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Dad Visits Lethbridge

Zone finals for the Southern Alberta 4A high school basketball teams are on now and Dad is visiting from Medicine Hat to watch the games. George Hamilton called him up and invited him to come. Dad isn’t the biggest fan of watching basketball1 so he skipped out of watching a couple of games to eat supper with Anna-Maria and I. We had some really good pizza (pi) from Pizza Hut, and had a good time listening to Dad’s war stories2.

Another of Dad’s stories was that as a University Student he performed in a play that his roommate was directing. This was something that I had never known about him3. Apparently his roommate had to beg him to be in the play and reluctantly he agreed. Well what he didn’t know was that he had to practice the play everyday for four weeks! He wasn’t too happy about all the rehearsing every day. But when the night of their single performance arrived approximately 800 people showed up to watch. Dad said that with all the rehearsing they actually did a really good job and that now looking back on the event it gives him a great feeling of accomplishment. He even sang in this play and in those days that was quite out of the ordinary for Dad4.

1. Dad was a very good basketball player in high school and university.
2. It is a running joke with him that he fought in the Vietnam War.
3. The last time we were at Pizza Hut I also learned something about Dad that I didn’t know before but will refrain from sharing at this time.
4. Dad has become quite the musician these days playing many instruments and not feeling too shy about adding vocals to his music.

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Happy Pi Day

Today’s date is: 03/14 which just happens to be Pi day. The celebration started at 1:59, Why? The first six digits in pi of course! (3.14159) I think Anna and I should celebrate by having a contest of who can recite the most approximate value of pi. The winner gets what else, but a pie! What will you do for Pi Day?

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Happy Birthday Albert Einstein

It would have been more cool if Einstein’s birthday was on the 12th, like mine. You’re probably wondering just how smart was he?

There is a parlor game physics students play: Who was the greater genius? Galileo or Kepler? (Galileo.) Maxwell or Bohr? (Maxwell, but it’s closer than you might think.) Hawking or Heisenberg? (A no-brainer, whatever the best-seller lists might say. It’s Heisenberg.) But there are two figures who are simply off the charts. Isaac Newton is one. The other is Albert Einstein. If pressed, physicists give Newton pride of place, but it’s a photo finish—and no one else is in the race.

Newton’s claim is obvious. He created modern physics. His system described the behavior of the entire cosmos, and while others before him had invented grand schemes, Newton’s was different. His theories were mathematical, making specific predictions to be confirmed by experiments in the real world. Little wonder that those after Newton called him lucky—”for there is only one universe to discover, and he discovered it.”

But what of Einstein? Well, Einstein felt compelled to apologize to Newton. “Newton, forgive me,” Einstein wrote in his Autobiographical Notes. “You found the only way which, in your age, was just about possible for a man of highest thought and creative power.” Forgive him? For what? For replacing Newton’s system with his own—and, like Newton, for putting his mark on virtually every branch of physics.

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Birthday Dinner and New Media Update

We had a really good time eating out last night. Anna-Maria took me and her roommate out to The Keg. It was really good. We were at the restaurant for over 2 hours! I didn’t even realize how fast time was flying, and as a consequence of our late evening was forced to do my homework deep into the night. The assignment consisted of scanning some images out of National Geographic and then manipulating them so that there would be no copyright issues with the final project. I finally got to bed at 2:30 and even then I still had homework that I finished up this morning before class.

I’ve been doing really well on my assignments lately. That “shrinking” video that I posted here the other day got 10 out of 10. I’m starting to feel a little stressed about the final assignment though, I haven’t really even started it yet. Well that’s it for my break.

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How Hydrogen Can Save America

I found this link to Wired Magazine about the pros and cons of moving to a hydrogen energy based society. I’ll summarize for those not wanting to read the article. The author believes that in order for hydrogen to be a viable solution the government has five major obstacles to deal with simultaneously:

  1. Solve the hydrogen fuel-tank problem.
  2. Encourage mass production of fuel cell vehicles.
  3. Convert the nation’s fuelling infrastructure to hydrogen.
  4. Ramp up hydrogen production.
  5. Mount a public campaign to sell the hydrogen economy.

Hydrogen Engines have been around for a while. Their biggest problem is carrying enough hydrogen for 400 miles of driving — the range consumers generally expect. What is the answer to problem number one? $15 Billion in government investing. (I’m not sure how he comes up with this figure).

Mass production of fuel-celled vehicles is the next problem. Again money is the solution. The author feels that the Bush administration should allocate $10 billion in incentive to automakers. Why $10 billion? Well it is a nice round number.

Converting the nation’s fueling infrastructure to hydrogen is another big problem with the same “easy” answer. Throw more money at it. The White House should ask for $5 billion to help gas stations convert to hydrogen stations, and the administration should also set aside $10 billion for interest free loans to oil companies in order to help them make the transition to producing mass amounts of hydrogen.

The next step is to ramp up the hydrogen production by looking at new sources of the element. Nuclear power has made huge leaps in efficiency and environmental friendliness. Using this as a source of electricity and then using the process of hydrolysis to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen.

The last obstacle that needs to be addressed is just a simple matter of advertising their objective to the nation. If the people support it right away, then it will make the transition faster and actually save money in the long run. $25 billion in tax rebates for those using the new technology, and another $1 billion for advertisements. As the author notes, $1 billion is what Nike spends on advertising in a year.

Ok, now for my personal take on the story. The author feels that with massive amounts of spending that a fuel-celled economy is possible within ten years. I think that would be great, if that were actually the case, but it seems to me that it most likely will not happen. I guess a good analogy is the US switching to the metric system. If they had done it when they had the chance, they might have pulled it off, but now they’ve waited too long and every day it just gets harder and harder to switch. A country like China that has an enormous population but not a lot of gasoline based infrastructure (relative to its population) is in a much better position to implement the new technology. If the US doesn’t act, they may end up behind in technology to China — so maybe if they felt the pressure of losing the “hydrogen race” ten years would be possible.

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My Birthday

For my birthday present, Anna-Maria bought me a new wet-suit. I’m going to use it if I get a job at the pool teaching lessens and of course for Kayaking this summer. I’m already really excited to go kayaking with it. I wish this snow and cold weather would go away! Speaking of snow, the other day it snowed quite a bit and it’s one of the first times that I didn’t get around to shovelling the snow that day. Well the next day it was really warm and the snow turned into a thick slippery sheet of ice all the way up my walk. As luck would have it, that evening Anna-Maria came over to my house and while walking up the steps she slipped and bashed her shin! (cue scary music now – dun dun dah!!) She’s ok folks, no worries, just a small bruise and perhaps some injured pride.

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Speaking of Death

When you die, if you get a choice between going to regular heaven or pie heaven, choose pie heaven. It might be a trick, but if it’s not, mmmmmmm, boy.

Also when you die, if you go somewhere where they ask you a bunch of questions about your life and what you learned and all, I think a good way to get out of it is just to say, “No speaka English.”

-Jack Handey