Trip to Hawaii Big Island

I attended a conference in Hawaii held jointly by an American and a Japanese physics society. Where else are you going to hold it? It was an incredible trip. This post is about the stuff I did before, after and during breaks in the conference. Here's the list of places I went on the Big Island:

• Waipio valley

• Akaka falls

• Kiluea caldera & lava fields

• Inside the Keck observatory atop Mauna Kea

• Kohala waterfall hike

• Underwater in a sub near Kailua-Kona

I was staying in Waikaloa Village on the west coast of the Big Island. Here is a sunset from a restaurant there:

Here is a dolphin in their lagoon:

A colleague and I drove around the island past gorgeous Waipio valley,

stopped at Akaka falls, the tallest in Hawaii,

and Halema'uma'u crater (big circle) inside the Kiluea caldera (huge circle that goes beyond the edge of the photo):

The sulfur dioxide streaming up with the steam made the air quality poor, and several areas were shut down. Nothing grows in the caldera. Lava flows underneath it via a lava tube to the sea. We went on the lava field at night, and you can make out the lava in the distance (as close as one is allowed to go):

Then several of us took a trip to the top of Mauna Kea, which from sea floor to summit is the tallest mountain in the world. Here are the twin domes of the Keck observatory, the most powerful in the world. Their main mirrors are 10m (30ft) in diameter! (the mountain way in the distance is Haleakala on Maui)

We were honored to receive a tour from a friend of a friend of the inside. This is the secondary mirror of one of the telescopes. You can see the dome opening in the background.

The main mirror is hard to see. It is the honeycomb structure just to the left of the blue girders (the pipes which seem to be on it are actually a reflection):

Then I went on a waterfall hike (the water was cold!)

and finally a submarine trip off the coast of Kailua-Kona:

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Movies I've Seen

Time for a light-hearted interlude.  Below is a list of the top 250 movies from the Internet Movie Database.  Following the lead of another blogger, for fun I've marked in bold the 114 I have seen.  

Factoid: The list below is almost certainly unique--with 250 entries which could be bold or not, there are more than a googol (10¹⁰⁰) possible lists! (More precisely, the number is  2²⁵⁰ which is about 10¹⁰⁸.) 

1. The Godfather (1972)
2. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
3. The Godfather: Part II (1974)
4. Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo,
   (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) (1966)
5. Pulp Fiction (1994)
6. Schindler's List (1993)
7. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
8. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
9. Casablanca (1942)
10. Shichinin no samurai
    (The Seven Samurai) (1954)
11. Star Wars (1977)
12. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
13. 12 Angry Men (1957)
14. Rear Window (1954)
15. Goodfellas (1990)
16. Cidade de Deus (City of God) (2002)
17. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
18. The Lord of the Rings:
    The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
19. C’era una volta il West
    (Once Upon a Time in the West) (1968)
20. The Usual Suspects (1995)
21. Psycho (1960)
22. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop
    Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
23. Fight Club (1999)
24. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
25. Citizen Kane (1941)
26. North by Northwest (1959)
27. Memento (2000)
28. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
29. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
30. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
31. The Matrix (1999)
32. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
33. There Will Be Blood (2007)
34. Se7en (1995)
35. Apocalypse Now (1979)
36. Taxi Driver (1976)
37. American Beauty (1999)
38. Léon (The Professional) (1994)
39. Vertigo (1958)
40. Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain
    (Amélie) (2001)
41. American History X (1998)
42. The Departed (2006)
43. Paths of Glory (1957)
44. M (1931)
45. No Country for Old Men (2007)
46. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
47. Das Leben der Anderen
    (The Lives of Others) (2006)
48. Chinatown (1974)
49. The Third Man (1949)
50. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
51. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
52. Alien (1979)
53. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
54. El Laberinto del fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth) (2006)
55. The Shining (1980)
56. Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi
    (Spirited Away) (2001)
57. The Pianist (2002)
58. Double Indemnity (1944)
59. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
60. Forrest Gump (1994)
61. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
62. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
63. L.A. Confidential (1997)
64. Das Boot (1981)
65. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
66. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
67. Der Untergang
    (The Downfall: Hitler and the End of the Third Reich) (2004)
68. Aliens (1986)
69. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
70. Raging Bull (1980)
71. Metropolis (1927)
72. Rashômon (1950)
73. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
74. Modern Times (1936)
75. Hotel Rwanda (2004)
76. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
77. Sin City (2005)
78. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
79. Rebecca (1940)
80. Det Sjunde inseglet
    (The Seventh Seal) (1957)
81. All About Eve (1950)
82. Some Like It Hot (1959)
83. City Lights (1931)
84. Amadeus (1984)
85. On the Waterfront (1954)
86. La Vita è bella (Life Is Beautiful) (1997)
87. The Great Escape (1963)
88. Touch of Evil (1958)
89. The Prestige (2006)
90. The Elephant Man (1980)
91. Jaws (1975)
92. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
93. The Sting (1973)
94. Nuovo cinema Paradiso
    (Cinema Paradiso) (1988)
95. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
96. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
97. The Apartment (1960)
98. Braveheart (1995)
99. The Great Dictator (1940)
100. Blade Runner (1982)
101. Strangers on a Train (1951)
102. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
103. Batman Begins (2005)
104. Ladri di biciclette (The Bicycle Thief) (1948)
105. Le Salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear) (1953)
106. High Noon (1952)
107. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
108. Ran (1985)
109. The Big Sleep (1946)
110. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
111. Notorious (1946)
112. Back to the Future (1985)
113.             Oldboy (2003)
114. Fargo (1996)
115.             Unforgiven (1992)
116. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
117. Donnie Darko (2001)
118. Mononoke-hime (Princess Mononoke) (1997)
119. Cool Hand Luke (1967)
120. Ratatouille (2007)
121. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
122. Yojimbo (1961)
123. Per qualche dollaro in più
     (For a Few Dollars More ) (1965)
124. The Green Mile (1999)
125. Million Dollar Baby (2004)
126. The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
127. Le Notti di Cabiria (Nights of Cabiria) (1957)
128. Gladiator (2000)
129. La Battaglia di Algeri
     (The Battle of Algiers) (1966)
130. Into the Wild (2007)
131. Die Hard (1988)
132. Annie Hall (1977)
133. The Deer Hunter (1978)
134. Ben-Hur (1959)
135. It Happened One Night (1934)
136. The Sixth Sense (1999)
137. Platoon (1986)
138. The General (1927)
139. Life of Brian (1979)
140. Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
141.           The Killing (1956)
142. Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries) (1957)
143. Les Diaboliques (1955)
144. Amores perros (Love’s a Bitch) (2000)
145. Finding Nemo (2003)
146. The Incredibles (2004)
147. V for Vendetta (2005)
148. Heat (1995)
149. The Wild Bunch (1969)
150. Children of Men (2006)
151.             Brief Encounter (1945)
152. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
153. 8½ (1963)
154. The Princess Bride (1987)
155. The Graduate (1967)
156. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
157.             The Night of the Hunter (1955)
158. The Big Lebowski (1998)
159. Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
160. Juno (2007)
161.           Crash (2004/I)
162. Stand by Me (1986)
163. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
164. Gandhi (1982)
165. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
166. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
167. Snatch. (2000)
168. Harvey (1950)
169. Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
170. Kill Bill: Vol. 2
171. The African Queen (1951)
172. The Thing (1982)
173. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
174. Trainspotting (1996)
175. Gone with the Wind (1939)
176. The Gold Rush (1925)
177. Wo hu cang long
     (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) (2000)
178. Groundhog Day (1993)
179. Le Belle et la bête
     (Beauty and the Beast) (1946)
180. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
181.             Scarface (1983)
182. The Conversation (1974)
183. Patton (1970)
184. American Gangster (2007)
185. Duck Soup (1933)
186. Toy Story (1995)
187. Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens
     (Nosferatu) (1922)
188. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
189. Twelve Monkeys (1995)
190. Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari
     (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) (1920)
191. The Terminator (1984)
192. Sleuth (1972)
193. Umberto D. (1952)
194. The Hustler (1961)
195. Stalker (1979)
196. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
197. Glory (1989)
198. Ed Wood (1994)
199. King Kong (1933)
200. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
201. The Lion King (1994)
202. The Exorcist (1973)
203. Hotaru no haka (Tombstone for Fireflies) (1988)
204. Spartacus (1960)
205. Grindhouse (2007)
206. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
207. The Lost Weekend (1945)
208. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
209. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
210. The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
211.             Magnolia (1999)
212. Stalag 17 (1953)
213. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
214. Lola rennt (Run, Lola, Run) (1998)
215. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
216. Frankenstein (1931)
217. Big Fish (2003)
218. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
219. Out of the Past (1947)
220. Casino (1995)
221. Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
222. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
223. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
224. Mystic River (2003)
225. Du rififi chez les hommes (Rififi) (1955)
226. Toy Story 2 (1999)
227. Once (2006)
228. 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
229. Hot Fuzz (2007)
230. A Christmas Story (1983)
231. Mou gaan dou (Infernal Affairs) (2002)
232. Ikiru (Living) (1952)
233. Dial M for Murder (1954)
234. Manhattan (1979)
235. Rope (1948)
236. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
237. Young Frankenstein (1974)
238. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
239. Roman Holiday (1953)
240. Les Quatre cents coups
     (The Four Hundred Blows) (1959)
241. His Girl Friday (1940)
242. The Searchers (1956)
243. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
244. Ying xiong (Hero) (2002)
245. In Cold Blood (1967)
246. La Strada (The Road) (1954)
247. Le Samouraï (The Godson) (1967)
248. Pirates of the Caribbean:
     The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
249. Harold and Maude (1971)
250. La Haine (Hate) (1995)

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Happy New Year!

Here is an audio greeting for the new year (click Read More).

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"Sense"

Welcome to Science Sense!

This blog is about 

• making sense of the world
  
• pointing out nonsense
  
• using an internal sense we all have 
  
• having sense to know when to shut off being analytical
• enjoying and appreciating life and the other five senses
  

The internal sense is not something supernatural like ESP, but an ability to examine the world within our minds, using imagination and logic.  It is an eye on an inner world of ideas.  It is the sense that Einstein  used to see the world with his "thought experiments".    In the next post you'll see that "thought experiments" started way before Einstein.

 

[A note on punctuation.  I know that in American English, the convention is to put the period inside the quotes.  I've always found that illogical because quotes are like parentheses, and a period is an outer delimiter of the sentence.  The quote is inside the sentence, not the other way around.  Why would you put part of the sentence after the thing that marked its end?  So in this blog I will not put the period inside quotes.]

 

I'll have more to say about each aspect of the word "sense".    Here are some of the things I hope to cover in the blog:

Science: 

• science news, especially of physics 
• science politics and ethics
  
• my ideas
  
• explanations, like what "relativity" means 
  
• how to develop that internal sense, an inner logical eye 
  
• pseudoscience (i.e., nonsense)
  

Politics:

• opinions about the news of the US and the world
• opinions about important causes and ways to help
  
• opinions about electoral politics
  

Philosophy & Religion:

• what does it all mean?
  
• how does a scientist make sense of the world and find happiness?
  
• issues of religion and science
  
• issues of religion and politics (yikes!)
  
• issues of morality and ethics (outside of science)

Reviews:

• music
  
• books
  
• movies

I will try to indicate my qualifications for the subject at hand  (trained, informed, none), and the confidence level of the ideas (established, likely, speculative).  This way, you'll know what to take with a grain of salt.

I hardly know where to start!   But I do know when it is time to end.  See you next post.

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