http://asymptotia.com Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:41:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 en hourly 1 http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/18/the-onion-on-science-programming/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/18/the-onion-on-science-programming/#comments Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:36:14 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6409 must carry on contributing where we can as well as encouraging and supporting the film-makers as much as we can. It's not really their fault so much as the people who call the shots at the head of the money food chain. Most of the film-makers I've worked with on the many shows I've helped with (either in front of or behind the camera, or both) are passionate about the science, are keenly interested in understanding it more so as to tell the story to the public as well as they can, and are capable of doing so. They most often can't get their shows past the people at the top who believe that the material is too inaccessible or not interesting to the public. (I've heard the same complaint from science journalists working in the print media too.) On the other hand, I get recognized and stopped on [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/18/the-onion-on-science-programming/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/18/slower/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/18/slower/#comments Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:18:16 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6394 newly announced long term plan to build a new rail network in the UK that will slice huge chunks of time out of the long distance travel times between London and points North. There are many reasons why this is good news (and some bad, since there's going to be impact on parts of the country side - this is not upgrade of existing rail lines), and these include the benefits that will result from people choosing rail over cars, and even planes, the possible further decentralization of the country (although I doubt this - I think the overall change in that regard might well be neutral. It might in fact have the opposite effect), and so on and so forth. The national discussion that has been taking place has been interesting, of course, but I'm not hearing enough about one aspect: That travelling from point A to point B as fast as technology allows is not always the best option. I don't think that the UK is a very big place, frankly, and I've got to the point where I think that the long journeys that I sometimes do on either corridor (West or East) have improved quite a bit over the years to the extent where they are about as fast as I want them to be. I care more about them leaving and arriving on time than I do them getting there much more quickly. Yes, I know that some people have urgent business in London and need to get there fast from Glasgow or Preston or Newcastle.... but would the extra 45 or even 60 minutes really make that much difference? Well, sure it might for some, and I do not mean to remake the world [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/18/slower/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/15/best-in-show/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/15/best-in-show/#comments Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:55:57 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6383 (Well, in the Ion Micrograph category, you understand.) Sometimes extreme geekery is charming. (As you may know, I do not use the word "geek" lightly.) I spotted this on Phil's Bad Astronomy Blog. You know what shape it is trying to evoke, I presume. Know also that this structure is 8.8 micro meters across, and that the subject was magnified some 5000 times normal size to make the image. I've no idea how they [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/15/best-in-show/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/14/pi-day-today/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/14/pi-day-today/#comments Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:29:01 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6381 http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/14/pi-day-today/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/14/road-benefits/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/14/road-benefits/#comments Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:23:00 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6374 on the road for a while now (see the last several posts, e.g. here), and it has been good for me. Why? Well, I think that it has been good to get out of some of the routines that I normally find myself in, and have a change of perspective. This feeds my thoughts about things, whether it be work-related, play, or personal life. So being in a mode where I'm living out of a suitcase and moving from location to location helps me simplify somewhat. Work has been good. Some aspects have not been as efficient as they might have been were I in my home office or in my office at USC, but efficiency is not really the point. There's plenty of time for that later, and in travelling mode, the value of the high quality reflection about the work I'm doing or an approach I'm going to take on the project I'm working on is something I'd not trade for the equivalent time sitting in my office being highly efficient at some task. So where am I? Well, I'm a month into hardcore sabbatical time (recall that the first [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/14/road-benefits/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/13/twisted-bridge/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/13/twisted-bridge/#comments Sat, 13 Mar 2010 11:01:53 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6366 The Walkabout returns me to London for a short while before I head North. While wandering around Covent Garden, I spotted this lovely bit of geometry suspended between two buildings in an alleyway. It is a bridge, but with a twist. Upon getting home and starting a post to share it with you, I see that it is called the Bridge of Aspiration, and it connects the Royal Opera House with the Royal Ballet School. More here, where you can see that the interior is quite stunning. -cvj]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/13/twisted-bridge/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/11/dessert-coffees/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/11/dessert-coffees/#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:29:46 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6351 These are not really my cup of tea (at least not first choice), so to speak, but they are very pretty. While working at the countertop of a coffee bar at Mercado San Miguel, in Madrid, (drinking my usual café cortado) I watched the fellow at the counter making them for some customers. It was a rather elaborate process, and quite fascinating to watch. It might seem odd [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/11/dessert-coffees/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/09/spring-time-sort-of/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/09/spring-time-sort-of/#comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:19:38 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6343 Well, while it is not Spring time quite yet, I thought I'd share this with you. I've quite [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/09/spring-time-sort-of/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/07/new-views/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/07/new-views/#comments Sun, 07 Mar 2010 09:55:02 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6336 Gran elefante erguido, by Miquel Barceló. (Click for larger views.) Sometimes a 7m tall upside down bronze elephant is exactly what one needs to see [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/07/new-views/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/05/road-report/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/05/road-report/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:34:19 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6318 A brief report from the road. My wanderings took me to Toledo. The one half an hour on the train from Madrid (Spain), not the one in Ohio. It actually reminds me a lot of Durham, in England, where I lived and worked for three years. I'll leave you to look a bit at their geography, strategic history, and so forth, to see why. You can start by glancing at the maps I clipped for you for clues. I enjoyed it quite a bit, although I shall have to go again to explore more thoroughly. [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/05/road-report/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/03/waterfall/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/03/waterfall/#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:26:31 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6306 Walkabout finds me in Madrid for a little while, and I find myself reporting joyfully on rain, once again. Not because it has been raining an unusual amount here, but because of a production I went to the other night. It was primarily a dance event, celebrating and dramatizing the work of poet Frederico Garcia Lorca during his time in New York in the 1920s. The choreography was by (I've forgotten... will find ticket and update shortly) [update: Blanca Li. Title: ¨Poeta en Nueva York¨] with flamenco as the primary form, mixed with several other dance traditions. There was a lot of good and enjoyable work to see, but I'll admit to being blown away by the theatre's (and associated production staff's) ability to suddenly create a rainstorm on the stage, and sustain it for a prolonged period while one of the dances (using the water, as you can see) used it to great and stunning effect. I had to sneak a (no flash and no disturbing of neighbours of course) photo for you. Click for larger view. A bit like the first time you saw Jurassic Park back when it was first released and utterly groundbreaking visually, I (and maybe you?) spent time thinking, "this is amazing!", "how did they pull off this illusion?", before concluding that maybe the [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/03/waterfall/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/01/the-creative-science-studio/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/01/the-creative-science-studio/#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:04:42 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6294 here), talking about a new partnership (involving USC and the NSF) for increasing and improving the amount of science in entertainment and media products such as films and television shows, and probably more. It is called the Creative Science Studio, or CS2. You've read me talk about these sorts of projects on the blog a huge amount, and so I won't repeat the motivations here (you can find earlier thoughts if you look under some of the categories this post is in for other posts on the subject). One of the fallouts (fallsout?) of being a dabbler, behind-the-scenes-agitator and general troublemaker is that one can never really tell what are all the final projects, initiatives (and so forth) that come about as a result (at least in part) of one's actions. In trying to significantly move forward things such as this (involving public [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/03/01/the-creative-science-studio/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/26/hideouts/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/26/hideouts/#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:37:35 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6281 One of the things I tend to do when on Walkabout is seek out pleasant public spaces in which to work. Sometimes institutions to which I might have some connection might give me access to a guest office, or something similar, but often I go "off the grid", where the grid here refers to the network of academic connections and arrangements that produces such (generous and vital) courtesies. So every city I spend time in, I try to work build a personal network of hideouts. Sometimes, these are just favourite cafes of one sort or another (you've maybe seen posts on those), but at times it can also be libraries or other spaces at one sort of institution or another. Some of them are quite splendid, or simply pleasant or convenient. Among the examples for me are the Santa Monica public library, the (downtown) Los Angeles public library (yes, even close to home I like to get away from my standard offices), the Butler Library at Columbia University in New York, the New York Public Library [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/26/hideouts/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/25/dedication/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/25/dedication/#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:41:55 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6266 This was nice to see. (Click for larger view.)I was hurrying along in the rain, but had to take a picture for you. There's something about a little park in London being named after the excellent (and legendary) drummer Max Roach that makes me feel good. I hope it inspires those who pass by and those who use the park. Now, find some time to listen to some Max Roach...Perhaps hearing him playing [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/25/dedication/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/23/walkabout/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/23/walkabout/#comments Tue, 23 Feb 2010 09:33:14 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6239 finished the various papers I wanted completed before turning to other things, I've now turned to other things. What I've not mentioned so far is that I'm actually on sabbatical this semester. Due to being too stupid to say flat out NO to various things, even though it was supposed to start in early January, I did not really get things together until the end of the month, but I'm happy to report that I'm properly in sabbatical mode now. My plan for the sabbatical is to work on a specific project, and little else, right through until the late Summer. Sabbaticals come only once every seven years, and so I want to structure things to use the time as well as I can, but the nature of what I want to do with the time means I need to disconnect a bit, so I won't be attached to a particular institution (as is common with sabbaticals), but instead will be a bit of a nomad. At times, I'm just going to be on Walkabout for a long stretch, taking my work with me wherever I go (the wandering is actually part of the work, in a sense) and just lying low, drifting from town to town like Kwai Chang Caine (I'll try not to get into any fights, and, for the record, I've no plans to go to Thailand). Appropriately, therefore, I've dug out a snap from a recent visit to the desert by way of illustration. From time to time I might show up in your town, so wave if you see me. My current [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/23/walkabout/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/22/news-from-the-front-ix-water-everywhere/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/22/news-from-the-front-ix-water-everywhere/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:28:26 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6253 (Image above was used in an earlier post. It is of a pool at the Getty Villa.) (Somewhat technical post follows.) I was sitting in a random city somewhere watching the rain and it reminded me that I did not get to mentioning the completion of my other project. I reported on it in a paper with two students, Ram and Jeff, and the title was (perhaps intriguingly?) "String Theory and Water Waves". You can see it here. The work follows on from some projects I did a while back, and concerns attempts to gain understanding of string theory at a (perhaps) deeper level by working with various simple models of string theory that are complicated enough to capture many of the theory's remarkable features while being simple enough to actually solve completely (in a sense). Actually, I laid a lot of the groundwork for this post by writing three earlier blog posts in the "News..." series, and you can find them here, here and here. Here are some words from the introduction to get you excited. What you may have [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/22/news-from-the-front-ix-water-everywhere/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/18/collapse-results-from-space/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/18/collapse-results-from-space/#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:43:59 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6225 Phil over at Bad Astronomy has posted about my childhood cradle (although I am sure he does not know that), the (still beautiful) island of Montserrat. I grew up there for ten years from ages 4 to 14. Many years later, in 1997, a volcano erupted there (in the "Soufrière Hills") and devastated much of the Southern part (where I grew up) of the island wiping out almost all traces of where I lived. Much of the stuff of my childhood memories is buried under tens of feet of ash. In my more tender moments, this thought still brings me to tears, actually. (Yes, of course I do know that it is much more devastating for those whose lives it affects due to their living there in the present.) On a side note, I always find it slightly chilling that the mountain that erupted was one of a pair that I used to love to sit on a giant rock and stare at, for long periods, when I was in a contemplative mood (as I often was) when I was young. Furthermore, two weeks before the eruption I was actually visiting the island for the first time since I'd left it as a child. And guess what I did? One day I was in a foul mood over an issue, and I went and sat on that rock again and while brooding, looked over at the mountain for a long spell. (Just in case, I try not to get too angry these days... ;) ) It turns out that the volcano has continued to rumble and burp over all these years, sometimes dangerously, with a growing dome that forms on top of the whole [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/18/collapse-results-from-space/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/17/the-write-stuff/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/17/the-write-stuff/#comments Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:38:51 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6169 http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/17/the-write-stuff/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/14/overview/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/14/overview/#comments Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:22:36 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6207 A lovely morning in Griffith park, overlooking the city, with a splendid view of downtown Los Angeles. In this photo (click for larger view), everything is lovely and clear after the recent rain. I'll admit that I took this last Sunday and not this one. Somehow, procrastination, two loads of laundry, a batch of sweet potato biscuits, and staying up until 3:00am all contributed to me not getting up there this morning. Perhaps later. For me, overviewing physically (as in the above) is always welcome, but it is also good to do so in other ways. I've been in that mode recently too. Friday and Saturday saw me brainstorming in a group of 20 or so other USC professors at a retreat over at a [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/14/overview/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/12/night-moves/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/12/night-moves/#comments Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:57:11 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6191 Some local thoughts. I can report that the downtown Artwalk is still a great event, effectively a street party running over a wide area of the city. If in the area, I recommend that you visit it (some upcoming second Thursday of the month) soon. (See earlier posts, e.g., here.) It is all part of the steadily increasing activity that's going on downtown that I've mentioned several times here. It is not just second Thursdays. More businesses are simply opening their doors and people are coming. It's great. The other night I went with a friend and colleague to try out the beer and sausages at Wurstküche, and had a wonderful time. You can see [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/12/night-moves/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/10/space-videos-galore/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/10/space-videos-galore/#comments Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:32:09 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6168 X-Ray Vision-aries arrived at this particular list or order - it is just another collection. There's some really good stuff on it, and that's all that matters, in the long run. Share! Speaking of videos. Have you seen my films yet? Even if you have, it's always fun to look again. See here and here. -cvj]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/10/space-videos-galore/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/10/double-treat/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/10/double-treat/#comments Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:51:00 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6170 Notice that the colour sequence (ROYGBIV) runs backwards on one as compared to the other. [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/10/double-treat/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/08/cassandra-wilson/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/08/cassandra-wilson/#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:22:39 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=5930 Time for a little music with my nostalgia. I remember my days in Princeton (where I was a postdoc at the Institute for Advanced Study and, later, at the University) particularly well when it comes to certain special things, and one of them was the music I was discovering, and venturing up to New York or down to Philadelphia to see live. The wonderful Cassandra Wilson had just firmly settled into her astonishingly good Blue Note phase at that time, and the (then) newly released album "Blue Light 'Til Dawn" was pure magic to me (and remains so), and was considerably inspiring to me during that time of intense work and during a key period of career and personal development. I went to see her sing at the Theatre of the Living Arts in Philly one wonderful evening. Here she is, (from around that time, I think, or at least it has the right feel), singing the opening song from the album in a slightly shaky live recording. It is a bit [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/08/cassandra-wilson/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/07/bad-but-ever-so-good/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/07/bad-but-ever-so-good/#comments Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:23:25 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6151 The other day I had a moment of nostalgia and made some of what we called bakes when I was a child, growing up (for some years) in the Caribbean. Bakes are known as Johnny cakes in the US, as far as I understand, and used in much the same ways that we used them. This is certainly not something you should have every day, since they involve fat (vegetable shortening, or lard as we called it, although elsewhere the term is used for a kind of pig fat), flour, salt, and a pan half full of oil to deep fry it all in. Definitely sinful. I have very happy memories of having bakes with tasty oily fishy goodness of some sort. Salt fish (salt dried cod) would be a typical thing (bacalao as the Portuguese and [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/07/bad-but-ever-so-good/feed/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/06/categorically-not-grand-challenges/ http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/06/categorically-not-grand-challenges/#comments Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:28:20 +0000 Clifford http://asymptotia.com/?p=6147 Frank Oppenheimer book. Well, it is back on the calendar, and I probably should have mentioned it earlier, but the next one is tomorrow, so I thought I'd remind you. Remember that the series of events is 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. The theme this month is Grand Challenges!. Here's the description from K. C. Cole: [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2010/02/06/categorically-not-grand-challenges/feed/