The Green Flash and other phenomenon

Brady Haran, YouTuber extraordinaire, recently returned from a trip to the European Southern Observatory in Chile. He talks about all six days on his blog, so I won't mentioned everything he did. But I did watch the first video he posted from there on his channel Deep Sky Videos - The Green Flash!

I have to confess that I did not know that there was a actual green flash phenomenon. I thought it was something created by Disney for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Turns out that it's real and it makes a lot of sense when you think about it. As the sun approaches the horizon it has to pass through more atmosphere. This added air acts like a lens that distorts the light. Consequently it creates an illusion of the edge of the sun separating and turning green. I dug around and found a good resource on green flashes by Andrew Young. It's really a cool thing that I would love to see it for myself.

Learning about the green flash got me thinking about other natural phenomenon. St. Elmo's fire came next to mind.

I first heard about it from watching a version of Moby Dick.The teacher explained that the crazy blue fire on the mast wasn't magic but rather a natural occurrence. Similar to light night it is when air is ionized during a storm (often at the end of it). It tends to collect on surfaces that discharge easily - pointed objects being a chief culprit. A perfect example of how the process works is a neon light. They both operate under the same principles of ionization. The cool thing is that ionized air is basically a plasma. And if you remember my post on the states of matter you know that plasmas are really cool. So, if it looks like your plane is burning on the wings, you might be looking at the slowest lightning you can see.

Lightning is also a pretty cool occurrence when you really think about it. I won't look too closely at it, but I will link to KXCD's blog when he answered a whole bunch of questions about it. I will also share an awesome video that you may or may not have seen before. (filmed by Tom A. Warner)

Returning to the sun for a minute, I've heard of Sundogs before and even seen them and so wanted to make mention of them here.

Similar to an after effect of a lens flare, sundogs are the result of when light from the sun is broken up by before it gets to your eye. In a lens flare the light source is scattered as it passes through the lens. With sundogs the light is split by ice crystals in the air. The reason why sundogs don't show up every time it's cold enough for ice to form is that the crystals must be aligned so as to be horizontal to the viewing angle. Because of the specificity of the crystals, it produces a very distinct effect, two (or sometimes more) "phantom suns" that are equal distances from the sun. The same crystals also can form a halo around the sun in the same fashion. Again, this phenomenon generally occurs when the sun is near the horizon. The website Atmospheric Optics has some excellent photos and explanations about different visual phenomenon.

While rarely a mystery, I want to mention the Aurora borealis and Aurora australis. The northern (and southern) lights are a result of solar radiation hitting the upper atmosphere. They can be a variety of colors and are a common subject of photos. They've been studies extensively and there is lots of information you can find about them. I mention them here because I actually had a chance to see the lights while at my parents house in northern Utah. They were a faint green glow in the northeast sky, but while not being spectacular it was a great novelty. I don't have a bucket list, but if I did "see the northern lights" would have been on it.

I'll end with an occurrence that I've seen a time or two and, like the green flash, is due to the atmosphere. There are all kinds of things that can make the moon look different colors, including particles in the air (from fires, industry, etc), as well as the moon's light coming through thick layers of atmosphere (such as moon rise and moon set). I had to share this from Wiki Answers as I was doing research on this - The answer someone's question of "Why is the moon red?" Answer: "It is NOT." I've never considered Wiki Answers as credible research - Now I really don't trust them. The most established change in the moon's color is during a lunar eclipse. Red moons come from sun light reflecting off of the moon and shining through the Earth's shadow. Earth's shadow has a reddish tint to it because our atmosphere bends light around it, the red light being the most penetrating and thus infusing the shadow while the blues and greens (and other hues) scatter out. So that is why during a lunar eclipse the moon will look red. I like this description from NASA about what it would look like if you were in a spaceship in the shadow of the Earth...

The view from your cockpit window is Earth's nightside, the dark half of our planet opposite the sun. But it's not completely dark! All around Earth's limb, the atmosphere glows red. What you're seeing is every sunrise and sunset on Earth -- all at once. This ring of light shines into Earth's shadow, breaking the utter darkness you might expect to find there. Turn off the cockpit lights. There's a lovely red glow.

Rather poetic don't you think?

Further changes in Music

I just can't seem to leave music alone. Perhaps it's because it strikes a cord in me. As I continued to muse about modern music I realized that I could continue to talk about the evolution of music with some neat examples.

First, my theory of modern soundtracks being the newest wave of classical music. The Piano Guys helped vindicate me on these thoughts. They have a couple of videos that use soundtracks mixed with classical music to produce an amazing combination. The two big ones are Bourne Vivaldi and Mission Impossible (featuring Lindsey Stirling).

If you read the "Story behind the song" in the notes of Bourne Vivaldi you'd find the following:

There are few "hooks" in the movie-music world that are as grabby as the Bourne Identity Soundtrack riff. like the movie series, its intensity commands attention. We just had to figure out a way to use it. In our usual style, we thought we'd create an "action movie soundtrack" that combined this and a piece of classical music...With no "action movies" in the 1700's, [Vivaldie's piece] was probably the closest you could get to one. It has intense and exciting moments between beautiful lyrical moments. It was this piece, among others, that got Steven (the cello guy) excited about classical music - it was one of the first pieces he played with orchestra.

 The piano guys are known for mixing classical music with everything they do, demonstrating the tendency to mix different styles to create new sounds. While different forms of classical music have done this in the past, it appears to be a staple of modern music in general. Not just in mixing classical with soundtracks or pop, but different pop styles, rap, alternative, and everything in between. I am not a big rap fan. Most of the time I take issue with the content or style of rap, but I do have a collection that I enjoy. A particular favorite is the YouTuber Eppic featured in these videos (with Peter Hollens, Kait Weston, and Alex G).

I like the addition of the rap and the way it fits with the other singers and the style of the songs. the blend is good and despite the differences in styles I feel that it adds something. To go in the reverse, the Salt Lake Pops Orchestra takes popular songs and puts them to full orchestration. They are also doing fun things with orchestration (calling it the "Radioactive Orchestra") as shown in these videos with Kristen Jensen and Alex Boye and Lindsey Stirling.

One last alteration in music that follows a more experimental theme is music based on more than just emotion, narrative, or even any kind of music tradition. Alan Key writes and produces music for Brady Haran (and others) and is featured in many of the science and math videos that I enjoy. Brady has also worked with Dave Lens, a singer/song writer who has been inspired by science concepts. Below are recent videos from each of them. Alan's Pi March is based on the number pi (3.14....). He has also done music based on Tau, e, and Khinchin's constant. Dave's video was inspired by the vast differences in size between the smallest form of matter and the largest. While the music itself is original, he had to do extensive research (using Brady's help) to compile the facts, sizes, and accuracy for the lyrics. His song has grown on me over the time since he posted it on one of Brady's channels. The video features a chores by ViHart, who is a professional mathemusician at the khanacademy.org. So we can view music as it's influenced by math and the sciences.

These videos also demonstrate a principle that I was trying to blog but just never came together. With the rise of the recording industry music became a regulated industry. Only those that the production company thought were worthy would receive wide spread distribution. Sure artists could self produce, but generally access to equipment was expensive, marketing was non-existent, and exposure was limited. But then the digital revolution happened. Peer-to-peer file sharing, particularly of music, enabled people to spread music faster then the recording industry, often times spreading music without the recording companies and the artist receiving any money. This, of course, was not seen as a good thing for the people who make or produce the music. While Peer-to-peer was eventually locked down and regulated (for the majority) when Napster lost their lawsuit against the RIAA, another potential enemy of the recording industry loomed its head - YouTube.

There is lots of debate on whether and how YouTube hurts the music industry. And I don't have anything to add or subtract from what has already been said. There is obviously one huge effect of YouTube on music - exposure. Musicians are able to expand their audience much more now than ever before. The Piano Guys, Lindsey Stirling, and The Salt Lake Pops have all been able to expand their music beyond YouTube because of their success on YouTube. Many other YouTubers are able to support themselves (some completely, others partially) through their productions. But anyone can post a video and potentially become the next new thing. Previously artists would of had to go through a recording company for an opportunity to reach the same size audience. Many YouTubers will collaborate with others to increase their audience. This results in many of the mixes, mashes, and variations that occur, including some of those above.

The growth of the online musician increases with digital production and sales. I own both albums and singles of several of my favorite YouTubers' music, buying it from iTunes but it is also available via that artist's websites. Even if the artist is not looking to support themselves but just do something that they think others would like they can accomplish their ends very easily. Music as a medium and a industry is changing and it's not about to stop any time soon.

Here there be Dragons

In the last six months I have read two Dragon Lance books, books entitled Dragon Run and Dragonflight, and returned to a classic computer role-playing game based on Dungeons and Dragons. I also picked up a book called Storm Riders which featured a dragon on the cover, but it turned out to be the 2nd book in a series so I have to go find the first one, Shadow Raiders. I may be on bit of a dragon kick. But I could probably argue that I've always been on a dragon kick.

Dragons have been featured in stories for centuries and across many different cultures. I thought it was interesting that the American Museum of Natural History in New York has information on the natural history of dragons. I was also able to find a website entitled Draconika which had a nice organized selection of information on dragons and dragon lore. It was rough doing research on this as there is lots of websites that discuss draconian lore, but as they are fantastic creatures of folklore there really isn't a council of authorities that peer review the information out there. As such dragons and related creatures may be subject to multiple interpretations. I have to say my favorite and perhaps the most extensive source of established draconian lore is the Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manuel. It is just one take on dragons, but is very well built and exists for the purpose of building stories. It is not based on actual folklore that I'm aware of.

One of my favorite dragon stories is Flight of Dragons, a 1982 movie with the voice talent of James Earl Jones, Harry Morgan, and John Ritter. I was ten or eleven the first time I saw it and liked the explanations it gave for dragon flight and why they sleep on gold as well as the story line in general. I was further delighted when the film How to Tame your Dragon was produced and turned dragons into the equivalent of motorcycles and dive bombers. Both of the films show a variety of dragons (How to Tame your Dragon doing a better job of it), but with such fantastic creatures you can really come up with anything. In many ways they defy the laws of physics. I don't know the equations, but I'm pretty sure the giant monstrosity of a dragon that Hiccup and Toothless fight (in the film) is physiologically impossible. And for such a creature to fly would be quite a feat. However, as mentioned dragons are fantastic and as fantastical creatures they are given abilities that can explain their oddities and the violations of the laws of physics and biology. They are powerful beings and as such are not to be limited by mere science!

There are many stories of both evil and good dragons. Metaphorical and literal monsters and steward teachers or saviors of mankind. I've tried to think about what it is about dragons that makes me excited. Perhaps it the might of these creatures, the power to do anything. Most dragons are attributed with intelligence, so maybe its the idea of non-human sapient life. Let's face the fact that breathing fire or some other kick trash compound is awesome. The idea of riding a dragon, or befriending one, makes for a compelling image of power and ability. Maybe it's just the pure fantastic about them - that they can be anything and do anything - a subject of creativity. The musing is endless.

I think I can establish one concrete idea about my interest in dragons, however. If there is an alpha predator it is the dragon. In many stories humanity makes up a staple in dragons' diet. They are big enough, fast enough, strong enough, and smart enough to challenge our primacy on whatever world we both inhabit. Even in books such as Dragonflight where dragons are simply tools for humans, they are powerful and it is clear that if they want to humanity wouldn't stand a chance. They are a natural predator and we are their natural prey. Like many enjoy hunting bears, lions, tigers, and other creatures that can harm humans, dragons could hunt us under similar circumstances. Yes, humans may kill dragons, but it is not easy. A challenge for both dragon and knight. Even under more modern circumstances taking a dragon down would be difficult as is demonstrated in Monster Hunter Legion.

What would life be like if we lived with a natural predator impacting our daily lives? How would it have shaped society if we had an evolving intelligent creature that hunted us at its leisure? Would we have invented the computer or satellites? Would our culture be different in our choice of celebrities and heroes? Would we have the conflicts with other groups of people - would war exist if we had a common enemy? Would dragons choose to rule and would we be treated like slaves, chattel, or peons? I'm familiar with a fair number of stories with dragons and can say that I've seen many of these questions asked and answered with varying results. Still the questions pose themselves. Dragons are a great way to explore them as you can create any kind of dragon you want. The only requirement is that it be awesome.

Read an awesome flash fiction story about a dragon written by EA Younker inspired by Kanga, my daughter. 

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The Evolution in Music

The original idea for this post was to look at the music industry and how it's changed, but for whatever reason that musing has failed to find a place to settle. It's still going around in my head, but I'm having difficulty with posting it. In the mean time, I had another musing that took me back in time to several courses on music history.

For the majority of people I've met the term "Classical Music" does not pertain to music written in the classical era (Mid 1700s to early 1800s), but rather any music that is "Serious or conventional music following long-established principles rather than a folk, jazz, or popular tradition." (citation). Interestingly enough, the current musical tradition - Modern or 20th Century - has changed during its period of classification. So there are multiple kinds of 20th Century music, including Avant-garde which tends to shun musical traditions of all kinds. My band instructor in high school played us a part of Schoenberg's Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte as an example. Microtones - the notes between notes, Sprechgesang - the space between singing and speaking, and Experimental music notation are elements often associated with 20th Century music. As just an example, Igor Stavinsky is considered one of the the essential composers of the 20th Century music, yet he was also known for several different styles of music. From what I can tell the only "tradition" of 20th Century music is how it changes, both establishing and rejecting the norms.

Now, I understand that classical music is still being written, however I can't say that I ever hear it or even know where to find it. Perhaps the most likely place to find modern classical music might be a junior or high school band or orchestra performance. I played baritone/euphonium for six years and played through my share of music that I never heard again. Many of them I enjoyed playing (most of them really). I'll always have a soft spot for "The Gathering of the Ranks at Hebron" by David Holsinger, particularly the way my part sounded. However, such music is not commonly heard elsewhere. With technology allowing artists to expand their reach the 20th Century has been filled with new traditions of folk, jazz, rock, country, blues, R&B, rap, and alternative. These all mesh, blend, and get remixed with each other. Particularly as we have entered the 21st Century, I can't say that I've seen much of what may be called "modern classical." The closest thing I've described as "classical" is William Joseph, a pianist who does a mixture of covers and original pieces.

In fact it was a recent William Joseph collaboration with Lindsey Stirling, self-proclaimed hip-hop violinist that got me thinking about a post on this topic. The video in question can be seen here.

The piece is call "Halo Theme" and many of my generation will recognize it. If you do not, I invite you to listen to it's complexity, the way it moves, and the energy it coveys. It never had any words and is just the beginning of a multi-themed work. It was written to covey "importance, weight and a sense of the ancient." It is the soundtrack to a video game.

I've always been a fan of movie and video game soundtracks. Some favorites soundtrack composers include: John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Alan Silvestri, Howard Shore, and John Powell. "Traditional" classical music and modern soundtracks have a fair amount in common. In fact, many movies have used classical music as the soundtrack. The Thief of Baghdad used Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Op 35 Scheherazade (1888), 2001 Space Odessay's main theme was composed by Richard Strauss and is actually titled "Also Sprach Zarathustra" (1896), and don't forget that the Lone Ranger rides to the William Tell Overture by Gioachino Rossini (1829). Disney's two Fantasia movies from 1940 and 2000 used classical music as the basis for creating visual images to entertain and delight. When much of the music was being written it was without the benefit of visual images outside of the audience's imagination. Often music was based on a story or image the composer wanted to convey, Beethoven's Symphony no 6., the Pastoral symphony, or Stravinsky's The Firebird  (both of them featured in the Fantasia movies) are perfect examples of this.

I've thought for years that the niche that "traditional", story based, designed to entertain classical music occupied for many centuries has been filled by soundtracks. They are both (when done well) designed to stir emotions, trigger responses, extend the imagination, and help the listener enjoy themselves. The biggest difference is that soundtracks are inherently designed to go in support of another medium. However, a well written soundtrack can encourage people to imagine comparable images to what the director puts on the screen. John William's iconic themes to Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Harry Potter are good examples, as are Hans Zimmer's theme to Pirates of the Caribbean and Peral Harbor - Attack, and Alan Silvestri's Translavian horses amoung others.

The same is true of video game soundtracks. More and more game designers realize that they need music that enhances the gameplay as well as provocks emotional responses in the player. It is interesting how regardless of what you are seeing what you hear is more prone to direct your emotions. Take the fight sciences in The Lord of the Rings films (done by Howard Shore). At points during the action the music changes to melodic tones full of sorrow and feeling. In those moments ye action itself is overshadowed by the motives behind the characters. Such is the impact of good music. And such has been the goal of music ever since early spiritual hymns were sung in worship and rejoicing. I know that there is this new form of classical music but I will continue to argue that the real classical music, the music that today most matches the goals and intentions of the period music we still listen to, is the soundtrack.

It's a small word

"It's a small world" - Idiom - Said to show your surprise that people or events in different places are connected, Cambridge Dictionaries Online.

I've had my fair share of "small world" experiences. They tend to happen as we meet new people or try new things. It can be a fun experience when you meet someone who knows your best friend, or has been to the same place as you, or turns out to be a relative (or the ex of a relative). That last one happens more times than not when you belong to my family. I remember one of my teachers in high school telling me that not only were my first and last name the same as her fathers, but we even had the same middle initial. That same year I learned that my dance instructor was my aunt's cousin, and that my dad had dated my band teacher's older sister.

Many may say that with the world of technology that we live in such experiences may be more likely to happen. If you think about it when the most the average person could travel in a day was twenty miles and communication was limited to how loud you could yell, it was very likely that you knew everybody that everybody else you knew was  acquainted with. When your area of impact is relatively small it is unlikely that your ripples will be felt by others. Many may cite the butterfly effect and say that we are all connect regardless of distance and time. While I do agree in the idea of a connected existence I also believe that, like the ripples on a pond, the further away from us our influence travels the smaller it gets. Unless, of course, you are a quantum weather butterfly. But even then your thunderstorms are only about 6 inches across.

Returning from our flight of fancy into the butterfly effect, I do find that our modern forms of travel do decrease the size of our world. For instances, my parents live below the radar domes pictured here. They are large enough that you can see them from over 20 miles away. Every time I see them I think about the original settlers in the area who walked or rode horses or carts to travel. A trip from my current home to there is a little under an hour. Trip on horseback could be anywhere from 10 hours to an hour and a half. As it is, I have no difficulty driving down to see them for an afternoon and then getting back in time to put the kids to bed. Now a days if I can see it I can reach it fairly easily. That has not always been the case.

When you take into consideration that we have ways of traveling all over the earth in less than a day it has a way of "shrinking" your world. Take the longest flight in the world (supposedly currently running) Newark to Singapore. A 9,545 mile flight done in a little less than 19 hours. Seeing how the Earth is 24,901 miles around that flight is 37% the total way around. If I figured this right, that means you could circumnavigate the globe in an Airbus A340-500 in little over 51.3 hours. Just over two days. Ferdinand Magellen's crew did it in 3 years in the early fifteen hundreds. Even the Great White Fleet of Theodore Roosevelt which set sail in December of 1907 didn't return until February of 1909 - a 14 month trip. Even with air travel, the first flight around the world took 175 days. I've discovered that in March of 2010 the world record for a flight around the world was 57 hours and 54 minutes, so my estimate of 51 hours was a little off of reality. The story of Jules Verne Around the World in 80 Days (which was published in 1873) has been dreamed, enacted, and surpassed. It may be realistic to suppose that you could reach anywhere on the globe in a matter of days, and that's not considering parachuting.

Combine this with instantaneous communication (or "screaming fast" like my internet provider advertises) and you you can not only be anywhere in days, reach almost anyone within minutes. Apparently there are enough mobile phones in the world to cover 87% of the population. Or to put it another way - more people have cell phones than toilets. Now it appears that only 34.3% of the population of the world has internet access, but that's is still around 2.4353 billion people. Just think, the ripples you could be casting don't have to travel geographically anymore. Just from your fingers to your keyboard and from the screen to someone's eye. Current events are real time. Wars are fought with words as much as weapons, and the fighters can be everyday people with a smart phone or laptop. The world is indeed smaller.

The really cool thing is that despite the world shrinking in terms of travel and communication there scientists discover about 18,000 new species every year. And that's just the zoologists and botanists. Think about the discoveries in physics, chemistry, engineering, electronics, geology and all those other greek words. The world may be shrinking, but there is still plenty of it to explore.