Unlisted blog

This is an oldie but a goodie. This film was made in 1977 by husband and wife team Charles and Ray Eames. They were primarily architects by education but went on to make lasting contributions to several fields including furniture design, industrial design, and photography.

Fortunately, they also made films. Powers of Ten is probably the most visionary film I've ever seen. It's also a staple of cinematic allusion, showing up in no less than three episodes of The Simpsons.

Apart from its cultural significance, the film has some pragmatism about it. It just goes to show the spectrum of things in the universe at large. Everything around us is made of the same extremely tiny things: the building blocks of matter. They jury is still out on how small those blocks get, but everyone has to agree that quarks are pretty damned small. It takes, for instance, three quarks to make a proton, neutron, or electron. Those quarks are bound together by yet other particles. Smaller than that... well, that's the Large Hadron Collider's job to figure out.

Atomic-scale particles are small enough that they have their own set of physical laws, very different from those around us. For example, a single particle can effectively exist in only one place at a time but interacts with itself in many places from moment to moment. No, it doesn't make sense, but that's quantum mechanics. Likewise, after things get up to a planetary scale, the laws of physics change yet again. Near the speed of light time slows down, and space compresses even though a planet is still made of the same quantum mechanical building blocks as everything else.

If none of that is really sinking in, take nine minutes to watch the movie below.


Watch Powers of Ten

Q: Why did a complete stranger take a picture of us outside our local coffee shop?

A: So we could bring you this.

As you might have heard, Seattle is at a standstill from all the snow over the past week, as is the entire Pacific Northwest. I took advantage and posted a few dozen pics to one of my web albums yesterday. Click the pic!



My co-worker Rachel (pictured about two minutes in) and her husband (at the intro) posted a video to their YouTube channel.

You have to see this to believe it. I'd describe it, but... well, you'll see.

Oh, Thanksgiving! It's the most American of holidays.

Okay, maybe not since Canada has one, too. Though it's a bigger holiday here than in Canada. Some people are more likely to get back home for Thanksgiving than for Christmas, but I'm not necessarily one of them. This year we tried to get back to Nashville for Christmas, as we'd done two years ago. Ticket prices, though, were just a bit high. And by 'high' I mean 'ridiculously expensive.'

Plane tickets for Thanksgiving, however, weren't as bad. Travel regulations for pets were bad, though. Ashley is tiny at 17 pounds (7.5 kg), but she's bigger than the airlines allow on the plane. In light of that, my parents decided that they could come visit us this time. Overall, things went pretty well.

I managed to grab one of a limited number of organic turkeys from a farm a couple hours north of Seattle. Specifically, it was a heritage turkey, a breed very different from the usual store-bought birds. They have a lot less white meat and a lot more flavor. Getting it was an adventure in itself. I drove up Wednesday afternoon with Ashley riding shotgun, managing to get slightly lost and still arriving on time.

It was a fun, albeit short field trip. Ashley scrambled around the farm, her hackles at full attention. All the smells of the farm, the sight of ducks and chickens (no turkeys!), and the sounds of country life really roused her. I spent plenty of time in the country growing up. It's hard to explain, but the smells of farm life really relax me. The smells that crinkle most people's noses, wet animals and manure, just don't bother me. Leaving the farm was a reluctant transition, but ya do what ya gotta do.

After that, the next 24 hours absolutely flew by. I drove home and set the frozen bird about the process of defrosting. Steph and I set about planning just what to eat, cleaning house, and setting up my parents' bedroom. We got to bed a bit late then got up slightly early to cook everything and buy whatever else we didn't already have.

Here's where I wax informative. My goal, on the rare occasions that I entertain, is to make enough food. For big occasions, almost everybody makes the same quantity of food: too damned much! I'd rather come up short on dinner items than anything for one reason alone: dessert!

So now ya know.

My folks flew in on Thanksgiving Day (it's a lot cheaper flying on a holiday), arriving here around 3:00 in the afternoon. Then our heretofore unannounced guests come into the picture. I have, via facebook, re-connected with many an old friend. One of them is David. He's a law school graduate now, but twenty-five years ago he was one of the kids I babysat. Our families were very good friends some time back, but we all live in different cities now, except for David and me.

We reminisced, got reacquainted, and demolished two pies. Mission accomplished! After that, we hung out playing games, watching (American) football, and doing a bit of sightseeing. That last item, by the way, was a huge plus. The universal law is that you don't visit tourist destinations in your home city unless you have company. With my parents here, I finally got to visit the Seattle Aquarium, which is world class.

Mom even took a picture of me and Dad (he's on the right).