A moment of zen
As we wait for everything to make itself clear tonight, a moment of zen. Jim Bales up at MIT runs the Edgerton Center where they play with light, photography and science. Jim invited me in for a tour last weekend when I was in town for my high school reunion and it was awesome.
Here is my favorite picture that he took:
We had placed a white balloon inside of an orange balloon. We inflated both and then I popped the balloons. The “pop” was the strobe light trigger for the camera and this is what happened. If you look closely at the bottom, you can see the needle most of the way into the white balloon but the balloon not breaking (yet).
One of the other things that he showed me and my dad was using light columns to identify density differentiation. This was an awesome picture that he took.
This was just awesome and I had to share this great experience with you all for a moment of zen.
Open Thread.
I don’t want zen. I want cupcakes.
@Barbara: that is the 16:00 post
Jim’s great. He once shot my business card for me.
And you were in town and even in my shop and didn’t reach out? Dude!
This is a response to Yarrow:
This is from the Harris County Elections Department:
https://www.harrisvotes.com/VotingInfo?lang=en-US#VoteByMail
Offered to the science geeks like me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXYlrw2JQwo
Very cool ISS experiments by Don Pettit involving water. My favorite series of space experiments ever starts at 12:52.
Has anyone checked on lamh36? Because she may have fainted with happiness when she hears that Idris Elba was picked as this year’s People Magazine Sexiest Man Alive.
@Tom Levenson: I was already massively overbooked; I know my limitations unless you wanted to talk on the 4:35 Central Square to Government Center Redline train before I ran to Milk Street for a 4:50 beer
@Mnemosyne: She did. And then got up and shouted it from the rooftops.
@Mnemosyne: Late b-day present for lamh?
ETA: Just returned from voting.
@David Anderson: I know. Just feel it’s important never to leave an opportunity to give grief go unutilized.
the Schlieren effect!
So, I went over to the GOS and they had a pretty longish but good analysis of what Mueller as well as Trump may do post-election and the comments section was immediately hijacked by two knobs talking about the Lord of the Rings.
I’m having some cognitive dissonance trying to put a popping balloon and Zen together…
@Mnemosyne: Of course he was! How fun.
@RedDirtGirl: What is the sound of no balloons popping?
@cleek: Yes! Schlieren is fun :-)
Jim
Dave,
As I said in person, it is the least I can do in recognition of the immense value I have received from your ACA and health insurance blogging — it was a delight to meet you and your father!
Best
Jim
You should drop by my lab next time you want to play with light. Granted, we don’t do physics, we do lighting development & sustainability, but it’s still pretty fascinating.
@ruemara: sounds like fun
@ruemara: ruemara — this sounds interesting — can you tell me more? Feel free to email me at work “bales” “at” “mit.edu”