The non-bloggish blog

Ten other scientists called Albert

Now you may think that Einstein has the “my son, Albert’s a famous scientist” thing wrapped up, but you’d be wrong. Without intending to take any glory away from Pauline Einstein, here are ten more scientists called Albert (and I could go on):

Albert Cornelius Antoine
Albert Arking
Albert P. Crary
Albert Ghiorso
Albert Haldemann
Albert Y. Leung
Albertus Magnus
Albert Michelson
Albert Schweitzer
Albert Szent-Györgyi

Albert Cornelius Antoine was born in New York in January, 1925 and has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Ohio State University. He has been attached to the NASA Lewis Research Center since the year I was born and has conducted specialised research in the field of photochemistry.

Albert Arking is principal research scientist at the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. His research interests are atmospheric physics and global climatology.

Albert P. Crary (1911 - 1987), was a polar geophysicist and glaciologist and the first person to set foot on both the North and South Poles. Born into a farming family in northern New York state, he was the eldest son in a family of 7 children. The Crary Ice Rise in the Antarctic is named for him.

Albert Ghiorso from California helped discover several elements on the periodic table.

Albert Haldemann is deputy project scientist, Mars Exploration Rover Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. He is 12 years younger than me.

Dr. Albert Y. Leung is a pharmacognosist with a B.S. in Pharmacy from the National Taiwan University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Pharmacognosy from the University of Michigan. He was the original developer of a popular herbal blend called Intra TM in which he no longer has any interest and from which he now entirely dissociates himself.

Saint Albert the Great, Sankt Albert der Grosse, Albert of Cologne, Albert of Lauingen, Doctor Universalis and Albertus Magnus are one and the same.

Albert Abraham Michelson was born in Strzelno (Poland) on December 19, 1852, son of Samuel Michelson and Rozalia, daughter of Abraham Przylubski from Inowroclaw. He grew up mainly in Nevada, and San Francisco From 1923 to 1927 he served as president of the National Academy of Sciences. When I was at school, I had a scripture teacher from Poland called Rabbi Michelson. Could they be related, I wonder?

Albert Schweitzer was an Alsatian. He established a hospital at Lambaréné, Gabon and was on the religious side. Gabon now has a very short president who wears platform shoes.

Albert Szent-Györgyi won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1937. Why? I’m not sure. In his speech at the Nobel Banquet in Stockholm, December 10, 1937, he said: “I am the son of a small and far-away nation.”

(That’s enough Alberts [ed])

Worst album covers ever

Here's a book that's been crying out to be written and here and here are samples from the author's blogsite.

Moderately disordered

I did the personality disorder test (via Norm via Tomodachi). I scored low on everything except narcissism, which was ‘moderate’. Hmmm…moderate narcissism…I guess that’s like mainline-to-liberal narcissism, which would fit the last profile.

The death of unbelief

It
Was
Quite
Strange
Even if he
Was an atheist.
We followed the
Coffin in. The bearers
Placed it down. We sat
Silently till his younger son
Nodded to the undertaker who
Went up to the podium, pushed a
Button and a burgundy-red curtain
Closed softly-softly around the coffin.

I
Said
A kaddish
In my head.
We sat quietly
Again till again
His son nodded to
The undertaker, who
Rose, led us out, shook
Our hands. "That was the
Most minimalist event I've
Been to," said the second son.

He
Hadn't
Wanted
A ceremony;
He'd offered his
Body to research
But the hospital didn't
Want it. Back at the house,
We toasted the both of them:
She whom the hospital wanted
And he, whom they didn't. I should
Have had a whisky in his honour but
I stuck to wine. I should have lit a menthol
Cigarette in his honour, but I gave up smoking
In 1983. Still, we drank. It was the best we could do.

"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree"

...or in its Greek version, 'Under the apple tree, apples fall."

The first recorded use of this saying in the US was apparently by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1839. Emerson's original profession was as a Unitarian minister. (For some reason that is not entirely clear to me, Unitarianism scored highly in the results of numerous bloggers' belief-o-matic tests, including mine.)

Anyway, desperate to delay writing up a particularly boring assignment, I've been testing that adage on an arbitrary sample of musical luminaries. Granted it may apply as much to personality as to occupation, but when it comes to the latter, results are mixed.

FOR

Carla Bley was born in Oakland, California in 1938. Her parents, both musicians, met at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.

Richie Havens' father, Richard Havens, was a pianist, who earned his living in metal plating.

Paul Simon's dad, Louis was a bass player and bandleader who appeared on several TV shows. Although not a rock 'n roll fan, he did play on a recording by Tico & The Triumphs.

Pablo' Casals' father, Charles, was the organist in the church in Vendrell and taught singing and piano. He gave Pablo his first lessons in singing and composition.

Miles Davis was the son of a dentist who once ran for the state legislature. His mother, Cleota Henry Davis, was a classically trained musician.

AGAINST

Mike Nesmith's mother Bette invented Tipex.

Gram Parsons (Ingram Cecil Connor III) was the son of Avis Snively Connors, a citrus heiress, whose family fortune came from orange groves, and Cecil 'Coon Dog' Connor, Jr., who flew over fifty combat missions during World War Two and then ran a box-making factory in Waycross, Georgia.

Nancy Griffith, born in Lubbock, Texas, was the daughter of a printer and an amateur actress respectively.

Another Lubbock native was Buddy Holly. His dad, Lawrence Holley worked various jobs, including as a tailor and a salesman in a local clothing store. The 'e' in his name was dropped as a result of a spelling error on his first recording contract.

Ramblin' Jack Elliot was the son of a Brooklyn doctor.

Frank Zappa 's father was a meteorologist who researched poisonous gases for the military.

Janis Joplin's dad Seth was an oil refinery worker.

Bob Dylan's dad Abe lost his job with Standard Oil after contracting polio and subsequently set up an appliance store with his brothers, Maurice and Paul. His mother Beatty had a part-time job at Feldman's Department Store.

Joni Mitchell (Roberta Joan Anderson) was the daughter of Bill, a grocer, and Myrtle, a schoolteacher.

Buddy Guy's parents, Sam and Isabell, were sharecroppers.

ABSTENTIONS

Loudon Wainwright III was the son of Loudon Wainwright II, a journalist. However, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, the children of Loudon III and Kate McGarrigle, are both musicians.

Jim Hall spent a year on his uncle Ed's farm. Ed played guitar and Jim's mom played church music on the piano. His parents then split up and his mother moved with her two sons to Cleveland where she worked as a secretary at a tool company.

Brian Wilson's father, Murray, worked in lower management for a number of employers, but was also an aspiring songwriter (One of his songs was played by Lawrence Welk on national radio). He apparently pushed his kids into music, but their relationship was difficult.

Goats in politics #5

If goats could vote, George W. Bush would win hands (hooves?) down. I'm talking demographics rather than politics here.

According to an article on goatworld.com by Gary Pfalzbot, the goat population of Texas outnumbers that of its nearest rival by 10 to 1.

Drawing on the 2002 Census of Agriculture, he ranks the US goat population by state. The top 10 are:

1. Texas 1,194,289
2. Tennessee 114,664
3. California 103,122
4. Oklahoma 82,792
5. Georgia 69,498
6. Kentucky 68,412
7. North Carolina 67,276
8. Alabama 50,574
9. Missouri 48,654
10. Ohio 45,061

Bottom is Alaska with 277.

Says Pfalzbot:

In 1997, the total number of goats in the US.was 2,251,613.
In 2002, the total number of goats in the US was 2,530,466.
This marks an increase of 278,853 total goats over five years.

Solanki gets his century

28/8/04 – C&G final. See here.

Hadji Murat #2

Despite it only being 130-odd pages, I have failed to finish Hadji Murat today. There are four main reasons for this:

1. Distraction by the Sunday papers;
2. Work deadline;
3. The need to do a big shop at Sainsbury's
4. A long conversation with an old friend about Abdel Rahman al-Rashed's article, referenced by Norm and Harry, which he hadn't read.

I will shortly be making a cup of chamomile tea and trying again. Harold Bloom says it's worth it, apparently.

Doc Pomus tribute

For some reason, I couldn't get this to display in my Recommended typelist, so here it is.

Tintin in Israel/Palestine

We've just passed the 11th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords (20 August, 1993) and are approaching the anniversary of the Arafat/Rabin handshake on the White House lawn (13 September, 1993). To commemorate that historic and rare moment of optimism in Israeli-Palestinian relations, I reproduce below a comparative transliterated list of the names of the main Tintin characters in Arabic, Hebrew and (in honour of that government's role) Norwegian.

Just because I'm feeling generous, I'm appending two bonus languages: Afrikaans and Icelandic.

Calculus, Cuthbert
Arabic Bergel
Hebrew Hashav'ya
Norwegian Tournesol

Afrikaans Phosfatus
Icelandic Vandradur

Captain (Archibald) Haddock
Arabic Haddock
Hebrew Haddock
Norwegian Haddock

Afrikaans Sardijn
Icelandic Kolbeinn

Snowy
Arabic Milou
Hebrew Zachi/Shil'g
Norwegian Terry

Afrikaans Spokie
Icelandic Tobbi

Thomson & Thompson

Arabic Tik & Tak
Hebrew Thomson & Thompson
Norwegian Dupont & Dupond

Afrikaans Uys & Buys
Icelandic Skapti & Skafti

Tintin
Arabic Tin Tin
Hebrew Tintin
Norwegian Tintin

Afrikaans Kuifie
Icelandic Tinni

TO explore other languages, go here.

The Oslo Accords still make sense to me. To remind yourself how things looked then, go here.