It must be Saturday.

There's bluegrass & country music on the FM radio so it must be Saturday.
You can't see the raindrops in the picture but I assure you they are there. 15 minuets ago the rain ran deep as it rushed through the street. A tropical rain to be sure. Another day not to walk. Today I'd get swept away by the current. I chose to take this pic from the dryness of my covered front stoop.
This is a good day to watch football but that's all over.
Yesterday two aviation oriented magazines were delivered to me by the US Postal Service so I substituted them for the quantum mechanical fare I've become addicted to as of late. Reading them is as close to flying as I choose to get. But I'll always miss looking down on the world from 3500 feet agl.
Running out of gas is proof that we're all stupid on some level. But we're all on this flight together.
Dick

String Theory I understand but entanglement... not so much.

Here is a photo I took this morning on my walk. It was tough this am after a 4 day layoff but my little friend lifted my spirits for the last 100 yards of the walk.
I'm deep in the book on entanglement and have no idea what he's saying. I slog though it every morning but am afraid I'm wasting my time. String Theory I understand but entanglement... not so much. He talks about encryption and quantum computers but I have yet to see the connection with entanglement.
Maybe it will be clear some day.
Technical confusion is proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

I'm baaaacck.

It seems like everything I've tried works so I suppose I'm back in the blog business.
I haven't walked in the past three days because I'd melt in the rain I'm so sweet. But I'll get back to it tomorrow.
In the meantime I finished the book on antimatter. All I proved is that English writers are incomprehensible. Extraneous details in the middle of an idea and verbose.... let me tell you. the old saying that he talks a lot but doesn't say anything applies to Republicans and English writers. And to add insult to injury, it was a thin book. So I'm back to the book on entanglement which is nearly incomprehensible. I hope I get credit for perseverance.
Incomprehensible books are proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

I'll be off the air for a few days.

I'll be off the air for a few days. I've been having some problems with the computer since the power supply was replaced. So off to the Steve Jobs environment repair shop for a short holiday. In the meantime my telephone works.
Computer repairs are proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

The missing man formation.

As a measure of my patriotism, I present a photo of the maneuver known as 'the missing man' formation, a tribute to comrades who have gone on to that Great Hangar in the Sky.. The plane with smoke on is just leaving the formation to leave an empty place in the formation. This was taken at the Chino Airshow earlier this year.
In order to postpone my flight to Hawaii, I started reading a book on entanglement. Entanglement is a quantum mechanical theory in which the parameters of particles are connected in such a mysterious way that each particle 'knows' the condition of the other particle no matter how far they are separated. Even at opposite ends of the Universe. The fascination comes when one of the particles changes a parameter, say spin, the other particle at the other end of the Universe knows it INSTANTLY. Not at the speed of light but instantly. My problem is like a lot of things lately, I don't understand it......yet. It does sink in eventually.
Ideas that sink in are proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

That's the way it's been.

It must be Sunday, the funnies are in color. The cartoonm in 4 panels, "Mutts" is approreiate today. First panel titled NEWS shows a dog sitting behind the anchors desk saying,
" ..and now a world update."
Second panel he says,
"The sun rose.
The birds sang.
Rivers flowed.
Grass grew.
Flowers bloomed.
Snow fell.
The stars twinkled."
Third panel shows him just thinking.
Last panel still titled NEWS he says,
"And that's the way it is.".
And that's the way it's been.
Cartoons on Sunday are proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

PCR multiplies the amount of DNA.

When the person on CSI swabs the perps mouth for DNA there isn't enough DNA to make an identification so they subject the swab to a process known as PCR. PCR multiplies the amount of DNA so there is enough to use. Exact duplicates of the small amounts of DNA on the swab are made.
One of the challenges of String Theory is that the size of the assumed strings is 17 orders of magnitude smaller than say, a proton. Very small. Too small to have any real chance of seeing them. However, Einstein showed us that it is a fallacy that space is made up of three dimensions of space and one of time. Instead he showed that we live in a spacetime environment. But it is clear that the time dimension is something different from the three spatial dimensions.
For instance time runs in only one direction, but space dimensions can run in any direction.
So lets assume for the moment that the time dimension is curled up so small as to be right next to the spatial dimensions at all times. Now two bits of information can travel faster than the speed of light because it hardly travels any 'distance' at all. So could we find a process that multiplies space dimensions in a manner similar to the PCR process? Sort of a quantum telescope.
There's the concept. All that remains is for the reader to take the trivial step to make it real.
Or not.
PCR is proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

A Klein bottle?

The photo is of brother Bob standing next to Dick DeBoer and his twin girls. Taken at the award ceremony for him, Dick is the EMT who watched me land and hurried over to stabilize me. In retrospect, he probably saved my life or saved me from being a quadriplegic for the rest of my life, thanks again, Dick. I never noticed before that the girls are significantly different in size.
A Klein bottle is similar to a mobious strip. The mobious strip is a strip of paper with a half twist and the ends fastened. The result is a donut shaped strip with only ONE surface, not two. A Klein bottle is a carafe shaped vessel in which the inside and the outside are the same surface. What goes inside, is also outside. Both are interesting mathematical curiosities. Very Escher.
I've finished the book on the Large Hadron Collider. What a monster. The particles journey around a 27 km beam before colliding in a detector the size of a large building. When I went to school accelerators were built on tabletops: injector accelerator and detector. The first 9 trans uranium elements were discovered in Berkley using equipment not much more complex than that. Now the Large Hadron Collider has four detectors each the size of a building each designed to investigate specific events just after the Big Bang. And life was so simple before. I'm glad I read that book although not directly concerned with String Theory, it opened my eyes to the size and benefits of the most expensive (and complex) scientific experiment to date. Or not.
One book closer to Hawaii. On to Matter/Antimatter.
Klein bottles are proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

Formation flying.

I have nothing to say this morning so here's a photo of four planes doing synchronized aerobatics.
Formation flying is proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

Today I present pictorially my old friend,"The Worlds Greatest Wino" in Venice Beach. You may have seen this before but repetition is always effective.
Pondering the Universe last week I considered the consequences of String Theory again. The theory has two main appeals to me. First: dimensionless things like protons and neutrons or people never made sense to me. If a thing exists it has size.
Secondly: Since all things are the result of different resonances of the same string, changing the resonances will change entire objects including the alchemists dream of turning lead into gold. However, since Einstein taught us that the smaller the frequency of the resonance the higher the energy needed to change it. In other words to change lead strings into gold strings would require more energy than the gold would be worth. Example: The energy needed to pluck a violin string is far greater than the energy released by the sound of the same string. Yet we've all known of instances in which the vibration of one string can lead to sympathetic vibration in a second string. And at very low energy transfer. So I conclude that one could turn lead into gold by using a system which would transfer the required energy by sympathetic resonance. I leave it to the reader to resolve the engineering triviality.
Or not.
Engineering trivialities are proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Not an RV-7A but ain't she purty? All dolled up in Green and cream.
Using the Stumbleupon program this morning, up came the randomly selected "The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster". This from Wikipedia, includes a summary of the Pastafarian Creation Myth. I'll have to get back to that later and see what new ideas are held therein.
I drove out to Historic Flabob Airport yesterday for the monthly meeting of EAA Chapter One. I got a late start so I rolled up about 10 minutes late. The hangar seemed almost empty except for the home built Plane-of-the-Month RV-7A beautifully sitting alone off to the side. It turned out that he had flown it over for nothing and graciously offered to return next month. Incidentally, my plane,"Sound of Freedom" was the first Plane-of-the-Month. My eyes focused on the 10 people sitting just about to close the meeting due to nobody came . The suspicion is that Valentines Day cut the attendance. Well.... I got to chat with a few old friends and off I went. It was a nice day for a drive.
Flying Spaghetti Monsters are proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

Good old Budda.

4 of the 5 original designers of the Macintosh computer were left-handed.
On the left I give you Good old Budda. Tigger is a gentle cat when left alone but very standoffish. She interacts on her own terms and complains vociferously if I try to push her. Budda on the other hand has always been very laid back and has wanted to be close to people. Like all cats he had a variety of vocalizations, mostly to insistently call my attention to the fact that it was dinner time. His major problem is his internal clock is about 10 minutes too fast. Every morning, 10 minutes before 'up and at'em time' in comes Budda, plants himself on top of my covered body and cries. Not a quiet "It's time to get up" purr but a very insistent noise best described as a howl. He's learned that I get up following his noise so he's taken to making that howl several times throughout the day. He'll stand by the back door and stare at it to be let out but never a sound. Then later he'll be back on my bed when out of nowhere shouts his howl, or he'll be in the kitchen (away from his feeding area) and just let go. When I go to him to determine what terrible tragedy he has encountered, there he sits with a 'what do you want?' look about him. Cats. But you gotta love 'em.
Enigmatic cats are proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

I had a busy day planned.

There hasn't been much happening lately so I dug into the archives of my photographs and came up with this one of a young Taiko drummer. Not more than 10 or 11 years old and she was keeping up with the best of them.
I had a busy day planned to include going out to Historic Flabob Airport for the monthly EAA Chapter One meeting. Well the well known poet told us, "The best laid plans.....". For starters when I went to the Internet to check the starting time I found out the meeting is tomorrow (the day the funny papers are in color). That throws off the whole timing. Oh well, just a verification of "The best laid plans....."
Fact: More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in aircrashes.
The best laid plans are proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

Isaac Newton is a friend of mine.

Sorry about the delay but I just forgot the blog. My short term memory must be going.
The photo is of two inspectors who had come by to inspect the Sonex under construction (in better days). They are critiquing the horizontal stabiliser.
Isaac Newton is a friend of mine. When I ponder the attraction quantum mechanics a ind string theory have for me it is hard to understand. Why the fascination with something I will never see or smell? Then in one of the books I've read lately, there it was. A quote from my friend and guide to the most mysterious interaction of all, gravity, Isaac Newton. "I was like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." How simple and yet describes the complex thought process of a great scientist. It's all out there waiting to be discovered.
Finding the Higgs boson at the LHC will prove that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

Mindless meandering.

The P-40 restoration from Planes of Fame at Chino airport is shown here as an historic vehicle. This is the plane flown by the Flying Tigers to hold back the Japanese invasion of China at the start of WWII.
Last week on one of my walks in which I ducked between the raindrops , I wondered why music has such an over riding appeal to me. I like story songs which have a beginning, a middle and an end. And rhythm and rhyme are important. Put a few tasteful instruments behind the singer and it's heaven to me. But there's nearly always a connection to my life. One song which has always drawn my attention is "South Coast" which has been covered by a number of folk singers. It's the story of a cowboy living in the hills surrounding Big Sur in California around the turn of the century. One night he slipped and broke his hip and his wife "rode off for a doctor in Jolon". She fell and died when her horse shied in the night at a mountain lion "For the lion still rules the barranca". What poetry. Harlan Howard, the old country singer said that a country song is "three chords and the truth". A Truth in itself.
Now I tell you that to tell you this: Every time hear that song I am reminded of an old dear friend who was married to a beautiful, caring young woman (I had signed their marriage certificate to make the marriage legal). They were out riding their horses on a trail in the hills south of San Jose when her horse shied and she was knocked off. As she lay unconscious, he had to make the decision whether to leave her alone in the remote location as he went for help or to stay at her side and offer whatever help he could. A Hobson's choice for sure. I've never been sure what I would have done. He left her and, luckily, quickly found a jogger who went to call 911 (this was before cell phones) as he returned to his wife. She died 3 days later in an ICU with him at her side.
What's important to me in this story is that this friend has had the quality of making me think about the larger meaning of life for over thirty years. This friend recently reinforced this function when he became a born again Christian after a life of decidedly unChristianlike behaviour. Never malicious but always a thoughtful independent.
A Hobson's choice is always proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

A local weather report.

We had heavy rain in the flatlands last week but there were 43 homes evacuated and 6 totally destroyed in the hills north of LA due to landslides. The land had been denuded during the past fire season. Building in those areas is like building on an earthquake fault ( which we also do). The problem? Too many people. It's the same thing around the world, too many people and too few resources. Fifty years ago we didn't have the problems we face today. Then again if I had been elected Governor of Cal..... What might have been.
In Eastern US there are storms abounding. Record snows in Washington DC shutting everything down. Thinking about it, maybe that's a good thing. I haven't been in weather like that since I could choose to be there and go skiing. But now? Not so much thank you.
And in Fullerton the temperature will top out today at about 65. But standing in the sun it's more like 85. However the rain is expected back tomorrow and then to be on and off for the next week or so. More houses to float away. It used to be yearly floods in the flatlands.
Breakfasts on week days is proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

Great oaks from little acorns grow.

Last week my dependable Mac had its power supply fail. A minor problem to be sure. But great oaks from little acorns grow. The computer worked OK beofre but some functions wouldn't work properly. But it worked. The operating system which had been corrupted by Budda who about 6 months ago had taken to sitting on the keyboard. The computer worked OK but some functions wouldn't work properly. But it worked. So I also instructed the repair guy to repair the operating system while he ahd it. Therein lay the problem.
Now, after the reconstruction there are a number of functions that prevent me from using the entire suite of functions the Mac offers. The most serious drawback is that the download functions will not download, videos will display correctly from Quicktime but not from inside AOL( although I did load pics from the computer to the blog for the entry late yesterday). And it won't download pictures from the digital camera. Beside all that its slow as Hell. Typical of my approach to life, I'll meditate on it and see what comes of it.
More to come as I figure out work arounds to the present short comings. Or correct them.
Computer problems are proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

I'm here. I'm here!

I'm here. I'm here! I was gone for a few days when my Mac quit on me. The repair place must be slow because I got overnight service to Saturday! They even found all my photos. The pics are the Bell X-2 rocket ship on the scrap heap at Chino's Planes of Fame.
I'm gone for now but will pick up tomorrow.
LA Computer's service is proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

Sorry 'bout that.

Whooops. My bad. I try not to skip more than one day between posts and somehow I missed both Monday and Tuesday. Sorry 'bout that.
Here's a picture of a pretty aeroplane to make up for it.
My life tends to be very boring lately. Boring to others, not to me. I ordered a couple of new books from Amazon. I feel guilty about not supporting a local bookstore but it's so convenient when you order a book and they propose several others on similar interests. It's like a popular quantum science reading list. And all pertinent. But this recent reading frenzy started when I found Lisa Randall's "Warped Passages", about hidden extra dimensions in a local bookstore.
Science sure is wonderful! I know a lot of people could care less about String Theory or quarks and such, but I don't understand that attitude. I still remember the tears of joy shed as I watched Carl Sagan present "Cosmos" on the electric TV. And more recently Brian Greene introducing String Theory to the masses. TV is more than a narcotic. Bless their hearts.
Prime numbers (87) are proof that we're all on this flight together.
Dick