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Night racing and Olbers's paradox
Singapore and interstellar gas clouds
Branching and interfering parallel universes
Genetic algorithms and Formula 1
Omega Centauri
The Pomeroy Index
Is cheating part of the F1 memeplex?
Star formation and entropy
Clothoid curves, motorways, and Hermann Tilke
Sapphire, Steel, and Uranium-238
Ross Brawn and Harwell
It would be easy to think that the existence of night is solely a consequence of the rotation of the Earth and its location relative to the Sun. But it is not. It is a consequence of the expansion of the Universe. If the Universe were not expanding then, wherever we looked into space, our line of sight would end at a star. The result would be like looking into a forest of trees. In a universe that didn't expand, the whole sky would resemble the surface of a star; we would be illuminated by perpetual starlight. What saves us from this everlasting light is the expansion of the Universe. It degrades the intensity of the light from distant stars and galaxies, and it leaves the night sky dark. (John Barrow, The Artful Universe, p45.)
As the Sun sets in Singapore, and European visitors fight the disruption to their circadian cycles, the aesthetics of Formula 1 undergoes a phase transition. A silver strip of metal halide light runs between the colonial palm trees, beneath the bejewelled post-modernist towers, underneath the concrete stanchions of the flyovers, alongside the armadillo-contoured concert hall and theatre, and beside the neoclassical and Palladian civic architecture. Specular reflections shimmer from the compound surfaces of the cars; the Ferraris become molten lava, and the McLarens dissolve into liquid metal.
Permitting this extravagant display of light and pattern is the dark night sky, a phenomenon whose very existence requires a cosmological explanation, as recognized by the 19th century German physician and amateur astronomer, Heinrich Olbers. Olbers realised that if our universe were a static universe, infinite in space and time, and homogeneously populated with stars (or galaxies or galaxy clusters etc.), then the sky should be bright throughout the day and night. The fact that the night sky is dark is therefore Olbers's paradox. Modern physics solves Olbers's paradox by virtue of the fact that light travels at a finite speed, and by virtue of the fact the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker models of relativistic cosmology represent our universe to be an expanding universe of finite age.
In a universe of finite age, in which light travels at a finite speed, there will be a finite cosmological horizon around every astronomically observant species; the universe is 14 billion years old, hence the light from stars more than 14 billion lights years away has not had time to reach us. Moreover, in an expanding universe, the expansion red-shifts distant starlight towards energies invisible to the naked eye, and reduces the brightness of the light.
There is a twist, however, for "it seems that the background of the sky is bright, even at night. Of course, it is not as bright as the surface of the Sun, nor does it shine at the same wavelengths. However, according to models of the big bang, the entire universe was so hot around 14 billion years ago that each of its points was a luminous as the surface of the Sun. Each direction leaving from our eye reaches a point of this past Universe. And by the same reasoning as that of Olbers, even in the absence of every star, we should be surrounded by this enormous bright object, the early Universe...We indeed receive this radiation, but it is shifted towards long wavelengths and weakened...Since it is very old, the shift is very strong: redshifted by a factor greater than 1000, it has transformed the light into microwaves. This electromagnetic fossil radiation, a vestige of the primitive epoch, was detected for the first time in 1964. Today it is being exhaustively observed under the name of cosmological background radiation." (Jean-Pierre Luminet, The Wraparound Universe, p159-160).
This weekend then, the Formula 1 cars will race at night through the streets of Singapore, and will do so oblivious to the omnipresent background radiation, and the cosmological expansion which permits this visual and kinetic cornucopia.
Posted by Gordon McCabe at 9:19 am 5 comments:
Sitting at a country pub on the banks of the canal, basking in the Sun beside a weeping willow, the barges chugging languorously past, Singapore seems more than a world away. Swatting away an over-ambitious wasp, the skyline of this extraterrestrial plutopolis rises in the imagination like numerous glass, steel and concrete stalagmites, slowly precipitating from the steady drip of money over economic aeons.
Four and a half billion years ago, a cloud of interstellar gas and 'dust' (tiny grains of solid matter) contracted under the force of its own gravity, started to spin, and formed a rotating disk. The ball of material at the centre of the disk reached ever higher temperatures and pressures, until nuclear fusion ignited inside, and a star, our Sun, was born. The residual material in the surrounding disk then coalesced into an array of planets, our solar system.
The most abundant elements in the contracting cloud were hydrogen H, helium He, oxygen O, carbon C, nitrogen N, neon Ne, magnesium Mg, silicon Si, iron F and sulphur S. The silicon combined with oxygen to make silicates, and further combined with iron and magnesium to make what is colloquially known as rock. The remaining oxygen combined with hydrogen to make water. Within the outer reaches of the protoplanetary disk, the water was frozen, and the accretion of such icy masses gave the more distant planetesimals a head-start over the rocky masses which formed closer to the Sun. The more distant objects acquired sufficient mass to attract hydrogen, helium, and compounds such as methane CH4 and ammonia NH3, thereby creating the gas giants: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
On the surface of the third planet from the Sun, a rocky planet, oceans of liquid water formed. The oceans were populated by countless microscopic photosynthesizing organisms. Many had shells or skeletons made of calcium carbonate, and these shells and skeletons were continuously returned to the ocean floor, where they accumulated over the ages as layers of chalk or limestone. Over those same timespans, grains of silica SiO2, or sand, were created from the weathering of silicate rock on the surface of the planetary crust. Then, eventually, an intelligent species emerged from the biosphere of the planet, delved into the planetary crust, and devised construction materials such as glass (silicon oxide which has been cooled sufficiently rapidly that the molecules are unable to form a regular crystal lattice), steel (iron judiciously doped with carbon atoms), and concrete (a coarse aggregate of limestone or gravel, combined with cement, water and sand, the cement itself a product of the heating and grinding of limestone and clay).
Four and a half billion years after the contraction of that cloud of interstellar gas and dust, Singapore rose as a glass, steel and concrete monument to the growth of complexity.
"This universe is constantly splitting into a stupendous number of branches, all resulting from the measurementlike interactions between its myriads of components. Moreover, every quantum transition taking place on every star, in every galaxy, in every corner of the universe is splitting our local world into myriads of copies of itself." (Bryce De Witt, 1970).
The many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics famously holds that if a physical system is prepared into a state which is a superposition with respect to the possible values of a quantity A, then when the value of A is measured the universe splits into multiple branches, each of which realises one of the different possible definite values of quantity A. The superposed state Ψ is a sum
Ψ = c1 ψ1 + ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ + cn ψn ,
where each ψi is a quantum state in which quantity A possesses a definite value. The many-worlds interpretation proposes that when the universe branches, it branches into all the different states ψi from the superposition.
Extending this interpretation to the macroscopic world of human experience, it is postulated that the universe branches every time a choice is made, and that all the different possible lives we may have led if only our choices had been different, do in fact exist as different branches of the quantum universe.
The naive manner of picturing this process is to represent the different histories at each branching point as if they were the leaves of a book, radiating outwards from the spine. The spine in this analogy corresponds to a spacelike three-dimensional hypersurface, and the leaves radiating from it correspond to different four-dimensional space-time histories. John Earman illustrates this concept in the first diagram reproduced here, for the simple case where only two histories radiate from each branching point.
However, the notion that the entire universe branches in this style every time there is a measurement-like interaction, renders such branching a highly non-local process, and tacitly supposes that there is a unique global time coordinate for the universe. Treating a measurement-like interaction as a point event in space-time, there will be many spacelike hypersurfaces which pass through that point; the selection of only one of these as the branching hypersurface requires one to accept that there is a preferential time coordinate for the universe.
To avoid these difficulties, one can suggest that the universe only branches locally as the result of a measurement-like interaction. To be specific, one can suggest that the future light-cone of the interaction event has multiple branches, one for each possible outcome of the interaction. If one imagines such a universe as a two-dimensional sheet, then the image is one in which there are numerous pockets in the sheet, formed by the multiple branches of the future light cones. Roger Penrose drew just such an image of a branching universe in 1979, reproduced as the second diagram here.
Returning to the many-worlds interpretation, it is important to note that the different branches ψi of the overall wave-function Ψ, do not themselves correspond to different classical universes. Whilst the states ψi do indeed bestow definite values upon the quantity A, they are still quantum states in their own right, and as such, they fail to assign definite values to all the quantities possessed by the physical system under consideration.
This is crucial, because advocates of the many-worlds interpretation can often be found claiming that a quantum universe is a universe whose basic ontological fabric consists of interfering classical universes. One could conceivably subscribe to the many-worlds interpretation of quantum measurement without endorsing this stronger ontological claim. The many-worlds interpretation of quantum measurement requires one to accept that the universe is continually branching into components of the quantum wave-function, whilst the stronger ontological claim requires one to accept that the entire quantum wave-function and its branches, consist of bifurcating, interfering and merging classical histories.
The stronger claim seems to be fuelled by the 'sum-over-histories', or path-integral formulation of quantum mechanics, in which each branch of the quantum wave-function corresponds to a different set of interfering classical histories, and in which the different branches of the wave-function interfere when there is interference between these different sets of classical histories.
For example, in the famous double-slit experiment, there are two possible sets of classical histories. If we label the slits as Slit A and Slit B, then one set consists of all the possible trajectories through Slit A, and the other consists of all the possible trajectories through Slit B. When both slits are open, the paths through the different slits duly interfere with each other to produce the overall wave-function on the distant screen.
(The interference between the different branches of the wave-function are purportedly removed by decoherence on macroscopic scales, thereby explaining why we never observe quantum superpositions on such length scales).
In this sense, the classical histories form the warp and weft of the quantum fabric of the universe. Whilst this is a stronger ontological claim than the basic many-worlds interpretation, in many ways this is a more coherent picture than one in which an overall quantum state branches by fiat into its component quantum states.
The status quo has been rather turned on its head in Formula 1 this year, with the sport's two great leviathans, McLaren and Ferrari, struggling to adapt to the most radical change in technical regulations since 1983. The men and women from Woking and Maranello are generally considered to have the most sophisticated simulation technology in the business, yet it was an open question before the season began whether such a radical change in regulations would be most adequately dealt with by the intuitive and creative mind of an Adrian Newey, or the number-crunching power of inscrutable computer simulation.
The answer, of course, is that on this occasion the programmable calculators were comprehensively blown into the weeds. It appears that the simulation technology which was so successful when the regulations were stable and the cars evolved in a gradual, incremental manner, was decidely leaden-footed when a change of regulations opened a new space of design possibilities. Which begs a rather interesting question about exactly what type of simulation technology McLaren and Ferrari have been using.
To explain, it is necessary to travel back to 1993, when an engineer called Adrian Thompson devised an experiment to test the result of applying Darwinian natural selection principles to the design of electronic circuits. Thompson selected a simple problem: find a circuit design which maps a 1 kHz input signal to an output signal of zero volts, and a 10 kHz input signal to five volts output. The possible circuit designs would be implemented by a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), a microchip containing 100 logic gates, whose connections can be modified by the software code loaded into the memory of the chip.
Thompson randomly generated an initial population of 50 instruction sets, selected the fittest, and then set about cross-breeding the instruction-sets over numerous generations. For each instruction set, a computer fed the two input signals into the FPGA, and recorded the output. Those instruction sets which came closest to satisfying the required map between input and output signals were selected as the fittest, and those instruction-sets were then cross-bred, with some random mutations added, to produce the next generation. The process was then iterated.
The eventual solution, obtained after 4,000 or so generations, was one which no human circuit designer would have conceived:
The plucky chip was utilizing only thirty-seven of its one hundred logic gates, and most of them were arranged in a curious collection of feedback loops. Five individual logic cells were functionally disconnected from the rest– with no pathways that would allow them to influence the output– yet when the researcher disabled any one of them the chip lost its ability to discriminate the tones...It seems that evolution had not merely selected the best code for the task, it had also advocated those programs which took advantage of the electromagnetic quirks of that specific microchip environment. The five separate logic cells were clearly crucial to the chip's operation, but they were interacting with the main circuitry through some unorthodox method– most likely via the subtle magnetic fields that are created when electrons flow through circuitry, an effect known as magnetic flux. There was also evidence that the circuit was not relying solely on the transistors' absolute ON and OFF positions like a typical chip; it was capitalizing upon analogue shades of gray along with the digital black and white.
As Thompson himself admitted, "really, I don't have the faintest idea how it works!"
A process which obtains an optimal solution to an engineering problem by such natural selection principles of evolution, is called a genetic algorithm. Hence, returning to the subject of Formula 1, it is interesting to raise the possibility that during the period of recent comparative stability in the technical regulations, teams such as McLaren and Ferrari have been evolving their cars using genetic algorithms. Genetic algorithms have been around for a while, and one presumes that the experts who work in Formula 1 simulation technology are well aware of them. Thus, either they've already been using them, or equally, perhaps they just don't work yet because the CFD technology isn't capable of selecting the fittest designs with sufficient speed to make the process practicable.
Applied to Formula 1 aerodynamic design, a genetic algorithm might work as follows: Take an initial design, and then randomly generate an array of variations upon it; feed this array of designs into a CFD simulation, and select a subset which is the fittest, aerodynamically speaking; cross-breed the fittest designs, and add some random mutations, to obtain the next generation; iterate indefinitely.
Such a process might well be very good at gradual development of aerodynamic designs, under a stable regulatory environment, but if there is a radical change in the regulations, it might need a degree of human creativity to orient the genetic algorithm, and pick the correct initial design for the genetic algorithm to begin evolving. Which might just explain the success of Red Bull and Team Brawn this year, and might ultimately explain why Lewis Hamilton crashed on the last lap of Sunday's Italian Grand Prix!
With a start, I wake in the middle of the night. A cool breeze caresses my face, and I hear the gentle ripple of water lapping at a shingle beach. I gather my senses, and as I focus my eyes, I find myself gazing upwards at thousands of stars speckled and daubed across the sable surface of the celestial sphere. Vivid reds, blues and oranges mix with the cold silver of ordinary starlight, and I feel a distinct sense that I have seen this stellar extravaganza somewhere before.
Posted by Gordon McCabe at 12:33 am 1 comment:
The Pomeroy Index is the primary means of measuring the relative speed of Formula 1 cars which not only raced in different years, but in different eras of the sport. Remarkably, it is capable of comparing the relative speeds of cars which never even raced on the same circuits. To achieve this, it uses a daisychaining technique, similar to the manner in which dendrochronology uses the overlap between tree rings from different eras to extend its dating technique all the way back from the present to prehistoric times (see The Greatest Show on Earth, Richard Dawkins, pp88-91). In both cases, it is the overlap principle which is vital. In the case of Formula 1, the daisychaining is achieved by identifying the circuits which are common to successive years of Grand Prix racing. Speed differences between successive years are averaged over these overlapping circuits, and the speed differences can then be daisychained all the way from the inception of Grand Prix racing in 1906 to the present day.
The index was invented by engineer and motoring journalist Laurence Pomeroy, and updated by Leonard (L.J.K.) Setright in 1966. (Another motoring journalist, Setright was hard to miss, "with his long, wispy beard, wide-brimmed hat, cape and black leather gloves, he looked like 'an Old Testament prophet suddenly arriving at a Hell's Angels meeting'." (On Roads, Joe Moran, p172)).
The index was resurrected and updated again more recently by Mark Hughes. The algorithm for calculating the index is as follows:
1) Identify the fastest car from each year by averaging the qualifying performance of all the cars over all the races.
2) For each pair of successive years, identify the overlapping circuits in the respective calendars. In other words, identify the circuits which were used in both years, in unaltered form.
3) Take the fastest car from the first year of Grand Prix racing, Ferenc Szisz's 1906 Renault, and assign it a Pomeroy Index of 100.
4) For year t+1, calculate the speed difference between the fastest car that year and the fastest car from year t, averaged over the overlapping circuits (and eliminating spurious cases where speed differentials were skewed by rain conditions). Express this speed difference as a percentage, and add it to the Pomeroy Index of the fastest car in year t to find the Pomeroy Index of the fastest car in year t+1. For example, if the fastest car in year t+1 is 2% faster than the fastest car from year t, and the fastest car in year t had a Pomeroy Index of 150, then the fastest car in year t+1 had a Pomeroy Index of 152.
5) Repeat step 4 until one reaches the current year.
An on-line version of the index from 1906 to 1966 exists for perusal, and Hughes's updated version in Autosport magazine obtained a value of 234.7 for Michael Schumacher's 2004 Ferrari. (Speeds have since fallen due to the imposition of smaller engines, rev-limits, a control-tyre formula, and a generally more restrictive set of technical regulations).
This doesn't mean, however, that the 2004 Ferrari was 2.347 times faster than the 1906 Renault. This would be to underestimate the speed difference between Herr Schumacher and Ur Szisz's respective steeds. Perhaps the crucial point to digest here is that average speeds in Formula 1 have historically increased, not in a linear fashion, and not even according to a power law; rather, average speeds in Formula 1 increase exponentially. Hence, the percentage speed increments tallied in the Pomeroy Index are akin to the yearly interest rates of a compound interest account. The 1935 Mercedes-Benz was 3% faster than the 1934 Auto Union, and the 1936 Auto Union was 5% faster than the 1935 Mercedes-Benz, but the 1936 Auto Union was more than 8% faster than the 1934 Auto Union because the 5% increase was 5% of a speed greater than the speed of the 1934 Auto Union.
Such an exponential increase in speed can be represented by the formula:
Q(t) = Q(0) (1 + r(t))t ,
where Q(t) is the speed in year t, Q(0) is the speed in year 0, t is the discrete year number, and r(t) is the interest rate in year t, expressed as a decimal. Thus, for example, if the year-on-year increase in speed were a constant 2%, then speeds would increase exponentially according to the formula:
Q(t) = Q(0) (1 + 0.02)t.
Predictably, the hyperbole is beginning to flow, and suggestions are being made that the allegations against the Renault F1 team constitute the "biggest cheating crisis in the history of Formula One."
Perhaps a bit of perspective is required here. In fact, an understanding of cultural evolution may be beneficial. Whilst the concept of a replicating unit of cultural information, the meme, has received an extremely mixed reception amongst social scientists, and the similarities between memes and biological genes are limited, the concept still provides a fascinating way of looking at certain cultural phenomena.
A culture is essentially a system of minds interacting with each other and an external environment. The manifestations of a culture are the behaviours, information, and physical objects generated by that system of interacting minds. Minds store information both internally, in their own memories, and externally, in the form of written documents, and more recently, in the form of computer memories. Any system capable of storing information will become a potential host to replicating units of information. Human minds have become the hosts to replicating ideas and beliefs (memes), whilst networks of computers have become the hosts to replicating sets of computer instructions (computer viruses). Memes are often found in combination, and these replicating sets of related memes are called memeplexes.
Each commercial company has an evolving culture, which is at least partially independent of the employees working in that company at any one time. The culture of the company is a type of memeplex, defined by the specified policies, regulations, structures and processes of that company. Each successive 'generation' of employees will inherit the policies, regulations, structures and processes inherited by their predecessors, but with some degree of variation, large or small. This is a form of cultural inheritance and evolution.
The memeplex of a commercial company will be modified by two factors: Firstly, each generation of employees will possess their own memes as a result of their parental and scholastic upbringing, and their experiences in other companies, and they will inject these memes into the company's overall memeplex, thereby modifying the culture of the company to a greater or lesser degree. Secondly, a commercial company exists in a competitive environment, and its own survival is dependent upon how well it adapts to, and shapes that environment. The memeplex of each individual company will therefore be modified by the behaviour of other companies and organisations, which in turn possess their own distinct memeplexes. The commercial world is a battlefield of interacting memeplexes.
It is important to note that this type of cultural evolution does not generate the unique lineages that can be found in biological, genetic evolution. For a start, whilst the genetic evolution of non-microbial life forms primarily involves vertical transmission of replicating entities, from parent to offspring, horizontal transmission of information can be just as important as vertical transmission in cultural evolution. For example, in a commercial context, horizontal transmission takes place when employees join a company from other companies, and bring different memes with them that they acquired from those other companies. Moreover, although the creation of subsidiary companies is analogous to the biological generation of progeny, companies are also frequently subject to mergers and acquisitions, a process for which there is no (non-microbial) biological analogue. The existence of mergers and acquisitions in the past history of a company is inconsistent with the existence of a unique cultural lineage. The memes contained in a company's memeplex at any one time are therefore unlikely to have a uniquely traceable origin.
As another example, each sporting team or club has a cultural identity which is often independent of the team members who play for that team at any one time. In this case, the memes consist of skills, standards, strategies, tactics, and codes of conduct. In the case of football culture in particular, there is an excellent example of the horizontal transmission of memes. In South American and Southern European footballing cultures, there has traditionally been a much weaker taboo against diving than that found in the North European footballing code of conduct. The transfer of Southern European players to English football has consequently increased the prevalence of the diving meme in the English game.
Which brings us to Formula 1 and 'cheating'. There is a persistent meme in the culture of all Formula 1 teams, that finding loopholes or ambiguities in the sporting and technical regulations, is part of the game. As such, it has traditionally not even been considered to be cheating. Cars which generate downforce from cooling fans; underbody skirts which are hydraulically-raised prior to ground-clearance measurements; water-cooled brakes whose water tanks are replenished prior to car-weight measurements; 'rocket' fuels; cars which are underweight in qualifying; wings which deform under load to reduce drag down the straight; hidden launch control and traction control software at times when such electronic driver aids are banned; mass-dampers; teams that utilise design information stolen from other teams; double-diffusers; drivers who crash into other drivers to win championships; drivers who fake injuries to get races red-flagged; drivers who drag damaged cars onto the track to get races red-flagged; drivers who deliberately crash to bring out the safety car, etc etc. It's all part of the game, and has been virtually since the inception of the sport.
There are, however, other memeplexes which may threaten the survival of Formula 1 teams who continue to harbour this particular meme. These other memeplexes include beliefs such as the necessity and value of applying ever-increasing levels of surveillance in sport; the necessity and value of the absolutely rigorous enforcement of sporting regulations; and the necessity and value of ever-higher levels of safety in society as a whole. Even wielded impartially, such a memeplex is quite capable of threatening the survival of Formula 1 teams that continue to believe in the value of exploiting loopholes in the regulations. Wielded by agents that harbour vendettas, or seek to control the financial and political shape of the sport by eliminating other protagonists, it is a powerful memeplex indeed.
Posted by Gordon McCabe at 11:41 am No comments:
If you take the statements about entropy in almost every elementary textbook, and indeed most advanced ones, they are contradicted when the gravitational field is turned on and is significant. For example, in the famous case of the gas container split into two halves by a barrier, with all the gas initially on one side, the standard statement is that the gas then spreads out to uniformly fill the whole container when the barrier is removed, with the entropy correspondingly increasing. But when gravitation is turned on, the final state is with all the matter clumped in a blob somewhere in the container, rather than being uniformly spread out...The question then is whether there is a definition of entropy for the gravitational field itself (as distinct from the matter filling space-time), and if so if the second law of thermodynamics applies to the system when this gravitational entropy is taken into account
...This issue remains one of the most significant unsolved problems in classical gravitational theory, for as explained above, even though this is not usually made explicit, it underlies the spontaneous formation of structure in the universe - the ability of the universe to act as a 'self-organizing' system where ever more complex structures evolve by natural processes, starting off with structure formed by the action of the gravitational field. (George Ellis, Cosmology and local physics).
As cosmologist George Ellis notes, for systems in which gravity plays no role, the states of maximum entropy are indeed the states in which the parts of the system are uniformly distributed in space. By virtue of the fact that gravity transforms initially uniform distributions of gas into localised agglomerations, such as stars, it is often concluded, perhaps complacently, that gravitational processes are capable of lowering the entropy of matter. As the quote from Ellis demonstrates, this thought is then often conjoined with the proposal that the second law of thermodynamics can only be preserved by taking into account the entropy of the gravitational field associated with such concentrations of matter.
However, Oxford philosopher of physics David Wallace has brilliantly dispelled misconceptions such as these in his recent paper, Gravity, entropy and cosmology: in search of clarity, and we shall attempt here to provide, appropriately enough, a condensed version of Wallace's exposition.
Begin by recalling that entropy is a property possessed by the states of physical systems. Classical physics conceives each physical system to possess a huge, multi-dimensional space of possible states, called the phase space of the system. The phase space is partitioned into regions called macrostates, consisting of states which share macroscopically indistinguishable properties. If there is any ambiguity, the exact states, (the points of the phase space), are then referred to as the microstates.
The entropy of a state is then defined to be a measure of the size of the macrostate volume in phase space to which that state belongs. Thus, the entropy of a state is a measure of how typical that state is within the entire space of possible states. The remorseless increase of entropy, enshrined in the second law of thermodynamics, is simply a reflection of the fact that the state of a closed system will, most probably, move into the regions of phase space which possess the greatest volume. (In this context, a closed system is a system in which there are no flows of matter or energy into or out of the system).
Turning to the question of gravitational contraction, it is vital at the outset to correct the following potential misconception. One might assume that, given a small initial perturbation in an otherwise uniform distribution of interstellar gas, a small region in which the density of matter becomes higher than the average, the gravity of that region will then attract more matter from the surroundings, and a positive feedback process will then ensue. One might think that as the excess density of matter increases, a greater force is exerted on the surrounding matter, thus increasing the agglomeration yet further, in a looped process, until eventually a star is formed. In fact, most interstellar gas is extremely reluctant to contract, simply due to its thermal pressure, which balances any attractive gravitational force.
This, however, is not because the contraction of a system necessarily reduces its entropy. As Wallace emphasises, whilst the contraction of a system to a smaller volume of space has an entropy-decreasing effect, the contraction will also raise the temperature of the system, and this has an entropy-increasing effect. One has to do the sums to work out whether the net effect is to increase or decrease the entropy.
It transpires that if the initial total energy of a system is positive (i.e., if the sum of the gravitational potential energy U and the kinetic energy K, is greater than zero, E = U + K > 0), then the entropy is maximised by the expansion of the system. Such a system is such that the typical velocity of the constituent particles exceeds the gravitational escape velocity of the system, hence the expansion of the system is easy to understand from this perspective. If, however, E = U + K < 0, then the system is said to be gravitationally bound, and in this case it is actually contraction which maximises the entropy. This, then, immediately demonstrates the complacency of the assumption that gravitational contraction is an entropy-lowering process.
Nevertheless, such contraction will only take a system to at most half of its initial radius, and fails to explain the formation of stars from interstellar gas clouds. Instead, the formation of stars is dependant upon the existence of a mechanism for removing heat (and therefore energy) from the contracting system.
Suppose the initial state is one in which thermal pressure balances the gravitational attraction, but suppose that there is then some heat flow out of the system. The kinetic energy of the system K, and therefore its thermal pressure, will reduce, as will the total energy E. As a result of the reduced thermal pressure, the system will contract, reducing the gravitational potential energy U of the system, and converting it into a kinetic energy K which is greater than the initial kinetic energy. Thus, the removal of heat from such a gravitationally bound system will actually increase its temperature. (Such a system is said to possess a negative heat capacity). This, in turn, will create a greater temperature gradient between the system and its surroundings, leading to more heat flow out of the system, and to further contraction. This process will continue until the pressure becomes sufficiently great at the centre of the contracting mass that nuclear fusion is triggered. As long as the heat produced by nuclear fusion is able to balance the heat flow out of the system, the thermal pressure will balance the gravitational force, and the contraction will cease.
Whilst this process successfully explains star formation, it is a mechanism which requires heat flow out of the system, and this is an entropy-decreasing effect. Given that the reduction in spatial volume also constitutes an entropy-decreasing effect, it can be safely concluded that the entropy of the matter in a gravitationally contracting system decreases. However, contrary to the suggestions made by Ellis and others, the entropy of the gravitational field does not need to be invoked and defined in order to reconcile this fact with the second law of thermodynamics.
As a gravitationally-bound system contracts, the frequency of the collisions between the constituent particles increases, and a certain fraction of those interactions will be so-called inelastic collisions, in which the atoms or molecules are raised into excited energy states. Those excited states decay via the emission of photons, and this electromagnetic radiation is then lost to the surroundings. It is this radiative emission which is the most effective means by which heat is transferred from the contracting body to its lower temperature surroundings. And crucially, the entropy of this radiation is sufficiently huge that it easily compensates, and then some, for the lower entropy of the contracting matter. The total entropy of a contracting gravitational system therefore increases, as long as one counts the contribution from the electromagnetic radiation.
Between the wars...road engineers became obsessed with working out the perfect transition curve - a mathematical method of shifting smoothly between a straight and an arc so that centripetal force builds up gradually, not suddenly like on a fairground ride. The roadbuilders swapped various mathematical formulae until, in 1937, the county surveyor of Devon, Henry Criswell, produced a set of labour-saving tables for plotting beautifully fluid lines that were so user-friendly they knocked rival systems into touch. Criswell became the undispuated king of the 'clothoid curve' - a graceful arc with a slowly increasing curvature that kept motorists permanently on their toes...The M4, designed by computer from the early 1960s onwards, is a gentle series of transition curves from London to south Wales. (Joe Moran, On Roads, p34-35).
Discussion centred on the rate at which centripetal acceleration should be permitted to change. Acceleration had units of feet per second squared so that the rate of change of acceleration was measured in feet per second cubed (ft/sec3). Henry Criswell's tables were devised for 1 ft/sec3, but in later work he also produced tables for 2 ft/sec3, this latter figure was the same as that used in the USA while Australia used 3 ft/sec3.
In the 1940s John Leeming conducted a series of experiments to measure the rate of change of acceleration actually experienced by cars on the road...The speed chosen by drivers led to rates of change of centripetal acceleration up to 10 ft/sec3, which was very much higher than anticipated without any apparent discomfort to the driver or risk to safety. [Leeming's work] seems not to have been put to any widespread use despite the implication that transitions could be much shorter. (John Porter, The Motorway Achievement: Frontiers of knowledge and practice, p129).
This description of clothoid curves immediately reminds one of Hermann Tilke's Formula 1 circuit design ethos. In particular, turns 1 and 2 at Shanghai, pictured here, seem to have been lifted from the higher curvature parts of a clothoid spiral. Which almost tells you everything you need to know about modern F1 circuit design: the corners are drawn from the same palette of curves used by motorway architects.
Posted by Gordon McCabe at 10:33 am 3 comments:
Those growing up in the 1970s (that's Generation X, not the Transformer-loving Generation Y), may well, if they lived in the UK, have been spooked at some stage by a flying cushion, or impressed by Joanna Lumley's incarnation of pure sultriness on Sapphire and Steel.
It was an unusual blend of the supernatural chiller, and space-time claustrophobia. As the voice-over to the introduction explained:
All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Transuranic, heavy elements may not be used where there is life. Medium atomic weights are available: Gold, Lead, Copper, Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver and Steel. Sapphire and Steel have been assigned.
Which seems rather unfair to the transuranic elements. A fairly haphazard collection of minerals, alloys, gemstones, and chemical elements seem to have been bundled together here. Moreover, lead is nothing if not a heavy element, and radium has a somewhat tarnished reputation when it comes to its life-enhancing properties.
What is splendid about the opening sequence, however, is the way the nuclei of the chemical elements are represented as if they're also miniature gemstones, with hundreds of sparkling, colourful facets. It's a notion which modern mass spectrometers do little to promote, yet this diagram of the uranium-238 radioactive decay chain does seem to owe a little something to the idea.
Posted by Gordon McCabe at 10:39 pm 1 comment:
Ross Brawn's reputation as the greatest technical director in modern Formula 1 has been thoroughly cemented this year by the extraordinary success of his eponymous team. The roots of a successful career can be traced to various factors, such as underlying personality and opportunity, but also in some cases to early career experiences. In Ross's case, it's interesting to note that, perhaps uniquely amongst motorsport engineers, his career began in the nuclear industry.
Ross spent five years in the early 1970s as a trainee at what was then dubbed the Atomic Energy Research Estasblishment (AERE) Harwell, Oxfordshire. As Ross explains in his own words, "I did a mechanical engineering apprenticeship at Harwell and then I went on to start an HNC, still funded by Harwell. My parents lived in Reading and I found an advertisement for Frank Williams Grand Prix, which were based in Reading at that time. I went along and was interviewed by Patrick Head. They were looking for a machinist which was one of the things I'd done at Harwell."
It's interesting to speculate on what Ross actually did at Harwell during these years. The early 1970s were a period in which Harwell were attempting to diversify into sectors outside atomic energy, and it's quite possible that Ross was involved in projects such as those. Whilst Ross himself claims that he did a mechanical engineering apprenticeship, and did some work as a machinist, elsewhere it is claimed that he studied instrumentation. Both may be true.
Nicholas Hance's excellent 2006 book, Harwell: The Enigma Revealed, offers an intriguing insight into some of the work that Brawn might have been doing there:
Metallurgy Division had the task of solving how to fabricate metals such as uranium, plutonium and thorium. It was soon apparent that increasing the efficiency of a nuclear power reactor meant operating it at the highest possible temperatures...The behaviour of such new materials at these higher temperatures needed to be understood. It had to solve the problems of corrosion in the very hostile environment of a reactor core. Nuclear fuel rods needed to be encapsulated inside special alloys. Furthermore, the intense radiation inside a reactor had a dramatic effect on the physical properties of metals. Ordinary steel, for example, suffered severe 'creep' when irradiated by neutrons and lost its strength as it became plastic. Other materials would become more brittle.
...Much of the earlt practical work of Metallurgy Division was carried out in B35. The former RAF workshop building was adapted with an air extraction system so that it could be used to machine uranium on a lathe. One of the first tasks was to machine the fuel rods for GLEEP, after which the young metallurgists turned their hand to designing and fabricating 18 tons of fuel rods for BEPO...the division's work on canning fuels moved in alongside the casting and the machining of graphite. Heavy and novel machinery was installed, some of which was still in use in the early 1990s. There were melting and casting furnaces, capable of operating at 1600 degrees C, and a 750-ton extrusion press. A device in the 1950s, known as 'Harry's Bomb' was installed in the cellar under B35. It made use of the breach of a 6-inch gun barrel from a battleship. Harry Lloyd developed a method of compressing uranium carbide in the breach, using hot argon gas at 50,000 pounds per square inch pressure. Compression raised the temperature to over 1,000 degrees C and his 'bomb' device was to become the forerunner of hot isostatic pressing.
Brian Hudson, who worked in B35, remembered the pioneering days of Metallurgy Division well. "We had to be alert to the pyrophoric hazards of working with uranium powders and it was prudent to use copious flows of coolant during machining work as uranium had a habit of bursting into flames!" (p233-236).
Ross arrived on the scene after these exciting days of pyrophoric fires, but it would nevertheless be interesting to know if he began his career machining chunks of uranium!
Incidentally, those with an extreme interest in Formula 1 technical trivia, might be intrigued by the following account in Hance's text:
Harwell invented the nuclear technique of ion implantation, the room temperature process that could be applied to precision engineering components, giving them greater wear resistance. The equipment needed was an accelerator to produce a beam of ionized nitrogen atoms, and a large vacuum chamber in which were placed the items requiring treatment...The strictures of commercial secrecy do not permit identification of the F1 racing car team which benefited from ion implantation, improving the wear resistance of its engine crankshafts...The improved crankshafts helped win races. Not so shy was Williams Grand Prix Engineering Ltd, based at Didcot, who asked Harwell Analytical Science Centre to determine the nature of, and chemically remove, a layer which had built up on aluminium alloy components inside the engine. (Harwell Bulletin, 25/86, 11th July 1986).
At this time, Williams were using Honda engines...


Did You Know: Studies Show folks Believe they appear just like the Retouched Version of Themselves.
Remember the "Dove Real Beauty Sketches" advertisement? it had been the ad that brought in varied ladies, then had those ladies and a interloper that they had simply met describe them to a rhetorical artists. This, in the end, showed the initial participants that they were way more lovely than they saw themselves.
It was associate admirable advertising that went infective agent, however per a series of studies performed last year by psychological researchers bishop Epley of the University of Chicago and Erin Whitchurch of the University of Virginia, the Dove campaign would possibly simply have it backwards. In different words: they found that we have a tendency to truly assume we're additional enticing than we actually area unit.
Believed to be caused partly by the concept that we have a tendency to read ourselves during a additional forgiving light-weight, the study claims that we have a tendency to see a "retouched" version staring out at United States from the mirror; one thing comparable to however we have a tendency to might take care of somewhat tweaking in Photoshop.
tried, with participants overestimating however enticing they were and decision making others as less enticing.
The findings seen to believe what's referred to as "self-enhancement," a typical psychological development whereby we have a tendency to tend to be additional optimistic concerning our varied traits (physical or otherwise) in an endeavor to keep up additional positive vanity.
So, whether or not it's a selfie in love friends, a senior image you have got during a image album, or a picture of somebody else you see on Facebook, what you see in those footage would possibly even have somewhat of 'in-brain' Photoshop already applied.
To dive deeper into the analysis and conclude additional concerning these studies, head on over to Scientific yankee and provides the complete article a browse.


2010 Predator 165 Sea Angler powered with a Mariner F60 EFI outboard engine on an Indespension Roller Coaster trailer.
This boat is in mint condition with very low engine hours.
Mariner F60 EFI with only 24 hours use.
Price: £12,500 ( €14,750) - No VAT on used boats or equipment.


See Product Page for "Goat Simulator"
You are a goat on a path of extreme destruction. The more damage you do the the environment around you, the more points you get. This ridiculous game has bugs built-in to make it unpredictable and even more hilarious.
Goat Simulator is a sandbox game where the point is to just cause as much destruction and mayhem as possible. The physics are designed to be buggy, which can lead to ridiculous outcomes.
Goat Simulator can be played on Android TV if the optional controller is used, as well as with a MOGA controller or with a Shield Games controller. This way no matter the Android controller owned, the user can game with them.
Stumbling across the many easter eggs adds a nice level of "happy accidents"
With the smattering of easter eggs hidden around the open world, it can be quite fun to try out different methods of finding them.
It's extremely satisfying to land that triple back-flip combo when running around the open environments of the game.
It does not take long to figure out the basic controls of the game. This way just about anyone can pick it up in no time, allowing themselves to enjoy the gameplay over worrying about learning difficult controls.
There is not much to do one you explore the game for a minute. It is mostly an open sandbox, but it can get boring due to how little you can do.
Some people will take one look at this game and wonder what's wrong with kids these days. It certainly isn't for everybody.
There are a few portions of the map that are missing from the PC version.
AffableCharon hasn't added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.
ThriftyNane hasn't added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.
SuccessfulPapNiginGara hasn't added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.
RealisticRhapso hasn't added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.
InventivePolyhymnia hasn't added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.
SpiritedAttis hasn't added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.
ResourcefulWadjet hasn't added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.
Have a question about Goat Simulator? Leave a comment for thermoplastics, Monika and 15 other contributors.
Goat Simulator is a basic sandbox game where the point is to just cause as much destruction as possible. The actual physics of this sandbox are actually designed to be buggy, which can lead to plenty of ridiculous outcomes.
There is not much to do once you explore the game for a minute or two. It is mostly an open sandbox, but it can get repetitive due to how little there is for you to do.
Boring game. All you do is punch stuff with your head and that's just boring.
Goat Simulator support for MOGA controllers. Dedicated controllers make controlling the goat easier, which helps maximize the damage you can do, all while keeping your display free of fingerprints.
Goat Simulator has built in SHIELD games support.


Evil and the Presidency (PBS, 2008). In 2004 she associate produced ENRON: The Smartest Guys in the Room and in 2001, Kate covered the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City for ABC News. She went on to work for NOW with Bill Moyers covering the nexus of business and politics in Washington, D.C. Her on-going production of Inside the Psychologist's Studio is a popular web series for the Association for Psychological Science.


Jesse and Nathan putting up the Grand Opening Sign.
First Light Farm's produce is a Certified Organic.
Yesterday my grandson Wesley and I visited during the preparations for the Grand Opening of First Light Farm Farm Stand, 4588 Bodega Avenue, Petaluma, formerly Anderson's Farm Stand. The stand will be open from 12 to 5 pm today through Sunday, and from then on throughout this fall from 12-6 pm Wednesday to Friday, and 10 to 5 pm Saturday and Sunday.
Wesley spent a good deal of time with his construction equipment in the dirt, but we did walk the corn maze, which is just growing in for the fall.
Donielle setting up the stand.
I also delivered a carload of lavender product, so this is a place to get our dried and distilled lavender! Donielle will be selling lavender, First Light Farm produce, and Chica Bloom Flowers at the stand these next days.
Stop in and enjoy the young farmer excitement about creating food systems that support community while also providing quality food.
When you buy from local farmers, and organic and/or Biodynamic farmers, you too are participating in an environmental act, a vote for our children's and grandchildren's future.


Subject: Friend, would you believe it?
Last week 1000 people participated in Presence for Christmas, our four week journey into the heart of Christ's Mass. See above for dates this week.
"I went to Mass regularly with my wife and children. Not much more. My dad invited me to an IGNITE. After a long day of work, I didn't want to go. I did. I was so overwhelmed... as a convert, I never thought Catholicism could be like this... so alive... a real encounter with the living God. I couldn't stop crying... it opened a new door in my life... and for our family."
"Steve" is discovering the meaning of God's abiding presence, in so much more than a moment, but a movement. He's one of many who are now leading their family once a week in talking and praying, using the Live IT Gathering Guide + Episode (GO HERE to view latest).
Join us for IGNITE Radio Live! Tuesdays, 8pm and re-broadcast at 2pm on Saturdays.
"I'm often brought to moments of thinking: 'Surrender would be the easy thing, mindful of real frustrations, drained of energy, overwhelmed by worries.' These ebb and flow. The truth is, they never quite pass. But in the clouds there always seems to be Light lining the path... validations... the hearts of so many touched, engaged, moving us forward.
"In the grand shape of things, looking over history, I'm coming all the more to see God's hands... in the nature of that first 'yes' many years ago... Provision in our ineffable poverty... and calling it... 'Bethlehem.' Into stables such as these, the Child is born."


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Audio & Video Forums > AV Forums > Rave Recordings > the Killers have a new album out...sorta
View Full Version : the Killers have a new album out...sorta

I've heard it, and I'm underwhelmed. This seems like a sort of cash-in...a collection of rejects and covers, and curious covers at that, what with the note-for-note redux of Kenny Rogers' Ruby (don't take your love to town) and Dire Straits' Romeo & Juliet, Joy Division's Shadowplay, plus a dance remix of Mr Brightsides, a hospital zone version of Sam's Town and a rather pointless redux of Change Your Mind.
There are a few good tracks on here, a few of which were B-sides, but in the day of the CD, why weren't these included on the original releases? And why release them now? Did Sam's Town tank or something? Does anybody buy singles any more?
Even when some of the covers sound like they might be a good fit, they disappoint; they start out like good ideas but are marred by an out of place over-the-top vocal delivery. Some tracks sound like dressed up demos. It isn't a mystery why many of these stayed in the can, especially the duet with Lou Reed, Tranquilizer, which sounds like a dis-interested Reed mailed in his vocals.
I have no idea why they'd record a song like Ruby...to introduce a new generation of listeners to Kenny Rogers and The First Edition? I'd rather hear Condition in that case. Maybe it was done tongue-in-cheek. Hard to give them the benefit of the doubt what with the slap-dash effort in all the other songs. I don't know why lead singer Brandon Flowers feels the need to go for Star Search gold on these songs, when a more sedate approach would have sufficed. Proof once again you can't let the quarterback coach. The band has some rather good moments, but like I said before, the vox detract from what could have been releasable songs.
Boy, after Hot Hot Heat lost their formula after one album, it looks now like these guys have. I liked Hot Fuss a lot, but thought Sam's Town underachieved as a follow-up. After this release, they should change their name to The Fillers.

Thanks for the review 3LB. I've had this CD in my hands a few times but never made it to the cash register with it because I wanted to know more about it first. It sounds like I made a good decision.
I love Hot Fuss. I didn't like Sam's Town initially. I spun it a few times, thought "meh" and filed it. But then I pulled it out again about 6 months later and found that the more I listened the more I liked it. It's not as good as Hot Fuss. But there are some good tunes on it that I enjoy. The "new" CD aside, I'm not quite ready to write them off just yet.


Our family was staying in Parksville, but we needed to try surfing so emailed ahead and booked a family lesson and it was awesome! From check in to drop off, it was so fun! My daughters, 10 and 12, and myself took a family lesson with Adam and he was an exceptional teacher. He had a fast introduction and got us right in the water. He spent time with each one of us. He was patient and kind. It was an unforgettable day! Great instructors, amazing company, exceptional beach! I would highly recommend Tofino Surf Adventures- we hope to Return!


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Accidental Home Birth! (First Time Mom)
It was January 7th. I had been off of work for winter break since December 19th. I was supposed to go back to work on Monday, January 6th but school was cancelled on the 6th and 7th due to extreme cold temperatures. I was two days past my "guess date" which was making me eager, especially after having two weeks off of work and being stuck inside for two days straight, but Matt and I ended up having a productive, yet relaxing day. That morning I listened to my "Joyful Pregnancy Affirmations" while making breakfast and then did the "Hypnotic Childbirth #1" home-play. I then did my pelvic floor exercises (click here to learn about the Restorative Exercise ™ this mom did with local Hypnobabies instructor and Restorative Exercise ™ Specialist Lindsay McCoy) followed by a DVD pregnancy yoga session to relieve some lower-back discomfort I was having. While doing the yoga DVD, I started to feel a dull, constant ache/cramping. It felt like constant pressure on my pelvis. Matt asked me if it was anything that I could time, but I couldn't since it was constant with no beginning or end. It lasted for about an hour or two and then went away. To fill our day, we decided to organize some childhood photos into photo books, play cards and make some soup.
We ate around 6:00pm and then continued playing cards. Around 6:30PM, I started feeling pressure waves that I could determine beginning and end points, so we started timing them. They were really sporadic and didn't last very long. They ranged from 3 to 12 minutes apart but only lasted for 10 to 40 seconds. I had Matt put an asterisk by some of them because I wasn't sure if they even counted. We timed them for an hour while we continued to play cards. I was thinking these were "practice waves." During this time, my grandma called to tell me that I was going to start feeling contractions in the middle of the night and the baby would be born the next day (on my grandma's birthday). I told her I'm not sure what the "real" contractions would feel like and she said "oh, you'll know." That confirmed that what I had been feeling were just "practice waves," so when I received a text from a co-worker at 7:15PM wondering if I would be at work the following day, I told her I thought I would. At 7:45PM, I took a shower and the "waves" seemed to go away. Matt and I watched some TV, while I was on the floor doing exercises to help my lower back and to help the baby be in optimal position for birth. I had been worried about the baby being positioned on the right side which I read on the Spinning Babies website can make it more likely for a posterior position during my birthing time (this didn't end up being the case for me).
Around 8:45PM, the "waves" returned and were a little more intense than before, but not much. I decided this was a good time to start practicing my "fingerdrops." I lay on my side on the floor while we finished watching TV until we went to bed around 9:00PM. I wanted to make sure I got some good sleep, since I was guessing my birthing time would really get going in the middle of the night. So, I listened to the "Deepening" track, which always relaxed me and often put me to sleep, while Matt rubbed my back. At 9:20PM, I had my first intense wave that made me think back to my grandma saying "oh, you'll know." We decided we should start timing the waves again; during the next 45 minutes they were 3 to 6 minutes apart lasting for 45 seconds to 1.5 minutes.
At 9:51PM, I felt like I had to go to the bathroom. Once on the toilet, I realized it felt good and decided to stay there for a while, while continuing to do "fingerdrops" (I also still had" Deepening" on my iPod). Matt asked me if he should call in to work and get a substitute teacher for the next day and I kept telling him I wasn't sure if this was "it." I got a little cold, so I asked Matt to set up the space heater in the bathroom. I also told Matt to look at the Spinning Babies website I had bookmarked to read the description of a posterior birth (in which birthing can start but then stall and take a longer time).
At 10:15PM after timing the waves for 45 minutes (the midwives recommend timing them for an hour), Matt called the midwife. This took a little while because he had to call the help line and then the midwife had to call us back. Matt talked to her for a little while and then she asked to talk to me. She asked me how intense the waves were and I told her I was managing; I even talked to her though one. She told me I sounded pretty good but that I could come in to the hospital if I wanted but that they would have to send me home if I wasn't far enough along, otherwise I could take a warm bath and see if the intensity decreases – if it didn't, then I should come in. I told her I would try the bath. I asked Matt to quickly wash the bathtub, since we never take baths. While he did this, I finally changed the track on my iPod to "Birthing Day Affirmations" (in retrospect, I should have changed it to "Pushing Baby Out"). While he was washing the bathtub, I felt a different sensation (I think it was my first push). I told Matt that I think we should go to the hospital. So Matt quickly, started the car and packed up the suitcases while calling the hospital back to let them know we decided to come in.
While Matt was doing this, I continued to feel "pushy" and was involuntarily making an "ahh" sound. Matt heard this sound from the foyer and recognized it as the "pushing sound" from the videos we watched in Hypnobabies class. He ran up to me in the bathroom to check on me and I told him that I couldn't not push. He asked me if he should call 9-1-1 and I told him he should. When he reached the dispatcher, he helped Matt prepare to deliver our baby. He asked Matt where I was and when Matt told him I was on the toilet, he told him to get me off of the toilet. Matt looked and could see the very top of Ava's head. He told me that I when I was done peeing that I had to get off the toilet. I told him that I wasn't peeing and that it must be my water breaking. Once that was done, Matt helped me off of the toilet, but I couldn't walk so I kneeled over the bathtub and continued to push during waves (I really couldn't help but push). Matt put towels in the dryer, gathered blankets and prepared to catch the baby.
He saw the baby's head crowning but thought it was some sort of plug or something since he was expecting a bald head but what he saw was a lot of black hair mixed with vernix. As the baby's head was emerging, there was a knock at the door. The police had arrived but our door was locked. So Matt ran down the stairs to unlock the door and rushed up the stairs with the officer. Matt asked her if she had delivered a baby before. She told him she hadn't but that she knew how (we later found out that it was her first week on her own and that she delivers animals on her hobby farm). She put her gloves on as she was walking up the stairs, walked into the bathroom and caught the baby at 11:24PM. I was then able to hold the baby skin-to-skin and the paramedics arrived. They checked us both over and gave Ava a 9 on the Apgar scale. Once the umbilical cord stopped pulsing, Matt cut the cord. We then had to get into the ambulance and make our way to the hospital. Matt had to carry the baby wrapped in a warming blanket to the ambulance. The paramedics told him he needed to walk fast, but not to fall. They were especially concerned since it was a record-cold night. We all made it safely to the ambulance and safely to the hospital, where everyone we met was shocked by our story and how quickly Ava came into this world.


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text:
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — It was 2002 when Debbie Born Wright finished her associate's degree at the local college and took a job at Steamboat's newest bank as a teller. The young college student figured she'd work there while she assessed her future.
Sixteen years later, Wright is now an assistant vice president and commercial lender for the locally owned Yampa Valley Bank.
"I guess you could say she has grown up with the bank," said John Kerst, a mentor and former president of Yampa Valley Bank.
And as friends and family warned, Wright played down her role as a community volunteer and business member, calling her ascent "lucky."
"I was well positioned physically in the bank," Wright said. "My office was right outside the president's and one of the loan officer's. Being located by those two people, I was able to be mentored and exposed to different sort of positions."
But husband, Tom Wright, said luck has nothing to do with Wright's success. "She's the hardest-working, most dedicated person I know, frankly," said Tom.
Debbie Wright took that dedication to Routt County United Way where she served on the board for six years, one year as president.
RCUW Executive Director Kate Nowak turned to Wright to help implement ideas that have affected the community profoundly, including "$20K Day" where United Way raises money in one day from the community that will be matched up to $10,000 by Yampa Valley Bank.
"It's a very successful fundraising day for us, and Debbie had a big hand in that. Whatever she touches is fruitful," Nowak said.
Wright also helped Nowak kick off Women United, which focuses on early childhood issues. Women United currently has 90 members and sponsors projects like Imagination Library, a literacy program that mails a new book every month to any child in Routt County from birth to age 5.
Having been mentored professionally, Wright got involved early in her bank tenure with Partners of Routt County, a group that mentors high-risk youth.
With two toddlers, Wright hopes to some day get back in the program but in the meantime, Ski Town Rotary Club has gotten the benefit of Wright's "worker bee" status.
"She's just a class A person," said fellow Rotarian Curt Weiss, owner of Central Park Management. "She just gets stuff done in her own quiet way."


Former Model Home with over 100k in Builder Upgrades! This stunning Serrano home includes a downstairs master bedroom retreat with access to the beautiful backyard. Oversized master bathroom includes separate vanities & large tub to soak in. Gourmet kitchen includes built in refrigerator, double ovens, walk-in pantry, spacious island, & a wine fridge! Enjoy entertaining in the spacious great room or for a more formal party, in the dining room with soaring ceilings. Downstairs also includes a private office for those who work from home. Upstairs you'll find 3 large bedrooms, bonus room, & a loft space. Access the beautiful, yet easy to maintain backyard from the master suite or the family room. There's even a private courtyard off the kitchen! 8KW of owned SOLAR with TESLA battery that stores your generated solar to be used during PG&E peak billing hours! HS school students may attend Oak Ridge or Ponderosa HS. There's even a park just steps away from this fabulous home.


text:
Biografia
Come molti musicisti della sua generazione, Zé Ramalho è stato influenzato dal rock and roll . Tuttavia le sue prime canzoni si collocano pienamente nella tradizione nordestina. Al centro dei suoi testi vi è sempre l'uomo medio brasiliano coi tanti problemi che lo assillano. Non fa eccezione il brano di maggior successo, Admiravel Gado Novo, inciso per la prima volta nel 1980 ed eseguito in una nuova versione a metà degli anni 90.

Zé Ramalho ha realizzato 17 album da solista e collaborato con grandi musicisti del Brasile come Vanusa, Raimundo Fagner, Geraldo Azevedo e Alceu Valença.

Ha una cugina, Elba Ramalho, cantante anche lei, con cui ha collaborato spesso all'inizio della carriera.

Vita privata
Zé Ramalho è stato sposato due volte. Ha tre figli maschi: il maggiore è nato dal primo matrimonio. Con la cantante Amelinha, sua seconda moglie, ha generato gli altri due figli.

Discografia

Collaborazioni prima del debutto
 Paêbirú (1975, con Lula Côrtes)

Album studio

 1978 - Zé Ramalho - (Epic/CBS)
 1980 - A Peleja do Diabo com o Dono do Céu - (Epic/CBS)
 1981 - A Terceira Lâmina - (Epic/CBS)
 1982 - Força Verde - (Epic/CBS)
 1983 - Orquídea Negra - (Epic/CBS)
 1984 - Por Aquelas Que Foram Bem Amadas o Pra não dizer que não falei de Rock - (Epic/CBS)
 1985 - De Gosto de Água e de Amigos - (Epic/CBS)
 1986 - Opus Visionário - (Epic/CBS)
 1987 - Décimas de um Cantador - (Epic/CBS)
 1992 - Frevoador - (Columbia/Sony Music)
 1996 - Cidades e Lendas - (BMG)
 1996 - Antologia Acústica - (BMG)
 1998 - Eu Sou Todos Nós - (BMG)
 2002 - O Gosto da Criação - (BMG)
 2003 - Estação Brasil - (BMG)
 2007 - Parceria dos Viajantes - (Sony/BMG)
 2008 - Zé Ramalho da Paraíba - (Discobertas/Coqueiro Verde)
 2012 - Sinais dos Tempos - (Avôhai Music)

Raccolte
 2002 - Perfil - Zé Ramalho
 2007 - Zé Ramalho em foco

Cover
 1991 - Brasil Nordeste - (Columbia/Sony Music)
 2000 - Nação Nordestina - (BMG)
 2001 - Zé Ramalho Canta Raul Seixas - (BMG)
 2008 - Zé Ramalho Canta Bob Dylan - Tá tudo mudando - (EMI)
 2009 - Zé Ramalho Canta Luiz Gonzaga - (Discobertas/Sony)
 2010 - Zé Ramalho Canta Jackson do Pandeiro - (Discobertas/Sony)
 2011 - Zé Ramalho Canta Beatles - (Discobertas/Sony)

Live
 2005 - Zé Ramalho ao vivo - (Sony/BMG)

Box
 1996 - 20 Anos de Carreira (Sony Music)
 2009 - Participação de Zé Ramalho no DVD de Capim Cubano Ao Vivo em João Pessoa - PB
 2010 - Box - A Caixa de Pandora  - (Sony Music)

Collaborazioni

 1996 - O Grande Encontro - con Alceu Valença, Elba Ramalho e Geraldo Azevedo)
 1997 - O Grande Encontro 2 - con Elba Ramalho e Geraldo Azevedo)
 2000 - O Grande Encontro 3 - con Elba Ramalho e Geraldo Azevedo)
 2003 - Lisbela e o Prisioneiro - con Sepultura - (Colonna sonora)
 2010 - O Bem Amado - (Colonna sonora)
 Lordose pra leão - os pássaros não calçam rua
 Jorge Cabeleira - Jorge Cabeleira e o dia em que seremos todos inúteis
 Roberta de Recife - Nordestina
 Ricardo Vilas e amigos - Bem Brasil
 Waldonys - aprendi com o Rei vol.2
 1981 - Renato e seus Blue Caps - Renato e seus Blue Caps
 1981 - João do Vale - João do Vale
 1992 - Segredo de Estado - Segredo de Estado
 1993 - Glorinha Gadelha - tudo que ilumina
 1993 - Dorival Caymmi - Songbook Dorival Caymmi vol. 4
 1994 - João Batista do Vale - João Batista do Vale
 1994 - Vários Artistas - Viva Gonzagão! É forró, é xote, é baião
 1995 - Jorge Mautner - Bomba de estrelas
 1996 - Zé Ramalho, Geraldo Azevedo, Alceu Valença e Elba Ramalho - O grande encontro
 1997 - Xuxa - Arraiá da Xuxa
 1997 - Dominguinhos & Vários Artistas - Dominguinhos e convidados cantam Luiz Gonzaga
 1997 - Falcão - A Um Passo da MPB
 1997 - Boca Livre - Boca Livre, 20 anos - convida
 1997 - André Luiz Oliveira - Mensagem de Fernando Pessoa
 1997 - Zé Ramalho, Geraldo Azevedo e Elba Ramalho - O grande encontro 2
 1998 - Vários Artistas - Casa do forró - ao vivo
 1998 - Geraldo Azevedo - Raízes e Frutos
 1998 - Fagner - Amigos e Canções
 1999 - Alcymar Monteiro - Festa Brasileira
 1999 - Elba Ramalho - Solar
 1999 - Zeca Baleiro - Vô imbolá
 1999 - Marinês - Marinês & sua gente - 50 anos de forró
 1999 - Vários Artistas - Jackson do Pandeiro - revisto e sampleado
 2000 - Vários Artistas - O submarino verde e amarelo
 2000 - Vários Artistas - Reiginaldo Rossi - um tributo
 2000 - Vários Artistas - O melhor do forró no maior São João do mundo
 2000 - Zé Ramalho, Elba Ramalho, Geraldo Azevedo - O grande encontro 3 - ao vivo
 2001 - Vários Artistas - Forró Força Livre - vol 3
 2001 - Vários Artistas - John Lennon - uma homenagem
 2001 - Gonzaguinha & Vários Artistas - Duetos com Mestre Lua
 2002 - Rastapé - Até o Dia Clarear
 2002 - Vários Artistas - Forró da feira 2
 2003 - Vários Artistas - Lisbela e o Prisioneioro
 2003 - Jota Quest - Oxigênio
 2004 - Paulo Cesar Barros & Vários Artistas - Estrada
 2004 - Vários Artistas - Um barzinho, um violão - ao vivo
 2004 - Chitãozinho & Xororó - Aqui o Sistema é Bruto
 2005 - Léo e Bia - Léo e Bia 1973 - edição especial
 2007 - Beto Brito - Imbolê
 2009 - Os Paralamas do Sucesso - Brasil Afora

DVD
 2001 - Zé Ramalho Canta Raul Seixas: Ao Vivo
 2005 - Zé Ramalho ao Vivo
 2007 - Parceria dos Viajantes
 2008 - Zé Ramalho Canta Bob Dylan - Tá Tudo Mudando
 2009 - Zé Ramalho - O Herdeiro de Avohai - documentario

Note

Altri progetti

Collegamenti esterni

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


mouth, meaning "talk" rather than action and trousers, presumably at the time of origin a reference to masculinity, either as trousers as a male item of clothing. The definition is "superficial, engaging in empty, boastful talk, but not of real substance". It describes "all mouth and no trousers" as a corruption. "All mouth and trousers" is the kind of phrase you might have first heard on all mean the same thing: "all bark and no bite," "all booster and no payload," "all.
All mouth and no trousers - the meaning and origin of this phrase. Q From Pete Jones, Brussels: I have always known the saying as all mouth and trousers. But Matthew Parris recently wrote in The Times about. Someone who's all mouth and trousers talks or boasts a lot but doesn't deliver. ' All mouth and no trousers' is also used, though this is a corruption of the original.
Definition of be all mouth and trousers in the Idioms Dictionary. be all mouth and something, but are, in fact, not brave enough to do it: Don't be scared of her. If you say that someone is all mouth and no trousers, you mean that they often say they are going to do something impressive or exciting but never actually do it. Top definition. All mouth and no trousers KFJ: You're all mouth and no trousers, but I'd love to see you "hack a virus". by kung-fu jesus August 18, Apparently "All mouth and no trousers" and "All mouth and trousers" is a pairing of "mouth", meaning insolence or cheekiness, with "trousers".


text:
YEAP PRIZE
ART BUZZ
ART RESIDENCY 2020
PORTRAIT EXHIBITION
Stal Gallery Presents "Portrait" An Exhibition of new work by Bahraini Artist Jamal Abdul Rahim from Monday January 27thto Thursday February 6th.
Stal gallery is delighted to present their latest exhibition from Jamal Abdul Rahim who is one of Bahrain's most established and highly regarded contemporary artists. Jamal has exhibiting his work extensively in Europe and the Middle East and has been the recipient of thirteen domestic and international art prizes. The award-winning artist builds his art from the movement of society deeply rooted in rich Arab civilization, its mythology, religion and language. He believes that artists can pick their inspiration from everywhere and from the people around them. In this unique exhibition entitled "Portrait" Rahim focuses on the use of bold colour and form through a variety of media. Although he is known as a printmaker and painter, he has become an avid sculpting fan who believes that: "stone is already beautiful and by sculpting it, I am inspired, withdrawing that beauty into a form". According to him, working on stone fills the soul with a special kind of pleasure that cannot be explained, as art is a spiritual exercise, which cannot be ignored.
Speaking Emphatically about his work Jamal says "I live and breathe on print, sculpture and canvas. Inspired by a sense of place, my voyage with art is one of both discovery and provocation. I use oriental colors and figures that I have absorbed in my childhood and others I have acquired as an adult. On my canvas, I like to work on different subjects but when it comes to portrait, I use familiar faces to everyone. I want people to look at the paintings and ask themselves why am I using an image that is so familiar, but at the same time I need viewers to see the techniques behind the painting and to enjoy every single detail in it. I believe that a work of art that doesn't provoke the viewer into some kind of reaction is not artistic."
A chic and a modern art gallery, with a panoramic view of the city, Stal Galleryis committed to promoting a contemporary visual arts programme with a balanced focus on promoting new work and supporting the development of artists while simultaneously affirming and challenging the public's appreciation and understanding of contemporary and innovative approaches to the visual arts. The goal is to provide a venue and facilities in Muscat for audiences and artists, primarily but not solely for the visual arts, which offers the highest standards of design, programme and operation and form an artistic hub for creation, exhibition and engagement with a national and international profile.
"Portrait" is exhibited at Stal Gallery from January 27thto February 6th.