Best letter of the week

January 17, 2010UncategorizedSteve Stern

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: by way of Swampland @ Time

Dear Pat Robertson,

I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate
the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks
people when they are down, so I'm all over that action. But when you
say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I
may be evil incarnate, but I'm no welcher. The way you put it, making a
deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished. Sure, in the
afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get
something here on earth — glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame,
glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean
nothing. And that was before the earthquake. Haven't you seen
"Crossroads"? Or "Damn Yankees"? If I had a thing going with Haiti,
there'd be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs,
Botox — that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my
style. Nothing against it — I'm just saying: Not how I roll. You're
doing great work, Pat, and I don't want to clip your wings — just,
come on, you're making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep
blaming God. That's working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may
need to renegotiate your own contract.

Best, Satan

(The actual author is identified as Lily Coyle, Minneapolis.)

The Mysteries of the Web….Immigration Edition

January 15, 2010AmericanaSteve Stern

A couple of days ago, I put up a post on Immigration and Citizenship. I know I did because it showed up on my Facebook page; but, now, it is gone. I have no idea how it happened, or, even, what exactly happened. The post just disappeared. Maybe it is hiding somewhere in cyberspace, maybe it it just gone. But I do know it once existed because the shadow is still there on Facebook.

Anyway, now that it is gone, I can safely saw that it was a great post. Accompanied by one of my favorite pictures.

One of the themes that seems to be emerging in this blog is that the greatness of the United States of America (hereafter known as America) is our openness to immigration and our acceptance and assimilation of immigrants. Not just in the past, but today.

About a month ago, there was an article in the Economist that started: A Ponzi scheme that works.…The greatest strength of America is that people want to live there. The article went on to talk about how quickly foreigners become Americans.

Yesterday, I saw an article in the Atlantic entitled How America Can Rise Again and, sort of in passing, it said The day before the dinner, three U.S. citizens
had been named the winners of the Nobel Prize for physiology or
medicine. The day after, three more would be named winners of the Nobel
Prize for physics. All the more impressive for America’s attractive
power, four of the six winners had been born outside the country—in
China, Canada, Australia, England—and had taken U.S. citizenship.

Yesterday, on the way to a class, Michele and I stopped for dinner. The choice was between Mexican, Vietnamese, or Chinese because they were the most convenient restaurants on the way. Since Michele had had Chinese for lunch and we had last gone to the Mexican place, we went to the Vietnamese restaurant. Not Nobel caliber, but very tasty. (Although I did not care for the "very American" Thomas Kincaid pictures on the walls.)

Long live the new America.

Clouds of Dust…on Mars

January 13, 2010UncategorizedSteve Stern

I am not a big fan of the space program. I would much rather the money were spent on something I consider useful, like a high speed train to Los Angeles. But the pictures that come out of the program are amazing. This is a picture of Falling Material Kicks Up Cloud of Dust on Dunes according to NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

It is everything I could hope for: mysterious and beautiful. The picture above is a detail of the picture below. About a third of the way up from the bottom and a third of the way in from the left, is a dust cloud kicked up by the sun warming and melting carbon dioxide ice. This is a picture taken on Mars and sent here by a robot!

Reflections: a promo

January 10, 2010UncategorizedSteve Stern

I love reflections. Reflections in metal, or water, or glass are always fun when we are not quite sure what is going on. The reflection below is off the side of a very polished Airstream trailer parked near the Palo Alto Concours D'Elegance at Stanford a couple of years ago. It is a straight shot. Where the metal is warped – for example, the lock on the panel or the rivets – the reflection is warped.

Reflections in water have the added complexity of the water surface. For example, this is a reflection on a pond with a very soft breeze.

Flipped up side down and it becomes a soft impressionistic image.

The reflection on a perfectly still High Sierra Lake is almost like a mirror – except for the rings left by a fish. (Double click on the image to enlarge it for the full effect.)