A Curious Statistical Anomaly

Well, denial — it’s not just a river in Egypt. Finally, my knitterly denial couldn’t be maintained and I had to admit to myself that the Honeycomb sock is just way, way, too misshapen and big for anyone for any reason. Maybe deep inside, I knew I was only fooling myself since I couldn’t bring myself to start the second sock. It wasn’t SSS (second sock syndrome). No, it was my heart telling my head what it didn’t want to believe — the sock had to go to the frog pond.

I think that’s why I didn’t take a picture with the sock on my foot. I knew it wasn’t going to work so, if I didn’t try it on, I could continue to kid myself. I’ve been knitting long enough to know a mistake when I make one. Why oh why did I continue knitting even when it became hard to ignore the fact of the monstrosity that was staring me in the face. I put it in my project basket and I’ve let it sit — maybe I thought it would miraculously trans-mutate into a sock that resembled the photo on the pattern.

So, now it’s back to its yarny state and I’ll find another project for the yarn. The sock I’ll try again with a more fitting yarn for this pattern.

I have to confess that Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love the smell of pine and balsam. I’m originally from Maine so maybe that’s why those smells cause me to think of winter holidays.

I love the way everyone gets so excited and friendly — all those “happy holiday” greetings from everyone you meet. Right now it’s just a few but once we reach December 1st, those greetings will start to proliferate and spread. But, that’s beside the point, what I wanted to talk about was how I like to keep and maintain my holiday mood.

Coffee cups. I get silly, or pretty, or funky, or whatever coffee cups. I work at home so I don’t get the office party or the chance to chat in someone else’s cubicle, so I help create a holiday mood in my office space with a coffee cup. This year I found my cup in Home Goods. I saw it and thought it looked like it would belong to a Who from Whoville. It’s got packages and bright ribbons and colorful dots and a pedestal. It’s great for coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and, in a pinch, water. But, greatest of all, it makes me smile whenever I use it — so it keeps me in the holiday mood and brightens my day. That’s probably more psychic weight than a coffee cup should have to bear but since I’m also a klutz — this is a coffee cup on the edge.

We had to go out and run errands today. I needed to get to Michael’s because I had a coupon for 20% off entire purchase but the sale ended at noon. I bought yarn for a sweater, some felted boots (I’ve had the pattern for a while), and for 3 pairs of socks. Now that the Christmas yarn is here I need to really buckle down to the knit part of my plan.

I don’t usually buy many gifts for Christmas. Throughout the year, if I see some small thing I think will be nice for one of the people on our list, I pick it up. I guess I should say that over the years we’ve cut down on our Christmas list. We now buy for my mother, my husband’s mother, and my son. That’s it. No nephews, nieces, cousins, brothers/sisters – in-laws, aunts, uncles, or second-cousins-twice-removed and reattached. They all get Christmas cards and a Christmas letter.

I feel Christmas is out of control. People spend more than they can afford in an effort to express something: love, friendship, control(?), obligation. When I hear from my family, extended family, and friends. I’m happy to know they’re fine and doing okay or to commiserate on bad luck, illness, or whatever. It’s family that’s important on the holidays not how much you spend. Love can’t be measured in money only in time and caring — and that’s better expressed in deeds than gifts.

So, I’ll knit love into my gifts with every stitch — thinking of the pleasure I get in making something with my hands that they will enjoy wearing and using. It’s my way of extending my love to their daily life even when I can’t be there.

Well, I’ve managed to blow most of my day watching YouTube videos of musical tesla coils. I mean how geeky can you get. This one was my favorite — not because you can see it best but because of the tune (it is November and Nutcracker season).

Megavoltmeister posted this explanation of the video:

Twin Solid State Musical Tesla coils playing Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy at the 2007 Lightning on the Lawn Teslathon sponsored by DC Cox (Resonance Research Corp) in Baraboo WI. The music that you hear is coming from the sparks that these two identical high power solid state Tesla coils are generating. There are no speakers involved. The Tesla coils stand 7 feet tall and are each capable of putting out over 12 foot of spark. They are spaced about 18 feet apart. The coils are controlled over a fiber optic link by a single laptop computer. Each coil is assigned to a midi channel which it responds to by playing notes that are programed into the computer software. These coils were constructed by Steve Ward and Jeff Larson. Video was captured by Terry Blake. What is not obvious is how loud the coils are. They are well over 110dB.

Here’s the YouTube link if you want to go there directly — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Opf5jIukSBM
Hey, I wasted my day so why shouldn’t you.

I also learned from reading the descriptions with the videos that there are yearly teslathons where folks gather with their electronic equipment and play around — these videos are some of the results. I’ve always found Tesla to be an interesting scientist and believe that it’s time to look again at some of his work — but without the scientific prejudice he fought against — after all, some of his ‘hair-brained’ schemes do seem to work. I really should dig out those two Tesla biographies and move them closer to the top of my To Be Read piles but then my Must Read Pile is so huge it could take a while to get to the bios.

I know I’ve read about this on some other blogs, and I had a long discussion the other day with my Mom about it. But, what happened to Thanksgiving? Here in Maryland we had Halloween, and now we’ve got Christmas. The only nod to Thanksgiving were a couple of pilgrim statues and some posted pictures of colorful turkeys at the local grocery store colored by local children. Of course there are turkeys in the store and the fixings, but if you didn’t know Thanksgiving was this week you couldn’t tell from all the Christmas decorations in all the stores.

For me, Thanksgiving is a time when families and individuals should be sitting down for a few quiet moments to think of all they’ve done this past year and all that’s happened in their lives and give thanks for what they have. I know that I have a lot to be thankful for. I have a loving husband, a home (it needs lots of TLC but we have one), a son who is healthy and mostly employed, friends who have been there when I needed them (and who I hope think I was there when they needed me) , and I’m still cancer free after 8 years post surgery. So, there are problems … who doesn’t have problems in their lives; but, in balance, there’s more good than bad.

Taking some time to appreciate the good that has happened to us over the past year sets us up mentally for Christmas — which to me is more about family, friendships, and giving than it ever was about getting. Perhaps, we all need to remember this little holiday that comes between candy (Halloween) and gift-getting (Christmas). Just maybe actually thinking about why there is a Thanksgiving holiday can help more of us realize that life is pretty good, and if it isn’t, then take some responsibility and start the steps that will make things look brighter next Thanksgiving. I’ve learned that it not Pollyanna-ish to recognize that no matter how bad things are for me, there are probably a lot of people that have problems that make my set of troubles look like blessings — it’s all about attitude. Set goals and look up. It is true that no one ever got anywhere only looking at the bad in life — how depressing is that anyway?

Guess that’s enough ramblings for this post. Did you know there’s only 34 knitting days until Christmas — and I’ve got a sweater and some socks to finish.

I got the automatic newsletter from NPR and found this article Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter…and Umami by Robert Krulwich to be extremely interesting. It all started with a French chef Auguste Escoffier who made a veal stock that had a new flavor that wasn’t the taste of sweet, sour, salty, or bitter. But when this magic ingredient was added to anything it tasted better. Scientists insisted there was only the 4 tastes but now with new testing they’ve found that indeed, there is a new taste. They call it Umami since it’s what a chemist Kikunae Ikeda, called it when he posited the 5th flavor years ago. So, now that it’s been proven to exist, Ideda’s name for it will be the one used for this new flavor. (The secret ingredient? Glutamate.) Read the article…it’s very informative and interesting.

Unfortunately, we had to leave the convention early. I notified ConOps that I wouldn’t make my last Panel at 3PM. But, we did get to the panel on nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology (11AM) Panelists: Seth Goldstein (moderator), Kevin Roche. Description: The nanotechnology revolution is no longer “coming” it is here. Nanomaterials are being manufacture and are poised to revolutionize fields from electronics to materials science to medicine. Panelists will discuss current nanotechnology, its applications and what we can expect to see in the near future, as well as longer term possibilities, and concerns about potential problems.

Again the discussion was far ranging. As I understand what was said was that the main problem with nanotechnology right now is power. How do you power something that small? There was talk of using quantum effects/spintronics for powering the units. There’s also a problem in that people talk of tiny computers but at the nano size you need to have them be self-assembling and then program them with very few instructions and they then do their thing. Questions asked about photovoltaics, solar power efficiencies, Moore’s Law (or as was explained Moore’s ‘economic’ Law as it relates more to economics than to computer processing power/hardware/software). That’s just the highlights that I remember. I’m probably not truly stating what they said but this seems to be what I remember that most of the ground work has been done and that nanotechnology and innovation is possible now but that the problems of power and movement will take a while to solve so it could be a while before more applications hit the market. (They also talked a bit about 3-D photocopiers. I found that interesting because I’ve heard about them but never seen one or the resulting ‘copy’ from one. Evidently the result is layers of polymer plastic in the shape of the object and that a matrix can be used that can later be dissolved in a solution to retain empty areas within the object — this allows for faster prototyping in some areas.)

Then since I was definitely at the start of a migraine cycle and we had a 3-4 hour drive home, we notified ConOps and headed for home. However, the convention didn’t end until 4PM (or later if you attended the gripe session). Sorry, not to be able to write up the next 3 hours of program items.

Next year, PhilCon hasn’t picked dates or signed with a hotel so they’re listing themselves as Unstuck in Space and Time. I hope they manage to find a time and place to land for 2008.

The day stared off with me picking up my badge and finding I was allowed a guest badge for my husband. What a nice surprise. The next surprise is they had coffee for program participants. Yeah! Life and the day was looking brighter by the minute.

The Graphic Novel (10AM) Panelists: Andrew C. Murphy (mod.) J.J. Brannon, Ray Ridenour, J. Andrew World. Description: Does it attract young readers to the written world, or wean them away from it?

This panel covered a lot of ground. Topics covered included definitions of graphic novels versus serial compilations; Art vs Words or Art and Words as a melding; Can single author/artist works get published or does it need to be a team; Manga as a subcategory of graphic novels. They covered the problems that started in the 50’s when someone noticed that the juvenile delinquents he worked with, when asked what they read, all said comics. So he posited that reading comics caused delinquent behavior — then came the Senate hearings and the start of the CPA (seal of approval) on comics. Newer comics and some Manga are not for children but for adults and parents should be aware of this (discussion of tentacle porn and Hentai). Recommended that anyone interested in comics and graphic novels should read Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud.

Critiquing Writing Workshops (11AM). Panelists: Dina Leacock, James Patrick Kelly (moderator), Linda Addison, Marilyn Brahen. Description: What works, what doesn’t; online vs. live gatherings and other workshop issues.

Panelists were all in face-to-face workshops — some belonging to more than one workshop. Topics covered included: need to set rules up and stick to them, have regular meeting times, that mixing novels and short stories doesn’t really work out, that novels are better critiqued if complete rather than piecemeal; some discussion of various intensive workshops and retreats. I brought up online workshops and asked about those. They mentioned OWW (Online Writers Workshop) and Critters. I mentioned the Internet Writing Workshops since I’m involved with this group.

Programmable Matter (Noon) Seth Goldstein gave a PowerPoint presentation about Claytronics.

The presentation was fascinating. They want to have nano-sized computers that work as an ensemble to create 3D photocopying/modeling. They actually have prototypes that are 1mm across. They’re looking for ideas for development that might be achievable with 3 to 5 years. They’re also looking for the titles of SF books/stories that have similar ‘machines’.

The Victorian Age as a Setting for (Non-Victorian) Science Fiction. (1PM) Panelists: Brian Siano, Stephanie Burke, Gayle Surrette, Victoria McManus (moderator), Richard Stout. Description: Think steampunk, The Difference Engine, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, etc. What is the appeal of the late 19^th century and its technology as a setting or trope for science fiction? Is it the big machines, the gentlemen adventurers with impeccable taste and manners, the sense of (now lost) horizons looming before one? Or is it just an evasion of writing about the future as it might actually be? What is this particular alternative version of the past?

This one is hard for me to comment on since I was on the panel. I learned more — adding to all the research I’d done prior to the panel. This was an era of exciting change: scientific discovery and invention (gas lamps, steam power, trains), communications (postal service, newspapers, penny dreadfuls, etc.), and social upheaval (beginning of a middle class, women’s movement). Just a lot of changes to daily life, and yet, an attitude that anything can happen, anything can be discovered or fabricated. It was also the time of Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes (and the start of the mystery genre), Jules Verne, H.G. Wells. Someone on the panel said it was like a theme park world that we can now set stories in and people can relate because it was almost our modern era.

Break for lunch and to relax. Found a great pizza place — good food cheap — lots of veggies on the pizza including spinach. My vegetable phobic husband even liked it.

Mark Rogers slide show. (5PM). Panelist: Mark Rogers. Description: It has it all: pinups, zombies, Samurai Cat, the Grand Canyon, and more pinups!

Mark Rogers took us on a tour of some of his works. The panel didn’t start on time because a scheduling snafu of some sort meant that there wasn’t a slide projector present. It took about 25 minutes to get one, connect, find appropriate software and show the photos. Rogers said that a good deal of his work consists of pin-up (beautiful women, scantily clad). He had some of his southwest landscapes and some of his horror drawings (concepts for The Dead).

Xtreme Physics. (5PM) Panelists: Mark Wolverton, Catherine Asaro, John Ashmead, Jay Wile (moderator), Rock Robertson. Description: Science Fiction stories often depend upon phenomena that seriously bend, if not actually break that laws of physics as we know them. Teleportation, time travel, invisibility, FTL and other SF staples have long been considered impossible yet acceptable plot devices. But the pace of scientific and technological progress is so rapid today that less and less seems “impossible”. Subatomic particles have been “teleported” and serious research is being done on materials that can bend light around an object, producing invisibility. Given our current understanding of physics what is the possibility that any of these far-out ideas could become reality?

It’s the vegetable-phobic husband here. We split up to see two different panels, so I’ve been assigned to talk about this one. Oh, by the way, it’s a pleasure to meet you all. Anyway, Catherine Asaro wasn’t originally planned to be on the panel, but since she is physicist as well as an author it was a great addition. Most of the panelists were theoreticians, with only Rock Robertson being an actual engineer. Pity most of his work was secret, which made it difficult for him to give us any concrete details. So while there was plenty of talk about what could be possible, might be possible, and should be possible, there’s very little actual machinery to point to. On the topic of nuclear fusion, it was pointed out that the ITER experiment which will be built in Europe, will produced just under half the power necessary to break even (power in = power out). The hope is that this will give them the last pieces needed to actually create a commercial fusion reactor. Of course it was also pointed out that commercial nuclear fusion was only 50 years away … fifty years ago. And it has maintained that estimate ever since. So, by 2057 we just might have commercial fusion. I’m not holding my breath. Also discussed where materials that have recently been discovered that bend microwave spectrum light, making it possible to render thing invisible at least in that slice of the spectrum. Teleportation of photons and electrons were discussed, including whether or not information had to be conserved and would quantum mechanical effects be usable at the macroscopic scale. One topic provoked what I thought was a rather funny reaction. Immediately after making statements that it’s safer for your career to never challenge paradigms and that all real breakthroughs only came when what was known was ignored, a member of the audience asked about cold fusion. The response was to universally declare it to be nonsense and not worth bothering with. Is that true? Well the current paradigm says so. And now, I return you to your regular blogger.

Then we took a slow browse through the dealers’ room (lots of books, jewelry, swords, T-shirts with witty, clever, fannish sayings). Then, we took a stroll in the Art Show to check out the works on display. I love the variety of art: dolls, masks, jewelry, pottery, fantasy art, horrific art, science fiction art, cutesy art, and all in between).

Then nothing really planned we wanted to see until later this evening.

Talking to Aliens (7PM). Panelists: Mark Wolverton, Lawrence M. Schoen (moderator), Judith Berman. Description: If SETI ever picks up an unmistakably intelligent alien signal, the next step is how to communicate with them. What basic symbols and concepts can we assume could be understood by any type of intelligence? How would we build up a vocabulary? Could there be beings with minds so different that communication would be impossible?

This panel was very interesting with 1 writer, 2 linguists (psycho- and cultural-), and 1 neurobiologist (if I remember the degrees correctly). They discussed the problems of communicating with no shared references. Then they separated out communication from language (a distinction that seemed to allow saying no animals had language but some had communication). Then they discussed the danger of anthropomorphizing or making assumptions with an alien race. Lots of related topics were discussed but with no concrete rules — everything would be in flux because we just don’t know enough.

The Heirs of H.P. Lovecraft. (8PM) Panelists: C.J. Henderson, John Ashmead (moderator), Darrell Schweitzer. Description: Who is currently doing the best Lovecraft mythos stories today? How do they continue to evolve? (And do they reproduce by fission?)

The panelists talked quite a bit about Lovecraft and how many writers of his day are only known because he either wrote to them or they knew him, or he read their works. Discussed how Lovecraft would read a story and think I can do that better and then he would do it better. Some writers mentioned: Paula Volsky, Steven King, Clark Ashton Smith, and lots of other but I didn’t get them written down because I expected I’d remember and I don’t …  sorry.

Return of the Living Dead. (9PM) Panelists: Jonathan Maberry, Gayle Surrette (moderator), Gary Frank, Mark E. Rogers. Description: There are numerous zombie fiction anthologies in the works, several new zombie movies being released, scores of new websites devoted to the love of zombies and even a television series. Why did the genre suddenly take on new life? Are zombies the new vampires? Is all fiction now set in the world of George Romero?

Panelists discussed what has reanimated the interest in zombies; what makes zombies scary; societal metaphors of zombies; zombies as a metaphor for loss of control and disease, paranoia, uncertainty. Lots of talk of how to survive a zombie attack and how they make the perfect enemy because they have no reason and can’t be reasoned with. Discussion of various types of zombies (from virus, from radiation, Haitian/Voodun, prion disease vectors, etc) — how they’d differ. Maberry talked about his upcoming book (Zombie CSU: The Forensics of Zombies) which sounded very interesting if you intend to write a zombie story as it compiles information he got from interviewing doctors, epidemiologists, neurologists, psychologists, and authors about zombies.

The audience was a great part of the discussion (it’s late evening and opposite the masquerade so the audience was interested and eager to discuss their views of zombies). A good time was had by all.

So, I’m exhausted and just finishing this up and posting and calling it a day.