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steve
I have a particle physics background and live happily with my wife Sukie and our five ferrets.
Interests: ferrets, physics, astronomy, atmospheric optics, os x, numerous technologies, large and dangerous electrical devices, simple hacks, social computing, history, history of science and technology, music, digital music, photography, image manipulation, and story telling
Recent Activity
how much is enough?
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It is remarkable when you think about it. Put a pair of athletes on a field and give them a ball. After a bit of tossing it back and forth, one might throw it well past the other. Without using any equations she creates a model of its trajectory and... Continue reading
Posted yesterday at omenti
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a galactic snack
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We've all thrown balls for kids or dogs. There is a point where you want to get them to run, so you throw as you can at a good angle and watch how far they have to go. Our abilities vary a fair amount - it is embarrassing to throw... Continue reading
Posted Jun 2, 2013 at omenti
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a solar puzzle, 16 inch guns, and home repair
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It looked awfully painful, but the burns didn't seem to bother him that much. Ray plopped his tray down and the table and listened to catch the drift of of the lunchtime conversation. Brookhaven was a wonderful place at the time. Some of the best scientists in the world worked... Continue reading
Posted May 21, 2013 at omenti
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blowing in the wind
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While computational models have made big strides there is a large gap between model predictions and the real world. If you are serious about how something interacts with the air moving by it you need access to a wind tunnel. This gets interesting with athletics. At the highest levels in... Continue reading
Posted May 19, 2013 at omenti
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placetime
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trees are the poems nature writes to the heavens I need to find a suitable tree in the woods. Sandy caused so much damage as did Irene and the pre-Halloween snowstorm. Finding the right tree has not been easy this time. but I'm getting ahead of myself... When I was... Continue reading
Posted Apr 26, 2013 at omenti
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forty three years
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The amount of time between Lindbergh's flight and Neil Armstrong's small step a bit further away... Forty three years ... For whatever reason I found myself thinking about Earth Day, a golden duck, and lightning in a bottle. Forty three years and two days ago I was in high school... Continue reading
Posted Apr 24, 2013 at omenti
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making use of time
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Mary Roach is one of the more entertaining non-fiction authors and I've been enjoying Gulp over the past few days. Highly recommended, but I'm afraid this isn't what I like to be doing. Don't get me wrong - I love to read for pleasure, but there are other things that... Continue reading
Posted Apr 17, 2013 at omenti
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the car as an accessory for your phone
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Today I was asked to give some educated guesses about industries that were ripe for disruption. One immediately came to mind was automobiles. Lots of forces that everyone talks about, but a last year a young friend mentioned it was frustrating that she couldn't send a message to her car.... Continue reading
Posted Apr 8, 2013 at omenti
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hunting for simplicity with gun and camera
All the morning at home, and Mr. Berkenshaw (whom I have not seen a great while, came to see me), who staid with me a great while talking of musique, and I am resolved to begin to learn of him to compose, and to begin to-morrow, he giving of me... Continue reading
Posted Mar 26, 2013 at omenti
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in search of a line and a circle
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Those of you who know me know I've spent quite a bit of time in the past fifteen years worried about climate change - it is one of the few high impact high probability events I know of that can be mitigated, so focus seems appropriate. I've tried a variety... Continue reading
Posted Mar 18, 2013 at omenti
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mooning austin
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° Some of you have asked why I'm not at SXSW: as a person with cancer, have I not suffered enough already? ---- tweet from Xeni yesterday ° I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by. ---- Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt °... Continue reading
Posted Mar 11, 2013 at omenti
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those da*n glassholes are on my lawn! and cum hoc non propter hoc
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As the year 2000 approached human computer interface labs all over the world were hot onto studying what comes after the desktop and handheld computer. Some were doing tablets, but others were wondering what happens if you combine a phone that happens to talk to the Internet with a camera,... Continue reading
Posted Mar 4, 2013 at omenti
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34 years in ago and four years from now...
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I was up at three am to check the weather... Rats! Heavy overcast moving in by seven and no clearly until the afternoon. It was -18°F and the roads were slippery with a traveler's advisory. Any sane person would go back to bed and be happy to not be outside... Continue reading
Posted Feb 26, 2013 at omenti
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partial stories and the color purple
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Purple is a strange color - one that you won't see in the rainbow - it doesn't have a wavelength associated with it. I was trying to explain that color is something manufactured in the brain. There are a variety of ways you can do this, but the best is... Continue reading
Posted Feb 17, 2013 at omenti
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triggers
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Let's do a bit of dot connecting... About 35 to 40 million years ago something rather cool happened. The branch of primates we're from, now the apes and old world monkeys (Catarrhini) went from two to three cones in our eyes. Cones are the specialized cells that allow us to... Continue reading
Posted Feb 12, 2013 at omenti
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taping-out in a material world
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I was sitting in a restaurant in New Hope on a bright Winter day chatting about some technologies that have evolved dramatically in the past several decades and was asked about the term tape-out. New Hope, Pennsylvania is one of those places that has become something of a tourist trap... Continue reading
Posted Feb 6, 2013 at omenti
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counting time
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A gentle snow is falling in still air. It is cold enough that the flakes are fairly small, but it has been satisfying watching with the lights out save a few candles from the small feast today. Time to reflect a bit on time. A decade ago I left a... Continue reading
Posted Feb 2, 2013 at omenti
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into the wind
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You know it is really windy when you see pieces of tree flying overhead during the daily walk. It wasn't easy keeping the normal pace going into the wind, but the trip back was easy. Going back to sports it makes you think about the impact of wind on running... Continue reading
Posted Feb 1, 2013 at omenti
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staying warm and celebration a common tradition
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It is really chilly for about the first time this Winter and I found myself out in the cold without gloves and a cap for a bit too long. In theory I shouldn't mind much - after all, I did grow up in Montana and remember taking walks in -40°... Continue reading
Posted Jan 22, 2013 at omenti
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why do some models endure even though they're wrong?
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π = 3.14 room temperature = 72° F an adult male needs 2,500 calories a day an adult weighs 70 kilograms ... We live with approximations, but all to often we don't worry about when we require better precision. 3.14 for π works for simple tasks around the home -... Continue reading
Posted Jan 21, 2013 at omenti
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from lance to chimps via godzilla...
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As I was taking a walk a peloton of perhaps 30 bikes whizzed by in relative silence. Everyone was dressed in the lycra uniforms that cyclists seem to prefer and each bike probably cost well north of $5,000. There are several groups of serious amateur cyclists around here. You rarely... Continue reading
Posted Jan 20, 2013 at omenti
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beyond 3d printing
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4:37 AM - a minute past nautical dawn and a pleasant breeze of negative pions continues from the South Southwest at 17 GeV/c ... We tried to make at least one log entry per shift entertaining for the next shift. This was from a particle physics experiment. We were colliding... Continue reading
Posted Jan 13, 2013 at omenti
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steve added a favorite at omenti
Jan 11, 2013
on creativity
Over the years I've been lucky enough to have known and worked with several exceptionally creative people and a couple of creative organizations. There seem to be a few components that enable it. Perhaps the best news is it doesn't seem to be a talent someone is born with. A... Continue reading
Posted Jan 11, 2013 at omenti
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your own private air force and a bit on creativity
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I'm in the middle of my annual mini-sabbatical, but I spend the evenings and part of the weekends letting my mind wander as well as keeping things running. That seems to work better than total immersion. I was part of a discussion on great projects for a 10th grader who... Continue reading
Posted Jan 9, 2013 at omenti
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