Online Literary Magazine for CM 220, CM 107 Classes and Friends of KU: This Just In; Costco and Dolls

Online Literary Magazine for CM 220, CM 107 Classes and Friends of KU: This Just In; Costco and Dolls:  I just discovered that Mr. Clean magic erasers work wonders on cleaning marks on modern porcelain dolls and on vinyl, with no harm done.  I...

"Nature had Spoken to HIm" by David H. Levy with Roy L. Bishop

 We could call this, Gravity's Rainbow!

“Nature had spoken to him.”

 

 

Woolsthorpe by RLB

Skyward for July 2021.

David H. Levy with Roy L. Bishop.

 

Gravity is one of the most fundamental things in physics. Everything and everyone has gravity. The more massive something is, the more gravity it has. When you jump into the air, Earth’s gravity brings you back down. What you cannot see while you are in the air is that your gravity brings Earth towards you just a wee little bit, off-setting the extra push away from you that your feet gave Earth when you jumped.

Isaac Newton presented the first ever mathematical description of gravity in 1687. I admit that I know nothing about gravitation, except that it is all around me. I do recall the myth that Newton was sitting under a tree when an apple fell on his head.  Supposedly, he then formulated his law of gravity. Did the apple actually fall on his head? I doubt it. But at his childhood home in the village of Woolsthorpe, England, he probably did witness an apple fall from a tree.

During the last half of the nineteenth century physicists realized that Newton's theory of gravity did not accurately describe the orbit of Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun. Mercury's elongated orbit precesses slightly faster than Newton's theory predicts. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to account for this discrepancy.

Newton’s theory, which assumes that gravity is a force, held sway for more than two centuries, until superseded by Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity in 1915. A decade earlier, Einstein realized that mass and energy are two aspects of one thing, and that space and time are interrelated, a blended spacetime. With General Relativity, Einstein treated gravity not as a force, but as the geometry of spacetime. The geometry of spacetime is curved by the mass-energy of matter, and the curvature instructs matter how to move.

Now comes the hard part. When Roy Bishop, emeritus professor of Physics at Acadia University, pointed out to me that gravitation is geometry, and not a force at all, I didn’t believe him at first. But Dr. Bishop is the most brilliant person I have even had the privilege of knowing. Recently he described gravity this way, and he is right:

 

“Einstein spent several years in an eventual successful attempt to include gravity in a modified description of spacetime. Early in his progress toward that goal Einstein had what he called the happiest thought of his life — that if a person were to fall off the roof of a house, while falling she would not feel a force of gravity. Before she falls, she feels the force of the roof supporting her. When her fall comes to its abrupt halt she feels the ground pushing against her. If she cannot feel a force of gravity while she is falling, why pretend that she felt a force of gravity when the roof supported her before she fell, or that she feels a force of gravity when she is lying on the ground?

“When thinking about the falling lady, Einstein had the fantastic insight that perhaps gravity never was a force. By late in 1915 he had that insight in elegant mathematical form such that the resulting theory, General Relativity, can be used to make precise predictions concerning gravitation.”

 

Einstein was elated when, on November 18, 1915, he found that his General Theory of Relativity predicted the measured precession of Mercury’s orbit. According to his friend and biographer Abraham Pais: “This discovery was, I believe, by far the strongest emotional experience in Einstein’s scientific life, perhaps in all his life.” Pais then continues with five words that crystallize that profound experience: “Nature had spoken to him.” After several years of work, on that day Einstein knew that he was the only person on Earth who understood gravity!

Today, there are thousands of people who understand gravity.  Roy is one of them.  Most of us, including me, are not one of them.  But reading it described so well is one of the pleasures we can feel as we try to appreciate the wonderful cosmos in which we live. Not only does General Relativity correctly predict the precession of Mercury’s orbit, but it is essential to the programs used in the GPS navigation system, and it describes the gravitational waves (ripples in the geometry of spacetime) generated by two coalescing black holes, directly detected 100 years after 1915 by LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory.

 

(End)

American Doll and Toy Museum: Museum Update; The State of the Doll House

American Doll and Toy Museum: Museum Update; The State of the Doll House:   Today started out as another Monday with a lot of potential to go wrong.   So, I gave up and went thrifting for awhile.   I read everythin...

American Doll and Toy Museum: What I've Done the Last Two Weeks for the Museum

American Doll and Toy Museum: What I've Done the Last Two Weeks for the Museum:  Like many of you, I'm playing catch-up.  I was out of commission for six weeks during March and April, and am still tired.  I've de...

Scenes from American Doll and Toy Museum's Progress

 We are still at it; making plans to move the rest of our cases and rearrange what we have. Beginning to cut lumber for the cases to be enclosed in glass.  Also, began landscaping with lovely black mulch and blooming flowers.

After six weeks of being ill and out of commission, I am bouncing back, and have attended and set up at our first doll show of the year.  Still need donations; we have many expenses and can't open to the public yet.  Building maintenance is expensive, and coming out of my pocket.

Thinking outside the Doll House, a Memoir is selling well.  It is available on Booktopia, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Austin Macaulay.  There are three formats; eBook is around 4.50.

Enjoy the pictures, and Happy Collecting!

Doll Show Set UP

Book at the Show

Custom Decorated Hats

German Bisque, before 1890, gift of K. Stineman

Vintage Dolls from India, Gigi's Dolls and Sherry's Teddy Bears

Art doll from 70s

Crissy and Friends, gifts of L. Christopher

Scene from my shadow box, The Vampyre Doll Collector

Molded Cloth Art Doll

Puppet Shows, soon, courtesy Dr. J. Milani and Rock Island Public Library

.

Large Custom Hat for large dolls, bears . . . or people

RBG with part of our law books

Part of our Ancient Doll Display

Fayzah Spanos from my doll club colleague, Mary Sullivan

Landscaping

Our Building

Panorama View; these will be behind glass

30 inch Heubach; my mother knitted her jacket.  From Dick Taber, Summer Kitchen Antiques

Spanning Generations; Flat Top China, gift of K. Stineman. Mini Tonka trucks in background

Old Clock case diorama with small antique German and Japanese dolls.

Courtesy, Nancy Macray.

Dome with antique Japanese dolls, courtesy Nancy Macray.

April 2021 Skyward by Dr. David Levy

 From our guest blogger, Dr. David Levy; sorry for the delay in posts on all my blogs.  I have been very ill, but am recovering.

Skyward for April 2021

 

by

 

David H. Levy

 

US Capitol, May 1975, by Dr. David Levy

 January 6, 2021

           Just one day after the Earth passed its closest point to the Sun in its orbit, its perihelion, the American Astronomical Society was having its annual meeting online, the United States Congress was validating the results of the 2020 national election, and Wendee and I were settling in for a civics lesson about the way the United States Government works.  The day did not turn out that way.

          Shortly before noon, on our television set a news ticker appeared.  It announced that two buildings in Library of Congress (LC), the James Madison, and quickly afterwards the Adams and Jefferson buildings, were being evacuated. That news sent a chill through me.   The LC is one of the finest libraries in the entire world. It contains more than 170 million books, of which more than thirty are books I wrote entirely or at least a foreword.  It also includes all of the more than two hundred  “Star Trails” columns I wrote for Sky and Telescope magazine between 1988 and 2008, and dozens more I wrote for other magazines and journals.  Only the British library, with over 200 million books, is larger than the Library of Congress. 

          This event was personal for me.  A few minutes later, when the entire Capitol complex was stormed, it was personal for all of us.  All of us had reactions to this, but in addition to the feelings I shared with most of you, I had an additional feeling– specifically about the library.

          How many books does it take to make a library? When I was a child in 1963, a teacher gave the best answer I’ve ever heard: “two books.” For me, a library– any library– is every bit as priceless as a dark sky.  The wisdom of the ages is contained in each library- from the LC to a child’s collection. I have never gone into a library without feeling better when I exited.  The idea that this magnificent collection was threatened that day was terrifying.

          I have read many books over my lifetime, from The Cat in the Hat to my boxed set of Lord of the the Rings.  One small treasure,  Jene Lyon’s Golden book Our Sun and the Worlds Around It, began a lifetime of stargazing.    That gem, by the way, also lives in the LC.  What is more, I have never encountered a really bad book.  When an author places her or his thoughts on paper in a book, that book immortalizes those thoughts.

          I hope that Capitol Hill and the Library of Congress are never threatened again.  They belong to we the people, and stand beautifully in Washington, D.C. to govern us, teach us, and encourage us to follow our dreams and reach for the stars.

The Japanese Doll Festival March 3, 2016

I've been fascinated with this holiday ever since reading Miss Happiness and Miss Flower by Rumer Godden.  I also adore Japanese dolls, as did Huguette Clark, the doll collector heiress.  In Mitsuwa Shopping Center, Arlington Heights, you can buy miniature vegetables and foods for The Doll Festival; we get their fliers from time to time, and it is fascinating to read about what you can buy to celebrate.

In honor of the doll Festival, and of my Uncle Tom, who bought me so many Japanese and Asian dolls, and who died on May 2, 1982, I'd like to showcase some of my recent Japanese Doll Purchases.  Enjoy!

Courtesy, Jason 72