Inventions as Nobel Prizes.

Well, it's happened again and for the 4th time, the Nobel Prize has been awarded for an invention. Nobel's will specifically says the award should be for a discovery or an invention, but there has historically been some apparent bias against inventions. Even when great new experimental inventions such as the bubble chamber led to many great discoveries, it was the discoveries, not the invention itself, that won the prize.

The inventions winners are (and this is my own editing to make it more understandable)
1909, Guglielmo Marconi and Karl Ferdinand Braun, Wireless Telegraphy
1912, Nils Gustaf Dalen, automatic gas regulators for lighthouses and buoys.
2000, Zhores I. Alferov and Herbert Kroemer, Diode laser (used in fiberoptic communications, laser scanners of all kinds, and CD, DVD, and blueray players)
Jack S. Kilby, Integrated Circuit
2009, Charles K. Kao, Fiber Optics
Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith, CCD imaging device (used in digital cameras)

According to Kroemer in a colloquium I attended years ago, the 88 year break was something of a backlash to Dalen's prize. (The following is my explanation, not Kroemer's.) While the gas regulators were a tremendous boon to shipping on the rocky shores of Scandanavia, they were basically an engineering feat not a unique new application of physics for a revolutionary device. Many felt that choice had lessened the value of the prize so inventions were passed over for many decades.

Personally, I'm glad to see that inventions are back, that they are being chosen with care, but are in fact excellent examples of putting basic physics to practical use.

Sail Journey

Well, for a long time I've been wanting to try and sail from Long Beach to Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro and back. Yesterday I finally made my first attempt.

Natalie's friend Mezzie Montooth was kind enough to come with me, and even though it was her first sailing experience she was the best trooper I've had yet.

The day started out beautiful and as we cruised through San Pedro Harbor (where the oil islands are) I thought it was a perfect day for the assault. The breeze was steady but not too strong and in a good direction. I made it past the Long Beach entrance to the harbors and past most of Long Beach Harbor without incident.

Unfortunately, as we tried to make it past the Los Angeles entrance and the waves got choppy and the wind picked up. There were even white caps on the waves which is the first sign that it may be too windy for a small boat like mine. Then a wave and a wind shift made me accidentally TACK and I decided to sail more conservatively. Unfortunately, that made it even harder to make progress into the wind. Meanwhile, poor Mezzie was being sprayed by each wave we went over, was soaked to the bone and starting to get cold.

So I finally made the right decision and turned around. Even that was tricky though. As I came about the mainsheet got tangled and nearly tipped the boat. Still we managed to get it righted with out tipping. We did start taking water over the rail though so it was the closest I have come in this boat yet.

Sailing with the wind was much easier and we quickly made it back into calmer waters. Unfortunately, as I docked, my tiller broke so I don't know how I will deal with that.

When I finally looked it up on a map I wanted to cry. We had probably made it more than 90% of the way, and if I had known just how close we were I might have pressed on, but I think it was the right decision anyway. (I tried to get a map of the trip on google maps or mapquest, but haven't figured out how to get a full picture of it saved so I can post it here.)

Once I get the tiller fixed I think I'll stay inside the bay for the rest of the Fall and Winter and try another assault on San Pedro in the Spring. It was certainly the longest and best sail I've had in my Dinghy yet, and was a lot of fun. Thanks again Mezzie, that sail rocked.

On Movies and Scripts

I've watched or finished watching several movies in the past several weeks and I've come to a couple of conclusions.

1. A good movie really depends on a good script.
2. When movies add or toss things to get a certain rating it really degrades the movie.

The movies I've seen or completed recently include

1. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
2. Transformers
3. Holes
4. G.I. Joe
5. On Her Majesty's Secret Service

One might expect G.I. Joe and Transformers to be similarly good or bad movies. Both a near future sci-fi action flicks that strain credulity, but whereas the script for Transformers was painfully bad, the script for G.I. Joe was surprisingly tight and well crafted. The action moved neatly, the humor was silly but enjoyable, the storyline was good and managed to both tie up the action neatly and set the stage for a sequel. Quite honestly it was probably the best movie in that genre I've seen in a long time.

Holes and On Her Majesty's Secret Service also illustrate the power of a good script. OHMSS was about as low on techno-gadgets and action as any Bond movie I've seen. (It is unique in many ways such as being the only one with George Lazenby, one of very few where Bond falls in love (gets married even) and in spite of the name, most of the action is renegade work done outside of official business.) But I thought the coherence and overall flow were great. (And I know everybody says Pussy Galore is the best Bond-girl, but Tracy Bond would drive all over her a--. I've found my favorite Bond Girl.)

Holes is one of the best triumphs of script and old fashioned good cinematography over spectacle. The movies weaves together about 4 improbable, almost silly and boring, stories into a single tapestry until they all tie together in the end. The peaks of action are digging holes, eating onions, and mending a leaking roof. But the whole is very delightful. (And unlike a spectacle movie it held up very well to the fact that I began watching it while substitute teaching nearly 18 months ago.)

The last thing I wanted to talk about was when they seem to be blindly seeking a rating. The Half-Blood Prince is one of my favorite Harry Potter books, and I think probably the most terrifying. By rights it probably should have become a PG-13 book. (I've always figured the books are targeted at Harry's age so this one should be for 16 year olds.) But they seemed to tone it down, possibly to maintain the PG rating. Dumbledore's terrors in the cave and his blood curdling "fear" near the end both came across much less intense than in the book, and the battle of Hogwarts was almost completely eliminated.

By contrast Transformers threw in a lot of pointless dirty humor and bad words for no aparent reason other than to get a PG-13 rating. Sure the blonde moved the story forward, but Mom on "minty" brownies spilling all of her son's private business was just crude.

Anyway, if you want my ratings of the movies

Holes was excellent and probably the strongest of them all. 4 1/2 stars.

GI Joe: Well above my expectations 4 stars

Half-Blood Prince: Very exciting, but like most of the Harry Potter films it is to the books as campbells chicken noodle soup is to chicken caserole. The flavor is similar but it really only hints at the notion that there are chicken and noodles there. From book 3 on the films haven't done the plots of the book justice. 3 stars

OHMSS: One of my favorite Bond films yet, but I tend to like that which is different. 3 1/2 stars.

Transformers: Well if you get to stare at Megan Fox and watch giant robots fight, how bad can it really be. (Because that is exactly how bad this is.) 1 1/2 stars.

Fishing With Perry

I doubt it will surprise anyone reading this, but I am not an accomplished fisherman. I'm sure I can count all the fish I've caught in my life on two hands. So many years ago when Perry first asked me to take him fishing we didn't have much luck. In fact after about 5 tries I was starting to wonder if I would ever get him to catch a fish. And at scout camp he finished every part of his fishing merit badge except catching the fish. So I decided it was time to take him to a commercial fishing pond. (You know the ones that are so stocked they guarantee fish.) This little pond was just teaming with Catfish and it wasn't more than 15 minutes before he had one hooked and in the net.


Here you can see him showing off his catch. Looks pretty good doesn't it.

Here he is cleaning the fish. I only knew how to clean trout which is very different than filleting catfish, but the man who ran the pond was very gracious and helped Perry do this part too.

Finally we brought it home to cook it up. I'd never had catfish (the whiskers on the live fish just freaked me out), but I looked up a simple fried catfish recipe and it was fairly easy to fry up. In spite of both of us feeling a bit squeamish at first, it was delicious and made a fine meal for the day the girls were out on their mother daughter camp out. So I'd say the trip was successful.

(We do actually need to catch and release a fish still, but I think I've learned enough about how to catch bluefin at El Dorado park that we should be successful at that.)

Renewing an Old Hobby

Me with my new belt and cell phone holder.

When I was a fairly young boy scout I got a leatherworking kit from my parents. I earned my leatherwork merit badge and took a particular liking to the craft. As a result for years afterward I listed "leatherwork" as one of my hobbies. The problem was that it was a "hobby" that I would often let slide for years at a time. I doubt I did much with the stamps from around the time I turned 16 until I returned from my mission. Then I only made a wallet for my dad because the last one I had made him was too beaten up to use. I think I made one for myself around that time too. Finally I made a clutch purse for Rachel (my first wife) while we were dating this was my masterpiece and between then and this week (nearly 14 years) I had barely touched my tools. I did keep them in the garage and I did help Perry make one project to work on his leatherwork badge. I even dug out the wallet I had made as a scout (the one I'd made myself later was finally wearing out).

So finally this week I decided to take some of my birthday money and get back into leatherwork. The local Tandy Leathercraft store was kind enough to give me wholesale price both for it being my birthday and Perry being a scout. I bought a cell phone case (my cell phone always gets beat up in my pocket with my keys), a belt blank, a belt pattern, and a buckle.

Here is the belt blank after the pattern has been traced and cut in but none of the tooling has been done.

This is what it looks like after it has been tooled extensively. Notice how the leaf really seems to come alive. I think that is my favorite part of leatherwork, watching the picture come alive in low relief.

These two show the belt and the cell phone case after they have been stained. The stain darkens all of the leather, but mostly it raises the contrast on the tooling and makes the pattern come out even more.

Now that's ? ?

Creative, Silly, Hillarious, I'm not certain, but it definitely is something. I'm talking about puddle duck racers, the self described easiest boat to build and race. As you can see the boats are basically little plywood boxes, the sails ordinary plastic tarps shaped with scissors and the mast and boom are electrical conduit and curtain rods. That such contraption can actually float is already surprising. That they can sail and race is absolutely astounding. Although they may actually have some advantages over the sailboats that men used for 1000s of years before they learned to sail upwind.

I learned about these because I've been wanting to buy a sabot to teach the kids to sail, but I don't really want to spend any money. (I found one for $75 which I would have bought but I wasn't fast enough.) So I mused about building one. Plans for actual sabots cost $25, but these are hillarious. I couldn't use it for the sailing class (they require an actual sabot), but Puddle Duck's Philosophy is that the best way to learn to sail is to get out on a small lake in a light breeze and futz around until you figure it out. (They do recommend bringing oars in case you get totally stuck.) So I guess the bay is too big and El Dorado doesn't allow private boats, but there is a nice small lake near work that could do the trick.

I don't actually plan to build one (Staci would kill me if I took up that much space with a piece of junk boat.) But the idea is certainly amusing.

Misleading Statistics, Again

I was looking into new apartments up here around Pierce and I was comparing them to the cost of driving daily. So I looked into AAA's driving cost listing. http://www.aaaexchange.com/Assets/Files/200948913570.DrivingCosts2009.pdf They list the price per mile as about 55 cents per mile if you are a low mileage driver and 35 cents per mile if you are a high mileage driver.

But if you notice the cost per mile trends downward as you get to higher and higher mileage. In fact if you plot the total cost to drive 10,000 miles, 15,000 miles and 20,000 miles, you find that the slope (the actual cost of driving each mile) is nearly linear. They have included the base cost of owning, insuring, and maintaining the car into the cost per mile. In fact the cost per mile is only about 16 cents per mile.

So why does this matter? You do have those ownership costs! Well of course you do, but very few of us are really going to totally get rid of the car. So in figuring the cost of driving verses public transit we want to know how much extra each mile is going to cost us. That's 16 cents for a small car (I'm guessing about 9-11 of those are for gas, the rest for maintenence.)

In my case, driving to work each day (instead of once a week and staying here) would add about 1200 miles per month. At 35.4 cents/mile that is $425, and it would be reasonable to pay up to that much for a place to stay up here, but at 15.8 cents per mile it is only $190. There are of course intangibles both ways. (Sleeping next to my wife, seeing my family, verses the wear and tear on me.), but it is a very different picture.

I just hate when the stats are misleading like that. I'm no fan of long commutes or excess driving, but let's not claim that simply not driving is going to save you $400 when half of that is just in the cost of owning the car.