Lunching with the stars.....
As I mentioned, I have dined out for lunch every day this week with some of the finest people and greatest minds of the 21st Century. Tuesday it was the Media Magnates of the local blog scene, Wednesday with nature expert, Burr Williams, Thursday, in honor of my Dad I was treated to lunch at Johnnie's Barbeque by an old friend of the family and my high school days. Bob's dad was an oil pioneer of the Permian Basin and is a smart and succesful man in his own right. What about Monday....well that's none of your bidness.
Today I had the privelage, once again, of lunching with Dr. David Lambert, director of the McDonald Observatory and chairman of the University of Texas Astronomy Dept. With several PhD's from Oxford in Astrophysics and the like I'd have to rank him right up there with my Blog Buddies in the brains department [you all owe me one for that statement!].
Actually I had been invited to this function some time ago but with all the sad goings-on I'd forgotten about the invitation until Bob mentioned it at lunch yesterday, he's going too. It was an RSVP affair so I immediately called Dr. Lambert's assistant, Dr. Barna down at the UT astronomy school in Austin. Of course, being the scholarly type myself, my first question was "Hi Joel, What are you having for lunch". When Joel told me that a delicate melody of chicken in a glazed creme sauce was on the menu, I said, "sounds good Bubba, count me in" And so I was.
It somewhat amazes me that this is the second time in a year that a guy [me] who was a solid "C" student in high school would be dining with multiple astrophysicists. But there I was chatting away with my tablemate, Dr. Gary Hill, another Oxford PhD. I was representing our planetarium which is partnering with UT and the Observatory on some exciting joint projects, so I worked very hard to comprehendeverything anything that Gary was talking about. Though from York, England and in excellent command of that language he might as well have been speaking Croatian.
The subject of today's meeting was the UT/McDonald's Hobby-Eberly telescope which when finished will study, "dark energy". I liked Dr. Hill a lot. Not only is he one of the world's leading experts on "dark energy" but also invented the concept for the telescope. A nice guy who apparently detected "dark energy" inside my head and so could explain the concept in a way that I understood. The way I undertand it, "dark energy" is something that cannot be seen but they know it's there because.....well it just has to be. In effect Gary has figured out a way to detect and measure nothing. Why didn't I think of that? But I think it helped my intellectual standing with Gary when I threw out the question, "what sort of alogrithmic progression is involved with this". Alogrithmic progression being a term I just had comes to grips with in another lunch with Internet guru Eric Siegmund.
[truthfully, orginally planning on being an Oxford astrophysicist myelf {hamstrum only be abyssmal grades} I do understand the concept of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, or HET as we call it. The big new plus in the HET is it's ability to map much larger sections of the night sky than conventional telescopes, thus highlighting changes more rapidly. The data is analyzed using spectroscopy to measure the speed and distance of objects in the expanding universe.]
Truly an interesting Friday lunch marred only by the fact that Sara Lou Grimes dribbled strawberry vinegarette on my new, almost like silk, slacks. While Gary was talking about "dark energy" and it's implications for mankind, I was worried about a pink stain on my pants. I guess that's why he's an astrophysicist and I'm not.
As I mentioned, I have dined out for lunch every day this week with some of the finest people and greatest minds of the 21st Century. Tuesday it was the Media Magnates of the local blog scene, Wednesday with nature expert, Burr Williams, Thursday, in honor of my Dad I was treated to lunch at Johnnie's Barbeque by an old friend of the family and my high school days. Bob's dad was an oil pioneer of the Permian Basin and is a smart and succesful man in his own right. What about Monday....well that's none of your bidness.
Today I had the privelage, once again, of lunching with Dr. David Lambert, director of the McDonald Observatory and chairman of the University of Texas Astronomy Dept. With several PhD's from Oxford in Astrophysics and the like I'd have to rank him right up there with my Blog Buddies in the brains department [you all owe me one for that statement!].
Actually I had been invited to this function some time ago but with all the sad goings-on I'd forgotten about the invitation until Bob mentioned it at lunch yesterday, he's going too. It was an RSVP affair so I immediately called Dr. Lambert's assistant, Dr. Barna down at the UT astronomy school in Austin. Of course, being the scholarly type myself, my first question was "Hi Joel, What are you having for lunch". When Joel told me that a delicate melody of chicken in a glazed creme sauce was on the menu, I said, "sounds good Bubba, count me in" And so I was.
It somewhat amazes me that this is the second time in a year that a guy [me] who was a solid "C" student in high school would be dining with multiple astrophysicists. But there I was chatting away with my tablemate, Dr. Gary Hill, another Oxford PhD. I was representing our planetarium which is partnering with UT and the Observatory on some exciting joint projects, so I worked very hard to comprehend
The subject of today's meeting was the UT/McDonald's Hobby-Eberly telescope which when finished will study, "dark energy". I liked Dr. Hill a lot. Not only is he one of the world's leading experts on "dark energy" but also invented the concept for the telescope. A nice guy who apparently detected "dark energy" inside my head and so could explain the concept in a way that I understood. The way I undertand it, "dark energy" is something that cannot be seen but they know it's there because.....well it just has to be. In effect Gary has figured out a way to detect and measure nothing. Why didn't I think of that? But I think it helped my intellectual standing with Gary when I threw out the question, "what sort of alogrithmic progression is involved with this". Alogrithmic progression being a term I just had comes to grips with in another lunch with Internet guru Eric Siegmund.
[truthfully, orginally planning on being an Oxford astrophysicist myelf {hamstrum only be abyssmal grades} I do understand the concept of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, or HET as we call it. The big new plus in the HET is it's ability to map much larger sections of the night sky than conventional telescopes, thus highlighting changes more rapidly. The data is analyzed using spectroscopy to measure the speed and distance of objects in the expanding universe.]
Truly an interesting Friday lunch marred only by the fact that Sara Lou Grimes dribbled strawberry vinegarette on my new, almost like silk, slacks. While Gary was talking about "dark energy" and it's implications for mankind, I was worried about a pink stain on my pants. I guess that's why he's an astrophysicist and I'm not.
