Rubens' Tube

Brian made a Rubens' Tube at Colby and brought it home for Thanksgiving. He set it up in the garage:

Laura made a video of it dancing to the tune of "In the Hall of the Mountain King":



If this video doesn't work for you, try the one at Brian's web site:

http://www.colby.edu/~bkputnam/flametube

In any event, please see Brian's web site at the above link for discussion of the construction and physics of the tube.

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving at home. Brian, Emily and Laura were all home, and we also had Camila and two of Emily's friends from Middlebury: Chalene from Singapore and Congcong from China. We had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and an "International Thanksgiving" dinner on Friday, with dishes prepared by Camila, Chalene and Congcong (with help from Emily and Laura). We also did this last year with Marion, Chalene and Ayumi--Emily's roommate last year from Japan.

Camila, Chalene and Emily cooking in the kitchen:

Chalene, Camila and Congcong with their handiwork:

Dishes starting to the left of the rice and moving clockwise around it: potatoes, dumplings, empanadas, seafood noodles:

Dishes starting at 8 o'clock relative to the lower rice bowl and moving clockwise around it: Coca-Cola chicken, omelette with shrimp, tofu and beef (spicy):

Dinner was delicious!

San Francisco

Nancy and I traveled to San Francisco Nov. 14-18. I had a 2-day business meeting and we stayed for a couple of extra days. My meeting was in Half Moon Bay. This is a sunset from outside our room, looking over the ocean:

While I was in meetings, Nancy did some sightseeing. This is the famous Mavericks surfing beach, a short drive north of our hotel:

After my meeting we toured San Francisco together. This is the Dragon Gate entrance to Chinatown:

And this is the famous Lombard Street:

A week earlier, on Nov. 7, an oil tanker hit the Bay Bridge and spilled 58,000 gallons of oil into the San Francisco Bay. (Click here for details.) Many beaches were closed, and cleanup efforts were underway. This is the beach adjacent to the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park:

However, the sea lions at nearby Pier 39 did not seem to be stressed:

We had dinner within sight of the sea lions, in Neptune's Palace on Pier 39.

Laura's 17th Birthday

Somehow I forgot to post an entry about Laura's birthday. Since corrected. See below or click here.

Comet Holmes #2

Here's a picture, taken a few minutes ago. The first picture is straight from the camera. Comet Holmes is the fuzzy ball a little above center:

The following picture is the same as above except that I used PowerPoint to add a couple of arrows. The upper arrow points to Comet Holmes. The lower arrow points to the Pleiades.

Click on the pictures to enlarge them. The first picture is higher quality, and both Comet Holmes and the Pleiades are easily visible once you know where to look for them (after you click on the picture to enlarge it). The second picture shows you where to look, but the objects themselves are harder to see because the picture is lower quality.

Camera settings for my Canon A520: Put the lens on wide angle. (This is to obtain the maximum aperture. If you use the telephoto, it reduces the maximum aperture available.) Put the camera on manual, and set it for the maximum aperture (F2.6) and slowest shutter speed (15 seconds). Set the camera for the highest ISO speed available (ISO 400). Turn off the flash. And, of course, use a tripod.

Comet Holmes

Obviously I haven't been posting much here recently. But I've been posting a lot over at my work blog about my trip to China Oct. 9-20. Feel free to check it out.

If you can see the constellation Perseus in your night sky, be sure to look for Comet Holmes. It is easily visible with the naked eye. I tried to take a photo to put on the blog, but it just comes out black. I don't yet have a digital camera (or maybe the skills) capable of taking astro photos as good as the ones I used to take with my 35mm camera.

Comet Holmes is a known comet with a period of 6.9 years that is not normally visible to the naked eye. But in late October it unexpectedly became about a million times brighter than usual. You can easily see it with the naked eye, even with considerable light pollution, if you know where to look.

Comet Holmes doesn't have a tail at present. It's just a fuzzy blob. Obviously not a star. Here are some links to online information with pictures and charts to help you find it in the night sky, regardless of where you are in the world.

Sky and Telescope magazine article #1
Sky and Telescope magazine article #2
Wikipedia entry

It's cool! Be sure to check it out.

Laura's 17th Birthday

Laura's 17th birthday was on October 18. I wasn't home then, but I wished her a happy birthday from China! And I called her from the Great Wall on her birthday. (Well, it was the morning of the 19th in China, but still the evening of the 18th in Massachusetts, which is where Laura was then.) We celebrated Laura's birthday at home on October 21.

Nancy didn't have quite the right candles, but she made do (15+2).

Emily was home, too. Let's see: digital camera, necklace and book from Chile, bathrobe from China, French course on CD, art supplies. Worth waiting for, maybe!

More Cambridge History

More pictures from "Cambridge History Days" at Bill's sugarhouse on Oct. 6-7.

These pictures were taken on Sunday, Oct. 7.

(The pictures in the previous post were taken on Sat., Oct. 6.)

left: Clark Dodge

Above, Bill is feeding oats into a threshing machine, powered by an old tractor. Below, the oats are coming out!

Below is an old "horse power." This is a treadmill for a horse, used to power machinery. Both the threshing machine and the horse power came from the barn on the Brewster farm in Pleasant Valley. The threshing machine was originally powered by the horse power, before tractors came along. Here, Bill is turning the wheel to show that the horse power still works smoothly. Also on display was a "sheep power" (no picture).

Cambridge History Days

"Cambridge History Days" are being held at Bill's sugarhouse today and tomorrow. This event is sponsored by the Cambridge Historical Society and used to be held every fall at the Clark Dodge farm on the Smugglers Notch Road.

There were old cars, old tractors, old threshing machines, weaving demonstrations, old railroad pictures, talks on covered bridges, and lots more. Lots of good food, too!

One of the many interesting displays was a model of an old-time sugarhouse. Note the team of oxen pulling a sap tub. In Bill's sugarbush, sap is collected by pipeline.

O'Briens in China

Susan and Paul O'Brien visited China this summer on a trip for teachers. You can read about their trip here. Their comments and observations were most helpful to me as I prepare for my trip.

BTW, Susan's birthday is today and I think it is a big one. Of course I'd never mention her age on a public blog, but she was born on the day that Sputnik was launched. Happy birthday, Susan!

China Trip

If you are reading this, most likely you know about my upcoming trip to China, Oct. 9-20. Since that is a company trip, I will be posting about it on my new company blog - the Yankee ACA Blog. "George's Home Blog" is so much fun that I started a company blog! Feel free to check it out. I hope to post pictures to the Yankee ACA Blog while I am in China.

Brian's Boat

Brian reports that he and his friends at Colby won the Johnson Pond Regatta with their homemade boat. Congratulations, Brian! Brian has posted pictures on Flickr, which you can reach from his home page.