I'm in Melbourne at the moment helping some guys from Scion (ex Forestry Research NZ) with some x-ray scattering experiments. It's a brief visit: by this time tomorrow I'll be on a plane heading back home. The experiments have gone really well. The initial plan was loosely founded on some experiments I did at Stanford earlier in the year, where each scan was taking about 10 minutes to run.
At this, brand new, undulator beamline, each scan is taking 1-2 seconds. Very cool.
As a result, we have a lot more time than we were expecting, so have been able to try some more things. Like watching the wood dry, in situ. It's in a different league to watching paint dry though (which we did on a visit to SPring-8 in Japan in July 2007).
It's been a pretty cruisy time, because the three beamline scientists have been here nearly all of the time, since they are still commissioning the beamline and finding (and fixing) problems with it. So I haven't really needed to do very much...
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Travelling again
A couple of weeks ago, you may recall I was in a bit of a dilemma over the Lake Taupo cycle challenge and whether I would be able to survive 160 km on a bike. Well, it turns out I don't have to - shortly afterward I received an email from some collaborators, whom I'd offered to help with synchrotron experiments in Australia, to say that we're going to Melbourne from 25-28 November. Which means I wouldn't be able to get to Taupo in time for the 29th.
So now those dates are booked - in addition to the 1-6 December for the Synchrotron users' meeting which had been arranged a couple of months ago. Yes, it might have made more sense to stay over for those couple of days in between, but it's two separate groups paying for the two trips. So I just let it roll. Besides, it means I don't miss a Sunday kids' Christmas practise...
Already I have some concrete plans for 2009: 14-28 Jan at Stanford and then 8-12 Feb in Dunedin for a conference, followed by hosting a visitor who's coming over from the US. We'll take a few days to head up north and do the Tongariro Northern Circuit. Should be fun!
We'll be expecting views like this
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Following in whose footsteps?
I was invited to attend the Royal Society of New Zealand's Science Awards Dinner last night. It was quite a pleasant evening, but one thing really stuck in my mind. Since I'm already late for work at the time of writing this I will try to keep it short and sweet.
The theme for the evening was Ernest Rutherford; it being 100 years virtually to the day since he was notified of his Nobel Prize success. Most of the speeches had something to do with him and there was even a guy in costume who 'recounted' stories of 'his time at the Cavendish laboratory'.
One of the presentations was a screening of the winning entry in the secondary schools' science DVD competition, and a short speech by three of the students who won. The theme this year was evolution, Charles Darwin, and the Origin of the Species (it being 150 years since it was published). The prize for the students was to travel to the UK and have a tour around Darwin's birthplace, university, etc., to, quote, "follow in his footsteps".
As they told us all about their trip, one mentioned how Darwin was a 'controversial figure who changed the world'. And I thought, well, perhaps, but he was still only a man. Did they have a realisation of futility when they visited his grave? There were also a few awards presented to people working in the field of evolution (be it computational, educational, biology). As sung by Dave Dobbyn I think, do they realise evolution is just "religion for scientists"? (It can't be proven nor disproven - one has to have a measure of faith to believe that all the complexity in the world around us arose from random processes. Personally, I find it much easier to simply believe that God created everything in six literal 24-hour days.)
Anyway, as I reflected on all of this, I knew there was only one person whose footsteps would be worth following in. And I've been there. I've been to His hometown, to where He started His ministry, where He was crucified, and I've seen His tomb. It's empty.
The theme for the evening was Ernest Rutherford; it being 100 years virtually to the day since he was notified of his Nobel Prize success. Most of the speeches had something to do with him and there was even a guy in costume who 'recounted' stories of 'his time at the Cavendish laboratory'.
One of the presentations was a screening of the winning entry in the secondary schools' science DVD competition, and a short speech by three of the students who won. The theme this year was evolution, Charles Darwin, and the Origin of the Species (it being 150 years since it was published). The prize for the students was to travel to the UK and have a tour around Darwin's birthplace, university, etc., to, quote, "follow in his footsteps".
As they told us all about their trip, one mentioned how Darwin was a 'controversial figure who changed the world'. And I thought, well, perhaps, but he was still only a man. Did they have a realisation of futility when they visited his grave? There were also a few awards presented to people working in the field of evolution (be it computational, educational, biology). As sung by Dave Dobbyn I think, do they realise evolution is just "religion for scientists"? (It can't be proven nor disproven - one has to have a measure of faith to believe that all the complexity in the world around us arose from random processes. Personally, I find it much easier to simply believe that God created everything in six literal 24-hour days.)
Anyway, as I reflected on all of this, I knew there was only one person whose footsteps would be worth following in. And I've been there. I've been to His hometown, to where He started His ministry, where He was crucified, and I've seen His tomb. It's empty.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Cycling and the Christmas production
Two major things that have been going on at the moment for me have been preparing for the annual Lake Taupo cycle challenge (160 km solo or relay) and the church kids' Christmas production.
First off, the cycling: I signed up thinking 4 x 40 = 160 km, 40 km is not too bad (that's 25 miles for my US readers). A bunch of people are going up for the challenge (not a 'race'... the goal being to make it to the finish line) and stay at somebody's bach for the night. So it sounded quite fun. Then it turned out that everybody else was planning on doing the whole thing, so there was no relay team. So if I want to do it, it's 160 km or nothing. Or I could start and not finish, but what's the point in that?
I was given somebody's phone number who was apparently looking for another team member, but by the time I got hold of him he'd already found somebody else. So now it's back to square one.
Thinking back to when I did the 50-mile walk with air cadets (which is probably not that good an idea, seeing as it was about ten years ago), I survived that (just) with next to no preparation. Those 50 miles (80 km) took us 24 hours to walk: we started at 9 pm one night and finished at 8 pm the following night. Yes indeed, crazy. So is a 160 km bike ride in the same league?
Anyway the last couple of weekends I've been determined to try. Last weekend (long weekend because of Labour Day public holiday) I clocked up 43 km going up to Harcourt Park and back. A bit sore the following day, but otherwise fine.
Today I went to Harcourt Park and back. Twice. A total of 82 km, which took me just under 4 hours. And boy am I suffering now. It's mildly reminiscent of an event that happened in London: I had a soccer game in the morning, then had to bike half an hour to university where there was a badminton tournament, after that I still had to bike half an hour home. I had to default the last game of the tournament because I did not feel good at all, and was fully expecting to have to find a drain to chunder into on the way home. But I managed to make it back in one piece, at which point everything just gave way. In between lying on the bed and crawling to the bathroom (even after I got to the dry retching stage, I thought I'd better play it safe), I have never felt so far out of (chemical) balance and just wanting to die, not being able to imagine how things could ever get better or be normal again. And once things did get better, a couple of days later, I vowed never to let myself get into that state EVER again.
Anyway today is not quite that bad, but I do have a bad headache and can imagine it's because my brain is drying out like an old sponge. Ugh. And if that's "only" 80 km, how am I going to be able to do double that, in one day? Crazy, crazy indeed.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
On a brighter note (and one that doesn't involve retching) the kids' Christmas play seems to be going pretty well. We've had two weeks' worth of rehearsals (40 minutes each time) and have learnt the songs and next week should be able to finish learning the dance moves. I printed off a pile of scripts for all the kids, and then left it at home. Ah well - next week will be plenty of time.
Another amusing thing for this week: I got my power bill. Last month they did an estimate and this month an actual reading, so because my power usage varies wildly depending on how much I use the heat pump system, the bill for this month was a cute $5.19. I'm wondering whether to frame it and hang it on the wall.
I've also started to make some progress on the DVD of the Kenya trip (slideshows of everyone's photos, set to music, and I'll throw in a lot of the video clips that I took just to make things a bit more interesting). When we were there I said to everyone I'd aim at having it done by Christmas - thinking it would be finished much sooner - but it could be tight even to have it done by then. It's been quite difficult to find suitable music. I wanted to use some Swahili gospel music, so it's a good message even though they won't understand it, but it's very hard to find any. YouTube and imeem saved the day though.
First off, the cycling: I signed up thinking 4 x 40 = 160 km, 40 km is not too bad (that's 25 miles for my US readers). A bunch of people are going up for the challenge (not a 'race'... the goal being to make it to the finish line) and stay at somebody's bach for the night. So it sounded quite fun. Then it turned out that everybody else was planning on doing the whole thing, so there was no relay team. So if I want to do it, it's 160 km or nothing. Or I could start and not finish, but what's the point in that?
I was given somebody's phone number who was apparently looking for another team member, but by the time I got hold of him he'd already found somebody else. So now it's back to square one.
Thinking back to when I did the 50-mile walk with air cadets (which is probably not that good an idea, seeing as it was about ten years ago), I survived that (just) with next to no preparation. Those 50 miles (80 km) took us 24 hours to walk: we started at 9 pm one night and finished at 8 pm the following night. Yes indeed, crazy. So is a 160 km bike ride in the same league?
Anyway the last couple of weekends I've been determined to try. Last weekend (long weekend because of Labour Day public holiday) I clocked up 43 km going up to Harcourt Park and back. A bit sore the following day, but otherwise fine.
Today I went to Harcourt Park and back. Twice. A total of 82 km, which took me just under 4 hours. And boy am I suffering now. It's mildly reminiscent of an event that happened in London: I had a soccer game in the morning, then had to bike half an hour to university where there was a badminton tournament, after that I still had to bike half an hour home. I had to default the last game of the tournament because I did not feel good at all, and was fully expecting to have to find a drain to chunder into on the way home. But I managed to make it back in one piece, at which point everything just gave way. In between lying on the bed and crawling to the bathroom (even after I got to the dry retching stage, I thought I'd better play it safe), I have never felt so far out of (chemical) balance and just wanting to die, not being able to imagine how things could ever get better or be normal again. And once things did get better, a couple of days later, I vowed never to let myself get into that state EVER again.
Anyway today is not quite that bad, but I do have a bad headache and can imagine it's because my brain is drying out like an old sponge. Ugh. And if that's "only" 80 km, how am I going to be able to do double that, in one day? Crazy, crazy indeed.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
On a brighter note (and one that doesn't involve retching) the kids' Christmas play seems to be going pretty well. We've had two weeks' worth of rehearsals (40 minutes each time) and have learnt the songs and next week should be able to finish learning the dance moves. I printed off a pile of scripts for all the kids, and then left it at home. Ah well - next week will be plenty of time.
Another amusing thing for this week: I got my power bill. Last month they did an estimate and this month an actual reading, so because my power usage varies wildly depending on how much I use the heat pump system, the bill for this month was a cute $5.19. I'm wondering whether to frame it and hang it on the wall.
I've also started to make some progress on the DVD of the Kenya trip (slideshows of everyone's photos, set to music, and I'll throw in a lot of the video clips that I took just to make things a bit more interesting). When we were there I said to everyone I'd aim at having it done by Christmas - thinking it would be finished much sooner - but it could be tight even to have it done by then. It's been quite difficult to find suitable music. I wanted to use some Swahili gospel music, so it's a good message even though they won't understand it, but it's very hard to find any. YouTube and imeem saved the day though.
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