There was a pretty interesting picture floating around the web today and you can see it here.

What caught my eye wasn’t the picture itself (which was pretty neat, no doubt) but the explanation in the text that it was thought to have been caused by a Prandtl-Glauert singularity. And I thought it might be worth talking for a bit about what this is.

The title of today’s blog -  "What’s the plural?" – is meant to highlight the fact that the word singularity has nothing to do with single (as in only one). What it refers to is something that’s infinitely large, but only exists in an infinitesimally small place. The big deal in the universe that goes along with this are black holes. They’re called singularities because they have an infinitely strong gravitational field but, mathematically, only occupy a point in space.  That’s pretty weird.

But such weirdness exists closer to home as well. When you bang a coffee cup against the table you’ll often see a drop of coffee shoot up from the middle of the cup. That’s because the surface is trying to produce a singularity – a circular "wave" of coffee at the center with an infinitely tall height. Real coffee won’t allow this, of course, so it breaks into a droplet.

Well, back to the Prandtl-Glauert singularity. Prandtl was a scientist specializing in fluid motion (like air, water, and so forth) and was particularly interested in the behavior of air at very high speeds – such as supersonic. Glauert was a British aerodynamicist who first published what Prandtl had been dealing with for a while. And what this was was the observation that the pressure coefficient (a standard aerodynamic measure) isn’t constant with speed. And, in fact, it increases as mach 1 is approached. So much so that, when one reaches mach 1, the pressure coefficient becomes infinite.That’s because it is (roughly) equal to a constant (like, say, 2.4) divided by 1-M, where M is the mach number. When M=1 we’re at mach 1 and we’re also dividing a finite number by zero. To infinity and beyond!

Now this would be "a bad thing" if it really worked like that. But, just as with the coffee cup, although the simplified mathematics says the pressure coefficient should go to infinity, real world effects conspire to keep this from happening. And if Prandtl’s model had been more accurate, it would have indicated this as well.

But the whole point of today’s discussion isn’t what actually happens near mach 1 but rather what’s really meant when someone says "there’s a singularity." And now you know. A singularity indicates something that’s getting infinitely large very, very quickly. Like when my computer shows the spinning "please wait" ball when I try to save a file. My temper goes off to infinity so fast …

- And that’s today’s word from the bird

Wowie. There’s general agreement that one of the major reasons the dinosaurs got the kibosh (along with most of the mammals, lizards, fish, plankton, etc, etc) round about 57 million years ago was the unfortunate intersection of our planet and a largish asteroid. In fact, this is the sort of thing that’s thought to have caused most all of the big extinction events (and the one that killed the dinosaurs wasn’t even close to being the worst of these). Take a look at that nice round hole in the Gulf of Mexico – that’s what happens when you do your excavating via meteor.

But that all happened SO long ago it’s just hard to worry about it. Of course, you can make a movie about it, a la Armageddon, but that’s just movie make believe.

However, when it happens within living memory – that causes me to do a bit of a second take. It’s funny that it’s not discussed more but there was a recent article on the mysterious boom that flattened over 800 square miles of Siberian forest in 1908. The smart money is on a comet as the culprit and you can read more about it here.

I don’t know about you, but this kind of thing really does make me pause and think. We’re not talking millions and millions of years ago but a mere century. That is most definitely recent history. Same general time frame as the Titanic and World War I. 

What would the results have been if it had struck smack dab in the middle of London? The answer – no more London. Today’s London has just about the exact same area as that devastated by the 1908 shock wave.

So, the only reason we didn’t have monstrous devastation is because, by pure chance, it exploded over a wilderness area instead of a metropolitan one. Luck, that’s all.

Could it happen again? Absolutely.

In the near term future? Yep.

The universe can be a scary place.

- And that’s today’s word from the bird

I thought I’d introduce something new to Nicky510 and, depending on the feedback, it’ll either stick around or not. What I thought might be interesting is to use Sunday to show some of the behind-the-scenes stuff that normally stays hidden away in my sketchpad and art drawer. If you like it, please let me know. 

What we have today are some conceptual sketches of a character for a new strip that I started working on some months back. I wanted to work up a style that was different from the one I use in Nicky510 and I spent a good bit of time sketching, re-sketching, and sketching yet again.

I’ve always had a difficult time doing attractive cartoon women. They’d either end up attractive but too realistic or too cartoony and not particularly attractive. These sketches show what I consider to be the first glimmers of success in that I think she’s pretty cute AND cartoony. As is the case for most artists, I spent some time with different expressions and poses. Before a character is "done" you want to be sure you know what it’ll look like from a variety of angles and in a multitude of poses. This set of sketches is nowhere near comprehensive enough for a full visualization but it gives a flavor for how I was approaching the subject.

Will the new comic ever see the light of day? Maybe. Depends on Nicky and available time and how they both play out.

- And that’s today’s word from the bird

Enough already!

The time is long overdue to simply remove infidelity from politics. And by that, I don’t mean to stop doing it. But simply to stop talking about it, stop gossiping  about it, and stop standing atop hallowed principles shouting about how bad "they" are and how good "we" are. Because the "we" that haven’t done it yet have a disconcerting habit of falling into the "they" camp.

Each new "shocking" revelation provides grist for the hyper-excited tabloid coverage of who did what, to whom, and are there any pictures we can get of the sinning couple? A week or so of distraction from events of real importance, damage to  a career and then on to the next titillation.

Back before the news media was as efficient at uncovering the dirt as it is today, guys like Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy could fool around without too much of a worry. And it could be argued (very persuasively) that they did their jobs just fine in spite of it. Of course, if it had come out in the news they’d have had to resign in disgrace. And what would the point of that have been?

Gary Hart had hopes of the presidency when photos of an enlapped Donna Rice caused a quick and permanent shutdown to that campaign. Who else? Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer, John Ensign, John Edwards, and now Mark Sanford.  It’s not just political figures either. FIA chief Max Mosley was filmed at a private S&M session with half a dozen private hookers, almost certainly by someone who wanted  to force him down from his position as the FIA’s president. To Mosley’s credit, he refused to go quietly into the night and rightly said that his after-hours entertainment had zero to do with his day job and any extra-marital excursions were something he and his wife would deal with.

Doubly irksome is that it’s often the case that the guys who most loudly attack their political opponents for sexual misconduct are themselves subject to the same urges and failures. Sanford’s attacks on Clinton come to mind as we read about his Argentina vacation.

The problem is that we’re tied to millions of years of evolution and our intellectual constructs, such as  moral goodness, marital fidelity, and so forth, simply are no match for our biological imperatives. It’s been shown so many times that it’s tiresome just from the repetition. Guys DO this. Not all. But many. And it’s not particularly because they want to, at least in an abstract sense. Intellectually I’m sure they’d rather it didn’t happen, considering the fallout which inevitably follows. But when that deep limbic center says "go for it" they’re going to have a tough time ignoring the command.

So, what’s my point? That we should simply accept the fact that guys (and women too!) are susceptible to infidelity and then eliminate it from our public discourse. Simply off bounds. Don’t ask and don’t tell.  It’s an issue for the guy and his wife and their family to deal with. And that’s where it should end. I really, really, have no need or desire to know.

From my standpoint I want to know if the person is doing a good job or not. And if he is then I’m happy. His marital problems are his own concern. Seriously. The Europeans are SO much better at this than we are. Must be that puritan history of ours. But if we could let people’s private lives be their own (what a  concept), maybe we could start spending time on other issues. Like, oh I don’t know, impending war in Iran and Korea, massive die-offs of the ocean, catastrophic climate change – you know, stuff that just possibly will have a bit more importance to our future well being.

- And that’s today’s word from the bird

What I find most interesting about many "little known facts" is not the fact itself but rather the fact that anyone came up with the fact in the first place. The factoid that most recently struck me is the science behind "worm grunting." For those of you who aren’t up on this, worm grunting is a way to get worms to come up out of the ground and into your waiting hands. You pound a stick into the earth and then pull a steel bar across its top. The vibrations it then experiences do two things. First, they create a sound that’s kind of like a low grunting. And they also send vibrations into the soil. These vibrations apparently sound/feel an awful lot like those produced by moles – the kind that love to munch on worms. And, just like flying fish will jump out of the water to escape a predator and make quicker time in the air, so do the worms "jump" out of the ground and slither across the soil.

It’s at this point that the worm grunter nabs them, stuffs them in a bucket, and later sells them to fishermen looking for fresh worm bait. You can find a soul-stirring video of it here.

But how?! How did anyone ever come up with this? Were they idly running a bar of steel on a buried stump and noticed worms fleeing in all directions? Did someone think – hey, maybe if I did this it’ll scare all the worms from the ground? Neither seems all that likely. But SOMEBODY figured it out.

To me it’s just another demonstration of the fact that over lots and lots of time, people will stumble upon just about anything.

- And that’s today’s word from the bird

Now this is an out there Mad Hatter. Tim Burton is planning his usual over-the-edge production for the upcoming Alice in Wonderland flick and Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter is sure to provide a typically excellent Depp performance. But that’s not what I wanted to speak of today. No, what I was interested in was spreading some light on why the Mad Hatter is called the Mad Hatter in the first place. Or, more generally, why we say "Mad as a hatter."

The reason is quite interesting. Turns out that mercury was used by hat makers when they were making their hats. And mercury is a most toxic substance indeed. We all know about mercury poisoning and how tuna shouldn’t be eaten in too great a quantity due to the concentrations of mercury in its flesh. Well, the old time hat makers got a lot more mercury than you’ll likely ever see from tuna. And prolonged exposure to mercury causes uncontrollable trembling of the limbs, mood swings and aggressiveness. Or, more simply, it makes you mad. 

Hat making isn’t the first profession to come with serious health consequences, but it’s one of the few to have led to a new phrase in the English language. Now you know where it came from.

- And that’s today’s word from the bird

It’s Father’s Day – the traditional time to receive a finger painted masterpiece if your child is but a wee one and a bottle of Jack Daniels if they’re further along the grown-up line. But what is it that dads most appreciate? I’ll tell you the reality in my case. Being remembered is nice, no doubt. But the best Father’s Day gift is knowing that my kids are well placed to get on in the world. Being a dad (or mom) means putting out the time and effort to see that our kids have the opportunity to have a good life, and what could be more important than knowing that it’s all working – that they’re doing well and making their way? I sure can’t think of anything.

So there’s my little insight, having been a dad for some few years. Work to make sure you’re carving out a rewarding and meaningful life for yourself and let your dad know that his help in getting you there is appreciated. That’s all that’s really needed.

But a little chocolate can’t hurt either.

- And that’s today’s word from the bird

A little observation on observation today. Photographers learn very early in life that time of day is a massively important factor in good photography. The quality of the light is really what it’s all about, especially since without light there really IS no photography.

While on a recent trip to far off and exotic lands, I chanced upon a great illustration of this fact. And what I did is create a nice animated illustration of the importance of light. The star of the show is this building:

and you can see the full exhibit if you mosey on over here.

- And that’s today’s word from the bird

Hey, some good news – Koenigsegg is buying Saab! Time for a cheer, I say.

I can still remember how bummed I was when I heard that GM had bought Saab. I guess they felt that Ford had acquired Volvo and so they needed their own Scandinavian nameplate. Bummer. Because I’ve always liked Saabs. Saabs were quirky and cool. They didn’t do sedans – they were too normal. The dash looked like it came from a fighter jet, the overall style was distinctive, and the cars always had a touch of innovation. Innovative, daring, and distinctive. Excellent. And just when I thought I might be ready to own one they were bought by the General and I promptly lost interest, convinced that GM would simply suck the Saab out of Saab. Which it immediately did.

And why is Koenigsegg such a good thing? Well, Christian von Koenigsegg is a guy who has been making outrageous supercars for over ten years now. They cost over a  million bucks, they’re fast as hell, and they are in no way shy and retiring in terms of style. If there’s one thing that Koenigsegg doesn’t do, it’s make cars that are plain vanilla (or even french vanilla).

So now, maybe, Saab can come back from the walking dead. I just hope enough engineers and designers are left who remember what the brand was all about and have the passion and ability and resources to transform it into a viable product. It’s certainly clear that business as usual isn’t going to cut it. And that’s why I’m pumped up about the Koenigsegg news. Because business as usual doesn’t describe the Koenigsegg way at all.

So a quiet cheer and crossed fingers. Now it’s wait and see time.

- And that’s today’s word from the bird

Well, that’s impressive. The bacterium Herminiimonas glaciei, so named because it was found 2 miles beneath a Greenland glacier, had been snoozing for about 120,000 years. Chilling out, you might say. Recovered by scientists via a deep bore (very deep), it was treated to a warm and cozy  36 degrees F in their lab for seven months. This got the bacterium’s attention. Another four months at an almost tropic 41 degrees  made it positively frisky. So much so that it’s producing an extended family of like-minded bacteria.

These little guys are tough! 120,000 years under ice and still good to go. When you read about antibiotic resistant bacteria in hospitals and wonder just how strong they might be – this is a hint that they’re probably very tough indeed. It takes a lot to kill a strain of bacteria that’s spent some time evolving survival strategies.

What’s the good news takeaway from all this? Well, assuming mankind manages to mess up royally and kill off most all life on the planet, including all the people, it doesn’t mean it’s the end of life. The cousins of this bacteria will be waiting to evolve into new and wonderful life forms. Might take a heap of million years, but it’ll happen. Life will go on.

- And that’s today’s word from the bird