I’ve previously mentioned the exploits of Yves Rossy, aka “Fusion Man”, a daredevil who had successfully built and tested a jet-powered wing. Now, according to CNN, Rossy has taken a flight across the English Channel! The 22-mile flight from Calais to Dover took less than 15 minutes to accomplish. Information about Rossy and his wing can be found at his official website.
The National Geographic Channel will be airing a special on the flight tonight.
Via ERV, I learn that a collection of 61 American Nobel Laureates in Science have gotten together to wholeheartedly endorse Barack Obama. Their “Open Letter to the American People” can be read here.
It’s an impressive list. It is noted at the link that this is group is larger than the groups which endorsed Kerry and Gore. And, just to give you a taste of the accomplishments of the authors, from my physics perspective:
The Boston Globe mentions the endorsement here, which seems to have been otherwise lost in the hysterical reporting on McCain’s disingenuous “break”.
This unprecedented support is not surprising; as Tom at Swans on Tea noted, McCain has already apparently declared a desire to freeze research funding until the politicians can bring their infinite wisdom to bear on the worthiness of the research.
A little name-dropping: the two Nobel winners I’ve personally met (very briefly) are on the list: Leon Lederman and James Cronin. I was not surprised at all to see Lederman on the list; he’s generally awesome.
I’ve been a little distracted from blogging for the past week by the gas crisis that has settled slowly but inexorably over the region. Parts of the southeast have been in the midst of a massive gas shortage since Hurricane Ike shut down the refineries which supply it more than a week ago. Only a trickle of fuel is entering the region now, and it is being rationed amongst various stations. A station which gets gas gets half-mile-long lines along with it, and a new supply can sell out within hours. A report from Charlotte, NC on the situation can be read here. The frightening thing is that nobody seems to know for sure when things will return to at least a semblance of normalcy: a day? two days? a week?
Fortunately, I only teach one day a week, so I’ve been working from home most days to conserve gas. I also drive a hybrid Civic (purchased with some foresight on my part in 2004), and am able to get farther on a tank than most people. Even that, though, is running low. If this crisis continues for a few more days, I think cities in the region are going to start looking a bit like ghost towns.
I’m a little baffled by the fact that a smaller version of this event happened in 2005, when Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. One would think that officials would have seen the possibility of an even more severe disruption and taken steps to diversify the gas supply.
One of the reasons I enjoy writing this blog is that it gives me an excuse to hunt down and read obscure horror classics that were nonetheless highly influential on the genre. Last night I finished reading such a classic that I’ve been eager to read for years, James Malcolm Rymer’s Varney the Vampire (1845):
“Varney” is perhaps the greatest example of the ‘Penny Dreadful‘ publications of 19th century Britain. It was originally released as a weekly serial, and the complete version was later printed in one complete volume in 1847. Until recently, the only way that a reader could enjoy Varney’s exploits was through poor quality photoreproductions of the original volume. In 2007, Zittaw Press released the first new, retypeset version of the story, edited and annotated by über-scholar Curt Herr of Kutztown University. The new edition corrects typesetting and spelling errors (as much as is humanly possible), includes a detailed introduction, explanatory footnotes, reproductions of original illustrations, and additional analysis and examples of penny dreadfuls at the end of the volume.
I give a discussion of penny dreadfuls, and my thoughts on Varney and its influence on vampire lore, below the fold.
A few days ago, it was noted that Roger Ebert had posted an article titled, “Creationism: Your questions answered“. The article gives a straight-faced accounting of creationist beliefs, which was somewhat shocking to many fans who were familiar with Ebert’s long agnosticism and support of evolution. The curious article was noted in many places, including Pharyngula, sparked an intense debate: was Ebert writing satire? had his website been hacked? was he losing his mind?
Ebert himself has answered the question in a blog post: it was a satirical piece. One of the clues, which I hadn’t quite understood when I read it, was the retitling of his Adaptation review with, “Evolution is God’s intelligent design.” The post was a demonstration of Poe’s law in action.
What was the point? If I understand Ebert correctly, it was a test/demonstration of the too-ready credulity of people these days. I’m not sure it was quite the right test: people of all ages, even scientists, have been known to start believing crazy and weird things without much provocation.
The fiancée and I just returned this afternoon from attending the NC Scienceblogs celebration in honor of the millionth scienceblogs comment! We spent a nice afternoon at the Asheboro Zoo with a great collection of people, including Coturnix, Dave and Greta Munger, SciCurious, Kevin Zelnio, Sciencewoman and plenty of others! It was nice meeting everyone in person for the first time, and hopefully I’ll run into them again soon, possibly at ScienceOnline ’09!
I was so happy to chat with everyone, I only got a few pictures!
One of the fun things about blogging about both science and horror fiction is the unusual connections that one can find between them. On of my favorite science topics outside of physics is vulcanology, which is why I read blogs like Magma Cum Laude.
Recently, I happened across a very nice book by J.Z. de Boer and D.T. Sanders, Volcanoes in Human History. In short, it looks at the major volcanic eruptions with a focus on their impact on human events. Perhaps the most famed of these events is the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E., which resulted in the destruction of Pompeii. What especially caught my eye, though, was the following comment,
Among the earliest books about the catastrophe of 79 C.E. is The Last Days of Pompeii, a novel published to popular acclaim in 1834 by the English writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Though overly sentimental and melodramatic for modern tastes, it presents a fascinating glimpse of Pompeiian life in the first century and a vivid picutre of what it must have been like when the earth shook, walls tumbled, and ash and lapilli rained down upon the city, turning day into night.
Emphasis mine. To a horror fiction fan, Bulwer-Lytton is known as the author of one of the greatest haunted house stories ever written, The Haunted and the Haunters: Or the House and the Brain. Of Bulwer-Lytton, H.P. Lovecraft had the following to say in his essay Supernatural Horror in Literature:
At this time a wave of interest in spiritualistic charlatanry, mediumism, Hindoo theosophy, and such matters, much like that of the present day, was flourishing; so that the number of weird tales with a “Psychic” or pseudo-scientific basis became very considerable. For a number of these the prolific and popular Edward Bulwer-Lytton was responsible; and despite the large doses of turgid rhetoric and empty romanticism in his products, his success in the weaving of a certain kind of bizarre charm cannot be denied.
The House and the Brain, which hints of Rosicrucianism and at a malign and deathless figure perhaps suggested by Louis XV’s mysterious courtier St. Germain, yet survives as one of the best short haunted-house tales ever written.
In light of this, I thought I would take a look at the ‘other side’ of Bulwer-Lytton, and read his most famous romance, The Last Days of Pompeii (1834).
Back in 2004, I had the pleasure of hearing Hillary Clinton speak at the Optical Society of America Annual Meeting in Rochester, NY. After her prepared remarks, she took questions from the audience. One questioner asked about some Bush administration policy — I can’t remember which one — and Hillary demurred from giving too much criticism, saying something to the effect of, “I know this is a non-partisan audience.”
The response? Uproarious laughter, including from me. Hillary didn’t quite understand the humor of her statement, but the reality is that only a handful of people in that room at that time could probably think of anything good to say about President Bush or the Republican party. (I personally know only two scientists who have supported Bush over the past eight years — and one of them now vocally condemns the man.)
That isn’t to say that there weren’t conservatives in the audience, or among scientists in general. Any scientist who is paying the least amount of attention to the actions of the Republicans over the last decade, however, cannot in good faith support them. The Republicans have turned their party into the party of ignorance, and I fear that, regardless of the outcome of the current Presidential election, their shameless anti-education — and anti-knowledge — demagoguery will continue to hurt the United States for years to come.
The third edition of The Giant’s Shoulders is up at Entertaining Research! It’s a smaller edition than the previous ones, but still has some very nice entries (mine included!). Thanks to Guru for putting it together!
The next edition will be held on October 15th at Second Order Approximation. Let’s get those entries in! I myself am working my way translating about 60 pages worth of old French research.
The music world has lost one of its greats: Rick Wright, keyboardist and founding member of Pink Floyd, died at 65 after a long battle with cancer.
His contributions to the band were often dismissed, especially, it seems, by fellow band member Roger Waters. My impression, though, is that Pink Floyd is one of those bands that worked its magic best when all its members were contributing to the creative process.
There’s probably one video that captures the mood amongst Pink Floyd fans right now, and seems a fitting tribute:
The author of Skulls in the Stars is a professor of physics, specializing in optical science, at UNC Charlotte. The blog covers topics in physics and optics, the history of science, classic pulp fantasy and horror fiction, and the surprising intersections between these areas. 
Skulls in the Stars 