Getting closer to the lost universe

In a previous post, I noted the little problem of modern physics -- we have lost about 95% of the universe. Can't be found anywhere.

Now, we may have found a "dark galaxy" that may contain the missing bits.

Radio astronomers may have found the first ever galaxy that is made almost entirely of dark matter. The "dark galaxy", which lies in the Virgo cluster about 50 million light years away, rotates in the same way as an ordinary galaxy but does not contain any stars (R Minchin et al. Astrophysical Journal at press).

The physicsweb article "Have we seen the first dark galaxy" describes it. The galaxy cannot be seen in the image below. That's why it is called "dark"

I'm baaack...

... from a bad cold. I missed several days. I don't think there is much point trying to backfill.

Today I cooked a super chicken stew from a Syrian recipe. Onions, garlic, wine, coriander, cumin, olives, chicken stock. Yummy. Cures colds.

The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record

This link was posted on one of the mailing lists.
The Empire That Was Russia: The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record Recreated (A Library of Congress Exhibition)

This Library of Congress exhibit contains incredible color pictures from turn-of-the-center Russia. For example:

Amtrak subsidies cut. Why?

OK - so I am few days late in reacting to this:

CNN.com - Bush plan to eliminate Amtrak subsidy faces fight - Feb 9, 2005

The challenge (for me) when assessing proposals made by politicians is to decide among five alternatives:

1. They are right -- the proposal is good public policy (meaning -- I agree with it)
   
If they are wrong, we disagree because:

2. They are stupid, and do not understand the issues
   
3. They are evil, and have a personal profit motive (e.g. meeting their campaign contributors needs)
   
4. They have a different view of "right" and "wrong" than I. This could be based on religion, or some other moral basis. Reasonable people can differ regarding such issues.
   
5. I am stupid, and do not understand the issue.
   

I will always discard 5. as an option that I discuss -- it is for other people to make that case.

In the case of Amtrak, the proposal is clearly wrong. The federal government subsidizes Amtrak's competition (personal automobiles) by maintaining the US Interstate system. Without the Interstate road system, trains would be packed.

It is bad public policy to subsidize the less efficient of competing alternatives. It may even be bad policy to subsidize any private endeavor, but that is another question.

So, the administration is either paying back political contributions, does not understand the issue, or believes it is morally wrong to ride trains. You decide -- I don't know.

Two movies in two days - a record for me!

We have joined a movie discussion group. As a result, we now feel impelled to actually see movies. Saturday night we saw Million Dollar Baby.

This was well made, but boxing turns me off.

Sunday afternoon -- cold and drizzly, we saw Ray.

Interesting story, well acted (probable Oscar for Jamie Foxx playing Ray Charles, but the story was dragged out for too long, and often played too hard at tugging at the heartstrings. (It seemed to work for the lady across the aisle -- she reacted loudly with appropriate sobs and gasps). The director made good use of color saturation as a differentiator between current scenes and flashbacks.

It seems like this is the year of the biography at the movies.

Great photo shows in Chicago

Today I went out with a couple of folk that I met through the Street Photography mailing list.

Despite a lifelong interest in photography, I spent very little time in galleries looking at photographs. In Johannesburg, there were no photo galleries. While working in the USA, time for galleries was almost non-existent. So, apart from an occasional swing by the photographs in the Chicago Art Institute, galleries were not on my radar screen.

Today was an eye-opener for me. We first visited the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College -- a stunning set of exhibitions spread over multiple floors. Next, over to the West Loop area - several commercial galleries with fascinating exhibitions.

For more on galleries in Chicago, see Chicago Gallery News.

An interesting space is the West Loop Art Market.

Its harder than it seems..

... to keep a blog current. I have never kept any kind of journal before, so remembering to say something every day does not come easily to me. Even harder is saying something of significance -- so I will fall back in the insignificant.

We went to the Opera last night night - saw the production of Tosca based on the 1964 Covent Garden production. Magnificent.

We installed a Comcast DVR today - so now, rather than not watching TV. I can have a machine watch it for me. I have set it record a bunch of programs that I always miss -- it remains to seen if I ever get to actually watch the programs. Of course, the tech who installed it did not set it up correctly, so I had to get the manual and set it up for a regular TV -- he had set it up for HDTV.

Monkeys Pay to See Female Monkey Bottoms

Monkeys Pay to See Female Monkey Bottoms

Abstract:

Would you pay to see a monkey's backside? I hope not. Monkeys will, and I guess that's okay, though it sounds awfully close to the sort of thing that lands guys in jail here in the human realm.

A new study found that male monkeys will give up their juice rewards in order to ogle pictures of female monkey's bottoms. The way the experiment was set up, the act is akin to paying for the images, the researchers say.

Hmmm. No need for comment.

On the way to finding the lost universe

I have been a little concerned for some time now that the standard model of physics has some trouble locating 95% of the matter in the universe. It is there, they say - they just can't find it.

Now I discover that about half of the 5% that physicists have found is also missing.

This bad news was delivered to me in the guise of some good news: they have found some of the missing 2.5%. An article on physicsweb describes it.

The situation in physics now appears similar to the early 1900s. Newtonian physics described the known world, except for some minor anomalies that were ignored in polite company. Then Einstein and the quantum gang explain the anomalies and bingo -- everything you ever learned in kindergarten was just an approximation. Next we get nuclear weapons and transistors.

Only fiction writers and politicians can predict what will come next.

Actually, think most of the missing matter is in my filing cabinet.

Picasa for Photo Organizing

Google has bought Picasa

I downloaded it and tried it out, despite my heavy commitment (in time) to Imatch as a photo indexing tool. While its indexing system is not as powerful as a fully fledged image management system, its speed and ease of use are outstanding.

Try it -- you may like it.

It comes bundled with Hello! -- which I like much less. Hello appears to function like a Napster for your pictures. I do not feel comfortable with the idea of opening a pipe to my hard drive from the Internet, and I feel even less comfortable asking friends to install software just to look at my pictures. Its the Luddite in me, I guess.

ATT, Cingular and Frustration

My wife's cell phone is old and almost broken. The calling plan we have from ATT is not as cost effective as newer plans. ATT & Cingular have just merged. Seems like a good time to upgrade the phone and move to a more cost effective plan. So, off to the ATT store we go -- same old store, new Cingular signs.

Youngish guy greets us, asks what he can do for us. We tell him. We want a bar phone (not flip) with blue tooth capability. That's the phone over there, he says -- but its not available anywhere in Illinois -- backordered, he says. You can have flip and Bluetooth, or no flip and no Bluetooth. OK, we say, let's get the new Cingular plan on the old phone until the new one comes in. Can't do, he says. Your old phone is locked to ATT, and we did not want to force anyone to convert, he says.

HUH? The phone is locked to the chip by software. ATT knows how to unlock it. Once again, ATT arrogance comes to the fore, even though the company was bought by Cingular.

The outlook is bleak.

A History of Civilizations

I recently finished reading Fernand Braudel's book with this expansive title and scope.

Absolutely fascinating reading, and highly recommended. It is refreshing to read a book on world history that appears not to have an ideological axe to grind, but tries to present an array of facts in a broadly based context that allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusions.

The conclusion that I was led to is that civilizations evolve based on both their own internal dynamics and their interaction with other civilizations. This is another way of saying that predicting how civilizations will change is beyond current intellectual capabilities -- but change they will.

This is a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion. One is left edified, but with few insights that really help to explain current affairs. In hindsight, one can say: this is why it happened. With foresight, one can only say: something will happen.

Nevertheless, the book is still worth reading.

A superb Mozart and Mahler concert conducted by Maazel

This evening we saw the New York Philharmonic conducted by Lorin Maazel playing Mozart Symphony #29 and the Mahler 5th Symphony. Superb.

Our seats for this series are in Row G on the far right. We get a great view of the conductor from the side, so we can see facial expressions clearly. I was struck by the difference in conducting style between Birnbaum and Maazel.

Birnbaum uses a podium with a railing at the back - and he uses every square inch of it. He leans back over the rail. He moves to the side and leans so far over into the violin section that he almost hits heads with his baton. He moves forward and lunges towards the brass to encourage more effort.

Maazel uses no rail - he does not need one. His body movements are expressive, and sometimes explosive, but his feet barely move more than a few inches in each direction. He did, however, launch himself almost six inches into the air with both feet off the ground several times during the Mahler.

The encore was the prelude to Act III of Wagner's Lohengrin.

Overall, a very satisfying evening.

This is why I want a four wheel drive.

It is the exit from my garage!

© Clive Moss

I am thinking of buying a new car.

I will get a four wheel drive of sorts, to combat the Chicago winter.

I find the discussions on this board fascinating.
Acura RL vs. Audi A6 vs. BMW 5-Series vs. Jaguar S-Type vs. Lexus GS - Forums

I drove the Volvo s80 this morning. The Volvo drives OK, but feels tacky compared to the finish of the Lexus or Infiniti.
Last week I drove the new Acura RL. It has great electronic gizmos, but I am underwhelmed by its feel on the road and its bland looks.

The Ultimate Geek Accessory

PaperHub review - Engadget - www.engadget.com

Now this is the ultimate geek desk accessory

So, this is a test to see if I can link to my pictures on pbase. These are my current PAWs (Pictures a Week):
http://www.pbase.com/chmoss/2005q1paw
Now, can I embed a picture? This is my grand-daughter Abigail: