I Still Have Mine!

This week’s announcement of the impeding end for Sony’s venerable, classic Walkman reverberated around the world. After all, the device has revolutionized the way we listen to music — since 1979. It once provided the soundtrack to my life and was one of my most prized possessions.

My old Walkman! Photo: Reinhard Kargl. Click to enlarge.

I still have mine! It cost a quadzillion (or what seemed to be a crazy amount at the time) and was the top of the line: all-metal construction, Dolby Noise Reduction, “Disc Drive Capstan Servo Anti Rolling Mechanism” (whatever that means), and two headset jacks. The latter was very important, since it made it possible  to get close to someone special while listening to music decidedly intolerable to parents. (Hah! Take that, iPod!)

After Sony’s initial announcement caused widespread echo around the world, the Japanese concern was quick to clarify: although Walkman cassette players will no longer be sold in Japan, some models continue to be available in select markets. (However, these models are cheapo, flimsy plastic thingies of inferior quality compared to the high-end models from the 1980s).

I think I’ll pop in a Ramones cassette and see it it still works. Until then, gabba-gabba hey! Whatever.

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Rotary Speed

Here is a picture I took at Mazda’s North American headquarters in Irvine, California. The occasion was the 2010 SevenStock meet, an annual gathering for rotary engine enthusiasts.

Mazda RX-792P race car. Photo: Reinhard Kargl, 2010. (Click to enlarge).

The car pictured is the RX-792P of 1992. This particular car was not very successful on the track, but I think it remains one of the most beautiful race cars ever built. One year earlier, a similar car with the same 4-rotor Wankel engine had been victorious in one of the most grueling auto races the world has ever known: the 24 Hours of LeMans.

I am fascinated with Wankel-type rotary engines. Designed in the 1950s by the German engineer, Felix Wankel, they offer many advantages over conventional piston-engines. And yet, Wankel’s design was never universally adopted among auto makers. Today, its only global, large scale manufacturer is Japan’s Mazda Motor Corporation.

Truth be told, all types of rotary engines also have disadvantages. But it seems to me that many doubts regarding the Wankel engine’s design are based on outdated information. When the engine type was first fielded by Germany’s NSU Motorenwerke AG, its contemporaries and licensees during the 1960s, the technological prerequisites had not evolved yet. The rotary concept was simply ahead of its time.

Today, after decades of experience and with much better materials, a more thorough understanding of thermodynamics, big advances in lubricants and seals, as well as the benefits of turbo or compressor charging, fuel injection, electronic engine control and emission control technologies, things have changed.  Mazda has done quite well with getting the Wankel’s inherent problems under control.

Given more R&D funding and a better supply of skilled and experienced maintenance personnel, Wankel engines could be made ideal for sports cars, motorcycles, aircraft and — due to their high power output at a relatively small size and low weight: as auxiliary engine for hybrid cars. Audi’s A1 e-tron concept study incorporates this configuration!

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Seventy

John Lennon would have turned 70 years old tomorrow (Oct. 9).

Google had a neat idea. Today’s Google page features a brief animation based on John Lennon’s own “doodles”. Before the day is over, hundreds of millions of people will have seen it.

If I had to pick one single favorite picture of Lennon, it would be this one:

John Lennon in Hamburg in the early 1960s. Photo: Jürgen Vollmer. Click to enlarge.

The time and place was Hamburg in the very early 1960s.  It was taken by Jürgen Vollmer, who befriended the Beatles on one of their first gigs outside of England. Walking by in the foreground are Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Stuart Sutcliffe. (The latter dropped out of the band, remained in Hamburg, but soon died from a brain aneurysm). Lennon later used the picture for the cover art of the album Rock’n Roll (1975), on which he bills himself as “Dr. Winston O’Boogie”.

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Haiku

The weather in Los Angeles has been rather peculiar this year. After an unusually cloudy and cold summer, September 22 turned into the hottest day since the beginning of records in 1877. This was followed by another low pressure system. And today, Downtown L.A. broke the rainfall record for this date, set in 1916.

I love summer, but I am also looking forward to fall — with its fresh fruit, crisp air, fog, quieter times and pots of hot tea. Today I felt inspired to compose a haiku:

Thoughts floating about

like clouds in the sky, passing …

October arrived.

 

 

 

 


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中秋節

Originating in China about 3,000 years ago, the “Mid-Autumn-” or “Moon Festival” (Zhongqiu in Chinese, Tết Trung Thu in Vietnamese) is one of the year’s most important holidays in much of Asia.

Having admired and loved the Moon since childhood, I have come to think that the Chinese had the right idea by giving the Moon its own holiday. There are of course many beautiful myths and customs surrounding it, the details of which vary by region. But the roots go back to the beginning of science, as the festival marks both Autumnal Equinox and Full Moon. This year was very special, because both occurred simultaneously, which has not happened in 20 years.

Full Moon and Jupiter over West Los Angeles. Photo: Reinhard Kargl, 2010. Click to enlarge.

I took the above picture from a hilltop west of Los Angeles, looking east just before 11 PM last night. (B&W, digital SLR, ISO 50, 24 mm lens, f/2.8, 15 sec., 2 stops underexposed. Digitally processed and vignette added. The blur was natural and caused by moist marine layers drifting in from the ocean).

PS: And yes, I did get to enjoy the traditional moon cakes. (Three different kinds!)

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From My Bookshelves

A fortnight ago I attended a lecture by Robert Piccioni. Rarely have I heard Einstein’s work and the fundamentals of modern cosmology explained in such a simple, entertaining and yet informative way. Much of the lecture’s content is echoed in Piccioni’s latest book, which I highly recommend for everyone.

Learn the basics about how the universe works and understand the difference between Newton’s and Einstein’s view of gravity. Take a brief look at phenomena such as black holes, dark energy, gravitational lensing, redshift and the expanding universe! Piccioni’s work is a perfect blend of hard science and amusing anecdotes, making it very easy to follow. No advanced background in science is needed.

Everyone’s guide to Atoms, Einstein and the Universe, by Robert L. Piccioni (2nd Edition). ISBN 13: 978-0-9822780-7-9.

Talking about books: The Grand Design, the most recent book by Stephen Hawking (this time co-authored Leonard Mlodinow) just came out. (ISBN-13: 978-0553805376)

The wheelchair bound physicist from Britain is arguably the most famous scientist since Einstein. At his last lectures here at Caltech, people were lining up all night for a spot in the lecture hall. (It is amusing to see that even in this day and age, scientists can achieve rock-star fame).

Immediately after the The Grand Design appeared earlier this month, some began to misquote it, saying Hawkins claimed that there was no God. But that’s not what Hawkins & Mlodinow are saying.

If we accept that nature is governed by laws, logical questions arise: What is the nature of these laws? Are there exceptions to them (the so-called “miracles”)? Is there really only one set of laws?

Ever since the beginning of mankind’s inquiry, there were those who accused “scientists“ (as the believers in “natural philosophy” began to be called in the 19th century) of plunging the world into moral and ethical darkness, as theirs was allegedly an attempt to demystify or even deny God’s involvement in nature.

Even this is a misunderstanding. Descartes, Galilei, Copernicus, Newton, Darwin and the like maintained their belief in a supreme being, while at the same time carrying on their investigations into the principles and laws governing everything in the universe.

Hawkins & Mlodinow contend that modern science has reached the point where the “mysterious hand of God” is perceivably no longer necessary to “explain” how the universe functions. Rather, our level of understanding of natural laws may have progressed to the point where we can (or will soon be) able to explain all the fundamental milestones of cosmology with pure reason.

The intellectual methods used in today’s science are in effect no different to those used by Aristarchus of Samos (310 BC – 230 BC, approx.) who, during the Ionian period, correctly calculated that the Earth orbits the Sun. Furthermore, that the Sun must be bigger than the Earth, which was not the center of the universe. (Of course, it took more than 1800 years until the heliocentric world view would become universally accepted). Here too, an “explanation” such as “God made it” is not sufficient, and neither is:

The sun is a luminary whose egress is an opening of heaven, which is (located) in the direction of the east, and whose ingress is (another) opening of heaven, (located) in the west. I saw six openings through which the sun rises and six openings through which it sets. The moon also rises and sets through the same openings, and they are guided by the stars; together with those whom they lead, they are six in the east and six in the west heaven. All of them (are arranged) one after another in a constant order. There are many windows (both) to the right and the left of these openings. First there goes out the great light whose name is the sun; its roundness is like the roundness of the sky; and it is totally filled with light and heat. The chariot in which it ascends is (driven by) the blowing wind. The sun sets in the sky (in the west) and returns by the northeast in order to go to the east; it is guided so that it shall reach the eastern gate and shine in the face of the sky. (1 Enoch 72:2–5)

And yet, science has never ruled out the possible existence of a supreme being, which may well lie beyond the abilities of our intellect, in the same manner as quantum physics is beyond what a chimp can rationally comprehend.

In human terms, as Piccioni rightfully pointed out in his talk, we live in the “golden age” of Astronomy. There have been more groundbreaking discoveries about our universe within the last 100 years, than in all the history of mankind before.

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Goodbye, Summer

Tonight at precisely 03:09 Universal Time (UTC) summer ends and fall begins on Earth. (Data source: U.S. Naval Observatory).

Fall or “autumn” starts with the “autumnal equinox”, an astronomical event during which the celestial equator and the ecliptic intersect. At this point in time, the tilt of the Earth’s axis is neither inclined away from nor toward the Sun, and the center of the Sun lines up with the Earth’s equator. When this happens, there is a point on the Equator where, if you stood there, the center of the Sun would be located exactly above you.

Two such moments (“equinoxes”) exist each year. In addition to the “solstices”, they mark the change of seasons.

Man’s knowledge of this goes back thousands of years, as we can tell from cult sites and edifices specifically constructed to mark these events.

The Ring of Brodgar, Orkney Islands, Scotland. This Neolithic site was built about 4,500 years ago.

Here is more about the Ring of Brodgar.

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More Dwarf Planets

I grumbled when the  International Astronomical Union erased Pluto from the list of “planets” in our solar system. Memorizing the names of the nine planets seemed simple enough when I was in school. Why make it any easier on today’s kids? Besides, I liked my old neighborhood just fine.

But in retrospect, I have to admit that the decision was right. Otherwise, school kids would now have to memorize the often bizarre names of  quite a few more “planets”. Many of the recently discovered “Trans-Neptunian” objects are very similar to Pluto and  should therefore be in the same class. One of them (“Eris”) is even larger than Pluto and has a moon (“Dysnomia”). Sedna, Makemake (in case you are wondering about the name, scroll to the bottom) and Quaoar are only slightly smaller.

Source: National Geographic. Click to enlarge.

Having lost its “planet” designation, Pluto (now a “dwarf planet”) has gained two more moons, making it three: Charon, Hydra and Nix.

National Geographic just published a brief article on the discovery of 14 new TNOs. Why are these cold worlds important? Because they represent building blocks from the early days of our Solar System, and we are interested in learning how (and from what) it formed. NASA’s New Horizon space probe will help to address this question. It is now about halfway to Pluto’s neighborhood.

PS: Makemake was discovered at Easter. Following tradition and IAU rules, it was given the name of a creator deity. Makemake, the creator of humanity and god of fertility in the mythos of the Rapanui, the native people of Easter Island, was chosen in part to preserve the object’s connection with Easter.

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The Great (Smoking) Divide

The overall percentage of smokers in Los Angeles County has reached a new low of 14.3% on average. But recently released reports illustrate a sharp difference in smoking rates along racial, cultural and geographic divides.

The lowest smoking rates were found in expensive, white areas with high education levels, such as San Marino (5.3%), Malibu (5.8%) and LaCanada-Flintridge (6.4%).

Broken down into ethnicity and gender, the highest rates of smoking were found to be among:

Korean-American males: 44.8%
African-American males: 32.1%
Vietnamese-American males: 24.8%
African-American females: 19.6%
Latino-American males: 17.7%
Filipino-American males: 17.1%
Chinese-American males: 16.4%

It is believed that in 1 of 7 deaths, smoking was a major contributing cause. Smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death and disability.

Although lacking necessary funding in every area of operation, Los Angeles County agencies are currently spending $4.3 billion in tax money to pay for the costs of tobacco related diseases. Of this amount, the County is sinking $2.3 billion into direct health care expenditures.

Download the report here.

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