No. 42

On the 100th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's birth, writer Tony Blengino at Forbes reminds us that while Robinson was an amazingly strong man who re-integrated baseball after more than 50 years of segregated play, he was also an amazing ballplayer.

Blengino spends some time measuring Robinson's stats against other top players and shows how he easily ranks with them. And he notes that Robinson's career started late -- he was 28 in his rookie season, thanks to World War II and segregation itself.

It's pretty easy to see that even without the historical context, Robinson would be a Hall-of-Fame level player. That he was a great man as well as a great ballplayer is one of history's fortunate convergences.

Winter Horrorland?

Snow blowing through a forest in northern Japan creates ice and snow "sculptures" on the trees that build up into fantastic shapes that bear a resemblance to some of Bill Watterson's best creations for his Calvin and Hobbes comics. The Japanese call them "juhyo," but of course we all know that they're actually called "deranged mutant killer monster snow goons."

Word Problem

So among new and upcoming offerings in streaming entertainment are a live-action adaptation of Garth Ennis's comic book series The Boys, coming from Amazon, and from Netflix another retelling of the life and crimes of serial killer Ted Bundy. This is the scenario behind the following ethical puzzle:

1) Choice A is yet another expedition into the mind of a murderous lunatic who welcomely left this mortal coil 30 years ago.
2) Choice B is a live-action version of one of the comic book industry's foremost practitioners of the illusion that brutal vulgarity is creativity.
3) Choice C is to have iodine injected directly under your fingernails via rusty hypodermics.

Which do you pick?

Ha! I'm sorry, it's a trick question. We ran out of iodine forty or fifty people ago!

Pithy and Precise

For the last several years, I have relied on Dustbury's Charles Hill for Oklahoma City Thunder game summaries. Tonight, as always, he presents a quick, accurate summary of the game du jour, some contextual notes regarding the season to date and upcoming contests and a witty headline. Thanks for the work, Charles.

You Weren't There...Or Were You?

There are a lot of these "Photoshop yourself into old picture" collections around, but Chinese photographer Silin Liu does it better than many, as she manipulates the environment of the photo itself as well as the way she appears in inserting her glamorous alter ego "Céline" next to famous people who don't even seem to realize she shouldn't be there.

The post title is taken from an Electric Company sketch called "You Weren't There," a parody of the You Are There historical TV show. You missed the big event covered in the show, because, "You weren't born yet, you were out of town, or you just weren't paying attention."

Pscottish Psalm?

This blog has extolled the virtues of poet Robert Burns, the blog author's love of the Scottish part of his ethnic heritage and his miring in traditional Christian theism.

To mesh them all, on the anniversary of Robert Burns' birth in 1759, we present his paraphrase of Psalm 1:

THE MAN, in life wherever plac’d,
Hath happiness in store,
Who walks not in the wicked’s way,
Nor learns their guilty lore!

Nor from the seat of scornful pride
Casts forth his eyes abroad,
But with humility and awe
Still walks before his God.

That man shall flourish like the trees,
Which by the streamlets grow;
The fruitful top is spread on high,
And firm the root below.

But he whose blossom buds in guilt
Shall to the ground be cast,
And, like the rootless stubble, tost
Before the sweeping blast.

For why? that God the good adore,
Hath giv’n them peace and rest,
But hath decreed that wicked men
Shall ne’er be truly blest.

No One Expects the Spanish Inquisition...or Excitons!

We present another in our occasional series of amazing headlines that simply have to be shared even if 95% of the world has no idea what they mean:

"Multiple Excitons Make a Surprise Appearance in 2d Hybrid Perovskites"

Excitons are quasiparticles, or subatomic effects that aren't really subatomic particles even though they sort of act like they are. The can transport energy.

And that's about as much of the article at Physics World that I understood before my brain melted down. So 2d hybrid perovskites, as well as why excitons appearing in them is some sort of surprise, will remain for an earlier-in-the-day read at another time.

Interestingly, this is the second time in the last few months that perovskites have make an appearance on the blog, with the first coming last September in another of our amazing headline entries.