Resonant Constellation

There’s a new Star Trek 11 trailer out. Needless to say, after it’s last outing (Not your father’s Star Trek), which roused my ire, this news provoked a moderated, but anticipatory feeling. About halfway into the thing, I had already made up my mind: it is awesome. I’ve watched each of the three trailers and several tv spots with great interest and for all three of the trailers, I have been amazed anew.

The first, I saw appended to the movie Cloverfield, and to tell the truth, it was the only reason I went to see that movie (I usually like horror, but the ridiculous unsteady cam made me physically ill). This first trailer, though woefully low on substance, made me rather excited, especially with the voice over by Leonard Nimoy. Later, when the second trailer came out, I was ecstatic that we actually got to see pieces of the movie, though this experience was marred by my having to get used to the new Star Trek universe-the new bridge, as somebody put it, looks like an apple computer threw up all over the place. Still, Zachary Quinto looks a dead ringer for a young Leonard Nimoy, and Simon Pegg is Scotty-these are very good things.

I hope you understand now when I say that this trailer blew the other two out of the water. I will not try to describe it, just go watch it. You will not be disappointed.

I recently re-watched one of my all-time favorite movies, Blazing Saddles. I love this movie so much that one summer I watched it every morning right after I woke up. Once I watched it with the sound off and filled in all of the dialogue by myself (I was assisted by my brother). You can probably tell, I really enjoy Mel Brooks movies. There are one or two I haven’t seen, though, including Silent Movie, so when I watched Blazing Saddles, I resolved to find and watch those that I haven’t yet seen.

I started with Silent Movie, not knowing what to expect. Immediately, however, I knew it was going to be good. The main characters are Mel Brooks, Marty Feldman, and Dom DeLuise. When they drove up all crammed into the front seat of the little yellow car, I knew this movie was going to be awesome. I was not wrong.

When Mel talks to the studio owner (Sid Ceaser) trying to pitch his silent movie (which we are to assume is the one we are watching), the owner refuses to produce it and says “Slapstick is dead.” Then he falls into his chair, which falls over and zooms across the room through his desk to impact on the far wall. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. In the same scene, when the owner says that Mel can do the movie, Mel says “When the guys hear about this, they’ll flip!” And they actually flip, several times.

There’s so many awesome things in this movie (such as Marcel Marceau, the famous mime, saying the only line, playing pong on the hospital heart monitor, Marty Feldman’s entire scene trying to get onto the elevator, “would you mind dancing with a mild-mannered pervert?”, the wheelchair race scene, the comically oversized bottle of booze Mel obtains from the liquor store, “He is truly the lord of the winos”, the poster for Young Frankenstein at the theater, the simple undeniable fact of Dom DeLuise and Marty Feldman, this list could go on forever). This film proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that slapstick is far from dead, it is hilarious. I highly recommend it.

]Michel Mayor and his exoplanet hunting team have done it again. Gliese 581e weighs in with a minimum mass of . For the technical details, followthis link to the pre-print paper. Of course, this is a pre-print (though accepted for publication in A&A), so it’s not in publication state yet, just out to show that this group discovered it first. The paper will likely be revised before it is finally published, but in my (admittedly short) experience, this is the only copy most people will read.

Most of the time, the inclination angle for these systems isn’t known (unless the planet transits the host star, in which case it can be derived from the impact parameter of the transit, b via a relatively simple formula), so the masses of most known extrasolar planets are listed as lower limits. In this case, however, the system has three other low mass planets, and since it is a stable system, it can be dynamically modeled and upper limits can be placed on the planet masses. In this case, the upper limits on all planet masses in the system is at 1.6 times the minimum, so the maximum mass for this newly discovered planet is only -still a significant discovery. The planet is, however, too close to the star to support life at 0.03 AU and has an orbital period of roughly days (3.14942 to be more exact).

The other planets in the system are worth mentioning as well. Gl581b, the first discovered is at least 15.62 earth masses with a semi-major axis of 0.04 AU, Gl581c is only 5.36 earth masses with a semi-major axis of 0.07 AU, and Gl581d is 7.09 earth masses and orbits at a distance of 0.22 AU. This last is particularly interesting because the planet lies in the habitable zone around the host star.

This remarkable system is only 20 lightyears distant from earth (it is actually the 87th closest known star system), and the host star is likely visible in relatively small (say, 6-7 inch) amateur telescopes. You can find it in the constellation approximately 2 degrees north of beta libra (’commonly’ called Zubeneschamali or Zuben el Chamali). For those of you who want to look for it yourselves, here’s a starchart centered on the location that should help you find it. Of course, libra isn’t up high in the sky until late these days, so you’ll have to stay up late to catch it.

[rant]
I was reading an article today on Gizmodo in their Week of Audio Tech section, and I ran across this article on “The World’s Most Beautiful Audio Equipment. Some of the stuff on there is interesting, some is completely useless, some is great, all of them are expensive. One particularly intriguing idea caught my eye: that of Opera Sonora Speakers. This company makes very visually pleasing speakers (really sounding boards) out of expensive and rare tonewoods.

At first, I was very intrigued by this idea. As it often does, my mind began running with the concept. You could carve each of the pieces like an instrument sounding board and have interesting resonation boxes, there could be big, bass-like ones, and little, violin-like ones. It could sound really cool, I thought. In fact, you could practically build stringed instruments without the strings and it would probably sound fantastic-if you drive the pieces in the correct places. There are problems with even this idea, though. The volume and tone is severely limited by the types of the wood, and even without that, these “speakers” would only be good at reproducing stringed instrument sounds, winds wouldn’t come through as well. For an amateur audiophile like me, that’s a cringe-inducing thought.

One quick inspection of the site, however, makes all of these points moot. Here is an excerpt from one of their descriptions of their first product:

The idea was born thinking to the wind which blows among the spruces and accompanies day and night the life of the forest.

The point stretching to the top imitates the leap of the tree towards the sky and the curving lines seem to capture the wind like a sail swelling with the energy of nature.

The reduced dimensions confer a gentle response to the music, which can rise at the right time in the richest and swiftest pieces.

Wow, the bullshit is tangible. This is obviously an idea designed by an artiste with little to no background in audio equipment or luthiery. Now, I realize that there’s a place for pretentious artists (I think), but that place is sadly not in the home music entertainment industry. It could have been a very intriguing, if somewhat limited, concept, but it turned into a waste of rare and expensive tonewood. To everybody considering wasting tonewood: Stop That. It’s rare enough already, and those of us who use it in instruments would like to be able to afford new additions to the herd.
[/rant.]

There’s been a recent upturn in temperatures this week, so as a good practicing pastafarian I have to assume there has been a decrease in the number of pirates. The news confirms my suspicions:
Badass American Snipers Kick Pirate Ass
French Raid Pirate Ship
Pirate Bay Trial Verdict Out

Yes, friends, all types of pirates are declining in the world, electronic, high seas (when even the French are kicking ass you know it’s serious), even the Pittsburgh Pirates lost their last game. Prepare your summer clothes, it’s gonna get warm.

Well, I’d like to get this in early (as opposed to last month) and fortunately I’ve recently had an excellent beer. This is Port Brewing’s “Old Viscosity,” an American Strong Ale. Port Brewing is also owned by Lost Abbey, one of who’s beers I’ve reviewed before. Though the Lost Abbey was very good, this was much better. Old Viscosity is also surpassed by the so-called Older Viscosity which is the same beer aged in Burbon Barrels for six months. I’ve never had the Older variant, but it sounds intriguing.

Old Viscosity pours very dark with a nice brown head. There’s nothing too special about the aroma, pretty standard decent beer-a little bready yeast, maybe some fruits, licorice in small measure. The proof, of course, is in the drinking. Roasted coffee beans are instantly present, a bit of the aforementioned yeast, something I can only describe as “scotch-like” smokiness, licorice, a bit of earthy oak, and a nice creamy note to top it off.

Of course, this beer is most notable not for the flavor, but for the palate-how it feels. Creamy and smooth are the first impressions, but as you let it move back along the tongue, it takes on a wonderfully chewy presence, much like well-kneaded bread. This beer is extremely present.

Scoring:
Aroma: 7/10
Appearance:4/5
Flavor:8/10
Palate:5/5
Overall:17/20
Score: 82/100

I just found out the results of NASA’s node 3 naming contest and I must say, I am a little disappointed. The suggested name Colbert supposedly won by quite a large margin, but in second place was the name I backed, Serenity. NASA, being NASA, decided to name the node Tranquility.
What? Seriously, guys, why did you even have the vote if you were just going to totally ignore it?

I watched the new TV spot for Star Trek 11. I noticed two things:
1. Kirk’s big line was “Either they’re going down or we are.” Apparently the name “Captain Kirk” was changed to “Captain Obvious” somewhere in the script.
2. The big tagline declared in huge, dramatically slowed and broken apart sentences interspersed with scenes of mind-boggling action sequences was: “This is not your father’s Star Trek.”
O….kay then. I’m going to go ahead and dissect this like an 8th grade biology student going full out on a preserved frog and/or fetal pig. Those of you with squeamish sensibilities may want to get over it (e.g. man up, grow a pair, etcetera). This is going to get a little…formaldehyde…ey. Wait, no, I mean ugly.

Alright, Star Trek writers, producers, and director J.J. Abrams, I’m okay with you re-doing the whole concept, starting with a new storyline, in fact I’m in favor of it. If the Star Wars prequels (and pretty much any other prequel film) taught us anything (that wasn’t destroyed along with the brain cells we all lost watching them), it’s that going back to a series to do a prequel after a long time is not, strictly, a good idea. So, I like the fact that you’ve made it clear that you’re not doing a literal re-make.

That said, I do expect respect for the shows and movies that came before. The Original Series may not be my favorite, but it was a truly great and groundbreaking TV show. Something like forty years later the themes of many of the episodes are still relevant, interesting, and most importantly entertaining. Mr. Abrams, you’d be lucky to make a movie half as good as my father’s Star Trek.

And based on your big line from the TV spot, you’re headed down that dark path; forever will it dominate your…
Wait, wrong one.
Ahem:
KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHN!

NB: Okay, so maybe I didn’t dissect it as such. I always hated biology, anyway. Maybe I can stick it in a particle accelerator.

I was watching one of my favorite TV shows, The Big Bang Theory (which accurately describes my life/lack thereof), when an incredible scene transpired. Leonard, emotionally out of sorts from previous events, turns off the TV in disgust. Sheldon, baffled, says:
“Did you just shut the TV off in the middle of the Star Trek DS9/Original Series Trouble With Tribbles Crossover episode?”

My reaction: “Oh, he means ‘Trials and Tribble-ations,’ from season 5, that’s a great episode.” Yes, I said that out loud. I think I get geek points for that.

Well this took too long to get up here, but here it is. This week at the session (which was held at my apartment), the usual group was joined by Eric, a local Uileann piper (okay, the local Uileann piper, or at least the only one I’ve found). I think this made our session a few orders of magnitude more awesome, as good pipers always do. Anyway, here’s a clip of four of us (Anton left early). Don’t mind my ineptitude on guitar in various spots (nor the rocky beginning of the second tune), I’ve been in going back and forth between tunings so much recently that I barely know where I am anymore.

The tunes being played are Garret Barry’s and Auld Hag You’ve Killed Me.

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