Archives for March 2006

Tomorrow morning I am meeting with a general contractor. The time has come to make some changes to my home that are beyond my abilities.

I am nervous, but excited. Within the next month or so I hope to determine which contractor is going to get the job and specific details as to what we are actually going to do to the house.

Part of me feels quite old. This is something that my parents should be doing. When did I get to be in a place where I could discuss remodeling. It is surreal, but it should be interesting.

I am sure that I’ll keep the blogosphere posted about the highs and lows of it.

There was a big march here in LA. It was about some potential immigration reforms.

“LOS ANGELES Mar 26, 2006 (AP)— Immigration rights advocates more than 500,000 strong marched in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, demanding that Congress abandon attempts to make illegal immigration a felony and to build more walls along the border.

The massive demonstration, by far the biggest of several around the nation in recent days, came as President Bush prodded Republican congressional leaders to give some illegal immigrants a chance to work legally in the U.S. under certain conditions.

Wearing white shirts to symbolize peace, marchers chanted “Mexico!” “USA!” and “Si se puede,” an old Mexican-American civil rights shout that means “Yes, we can.” They waved the flags of the U.S., Mexico and other countries, and some wore them as capes.”

I am a little confused about the purpose of the Mexican flags. Why would you wave them at a demonstration about immigration rights in the US. Something is a little off kilter there.

How about those Bruins! Final Four and more looming in the near future.

This is pretty cool.

“What do Yoda and Gothic cathedrals have in common? More than being several hundred years old, as it turns out.

Computer animation software used in newer “Star Wars” films to bring the pint-sized Jedi to life has now been modified to investigate the mysteries of cathedral architecture.

Along with having many practical uses for architects today, the technology could unlock some of the trade secrets guarded by stonemason guilds for centuries.

Pressure points

Engineers and architects working together at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed the software, known as particle-spring systems. It works by turning the lines and points of pressure within the building blocks of any structure into a three-dimensional graphic. Architects can input information to the software and create a virtual “mesh” of their project within minutes, showing how each block will react in relation to the other.

In the same way, the software can instantly explain just how builders in the 12th and 13th centuries were able to accomplish the seamless stonework displayed in Europe’s greatest cathedrals.

The key lay in finding those pressure points, said project leader John Ochsendorf, an assistant professor of architecture at MIT.

“To understand the function of cathedrals, we are looking for lines of internal compression force which transfer the weight of the stones down to the ground,” Ochsendorf told LiveScience. “If we cannot find internal lines of force within the thickness of the vaults and the walls of the cathedral, then it is not capable of standing.”

MIT’s particle-spring software makes identifying the lines of force easier, according to Ochsendorf. This may be particularly useful in the case of old buildings showing signs of wear, where cracks can be identified as either harmless or potentially fatal to the structural integrity of the building.

God, man, and architecture

The technology, if it works as planned, could also add valuable information to the historical record. Cathedrals were used as status symbols for the stoneworkers and those who commissioned the building, in addition to being places of worship, social scientists say.

“Although it is made of stone and glass, to understand and see it for what it is, we need to understand the relations among God, man, and architecture that governed its creation,” writes Stanford University sociologist Robert Scott, in his book “The Gothic Enterprise: A Guide to Understanding the Medieval Cathedral” (University of California Press, 2003).

How cathedrals were constructed, then, can say a lot about the circumstances of why and by whom they were built. Ochsendorf and the team at MIT believe the precise details of how will be illuminated with their particle-spring approach.”

“You Are Such a Man!”

Not quite sure how I am supposed to take this. A woman made this remark about me. She was muttering under her breath when she said it, but I still heard it.

It followed a response I made to a question she asked me.

It made me think of an old joke.

“A passenger plane on a cross-country trip runs into a terrible storm.
The plane gets pounded by rain, hail, wind and lightning.

The passengers are screaming. They are sure the plane is going to crash and that they are all going to die.

At the height of the storm, a young woman jumps up and exclaims, “I can’t take this anymore! I can’t just sit here and die like an animal, strapped into a chair. If I am going to die, let me at least die feeling like a woman. Is there anyone here man enough to make me feel like woman?”

She sees a hand raise in the back, and a muscular man starts to walk up to her seat. As he aproaches her, he takes off his shirt.
She can see the man’s muscles even in the poor lighting of the plane. He stands in front of her, shirt in hand and says to her, “I can make you feel like a woman before you die. Are you interested?”

Eagerly, she shakes her head, Yes!

As the man hands her his shirt, he says, “Here. Iron this.”