Sleep is for chelonians

Yay for Utah, me-tah and all of us, ta!

Utah's a great state at some levels, but for various reasons (quite a few of them religious) it's got a history of being unfriendly to the noble products of microbial fermentation (i.e. alcohol).

The first time I went to Utah (as far as I remember), I was about 7 or 8 years old, on a family holiday. We visited a bunch of national parks with fantastic canyons, eroded rock formations and probably some dinosaurs (or was that Colorado?). I didn't notice the alcohol-related issues at the time (well duh).

The last time I went to Utah (unless I've had some mental absences quite a bit more substantial than the ones I'm aware of) was with my father a couple of years ago, on a road-trip-and-horse-riding holiday. The holiday itself was pretty awesome (horsies! campfires! funky geology!), but our return route took us through Salt Lake City, which was weird in a not-so-nice way. The approach to the city was miles upon miles of depressing strip malls and fast-food franchises; then the city center, with its bizarre Mormon church that looks like fancy bank headquarters in a park populated by UFO-like statues and over-friendly proselytizers... And nearly nowhere to eat or drink after 8 pm.

When I say drink of course I mean alcohol. Hey, I'm not asking for much; a bit of beer or wine with a meal, y'know, makes a change from iced water and Coca-Cola... But even outside of SLC, there were places where it was hard to get a decent drink with dinner. One evening we ended up at a tex-mex place where they flat out didn't serve alcohol at all.

Turns out that the war on alcohol does not reside only in the moral certitude of restaurant-owners, but also in the state laws. The good news is, Utah's legislators have just decided to relax drinking laws, notably the one that required would-be boozers to "fill in a form and pay a fee" in order to enter a bar. I mean, come on, I do believe encouraging moderation is a good thing, but forms and fees? Talk about buzzkill. Plus, hello civil liberties!

Not that civil liberties were really the focus of the move -- apparently, it was more about attracting those hordes of tourists who might otherwise be turned off by the booze-unfriendly policies. But hey, sometimes, results do not care for causes.

So, here's to Utah... cheers!

Law of schmaverages

I apologize to anyone who hasn't watched Battlestar Galactica (especially the frakkin' finale), because you can't possibly understand what I'm raving about.

The point is, we're doomed. Never mind what the Baltar-angel says; on this world too, eventually, the machines will rise and kill us all. For some deep, meaningful and as yet undecipherable reason (*cough*BG's target audience is 85% straight male geeks*cough*), a number of them (literally) will dress up as hot blondes, which may be considered a consolation in certain circles. None will try to become governor of California, thank the gods.

I for one welcome our new toaster overlords.

The knife (or "The one where my Mom almost got arrested")

Hello campers! I know, I know, I'm neglecting this blog terribly. What can I say, I toil night and day for the betterment of humanity... or, possibly, to satisfy my unseemly obsession with Bacillus cereus plasmids.

So, pending another great installment of The Mad Adventures of Gus the Mighty Chinchilla (since that's what seems to be the most popular subject among my modest readership), here's another guest post by Claude (aka Dad) narrating the parental units' misadventures on their way home to the Old World. A cautionary tale it is indeed.

Editor's notes in square brackets.

--

Traveling by air these days can become tricky: ignore the rules at your own peril!

If you go hiking, chances are you have packed a kind of knife with you and probably stuffed it in your rucksack. Not that you need a weapon but to cut a piece of bread, spread butter and cut your cheese or salami, you'll need some cutting implement. [though not everyone chooses to take along a folding Opinel knife with blade stopper - the legal equivalent of a switchblade knife]

The problem starts when you forgot it and bravely show up at the airport, unknowingly carrying with you a dangerous terrorist weapon!

That's exactly what happened to us on our way back from the land of Homeland Security. Well, except that the Boston branch wasn't up to scratch and let us pass through [with such a knife] on our flight to London. It would be ill advised to blame them but after all, isn't it from Boston that some crazy guys boarded with box-cutters 8 years ago on ill-fated flights?

Security screening at London Heathrow is no laughing matter and they use the latest gizmo available. Very quickly you end up on the side with a highly assertive security officer asking you about some object she could hurt herself while emptying your rucksack... "Bingo!" (they must earn a bonus on true positive...). From then on you feel like a piece of shit, they call the police, inform you that it is illegal to carry a [switchblade] knife and that  you most likely will be arrested! Your connecting flight? Don't even think about it!

After you've had plenty of time to melt into a pool of embarrassed liquid, the cops arrive: 2 m tall, 200 pounds of flack jacket, handcuffs, big gun and all the expected paraphernalia!  Very professionally (I must confess), they assess the situation and in a glimpse decide that you are no real threat to international air travel: "Well madam, next time bring some fine Belgian chocolate instead! You came from Boston, aaaah, we are not surprised...!"

By now, a bit relieved, you realize that your much wanted flight home [after a previous transatlantic flight] has departed 5 min ago, you feel miserable and your are left with 3 hours to kill while waiting for the next flight.

Morality: eat sliced cheese & salami!

Land of contrasts

Guest post by Claude (aka Dad) with editor’s comments in square brackets.

I had a lot of expectations, setting foot again in the land of the free & home of the brave. After years of America-bashing during the Bush dark age, but wary of the economic crisis which we do, right or wrong, blame on the "Americans", to see the real people, to be in Massachusetts again after years of being away was really refreshing.

Of course now Obama is there and as much as Americans can rightfully be proud of themselves, we Europeans are pondering how it will impact us. Anyway, there is something in the air that is definitely worth breathing --especially coming from a place where political & policy change is soooOO intricately difficult (no, you can't!).

Among the contrasts, the large number of  "small jobs" in the service industry is always surprising. Be it in the T [public transport] in Boston, in shops, restaurants, parkings, all around... everywhere you see people in what are probably low paying jobs. Right or wrong, where we call home [Belgium], people are unemployed often for lack of proper education and either don't want to take jobs paid below the dole or such jobs don't exist in such numbers. Makes you wonder...

We did not see many big construction projects in housing or public works: is this the effect of the crisis? Still, Boston has been transfigured after the Central artery project: it is much nicer downtown now.

Motivation for eco savings: still so many huge locally made gas-guzzlers around on american highways but so many foreign brands of cars:  Prius everywhere (well, in Newton anyway...), VW, BMW, Saab, you name it, plus all the many small or luxury asian-made cars, it is scary for American manufacturers and the jobs behind those.

What about alternative power? Wind energy, solar panels on roofs? So few are visible [in contrast to the large amounts you can see in countries like China, that are often blamed by Western countries for being big polluters...]. Where are the power saving bulbs in the shops? Shelf-space is minimalistically reduced. You'd expect a technology boom there...

Another contrast: nature. After visiting an Audubon reservation in Pleasant Valley in the Berkshires where we saw beaver huts on the ponds in dream beaver-country, we realized during the way back on Mass Pike that most ponds along the pike were colonized by these marvelous animals that came back from the brink. This makes our little Belgian countryside so poor on biodiversity pale with envy.

What else impressed me? Seeing Old Sturbridge Village once again; an evening at the theater to see "Bad dates" (fun, must see) in Lenox, a (very) small town in Western Mass., and a last magical evening in Boston Symphony Hall with Yo-Yo Ma & the Silk Road experience ("Leyla and Majnun" must see absolutely!).

Last but not least, the lab at Harvard. We KNOW it is at the top, we see the very large campus but it [the level of excellence?] is highly immaterial: it's most surely in the people's brains [why thank you] and the way they collaborate [oh yeah] and are able to muster finances [by sweating blood]. Hard to see in real life labs full of clutter [hey, we think of it as “homely”...] but very real by all accounts! Funny isn't it?

I'll stop here, I hope no one will take it badly, it is only a biased but honest account of first hand travel feelings!

Fun with friction coefficients (just kidding)

Snowshoeing without snowshoes on well-snowed hilly terrain is a great setting for a physics lesson about gravity, phases of matter and friction coefficients. To the great relief of probably everybody who might stumble across this blog, I will refrain my geekier instincts for once.

Instead, let me just say this in telegraphic style. 

Was sunny, temperature comfortable for physical activity. Snow abundant and packed, though tendency to melt. Ascent was steep but company in high spirits. Made good progress. Encountered several tricky ice patches. All negotiated well except once, self fell to knees and slid partway down until M. caught scruff of neck. Felt very silly. No injuries, much giggling. 

Descent more challenging. Very slippery. Some nervous feeling, though thrill of barely controlled sliding was highly stimulating. Future titanium hips mentioned by less young participants, led to thoughts of "artificial hippies" (pun credit Roy Zimmerman). Mentally composed post on friction coefficients & other physics concepts, then (in rare flash of lucidity) dismissed as potentially boring to blog audience (duh).

Also indulged in ritual posing of dinosaur plushie Braa, to initial consternation of parental units. Fact, said p.u. later contributed ideas + participated in Braa theatricals. Allusions to psychotherapy only in jest (allegedly).

Enjoyment had by all. Photos available here.

Move over, Cute Overload

So here I am, moonlighting as a primate behavioral psychologist (i. e. on holiday with my parents), and I get to take the BEST PHOTO EV4R.

They are just too cute for words.