Apocalypse Now

You may have heard we've got a little fire going here in L.A. Here it is in timelapse:



Thanks to "Doodles" Cuden for the heads-up.

Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi!

Here's the mind-bender of the month: the Geo 600 Gravitational Wave Detector recently began picking up noise believed to be made by the breakdown of the space-time continuum. If true, this would prove that the entire universe is merely a blurry holographic projection of a two-dimensional reality at the boundary of space-time.




And now if you'll excuse me, I have to go lie down...

What I did today.

I went with Audry to Hampton Court, outside of London, where Henry VIII held many of his revels. This shot is looking down the great hall from where Harry sat. Now you know what it feels like to be Henry VIII. Don't thank me all at once.

No escape from Disney, Part III.

Once upon a time, a young man dreamed a dream. Even though the age of knighthood was long past, and kings and princes had been reduced to figureheads, and the centers of power had moved from palaces to office buildings, the young man dreamed of castles in the clouds where fairytale dreams really could come true if you wished upon a star.

That young man's name was Ludwig II of Bavaria.

During the years from 1861 and 1886, he built a series of fairytale castles,the most famous of which is Schloss Neuschwanstein, never fully completed in Mad Ludwig's lifetime (and only 30% completed on the interior).


60 years later, another young man came to Schwanstein on a family vacation, and was inspired to create his own version of this fairytale castle. That man's name was Walt Disney, and the Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland is directly inspired by the exterior of Ludwig's grandest folly.

And 65 years after that, Audry and I spent a day tromping around Neuschwanstein.


Ludwig had the jump on Walt in many ways. Like the various Magic Kingdom castles, Schwanstein uses forced perspective to great an impression of great height. (Not that it isn't plenty tall to begin with.)


The courtyard inside the castle. Contributing to the Disneyland feel is the fact that the castle is not made from hewn stone as of old, but rather from poured concrete blocks which have been molded to look like stone. It gives everything a slightly artificial feel.


The view of the Bavarian countryside from one of the towers:


You aren't supposed to take photos inside the castle, mainly so they can sell you postcards and picture books at the end of the tour. But Audry managed to steal a few snaps. Looking straight up the end of the circular stairway at the top of the tallest tower:




Heading back from the castle via horsecart:


Far below Schwanstein is Hohenschwangau Castle, where Ludwig was born. His bedroom contained a large telescope, through which he would was the progress of construction of Neuschwanstein.


As we ate lunch in a restaurant in the town below, the owner's dog made it clear he would appreciate some scraps.

Whoopie!

So the Pfizer drug company has offered to give free supplies of such drugs as Lipitor and Viagra to people who've recently lost their jobs and health insurance, which prompted this front page headline on the Huffington Post:



My wife thinks it's hilarious.

A Little Serra

So between the campus parking and the Festival of Books, we came across a sculpture garden by the UCLA art department. By far the most interesting piece was T.E.U.C.L.A. ("Torqued Ellipse UCLA"),a smaller work by Richard Serra -- and by "small," I mean it was only 18 feet wide and 10 feet tall.


Serra's works frequently deceive the eye and change your perception as you walk around (and inside) them. In the head-on shot above, the piece appears to list to the left, with a straight up-and-down opening in the center. But the photo below shows that in fact the piece is more of an inverted cone, with an extreme curve to the opening.


Audry enters the sculpture. Serra's work is meant to be viewed from all sides -- especially the inside.


Being inside a Serra sculpture is a little disorienting. When we are inside a man-made structure we are used to seeing straight lines, but the walls in a Serra piece are incessantly curving toward and away from you. With no plumb lines to give the eye a vertical reference, the effect can be dizzying.


The soaring curves of these gigantic two-inch thick iron plates manage to be light and heavy at the same time. ( Each plate is fabricated at a ship-building plant.)


Here is a really interesting piece on Serra's work as seen on Google maps, including this particular sculpture.

Sense O' Wonder

Zowie! Check out these images from the Hubble! (Click to enlarge.)

Two mighty spacefleets clashing? No, it's the Ant Nebula.


The Sombrero Galaxy:


The Cat's Eye Nebula:


The Glowing Eyes. (I'm convinced this is where Cthulhu comes from.)


And of course, the Eye of Sauron, unblinking, eternally evil...