suziebeezieland

what i have to offer the world of physics

I've always thought it would be really cool to make an important contribution to physics.

Up until today, it seemed pretty unlikely I would do this, because:

(a) I don't really understand physics, and

(b) I lack federal funding.

However! I do not think I am being immodest in boasting that I do, in fact, have the following important observation to offer the world of physics:

All my favorite physicists have interesting hair.

In some cases, I can tell his or her hair is interesting because this is obvious.

In other cases, I can tell his or her hair is interesting because although he or she has gone to some lengths to tame or disguise this tendency toward interestingness, certain errant hairs and/or the extreme amount of hair product used testifies to the hair's innate interestingness.

Gallileo Gallilei (1564-1642, Italian)

He performed fundamental observations, experiments, and mathematical analyses in astronomy and physics, and discovered mountains and craters on the moon, the phases of Venus, and the four largest satellites of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede.

And he had interesting hair:

Nikola Tesla (1857-1943, Serbian-born American)

He created alternating current.

And he had interesting hair:

Marie Curie (1867-1934, Polish-born French)

She discovered the radioactivity of thorium and co-discovered radium and polonium.

And she had interesting hair:

Albert Einstein (1879-1955 German-born American)

He explained the Brownian motion and the photoelectric effect, contributed to the theory of atomic spectra, and formulated theories of special and general relativity.

And he had interesting hair:

 

Niels Bohr (1885-1962, Danish)

He contributed to quantum theory and to the theory of nuclear reactions and nuclear fission.

And he had interesting hair:

Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961, Austrian)

He contributed to the creation of quantum mechanics and formulated the Schrödinger wave equation.

And he had interesting hair:

Louis de Broglie (1892-1987, French)

He predicted wave properties of the electron.

And he had interesting hair:

Richard Feynman (1918-1988, American)

He co-developed quantum electrodynamics and created a new formalism for practical calculations by introducing a graphical method called Feynman diagrams.

And he had interesting hair:

Makato Kobayashi (1944-Present, Japanese)

He contributed to the theoretical understanding of CP-violation and co-discovered the origin of the broken symmetry that predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks.

And he has interesting hair:

Edward Witten (1951-Present, American)

He made fundamental contributions to manifold theory, string theory, M-theory, and the theory of supersymmetric quantum mechanics, and is generally considered the greatest theoretical physicist in the world.

The things he has thought of are super cool.

And he has interesting hair:

Everyone should have a favorite physicist.

An easy way to determine who your favorite physicist is is to choose one based on his or her hairstyle.

Who is your favorite physicist?

happy thanksgiving!

the wizarding world of harry potter

I took all these this morning with my iPhone in one hand, a mug of butterbeer* in the other, and a huge, gigantic grin on my face.

If you'd seen me, you'd have known right off I was a Muggle tourist.

(*A very sweet and creamy non-alcoholic beverage. Perhaps the best thing I've ever had to drink in my whole life.)

elevenses

To say that Bilbo's breath was taken away is no description at all. There are no words left to express his staggerment ... (JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit)

 I turned 46 last Friday, which as you may recall was 11/11/11.

My sweet husband surprised me with a Hobbit-themed "elevenses" party at 11:00 a.m. If you are not familiar with "elevenses," it is the meal that the Hobbits eat between second breakfast and luncheon. (They call it "elevensies".)

It is a brief, healing pause in the crisis of the day. :)

Hobbits prefer to eat six times a day: Breakfast, Second Breakfast, Elevensies, Luncheon, Afternoon Tea, Dinner, and Supper.

Bob had sent out funny Hobbit invitations, and gone to an English tearoom to buy some wonderful jams and drinks and sausage rolls. His mom and my mom helped him get set up, and he made scrambled eggs and cooked bangers (sausage) on the grill, and there were two types of bacon, and scones and REAL clotted cream, and he had decorated and had games for us to play ... riddles (Hobbits love riddles) and oh, it was so sweet I could hardly stand it.

Four of us there had just read The Hobbit this year, so that made it especially fun.

Long live elevenses, and Hobbits, and sweet husbands.

"'Never laugh at live dragons, Bilbo you fool!' he said to himself,
and it became a favorite saying of his later, and passed into a proverb."

"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations,
if you live near him."

"There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West.
Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure.
If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

pilgrim girl

Claire's class had their Thanksgiving feast last Friday. They each brought one ingredient to make a big stew. (We brought two pounds of ground beef. There were some more two-pounds-of-ground-beef people, and then some vegetable people.)

This week is a short week, as there are parent-teacher conferences Thursday and Friday, and then they get the entire next week off for Thanksgiving break, so that's why they had their feast so early.

So here is my little pilgrim. She had a cold, and I can tell she is not feeling too hot, but I guess that's just because I'm her mom. My mom always said she could tell in photos when I was sick, too. Our eyes look different.

Linda B., I know what you're going to say about the costume, but Hermione was not a pilgrim. :D I got this one here. I did have to hem it because I ordered a medium and it turns out Claire is a small in Pilgrim costumes. But no Supermom maneuvers. Easy peasy. :)

you do what you gotta doto protect those little eyes and ears and hearts!

There is such a sweet little gem of a post today over at The Blazing Center about God and sin and us. I literally (no, literally literally, not figuratively literally) got tears in my eyes from laughing at the first part, because I'VE DONE THAT BEFORE. :D 

Anyway, read it you'd like. It's here: This Is What Happens When You Give My Dad the Remote

book character dress-up day at school

hyacinth

Our sweet Corgi, Hyacinth, died this morning.

Bob and I got her in the spring of 2000, when we lived in Virginia. Have you seen Corgi puppies before? They are all ears. 

We lived in a townhouse, with three stories, and she used to climb up to the top floor and be afraid to come down. So I would be down in the basement doing laundry, or we'd be watching t.v. down there, and we'd have to run up to the top floor to rescue this little scared puppy. My sister came out to visit and taught her how to go downstairs. Christy would put her front paws down one stair, and then her back paws, like she was a Slinky, and pretty soon, Hyacinth caught on and would fly down the stairs so fast that we were afraid she would wipe out.

Hyacinth is the sweetest pet we have ever had ... very gentle and obedient and calm and eager-to-please. And just good. Very good. 

When Hugo the Bunny often tried to eat her dog food while she was eating it herself, she took it in stride, and didn't even growl at him.

And when Violet came on the scene last year and wanted to be best friends, all the time, every second, Hyacinth took it in stride.

Well-lived, good dog Hyacinth. You were greatly loved and will be greatly missed.

xxoo