This page contains a video of something every science student has imagined, but very few see: the demonstration that, in a vacuum, all objects fall at the same speed. Usually you learn of this demonstration and are left to imagine it, since setting it up is somewhat complicated. On rare occasions, this demonstration is actually carried out with an evacuated cylinder of glass containing a feather and a bullet or some other dense object. I’ve never seen such a demonstration, and I’ve certainly never seen it carried out on the scale documented in this video.
Category: Uncategorized
General blog stuff.
Server Outage
Thanks to an error by the company who provides my web server, Tracie and I lost about 12 hours worth of email. If you wrote to us on Wednesday evening through Thursday morning (about 9:30AM MST), you should re-send your message.
And yes, it’s been awhile since my last post.
Once New
The Japanese writing above the Fujicolor sign saya “New Photo”. I wonder whether they were able to sell their last rolls of film before they expired.
Arashiyama
Too tired to write a post or embed photos. Click here for some photos taken today.
Raccoons?
A typical Japanese public-service sign. The thinking seems to be that the mental image of having your fingers wedged in a subway door is pretty disturbing, so they lighten it up a bit by adding a couple of cute animal characters.
Hey Ho
I saw this on the chalkboard at Whole Foods today:
I was indeed saddened by the news of the death of the last Ramone. They were a big favorite of mine during my teen years, for their humor as much as for their music. While I can’t say that I’ve listened to them much in recent years, it’s just sad that the world no longer has any Ramones at all.
Video About Fat From TIME
As a follow-up to a previous post: TIME has posted a video summarizing their conclusions about food in general and fat in particular. It’s worth watching.
Airport Day 2014
Not far from our house is the Boulder Municipal Airport. It’s a tiny airfield which mostly serves gliders and other small, private craft. During the flood last fall, it became the base of operations for the aerial rescues performed by helicopter. We didn’t know this at the time, but, being long-time admirers of flying vehicles, Tracie and I enjoyed seeing Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters flying in the area (despite the unfortunate reason for their presence).
Recently, the city of Boulder officially thanked the personnel for their efforts, at the biennial Airport Day open house. I jumped at the opportunity to see such aircraft up close and take some snapshots. I certainly never would have guessed that I’d ever see the dashboard of a Blackhawk from the pilot’s perspective. There were also a number of vintage WWII airplanes and other stuff on display, but it was pretty hot out there on the tarmac so I spent most of my time around the helicopters.
Fat Is Not Bad For You
All I can do right now is laugh. Well, laugh and write this post, I guess.
It has just come to my attention that mainstream media has caught up with the news that eating fat is not bad for us after all. The current TIME Magazine’s cover bears a succinct directive: Eat Butter. The cover story (which I have not read) is titled Ending the War on Fat. None of this particularly comes as a surprise to me since, just shy of two years ago, Tracie and I switched to a paleo-based philosophy of eating after her investigations convinced her it was a better approach than the high-carb/whole-grain/low-fat party line we’ve all been fed for decades. Since then, the evidence has only mounted that fat is not bad for us–in fact, it’s necessary and essential.
Sunday Mornings
If you follow me on Twitter (either directly or via the sidebar on this blog), you’ve probably seen my “Sunday morning” photos. They’re snapshots of the back deck (usually), taken every Sunday morning (usually), and usually involve flowers. I think I’ve been taking them for about a year or so. I never had any particular reason for taking them; mostly they’ve been an excuse to play with the filters in various iOS photo apps. Maybe they’ve also served as a sort of anchor of regularity, a moment or two of tranquility every week despite whatever else is going on.