Sunday, November 22, 2009

Swift 5-Year Conference Celebration

The Swift mission celebrated its 5th anniversary with a 3-day conference at the Pennsylvania State University. Since UVOT team had their own meeting prior to the conference, I spent the entire week in State College. This was an opportunity to sample the local restaurants including the Cozy Thai, the Indian Pavilion, the Golden Wok, Herwig's, and the Berkey Creamery. While returning from the Indian Pavilion, we passed the pig sculpture (photo below) celebrating the 100th year of State College. After the conference banquet Thursday night, many of us went to hear Maxwell Strait at the club Phyrst. The beer was cheap, the band was loud, the place was jumping,  cigarettes were found in surprising locations, and the band did not quit until 2 a.m. Their lead guitar player resembled the PI of one of the Swift instruments. Attendance was down at the start of the Friday morning session.



The final day of the conference was exactly 5 years after the launch of Swift, and several cakes (left photo) celebrated the occasion. For some reason, everyone wanted a picture (right photo).



Monday, November 9, 2009

Elihu Boldt Memorial Symposium

About 100 of Elihu Boldt's friends and colleagues gathered at the American Center for Physics in College Park, MD, on November 6, 2009, to celebrate his life and legacy. In addition to those of us from the X-ray Astrophysics Branch at GSFC (which Elihu founded), there were also friends from as far away as Italy and Mexico and several people who knew Elihu as a student at MIT. There were a series of short talks about the wide range of topics that Elihu worked on during his long career. I was honored to contribute a talk on Galactic Ridge X-ray Emission. Elihu first published a paper on the topic in 1969 and was still suggesting observations a couple of years ago. An agenda for the symposium and links to some of the talks are available here.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Mary Ann Mears Sculptures


Mary Ann Mears is a sculptor who lives in Baltimore, Maryland. Many of her sculptures grace public areas such as bike paths in Maryland (where I first encountered them), but they are also found in other states and even in Japan. The sculptures are typically large, brightly colored abstract shapes made of aluminum or steel. The table below provides information about all the public sculptures that I know about. Unfortunately, there are rarely expository plaques with the sculptures. Another list of her sculptures can be found here. There is now an official Mary Ann Mears web site with an extensive list of her sculptures at public and private sites including the new Spun Grace at St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore.

This interactive Google map gives accurate locations for those in Central Maryland that I have viewed.

Click on the photo links to see images of the sculptures.


Title /
Installation
Date
Location / (Marker on Google Map) Links Comments
Beacon 1
1985

Bethesda
Metro Station
plaza
(A)

photo
photo

A major work in the large plaza at the station entrance.
Gyre & Gimble

Imagination Stage
4908 Auburn Ave.
Bethesda, MD
(B)
photo
close-up
plaque

a whimsical collection of
sculptures
Floating Garden
Spring 2004

3003 Hospital Dr., Cheverly, MD (C) information inside Cheverly Health Services Building
Coloratura
2002

Southern Ave. Metro Station
(D)
photo
Callooh Callay

Baltimore & Annapolis Rail Trail
Glen Burnie, MD
(E)
photo
information

adjacent to bike path
Caracol
1984

Snowden Center
Oakland Mills Road
Columbia, MD
(F)
photo
information

An odd, out-of-the-way location.
Red Buoyant
1978

100 E. Pratt St.
Baltimore, MD
(across from Harbor Place)
(G)
photo
information

Duplicated in Kawasaki, Japan
Red Buoyant II
June 1984

Nikko Hotel
Kawasaki, Japan
photo
information
An expression of friendship
between Baltimore and Kawasaki
Boanerges
1978
Northeast Middle School
Baltimore, MD


Brio
1979
Ft. Worthington Recreation Center
Baltimore, MD
information
Ailes
1983
Notre Dame Prep School
Towson, MD


? White Marsh Mall

Esperance
1983
Conn. Dept. of Mental Retardation
Norwalk, CT


Oasis Diffraction
1999
1219 Broad St.
General Assembly Hall
Durham, NC

a mobile inside the Hall
Sky Dancing
1994
Student Recreation Center
UNC-Chapel Hill


Caged Heuristics
1997
Meyerhoff Gallery

Friday, August 14, 2009

Another Year of No Mercy



The last regular game in 2009 for No Mercy, Building 2's coed team in the GSFC Slow-Pitch Softball Association, was Monday, August 10th. Once again the team avoided being "mercied" (the other team scoring 10 runs in one inning) for the whole year, although we did give up 7 runs in the first inning of the last game before coming back to make it a respectable 7 to 5 loss.


Surprisingly I played the whole year after sitting out 2008 with shoulder pain. Physical therapy followed by a steady regimen of exercises made throwing pain-free once again. As in 2007 and 2008, there was the traditional No Mercy cheer, and then a trip to Side Pockets to celebrate another season.







Two weeks later No Mercy played in the co-ed tournament with teams from both the Monday and Tuesday leagues. The games were shortened to 4 innings, and there were some minor rule changes to speed things up. We handily won the first game, but were shut out in the final games. Since our regular pitcher was unavailable, I pitched all 3 games. I set another personal record in the second game by giving up 3 home runs to the same batter. Two easily cleared the center field fence. On the second one, I gave the pitch the most arc ever, but he still crushed it. This adds to my other pitching "accomplishments": a 4-pitch inning and a full 7-inning game with no fielding chances. Sadly, it was the final game for our star "ringer", who is taking a post-doc position in Massachusetts. At least she went out with a bang -- a bases-loaded homer in the first game. We later gave her an appropriate send off.