Very Important Stuff

SaFire in the Sun

Rodney Dunning — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:20:23 +0000

Here is a beautiful video of Sandra Sommerville, aka SaFire, one of the world’s top hoop artists.

Posting Everyday in 2011

Rodney Dunning — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 00:41:20 +0000

So WordPress challenged everyone to write a blog post every day in 2011. For me, it was an excuse to get back into blogging. And for the most part, it’s worked. But posting every day is getting old. And on top of that, the topic suggestions from WordPress have ranged from asinine to insipid. I pity whoever is responsible for churning out 365 days of “write about what color shoestring you would never wear in public,” and “write about the three things you would change about your nose.” Good grief.

See you Monday at the earliest.

Why Do We Study Physics?

Rodney Dunning — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 15:15:46 +0000

I often wonder if I’ve made the right choices in my life. My mistakes follow me daily. I guess they have nowhere better to go. Sometimes I think I’ve chosen the wrong career for my talents. But sometimes I love what I do so much that I cannot image not doing it.

Physics has turned out to be more difficult than I originally thought. And truth be told, in most respects I’m mediocre. I teach quantum mechanics this fall, a subject I studied in depth in graduate school. quantum mechanics is the science of atoms and subatomic particles. And since the world is made of atoms, quantum mechanics is the framework on which everything we know about nature is built. For example, it explains why the Periodic Table is periodic, and why different atoms have different characteristics. Without quantum mechanics, physics and chemistry simply do not make sense.

I’m excited about teaching this subject. It’s the hardest, most fundamental, and most important branch of modern physical science. What I do in the classroom between now and April 30 will help shape the lives of every student in the room. If you’ve never taught, let me tell you the sheer magnitude of this responsibility can be overwhelming.

My dad would tell me to get my head out of my ass and just teach the class. Then he would cry and tell me that he loves me. That kind of works. Human contact can solve almost any problem. But it also helps me to remember why I love this subject. I recently found words that articulate it for me. They are from Marvin Chester’s Primer of Quantum Mechanics:

For what purpose, dear reader, do you study physics?

To use it technologically? Physics can be put to use; so can art and music. But that’s not why you study them.

It isn’t their social relevance that attracts you. The most precious things in life are the irrelevant ones. It is a meager life, indeed, that is consumed only by the relevant, by the problems of mere survival.

You study physics because you find it fascinating. You find poetry in conceptual structures. You find it romantic to understand the workings of nature. You study physics to acquire an intimacy with nature’s way.

Gabrielle Giffords Continues to Improve

Rodney Dunning — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 18:39:09 +0000

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords continues to show progress as she recovers from a gun shot wound to her brain. Looking beyond the completely ridiculous political fallout from the assassination attempt, here is a woman facing the abyss, and fighting to hold on. To me, she is becoming an inspiration. Very few human beings face anything like what stands in her way.

What happened to Giffords hits deep for several reasons. The shootings make us think of the people we love, and the horror of seeing anyone close to us killed or severely injured. It underlines our mortality and the utter lack of a guaranteed tomorrow. Think of anyone you love, anyone close to you, anyone with whom you’ve shared joy and pain. Unless they are in the room with you as you read this, you do not know at this very instant if they are alive. And you do not know if either of you will live to see each other again. The improbability of dying on this particular day often dulls our sense of mortality. What happened in Tuscon throws it back in our faces.

There is also a political dimension to all this, even if the shooter was insane. There were two ends of the bullet’s trajectory. On the receiving end was a representative of our Republic. No matter what was in the mind of the killer, this was an attack on our government.

But more importantly it was an attack on people loved by other people. We can if forced to live without a constitutional republic. We cannot live without the people we love. Giffords is not struggling to recover so that she can cast votes in Congress. She is fighting to be with the people she loves and who love her. In this, we should imitate her.

Elena Lev at Cirque du Soleil

Rodney Dunning — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 19:34:06 +0000

Here is another remarkable performance from Cirque du Soleil. The performer is Elena Lev, working with the Alegria troupe. Elena trained initially in the Soviet Union. She is one the top hoop artists in the world.

Dmitriy and Olesia,”Quidam” Cirque Du Soleil 2005

Rodney Dunning — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 18:00:40 +0000

This is one of the most extraordinary things I’ve ever seen. Ever. The entire thing is amazing, but at 6:40 this girl accomplishes a skill of such strength, beauty, and grace that it left me speechless.

National Moment of Silence for the Victims in Arizona

Rodney Dunning — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 21:41:03 +0000

President Barack Obama has called for a national moment of silence Monday morning at 11:00 for the people killed and injured in the shooting incident yesterday in Tuscon, Arizona.

This is a good opportunity for all Americans to band together in opposition to those willing to commit murder to advance their political goals. The incident in Arizona yesterday was an attack against the principle of self-government. We should not tolerate such acts, nor those who encourage them.

Shooting in Arizona

Rodney Dunning — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 20:01:41 +0000

The news today from Arizona is tragic and shocking. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head from point blank range at a public meeting in Tuscon. Regardless of the motivation of this crime, it is an attack on our Republic.

Let us pray for Giffords, the other victims, all the loved ones, and our nation.

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Remembering the 80s: Night Flight

Rodney Dunning — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 18:08:00 +0000

Night Flight ran on USA Network for most of the 80s, first airing a few weeks before MTV signed on. It would start at 11:00 PM on Friday and Saturday nights, and last until the wee hours of the morning. It went into syndication in 1988, replaced on USA by Gilbert Gottfried’s Up All Night, a ridiculous exchange. Night Flight would survive only a few more years, with a much smaller audience.

Most people who remember Night Flight remember its voice-over host, Pat Prescott. Prescott’s image never appeared on the show, as far as I know, but her sultry voice became a kind of trademark for the program, as much as its unique content.

Night Flight was essentially a music video program, but it also featured rarely-seen shorts and documentaries. My favorite was Fantastic Planet, a French-language science fiction film available through Netflix. Most of the music was alternative: punk, new wave, metal, and so forth—stuff you couldn’t find anywhere else. The essence of Night Flight was unique, single-source programming that almost no one else offered. In a world without the Web, Night Flight took us into the dark corners and blind alleys of 80s pop culture, showing us things that we would otherwise never see growing up in Surry County, NC.

That kind of gateway programming will probably never return. The Internet has opened up the world in way that removes all its mystery. It seems the kind of expository magic Night Flight worked in our hearts is simply impossible for today’s kids. Today’s innocents play a much bigger role in controlling what content they receive, and in fact they deliver content through Facebook, MySpace, etc. In the 80s, you got what the TV gave you, and you were happy to get it. And you were virtually unknown, except to the few kids who saw you face-to-face on your street.

Some of the best Night Flight moments live on thanks to YouTube. Here are two that I can remember like it was last night:

Some more YouTube clips:

Some Night Flight links:

What Science is About

Rodney Dunning — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 18:30:23 +0000

This YouTube video made me cry. It’s only two-and-a-half minutes long. Watch it. Contemplate it. Watch it again.

Consider these words my own. Not because I could ever articulate it like this, but because they speak for me in the deepest possible sense.

If you have ever wondered what science is, what it means, and why people like me have dedicated our lives to it, watch this video.