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 :)
  

Fall Pictures

Sarah and I went hiking in upstate NY and took a few pictures. I put up a full album at picasa and you can see a sample below. It was a fun day and about all the exercise I've gotten this fall.



In case you are out of the loop, I'm applying for jobs this fall. It is a bit stressful, but not horribly so. It just means I'm much more busy than usual. I've already applied for three and I have a bunch due around the first of December.

My choir RCCNY has two concerts in December. These are our usual Christmas concerts which focus mostly on Russian music, or at least Slavic music. This is a good program: we are exploring the history of this music starting with the earliest written chants to contemporary composers. Check out the poster.


I think it turned out nice, and captures a wintery holiday feel.

Now the title of this blog entry is Fall Pictures, so I'll end with a picture of the trees in the playground viewed from my balcony. I just took this picture a few days ago, so we still have plenty of nice fall colors around.



Have a good Thanksgiving, and good turkey.

Erin

Nevsky at Carnegie Hall

My choir performed Prokofiev's Alexander Nevksy in Carnegie Hall on the 1st of November. It was really fun. This was the first time I had sung on the stage at Carnegie (our last time there we sang from off stage). I was amazed at how good it felt to sing there. Something about the acoustic just made everything that came of of my mouth feel right.

This makes me understand, I think, the real appeal of this hall to performers. From the audience the sound is quite good I think, but not exceptional. But on stage it is amazing. The appeal of Carnegie is just the feel of the place. I see why people feel they have arrived when they have sung there. It isn't because it's famous and you are great if you are invited to sing there, it's because it feels great to sing there.

Erin

Lightning

We had a thunderstorm here last night, the best I've seen in NY. Sarah and I took some pictures from my balcony. We didn't use a tripod so some of them look doubled from hand movement. Here are a few good ones:





You can see the whole album here:

Lightning

Inaugural Speeches

This is not a political blog, I'm not trying to make a political statement here, but I think these two inaugural speeches are interesting. A comparison illuminates far more than just the relative political climates.

Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address
G.W. Bush's Second Inaugural Address

Erin

Brian May is an astrophysicist?

I'm linking a post I just put up on my research blog.
Erin

iPhone and new number

I bought an iPhone. It is the 8Gb model. Yeah, it's really expensive, but the way I look at it I bought myself a little miniature computer, which it is (it runs OS X). To me that is justification. And since my iPod broke and my contract with Sprint is up, it made sense to me.

I had to get a new number because you can't transfer numbers when you no longer live in the same area code as you bought your old phone (yes it makes no sense).

I'll send a mass email with my new number, but if you don't make it on the list please send me an email.

Erin

Germany trip

Germany was really nice. I keep saying that since I got back; it was just really nice.

I stayed with Dorothea and Hartmut Samtleben, friends from my days in Hyde Park, Chicago. They have two beautiful and rambunctious children, Armin and Iris, and live in a quiet neighborhood in the outskirts of Bonn.

I decided not to spend a lot of time exploring famous big cities. Instead, I tried to see some of the countryside around Bonn and neighboring cities. I even took a couple of days just to rest and read a book.

On the first weekend, the five of us took a train to Limburg, which is what Hartmut called a "preserved city", meaning there are lots of preserved old houses and other structures. From there we biked (with the little ones in bike seats on the back) along the Lahn river toward the Rhine (Rhein). This was my favorite part of the vacation. It was beautiful and the river and forest air was pure (The cities and riverways are very friendly to bikers which I really appreciated. There are bike paths everywhere).

I spent one day in Cologne (Köln), mainly to see the famous Cathedral. The cathedral is the most impressive man made structure I've ever seen. I took no pictures, but there is a nice virtual tour here. I was impressed by many things, but my attention was drawn the the floor mosaics. These are hand made mosaics of little pieces of stone arranged into pictures. They are quite robust as a floor and beautiful to see.

I also took a 50k bike ride South along the Rhein starting in Bonn. This was less nice because the Rhein is heavily populated, but still enjoyable and I saw a number of beautiful things such as an ancient Roman Church, many castles, and the remains of the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen.

I think the people in Germany are friendly and warm but quite reserved. Overall I felt quite welcome there.

I didn't take that many pictures on this trip. I took no pictures at all of things for which one can Google to find many excellent representations. Here are some highlights of my own pictures from the trip:

2007 Germany Highlights

Highlights from Aspen

Aspen was great. It was relaxing yet productive and challenging, both scientifically and physically.

I had a little difficulty with the altitude and dry air, but it was completely worth it. I went on two hikes, one up Hunter Creek trail and another up the Ute Trail. The Hunter creek trail is an easy but nice hike North of Aspen across the river. It goes up along Hunter Creek (which was pretty big for a crick), up over a ridge, and into a nice meadow. The Ute trail goes up Aspen Mountain South of the town. It was quite challenging; very steep and beautiful. It is true what they say about the thin air. At the top is the ski area, where they were having a bluegrass festival and hula hooping.

We pulled some late nights working but also spent some nights out having fun, eating and drinking.

Below is a short photo album of highlights from the trip. My next trip will be about my vacation in Germany!

Aspen Highlights

Quick Aspen Update

I'm going to do a real post on my time in Aspen soon, but for now I'll just say that it has been extremely productive and fun. Here is a picture as a preview. Peder Norberg and I hiked up the Ute Trail to the top of Aspen Mountain, where this picture was taken.

Zanetto | Calvin & Hobbes

Zanetto at Carnegie Hall
The Carnegie Hall performance was a good experience. I had reservations at first because the whole thing was such a big production and it seemed like it was going to be difficult to maintain any artistic integrity in that environment. But I was pleasantly surprised. What I learned was that the presence of a few real artists can offset a lot of distractions.

Writing
I'm writing a paper and so I've been thinking a lot about presentation. I've always felt that academic papers are too formalized, but it is hard to break out of that because the journals have very rigid rules about the writing. But maybe it doesn't really matter in the end, because it is difficult to really learn anything directly from a paper anyway. You only really learn from trying to repeat the work yourself. Maybe the point should be to give the information needed to reproduce the results.

Also there is the issue of writing style. I prefer to write in as straightforward a manner as possible, but inevitably jargon creeps in and can obscure things. I think this Calvin & Hobbes cartoon illustrates the point pretty well:

Simple

I often find myself talking to scientists in other fields and when I tell them I do astrophysics, or physics, they are always impressed. They often say that physics was too hard for them.

This really surprises me, especially coming from people who work in fields like psychology or even biology. I tell them that they have it wrong, that physics is the easiest science and psychology is the hardest. But they always just laugh like I'm joking. Let me explain.

The reason I was drawn to physics is not because it is difficult but because it is so simple. Physics focuses on the simplest and most basic phenomena in the universe because those phenomena can actually be explained and predicted.

When I tell people this they sort of understand, but they always say that even though that might be true the thing that makes it hard is the math. They could have done it if it weren't for the math.

But the fact that I can actually use math in physics is just another reflection of its simplicity. People don't really use math in other fields because the systems they deal with are so complex that there is no way to explain them mathematically yet.

Some concrete examples: One of the first great successes of math in science was gravity. Newton was able to explain the motion of a planet around the sun using an incredibly simple formula for the force of gravity. This is possible partly because the system is so simple: the sun and a planet orbiting it. Compare this to the human brain, a system so complex we are just now mapping out the rough correlations between regions of the brain and observed behavior. Physics tells us how the electrical impulses in the brain work, and this is not much more complex than gravity. But the system of neurons is so complex as to make performance of calculations infeasible.

I understand the fear of math in that it seems strange and disconnected from everyday experience. But it is just a very simple language; it is far simpler than any human verbal language, and it is structured in such a way that everything makes sense and there are no exceptions and few opportunities for confusion. But like any language it is only useful when it is intuitive, and intuition only comes with experience and practice.

In many ways this parallels the misunderstanding people have about physics; it is actually much simpler to learn basic math than to learn Italian. It is partly for this reason we use it in the first place. It is a fairly simple and fool-proof way to tell other people something. And of course we can use it to predict much of the phenomena we see in the universe accurately.

But that simplicity is a drawback when trying to describe a complex system like the brain. Human language is better at that; when I say I am contemplative people have a good idea what I am saying, but how would I say that mathematically? On the other hand description isn't enough, and that is why psychology is so difficult. As a science it cannot truly make predictions, at least yet. Maybe some people go into psych because there is no math but in that case they are doing a disjustice to the field. They should hope that someday they can make predictions.

So that is a rambling attempt to explain myself. I hope it makes some sense.

Erin

Opera in June

My choir is performing in an opera at Carnegie Hall on June 4th. You may be thinking "that isn't really the place for an opera", and in fact it is a concert performance. This means we will just perform the music without any staging or costumes.

The opera is called Zanetto, by Mascagni. It hasn't been performed in New York since 1902! It is only one act, in fact it is a single scene. We open the whole thing with a few minutes of chorus sung unaccompanied and with no words. The music is great. I haven't heard the rest of the opera yet, but I anticipate the rest is also worth hearing.

Erin

Tonight's concert

I was happy to see many friendly faces in the audience tonight. It was a small but good audience, one of the best audiences I have experienced. The composers in our program are mostly not famous, so the small size isn't a surpise.

Most of the music felt right and we were connecting. As Nikolai says we created some real currents tonight and we felt that feedback we need from the audience.

If anybody still wants to hear us there is another performance this Saturday. Contact me and I can get you discounted tickets. See the link here:

http://rccny.org/ConcertSchedule.html