HoodedHawk

I’m finally getting around to processing pictures from our (honeymoon) trip to Peru. I’ll hopefully have some full-sized images up this weekend, but for now, each time you reload BozBlog you’ll get one of 17 random images from our trip as the site banner. :)

This year’s Ig Nobel prizes have been awarded, and include:

FLUID DYNAMICS: Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow of International University Bremen, Germany and the University of Oulu , Finland; and Jozsef Gal of Loránd Eötvös University, Hungary, for using basic principles of physics to calculate the pressure that builds up inside a penguin, as detailed in their report “Pressures Produced When Penguins Pooh — Calculations on Avian Defaecation.”
PUBLISHED IN: Polar Biology, vol. 27, 2003, pp. 56-8.
ACCEPTING: The winners were unable to attend the ceremony because they could not obtain United States visas to visit the United States. Dr. Meyer-Rochow sent an acceptance speech via videotape.

Abstract
Chinstrap and Adélie penguins generate considerable pressures to propel their faeces away from the edge of the nest. The pressures involved can be approximated if the following parameters are known: (1) distance the faecal material travels before it hits the ground, (2) density and viscosity of the material, and (3) shape, aperture, and height above the ground of the orificium venti. With all of these parameters measured, we calculated that fully grown penguins generate pressures of around 10 kPa (77 mm Hg) to expel watery material and 60 kPa (450 mm Hg) to expel material of higher viscosity similar to that of olive oil. The forces involved, lying well above those known for humans, are high, but do not lead to an energetically wasteful turbulent flow. Whether a bird chooses the direction into which it decides to expel its faeces, and what role the wind plays in this, remain unknown.

I picked up a new Jazz CD yesterday, “Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall“. Seems that a ~50 year old recording of this live 1957 concert was “lost” and recently (this year) “found” by a jazz specialist at the Library of Congress. There are only a few recordings of Monk and Coltrane together, and most of the others supposedly are of lower audio quality. This recording is remarkable, however. The sound on the CD is just superb – and it is from a 50-year old tape! I just love this CD; highly recommend you check it out if you like jazz. I’m not a jazz expert (I just “know what I like”), but from all the glowing reviews, this is big. The link above takes you to the Bluenote site with more history.

Saw Jane Monheit at Birchmere tonight. She is awesome! Kirsten and I really enjoyed her show. Such a lovely voice! She sang for about 90 minutes, doing a lot from her latest album, “Taking a Chance on Love”, her previous albums, as well as some unrecorded songs. One of the songs was first performed live (by her) tonight; it was by a Brazilian artist, and in Portuguese (“I have no idea what the words mean, but it sounds so lovely!”)

After the show she came offstage and did a signing. She signed our ticket stubs as well as my notebook. She commented on my Moleskine notebook – “Is this a moleskine? I can’t live without mine!”. So there you go; it must be cool to carry one around :) . Had I known she’d be signing, I would have brought my cd with me! Birchmere only had a few copies of cd’s in their shop. BTW, Birchmere (in Alexandria, VA) is a great music venue. It’s sort of like a huge dinner theater – holds a lot of people, but the acoustics (and seating) is great. Good food too (try the chicken enchiladas). Get there a bit early if you want a table near the stage…

(picture from my camera phone – but better than nothing!)

Hola!
Kirsten and I are loving our honeymoon! We spent the first two days in Urubamba, Peru (the Sacred Valley) at a wonderful hotel/resort, Sol y Luna. One of the days Kirsten spent at the resort spa, while I went on a full-day horsback ride up into the mountains, visiting the Inca ruins at Moray as well as the Inca salt mines at Salinas. Wonderful day, despite the splitting migraine I had by the end (that I attribute to the altitude).

We then took the train to Aquas Calientes (where I´m writing this at a local internet cafe). After checking into our hotel, we caught the last bus up to the ruins at Machu Pichu, and spent a few hours there.

Today we got up to the ruins (you take a 20-minute bus; nice tour-type buses) earlier, and explored some more. Kirsten went back down early to do some shopping, and I stayed at the ruins until the last bus around 5:30. We just finished dinner at Inka Wasi restaurant (I passed on the Guinea Pig and went with pizza :) )

I´m going to post a complete travelogue (to date) tomorrow, but those are the highlights.