Daily Song

The other day i was thinking about the routine aspects of my life; those little things we do each and every day.  These can be viewed as monotony but they can also be viewed as a rhythm that surrounds our lives.

Each day is a song in a symphony called life with each day has the underlying rhythm.  The rhythm adds continuity and an underlying beat to our existence. 

Chemistry to Linear Algebra

I finished Zumdahl's Chemistry book and thoroughly loved going through the text.

Now I am moving on the Linear Algebra.    The text I am using will be Howard Anton's.  He is rigorous so it should ea good experience.  I love matrices, too.  looking forward to it!

Enlightened About Becoming Vegetarian

Becoming a vegetarian is a personal diet choice that people can make.  I have discovered, much to my amazement and .... disgust, that it is also a cause.  I have tried researching vegetarian issue on the web only to be confronted by disgusting pictures of slaughtered animals.  It is bullying and lying. I am not sure why anyone would think it would help any kind of cause.  It only revolts viewers.  Sad.

Visual Basic

I have embarked on yet another adventure - that of learning how to program in Visual Basic.net!

Back in the early 1980s, when I was an MBA student at VCU, I took my first programming class. I was immediately at home. It was so incredibly easy anf un as the way of thinking required for creating programs matches the logic of my brain. The code was the original Basic and punch cards were created. Wow...that was SO long ago! VB.net is a very different program to use but in many ways easier.

Clive Cussler's Novels

I have found a new favorite author!

For years, I looked forward to every new Michael Crichton book. I have read all of Dan Brown's books and enjoyed some of them. But then I read Clive Cussler's "Medusa". I flew through this book, and am now rreading "White Death".

"White Death" is one of the best books (better than some of Brown's) that I have read in a long time! It is thrilling, funny, plus I am learning much about the sea! Bravo!

Patterson's Books

After Hillerman, I tried one of James Patterson's Women's Murder Club series. it was great until the romance novel aspects (steamy sex scenes) kicked in. Very disappointing!

Hillerman's Books

I have discovered a wonderful author - Tony Hillerman. He writes mystery novels with a focus on Navajo culture. So far, I am completely enjoying his writing. His books are not just educational regarding the Navajo culture but alos are filled with wonderful poetry! I will retype one in a another post.
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January 27, 2012

I have changed my mind about Hillerman's books. They are interesting but nothing happens. I have heard this from other readers too. Oh well.

Richmond Times Dispatch Article

Nice article on my SMV show. http://www2.timesdispatch.com/entertainment/rtd-entertainment/2011/nov/17/tdweek13-the-art-of-math-and-science-at-the-scienc-ar-1464265/

The art of math and science at the Science Museum

"Fractal 1" by Melissa Holly is part of an exhibit at the Science Museum of Virginia.

By: Times-Dispatch Staff
Published: November 17, 2011

» 0 Comments | Post a Comment

The Science Museum of Virginia is exhibiting "The Beauty of Math and Science," a series of paintings by Richmond artist Melissa Holly. The artist has studied math and science for most of her life in tandem with art. She notes that the endeavors may seem contradictory but aren't because they share the study of patterns — a subject she finds fascinating.

"The beauty of math and science is everywhere!" she noted in her artist's statement. "When I look at a verdant landscape, I not only see all the wonderful combinations of patterns and colors in the leaves and plants, but also the beauty of the science behind the scene."

The exhibition runs through Dec. 30 at 2500 W. Broad St. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For details, call (804) 864-1400 or visit www.smv.org.

Jo Lord

Women Living Single

The Today show just had a session on about many women choosing to be single. Bravo! It is great if women choose to get married and live a more tradtional life; but it is also wonderful that many women are choosing to stay single and on their careers. Women can contribute as much to this world as men. We have a choice and do not have to be baby producing machines who can only clean and cook. We can choose.

Painting with Acrylic

I am truly beginning to feel like I understand how to use acrylic paint. My current painting, "Fractal 1", required me to use both Liquitex's Heavy Body paint and Liquitex's Soft Body paint. I feel like I now understand when it is best to use the different types of paint for getting certain effects.

Misunderstandings About Our Environment

From a global standpoint, there are many misunderstandings about our environment. Many of the situations not healthy for humans are good for other creatures on this Earth. The EPA seems to focus only on humans which is a very narrow perspective.

Recently the EPA deemed CO2 as a serious environmental hazard. Plants are required to have it in order to produce the nutrients (sugars) they need to survive. Smog is unsightly to us but the NO2 combines with water to form nitrate salts that fall to the ground and are again used by plants as nutrients.

Humans are not alone on this planet and it is important to remember that.

Love Affair

I was about 12 when the love affair started. I thought it was amazing. Although the mystery has decreased over time as the world discovered more about it. Einstein loved it so much it prompted the statement about God does not play dice with the universe. My chemistry book has several chapters devoted to it but as I progress into higher levels of chemistry and physics, more and more will be spent on it and its magic.

Environmental Thoughts

As I peruse the chemistry text, there are periodic sections devoted to the environment. Over the years, my thoughts have not lined up with the more popular ones, and I am realizing why. I have a chemists point of view, not that of a biologist.

CO2 is required by plants. The fact that the EPA declared it a serious environmental hazard is laughable and the current text that I am reading agrees. In fact they even mention that a significant part of the carbon emissions in the air are due to animal farts. Years go Australia even inoculated their cattle with antibiotics so they would fart less (unfortunately tainting the milk and meat that humans ingest). Instead of reducing our carbon emissions, we need to plant more trees and stop destroying the rain forest. This makes so much more sense.

Matching my thinking, the book does mention the serious hazard sulfuric gases produce in our atmosphere. Sulfur based gases as "naturally" produced by hot springs, and volcanoes but it would be prudent if humans reduced these emissions as much as possible.

Another topic the text touched on is the idea of hydrogen cars. It is a ridiculous idea. H2 released into the air would do far much more harm than CO2 could everdo to the ozone layer. We also do not need more water vapor in the air either; and the tanks required for either liquid or gases H2 is an impossible idea.

I am so completely glad to rad a text that my agrees with my mindset!

Reviewing Chemistry

I am thoroughly enjoying reviewing my college chemistry. What an interesting and exciting subject to learn.

It has been nearly 40 years since I went through the complete college course on my own so I was expecting things to have changed. However, the changes I am noticing are much greater than expected. There is more math in the book much to my complete delight!

Life is good! Especially when you are learning.

New Journey

I have begun a new journey to find Inertia and Mass. What are their secrets and why have they been so elusive to scientists?

My journey is taking me into high levels of math, chemistry (physical) and physics (quantum) as I think they will lead to answers.

I am excited. My brain hurts....

Balancing Chemical Equations

Today, I realized one thing I do automaically by instinct that makes balancing chemical equations easier. First, I assess my even number verus the odd ones. In other words if I have a reactant that has an even number of oxygens but the products have oxygen in only water, then it is an even to odd situation. This menas that I must 6 (which is 2 times 3) or 12 (which has 3 times four) or some other even/odd multiplication product. I would put an clear example but Blogger does do allow subscripts. So following is a rough example with "v" used before the number to indicate a subscript.

Unbalanced equation:

NHv3 + Ov2 ---> NO + Hv2O

Note that there are 2 oxygens on the left anf 3 oxygens on the right so there is an even/odd situation. Only one of the products has nitrogen and only one has hydrogen, but they are together without any oxygen in the reactants. I decide to use 12 which gives me the options of 3 times 4 and 6 times 2.

4NHv3 + 5Ov2 ---> 4NO + 6Hv2O

Balanced!

Clean Your PC

I am a PC so I do not know how to "clean" a MAC after going out on the Internet. Here is a good idea for PCs:

Every time you finished going out to the net, go to your Internet Options on your Control Panel (I have a shortcut on my Desktop as I follow these instructions OFTEN). On the General tab, under the Browsing History area, I have selected the Delete History on Exit. To clean your PC, click the Delete... button. Make sure the Preserve Favorites Website data is NOT selected, then selected every option on the lower list. Then hit the delete key. Following this procedure helps reduce cookies and trackers installed on your PC by various web sites.

As an additional aside, never ever store passwords for sites on the site. Always type it in every time you go there.

Switching

The poles are switching. The switching process will accelerate as the magnetic pole nears the equator. The storms, earthquakes, etc. are due to the switching process so how bad will it get? Perhaps the Mayan s were correct. We will have to see what this hurricane season is like. My instincts tell me that hurricanes will actually be fewer in number and less intense. We will have to see.

Randomness

James Gleick's book Chaos: Making a New Science is a great book. It is also making me wonder about randomness. Does random behavior actually exists? Or is it actually a complex system with a pattern that is difficult for us to discern?

Prime times Prime

Unable to paint today due to a sinus infection, I have been analyzing prime number patterns. As others before me have already done, I am trying to discern a pattern in the ending digits, which are always 1,3, 7 and 9 (excluding the two 2 "weird" primes of 2 and 5). I realized something fun - not Earth shattering - probably realized before by countless others but still fun for me. All primes multiplied by themselves obviously result in a non-prime number; but what is interesting is that the resulting number always end with either 1 or 9!