smokerblog

Plenty of Time to Submit "Zymurgy"

On Christmas, while driving with Kari
We heard a report that was scary.
An interview was conducted
Of these chaps who constructed
An Online Limerick Dictionary.

Merry Christmas Dylan

According to Technorati there is a new blog created every 5.8 seconds. Or at least so says PC Magazine, who is taking note of this phenomena by nominating the founders of Blogger and Six Apart as People of the Year for 2004.

So if you know someone who is starting a new blog, big whup, right? Well sure, it is a big whup when the blogger is someone as cool as Big Daddy Darling, who has started up a new site to commemorate the birth of his son Dylan. And a beatiful baby he is, too, a perfect Christmas present for his proud parents.

The Long and the Short of It

Seth pointed me to the Grumpy Old Bookman's site, specifically his post about Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle and less specifically his extended rant about the "problem of length" (which ironically required four lenghty posts: 1, 2, 3, and 4). I admire the GOB and I concede his point that some authors punish their reader, thinking that a long book imparts gravitas when, in fact, the additional mass merely increases his book's gravitational pull.

But there is more going on here. There is also the matter of taste. For instance, the GOB appreciates Neal Stephenson despite his tendency for excessive verbosity, but some readers are just as likely to throw Quicksilver across the room in frustration (risking rotator cuff injury, for sure). By the same token, I enjoyed The Corrections, one of the books the GOB compares to a "slab of concrete." And don't even get me started on Infinite Jest (a book I can't put down, herniated disks notwithstanding) or The Tunnel (a book that I no longer have the strength to lift).

Truth is, when I enjoy an author's writing, I don't want it to end. The short books written by Italo Calvino and Michael Ondaatje consistently leave me hungry for more after I eat through them in one or two sittings. Don DeLillo's slim Cosmopolis utterly failed to excite me, but I tore through his 3-inch thick Underworld held me spellbound. But then, it should be obvious that, like Stephenson, I am not an adherent of the Cult of Brevity. While "short and sweet" might be good advice for young writers still honing their skills, almost all of the emphasis should be on the second half of that dictum, not the first.

Media Consumption for 2004

Not only is it the time of year to share good times with friends and family, it is also a time to reflect upon the year that has past. Basically, this is just an excuse to blather on one last time by making a "best of 2004" list. So here we go.

I successfully met my goal of reading at least one book per month (even though there are probably at least 12 more books sitting on my shelves waiting to be read). Next year, I should try for two books per month. Also, my music tastes have expanded in one direction toward "modern" classical music and minimalism and in another direction toward groovy, funkified jazz. And I sure there's a lot more where that came from.

On the other hand, we averaged only one movie per month. Interestingly, four of these were documentaries, two were animated, and one was performed by puppets. Time to update the Netflix queue for all the good movies we missed.

So here's my list of favorite media items of the year, listed in no particular order and consisting only of media I myself have actually consumed:

Books

Oblivion

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Why Globalization Works

The Grasshopper King

Motherless Brooklyn

Music

John Scofield - A Go Go

Medeski, Martin, & Wood - End of the World Party (just in case)

Tom Waits - Real Gone

Bob Sneider & Paul Hofmann - Interconnection

Antonio Pinto & Ed Côrtez - City of God (Soundtrack)

Terry Riley - In C

Steve Reich - Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint

Tommy Guerrero - Soul Food Taqueria

Galactic - Ruckus

Sean Hayes - Alabama Chicken

Jonas Kulhammar Quartet - Plays Loud For the People

Films

Touching the Void

The Triplets of Belleville

Goodbye Lenin

Note that these items were not necessarily released this year, I just happened to discover them myself.

The Universe on a String

Last night I caught a bit of NOVA's program, The Elegant Universe, which is apparently based on a book of the same name. The show was devoted to explaining the theories of physics that describe how our universe works and what holds it together. It specifically dealt with the tension that exists between mechanical physics and particle physics.

On the one hand, we have the laws first described by Newton and further refined by Einstein in his General Relativity Theory. These do a really good job at explaining the behavior of a universe governed by gravity, i.e., the one we live in every day, not to mention the cosmos filled with planets, stars, galaxies, etc.

On the other hand, we have the world of quantum physics, where the scale is so tiny that gravity plays little or no role. Instead, the weak nuclear force, the strong nuclear force, and electro-magnetism govern events at this scale.

Unfortunately, these two scientific theories are incompatible. Laws which describe the motions of the planets or the speed at which a go-cart rolls down a hill are useless in describing what happens when the nucleus of an atom splits. Similarly, the laws of quantum physics can lead to all kinds of what would be bizarre conclusions if we were to translate them to the world most of us are able to observe.

This wouldn't be a problem except where the two worlds collide, so to speak. In black holes, for instance, where a massive star has collapsed down to an almost impossibly small size, we need both Netwonian/Einsteinian physics to deal with this massive object, and also quantum physics to describe what's happening in the infinitesimal space. The same problem exists when trying to describe the events prior to the big bang.

The (apparent) solution? String Theory. This theory speculates that at a sub-sub-atomic, sub-quanta level, particles are made up of strings or loops of energy that vibrate in a way that determines the nature of the particle for which they are assigned. It's hard to say why this controversial idea works, except to say that the math works out perfectly.

But did I say it's controversial? There is one big problem. We can't see the strings. There are few (if any) options for effectively demonstrating the existence of strings. They are just too small to see.

Not to mention, even though the math is nice and elegant, it describes the universe as existing in ten dimensions. Ten. T-E-N. That's six more than we humans are really comfortable with. (Some humans aren't comfortable with the fourth dimension, time, but we'll just set that aside for now.)

I'd heard this idea before, but it's the kind of thing that the mind (mine, anyway) just boggles at. Try it now, moving from one dimension to another:

1st dimension to 2nd dimension

a point to a line

2nd to 3rda line to a cube

3rd to 4th

a cube to (brain starting to hurt) a cube changing as time passes

4th to 5th

a changing cube to...the sound of my brain exploding

I occasionally can get a toehold on the concept, but only if I concentrate really hard while it's explained very patiently, as they did on last night's show with the example of on ant walking around a telephone cable... yeah, I'm not going to try to explain that here, but check it out for yourself, the entire three-hour show is available online.

Ideal Christmas Shopping Weather

Here are the current (3:30 PM) weather conditions in Rochester, according to Yahoo and the Weather Channel (check out the predicted high and low temps):

Currently: 8° Light Snow High: 40° Low: 30°

Actually, I think those were yesterday's predicted temperatures. But still, today's high of 30° must have happened right at 12:01 AM.

Science Fiction Honkies

I was initially a little distraught at missing the recent airing of the Earthsea miniseries on the SciFi channel. As a teenager I'd really enjoyed the books on which this series is based and I'd hoped that it could live up to my expectations. According to Ursula K. LeGuin, the author of the books, it's probably a good thing that I missed it.

In a Slate article, LeGuin bemoans the "whitewashing" of her characters, which she had originally created in reaction to the trend where "everybody in science fiction had to be a honky named Bob or Joe or Bill." She also rails at the producer's interpretation of her books, claiming that the miniseries gets her world's cosmology entirely backwards.

There's a little bit of the Intentional Fallacy going on here and possibly some sour grapes, but her broader point is more condemning. The producers seem to have simply borrowed the characters and setting of the Earthsea trilogy to set up their own little adventure/romance story, shunning the deeper meaning that made her Earthsea books special.

Fetchez la Vache!

Here's a cool game suggested to me by Ted. It's a variation of the old artillery game where you blow things up by setting the angle and power of your artillery guns. This one has a medieval twist, testing your skill in distance, accuracy, and destructive power using a trebuchet.

My first score was 2225, my second was 2445.

(and sorry for the Monty Python reference)

My Browser's New Home Page

Google continues to amaze. Google Suggest, still in beta, provides a drop-down list of suggested search terms as you type.

No need to blather on about how cool this is. Just check it out for yourself.

Neutrogena Norwegian Formula

Third in an ongoing series of unsolicited endorsements:

The tube claims, "Just a dab heals dry skin." I don't know about "heals," but Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Hand Cream certainly makes my hands feel better. Knuckles that are cracked and chapped from frigid, early-morning, Rochester dog walks become smooth and supple after a light application of the hand cream. The small tube will last me through most of the winter without leaving behind the pungent aroma and oily texture of most bottled lotions.

Xmas Card for Geeks

For details, see the gratuitous nerdiness in yesterday's FoxTrot cartoon.

It took me a couple of minutes, but I eventually got it.

ANSWER: (highlight the text below to read it)

2.71828 = e
r² = r(r)
(1/y)^-1 = y
sqrt(x²) = x
force/acceleration = mass

THEREFORE:
m(e)r(r)y
x(mass)

ho! ho! ho!