Taughannock Falls

I recently realized that I've never walked along the base of Taughannock Falls in all the years I've been in the Ithaca area. I've been to the overlook and up in the creek farther up from the falls. I took advantage of the warm weather over the past week to walk the lower trail. Definitely a place to return to as things get more green.

You can view the slideshow, below, or click here to be brought to the larger view in Flickr (photos are pretty high in detail).

More info on Taughannock: www.taughannock.com/

Squirrel Nut Zippers!!

Whoo... this was s.o...m.u.c.h...f.u.n.

It was at the State Theater in Ithaca - celebrating its 80th year. There was a contest for the best 1920's era costume (which we didn't realize when we went), so there were loads of people dressed up: flapper dresses, long pearl necklaces, tuxes, spats, a zoot suit. I had forgotten how gorgeous the inside of that theater is.

The show was great from the start, but there was a point at which it became a blast. I'm trying to remember which song it was that they played when the energy level really took off. People were dancing up front, along the sides and in the aisles (much to the chagrin of the security guys). Almost everything onstage was black and red: big round red paper lanterns, some of the instruments (including shakers) and the performers' outfits and hats.

They screened this near the end and played over it:



After their encore, as people were starting to leave, there was a burst of drums and horn from the front corner of the theater, and the band came out, led by a tuba player, playing as they dame down the aisle. They wandered around the theater, jumping up onto the bar in the back and playing an infectious rhythm for at least another 10-20 minutes or so.

Need to get out more often - not that every outing is guaranteed to be that much fun.

Listening to the Zippers now... tapping my feet again.

Scientist rap

Nell, a dear friend of mine from high school, has recently relocated to the Ithaca area to be near her beau, Peter Wittich, who is an assistant professor with the Physics Department at Cornell. Peter is a member of a large team of people working on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), about 27 km in circumference and 100 meters underground, straddling the border between Switzerland and France, outside of Geneva.

The red circle shows the area under which the tunnel for CERN's LHC can be found, near Geneva and lac Leman. The French Alps with Mont Blanc can be seen in the background. Photograph: AC Team

Peter is part of a sub-team working on the Compact Muon Solenoid. (From the linked site):

CMS is designed to see a wide range of particles and phenomena produced in high-energy collisions in the LHC. Like a cylindrical onion, different layers of detector stop and measure the different particles, and use this key data to build up a picture of events at the heart of the collision.

CMS Muon chambers and calorimeter. Photo by Solarnu on Flickr.

Big, big stuff.

The LHC was just fired up for the first time this week (details). To mark this occasion, the Physics Department held a forum this past Tuesday evening. Peter and another Cornell scientist, Yuval Grossman, spoke. There were refreshments, related instruments on display and some small demonstrations. There was a good turnout - including some children - and everyone there seemed engaged and enthusiastic.

It is an exciting project, and the scale - of the LHC itself, the international involvement, the cost, the amount of data that will be produced and analyzed, etc. - is mind-boggling. Peter and Yuval broke down the "science" during their presentations, with easy-to-follow everyday examples as analogies for more complicated concepts , as well as some jokes and, of course, Dilbert cartoons.

Peter also showed some of his own photos of the LHC and the surrounding area (he is quite the photographer - see some of his lovely shots of the Ithaca area, too).

So what does this all have to do with rap? At the end of his talk, Peter showed the video, above, created by some other scientists involved in the LHC project. If you listen (or just read the subtitles), it gives a pretty good breakdown of what the project is all about.

Peter jokingly instructed his students to come down front and dance. That sent a few of them scurrying to the exits with their backpacks.

Update:

Unfortunately, there was a helium leak and a restart of the system is expected in Spring 2009. Huge operation - so many systems to keep functioning at once. Press release.

10 City Promotional Swap - DeWitt Mall, Ithaca

DeWitt Mall, Ithaca - Greenstar/Oasis North Entrance, originally uploaded by inklings and imprints.

I'm behind on posting these images. I posted the rest of the 10 City Promo Swap items in downtown Ithaca, at the DeWitt Mall. Images up on Flickr.