One-Page Schoolhouse: June 2009

Into The Dark Flow

Centaurus

First dark matter and dark energy. Now, we find parts of our universe moving at very high speeds and in a uniform direction that can't be explained by any of the known gravitational forces in the observable universe. Astronomers are calling the phenomenon "dark flow."

Dark flow is the name given to the motion of galaxy clusters with respect to the cosmic microwave background radiation which should be randomly distributed in all directions. But it is not - a three year study concluded in 2008 that there was a common motion of at least 600 km/s toward a 20-degree patch of sky between the constellations of Centaurus and Vela.

This dark flow must be outside the "observable universe."

The "observable" universe doesn't actually mean as far as we can see with a powerful telescope. There's a fundamental limit to how much of the universe we could ever observe, no matter how big the telescope.

If the universe formed about 13.7 billion years ago, and light started traveling toward us immediately after the Big Bang, the farthest it could ever get is 13.7 billion light-years in distance. So, if there are parts of the universe that are farther away, we can't see farther than light could travel over the entire age of the universe.

One theory is that the motion results from the influence of no-longer-visible regions of the universe prior to inflation. (Telescopes cannot see events earlier than about 380,000 years after the Big Bang, when the universe became transparent.)

Another theory is that it is the gravitational influences of other universes.

Vela is a constellation of the southen sky (in the illustration it is at left center) and the word is Latin for the sails of a ship. It was originally part of a larger constellation, the ship Argo Navis. The larger constellation (shown here) was later divided into three parts, the others being Carina and Puppis.

Hello World

Not that I get to travel outside the United States very much, but - I came across this list from an 1881 etiquette manual titled Our Deportment by John H. Young.

Looking at it now is an interesting guide to the methods of greeting used in some countries.

No guarantees about the current application of these. Some of them sound questionable even for 1881.

Global readers, please feel free to educate us on current greetings!

In SOUTHERN AFRICA, it is the custom to rub toes.

In LAPLAND, your friend rubs his nose against yours.

The TURK folds his arms upon his breast and bends head very low.

The MOORS OF MOROCCO have a somewhat startling mode of salutation: they ride at a gallop toward a stranger, as though they would unhorse him, and when close at hand suddenly check their horse and fire a pistol over the person’s head.

The EGYPTIAN asks you, “How do you perspire?” letting his hand fall to the knee.

The CHINESE bows low and inquires, “Have you eaten?”

The SPANIARD says, “God be with you, sir,” or, “How do you stand?”

And the NEAPOLITAN piously remarks, “Grow in holiness.”

The GERMAN asks, “How goes it with you?”

The FRENCHMAN bows profoundly and inquires, “How do you carry yourself?”

I'm not really sure what a guide would say today about greeting an AMERICAN: Hello? What's up? How you doing?

I Love Your Book. Will You Sign My Kindle?

A recent New York Times article talks about a Kindle reader who asked David Sedaris at a reading to sign his Kindle (where he had Sedaris' book downloaded). Sedaris wrote “This bespells doom” with his signature on the back of the gent's device.

He tells the Times that he has actually signed at least five other Kindles, plus some iPods (audiobook fans) and, because it is David Sedaris, he has also signed an artificial leg.

“Last year in Austin I signed an actual leg, and its owner had my signature tattooed into her flesh. The night before that, a nursing mother offered me a taste of her pre-pumped breast milk, and I took her up on it.”

I'm glad that readers who use electronic devices to read or listen to books are getting equal treatment.

I used to feel guilty about listening to books on tape (then CDs and now on an iPod), but I don't feel guilty anymore. I also don't feel guilty listening to a writer read his work aloud, or reading my own words to an audience. I loved reading to my kids. I loved having them read to me.

It does sadden me that little bookstores can't get a piece of the download market, so you really should buy a book at a reading if you want it signed. I'd hate to see it come down to being like those sports shows where you pay ten bucks to have some retired athlete sign his rookie card.

Of course, how many signatures can you get on the back of a Kindle? A half dozen?

Maybe the author can type his name as a note on the frontpiece of his downloaded book.

Laughing With God

I had not been a real fan of Regina Spektor's music before, though I had listened to some tracks. Then, I listened (for free) to the new album via NPR's excellent FIRST LISTEN site. I bought the CD and like it a lot.

The track that grabbed me on first listen is "Laughing With." It's a quiet track that reminded me of how I felt when I first heard Joan Osbourne's "One Of Us" (see bottom) - you're wondering: Is this song serious or teasing? Is it all ironic?

Laughing With

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one's laughing at God when they're starving or freezing or so very poor

No one laughs at God when the doctor calls after some routine tests
No one's laughing at God when it's gotten real late
And their kid's not back from that party yet
No one laughs at God when their airplane starts to uncontrollably shake
No one's laughing at God when they see the one they love
Hand in hand with someone else and they hope they're mistaken

No one laughs at God when the cops knock on their door
And they say we've got some bad news, sir
No one's laughing at God when there's a famine, fire or flood

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke
Or when the crazies say He hates us
And they get so red in the head you think they're 'bout to choke

God can be funny
When told he'll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious
Ha ha
Ha ha

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one's laughing at God when they've lost all they've got
And they don't know what for

No one laughs at God on the day they realize that the last sight they'll ever see
Is a pair of hateful eyes
No one's laughing at God when they're saying their goodbyes

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke
Or when the crazies say He hates us
And they get so red in the head you think they're 'bout to choke

God can be funny
When told he'll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one laughing at God in a hospital
No one's laughing at God in a war

No one's laughing at God when they're starving or freezing or so very poor

No one's laughing at God
No one's laughing at God
No one's laughing at God
No one's laughing at God
We're all laughing with God

I think both songs are a good way to look at your relationship with a God - believer, agnostic, atheist.

One of Us by Joan Osbourne

If God had a name, what would it be
And would you call it to his face
If you were faced with him in all his glory
What would you ask if you had just one question

And yeah yeah God is great yeah yeah God is good
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home

If God had a face what would it look like
And would you want to see
If seeing meant that you would have to believe
In things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints and all the prophets

And yeah yeah god is great yeah yeah god is good
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home
He's trying to make his way home
Back up to heaven all alone
Nobody calling on the phone
Except for the Pope maybe in Rome

And yeah yeah God is great yeah yeah God is good
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

What if god was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home
Just trying to make his way home
Like a holy rolling stone
Back up to heaven all alone
Just trying to make his way home
Nobody calling on the phone
Except for the Pope maybe in Rome

We Tell Stories Digitally

Photo via Flick by tcmhitchhiker

I came across a site on digital fiction from Penguin books in the UK called WE TELL STORIES.

The project took some classic stories and asked writers to give them a new digital reworking. It's not a digital version of the original, but a new story inspired by the classic.

The new digital stories are:

and they are based on these 7 classic tales:

For example, in "The 21 Steps," Rick Blackwell is sightseeing in London and gets caught up in a conspiracy that sets him out to find out why a dying stranger seemed to know his name. This homage to The 39 Steps by Charles Cumming is an adventure using Google Maps.

Lisa is known as "Slice" to her friends. In the story called "Slice," she has moved to London with her parents to separate her from 'bad influences'. "Oh I've been a bad girl, a very bad girl..." Is the creepy old house the family moves into haunted or is it her teenage over-imagination at work? This oen is Toby Litt's reworking of the M.R. James classic The Haunted Dolls' House.

THE NATIONAL PARKS: OUR AMERICAN LANDSCAPE

Nature and conservation photographer Ian Shive introduces an upcoming 4-part web series on the "making of" his book, The National Parks: Our American Landscape (Earth Aware Editions). The upcoming series will be an HD journey through the national parks of the American west, from the Grand Canyon to White Sands New Mexico, north to Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks in Montana and back down the west coast into California.

The series will be available on Vimeo, on his personal website and on many other websites related to books, media, etc. It should be in wide release beginning in mid-July with the first webisode and a new one each month for the next four months.

Visit Ian's site and photoblog.

Behind the Scenes At The Movies

I have always loved behind the scenes stories about filmmaking. I have always been a film buff - even picked up a grad degree in it, and taught some video and film classes. I'm one of those people who watches all the extra stuff on the DVD. (For example, when I watched the DVD of Waitress, I really loved the film - but when I watched the behind the scenes about the director, I loved it on a higher level. Watch it.)

So I was very excited to discover a new (still in beta) website called Making Of . I will admit that what attracted my eye to the blurb about it in a magazine was the photo of Natalie Portman that accompanied it.

Natalie Portman is behind the site (with her friend and business partner Christine Aylward) which gives an inside look at the process of making movies through interviews with the insiders.

There are trailers, stills and such, but the best parts are the interviews. there are plenty of other sources of video interviews with actors and directors, so what interested me was the interviews with cinematographers, editors, makeup artists and others.

They are filming interviews at places like the Tribeca Film Festival. It's a little bit of an online film school and hopefully won't turn more towards the Entertainment Tonight side of the world.

Portman apparently has the directing bug too -

“I’ve only done a couple shorts— [it] was definitely part of the impetus for me to want to start something like this, because there were so many questions that I had. I’m lucky in that I can call up directors and be like, ‘What does this mean?’”

I checked out Woody Allen's upcoming film, Whatever Works, with Larry David on her site. I heard that film will open the Tribeca Film Festival.

I watched some interviews with cinematographers.

There's a "vault" with films already released and a section for new and in-production films.

Watch Portman on directing

The Search

We are all searching for something.

Services