Eponymously Yours, W. Skeffington Higgins
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
beamjockey's LiveJournal:
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| Wednesday, April 25th, 2012 | | 2:29 pm |
| | Tuesday, April 24th, 2012 | | 1:22 am |
Physics on Horseback: Secret Film of Fermilab's Founding Director
Fermilab's flamboyant founding director, Robert Rathbun Wilson (1914-2000), worked as a cowhand in Wyoming some years before he joined the cyclotron builders at the University of California in Berkeley. Eventually he became part of the effort to develop a uranium fission weapon, working at Princeton University on an isotope-separation device he called the isotron. For the final stages of the Manhattan Project, Wilson and his wife Jane moved to Los Alamos, New Mexico. Physicists, young and old, lived with their families in relative isolation on the secret site. Many years later, Wilson would become the first director of Fermilab, as once again the U.S. government constructed a large physics laboratory, and once again a community of people from across the world took shape there. (By the way, if you're wondering, Wilson the cowboy is the reason Fermilab has a herd of bison.) What I did not know until recently is that secret home movies taken at Los Alamos in the 1940s exist. And this footage, or anyway a portion of it, has recently been released.       Hugh Bradner, another physicist, obtained unofficial permission to film the people of the Manhattan Project. The ten-minute video posted to Youtube covers lots of recreation: people swimming, hiking, playing with dogs, and skiing. We also see areas of technical interest: buildings and equipment that must have been classified. There are scenes of scientists climbing aboard trucks for the journey to the Trinity site, where the first bomb would be detonated in July of 1945. I grabbed some frames from the point, about six and a half minutes into the clip, where Bradner accompanies Bob and Jane Wilson, and Robert and Charlotte Serber, on a horse horseback journey through mountainous country. Since we see Bob Wilson cinching the straps on a pack horse, I infer that this was a camping trip of some days' duration. I believe these are the first color photos of the Wilsons during this period that I have seen. ( More photos behind cut )Charlotte Serber and Jane Wilson edited a good book, Standing By and Making Do: Women of Wartime Los Alamos, that paints a vivid picture of life in the secret town during wartime. As Los Alamos got going in 1943, Robert Serber, a Berkeley theorist, gave arriving scientists the lectures that became the lab's first publication, The Los Alamos Primer. Here's the Youtube compilation of Bradner's movies. Tip o' the ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) beamjockey hat to Alex Wellerstein, whose fascinating nuclear secrecy blog Restricted Data made me aware that the footage had appeared on Youtube. Pretty good summary of the films from the Atomic Heritage Foundation site. Here's an article from station KOAT in Albuquerque that quotes LANL historian Alan Carr and video manager John Bass. I am grateful to Los Alamos National Laboratory for making this footage available. | | Friday, April 20th, 2012 | | 11:41 am |
| | Thursday, April 19th, 2012 | | 1:00 am |
| | Friday, April 13th, 2012 | | 12:33 am |
I've Been Cartographed!
I walked out of my house this morning and observed an unfamiliar vehicle on Newton Court.  I waved. The driver waved back. It was the vividly decorated Google Street View car! ( Pictures within... )And this wasn't even the most exciting thing that happened today. | | Thursday, April 12th, 2012 | | 10:24 pm |
When Dining out, a New Game to Play
I thought of a new game tonight. When visiting a restaurant in the Cracker Barrel chain, which forces you to pass though its artificially-homespun gift shop, bursting with kitsch, challenge other diners to see who can spot the most Animals Wearing Hats. In fifteen seconds of glancing around, I spotted Dog in a Hat. Frog in a Hat, atop Other Frog. Bee in a Hat. Another Frog in a Hat. I'm sure there were many, many more. I'm not sure whether the Bandana worn by the Frog on a Harley counts as a hat. I'm not done making up all the rules. | | Tuesday, April 10th, 2012 | | 1:53 pm |
The Mystery of the Vanishing Heinleins
Here is the beginning of a story about a house. Americans are considered crazy anywhere in the world.
They will usually concede a basis for the accusation but point to California as the focus of the infection. Californians stoutly maintain that their bad reputation is derived solely from the acts of the inhabitants of Los Angeles County. Angelenos will, when pressed, admit the charge but explain hastily, "It's Hollywood. It's not our fault.we didn't ask for it; Hollywood just grew."
The people in Hollywood don't care; they glory in it. If you are interested, they will drive you up Laurel Canyon "where we keep the violent cases." The Canyonites—the brown-legged women, the trunks-clad men constantly busy building and rebuilding their slap-happy unfinished houses—regard with faint contempt the dull creatures who live down in the flats, and treasure in their hearts the secret knowledge that they, and only they, know how to live.
Lookout Mountain Avenue is the name of a side canyon which twists up from Laurel Canyon. The other Canyonites don't like to have it mentioned; after all, one must draw the line somewhere!
High up on Lookout Mountain at number 8775, across the street from the Hermit—the original Hermit of Hollywood—lived Quintus Teal, graduate architect... Thus begins "And He Built a Crooked House," by Robert A. Heinlein, the celebrated science fiction writer. It was written in 1940 and published in 1941. I have learned another story, a story about a different house nearby. The 1940 U.S. Census forms, kept confidential for 72 years, have just been released. On 26 April, 1940, census enumerator Arthur B. Harrell called upon the home at 8777 Lookout Mountain Boulevard in Hollywood, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. He was filling out blocks 49 and 50 in Census Supervisor District 16, Enumeration District 60-173 on sheet 6A. On this sheet, indicating that he had spoken to a woman who resided there, he recorded the following story. At 8777 Lookout Mountain Boulevard lived Richard Heinlein, his wife Sigred Heinlein, and their son Rolf Heinlein. Richard and Sigred were naturalized citizens, born in Germany. Richard's age was 35, Sigred's 31, and Rolf's 4. "Color or race" for all three was "white." Both Richard and Sigred had completed four years of high school. The couple had been living at this address for at least five years. She did not work, but Richard worked as an artist in the motion picture industry; in the last week of March 1940, he put in 30 hours. He had worked 52 weeks during 1939, earning $4200. The Heinleins had no other source of income during that year. 
Portion of the census form for 8777 Lookout Mountain Ave. Click to see the full form.Here is yet another story I have heard. At 8777 Lookout Mountain Avenue lived Robert Anson Heinlein and his wife Leslyn Macdonald Heinlein. They had no children. Robert had been born in Missouri, Leslyn in Massachusetts. Robert's age was 32, Leslyn's was 35. They had been living at that address for approximately five years. Robert had graduated from Annapolis, and Leslyn had a master's degree. Robert's income came from his naval retirement pay, and he had recently begun writing stories for magazines. Leslyn considered herself a housewife and Robert's secretary. Learning that the much-anticipated census data had just been placed online, I went looking for the Heinleins' house. Imagine my surprise to find Richard, Sigred, and Rolf living there, a veritable family of Goldilockses, with Robert and Leslyn nowhere in sight. At first I thought Leslyn had, for reasons unknown, fibbed to Mr. Harrell. I sent these facts off to some Heinlein researchers. I wrote: "Lacking a better explanation, it would appear that the fabled eccentricities of Lookout Mountain Avenue's residents extended to manufacturing immigrant families out of whole cloth." Bill Patterson, author of Robert A. Heinlein: Learning Curve, argued that the Heinleins, both experienced at working on political campaigns, appreciated the value of accurate voter rolls and census data. He thought it more likely that Mr. Harrell transcribed something incorrectly and mixed the Heinleins' surname and address up with information from some other nearby family. I was persuaded that this scenario was more plausible. Meanwhile, that tireless chronicler of fandom, Mike Glyer, had been digging into the same information I had. He posted it to his File 770 newsblog. Mike consulted Los Angeles city directories and phone books of the era. He found that information from two nearby families was recorded accurately in the census (so Mr. Harrell was not simply making stuff up). He also failed to find another family named Richard, Sigred, and Rolf. So Mike leans toward the "prank" theory. I have tried to find further information about R, S, & R, without success. I can't rule out either the Prank Theory or the Error Theory on the evidence available. Maybe someone more familiar with census-taking in that era will be able to tell us whether this sort of error is common, rare, or impossible. It looks like Robert and Leslyn Heinlein managed to vanish from the United States. (Thanks to Gary Farber for letting me know the Census info had been posted.) | | Sunday, April 8th, 2012 | | 1:03 am |
A Cool Thing You May Not Know about Frank Wu
I am sorry to be missing Minicon this year, generally because I love Minicon, and particularly because the Artist Guest of Honor is Frank Wu. Frank (Livejournal user frankwu) is known for his own work, but is also a student of the history of science fiction art. He maintains a terrific Web site devoted to the art of Frank R. Paul (1884-1963). Paul was a prolific illustrator of pulp magazine covers. Big, strange, gaudy things moved through his paintings. Better artists were to come after him, but some of the images he produced were utterly iconic. Perhaps you know this one:  It's the August 1928 Amazing Stories, illustrating Doc Smith's The Skylark of Space. Frank Wu loves Frank Paul's work. We spoke at the Montreal Worldcon a few years ago and he showed me something-- well, something amazing. A gift.  A relative of Mr. Paul's gave Mr. Wu three of Frank R. Paul's drawing tools: a compass, a folding ruler, and a pen. These tools were held by the hands that painted all those shiny red machines for Amazing, Science and Invention, Science Wonder Stories, and many other magazines. And now they're in Frank Wu's hands.  Even cooler, the day after this photo was taken, Frank Wu received the 2009 Hugo Award as Best Fan Artist. | | Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012 | | 8:02 pm |
Film of the Legendary Flying Pinto: The AVE Mizar
I've found a promotional film for the Advanced Vehicle Engineers Mizar, a roadable airplane of the 1970s based on a Ford Pinto. It was married to the wings and rear engine of a Cessna Skymaster. (It's over 10 minutes long, but dull until 3:10 or so; I've tried to start the clip there but I'm not sure whether that Youtube feature will work.) Unfortunately an accident with the Mizar earned its developers, Henry Smolinski and Hal Blake, a place on the Doomed Engineers site. Doug Duncan has some great photos of the Mizar. Here's a Mizar history site. | | 7:31 am |
| | Monday, April 2nd, 2012 | | 11:00 am |
| | Thursday, March 29th, 2012 | | 7:57 am |
Now with Added Tralphium!
In googling while thinking about James Nicoll's question, I learned a new word: Tralphium. It came from the puckish physicist and science-popularizer George Gamow. Presumably he was thinking about the name for hydrogen-2, "deuterium." "Tralphium" was Gamow's word for the isotope helium-3: two protons, one neutron. It's like an alpha particle, but lighter, having only three nucleons instead of four. Though a few writers used it in a few books, the word didn't catch on. Too bad. Wouldn't "lunar tralphium mines" sound better than "lunar helium-3 mines?" And "tralphons" would sound better than the awkward "helium-3 nuclei."  | | Wednesday, March 28th, 2012 | | 1:25 pm |
Just When You Thought Filmmakers Couldn't Sink Any Lower
James Cameron, director of The Terminator, Titanic, and Avatar, has descended to the deepest point in our planet's oceans, the Challenger Deep, in an odd-looking submersible. Here's the National Geographic Society Web site for the expedition. The first guys down there, who descended when I was in kindergarten, did not get any pictures because the Trieste kicked up clouds of silt, which did not settle before they ascended. (I understand Capt. Don Walsh was aboard one of the ships on Cameron's expedition.) This time, the Deepsea Challenger carried 3-D cameras and fancy lights. Perhaps Cameron might have been disappointed to find the ocean's bottom bleak, nearly featureless, and devoid of visible life. But the rest of us may be relieved to learn, having never before seen this inaccessible spot, that we haven't been missing anything interesting. Nevertheless, this is exciting news. This vehicle can go anywhere in any ocean and shoot documentaries there. I look forward to hearing more about its travels. | | Tuesday, March 27th, 2012 | | 11:35 am |
| | Tuesday, March 20th, 2012 | | 11:44 pm |
Illinois Primary Results, 2012
Unofficial results in the Illinois primary election, with 1 precinct reporting: The race for Democratic Committeeman in Naperville Township's 23rd Precinct is expected to go to incumbent William S. Higgins, receiving 69 votes or 100% of the ballots cast for that office. | | 11:38 pm |
Never Have More Paid Less Taxes for So Few
Governor Romney has won the Illinois primary, and as his victory speech is being beamed into my house right now, he is explaining that he has "the vision to get us out of this mess:" "I see a time
when the government finally understands
that it's better for more people to pay less in taxes
than for a few people to pay a lot more!"
[Crowd cheers.] Who can argue with that? It is better for more people to pay less in taxes than for a few people to pay a lot more! It would be worse for more people to pay more in taxes than for a few people to pay a lot less. Can we all agree on this? It would also be worse for fewer people to pay more in taxes than for a lot of people to pay a few more taxes. It would be better for less people to pay more in taxes than for more people to pay a few taxes. I think. Visionary indeed. As a wise man once said, "You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike." | | Thursday, March 15th, 2012 | | 2:07 pm |
It's the Talk of the Planet
I had no idea this was going on, almost literally right under my nose.  Experimenters at Fermilab have used the NUMI beam and the MINERνA detector to transmit a message through hundreds of meters of rock. Account at the Symmetry Breaking blog. University of Rochester press release. The paper: D. D. Stancil and a great many collaborators, " Demonstration of Communication using Neutrinos," submitted to Modern Physics Letters A. Its abstract: Beams of neutrinos have been proposed as a vehicle for communications under unusual circumstances, such as direct point-to-point global communication, communication with submarines, secure communications and interstellar communication. We report on the performance of a low-rate communications link established using the NuMI beam line and the MINERvA detector at Fermilab. The link achieved a decoded data rate of 0.1 bits/sec with a bit error rate of 1% over a distance of 1.035 km, including 240 m of earth. This notion has been kicking around for a while. Robert Perry wrote about the prospect of neutrino communications in Popular Mechanics in September 1978-- the same month Fermilab was hiring me to work in the Neutrino Department as an engineering physicist. It's nostalgic to see pictures of the place as it was in the Seventies. I learned a lot about how to make neutrinos, but never managed to communicate using them. Mr. Perry interviewed physicists who were optimistic, nearly to the point of delusion, about the idea. (They were also getting grants from the U.S. Navy to study neutrino communication with submarines, so I suppose they had a professional reason to keep up the appearance of optimism.) It took a long time before this was accomplished, and it may still not be very practical, but nevertheless I salute the neutrino talkers of MINERνA. | | Monday, March 12th, 2012 | | 1:01 pm |
Headline Seen at Talking Points Memo
I am surprised to learn that former President Clinton accompanied troops on a commando raid, and slightly more surprised to learn that he was videotaped doing this. | | Sunday, March 11th, 2012 | | 11:05 pm |
| | Friday, March 9th, 2012 | | 1:42 pm |
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