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

Jewelweed

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine.

This beautiful wildflower signals the end of summer in NH.

Sadly, jewelweed is too delicate to put into a vase. If you cut the stem, it wilts almost instantly.

I’m glad memories have so much more staying power!

Everyone’s favorite Irish person Dervala joins a whitewater caravan down the American River.

… he placed Friday with the Alpbacher technology discussions under proof, i.e. as a singer in the mini opera “Atom and Eve”.

Thus the first public review of Frank’s opera debut, at least in the fine words of Google language tools. Marc Abrahams adds that people can now see the entire opera online–not that I’ve managed that, with my current elderly-Mac-on-NH-cafe-wifi. Maybe when I get home… Looking on the bright side, I did get to see the real happening.

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.

“We don’t have any record of anything like this happening before,” says a spokeman for the 114-year old Iowa Corn Palace, describing crop failures after a summer of local drought and heat (reaching 120 degrees at a weather station in South Dakota.)

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.

The often-illuminating Mr. Sun marks his dad’s birthday with stories…

And this year–what a story!

Alpine cemetery glows at night from candles lit on each grave

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine.

The village churchyard of Alpbach, Austria, which recycles its limited graves so that monuments name only those most recently buried.

Frank brought me here by midnight candelight to see the grave of Erwin Schrödinger, who has been exempted from the recycling.

Is Schrödinger’s cat buried here?

Please! We’re still not sure if Schrödinger’s cat is dead.

p.s. The village of Alpbach now gets most of its income from tourism–how does it preserve its rural quality and family farms?

Intelligent planning by the Austrian government! You cannot buy real estate in the village of Alpbach unless you personally will live there six months of the year. Therefore–no grand hotels, no vacation MacMansions.

Can the Alpbachians enforce such a law? They can and do. In several cases, people lost title to new purchases when their garbage collectors or mailmen reported their houses standing empty for months at a time.

As we walked through the dark streets of Alpbach after the opera, people kept stopping Frank–“You are the oxygen atom!” Plus many enthusiastic remarks on his singing, which I’ll refrain from repeating because I don’t want his head to become too big! (Alas, Frank’s literally-big head is already too big for the largest size of Alpine hat sold here in Alpbach.) The beautiful soprano Eve (Diane Shooman), meanwhile, was surrounded by interviewers from Austrian radio, which is a shame because her red dress and glamorous fishnet “lab coat” deserve a much wider audience. Best Marilyn-Monroe singing ever! Alas, my camera chose last night to develop mysterious problems with speed and focus, so that my own record of these events is as blurred as it might be by two bottles of Champagne…which I didn’t drink, enjoying instead all the tipsiness of success without any next-morning-hangover aftermath. Thomas Oliva, one of the main organizers for this whole event, also found time to organize lab coats, laser pointers, helium balloons, and many other extras for our show, including flowers for the soprano’s curtain call and–for Marc Abrahams and Frank Wilczek–authentic Alpine boots! So I was very glad that Thomas also got to join us onstage as one of our “scientist” with laser beams–as did Krishna Nathan of IBM, Kathryn List (Vice President of the European Forum Alpbach), and two other scientists of great dramatic ability whose names I hope to discover and blog here later, one of them the heart surgeon whose lab provided all lab coats except for Diane’s fishnet special. To anyone who googled here from “scientific wrangling”–oops, not quite. But as some consolation, from this scientist wrangler, here are the written-down guidelines for five unrehearsed people who got cast in our mini-opera ten minutes pre-curtain. And they were great! In case the Metropolitan Opera phones me about doing a re-staging there, I’d better go find out the names of those other two scientists!*

* Our two other scientist-opera-stars were Heinrich Mächler, Professor at the University Clinic in Graz and Professor Wolf Rauch, Professor for Information Technology at Graz University, long-term rector of his University, now also member of the Styrian Parliament. Thanks once again to Thomas Oliva, for this information!

t-zero. After a speaker who talks about Liechtenstein, Marc will take audience questions. Then go with Betsy to join the opera singers behind their screen (diagram zero), and get a laser pointer from her if you don’t already have one.

t-one. After Eve goes onstage, she will beckon to us. We follow her up onto the stage and stand together, upstage and stage right (diagram one). Our role here is half scientist, half science machine. Therefore we stand very still and look very serious during the singing.

t-two. When Eve sings “..it involves laser beams…” that is our CUE. Machine-like, we raise our laser pointers and shine them on Atom’s shoes. This brings him to life and makes him move around, but try to keep the light shining on his shoes.

t-three. When Eve sings “if those lasers blink..” that is our CUE. We turn off our laser pointers and, machine-like, lower them again.

t-final! The curtain call! Now we cast off machine-like qualities–we can even clap for Atom, Eve, Paul (the pianist,) and Marc. While they are bowing we make a single line across the back of the stage to take our own bow, on behalf of all scientists everywhere. Then we bow again as part of the ensemble. We leave the stage after Atom and Eve–and don’t forget to give Betsy back her laser pointers!

The oxygen atom, thinking about the scientist Eve

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine.

My new career, glamor photographer–this is fun! But then, my first 637 careers were fun also…

Career number 638 is “scientist wrangler.” I have to organize 5 volunteers with laser beams who will–but I don’t want to spoil the ending.

“Scientist wrangler.” That sounds a bit like my career number 432. And 527 and maybe 611 also…

Via our friends at Annals of Improbable Research, the TSA has new advice to travelers:

We encourage everyone to pack gel-filled bras in their checked baggage.

In other improbable news, tune in later today for the webcast of Atom and Eve, Friday, August 25, 2006, 7:00 pm, Austria time (6:00 pm in London; 1:00 pm in New York; 10 am in Los Angeles; and, to quote (as one so often should) Marc Abrahams, “other times in other places, of course.”