William Horberg

JPL

When word got to us that the famous Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena would be opening their doors for just one weekend to the public, you know that the Rocket Man and his sister and I were going to be among the first in line!

Who could miss a chance to enter the actual Mission Control room, nicknamed "The Darkroom" at their Space Flight operations facility, the beating heart of their purpose - the Robotic Exploration of Outer Space!

We got up and out of the house at the crack of dawn, and good thing too because the lines that stretched from the JPL's front door almost felt like they could circle the moon.

Diego's expression says it best: how do you spell A-W-E-S-O-M-E? Standing six feet away from a detailed model of the Mars rover is just about as good as it gets; the only problem was explaining to him why we couldn't all climb on board and make our own journey to the Red Planet on the spot.

The always fashion-forward Natalie couldn't have known that her patterned sweater would fit right in to the Cosmic Designs on display - or could she?

Seeing the Optical Weld Samples and the titanium die-cast parts and the cool innovative Robots on display, and meeting the engineers who designed them, was only a prelude to the Main Event...

...our trip into the Clean Room, where we got the last California glimpse at the NEW Martian Rover, named Curiosity, who is moving soon to the launch pad and taking off for the Red Planet this Fall and will get there sometime in the summer of 2012.

Curiosity is over 2000 lbs, making it something like 60 times larger than the original Rover that went up in 2004. Given its mission - to see if the ICE that has been found on Mars might have ever contained LIFE, I guess they needed this Big Boy for the complex tasks it will handle from 60+ million km away.

The universe is an endlessly strange place, and I'm so happy that Diego is endlessly fascinated by it. 

Going to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was a great way to engage his own roving Curiosity. 

Enjoy!

william

Wild Kingdom

It was a cool, crisp day full of golden sunshine that dappled the alpine heights as our family set out on our recent nature walk and wild animal adventure!

It didn't take long for us to spot a Fisher, perched on his log, seemingly unperturbed by our presence.

Hard to believe we could get so close to this family of Elk. I don't know who was more startled by their sudden appearance from the bush, they or us. Nice set of antlers!

Natalie thought this Bobcat was a real cutie, but I reminded her not to get too close to this big and wild kitty cat.

It was a long walk to the coast but it was worth it as we got to visit this family of California seals basking on their rocky perch and enjoying the spray of the sea.

Elsa was a bit tired to push all the way north to the Arctic Circle, but Diego insisted and we were all rewarded by this amazing view of a family of Walruses perched on their icy flow. 

I've always loved the old dioramas at the Natural History Museum.

Even without animation or visual effects or video or all of the paraphernalia and gadgets that museums need these days to spice up their exhibits for the viewing habits of a younger, digital generation, the kids seemed to appreciate the care and artistry that went into creating these natural handmade tableaus.

Enjoy!

william

Perspective

We all need it. Yet struggle to maintain it sometimes. This image which I saw on a recent visit to the Planetarium with the kids seems like one of the all-time great reminders of how things that can feel huge and important and overwhelming to us can also be seen as insignificant when viewed from a different perspective.

This being perhaps the ultimate perspective.

While we enjoy this time off for the President's Day holiday, let's use it to put things in perspective!

Enjoy!

william

Human Nature

Behavioral economist George Loewenstien, according to his recent interview in Discover magazine, thinks we need to move past the antiquated classical notion that people act rationally making logical decisions about how and why they spend their money. George and others are working for a better understanding of why people act the way they do, in the hope they can use these insights to better predict market behavior.

According to George, we're self destructive. 

If we want to believe in something, we're amazingly adept at persuading ourselves that what we want to believe is true. We fail to generalize and learn from our specific actions or mistakes, to connect-the-dots. We feel safe in numbers and tend to follow the herd. We have a 'present bias preference" which makes us short-sighted and challenged to deal with slowly unfolding threats like the housing bubble and climate change. We suffer from the 'default effect'; we are lazy decision makers and tend to take the path of least resistance.

Sounds about right to me. 

But nothing that George and his colleagues couldn't have ascertained more easily and readily, and with a lot more wit and flair, if they had picked up a copy of the beautiful new edition of The Complete Lyrics of Johnny Mercer.

 

 

As students of human nature, no one since old Will Shakespeare has done it better that Johnny and his Tin Pan Alley brethren at distilling into rhythm and rhyme the convoluted contours of the human heart. 

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread
And so I come to you, my love, my heart above my head
Though I see the danger there
If there's a chance for me then I don't care

Fools rush in where wise men never go
But wise men never fall in love so how are they to know
When we met I felt my life begin
So open up your heart and let this fool rush in

william

Under The Sea

There are not too many bad films in the Criterion Collection of classic dvd's, but every once in a while they really out-do themselves by bringing to light some forgotten or obscure gem from a remote corner of the world of cinema.

In the case of the new release "Science is FICTION - 23 films by Jean Painleve", that remote corner is actually underwater, as this collection of documentaries by the Frenchman Painleve takes the camera up close and personal into the murky lives of Sea Horses, Urchins, Hyas, Jellyfish, Shrimp, Octopus and other denizens of the deep.

Here is a photo of Painleve with his boxy underwater camera device. You really feel like this guy embodied Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek credo to "boldly go where no man has gone before".

It is hard to describe the unusual beauty of his work. They're like classroom educational films, but as if shot by Jean Cocteau, with moody new musical scores written especially for some of the shorts by Yo Lo Tengo.

Painleve was a scientist, but he was also an artist with a highly developed aesthetic sense. The films defy any sort of easy genre categorization, which is why they come as such a welcome antidote today.

Check it out!

william

More Mad Science

From yesterday's infinitesimal view to today's infinite view.

I'm always amazed at how hard it is too keep things in perspective. 

How we walk around in our daily lives worried about the opening weekend box office of a film, or the price of a bottle of milk at Ralph's, or the recount of some contested ballots in Minnesota, when at this very moment, whole NEW PLANETS are being discovered in new solar systems in the outer reaches of our galaxy.

These are two views of the HR 9799 solar planetary system discovered recently.

Using high-contrast, near-infrared adaptive optics observations with the Keck and Gemini telescopes, the team of researchers from Livermore, the NRC Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Canada, Lowell Observatory, University of California Los Angeles, and several other institutions were able to see three orbiting planetary companions to HR8799.

That ought to help us keep things in perspective!!

Reminds me of one of my favorite monologues in one of my favorite films, Scott Corey's last speech in "The Incredible Shrinking Man" as he fades away into nothingness, as written by Richard Matheson:

"So close -- the infinitesimal and the infinite. But suddenly, I knew they were really the two ends of the same concept. The unbelievably small and the unbelievably vast eventually meet, like the closing of a gigantic circle. I looked up, as if somehow I would grasp the heavens ... the universe ... worlds beyond number ... God's silver tapestry spread across the night. And in that moment, I knew the answer to the riddle of the infinite. I had thought in terms of Man's own limited dimension. I had presumed upon Nature. That existence begins and ends is Man's conception, not Nature's. And I felt my body dwindling, melting, becoming nothing. My fears melted away, and in their place came -- acceptance. All this vast majesty of creation -- it had to mean something. And then I meant something too. Yes, smaller than the smallest, I meant something too. To God, there is no zero. I STILL EXIST!"

Enjoy!

william

Mad Science

We spend so much of our waking hours preoccupied with ourselves and our perception of the external reality we live in - what we create for ourselves, and what we project onto that reality and on to others.

Take a few minutes then, and watch this amazing video I stumbled across which re-creates in minute detail life on the most interior level - the inside of our cells!

 Inner Life of A Cell

 

Tomorrow: More Mad Science

william