Christmas Baby Talk

The high pressure shock front of my last couple of finals and the cold, low-pressure negative phase that followed (concepts which I have promised to discuss), have resulted in no posts for nearly two weeks, leading to one seriously unfortunate consequence: any regular readers have been greeted with Jared Fogel's bright and saggy face for the entire period. Lesson: Negative reinforcement is not a winning strategy when you're trying to build a following.

However, I'm not sure you would have been much better off if I had posted. See, I usually spend Christmas in Arizona with my brother's family, which includes five adorable little girls ranging in age from 3 to 10. Consequently, I spend a great deal of time pretending to be an evil snow monster, alerting unsuspecting victims that according to my watch it is now "tickle time," and generally living life under a pile of over-excited little girls. Generally, after a few days of this, my ability to carry on a normal conversation with adults starts to suffer. For example, two years ago, during my first week back to work after a week in Arizona, I was walking with a colleague and pointed out to him that the color of the folder I was carrying was red. He asked me what the hell I was talking about, and I had to tactfully explain to him that I had temporarily mistaken him for a three-year-old.

Unfortunately, things may only get worse in the future. My sister gave birth to twin daughters six weeks ago, bringing the total number of adorable little girls in the family to eight. (Picture of her growing gang, inset.)

There are upsides, though. They are all getting older, so the conversations/activities are becoming more cerebral and interesting. Last year we started playing Clue, which, it turns out, I absolutely love. In addition, my sister-in-law has decided to form a girls basketball team with her daughters. So, I got to spend some time with niece J. shooting baskets on then new basketball hoop (which I assembled) and showing her how to shoot lay-ups (a necessity for any budding point guard). Great fun!

Anyway, I hope you had a Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season. I did!

Shocking! (In a cool way.)

Via BABlog, here's a great set of photos from the SF Fleet Week airshow. My favorite (below), shows an F-18 flying LOW and FAAAAASTTT..... but how fast?



If you look underneath, you'll see a white V in the water under the plane. If you thought this was from the jet exhaust, you're a little off - it actually starts ahead of the tail. Instead, it the result of the shock wave caused by the plane as it passes through the air, perhaps at supersonic speed. Here's a closer look:

Notice the blurring in the air extending from the plane at an angle above and below. That's the shock front. It is actually a three dimensional cone extending in all directions that moves with the plane. When you hear a sonic boom, it is the effect of that wave crossing over your ears.

The author of the photo says that the plane isn't yet supersonic, but as an amateur appreciator of shock waves, I'm a bit skeptical. I'm baffled at the idea that anything would be able to create a V shaped shock front without being super sonic. Given certain assumptions and the angle of the cone, one (perhaps smarter than I) should be able to calculate just how fast this plane is going.

After I take my Patent Law exam tomorrow and my Business Associations exam Monday, I swear, the first thing I'm going to do (after maybe having a drink and a nap) is look into this thing further and report back here.

Even if I forget, which I might, trust me that it is a damn fascinating effect once you realize exactly what is happening in the air around this plane. But, like I said, for now, you'll just have to trust me (or look it up yourself).