Path to a clear mind

Had a mixed run at Palomar last two nights. Lost much of the first night as it rained, and it even snowed a bit. But the second night was clear, less windy and very cold. After a good sleep I started down the mountain. It looked like another nice day. Only when I reached the turnout about 8 miles form the observatory that I realized how nice the day was. This is the point from where you can look towards the ocean, and far off the ocean looked stunningly beautiful. It was golden and rather harsh on the eyes. On most occasions you can barely see the ocean and generally you have to be told that it is there. On the few occasions it has been in clear view, it has still been hazy with the LA smog having its say. Today however it was exquisitely clear. No clouds in sight, no trace of smog. Very non-LA. Clearly the most clear I have ever seen the sky. Had I realized this while at the observatory, I would have made it a point to go to the catwalk of the 200-inch telescope and get a few snaps of the ranges seen from there.

As I drove down from 5000 ft, passing through big and small hills, the clarity was emphasizing itself all round. Much more detail was seen on the hills and one could see so much farther in general. Lake Elsinore looked out of the world with the sloped shores standing out. It was close to sunset by then and the range of colors as the sun vanished behind the mountains was wonderful. These were not the colors you see when clouds and particulate material is in excess in the atmosphere but just a gradation blue, red, yellow and intermediate hues. I wondered if I would witness a green flash if I chose a good spot. Its only the start of winter and there is not much snow around otherwise the distant mountains would have looked so much more pristine. As it is, it was a terrific sight

Twilight is that magical time of the day that rushes in feelings you will not believe exist the rest of the day. In mountain-country its even better with the modulating shadows of the peaks sliding across. The hills were seen in relief as never before. The serpentine freeways and the necklace formed by the beads that are cars merge well with the So Cal state of being by virtue of being nearly everywhere. But the big brightly lit signs outside malls and outlets (and casinos in the Indian country) stick out like a mismatched pendant, especially on such occasions. Many of the hillsides are now doted with small uniform houses, another blot on the landscape. Civil twilight turned into astronomical twilight. When there is no stuff in the atmosphere (or not as much) to reflect the 'man-made' light from the ground it seems so much darker. For the first time so many lights could be seen spread all-over. Even in the rear-view mirror one could feel the expanse and continuity of greater LA, something that is normally seen only while taking off or landing.

Once I turned on the section of I-15 north of 91, I realized the possible reason for the missing smog. It was still very windy here and at 70 MPH the car shook from side to side and tumbleweeds tumbled across the freeway. It was the winds that had driven the smog away, if temporarily. Once it got really dark, one could not help but notice the queues of airplanes slowly making their way towards one or the other airport in the vicinity. It was clear as clear can be all the way to Pasadena.

Overall it was a very enjoyable drive and one I am bound to remember for a long time.

Hummingbird antiques

On the afternoon on 6 May 2010, as I enetered my office, looking over the North field through the window, I saw a hummingbird doing the U-shape dives characteristic of their display to woo a female of their species. It did it about half a dozen times. By then I had my camera out and started to take a video. Managed one ascent and one descent and the bird was gone. I continued the video panning the area for 15 seconds, and then every now and then looked outside the window hoping it will come back, but I did not notice it.

Only the first couple of seconds of the video contained the hummingbird. I give here two links. The first has first 4 seconds of the original video. At 25 frames per second. The second one is a slowed down version where I took the first 49 frames (=2 seconds) and inserted a delay of 0.2 seconds between successive frames to make the second movie. The stripping was done using:

mplayer -vo png hummingbird1.mpg

The recombining was done using:

convert *[0-4]?.png hummingbird2.mpg

I had expected the length to be 48*0.2+29*0.04=10.76 but the second one turns out to be almost 14. So someone is messing up somewhere. Anyway, remember that the actual duration for the second one is 2 seconds.

Its best to download the movies and watch them since over the internet the frames may not flow smoothly. In both, the hummingbird is seen on the right side, first going up and then coming down.

Hummingbird (original, truncated to 4 seconds) 0.5 MB

Hummingbird (with delay between frames - duration 2 seconds)2 MB

From the frequency of hummingbirds here I would have thought its Anna's, but consulting The Sibley Guide to Birds
and remembering how chracteristic U's were being described, could it be a Calliope's? Caltech's weekly data will not support that, nor will their typical habitat. Comments welcome.

BTW, Hummingbirds are amazing birds. They weigh only a few grams (below 5) and everyday eat in food (mostly fluids) several times their bodyweight and need to incessantly feed so as not to die of starvation. What they CAN do is slow down their metabolism (in torpor, a hibernation-like state) by amazingly reducing their heartrate to well below 100. The usual rate - during feeding - is around 1200. Some species are known to fly non-stop for over 500 miles.

Oh, and about the dives: research has shown that hummingbirds can reach 9G during the dives. Jet pilots would pass out at such accelerations. The birds can cover 400 times their bodylength in a second, twice bettering falcons and jets.

Morphogenetic fields, Memes, Lamarckian evolution etc.

Several years ago I had read an article on Morphogenetic fields, asking if it is fact, fiction (,fantasy) or fraud. According to the theory learning to ride a bike is easier for children these days because everyone who has learnt to ride one set up a field which everyone else has access to.

Lamarckian evolution has some traits of that but has a somewhat sounder footing.
See http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/22061/ for an example. Conditions that someone grows in, their memory, can apparently be passed on. What that means though is that you have to actually see a few people learning to ride bikes to benefit from it.

Vaguely speaking, this is akin to memes, the mental counterparts of genes - ideas that can jump from one person to another. But in the case of memes, you latch on to an idea. It can be completely abstract. You make it yours and spread it.

Watched today a TED talk by V Ramachandran: Neurons that shaped civilization. Here he talks about mirror neurons which fire when you see some one do some action (remember yourself trying to stretch out to catch a ball when you want the fielder on the TV screen to catch it?). Apparently the firing of the neurons can allow you to learn some tasks (as well as experience feelings the other person may). So very likely it is these mirror neurons that help you learn riding a bike quicker than the first person to do so.

That, I feel, still does not explain phenomena like my dreaming that Nandu Narvekar, a Marathi detective, was eating a lot at a party and the food ended up in my stomach. I had an upset stomach the next day.