Hawaii for Thanksgiving

I just returned from spending Thanksgiving in Hawaii. About 10 of us from Sacramento went over there for the week and a great time was had by all.

There were lots of memorable moments – snorkeling with the turtles and the multitude of brightly colored fishes, visiting the most southerly tip of the US, marveling at the delightfully warm and balmy atmosphere while minutes later suffering under what seemed like the most oppressive heat and humidity (I don't know how the atmosphere or my body's reaction to it can change so quickly). The most wonderful thing, of course, was being there with a great group of friends – my thanks to all, especially Bill and Cathy for coming up with the idea and for providing us with the impetus to do it.

One of the most interesting things we did was to visit the top of Mauna Kea – this majestic volcano in the middle of the island is some 13,796 ft above sea level. It’s a relatively short (couple of hours) drive from sea level up to the top and the road is not at all bad (just a few miles are unpaved). Of course, it is quite cold up there – there was snow on the ground (not a lot, but at certain times of the year you can ski there) and the wind was howling. It was a nice change from the tropical temperatures we had been experiencing down at sea level. On the top of Mona Kea are a cluster of telescopes from various institutions from around the world (the UK are there with an Infra Red telescope). It makes for quite a surreal landscape – the lunar landscape of the volcano, the surrounding mini-calderas, and then the collection of brightly shining telescopes.

The most significant telescope is the Keck telescope – actually there are two of them and at 10 meters in diameter they are currently the largest reflecting telescopes on the planet – quite impressive. I guess I had heard of the Keck telescopes, but what I didn’t realize that they were named after the project's financial sponsors, the Keck Foundation who are the heirs to the Superior Oil Company wealth. It’s always nice to see the oil industry doing some good (for a change).

Here is me at the top of Mona Kea.

And here is me just a few hours later, frolicking (not quite) in the surf down by the ocean.

And finally if anyone wants to view more exciting photos of the Hawaii trip, follow this link to my SmugMug gallery.

A cool exhibit at SF MOMA

I was down in San Francisco at the weekend and I visited the SF Museum of Modern Art. Lots of the usual stuff hanging from the walls, which is all very nice, but there was one more unusual exhibit that was quite interesting - a car sheathed in ice.


So they have a specially constructed refrigerated room that keeps the temperature down at 11 degrees F, and inside they have this ice covered thing that barely resembles a car at all until you peer in side the shell to see the seat and steering wheel or when you look underneath and see the wheels.

The car is, or perhaps was, a BMW experimental Hydrogen fuel car that is now sheathed in an interesting steel mesh which is then covered with ice. The whole idea is to make you think about effect our cars and our driving them has on the environment (driving -> increased CO2 -> global warming -> less ice - I suppose). I don't think that you are supposed to think about the environmental impact of having a room perpetually at 11 deg F for months on end - or perhaps you are?

Anyway, it was pretty cool in more ways than one. The SF MOMA even had a supply of blankets for you to use to keep you warm while viewing the exhibit.

Here is a video about the project.

Lucy Kaplansky

So I went to see Lucy Kaplansky perform last night. She has been around the folk scene since the 70's but I first came across her when she did a track on that excellent 60th birthday tribute to Bob Dylan, A Nod to Bob.

Anyway, she was talking a lot about family and it turns out her father, Irving Kaplansky, was a relatively significant mathematician - chair of the Maths Department at the University of Chicago. He was also a somewhat accomplished musician who, among other things, wrote a song using the first 14 digits of Pi for the melody (mi, do, fa, re, etc)- she sang it - it didn't sound bad. He also invented an mnemonic for the first 15 digits of Pi, namely - "Boy, I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after all those lectures involving quantum mechanics". The number of letters in each word corresponding to a digit of Pi - 3.14159265358979.

Why I should find that interesting is a testament to the sad state of my life.