Conan O'Brien, chemist?

courtesy The New York Times TierneyLab



Cheers-
Edward Jensen

xkcd on Linux humor

xkcd (a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language) is full of subdued Linux humor references. My favorite:


if you cannot see the comic, click here

Don't get the "sudo" reference? I guess you could check Wikipedia...

O Linux humor, how I love thee...

Cheers-
Edward Jensen

The string of unliklies

This has been a rather intense last couple of months with unlikely things happening:

1. Barack Obama is elected as the nation's first black president
2. The miracle on the Hudson River
3. The Cardinals heading to Super Bowl XLIII

Perhaps this is a sign and that which was thought to be unlikely realizes itself...

Cheers-
Edward Jensen

Sharing more words of the wise

In a recent blog entry, my good friend and colleague Kirsten Martin continued on her trend of sharing some words of the wise with us and so I simply have to share them with you. In the spirit of Christmastide, I hope that her words resonate with you:

I truly believe that each of us are all worthy to have our needs met, and not one of us should go hungry. If you have the resources then give. It is not our job to judge, and we can never see into the hearts of others and know how they are feeling or where they really are in life. I hope that as we embark on this Christmas season we can all give gifts of second chances, gifts of service, and gifts of kindness to all those around us whether or not they are deemed 'worthy or unworthy'. [excerpt from "worthy vs. unworthy" by Kirsten Martin]

Cheers-
Edward Jensen

Bach and strange videos

Those who know me know I like JS Bach and his organ music. I found this video over on YouTube and think that it's worth sharing:


if you cannot see the video, click here

It's Bach's Fugue in e minor, S.548/2, nicknamed the "Wedge". If you look at the score for this, the main fugue subject looks like a wedge. And that subject is replayed at key places throughout, in either the manualiter or the pedaliter. Speaking of which, it has a great pedal part, by the way...

Cheers-
Edward Jensen

Some words of the wise

My friend and colleague Kirsten Martin wrote a blog entry recently that I think is worth sharing with you. Regardless of her perspective as a Social Work student, it has a truly valuable lesson that we all can share:

We are torn and wrinkled by the experiences in life. Some experience more of this than others, but yet our value remains a constant. So many times it is easy to look at ourselves or at others and see the wrinkles and tears and feel like the value is not there or has decreased. It is essential to remember that this is not the case. ... We still retain our dignity and self worth and in turn our value as a human being (excerpt from "The Value of People" by Kirsten Martin)

Cheers-
Edward Jensen

Happy Big Bang Day!

Today, physicists in Switzerland and France started up the Large Hadron Collider, a 27km ring designed to see what the universe was like billionths of a second after the Big Bang. If you want more information, check out this stuff from the BBC (UK) or the New York Times.

Also, check out the "Large Hadron Rap" done by physicists with obviously too much time on their hands.


if you cannot see the video, click here

For more on the rap, including lyrics and a downloadable MP3 file, click here.

Cheers-
Edward Jensen

Weather discussion, 28 August 2008

Some interesting facts about last night's storm:

Midtown Phoenix (defined as Central Avenue E/W 2 miles from the Deck Park to Camelback Road) got hit the hardest. Over Midtown, there were three distinct storms that passed. The first was from 9.42-10pm, the second from 11-11.20pm, the third from 11.30-11.45pm. For each of the three storms, the strongest period of activity was in the trailing edge of each storm as it moved west.

National Weather Service Doppler radar indicated winds at 1,500 feet above ground to be in excess of 95 miles per hour on the first storm and slightly under that for the second storm. No winds data is available for the third storm. (The same radar indicated the strongest winds to be over 100mph just west of Sky Harbor International Airport at 9.45pm.)

By the media coverage, the hardest hit urban area was centered at the intersection of Central Avenue and Encanto Boulevard. Parts of the roof and windows from the 22-story Regency House condominium tower broke off and landed on Central Avenue, most notably on the overhead catenary wires that will power METRO when it opens 27 December 2008. Scores of east-facing windows in the Tapestry on Central condominium complex were blown out with glass shards from these windows traveling distances of over 500 feet to the west. Many roof-mounted air conditioning units on the Tapestry complex's roof were damaged or destroyed. Power lines on 3rd Avenue and 7th Street were blown over causing widespread power outages.

At this hour (9.20pm 29 August 2008), power is off in the Willo Historic District, the Encanto-Palmcroft Historic District, and other adjacent neighborhoods. Power was largely lost during the second storm that blew a transformer at 7th Street and McDowell Road.

A more scientific discussion with detailed Doppler radar images can be found from the National Weather Service's Phoenix office webpage, online at http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/psr/pns/2008/August/28thStorms.php.

Cheers-
Edward Jensen

A music-related post

[Author's note: this post has nothing to do with downtown Phoenix, transportation, or anything of the like. If you're a fan of good Classical music, read on.]

For those who know me in real life, you know that I am a huge fan of Classical music. I listen to KBAQ practically all day (except when I can't get decent reception on the bus or when my radio fails), I have a large Classical CD collection, and working on a decent music score library.

Anyway, I love the old recordings of music. I have many masterworks on LP because I cannot find a decent reissue on CD. The problem is that many record companies stop printing old recordings for various reasons.

My favorite online record store for Classical music is ArkivMusic. If you've received a CD from me, there's a strong chance that it came from there. A few months ago, they started the ArkivCD project, or recordings that have previously been out-of-print and are otherwise unavailable.

I thought I'd buy one and see how it sounds, and so I bought a CD of Handel's opera and oratorio overtures. The CD was originally released in 1986 and had gone out of print (obviously). What you get is practically what you would have received if you bought the CD back in 1986. You get full liner notes, any back matter, and a label on the CD that is a duplicate of the original CD. The sound quality is second-to-none, too. And it's all authorized by the record companies.

Okay, sorry, that's enough promotion. But I thought that I'd share this!

Cheers-
Edward Jensen

Phoenix needs an MLS team

I'm watching the Croatia/Turkey match of Euro 2008 (where, as I type this, it's 0-0 at the 119th minute), and I think more and more that the Phoenix metropolitan area needs a Major League Soccer team. Here are a couple of reasons why:

• We have a stadium that can handle the size of the football (soccer) pitch: the University of Phoenix Stadium in west Glendale.
• Football is a big thing in all of Latin America, and people of Latin American descent are a large share of Arizona's population
• Football seems to be on the rise in America, so Phoenix should get in on the action

Perhaps I'm just being too idealistic but seriously: Phoenix should consider this.

Cheers-
Edward Jensen

Thanks to Sam Richard for helping me word the second bullet point better than it was originally!

Lewis Black on Starbucks

My good friend Sam Richard found a Lewis Black (website, Wikipedia article) comedy routine on the abundance of Starbucks coffee shops.


if the video does not show, go here

Cheers - EJ

GWB in advertisements

US president George W. Bush is rather popular in international advertising. The blog creativebits.org has collected the best of GWB-related advertisements from around the world: click here.

Cheers - EJ

Phoenix vs. New York City

The Downtown Voices Coalition did a study on its blog and found that, when overlaid on a map, the geographic area of Phoenix and New York City does not compare.

See this: http://downtownvoices.org/2008/05/17/comparing-phoenix-new-york-size-wise/

-EJ

Steeplechase collision = bad. Steeplechase collision + Swedish = better

I'm not making fun - nor should I make fun of - Austrian steeplechase competitor Günther Weidlinger, but when the commentary is in Swedish, it is funny.


(the video is also here.)

Cheers! - EJ