Afternoon with Barry Douglas

Ok it's not as personal an encounter as the title suggests. I'm going to a Master Class (as a spectator, of course) at OKCU featuring Barry Douglas, who will be performing Strauss's Burleske and Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major with the OKC Phil on Saturday. I saw Barry Douglas about... 12 years ago, rehearsing something with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. This will be a blast from the past!

Energy, etc.

I'm doing my part as a brainwashed minion to shamelessly promote this website. I don't care whatsoever about climate change because I don't think human intervention has anything to do with it, but Al Gore made a good point in his speech today:

In my search for genuinely effective answers to the climate crisis, I have held a series of "solutions summits" with engineers, scientists, and CEOs. In those discussions, one thing has become abundantly clear: when you connect the dots, it turns out that the real solutions to the climate crisis are the very same measures needed to renew our economy and escape the trap of ever-rising energy prices. Moreover, they are also the very same solutions we need to guarantee our national security without having to go to war in the Persian Gulf.

And hey, if it makes the climate crisis doom-criers happy, that's just icing on the cake!

So here's the plug: http://www.wecansolveit.org. Go there and do... something. Ride the bus tomorrow. Turn off your A/C when you leave. It'll save you money and save the world too. How many opportunities do you have in your life to be altruistic through selfishness? :-)

I would like to know who these "several senators" are.

Uh... OK.

Here's my favorite part:

In Congress, several senators have proposed that Iraq should start paying for some of the military's fuel costs because of its large oil reserves.

Translation:

We're going to invade you, cripple your infrastructure, then make you foot the bill. Capice?

RIP, Tony Snow

Cancer = :-(

Let's punish the FAMILIES of terrorists. That'll show 'em.

Oh, Israel...

What do you think this crowd is doing?

So what do YOU think they're doing? Trying to get tickets to a Hannah Montana concert? Waiting for those sweet Black Friday deals at Best Buy?

Close.

This is a picture of South Koreans protesting in Seoul after the government decided to lift the ban on importing US beef. "Who cares?" you may ask. While it is true I am indeed not Korean, I do have a profound appreciation for their ability to gather in large numbers. For example, where do you think is the largest stadium in the world? You guessed it - Pyongyang. Seriously, it takes a rock concert to get that many people in one place here in the US. All Korea has to do is make one change to their foreign policy, and BAM. Out come the masses.

I took a bunch of pictures of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium here at UF, and I was proud of standing on the field of what I thought must surely be one of the largest stadiums (stadia?) in the country... that is, until I saw that stupid May Day stadium in Pyongyang, which is nearly twice as large. Thanks a lot, Korea.

Bugs like my ears, and more soaring

Every time I leave the physics building, wherever I go a cloud of gnats buzzes around my ears. I don't feel them anywhere else on my head - only my ears. I probably look pretty strange to passers-by, grabbing and rubbing and scratching my ears as frantically as I do. It's not easy to look natural trying to swat a tenacious cloud of bugs away from my head, I've found.

And just when I thought the soaring may have taken a hiatus...