Colourful Crush
Spotted while filming at the Burbank recycling center. (Click for larger view.) See also […] Click to continue reading this post
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Category Archives: Los Angeles
Beach Time Baking!
It is the birthday of a friend today, with a party to be held at a beach. The instructions were to bring something French to eat. I was in a baking mood this morning and so I decided, after some thought and research, to make an apple cake as a birthday present. Apparently this is a typical French-style cake. Well, it is French enough for me, with its simple combination of fruit and cake.
(Interestingly it is roughly reminiscent of the apricot/peach upside-down cake I was planning to make when I was shopping in the market, but I could not get a definitive source to tell me whether that type of cake was of French origin or not, so I decided to use the apples instead. I can just eat the apricots and peaches for lunch each day this week.)
Ok, here’s how I made it. […] Click to continue reading this post
I’ve Found the Entwives!
Ok, I’ve no idea how many will get the joke, but that’s ok. (Click for larger view.)
This is something I was shown in the reception room of the Burbank recycling center on Friday.
I had a good look around and learned a few things, while filming an analogy for a […] Click to continue reading this post
Certainly Not Wimbledon
The things I do for physics. (Including trying to remember how to play tennis after 15 years…) (Click for larger view.) […] Click to continue reading this post
Goodbye Michael Jackson
“I’m Not Like Other Guys”. A quote from Thriller, in case you’re wondering. It’s appropriate. Michael Jackson was truly exceptional. (I’m focusing on the musician here, not the troubled person who unfortunately turned into a bit of a freakshow.)
Well, I feel like a big, bright piece of my childhood died today, and will feel this way for a while. I know it will pass, as it should (one must celebrate life and look forward) but there was so much joy in the music, and so much of it (the album Thriller especially) was so exceptional that it stood way apart from what was around at the time.
Even now when I hear a song from Thriller it sounds like it was created yesterday. […] Click to continue reading this post
Quick Dessert Treat
I just felt in the mood, and half an hour later…
…cupcakes, strawberries, and cream. (Click for larger view.)
It all went in like this (after ten minutes of prep (1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 […] Click to continue reading this post
Some Things That Keep Me Busy
Well, it has been a busy few days. Since Sunday’s activities I’ve been up to my ears in various things. Interesting things, I’m happy to say, and only a few annoying things. Besides getting back on track with life in LA, I’ve been working (with a student collaborator) on various very interesting physics projects that I hope to find time to tell you about soon, involving various applications of string theory of the sort I mentioned in an earlier post.
I’ve also been working on the two films I’m making. They’re now in final iterations of editing, and in addition to working on the iterations writing notes with directions for my editor, I’ve been making some extra bits of special footage for one of them. I hope it won’t be too long now before I call them finished.
On top of that business, I’ve been communicating with several filmmakers about ideas and material for the History Channel show The Universe. (I’ve told you about […] Click to continue reading this post
Solstice Salad
One of the offerings for my 17 guests during my solstice celebratory cooking session yesterday. (Click for larger view.) For background, see yesterday’s post.
I produced five or six core dishes for the menu, overall. Boy, that was fun! (There were also some excellent dishes brought by guests, and I had various other things […] Click to continue reading this post
Summer Solstice!
The Sun stood still earlier today! Don’t panic – It is Summer Solstice. I’m talking about an apparent motion of the sun, or, more accurately the migration of its path across the sky. Take a moment to think celestially for a bit and ponder the earth as it goes around the sun on its annual path. There’s a tilt to the earth’s own rotation axis, remember? (About 23 degrees). That tilt results in our seasons, and the path of the sun through the daily sky. Visualize this for a moment and it’ll make sense, if you let it. Today the sun’s path has got as northernmost as it will get, and it is now turning around, being more Southern each day until Winter Solstice. To turn around and change direction, you first have to stop. No way around it. So, the sun stood still today.
So, I decided to celebrate all this lovely geometry on the spur(ish) of the moment. Will you? I’m going to cook up several tasty dishes and have some friends around to […] Click to continue reading this post
Well, I’m Back…
(Words above followed by a deep sigh…)
There’s simply nothing as sweet as coming home. I say the words above and sigh deeply and satisfyingly and soak in the familiar shape and sound of my home and it feels great. Back home, back in a city I love.
Going away for a month or more on retreat is something I value highly. It is necessary to my state of mind. But I must eventually retreat from the retreat, and return home. The words of the title, said with a little extra pause just after the comma, and a sigh, in this context represents one of my […] Click to continue reading this post
Categorically Not! – Awesome
The 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
Go! Now! Get a Galileoscope!
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:
It is easy to put together, gives a new window onto the world above your head, and […] Click to continue reading this post
Tasty Rewards…
They have begun to arrive!
[…] Click to continue reading this post
Remind Me Not To Do This Again…
I’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
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 
I 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
