Darn! No alien invasion… yet!

Posted on September 25, 2007 by skullsinthestars

I’m terribly disappointed.  Last week, a story out of Peru had all the hallmarks of a good alien invasion story — a mysterious meteorite crashes near a small town in Peru, and local residents start to fall ill.  (‘Personal Demon’ tipped me to the story a few days back.)

Speculation ran rampant, but much of it went against the locals story – some arguments suggested that it was an underground gas explosion that caused the crater.

Well, the verdict is in: it was a meteorite, and its crash to Earth did result in people falling ill – though they fell ill not due to some space-borne illness, but due to arsenic deposits in the groundwater being released into the air.

Alas, I was hoping for some sort of ray-gun toting aliens to leap from the crater.  Scientists like me always get to be the heroes in stories like that…

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Ukraine Travelogue, part 4: Building to impress

Posted on September 23, 2007 by skullsinthestars

One thing that strikes you about traveling in Eastern Europe is that everything seems BIG. Buildings, monuments, and other things are not only built large, but somehow conspicuously large. For instance, here’s a photograph of one of the government buildings in Kiev:

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Heroes returns! and driving shows into the ground

Posted on September 21, 2007 by skullsinthestars

Rejoice, one and all, for Heroes returns on Monday with its season premiere.

Truth be told, I’m only in the process now, on my trip to San Jose, of watching the DVDs of season one. Although many, many people whose opinions I respect told me it was a good show, I’ve assiduously avoided watching it until now (I caught an episode on the BBC while in Amsterdam, and got hooked). After I thought about it a bit, I realized that I’m afraid of getting hooked on yet another television show which promises intricately crafted plots, complex characters and real development of the story line, but fails to deliver after I’ve invested lots of emotion into it.

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Ukraine Travelogue, part 3: This one blew my mind (updated)

Posted on September 19, 2007 by skullsinthestars

So I was sitting in my Kiev hotel, watching local television, and I came across the following television show:

This is undoubtedly a Ukrainian/Russian television show. Does it look familiar at all?

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I know your secret, Belasco!!!

Posted on September 17, 2007 by skullsinthestars

I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that today is the late Roddy McDowell’s birthday.  This wonderful actor played his best role, in my mind, as a cowardly actor/vampire slayer in Fright Night.  Most people will probably remember him, however, for his role as an ape.

Looking over his massive filmography, however, I’m most intrigued that he played Chiun in a failed TV pilot of Remo Williams.  If you know who Chiun is, you’ll agree he’s perfect for the role.  If you don’t, well, I’ll come back to that story in another post…

Posted in Entertainment | 4 Comments

The Terror

Posted on September 17, 2007 by skullsinthestars

Well, I’m back home for a couple more hours, then I head off to another meeting in California for a few more days. In the meantime, I thought I’d quickly comment on one of the best horror novels I’ve read this year: Dan Simmons’ The Terror.

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Posted in Horror | 8 Comments

Ukraine Travelogue, part 2: People can surprise you

Posted on September 15, 2007 by skullsinthestars

So I forgot the cable which powers my battery charger. I’m wandering the Ukraine, I’m low on power, and there’s lots of stuff to take pictures of that I’ll likely never see again.

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Ukraine Travelogue, part 1: Travel is hell!

Posted on September 15, 2007 by skullsinthestars

Well, I’m back in Amsterdam, having finally gotten out of the Ukraine. I thought I’d post a number of random observations about the country, the people, and the culture, in addition to posting a bunch of pictures.

Overall, I had a very good trip. The meeting in Chernivtsi, Ukraine went extremely well, and I developed a number of important new contacts, planned new collaborations, and made new friends. I was even surprised to have one of the ‘distinguished founding fathers’ of singular optics, who was presiding the session in which I spoke, stand up and declare that my talk was ‘the best of the conference’ (I was tempted to immediately point at a friend of mine who had spoken before me and shout, “In your face!”, but I didn’t think people would realize I was kidding).

The Ukraine is an interesting country in that it is one that is struggling with modernity and what you might call ‘civil society’. Though of course many people there are good, civilized sorts, there is also below the surface for many people an attitude of ‘every man for himself’ which doubtless comes from a society which has been poor and oppressed for a long, long time.

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Hi from Kiev!

Posted on September 14, 2007 by skullsinthestars

Hi everyone (anyone?)! I just thought I’d write and say ‘hi’ from Kiev. I have to pay for a half-hour of internet anyway, so I’m filling the time!

Kiev is a magnificent city, and I’ll have many pictures to put up when I get back. I walked pretty much the entire central downtown area, which means my legs and back are extremely sore.

I was pleasantly surprised that I could find my way around easily. Once I got going, I only had to glance at the map every once in a while to make sure I was on the right track, and I never made a wrong turn. I even found a particular metro station that I wanted to write about! (More later.) I guess my previous time in Kiev stayed in my memory.

(To my girlfriend: see, I DO have good direction sense!)

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Man overboard!

Posted on September 9, 2007 by skullsinthestars

Just a little anecdote while I’m on the road… I head to the Ukraine tomorrow, and I’m not sure what will happen there (hopefully fun).

Anyway, on my way to meet my old boss, I had to stop and take a picture of a particular bridge in Amsterdam which has a special meaning to me. It is pictured below:

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