http://asymptotia.com Mon, 12 May 2008 07:01:30 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The show was in two parts (both good... more on the second later) and the first was a 1994 recreation of the classic War of the Worlds broadcast of 1938. You know the one, I hope... It was a CBS radio broadcast by the Mercury Theater company, masterminded and led by Orson Welles, and was a Howard Koch radio adaptation of the 1898 H. G. Wells novel. As you may know, the radio show created a huge panic among the listening audiences at the time, brought on by a combination of the relative newness of the medium (it was done in the style of a series of on-the-scene breathless news reports) and the general atmosphere in world politics at the time. (There's a rather good Wikipedia collection of information about it here.) All of this puts me in a nostalgic mood, since during some of my school days I loved that War of the Worlds rock musical concept album by Jeff Wayne from 1978 (I knew of it only in the early to middle 80s), with a star-studded cast of musicians (Justin Hayward, Phil Lynott, Julie Covington, David Essex and Chris Thompson), and the wonderful voice of Richard Burton as the main protagonist (a journalist). Anybody else remember that? From so many listenings to it, I used to be able to sing along to every note and word of that album! Probably still can, even though I've not heard it in so long. Altogether now - Uuuu-Laaaa!!!, or Come on Thun-der-child!!... Here's a Wikipedia link. Anyway, I highly recommend the recreation of the broadcast. Find an hour and curl up next to your computer and pretend it's a warm old valve radio. Leonard Nimoy plays [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2008/05/12/we-interrupt-this-broadcast/ Fermions are discovered in the US, whereas bosons are discovered in Europe. (In case you don't know, it is useful to classify particles according to whether they come with integer (0, 1,2,...) multiples of a basic unit of spin, or half-integer (1/2, 3/2,...) multiples. Fermions include the electron and the quarks, bosons include the photon and the gluons...) Jester at Resonaances examines the striking evidence for the Principle in modern particle physics, and examines some of the predictions that follow from it. It was clear from the principle, for example, that the SSC (Superconducting Super-Collider) in [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2008/05/11/paulis-other-principle/ The jacaranda trees go crazy for a while. There are stretches of several blocks long, [...] ]]> http://asymptotia.com/2008/05/08/jacaranda-time/ Hey, guess who was at Griffith Observatory recently? Brian May! He's that astrophysicist who took some time off to play (excellent) guitar and compose songs in the band called Queen. Ring any bells? (I found the nice photo here.) So why was he in town? Well, a slightly giggly (but always great) Madeline Brand (of the NPR program "Day To Day") went along to interview him, and you can listen to the interview here, and read a transcript, as well as see extracts from him book (written with Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott), charmingly and blatantly (but knowingly?) unrealistically called "Bang! The Complete History of the Universe". I actually looked through it in a bookstore the other day - looks rather nice. Wonderfully produced and I read some well-written passages, so might be worth picking up if you're looking for a fresh read about the universe. As a side note, I was a huge fan of his during my middle to late teenage years and early 20s, and [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2008/05/08/good-company/ There was a funny one today. Some site that aggregates random stuff had a post about the Fresh Prince. It then gathered images from the web to illustrate, and somehow grabbed an image from this blog among the haul, which is why I knew of this. Two that ended up together are to the right. Prince pictures, it said. Excellent. [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2008/05/08/random-web-stuff-i-the-princes/ http://asymptotia.com/2008/05/07/inside-the-lhc/ here and here) in other posts, but I think it is worth a post of its own. Have you been yet? I'm looking at you, USC-area person. There's a fantastic new wine-bar in the neighbourhood, a relatively short walk north of campus at Union and Hoover. I'm so pleased to see it, and it is extremely welcome as far as I'm concerned. It is called Bacaro, and I've been there a lot already with several different groups of friends and colleagues.       Why? Well, the wine is just great (various Italian wines) and the menu is fantastic too [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2008/05/06/so-have-you-been-there-yet/ http://asymptotia.com/2008/05/06/tired/ Update: 11th May '08. Well, as you probably know, estimates have surpassed 100,000. An urgent concern now is the additions to the death toll resulting from the lack of emergency relief, brought on by the restrictions placed by the Myanmar government. See a BBC report here, or an NPR report here, for example. Update: 7th May '08. It is much worse. I've seen a BBC report with a figure above 22,000. The news is not good for Myanmar (Burma). The death toll due to cyclone Nargis has apparently passed 10,000 (see CNN and the BBC), making it the deadliest storm since 1999. Sheril and Chris are blogging about it on the Intersection, (see e.g. here) and so keep [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2008/05/05/major-cyclone/ Another lovely one in the gladiolus family I think. These have started to put on a show [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2008/05/04/yellow-face/ Image composite brazenly taken from their website. I went last year and had a great time and so I strongly recommend it. Go along for your own interest, of course, but if you have any kids, take 'em along*. If interested, have a look at my detailed post from last year entitled "JPL the new Disneyland?" As I said there: [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2008/05/03/jpl-open-house-2/ http://asymptotia.com/2008/05/03/oh-dear-i-liked-ken/ That's it. The class is over... I have to admit that I'm pretty sad to see the end of it, although I'm very very tired. It was such a great group. (I'll be toasting the end of it all with some of the splendid stuff to the right.) Recall that we stepped away from black holes. After a look at cosmology for some lectures, where we understood the role of four crucial components in determining a universe's properties (curvature, matter, radiation, and vacuum energy) we dove back into formalism for a short while (one lecture) to develop a little more the tools we needed to properly under stand how to formulate Einstein's field equations. It did not take long... You need only the idea that it makes sense to formulate everything in terms of objects that allow you to express the full sense of an equation in any coordinate system you care to write. Once that is done (the objects are called tensors, and the idea and how they work is pretty simple to get to grips with) the key to formulating the field equations of gravity is to have a look at the structure of other familiar systems. The field equations of electromagnetism (Maxwell's equations) and the field equations for Newton's formulation of gravity give the required clues. A rummage around the geometry to find the appropriate object to express the physics in terms of uncovers the Riemann tensor and its cousins ("contractions" to get Ricci and so forth), and you're almost there. A step back to learn how to package energy [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2008/05/01/sad-ending/ Hollywood quite regularly on my to-ings and fro-ings, and always wondered what it was. About what were they inquiring? My inquiring mind wanted to know, but by time I got back to a computer, I'd forgotten all about intending to Google it. I was sort of expecting that it might be some, er, fringe organization, given the neighbourhood (not 1/4 of a mile away is the mother ship (or one of them) for the Scientologists, and a similar distance in the other direction is the "Scientology Celebrity Centre" too, where John, Tom, Kirstie, and others from the remarkably large movie star Scientology set presumably go and hang out and feel... celebrated). Well, it turns out that it's not like that after all, but a place where, as far as I can tell, serious reason-based inquiry into issues surrounding the places where, e.g., science, religion, culture and superstition intersect (such as, you know, real life) is encouraged. I like that poster of theirs I found, for example (image to the right). They have a number of speaker series, where all sorts of interesting people come to speak, and people come to [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2008/05/01/center-for-inquiry-chris-mooney-on-the-war/ this one.) The most recent visit is by Phil Plait, aka the Bad Astronomer. They chat together about various aspects of the science to be done at the (soon to be switched on!) LHC, research in basic science in general, the scare-mongering business about the black holes destroying the earth (see here and here), conspiracy theories, and - of course - [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2008/04/29/phil-at-lhc/ This particular one -among thousands- called out to me while on the East coast a [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2008/04/29/still-magnolia/ spacetime) to expand and collapse. Who you gonna call? Ok. I'm one of many you can call. It was a new (to me) producer/writer, Savas Georgalis, who called this time, and we worked together on plans about how we might [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2008/04/28/tales-from-the-industry-xx-sporting-locations/ It has all sorts of fascinating things that you can download or view in the above (click for larger) manner (your very own copy of the Origin of Species, perhaps, or parts of his diaries and notebooks...), and is quite a treasure trove of one-stop-shop (but free) Darwin data. (There are even some of (his wife) Emma Darwin's recipes.) The site is here. Very importantly, the collection shows Darwin's work in development, and not just the [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2008/04/28/the-darwin-online-project/ Taken at the Getty Villa, in Malibu. Well worth a visit. [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2008/04/27/caustics-galore/ earlier:
"It's a Los Angeles celebration of the written word, done in wonderful sunshine, with hundreds of marvellous events in three days for young and old - Yes, it is the LA Times Festival of Books, coming up the weekend starting April 25th. The main daytime proceedings take place on the 26th and 27th (Saturday and Sunday) [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2008/04/25/the-la-times-book-festival/ , (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 Loops Here's the description from K C Cole:
"When you come right down to it, just about everything is loopy: planets, proteins or life stories, things have a way of coming around again, always with a slightly different spin. This month’s Categorically Not! was conceived as a tribute to Douglas Hofstadter’s new book, I am a Strange Loop, which uses [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2008/04/25/categorically-not-loops/ So you'll recall the shoot last year, right? Casino Royale theme? Where I got all dressed up in a Tuxedo at a club in New York that was kitted out as a Casino playing blackjack and so forth (click right) and getting very cosy with Ms Moneypenny? (Wait, that last bit didn't happen.) Along with some actual stars, from entertainment, sport, fashion, etc? You don't recall? Well, that'll teach you not to use the blog's archives more during your coffee breaks... To recap (but please read properly about the background here), it was a photo spread with short bios for an annual piece called "Coming Kings" for a men's magazine called "King". I'd got the call out of the blue from them, and decided to do it since it's an opportunity to do something a little different. To put some awareness of science and scientists in places where you normally don't find much (if any) of it, rather than only targeting the more traditional crowds. It's all about, as I said: [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2008/04/23/when-worlds-collide-iv-the-verdict-is/ Wikipedia article on the subject: [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2008/04/23/its-administrative-professionals-day/ Morning cup of tea, and short reflection - coming up for air before diving back in... It's a bit of a mess here, time-wise. Just not enough hours in the day. Everything totally fragmented. Yesterday was grueling... here's some of it: Up at 5:30am, finding that I'm immediately thinking about a physics project for a bit (I fell asleep doing so, having been the whole evening in the Casbah drinking coffee and doing the same) before having to break off to get ready, get to office early to start an insanely busy day. Answer a ton of email, and deal with other online stuff, planning to ignore it for the whole rest of morning. Note that flimmaker/journalist friend B has sent me an email with a list of comments and suggested changes to my script for the Video. Got to discuss it with A, my collaborator in Chemistry on this. Whenever are we going to meet in the next few days? Sigh. (Must remember to do blog post about this new project, and how I ended up involved with the Chemistry department!) After some dithering, decided to drive in, since the plan was to stay super-late and probably involve driving someone home. Cold as I walk to the office from where I parked on the street. Mostly in my mind, and [...]]]> http://asymptotia.com/2008/04/22/up-for-air/ Are you doing anything special for Earth Day? Links here. -cvj]]> http://asymptotia.com/2008/04/22/a-rose-for-earth-day/