Have you heard about B flat?”. It’s got light humour sprinkled around liberally, and some amusing music. And there are a few pieces of information about the (apparent) unreasonable ubiquity of the note B flat in Nature. He tells you about B Flat and alligators, B flat and a staircase, and he ends with B flat and a black hole, and I’ll quote from the website for this one:

Continue reading ‘B Flat, but Stay Sharp’

Point of View, I

Published
by
Clifford
on February 14, 2007
in Los Angeles, fun, movies and science
. 0 Comments

amy parishTomorrow sees the next in the series of events here on the USC campus that science writer KC Cole and I have arranged. They’re in the style of the Categorically Not! events I tell you about from time to time (held each month over at the Santa Monica Art Studios) but are over on the USC campus instead, amy wilentzas part of the Provost’s Visions and Voices events. You can read more in the links at the end of this post.

The theme is “Point of View”, and we’ll have an anthropologist, a journalist, and a film maker each give their take on the topic. Here’s an extract from KC’s poster about tomorrow’s event (held at 7:00pm at the Gin Wong Conference Center here on the USC campus):
Continue reading ‘Point of View, I’

Those Fun Paper Titles

Published
by
Clifford
on February 12, 2007
in fun, humour and work
. 23 Comments

Scanning the listings on the arxiv just now, I found what has to be the best paper title I’ve seen for a while:

“Would Bohr be born if Bohm were born before Born?”

It is a paper by H. Nikolic, in the history of physics classification, and I have not read it, but I love the title. It’s brilliant!

This reminds me of the process that happens to me sometimes when I’m working on a research project. I suddenly think of a really great title, and then get excited about finishing the project so that I can write the paper with that title! (You’ll have noticed that I do that with some of my blog posts too.) It’s often just a nice turn of phrase, like Continue reading ‘Those Fun Paper Titles’

So Who Are You?

Published
by
Clifford
on January 27, 2007
in books, fun and science fiction
. 22 Comments

You learn something every day. I only allowed myself one shot at this, and did not go back to try to change it. I found that:

Apparently, I am:
Cordwainer Smith (Paul M.A. Linebarger)

This inimitably unique storyteller created a future with so many deep layers of history that all the world we know is practically lost in it.

Go on then, find out which Science Fiction writer you are and come and tell us…

-cvj

Via Dynamics of Cats, via Pharyngula (where does he find this stuff?)

Check Your Light Cone

Published
by
Clifford
on January 24, 2007
in fun and science
. 2 Comments

On the comment stream of my Light Cone post, commenter Neil pointed out something you may find amusing. I quote:

At this website, you can generate an RSS feed of your personal light cone (starting from your date of birth), which notifies you when it passes a stellar object. Quite cool!

He’s right.

-cvj

Unexpectedly On YouTube

Published
by
Clifford
on January 22, 2007
in fun, science education and work
. 5 Comments

third law jet demoI don’t know why this possibility did not occur to me before. So let me give you a heads up if you do demos in your lectures. In Physics 100 (which I taught last semester) and in Astro 100 especially, we do a lot of demos to demonstrate various physics concepts. I did a post on the Newton’s third law jet propulsion demo some time ago (linked photo right). My colleague Ed Rhodes did this same demo in his Astro 100 class.

He received an email from one of the students in the class recently saying “Congratulations, you’ve been YouTubed…”.

Apparently, one of the students in the class used his or her mobile phone camera to Continue reading ‘Unexpectedly On YouTube’

What Inspired You?

Published
by
Clifford
on January 22, 2007
in black people in science, fun, minorities in science, science and society and women in science
. 25 Comments

It’s always interesting to hear from others about what set them on the path they’re on, no matter what career path that is. I just read Chanda’s guest post on the matter over at Backreaction. Chanda is a theoretical physicist in training, and so from my point of view it is interesting to hear about her choices since I chose the same career myself.

Since I’m also keen that talented women and people of colour can learn that they can choose to do science careers, and hope that it continues to become increasingly likely that they make their way in such careers with the same opportunities as everyone else, it was also interesting -and encouraging- to read her thoughts (since she is in both categories). Have a look at her post yourself, and also her post on Cosmic Variance about some of those issues.

Whether or not you read it, don’t hesitate to share with us your own recollections. What Continue reading ‘What Inspired You?’

Hooking Up Manifolds

Published
by
Clifford
on January 1, 2007
in Los Angeles, art, design, fun and mathematics
. 8 Comments

lorenz manifold

I love crochet. I spent a huge number of hours doing it when I was young, and only in later years did I realize that the same things that attracted it to me then are the same things that drive and motivate a lot of my research interests. (I many have mentioned this before, but it’s worth saying again).

It’s the love of patterns, plain and simple. If your child -of whetever gender- gets Continue reading ‘Hooking Up Manifolds’

Last of the First

Published
by
Clifford
on January 1, 2007
in fun and work
. 9 Comments

The other day, in a nice cafe on the boardwalk at Venice beach, I was working with Veselin Filev, a student of mine, on a paper that he would later submit to the arXiv. The end of the year was approaching and I wandered off into some irrelevant anecdote or other (as I am wont to do), explaining to him a bit about little traditions concerning the arXiv, from the “old days”. I mentioned in passing that one last tradition will come to an end because the numbering system for papers will all change sometime this year (apparently the mathematicians are close to producing too many papers in each month - more than the 1000 the system can handle1.)

I explained that in days of yore, some people would try to get the very first paper of the year, so that they would have a rather special number, of the form hep-th/XX01001, where XX denotes the year. By far the coolest of these was Continue reading ‘Last of the First’

Have a Good One!

Published
by
Clifford
on December 25, 2006
in fun
. 4 Comments

Well, I hope that you’re having an excellent (and, especially, peaceful) Holiday season. Here are the two top images that have been produced so far by readers in the