Part four of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, or rather the first part of the second trilogy, is called On Stranger Tides. Strange they were. Will and I went to see it last evening (in 3D) at the IMAX theater at Boston Common. I thought it was pretty good. Not great -- you don't expect Pirates movies to be great -- but decent and a welcome change from the dreadful third episode. It has a new director, Rob Marshall, and unceremoniously dumps Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightley. But overall, the quality of acting has improved dramatically with the reigning British Bad Guy: Ian McShane. Penélope Cruz really was good too although in her case, it's more the mascara than acting skills that prevail. Much as I love Geoffrey Rush for his excellent acting skills, he is definitely not suited to play the one-legged pirate. I enjoyed the mermaids, with their wondrous tails and powerful swimming strokes, although of course the movie was careful not to show any other parts of their anatomy!
The plot was definitely ridiculous but it at least held the story together. Normally I avoid reading the Boston Globe reviews before a movie. Their reviews are always completely hopeless in my opinion. Nevertheless, Ty Burr pretty much nailed it this time (I read it after seeing it). My only complaint is that he only mentioned Ian McShane in passing -- he deserved much more credit.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
Spring, Graduations, Concerts, Travels, etc.
So much stuff to catch up on - what an incredibly busy time of year this is!
This evening was the first of our Symphony Pro Musica concerts "Spanish Serenade". And since I wrote that, not only have we had the second concert, but the review of the second concert and the remainder of a week. One of composers ("The Happy Slaves" overture) was the then 13-yr-old Arriaga from Bilbao, who died when he was still only 19. I found an excellent book on the web, which helped me to understand why the eponymous slaves of his opera were happy. Unfortunately, the book online doesn't allow us to see some critical pages. All in all, it was a fantastic concert and I personally had a great write-up in the review.
Now, we are getting ready for Miranda's graduation party and then graduation itself. We are looking forward to a fine weekend (but I don't think we're going to get it). The mosquitoes are out in force these days but that's only to be expected. But what I think has really been different this years is that everything has happened at once. Magnolias, redbuds, dogwoods, lilacs, apples, cherries, everything out at pretty much the same time. The toll on us hay-fever sufferers has been heavy.
Meanwhile, we've been doing some hiking, including a hike up Mts. Percival and Morgan just new Squam lake in New Hampshire. The views were breathtaking.
Did I mention that Jimmy got adopted? He seems very happy -- we've heard quite a bit from his family.
More on other vernal observations, including my trip to England at a later time.
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| Kim's lilacs in full bloom |
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| A branch of our dogwood |
Now, we are getting ready for Miranda's graduation party and then graduation itself. We are looking forward to a fine weekend (but I don't think we're going to get it). The mosquitoes are out in force these days but that's only to be expected. But what I think has really been different this years is that everything has happened at once. Magnolias, redbuds, dogwoods, lilacs, apples, cherries, everything out at pretty much the same time. The toll on us hay-fever sufferers has been heavy.
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| Redbuds outside the office in Waltham |
Meanwhile, we've been doing some hiking, including a hike up Mts. Percival and Morgan just new Squam lake in New Hampshire. The views were breathtaking.
Did I mention that Jimmy got adopted? He seems very happy -- we've heard quite a bit from his family.
More on other vernal observations, including my trip to England at a later time.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
A walk in the woods
No, this is not a reference to Bill Bryson's interesting book on the Appalachian trail (AT). Speaking of which, our bridge friend Bob McCaw is out hiking the AT again (!). You can keep track of his progress with his Trail Journal.
No, my title refers to a four-mile walk we did in Estabrook Woods (see map). Kim had asked me to plan a four-mile walk and when we got back to the car the GPS was showing 4.00 miles! Total luck of course. Especially as the track shown here claims to be 4.33 miles. Strange -- it may be something to do with the conversion between formats. My entire lifetime has been spent marveling at the way computer people (myself excepted, obviously) care nothing about the error bounds of measurements. So, a point on the map is presumed to be exact, even though that makes the track appear jagged. And if you look carefully, you'll notice that our return up the main track appears about 10m to the right of the way we came down it. And also that the car had dropped a couple of hundred feet since we set out. This should all be handled properly by the software, but of course it isn't.
But the dogs don't care about the precision of the GPS either. They had a wonderful time, especially Jimmy who met some new friends (and tried to go home with them). There was still snow on the ground and of course some wet patches to negotiate, but all in all a beautiful day. We could feel virtuous when we got back.
Switching tack now... I've never been a fan of the humble parsnip. I've always loved its relative the carrot but there's something about the taste of parsnips that disagrees with me. But the good news is that I'm getting over it. Like so many veggies, parsnips are health-giving in several ways. Did you know that parsnips and carrots are part of a large family of flowers, the Apiaceae (also known as the Umbellifers), which contains many of the herbs with which we are so familiar? However, it also includes the hemlock (that's to say Socrates' C.O.D., rather than the North American tree).
While this winter started out with lots of snow and while our garden in the backyard has had a blanket of snow all winter long, it turns out that we've ended (assuming no more, April Fools day notwithstanding) with just over 80", far short the record, set in the year (1995-6) Ella and David decided to try a New England winter for a change, of 108". I'm expecting that in a day or two, we'll again be able to see the vegetable garden.
View Estabrook Woods in a larger map.
No, my title refers to a four-mile walk we did in Estabrook Woods (see map). Kim had asked me to plan a four-mile walk and when we got back to the car the GPS was showing 4.00 miles! Total luck of course. Especially as the track shown here claims to be 4.33 miles. Strange -- it may be something to do with the conversion between formats. My entire lifetime has been spent marveling at the way computer people (myself excepted, obviously) care nothing about the error bounds of measurements. So, a point on the map is presumed to be exact, even though that makes the track appear jagged. And if you look carefully, you'll notice that our return up the main track appears about 10m to the right of the way we came down it. And also that the car had dropped a couple of hundred feet since we set out. This should all be handled properly by the software, but of course it isn't.
But the dogs don't care about the precision of the GPS either. They had a wonderful time, especially Jimmy who met some new friends (and tried to go home with them). There was still snow on the ground and of course some wet patches to negotiate, but all in all a beautiful day. We could feel virtuous when we got back.
Switching tack now... I've never been a fan of the humble parsnip. I've always loved its relative the carrot but there's something about the taste of parsnips that disagrees with me. But the good news is that I'm getting over it. Like so many veggies, parsnips are health-giving in several ways. Did you know that parsnips and carrots are part of a large family of flowers, the Apiaceae (also known as the Umbellifers), which contains many of the herbs with which we are so familiar? However, it also includes the hemlock (that's to say Socrates' C.O.D., rather than the North American tree).
While this winter started out with lots of snow and while our garden in the backyard has had a blanket of snow all winter long, it turns out that we've ended (assuming no more, April Fools day notwithstanding) with just over 80", far short the record, set in the year (1995-6) Ella and David decided to try a New England winter for a change, of 108". I'm expecting that in a day or two, we'll again be able to see the vegetable garden.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Spring
On Saturday evening, we went out to see the full moon rise over the Concord River and discovered an American Woodcock looking for a mate. It was a little too dark to see clearly but we could hear them quite distinctly. I didn't realize they'd be here so early but one of my Carlisle birding friends assures me that early March is normal.
On a related theme, the phoebes are back. I was in the office all week with meetings so they might have been around earlier in the week, but I didn't see them. It always makes me happy to see them back.
Miranda has flown the coop so to speak. She's gone to Arizona to do a week of rural vet services on an Indian reservation and the following two weeks will be in New Mexico doing a rotation at a vet clinic. Then she's off to treat horses in Mexico.
Lots of chest-beating re: Nuclear power this week in the wake of the Japan tragedy. Many people seem to have missed the point that it was the tsunami rather than the earthquake itself which knocked out the electrical pumps. Yes, nuclear power can be dangerous (we already knew that, didn't we?). And yes it's not easy to clean up afterwards. It's also questionable whether it's much cheaper than burning fossil fuels. But it is somewhat more renewable as an energy source than fossil fuels and it seems to me that we should be willing to pay to build more nuclear power stations, with as much safety built in as we can manage. Or let's bite the bullet and do something about truly renewable energy sources. Otherwise, we're going to be in a pickle in a few years time.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
A horse with no name
I'm surprised. I was quite sure that the stuff that other people like to put on roast beef sandwiches was hoarseradish and the name of the tree from which we get conkers the hoarse chestnut. I thought the use of the spelling horse was just a lazy Americanism. But Kew gardens spells the name of the tree aesculus hippocastanum as the horse chestnut (and in any case, note the specific part of the binomial name: hippo-castanum: horse-chestnut). I was sure that the name came from the word hoarse, as in shouting oneself hoarse, used in the sense of not sweet. But I'm wrong. Still there are a few miscreants like myself who add the extra "a" in the name. And what about this: what is small, red and whispers? a hoarse radish.
Today was unseasonably warm (51F, 10.5C) and this generated a high sublimation vapor pressure (crystals of ice in snow passing directly into the vapor phase, without passing through water). And this in turn generated quite a fog. But it was a welcome break from the cold weather. Now, instead of having a tunnel two feet wide and three and one half feet tall, through which we passed to get to our front door, the snow banks are not much more than 18" with plenty horizontal space to pass through.
This handsome chap, left, is Jimmy who we are fostering at present. He comes from the same rescue organization in Tennessee that Puga comes from. He's friendly and very affectionate. Sometimes his presence is a little too much for our smaller dogs but he generally means well.
I've recently been appreciating more than ever the music from Handel's oratorio "Solomon". In addition to the wonderful chorus From the censer curling rise (the piece which has the fun bassoon part which earned yours truly a compliment from the Lord Major of London, Sir Gilbert Inglefield, 43 years ago), there is a wealth of marvelous music. The poetry of the libretto is so good that it is hard to believe that we aren't 100% sure who wrote it. It's generally held to be by Newburgh Hamilton who wrote several of Handel's other libretti. Take this verse of Solomon's for instance which is beautifully set by the composer:
What though I trace each herb and flow'r,
That drink the morning dew,
Did I not own Jehovah's pow'r,
How vain were all I knew.
Of course you might find it surprising that I should find this so good given my views on religion and science. But this describes the essence of the problem that Charles Darwin, who began life as a devout believer, faced as he readied his manuscript for publication. It is easier to deal with, as Darwin ultimately did, by abandoning the image (for Jehovah) of a white-bearded old guy directing the lives of everyone on earth and replacing it with the concept of the wonders of the natural world and marvels of evolution.
Isn't the grammar just great? Whether this is a present or past subjunctive, I'm not quite sure. But it fits so perfectly. Incidentally, it drives me nuts that most people (especially on this side of the pond) don't know how to form a conditional and pluperfect subjunctive. For instance I hear sort of thing all time this: if I would have looked down the street, I would not be here in this hospital (instead of: if I had looked down the street, etc.).
Here's another very poetic aria, again sung by Solomon who must have had quite a generous libido (he had 700 wives and 300 concubines) as he suggests to his queen that they go out for a little alfresco tête à tête*:
Haste, haste to the cedar grove,
Where fragrant spices bloom,
And am'rous turtles love,
Beneath the pleasing gloom.
While tinkling down the hill,
Avoiding hateful day,
The little murm'ring rill
In whispers glides away.
The turtles here are of course turtle doves, birds rather than reptiles [and yes I do know that birds are reptiles, cladistically speaking], a common mistranslation of the bible.
* it's also quite possible that in this section he is suggesting to the Queen that they travel to Lebanon for a little vacation -- but in that case, why the hurry?
Today was unseasonably warm (51F, 10.5C) and this generated a high sublimation vapor pressure (crystals of ice in snow passing directly into the vapor phase, without passing through water). And this in turn generated quite a fog. But it was a welcome break from the cold weather. Now, instead of having a tunnel two feet wide and three and one half feet tall, through which we passed to get to our front door, the snow banks are not much more than 18" with plenty horizontal space to pass through.This handsome chap, left, is Jimmy who we are fostering at present. He comes from the same rescue organization in Tennessee that Puga comes from. He's friendly and very affectionate. Sometimes his presence is a little too much for our smaller dogs but he generally means well.
I've recently been appreciating more than ever the music from Handel's oratorio "Solomon". In addition to the wonderful chorus From the censer curling rise (the piece which has the fun bassoon part which earned yours truly a compliment from the Lord Major of London, Sir Gilbert Inglefield, 43 years ago), there is a wealth of marvelous music. The poetry of the libretto is so good that it is hard to believe that we aren't 100% sure who wrote it. It's generally held to be by Newburgh Hamilton who wrote several of Handel's other libretti. Take this verse of Solomon's for instance which is beautifully set by the composer:
That drink the morning dew,
Did I not own Jehovah's pow'r,
How vain were all I knew.
Isn't the grammar just great? Whether this is a present or past subjunctive, I'm not quite sure. But it fits so perfectly. Incidentally, it drives me nuts that most people (especially on this side of the pond) don't know how to form a conditional and pluperfect subjunctive. For instance I hear sort of thing all time this: if I would have looked down the street, I would not be here in this hospital (instead of: if I had looked down the street, etc.).
Here's another very poetic aria, again sung by Solomon who must have had quite a generous libido (he had 700 wives and 300 concubines) as he suggests to his queen that they go out for a little alfresco tête à tête*:
Where fragrant spices bloom,
And am'rous turtles love,
Beneath the pleasing gloom.
While tinkling down the hill,
Avoiding hateful day,
The little murm'ring rill
In whispers glides away.
* it's also quite possible that in this section he is suggesting to the Queen that they travel to Lebanon for a little vacation -- but in that case, why the hurry?
Sunday, February 6, 2011
High Speed Rail
It's easy to get distracted with Wikipedia. Today's article on Battersea Bridge in London ended up with me watching videos of high speed trains like this video of the record run between Paris and London (in 2 hr, 3 mins) at the impressive speed of around 200 mph. Much more impressive is the following where the TGV set a new world speed record for a "conventional" train at 574.8kph (357.16mph): TGV record breaking run.
The world's fastest train of any type is an experimental "maglev" train (magnetic levitation) in Japan of just over 360 mph. I have to say that, impressive as all of this undoubtedly is, they were talking about maglev trains and how they would revolutionize travel around 40 years ago. There is still no maglev train in regular service anywhere.
But the big disappointment of course is here in the United States. Just take a look at this table of high speed rail networks (by this definition, a high speed rail line operates at greater than 250 kph (just under 160 mph). China is by far the leader, with Spain a somewhat distant second. The United Kingdom is a distant 13th and the United States holds on to its 7th place only by relaxing the speed criterion to include the Acela which has a top speed of 240 kph (150 mph). But the Acela doesn't really live up to its billed speed.
The Eurostar has a scheduled non-stop journey time of 2h 15m between London and Paris for a distance of 492 km (an average speed of 219 kph). The Acela achieves a scheduled time of 2h 48m for the 362 km between Washington and New York (average speed: 129 kph). Indeed the only sections of the track which are cleared for top speed work (240 kph) are in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. However, between New Haven and New York, the speeds are so low that the Boston/New York trip is even slower on average than the Washington/New York. So, as you can see the Acela is a high-speed train in name only.
Unfortunately, the governments of the United States have been very short-sighted in transportation policy. They have consistently squandered the opportunity to increase the gasoline tax which would have had two very positive outcomes: greater fuel efficiency (the market would have demanded more efficient designs many years ago); and money for building alternative infrastructure to help us out when the oil runs out. When gas gets to $10 a gallon, we are going to find it very expensive to get, say, from New York to Chicago. The corresponding European, Japanese or Chinese business person will have a much easier time getting from Berlin to Madrid, Tokyo to Osaka, or Beijing to Shanghai!
It was hard to decide which blog to put this in: Railroads or Letter from Europa. But, I hope you found it interesting.
The world's fastest train of any type is an experimental "maglev" train (magnetic levitation) in Japan of just over 360 mph. I have to say that, impressive as all of this undoubtedly is, they were talking about maglev trains and how they would revolutionize travel around 40 years ago. There is still no maglev train in regular service anywhere.
But the big disappointment of course is here in the United States. Just take a look at this table of high speed rail networks (by this definition, a high speed rail line operates at greater than 250 kph (just under 160 mph). China is by far the leader, with Spain a somewhat distant second. The United Kingdom is a distant 13th and the United States holds on to its 7th place only by relaxing the speed criterion to include the Acela which has a top speed of 240 kph (150 mph). But the Acela doesn't really live up to its billed speed.
The Eurostar has a scheduled non-stop journey time of 2h 15m between London and Paris for a distance of 492 km (an average speed of 219 kph). The Acela achieves a scheduled time of 2h 48m for the 362 km between Washington and New York (average speed: 129 kph). Indeed the only sections of the track which are cleared for top speed work (240 kph) are in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. However, between New Haven and New York, the speeds are so low that the Boston/New York trip is even slower on average than the Washington/New York. So, as you can see the Acela is a high-speed train in name only.
Unfortunately, the governments of the United States have been very short-sighted in transportation policy. They have consistently squandered the opportunity to increase the gasoline tax which would have had two very positive outcomes: greater fuel efficiency (the market would have demanded more efficient designs many years ago); and money for building alternative infrastructure to help us out when the oil runs out. When gas gets to $10 a gallon, we are going to find it very expensive to get, say, from New York to Chicago. The corresponding European, Japanese or Chinese business person will have a much easier time getting from Berlin to Madrid, Tokyo to Osaka, or Beijing to Shanghai!
It was hard to decide which blog to put this in: Railroads or Letter from Europa. But, I hope you found it interesting.
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