Mount Palomar

Just returned from a trip to Southern California’s Mount Palomar Observatory. While immersing myself in astronomy books as a child, I often marveled at the groundbreaking images taken with this telescope. And it carried my imagination away to other worlds and galaxies far away. Visiting the historic observatory had been a childhood dream of mine, and I was very excited to finally get there in person.

Completed in 1948, the big 200-inch reflector was the world’s largest telescope for many decades. Together with the Mount Wilson Observatory, it is the place where modern cosmology was born. Measurements obtained from these two observatories led to the discovery of foreign galaxies, the expanding universe, the composition of the universe, the birth and death of stars and the formation of planets.

Today, Mount Palomar’s Hale telescope wouldn’t even make the top-ten list among the world’s largest telescopes. Here’s a list:

http://astro.nineplanets.org/bigeyes.html

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Beethoven

Heard one of my favorite pieces of music at the Hollywood Bowl: Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, conduced by Leonard Slatkin. What a delight on a perfect summer night!

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Warning: Trees Can Endanger Your Health

The fear of negligence and liability lawsuits is rampant in today’s America. More and more, we are turning into a nanny state, in which even the minutest risk needs to be prevented, mitigated and legislated. Case in point is the large number of old trees which the City of Santa Monica is currently cutting down. Why? For the most part because these trees could potentially fall over and (gasp!) injure or kill someone.

Never mind that the risk is so remote that the National Safety Council does not even keep track of it. Compare that to the risk of driving a car on a public street, or that of becoming a crime victim. Indeed, the risk of catching Lyme disease (from an infected tick) or West Nile Fever (from an infected mosquito), both of which are found in our area, is much higher. Indeed, I would be willing to bet that the risk of getting killed by lightning is higher than that of getting hit by falling tree.

One needs to understand that Santa Monica, the city in which I currently live, is quite wealthy. What probably would have been just an accident in some other place became a huge lawsuit here when such a freak accident involving a tree did indeed happen here. So now, we are throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Ever mindful of lurking dangers to the public while watching the City’s finances, the City Attorney and other bureaucrats have decided that it is far better for all of us if we remove these old, mighty trees and replace them with tiny new ones. Not only do saplings have a smaller tendency to fall over and kill unsuspecting city folk, but they are also cheaper to prune and maintain. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Our public parks will be very safe now.

As for me: I have sat under these old trees countless times. And I have always been quite content with taking that risk in exchange for their majestic beauty, the shade and the wonderful scent. I spent the last few days on a personal cruisade to stop the cutting in the park adjacent to where I live. I was interviewed by the Los Angeles Times and various local papers, addressed the Santa Monica City Council and spoke at various neighborhood association meetings. Unfortunately none of this was successful, and the 80 – 90 year old trees fell victim to the chainsaws during the last few days.

Here is some press about it. (The reporter misspelled my last name):

City Removes Reed Park Trees

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R.I.P. “Opa”

Saddened about death of my grandfather Gottfried (“Fritz”) Koch of Eisenerz, Austria, who passed away at the age of 84 years. “Opa” leaves behind my grandmother, his wife of 63 years, as well as children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Although he could sometimes be stern on the outside, I remember him as a loving man who will forever be in my heart as a part of many beautiful childhood memories.

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Edward R. Murrow

Last night I was impressed by “Good Night And Good Luck”. The movie is set during the witchhunts of the McCarthy era and focuses on one of the greatest TV- and radio journalists of all times, Edward Murrow and his work for CBS. The movie is a sobering reminder of the vital function of a free press as a guardian against radicalism and as a protector of civil liberties.

By the way: Murrow’s portrayal as an intense chainsmoker rarely seen without a cigarette is entirely accurate. Murrow contracted lung cancer. He died in 1965, two days after his 57th birthday.

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London Retires Iconic Routemaster Bus

An era just ended in London, when the city pulled the world famous, old red double decker buses out of regular service. “Routemaster” buses were built from 1959 to 1968 and have been in service ever since. Although they were initially received with skepticism, Londoners and tourists alike soon began to love them with passion.

These buses have several features missing on modern counterparts: There is a conductor who takes tickets, gives directions and helps passengers. (On modern buses, the driver also processes tickets, which wastes time at bus stops). Secondly, the Routemaster has no doors. Passengers can board or exit the bus at any time, which is very convenient when there is a traffic jam and the bus just inches forward.

The decision to retire the buses had to be a financial one. There is the cost of maintaining the old vehicles, the cost for two operators and the danger of liability lawsuits brought by passengers falling off the bus. All this was probably too tough to swallow for a cash strapped public transportation system.

On the other hand, what often is overlooked is the impact this will make on tourism and the city’s spirit. London’s classic taxis, buses and phone booths are quintessential icons which distinguish the British capital from all other cities around the world. I find it sad that the city’s leaders did not come up with a solution to preserve the London’s heritage.

My feeling is that this decision is completely at odds with the public’s wishes. On bulletin boards and blogs, it is hard to find any messages not expressing anger and outrage over this move.

The good news is that about 20 “show” buses will remain for certain runs — mostly as tourist attractions. The rest will probably be bought by private parties. Word has it that they can be had for 5,000 to 10,000 pounds.

There is an organization dedicated to the Routemaster:

http://www.routemaster.org.uk/

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John Lennon Died 25 Years Ago

25 years ago today, John Lennon was shot and killed in front of the Dakota Building in New York. Even though I was a toddler when the Beatles were active, they still had a great impact on me as a teenager and beyond. I can’t quite recall the moment in which I received the news of Lennon’s death, only that I was shocked and sad. Hard to believe that 25 years have passed since then.

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Macintosh Becomes Serious Threat to Windows

Wall Street research firm Needham & Co. announced yesterday that in 2005, over 1 million Windows users have switched over to Mac, which completely beat the most optimistic expectations. The trend is expected to become even stronger in 2006, for which the Needham forecasts 1.3 million to abandon Windows in favor of Mac.

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Admiring San Francisco’s Cable Car

In San Francisco for a conference. Every time I’m in the Bay Area, I am amazed about how different San Francisco is when compared to L.A. It feels a lot more like a European city.

I am fascinated by San Francisco’s cable car and every time I am in town, I have to make it a point to ride all four lines from beginning to end. I find it amazing that a system which by today’s standards would be considered completely unreliable, inefficient and slow was once a much admired marvel of innovation, and a great relief for the traffic challenges of its period. Cable cars are an example of centralized engineering. The problem: Steam engines, the power plants of the time, were too heavy and otherwise ill suited to be placed on small, urban vehicles. The solution: Make the engines stationary and place them in a central location. At this location, the steam engines drive long loops of steel cables, which run over a complex system of wheels and gearing and through shafts dug underneath San Francisco’s streets.

The cars have no motors or power source of their own. Instead, they passively latch on to the moving cable, which keeps moving along at a steady speed of 15 mph. A primitive friction clutch mechanism allows drivers to regulate the car’s speed. Thus, the engines at the central station drive all the cars around the city — a concept which reminds of the days of mainframe computing, before the PC revolution.

Such an engineering solution might seem antiquated and peculiar, but trust me: The cable car is a whole lot of fun and still the best way to move around the areas it serves.

Should you want to learn more about how cable cars work, I highly recommend a visit to San Francisco’s cable car museum, which is where the central gearing stations and the motors are located. (Sadly, the old steam engines have been replaced by electric motors, but otherwise, things still work as they always have.)

Another place worth a visit is the Wells Fargo Museum in the Financial District. The exhibition is well maintained and provides good insight into California’s pioneer era and the Gold Rush, a time in which what is now Wells Fargo Bank has its origin. Back then, Wells Fargo wasn’t really a bank. The company provided postal service, transportation by coach, gold trading services and access to the civilized world in what became known as the “Wild West”.

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