Betsy Devine: Funny ha-ha and/or funny peculiar

Bonnie and Clyde redux

Originally uploaded by Northfield.org.

Baseball-sized hail fell in Northfield, Minnesota on August 24. Hailstones ripped through glass, punched holes in tile, and left big dents on metal.

Earlier this month, a microburst blew through NH, snapping or ripping up hundred year-old trees, one of which totaled Frank’s car. (Thanks, Commerce Insurance, for your quick and considerate handling of our claim!)

A sadder story from that event was the even-bigger tree that destroyed a nearby cottage–trapping two ninety-something people inside it. The Northwood fire crew had to chainsaw in through a wall to rescue them. Insurance won’t do much to make that story less tragic.

“I first came to this house in 1917,” the husband told rescuers. “I’ve never seen weather anything like this before.” Speaking from a mere 20 years there myself, I’d have to agree.

Hey, if “there is no global warming” advocates can promote anecdotal evidence (apparently there is one glacier in New Zealand that grew when all other glaciers were shrinking), I’ll do the same.

In a more scholarly vein, from the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, check out “Mixing Politics and Science in Testing the Hypothesis That Greenhouse Warming is Causing a Global Increase in Hurricane Intensity“(thanks, Tingilinde!)

But now–I have a new thought for ExxonMobil’s supporters on how to promote their “no global warming” mantra. Take the No Global Warming Pledge: “I promise that I will buy 100 air conditioners for poor families before I buy even one more for my own family.” That would show real sincerity, and maybe do some real good.

Our home phone has been ringing off the hook in response to this press release from the IgNobellians:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

=================================================
Nobel Physicist Makes Operatic Debut
— Frank Wilczek Plays Amorous Atom in the Alps–
=================================================

ALPBACH, AUSTRIA, August 18, 2006 — Frank Wilczek already has a Nobel Prize, but on August 25 he will be honored on an even higher level — topographically higher, that is. In the Austrian mountain village of Alpach, elevation 1,000 meters above sea level, Wilczek will sing the lead role in the the opera “Atom & Eve.”

This will be Frank Wilczek’s operatic singing debut, as well as the first time “Atom & Eve” has been performed in Austria. The opera recounts the romance between a humble oxygen atom and the beautiful female chemist who spies him one day in her microscope. In the great tradition of operatic lovers from Tristan and Iseult to Rudolph and Mimi, Atom and Eve have some obvious difficulties to overcome. Professor Diane Shooman of Vienna will co-star, in the role of Eve. Pianist Paul Luggar of the Innsbruck Conservatory will accompany the singers.

Wilczek is Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2004 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics, for work on subatomic particles indicating that distance makes the quarks grow fonder (or at least increases their attraction). Diane Shooman teaches at the FH Technikum-Wien in Vienna, and at the University of Art in Linz.

“Atom & Eve” is a featured part of the 2006 Alpbach Technology Conference. The conference brings business, government, science and other leaders from around the world together for several days, high up in the tiny town once voted “the most beautiful village” in Austria. Conference speakers and attendees debate the significance of technological developments for the business world and society, as well as living standards, quality of life, and competitiveness.

“Atom & Eve” debuted in 2003 at the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony at Harvard University. The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. Marc Abrahams, organizer of the Ig Nobel Prizes, wrote the opera’s libretto. Abrahams is also the editor of the science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research. Abrahams will deliver a talk about the opera, and about the Ig Nobel Prizes, and improbable research in general. A past Ig Nobel Prize winner — Karl Schwärzler, the entrepreneur who made it possible to rent the entire nation of Liechtenstein for corporate conventions, weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other gatherings — will also give a brief talk.

The “Atom & Eve” performance, together with talks by Marc Abrahams and Karl Schwärzler, will be webcast live on Friday, August 25, 2006, beginning at 7:00 pm Austria time.

=================================
WEBCAST DETAILS:

WHEN: Friday, August 25, 2006, beginning at 7:00 pm (Austria time)

WHERE ON THE WEB:
The webcast will be streamed in both German and English:
GERMAN:
http://www.alpbach.org/deutsch/forum2006/technologie.htm
ENGLISH: http://www.alpbach.org/English/forum2006/technologie.htm
=================================
OTHER INFO:

Alpbach Technology Forum: <http://www.alpbach.org/>

Annals of Improbable Research: <http://www.improbable.com/>

Frank Wilczek:
<http://web.mit.edu/physics/facultyandstaff/faculty/frank_wilczek.html>

Libretto of “Atom & Eve”:
<http://www.improbable.com/ig/2003/atom-eve-libretto.html>

“How Kissing Works” –excuse me, Google, I know that HowStuffWorks page title says “kissing”, but their visual (unlike mine) is a face with no skin, while the article (“cooties?”) has strong pro-abstinence vibes…I’m not sure your ads for high-priced lip balm work here.

Oh, and a tie-in to Mobil Travel Guides, which sent me to check out the HowStuffWorks take on
“How Gas Prices Work.”

Mmm, a scholarly-looking breakdown with info on crude oil prices, demand, taxes, and–but something is missing, those record profits for oil companies. MSNBC News in July seemed to think that was part of the story:

With crude trading around $60 a barrel, the oil industry is enjoying one of the biggest windfalls in its history…

“This is the mother of all booms,” said Oppenheimer & Co. oil analyst Fadel Gheit. “They have so much profit, it’s almost an embarrassment of riches. They don’t know what to do with it.” …Since January 2002, stocks of major oil companies have gained 88 percent; during that period the Standard and Poor’s 500 index has gained less than half as much….

MSNBC notes that “All of this industry good fortune has not escaped the notice of consumers,” which does kind of leave you wondering how it manages to go unnoticed at HowStuffWorks…

How does that work, HowStuffWorks?

I have never used the phrase “theory of everything”– except to reproach some of my colleagues for using the phrase.

I like a theory that is a theory of this, or a theory of that.

The story goes that Mr. Irvine owned an enormous spread of land in between Los Angeles and San Diego, where he farmed and ranched and worried about the future business potential of farming and ranching. His ecomonic worries ended when the University of California built a university on some of the land from his ranch, making the rest of it worth millions more dollars.

And they decided to build a university here because land to build it on was a free gift from Mr. Irvine.

Mad scientist science at its most photogenic…

And the Internet lets us enjoy the madness from a comfortable, not-wearing-eye-protection, not-sprayed-from-head-to-toe-by-fizzy-stuff distance.

Thank you, thank you, EepyBird.com!

Early Wednesday morning:
01:02:03 04/05/06.

Frank Paynter says it comes but once a millennium.

Yes,
comments Netherlands Niek,
but for most of the world,
that “once”
happens on May 4
not April 5.

Frankly, my dear, I hope to be sleeping through both.

Everyone’s favorite smart alec Gary Farber emailed me to point out that similar moments will happen in 2106, 2206, 2306, etc. Er–yes, now that I come to think of it–thanks, Gary. So, does that make them into centurial moments?

An eagle sits on a nest.

Wind ruffles a feather.

One rain droplet sparkles.

Then another.

The bird turns her head very slighly to one side….

I could watch this all day, even if I didn’t have other work I should be doing…

Towards a new test of general relativity? from PhysOrg.com
Scientists funded by the European Space Agency have measured the gravitational equivalent of a magnetic field for the first time in a laboratory. Under certain special conditions the effect is much larger than expected from general relativity and could help physicists to make a significant step towards the long-sought-after quantum theory of gravity.
[…]

But the force detected was a gajillion times stronger than the force predicted…How lovely that gravity still has some surprises!

I’ve spent a lifetime battling mess and confusion, moving bits of information and solace around to where I think they’ll do the most good. The Second Law of Thermodynamics says that mine is a mug’s game, something that can’t be won. But, like the veriest videogame addict, I keep on battling, happy for each small victory.

Frank is a First-Law-of-Thermodynamics person. Balanced, honest, square–the energy in equals the energy out. I realized this yesterday as I lay in a beach chair watching him swim and swim and swim away all the calories of his really-quite-restrained breakfast.

So I guess I’d have to admit ours is a mixed marriage.

Just one more physics concept that you’ve surely noticed: reversing time’s arrow. Lots of experimental work going on all around us, most of it expensive.

But who am I to judge? Botoxers, sports-car drivers, and entropy warriors–we should probably all get together on one secret handshake.