Happy Leap Day!

For all of you "lucky" enough to be born on Leap day happy birthday!
I have known since I was a kid that a leap year occurs every 4 years, but I didn't know that they only occur in years that are divisible by four as decreed by Pope Gregory the....some Roman numeral. I also didn't realize that a normal year is actually 365. 242199....days long. I thought it was only 365.25, which makes sense because then every four years would equal another full day. But it turns out those extra numbers to the right of the decimal place have consequences. Rounding up to .25 creates about 3 additional days every 400 years that need to be accommodated. For that reason only 1 of 4 century years is considered a leap year (because the other 3 each absorb one of the three extra days), and that century leap day too must be divisible by four (i.e. 1600, 2000). It seems so complicated doesn't it? It must have been an interesting conversation. This is how I think it went down.

SCENE: Julius Caesar sitting with his chief science guy at Panis (Roman precursor of Panera) having a cappuccino and talking.

Caesar: Hey, so here's the problem. Because of our 355 day calendar, all my holidays are getting cheesed up. I can't plan anything on a regular schedule.

Science Guy: I'm not sure I follow.


Caesar: For example, I have a standing reservation with my caterers -you know the ones I stole from Pompey the Great? That's why he hates me so much by the way... Anyway I have them booked for December 21st of every year, for my big Saturnalia bash but the calendar is messing everything up! It fell in October this year, can you believe that? And my big Spring Equinox party -you know the one where we all get wasted on Two-Denarius-Chuck and make up constellations? Yeah- that is now falling in the middle of December....it's an unmitigated disaster.


Science Guy: I see. Hmmm...let me think...well, if we make the year 365 days that might keep everything in order...


Caesar: Or if we could just make our orbit a little closer to the sun....


Science Guy: Nope, we still think the earth is the center of the universe remember.


Caesar: Oh, right sorry. I was never into science...Too geeky for me...no offense..


Science Guy: None taken..Oh wait....365 days...no that leaves us with an extra day every four years...so that won't...you see the math here..?


Caesar: Math shmath....just...add it onto February. It's a short month anyway, it could use an extra day.


Science Guy: I don't know....if I'm doing the calculations right that also actually leaves us with an extra 3 days every four hundred years...


Caesar: But I thought you just said we were short a day? Now we have too many? Make up your mind...Are you sure you went to college? It wasn't an on-line one was it? Just leave it and let someone else figure it out in 400 years. We'll be dead by then anyway.


Science Guy: I don't know Caesar, that doesn't sound very responsible. How about we say that only one out of every three...no,  four century years will be a leap year too, so...that way the other three will absorb the 3 extra days created by adding an additional day every four years...carry the one...yes! 


Caesar: Yawn. I can't believe I pay you for this. Bottom line though, will my schedule with my caterer and DJ work out to be the same time every year?


Science Guy: Yes.


Caesar: Cool. OK. Do it...Make it so...or whatever.

FIN

Christmas List 2012: Lorenz Attractor Christmas Ornament

SO, while watching my physics lectures I saw that the professor giving the talks got a small 3D printed model of the strange attractor (Lorenz attractor) as a gift from his students, and I totally want one! I think in red it would make a totally awesome Christmas ornament! (Ooohhh....or what about a charm for a necklace?) I know I'm kind of obsessed with this thing, but I really think it's just too cool not to be obsessed with, and it represents all the things in life that I find the most intriguing (as opposed to boring linear, periodic stuff...haha). If anyone comes across something like this on the internet let me know! If not, I might have to get a membership to The Tech Shop and make my own.

Tough Time with Chaos

I've been slogging (is that even a word?) through my book for book club with little success. The title is Chaos, by James Gleick. I wrote a post about it last week, and was feeling optimistic at the time, but since then my attention span has dwindled to nearly nothing, and I can barely read five pages at a time without thinking that I'd rather be organizing the junk under my kitchen sink, or cleaning out the trunk of my car (two things I normally HATE doing).
Usually I make it though any subject, so it's surprising to me that I'm having such a hard time reading this. I don't even think it's poorly written (it got great reviews and was a best seller). I guess it's just me. Maybe it's because it's my second physics book in a row, and I'm just not as smart (or perceptive) as I'd like to think I am.
BUT while I might be forced to face the truth that I'd be lost beyond all hope if I were to try to make it through the book, it doesn't me that I must accept defeat in my goal to learn a little something about Chaos.
I had to do a little thinking outside the box but I finally found a solution to my delema. I probably won't finish reading the book, but as an alternative, I discovered a lecture series on Chaos at the library, and am on #8 of 24. And it's fantastic! Everything (I think) that Gleick covers in his book is in the lectures, but there are a lot more pictures, and simulations, and I'm finally getting it! I guess you could argue it's cheating, but I disagree. even in the context of a "book club". I think 24 lectures about makes up for not finishing half a book:)
So I just wanted to throw this out there, that if you have any interest in learning about chaos, I'd definitely recommend the series titles Chaos, that is put out by The Teaching Company. It's pretty good stuff, and much more visually oriented.

New Paintings: Origins 1 & 2

Origins 1 by J. Smith

Origins 2 by J. Smith

These are acrylic on 5x7 size flat canvases.

Poor Puppies :(

I had a quick chat with my brother yesterday (the one in Alaska) and he informed me that two of the sled dogs have passed away. Nooooooo! I cried. But it's true.
The first was Blackie, a sweet old gal (?), who had the most gentile, understanding eyes. Apparently she had some sort of medical condition that would only worsen, and cause her discomfort, so her owner chose to put her down.
The second was Sleeper. He was a cuddly boy, with beautiful blue eyes, and and a goofy smile. He was killed by a run in with a moose who happened to get too close to the dog lot.
I only met them once, but I'll miss them just the same. So long pups.

Blackie

Sleeper

Dream Table

A while back (like last year) I had a dream in which I lived in a really neat house, and had a very cool dining room table. I woke up the next day and made a quick sketch of the table in my notebook. It was weird because it didn't feel at all like I made it up. Instead I felt like I was copying something I'd seen somewhere, even though the only place I saw it was in my dream. Anyway, I finally got around to making a model of it.
The table itself was made out of the smooth concrete they use to make counters, and the pyramid in the middle was also concrete with water flowing out from the top and running down all sides into a narrow collecting area that recycled the water back through to the top. I added place mats with cups and plates to give a sense of the scale of the thing (which was pretty big).
...Oh the weird things we dream  hu?

Quote of the Day

"The very act of understanding is a celebration of joining, merging, even if on a very modest scale, with the magnificence of the cosmos." Carl Sagan - The Demon Haunted World

Luxembourg in Black and White

My "Littlest" Brother

 I made these months ago as a Christmas gift for my little brother, to commemorate and celebrate his unique and adventuresome decision to spend a portion of his life in the Arctic. (I had to wait to post them, otherwise I would have ruined the surprise!) All photos by me.

Eglise de Euville

The church were my  Memere and Pepere were married.

Memere's House

One of the best parts of my trip to France was the day my Aunt took my mom and I to Euville, the town where my maternal grandmother was born, and where she grew up. The thing about France is, like I've said before, they build things (even country houses) to last. So we were able to see the actual house where my grandmother spent her childhood, the church where she and my Pepere Joe were married, and as a happy coincidence we were also able to meet one of her best friends from when she was teenager! Marie Rose was her friends name, and she and her husband just happened to live next door. Marie Rose told us about how she and Memere used to sneak into the alleyway between their houses to meet boys and steal a kiss or two.
It was such a great experience to see for myself where my grandmother came from, and to meet her friend. I imagine it was probably pretty weird for Marie Rose to have coffee with the daughter and granddaughter of her old girlfriend. I can't imagine what that would be like.
Euville is definitely what you would call a "one horse town" and seems very unlike my Memere who was always much more of a fashionable city-girl type. I guess looking at it now it seems that she spent her whole life trying to shake the "Euville vibe". I thought it was charming, but at the same time I tried to imagine what it would have felt like to live there as a 16 or 17 year old girl, and I could see her point. It was a strange exercise to think of my Memere as a teenager or little girl and all kinds of new sides to her began to emerge in my mind. It was all speculation of course. I know I can never really know what she or her life were like back then. And I can't trace her exact footsteps, nor can I walk a mile in her shoes. But I like to think that following my own path in my own shoes through the places where she once played does in a very real way bring me closer to knowing the little girl who became my Memere Cherie.

The Lorenz Attractor

"Lorenz Attractor" by J. Smith

Similar to the last one, the book for Book Club is about physics again....they are killing me! It's great stuff, but pretty far removed from almost anything I can relate to. So once again I am trudging through the book, in this case Chaos by James Gleick, at a snails pace.
Anyway in my reading I came across something called the Lorenz Attractor which is basically a graph, or model created by one Edward Lorenz, that depicts how non-linear things can behave in an organized kind of way that can be...predicable, but at the same time can display abrupt and unexpected changes at any time. It's similar to the "butterfly effect", where one small change can create (unpredictable) consequences farther down the road, but then somehow the system rights itself eventually and it starts again. It's a picture that describes chaos.
One prime example of something that follows this pattern is the weather.
For example you could say that for any August 15th (in the Northern Hemisphere) it will probably be warm to hot. And for the most part that "normally" true. But that doesn't mean that next August 15th it couldn't snow or hail. We've all experienced that sort of unpredictability. A hot day in the middle of December, or an ice storm in May.
There are lots of things that can be modeled using the Lorenz Attractor besides weather. Populations of species, the stock market, anything that seems pretty stable most of the time, then does something really crazy and unexpected. I think in my field of geology the periodicity of ice ages, and volcanoes would fall under a similar model.
Anyway, I was so inspired  and impressed by the notion that chaos could have a shape, that I decided to paint my own version of the Lorenz Attractor. The image was stuck in my head for days, so it was easy to paint. Trying to mimic the unpredictable side of chaos I didn't approach it with any sort of strategy though, I just started anywhere and kept layering on the paint until the image in front of me looked "right". And then I stopped.

The above is a 3D model I found on the internet. For a more in depth (and probably accurate) description of the Lorenz Attractor, click here, or you can Google it.

Scenes from the French Countryside

Happy Valentine's Day from a Packers Fan

I'm not a big fan of VD (Valentine's Day or venereal disease for that matter ) but at the same time it's hard not to get into the spirit, at least a little. But the cards are so LAME and the giant stuffed frogs and huge boxes of chocolate are not far behind. I couldn't find a single card I liked to give to my BF, so I was forced to make my own. And if this doesn't say "I love you", well....I don't know what does. Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Wine and Cheese Tasting: Alsace

During my trip to France I only had time to do two wine tastings and one cheese tasting! What can I say I was very busy. It's a bit of a shame really, but then again, I had so many other things going on that I would have hated to give something else up.
The wine was good. All of it was dry, and white. We tried regional wines, and that made it special, since we were actually there. But the highlight for me was the cheese..or cheeses rather. They were...well, they are so different from the kinds you find here in the states that it's hard to compare them really. Here in the U.S. of A., you take a bite of cheddar, and it's hard to believe that it's made by a bacterial process. Take a bite of cheese (any cheese) in France however, and it seems overwhelmingly probable that it was made by some or another process involving prokaryotes. Even the mild ones have a different, more earthy taste. It's not bad, it's just very different.  I ate one cheese (a brie apparently) that tasted like the air inside a WWII submarine. And I had one that tasted how a tadpole pond smells just before it dries up. While that sounds like it would be terrible, it's kind of fascinating to eat things that you normally associate with your olfactory senses. I think it's a little like mushrooms (ha ha...the normal kind), and how they can taste like a forest. I can appreciate eating something that tastes like a dark, green, rainy grove of trees. It's an experience of a sort. But enough chit chat. Here are a few photos from the tasting we did in Colemar.