Sunday, February 25, 2007

Seasons

one of the things i like about this country is that it has seasons. you may want to argue that there are seasons in israel too. we all learned in school that there are 4 seasons - fall, winter, spring and summer. that's a theoretical thing in israel. of course we have summer, and a mild version of winter, but the spring and fall are those 2-day seasons that don't really stay for long. i have so many "transitional season" clothes in my closet, that seemed like a great idea when i got them, but i never get to wear. the seasons are more pronounced here, and look a lot like in our first grade booklets of the seasons... the leaves actually change color and fall in the fall, everything blooms in the spring, it's cold in the winter (is -20C cold enough??) and warm in the summer.
there are some oddities, of course. like thunderstorms and rain -- when are these supposed to come around? you never see a drop of rain in the summer in israel, but here it's the most common thing. and of course, there's hardly any rain here in the winter, cause it's frozen, duh.

one of the things i like most, is to see the same place in different seasons. like the cabin in canada, that seems like it wears a whole different attitude when the winter comes, and puts on it's festival outfit in the fall.
here are a few pictures i took in aspen. they are of the same points, different seasons, and slightly different angle.






the views from ben's old office in ann arbor:


[i need some help with the canadian pictures. can anyone send me pictures of the view from the cabin's deck?]


Saturday, February 24, 2007

do-it-yourself Hummus (in America!)

One of the hardest thing to find here is decent hummus. I am not such a big hummus fan, since the stuff you get at the stores is usually loaded with garlic, and it's just not worth it. I can really enjoy a good bowl of fresh-made hummus,but it usually means going to Abu Gosh or interrogating the local (TA) joints about their ingredients. Another option is to make it yourself, or have your brother do it.
In the US, it's a total different story. Some people are lucky enough to live next to a fairly large israeli or other mid-east communities, and find decent hummus.

The do-it-yourself option relies strongly on the quality of ingredients. So here's what you need to do if you do your shopping at Meijer's or Jewel-Osco. It's a simple recipe that doesn't require long soaking or cooking...

Ingredients:
1 can of chick peas
1/3 cup of raw tahini paste
juice from 1/2 lemon
water
olive oil
salt&pepper
paprica (for decoration)


drain and rinse the chick peas in warm water. with two fingers, pinch each pea and remove the skin. save a couple of spoons of peas for decoration, and put the rest in a food processor.
turn the food processor on, and gradually add the tahini paste, lemon juice, and about 1/3 cup of water. add water to the desired consistency. hummus will solidify a bit in time, so if you don't eat it right away make it slightly more runny.
add about 2 spoons of olive oil (try to get high quality oil), some salt&pepper, and you're done!

for decoration: you know - spread on a flat plate, sprinkle olive oil, paprica, and some whole chick peas.

Beteavon!!



These are the ingredients I used; notice that we ate the hummus with crackers and not the traditional pita - good pitas are nowhere to be found around here...

Prize winning contest

what is this?

Physics and Skiing


We had to say something about the Aspen part of Chicago ----> Aspen and back, didn't we? Well, sit back and relax. Here it goes...

Preface: We were here to talk about cosmology with clusters of galaxies , one of our favorite topics :). That part went pretty well, but who cares. Here's the rest of the story.

Aspen is a pretty small town. It's located at 7,900 ft. (~2400m), at the base of the north slope of Aspen Mountain, which peaks at 11,212 ft (3418m). To north of town is the Roaring Fork River, and then a smaller range of mountains. The south facing slope of that range is peppered with the vacation homes of the filthy rich. The south side of each house is just a few big windows facing to the south, over the river, towards the sun and the ski slopes.

Aspen has three populations of people: the filthy rich, the locals, and the occasional physicist (see picutre above). The rich and famous frequent your favorite minaturized versions of the large retailers in New York and Chicago (Macy's/Marshall Fields, Saks, etc.). Some of the locals are the ones who run the hotels, drive the shuttles, and run the stores. Those we had the pleasure of meeting often are from the midwest, younger people that have shunned (at least temporarily) the flatness of America's breadbasket for America's Alps. The remaining locals are an interesting mix of cowboys and midwesterners, hospitable and fearless.

We spent most of our time with other humble physicists, for whom Aspen (well, really the National Science Foundation) has built the Aspen Center for Physics, which hosts monthly conferences for the full range of physicists (condensed matter, atomic, bio, nuclear, partilce, astro, and string theorists...well, string theorists don't really count, but you get the idea). The daily meetings at the conference we were at ran from 8-11am, and then 4:30-7:30 at night, conveniently spaced for scientific collaboration on ski slopes.

Now for the fun part, the "collaboration". Aspen has 4 major ski areas, Snowmass, Aspen, Aspen Highlands, and Buttermilk. We hit Aspen, mostly because it was the closest, but also because it's not Buttermilk, which didn't look very challenging. We got the group rate for lift tickets($50) and rentals ($25), which was something like 40% of the regular rate.

The longest run is 3 miles, pretty hard to ski down without stopping a few times. The peak is at 11,212 ft. That's where Keren is in the picture above. We rode a gondola up to this point. Keren skis every other year or so, so she was confident. I, on the other hand, hadn't skiied in 13 years. I was more than a bit nervous about wiping out and falling 3 miles downhill. Sorry to disappoint, but we did pretty well going down. There aren't "easy runs", mostly blue squares, some black diamonds, and a few double blacks.



Here we are in action (click on the images to see more): That's me to the right, and Keren on the bottom. These were pretty easy runs. I felt pretty stylish in my blue jeans, black Carhart jacket, and Michigan hat.



Toward mid afternoon, clouds and snow rolled in. Making it hard to dodge obstacles in the hill. About that time, we took "Blondie's" a black diamond. Keren is working her way down it below. That was my one crash of the day. I got going to fast, tried to turn too sharply, my boot popped out of the binding, and "poof", a cloud of snow. Thankfully, nobody was there to see it. I like to say it was an equipment malfunction, and that even the best skier would have surely crashed...there, now I feel better.




There's not enough room here to show all the pictures, but we did have some spectacular views on the way down. Below, the lovely foreground view is my wife on "Ruthie's Run". Behind her is the view. You can see Aspen's tiny, unorganzied airport in the valley below, a dignified site that recently devoted a post to. The last picture comes from about 1/3 of the way down Aspen Mountain, where you can see how the city is neatly nestled in the Roaring Fork Valley.



We spent about 5 hours on the hill, skipping lunch and a few talks. We could have skipped the whole day of talks, but one of those talks was mine, and it just didn't seem right to miss my own talk. Take a a look at the Aspen Mountatin trailmap, where you can get a feel for how large the moutain is, both from the picture on the front cover, and from the map inside. We spent most of our day on Ruthie's Run, Dipsy Doodle, all the different Copper runs, Deer Park, and Buckhorn (not in that order).



We weren't as sore as we could have been the next day. My toenails hurt the most -- a week later, both my big toes are black and blue. They remind me of my dad's toenails after being stepped on by so many cows. It's worth it though, because I was reminded of how much fun I used to have skiing, and my ski buddy made it all the more enjoyable. We're talking about how we have to visit Caberfae more often, near my parents' place in Cadillac, MI. Most of the rest of the trip sucked, but we already talked about that.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Chicago, IL -------> Aspen, CO

why would one go from chicago to aspen?
1. you like to ski
2. you are very rich and have a house up there
3. you have to go to a conference...

how would one get from chicago to aspen?
1. use teleportation (about 0.00626468212 s)
2. by car: load the car, remove snow and ice from car, turn car on, drive, drive, drive, drive, reach a corn field, drive, drive..... drive, reach a mountain, drive, drive, ... drive, arrive aspen. (about 18 hours 20 mins)

3. by air, direct flight:
walk to el station (5 min); take red line to down town (25 min); take blue line to o'hare (1 hr); check in; walk to gate (C2); wait for boarding; walk around gate, notice that the flight is delayed, and was moved to gate F4; walk to gate C4, take shuttle to another terminal; go to gate; wait for boarding; notice that the flight moved again, now to gate F14; walk to gate F14; wait for boarding; go to restroom 5 minutes before boarding, notice by chance that the flight moved back to gate C3; hope you can make it; take a shuttle back to the first terminal; walk to gate; finally, board plane; wait on runway for de-icing; fly to Aspen airport. land, get bags, take hotel shuttle to Aspen.
about 8 hours.

how would one get backfrom Aspen?
1. teleportation (i wish...) (about 0.00626468212 seconds)
2. by car: use same instructions as above, reverse the order. (about 18.5 hours)
3. by air, through denver:
take shuttle to airport; wait for check in; notice previous flights were cancelled; wait another hour in line; notice the flight before yours gets cancelled; wait another 20 minutes; notice your flight get cancelled; use airline phone, talk to agent; wait more in line; talk to person at check in; reschedule your flight for tomorrow; go back to aspen; get dinner, beer, sleep, breakfast; check online, make sure your flights are on time; repeat steps 1 through 8. for steps 3-8, replace "cancelled" with "delayed"; check in; wait in line for security; go through security; walk to gate; wait for flight; board plane; wait in line for your turn to take off; fly to Denver (25 mins); arrive to denver airport, miss your connection; walk to gate of next flight; talk to abnoctious agent; walk to another gate, use airline phone to re-book your flight; walk to gate; wait for flight; board; wait in plane for late baggage; take off; fly to chicago; land; wait for bags; wait till the carosell stops; wait in line to claim lost baggage; fill in forms; walk to train station; take blue line to downtown; walk to red line station; wait till the train arrives on opposite track, due to construction; ride red line; walk home;
about 2 days.
wait for your bag to arrive. one day.

some day we will be laughing about this... i hope... for now, until option 1 becomes available, i strongly recommend NOT to use option 3.

--- pictures ---

300 people waiting for 4-5 flights out of Aspen. expect delays.


leg room! finally, flying out of Aspen.


waiting in Denver, and finally flying out.

sorry, we didn't have the energy to take pictures of our lost luggage.

Belive it or not

It's actually going to be above freezing all week!!! unbelievable. i especially like the little comment saying "Today is forecast to be Much Warmer than yesterday"

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Electrostatic

seems like i'm a good capacitor.
electrons really like me, and jump on me at any chance they get. the only problem, is when i finally touch something, they want to jump and fly away, shocking me or someone else on the process. usually i can hear the spark when i discharge, and sometimes, if it's dark enough, i can see it too. it's probably the dry air around here... i am considering wearing a metal tail that will constantly drag on the floor behind me and ground me to earth.

things i've been shocked by:
door knobs
keys
computers (including mine)
elevator call button
elevator floor button
elevator door
the car
walls, rails, desks, chairs
light switches
faucets
water coming out of a faucet
ben's fingers
ben's neck
ben, in general
and the funniest of all -- pbj shocked my tongue last night. that was the last straw, that made me write what you're reading now.

remember the van de Graff experiment in physics class?
well, here there is no need of a fancy machine, power chords, standing on a plastic box or working the AC extra hard to get the right conditions. i'm a natural vdg generator. one of these days i will have a picture of me with my hairs looking like this, naturally of course. you just wait!

Saturday, February 3, 2007

It's COLD

The long awaited cold (at least for some us) is here. Around sunset, the temperature dropped below zero Farenheit, and it's still going. The wind outside our window has been blowing about 30 mph (50 kph). This amounts to a "wind chill factor" as we call it: the wind accelerates the loss of heat through the skin, making the air temperature feel colder. It's one of the easiest ways to get frostbite, so you have to be careful to cover all exposed skin. There's a good explanation and a chart here. Check out here for a table in Celsius and meters.

You can look through our dirty window out over the city and see smoke and steam billowing out of the chimneys. Without going outside, it just looks cold.
I ran down to the Lake for a couple of minutes, while I could still feel my face. The wind isn't coming off the Lake this time. It's as calm as mirror, with no wind. It's actually warmer near the Lake: no wind, and it's not frozen yet, although it does have ice in it. It reminds me of a slurpy or slushy, if you've ever had one. The little black things on the Lake are ducks, and they didn't seem to mind at all.

Before the Europeans came and started farming in the 1830's, there was, and still is a 1000 mile prarie to the west of Chicago. For our purposes, it serves as a place for the wind to gather strength. Today, it's my guess that these are winds coming off the prarie.

While we're down on the Lake, and as a tangent, I had to take a picture of something I think is kind of cool here. If you look offshore, about 2 miles off, there are 3 enormous, stationary structures. spaced evenly up the coastline of Chicago. The one nearest to us is almost directly east, and it's shown at the right. It's the tiny dot on the horizon, with our poor camera on full zoom. Today it looks particularly lonely, surrounded by slushy, indifferent water.


When we first got here, I thought this was a boat that never moved. Keren looked into this and found that they are really water intake pumping stations: the City of Chicago draws water offshore from Lake Michigan. I don't know if this is all or part of the water that the city uses. I found that they first built one of these intakes back in the 1850's (see here), when the sewage they pumped into the river made for choleric, dyssentery-ridden water. They actually had a tunnel dug below the clay bed of the Lake to bring the water into town. But that's another story that I will tell later.

PhD motivation


i borrowed it from here