Creepy robots

I'm not sure why I find these robot videos so creepy:





It might be the far too rapid, but human-like movement of the robots. Or it could be because the robots are handling food and other items which I expect to be handled with care and love, by people.

I'm certainly not against automation. For my work I analyze terabytes of scientific data and the only way I can do it is by writing programs to make the computer do it for me.

But I think if it were a robot sitting at a desk doing calculations with a pencil and eraser, so I could see human-like actions, I'd think it was kind of creepy.

Erin

Aspen 2009

Its been forever since I posted. I think I was waiting for something important to write about or something. Anyway, this isn't important but it is cool. I went to a workshop at the aspen center for physics and I took some photos. Here they are:

Aspen2009

I hope you enjoy,
Erin

Carnegie Hall Concerts

We had a couple of concerts last week, one at St. Joseph's in the village and the other at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. We were performing with a truly great singer, Alexander Kisselev. He is the best Bass soloist I have personally heard.

This was the first time I have sung in Weill. One thing performers say about it is that it is "dry" acoustically, which means you don't get much feedback. This is true, and it makes it difficult to gauge the sound in the hall and to hear the other singers, especially those standing in front. On the other hand some sounds are more immediate and this was an interesting change.

The concert was what I would call a resounding success. In fact I have not personally been part of such an enthusiastic response from the audience. We were even asked to repeat one of the pieces which was fun.

On short notice we were recently asked to perform in another concert at Carnegie hall. The concert is this Thursday and is titled "Stars Of The Kirov In Celebration of Russia Day". "Russia Day" is in celebration of Russian independence from the Soviet Union. We are going to do two opera choruses and the big finale from our last concert. It should be a fun celebration.

Job at Brookhaven

I accepted a tenure track job at Brookhaven National Laboratory yesterday. As I mentioned in my last post, astrophysics is a new direction for the lab and I am their first hire in that field. It will be partly my responsibility to build a strong cosmology program there. To start with we will hire one more astrophysicist this year, and we will bring in a postdoc the following year.

I will also spend one day a week in the city at Columbia or NYU where I have collaborators and there are regular seminar series. That way I can stay in contact with the community while we build a program at Brookhaven. At Brookhaven we will also start our own seminar series to bring in interesting speakers and make the lab an active center for astrophysics and cosmology. It would be good to coordinate this seminar series with nearby Stony Brook. We also plan to expand the group in the near future to include more tenure track positions.

At first I'll continue my work with SDSS data and preparation for the Dark Energy Survey. The lab is also a member of LSST, a longer term project in which I will become heavily involved. People at the lab are building the detectors and I would focus on software pipelines and analysis.

This job is a great opportunity and a good fit for me. The kind of resources I need for my work are plentiful there and our long term goals are well-aligned.

I will stay near New York where I've made a lot of good friends, and I will continue with the Chorus. This is the first move since I left home that I don't have to completely dig up my roots, and that's a good feeling.

Job Update + Concert this week

Job Hunt
I've been looking for jobs the last few months. I applied to 25 or so of the listed astrophysics jobs, essentially all those which I thought fit me.

I'm on the "short list" at three places currently: Pittsburgh, Yale, and Brookhaven national lab. Each place makes a short list of 5 or so people for their job and bring them in for an interview.

I've interviewed at Pitt and Yale and both went well, and I interview at Brookhaven in a couple of weeks. For those not familiar, Brookhaven is a national lab on Long Island. National labs are government funded science labs. This is different from a university in that there are no students, but they do have tenure track positions like the one for which I applied. I would be the first astrophysicist hired at the lab. They have traditionally focused on high energy and nuclear physics, but they are branching out.

There is no set timescale, but I would expect offers to come out in a month or two. I'll keep everyone posted.

Concert
We have a concert at St. Ignatius of Loyola. This is part of a series of concerts called Sacred Music in a Sacred Space. We sing at 7 and are followed by the choir of St. Ignatius at 8. We are exploring the development of sacred choral concerti in Russian music, and they will begin their concert with such a concerto by Schnittke.

St. Ignatius of Loyola
980 Park Avenue, at East 84th Street (on the southwest corner).
7pm

Update on the stolen wallet: So far all is well, I got my cards canceled and there have been no odd occurrences with my bank account or anything. It was surprisingly easy to deal with this.

Wallet Stolen + Concerts

Wallet
I was eating lunch with my friend Melissa and I took out my wallet, paid, and set it on the table next to me. After a while I went to pick it up and it was gone. I thought I must have pushed it off the table accidentally, and we were sitting against the railing for a stairway going down, so I feared it had fallen downstairs. Melissa and I looked everywhere around the table and down the stairs and couldn't find it. The employees also helped but nothing was found. My only guess is that someone picked it up and walked away with it.

Contents of the wallet that seem important to me:

• Bank card
  
• Debit card
  
• NYU card, required to enter all university buildings
  
• Social Security Card (with my signature from 7th grade)
  
• Health Insurance card
  
• $200
  

I have ordered a replacement bank and credit card and I'm heading right now to replace my NYU card.

Concerts
We had concerts Sunday Dec 9 and Wed. Dec 12. Both concerts were good and the Sunday concert was especially memorable. Thanks to all my friends who came and supported us!

Concert today

My choir RCCNY will give the first of two concerts today. We will perform at Saint Ignatius of Antioch, which is a really cool little Anglican church on west 87th street.

Here is the program. In this program we span the earliest written chants to late 20th century compositions.

First Half

• Velichanie Rojdestvu: A sort of plainchant, russian style. After the first time through we harmonize more progressively each time. Men's voices only. Composer unkown.
  
• Nyne otposh'ayeshi: A very traditional russian-orthodox four part chant (don't know what these are officially known as). Men's voices only. Composer unknown.
  
• Rojdestvenskiy concert: Strokin (?-1887). This means "Christmas concert" and is a beautiful four-part piece for all voices.
  
• Let My Prayer Arise: Famous Bass solo with choir accompaniment by Chesnokov (1877-1944)
  
• Milost' Mira: A Mercy of Peace, Alexandr Yegorov (1864 - 1956).
  
• Svete Tikhiy: Quiet Light. Alexandr Yegorov. These pieces are amazing and tuning them is a joy. All voices, typically 6-7 parts.
  

Second Half

• Slava vo vyshnih Bogu: Glory to God in the Highest. Bortnyansky (1751-1825). a boroque style concerto for two mixed choirs 4 parts each. This is a paired down group of 16, not all of us will sing.
  
• Cherubic Hymn: Grechaninov (1864-1956). Just amazingly beautiful and simple. Mostly four parts.
  
• Four Ukranian Carols: The name speaks for itself.
  
• Aliluya: Modern Ukranian composer Skripnik (living). Mix between sacred traditional and gospel.
  
• Sh'edrik: Known as "Carol of the Bells" in the west, but actually is about a little Ukranian bird :)