Non-newtonian Fluid

Also known as Einstein's Nose Oobleck... here's an interesting Japanese video that shows what happens when you tickle a shear-thickening fluid with sound waves.

The reaction from the observers is almost as funny as what happens to the cornstarch mixture. If you're in a hurry, you can skip to 1:30, which is where it gets interesting. There's something alive in there...

I love weird stuff like this!

What Metal Are You? Gacked from Ocean's Edge.

You Are Copper

You are provocative and challenging. You help people realize who they really are. You live a very balanced life. You always take time for love and art. You are both a powerful and generous person. You always have time to give back. People find you to be incredibly ethical and loyal.

What Metal Are You?

Sometimes I don't agree with the results of these little quizzes, but I feel good about this one.

Interesting morning

Up early to take Mum to the hospital for a scheduled CAT scan. Her gerontologist (she's 92), and the first one to really be willing to assess her overall condition, detected some weakness on her left side and is checking for microstroke damage. Other than that, the only thing that's happening is the unsurprising advancement of Alzheimer's. Mum's still independent and able to function at her senior apartments, but the decline is very noticable at this point, especially in the short-term memory area.

She's been wanting to write her life story for years, and now I'm afraid it's become too late - she can remember much of her past, but has a hard time sitting down to concentrate at a typewriter for any length of time. I've been trying to convince her to let me come and type while she dictates, and may be making some progress on that front.

Today I did score a box of old VCR and reel-to-reel tapes, as well as a few CD's that had been made for her from the Radio and Television museum - that box is more precious than Iridium in the way of history, I'll have the videos transferred to DVD, and then I should be able to begin assembling a page about her life similar to the one I did for my father.

After that, I went and picked up my ex from the airport and gave her back our golden retriever whom I was babysitting for almost 3 weeks. (Yes, thank you, I really am nice.) It's good to be able to vacuum my place and not have it get hairy again immediately, but I do miss the dog, she's good company. I'd have a cat for company if the apartment complex I'm in allowed them, but I travel frequently enough at this point that it would be a challenge.

Today lunch with two of my mom's cousins, both very accomplished, one an academic and the other a classical musician: Thomas F. Rogers and David Margetts (the violinist who tragically lost the Duke of Alcantara Stradivarius that was recovered decades later but sat at the center of a lawsuit that makes very interesting reading. We ate at the Vienna Bistro in Salt Lake, since all of us had at various times in our lives been in Vienna. We dined on a pretty respectable Wiener Schnitzel (the best Wiener Schnitzel is paper thin, made of veal, and fried in lard - I've never had better than what I found in Austria, but this was passable) and I had Sachertorte for dessert. Not the very best one I've ever had - the Hotel Sacher holds that honor - but darn close.

Came home tired and took a good long nap. I'm about to finish up watching The Two Towers and then climb the wooden hill.