I like to fantasize that, among the many birds that were flitting around, one took a special interest in me. I decided to call him ‘Henry’. A singularly intelligent and curious bird, Henry has been a loner all his life.
Henry
The Coffee Station
I make coffee here every morning. If you look closely, right behind the hopper for the coffee grinder there is a small memo book, the “Coffee Station Log”. The March 4 entry reads, in part: “…coffee is supposed to last until we leave for the NY-Barcelona cruise on April 16.”
I read that this morning, on March 20, not quite three weeks after I wrote it. Things are happening so fast! The cruise is no more, almost certainly, and the US has 50,000 cases of COVID-19, on track for 100,000 in three days, and by the time April 16 arrives we will undoubtedly be over a million.
Unlike too many of my fellow citizens, I understand exponential growth. I still find the reality of it hard to grasp, but I am holed up in my bunker, making coffee every morning, for as long as I can.
Works of Man
Peekaboo
Orion
The Olympus E-M1 III has an autofocus mode for star photography. This is a jpg straight out of the camera except for contrast enhancement with gimp. 60 second exposure using a star tracking mount on a tripod. The Orion Nebula is just visible.
A word problem for our time
Every morning Mr C makes coffee for his wife Ms F. He carefully measures 15 grams of ground coffee into his aeropress, puts the aeropress and cup on a kitchen scale, zeros the reading, and adds 200 grams of water at 97C from a temperature controlled kettle.
One day he mistakenly uses 18 grams of coffee (the dose he normally uses for espresso).
a) How many grams of water should he use to achieve the same concentration of coffee? b) Suppose instead of 18 he used 20 grams of coffee. How many grams of water should he use in this case? c) In general, how many grams of water should be used for each gram of coffee?
Walking in Beliz
Ocean spray and rainbow
Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds
Home of a permanent exhibit on the history of the Nazi movement in Germany. Originally it was to be the “Congress Hall” for the Nazi rally grounds, but it was never completed:
It was consciously modeled on the Roman Colosseum. Here is a view of the unfinished interior:
Like a number of Nazi constructions, it was done very hastily. Note the random mixture of bricks:
The Nazis took over Germany in what seems like an inexplicably short time. The party started around 1920; in 1933 Hitler was named Chancellor by von Hindenberg, and in within a few years Germany was a totalitarian state bent on world conquest.
Castle on the Rhine River
One of the few rays of sun the entire day…