science

WIJFR: Lucifer’s Hammer

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The gigantic comet had slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of feet high. Cities were turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam. It was the beginning of a new Ice Age and the end of civilization. But for the terrified men and women chance had saved, it was also the dawn of a new struggle for survival–a struggle more dangerous and challenging than any they had ever known….

I just finished reading “Lucifer’s Hammer” by Larry Niven, a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel that tells the story of a stray comet that collides with the Earth and the resulting aftermath.

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Alton Brown Live! The Edible Inevitable Tour

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My apologies to Alton Brown … apparently I am cursed when it comes to attending his live shows.

Back in 2009 I went to the “Good Eats Turns 10” live show in Atlanta. In that show was a trivia segment that had (pre-selected) people from the audience come up on stage. One of the participants was extremely annoying in her behavior which made for (I thought) an uncomfortable situation (and I think the rest of the audience did too).

Last night I took my daughter to Alton’s “Edible Inevitable” tour show in Tampa. Overall, we had a fantastic time, starting with an in-person meet-and-greet backstage with AB (got a few autographs, including on a photo of the three of us from 2004). The show was a lot of fun, a great blend of music (Alton playing guitar and even saxophone!), comedy, cooking information, food science, and larger-than-life experiments … everything you’d expect from the creator of “Good Eats.”

The only pall on the evening was the audience member Alton invited on-stage for his second experiment. I won’t spoil too much of the surprise but let’s just say it involves a super-sized Easy Bake oven. AB asked for volunteers and picked an older woman waving her scarf (“I’m picking you so you’ll stop that.”). Right from the start, something was wrong … the way she was acting, her snarky replies, etc. It didn’t seem like she was treating Alton with the respect he deserved (it is his show, after all!). I think the rest of the audience was in agreement as things got out of hand quickly with jokes and innuendos spoken by this lady that made me a little uncomfortable (this was supposed to be a family show, after all!). Clearly she had been drinking and I’m sure Alton was regretting his choice, but he did a good job keeping his cool, rolling with the punches, and kept the show moving.

After the show, I thought maybe she had been a plant and the whole scenario had been scripted/planned. I called my sister who had seen the show a few weeks earlier in Chicago, though, and she confirmed nothing like the sort had happened. Now, that’s not to say the show couldn’t have multiple plants but I’m pretty sure Alton was just picking random people and really had no idea what he was in for.

So, Mr. Brown, I apologize for last night and hope you still managed to have a good time here in Tampa. Thanks for an incredible evening!

Sunspot 1429

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March has been a good telescope month so far. The past few evenings have seen Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and the moon all gracing the night sky. And during the day, sunspot 1429 has been visible on the surface of the sun. I took my telescope out in the back yard this afternoon and got a decent shot of the latest sunspot.

I know it looks like dust on the lens, but those dark splotches on the lower left side of the sun are actually an active sunspot. Check out Phil Plait’s version that puts the size of the sunspot into perspective!

Atlantis lifts off, shuttle program comes to an end

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The skies were gray but that didn’t detract from the beauty of the last space shuttle launch. It sounded like they might scrub the launch at the last minute due to the weather, but Atlantis lifted on-time, taking a huge load of supplies up to the international space station.

I wasn’t lucky enough to be selected for KSC tickets in the raffle so I had to settle for watching the last launch live on NASA TV on my iPad. I love listening to the live feed (although there were a lot of prepared speeches this time).

It’s hard to believe STS-135 is the last shuttle mission, ending a 30-year program. Sadly, it will be years before another manned spacecraft blasts off from U. S. soil. I wore my Constellation polo shirt to work today as a little reminder of what could have been (or what still might be).

At least I got to see a few launches live, although only one up close and personal (well, from Titusville … a spectacular night launch of Endeavour in 2002 for STS-113). And, of course, I’ll always remember Challenger and Columbia (the very first shuttle launched for STS-1).

Remembering Challenger

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The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and “slipped the surly bonds of earth” to “touch the face of God.” – President Ronald Reagan

25 years ago today, the space shuttle Challenger exploded seventy-three seconds after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts aboard. January 28, 1986 is one of those days that I will never forget where I was when I heard the news.

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Full moon + lunar eclipse + winter solstice = wow

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Did you catch the lunar eclipse this morning? My daughter and I got up at 3am to check out the red moon through the telescope.

I think the coolest thing was being able to see stars around the moon through the telescope. Usually it’s so bright it will block out everything else nearby, but this morning there was an amazing amount of visible stars. This was also the first lunar eclipse during a full moon that occured on the winter solstice since 1638. The next time that will happen will be in 2094.

WIJFR: Anathem

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On the far-future Earth-like planet, Arbre, scientists, philosophers and mathematicians—a religious order unto themselves—have been cloistered behind concent (convent) walls. Their role is to nurture all knowledge while safeguarding it from the vagaries of the irrational saecular outside world. Among the monastic scholars is 19-year-old Raz, collected into the concent at age eight and now a decenarian, or tenner (someone allowed contact with the world beyond the stronghold walls only once a decade). But millennia-old rules are cataclysmically shattered when extraterrestrial catastrophe looms, and Raz and his teenage companions—engaging in intense intellectual debate one moment, wrestling like rambunctious adolescents the next—are summoned to save the world.

I just finished Neal Stephenson’s “Anathem.” Considering it took me about 4 months of occasional reading to get through the 761 pages of “Blue Mars,” completing the 981 pages of “Anathem” in just under two months was definitely faster than I expected.

I’ve read all of Stephenson’s previous work, so it was a no-brainer that I would read “Anathem.” I didn’t even really know what it was about other than it took place on another planet, which immediately differentiates it from all of his prior works. You also know you’re in for it when the book starts out with a “note to the reader” containing a detailed historical time line and almost Dune-like glossary. Oh oh! So the first few chapters were pretty rough, trying to wrap my brain around the new vocabulary and immersing myself in the world of Erasmas, the narrative main character. Arbre is a strange place, but luckily there are similarities to our own world. For example, can you guess what kind of person an Ita is from this definition in The Dictionary?

Ita: A caste dwelling in the mathic world but segregated from the avout, responsible for all functions having to do with syntactic devices and the Reticulum.

Sound like anyone you know? There’s a hint in the first two letters. 😉

While perusing Neal Stephenson’s website earlier this evening, I discovered that there’s actually a trailer for the book!

There are also some good interviews here where Stephenson describes how he came up with the idea (he even mentions “Dune” and the glossary!) and how it ties in with his other books at a philosophical level. If you’re thinking about reading “Anathem” take a few minutes and watch the videos, it’s worth it. In fact, all of the introductory information on his site of course does a better job than I could do here describing the book. Be sure to go back when you’re done too, he’s even got some of the avout chants there from the musical score.

I worked out to my benefit that I started “Anathem” during my trip to Arizona for Spring Training because it gave me the chance to really focus and get sucked into the story. If I had started reading it in 20-page chunks as I am wont to do, I probably would have been more confused and not as enthralled. Check out this blog post I found that’s pretty accurate in describing how it can be hard to “get into” this particular book.

To close out this post, here’s a funny quote from the book that I actually marked so I would remember to mention it. I found it to be a comedic, yet strangely accurate, summary of the novel:

“Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs,” I said. “We have a protractor.”
“Ok, I’ll go home and see if I can scrounge up a ruler and a piece of string.”
“That’d be great.”

Julia Child, Mr. Wizard, Monty Python … Good Eats Turns 10

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Good Eats Turns 10This afternoon I was at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center in Atlanta, GA watching the live matinee performance of “Good Eats Turns 10” with Alton Brown. What a blast! I had a fantastic time.

TV camerasI don’t think I’ve been to a live TV show recording before (except for sporting events), so it was cool to see all the HD cameras, including the boom camera and the guys with the steadicams roaming around on the stage and in the audience. I was in the seventh row from the stage so I had a great view of the action plus it should be easy to find myself in some of the panning crowd shots (I was wearing my gold “Science, it’s what’s for dinner” t-shirt).

Patrick Belden (who composes all of the music for the show) and his Small Orchestra warmed up the crowd before the performance while they displayed a slide show of behind-the-scenes photos on the huge chalkboard that was the projector screen. The on-stage set consisted of the orchestra on the left, the giant chalkboard in the center (“not the actual chalkboard from the show” quipped Alton), and tons of Good Eats props on either side (“As you can see,” Alton said, “we kinda just dumped the truck.”). I spotted such classics as the beef cow, the lemon meringue pie slice, the giant popcorn kernel, etc.

Good Eats turns 10 stageThe stage manager briefed us on how to applaud out on the “commercial breaks” (i.e., “we’ll be right back!”) and then also gave us our cues to applaud when coming back from those breaks (i.e., “welcome back to Good Eats Turns 10!”). We also practiced yelling “Good Eats” as part of the opening theme music for the beginning of the show.

Without spoiling any of the surprises for those of you who will be watching the birthday show when it airs on Food Network, he’s a basic breakdown of the episode:

  • Alton sits down with Ted Allen for some interview questions about Good Eats, how he came up with the idea for the show, what his philosophy is (“laughing brains are more absorbent”), etc. The interview is supplemented with video clips, along with Alton’s countdown of his top 10 favorite Good Eats recipes and his favorite inventions/hacks.
  • Ted challenges Alton to create an invention out of the only uni-tasker in his kitchen. This was a great segment, just like on the show: Alton pieces together the hack while talking/thinking quietly to himself as the band vamps the theme music in the background.
  • … 15 minute intermission …
  • Alton brings out three of the winners of the “Good Eats Turns 10” contest to challenge him head-to-head in Good Eats Trivia Takedown.
  • Ted interviews the Good Eats Players (Bart Hansard, Daniel Pettrow, Widdi Turner, Lucky Yates, and another “special guest” who wanders in a little later) about what it’s like to work on the show.
  • And finally, what’s a birthday show without a birthday cake? Alton, Ted, “sister” Marsha, and W put together a cake, “Good Eats” style!
  • Curtain call: the entire cast and crew present, including Alton’s wife and daughter, come out on stage and receive a standing ovation from the audience.

All told, the show was about two and a half hours! It was really cool seeing all of these celebrities (or “cable-lebrities” as Ted Allen put it) in person just a few feet away, on stage. Portions were obviously scripted, but since it was being done in front of a live audience there was a lot of ad-libbing going on, in addition to interaction with and responding to the crowd. There were a few technical difficulties (I saw one of the steadicam guys on stage slip and almost fall over!) and even something for the blooper reel.

Only one thing really annoyed me: I won’t say too much, but let’s just say that one of the contest winners was really annoying once she got up on stage. She apparently didn’t realize (or care?) that the show was about Alton and Good Eats, not about her. She kept trying to throw out funny lines, or interact with Alton more than she needed to, which caused what I thought was some awkwardness between Alton, Ted, and herself that really detracted from the segment. I really hope the editors are able to piece something usable out of that (or maybe cut her out entirely). Maybe I’ll comment on this more once the show airs.

“Good Eats Turns 10” will air on Food Network on October 10. Watch for me! 😉

P.S. The title of this post is a reference to one of Ted’s first questions to Alton (“what do these words mean to you?”) Can you guess what the answer is? Tune in to find out!