Somedays

"Think think think."
-Winnie the Pooh

Man food is good.

Bonjour!

Much like the song suggests, they gave me all the food I could want today and then some. All with the added benefit of having to do no work. My adviser didn't get in until 11 today, and I had a meeting at Ecole Polytechnique (the school affiliated with where I work) in which they outlined their graduate programs in a shameless plea to get us to attend them. Which made me feel nice to be wanted, but I probably won't be attending here. The graduate programs that interest me are all taught in French... and I still can't speak that language. So somewhere else for masters, maybe PhD, sorry mom. We'll see though.

The food though. That's what's important here. The food was free. And good, cause it's French food, and they don't mess around. They had quiches that were bomb and a brownie that was thick and chocolate and delicious. Plus wine, apple orange and grapefruit (very bitter) juice, sparkling water, and coffee. All for free. Which made it all better. I'm growing to love the coffee here and being able to indulge it in free was awesome.

Then when I returned to LOA (the lab where I work), there was a barbecue kind of thing. It was not like BBQ back home though. No sauce. Just chicken on sticks, some salad things, and couscous and wine again. They brought out cheeses and breads and fruits later. Then came the desserts and they just never stopped bringing them out and they were so good. All that to say, this was the first time I've been overly full after eating, so full I can skip dinner. It never happens here normally, the portions are too small. It's nice for a change, but I don't know how I eat like this back home. I hope it's something that stays with me. I feel better and healthier here. Plus I've run the past couple of days which is nice.

"Riches do not profit on the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death."
-Old Hebrew Proverb.

Tuesdays are for hip-hop

Just heard this guy. Great stuff.

Short post today. Work was making a fourier transform of our data. It took most of the day, and I'm not even sure it's right. Also had to find out about the Nyquist criterion for work at home or homework, but not really homework you know.

Ratatouille is again delicious. Why does nobody ever remember that Pixar movie?

As suggested by the Chris Chapman, perhaps cyclops visor is a polarizer, which cuts the intensity of the light to a manageable degree. Also would explain why it glows red. Food for thought.

"If you smile at me, I will understand. Because that is something everyone everywhere does in the same language."
-Crosby Stills and Nash (and sometimes Y...oung)

Monday Monday

Physics is a man's world.

So today I was joined by another high schooler and roughly the French equivalent of what I am. Both named Matthew (or Matchieu depending on if you say it French like or not), so the name thing should be easy. They both speak pretty good English too, which is nice. So the French go to high school, then this really intense prep school, then they jump to getting their masters and Phd. I think it takes roughly the same time for both of us though. So Matthew Sr was there first but I didn't know he was coming so I thought he was a high schooler and tried explaining very simple things, but it turns out he's very smart and attends one of the best schools in France for theoretical physics and math. He gets paid to go to school. That's how good it is. Chuh. It was kind of frustrating sometimes cause he'd mess with the set up I had built all last week which momentarily put a flash of terror in me cause he didn't know what he was doing, or I thought he didn't. It was all good though.

Today our intrepid crew really didn't do a whole lot. Rod got the motor on the target running and got it rotating so we were able to see how that affected the fringes, which was really cool, because the thing is already pretty damn stable. It just needs a little more tweaking and it'll be there. We also messed with the filter to balance the arms of the interferometer to make sure the contrast is as good as we can make it. That was the biggest thing we did today. Good day. Then I ran and ate and read Stephen King's The Gunslinger, part 1 of the Dark Tower series. It's really good.

"Long days and pleasant nights"
-The gunslinger

Notes on Mortality

Fleet fox time

So I visited the Musee d'Orsay and I saw some new art this time than last time, and it was incredible. Absolutely fantastic. I loved it in other words. Also mass in Notre Dame is incredible. Even if it's in a language I can't understand. When the organ plays it reverberates through you. Fantastic. Also the couple who sat next to me are related to people from Edmond. What are the chances?

I also visited the Pantheon. My advice? Skip it. Unless if you do the panoramic view, then maybe. Although I can't imagine it's any better then Eiffel. It's not that much more impressive on the inside than the outside and is costly, compared to what you get. It's roughly the same price as the Louvre or the Musee d'Orsay and has less than half the stuff. The only exceptional things are the graves/crypts of Voltaire and Rosseau. I have to wonder how they'd  feel about that. It gave me the creeps. Since the internet is written in ink, let me just go ahead and get this out there: Don't bury me in stone. Don't just let me sit somewhere for all eternity decaying in some box until some future archaeologist (although they'll probably call it something else) digs me up. Ahohhno. (<- shudder noise)

Also Zak and Josh cook some mean grub.

"Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind."
-Albert Einstein

Half Weekend

Live from Paris, it's Caleb Holt! 

I just wanted to say that.

I'll get to it now. Ok so on Friday, we finished our set up, and took pictures of our results. Then we used a program to analyze the contrast, or basically how good our fringes were. The dark should be completely distinct from the light parts in theory, but that's not how it works in reality. However our fringes were pretty good, especially the ones we took later in the day. It was also Michael, my high school student's last day, which was unfortunate, but I replace him next week. Hopefully I get his name right the first time. Anyway here are the pictures of what I've been working on all week

Set up (hard to explain. See previous posts.)

Fringe patterns on computer. Look nice don't they? 

After all that, I got out of work a bit early, which was nice. And I discovered the bookstore Shakespeare and Company with Kierstin. It was incredible. To think Joyce had been there, and worked there was too much. But he wasn't in the actual physical building of it because the original closed down or something, but the owner of this one bought the name or had it sold to him or something. Anyway, I feel the spirit of the thing lives on. It was incredible. I bought Crime and Punishment and the third book of the Dark Tower series, which I'm now reading thanks to Zak. It's pretty good so far. Much better than the book I was reading, but I felt I had to see that one through for some misguided reason. After a lovely evening in Paris, there's a lot of those, I went to bed with plans to go to the Normandy beaches on the morrow. But fate decided against that. Or really my lack of planning led me to be dumb and get off the train two stops early. But I did get on the train which almost didn't happen due to my tardiness. Like I literally got on and the train started moving. It was awesome. Felt like being in an old Western. Except for the part where everyone speaks French. So I got off two stops early cause the place had normandy in the name. I was still like 2 hours from the D-Day beaches so I messed that up, so I did what any person would do and enjoyed the place where I was. < Kind of applies to the situation. > I discovered a Notre Dame there, and a free museum which was a bit of a let down. But the best part was definitely the rattatouille or however you spell it. Like the Pixar movie no one remembers. There were also really pretty hills there which I climbed. And two jets that decided to be awesome and put on an improntu aerial show. So that was my grand misadventure as I have termed it. Here's the proof. 

The other other Notre Dame

Inside

Crazy organ

Maccaroon (delicious)

Hôtel de Ville 

Awesome hill

Flowers

Flowers closer (plus bee) 

La fisica

<It's a stormy day here in Paris, France, and everyone needs to Thunder Up >

So the past couple days I've actually had to do physics at work. Which is why I haven't made posts about the physics of the X-men in a while. This week, I'm joined by my assistant Michael (who I thought was named William for the first couple of days, very awkward  [and I'd like to deeply apologize]), who is a high school student right here in a good ol' Paris at a bilingual school. Luckily though, he's Australian by earth so he speaks good english and has even helped me with my Spanish some. He doesn't know too much about physics, but that's more because he's in the tenth grade than anything else, so it's been kind of neat explaining things to him.

What we've been working on has been a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Which is where one takes a laser beam, passes it through a beam splitter (which allows half the beam to be transmitted, half to be reflected, ideally) then both beams are reflected, one from the target, one from a mirror parallel to the target. One then recombines the beams with another beam splitter so that they are equal intensity, or should roughly be. Which is very easy to say, much more difficult to do. However today, Michael and I achieved our goal. It is now displaying a very nice interference pattern on a wall down stairs in the basement. ....Just trust me on that.

What's the point? The point is that interference pattern occur due to wavelengths of light which are very small (~.0001 millimeters). Therefore, if the target moves by that amount or more, the pattern will change. (Interference patterns look like 1111, basically fringes of light with dark spots in between them, I'll post a picture of ours later) So they can be very useful in detecting the smallest of changes which is exactly what we need in order to make attosecond pulses because the laser has to hit a new part of the target each time.

In other news, I've been wandering around Paris at night, and it's still beautiful. I went to see the Grande Arche, which is like the Arc d'Triomphe only more modern and big. It was like wandering into a futuristic part of Paris. Yesterday I went and wandered the Tuillieres garden and the Champs-Elysses. C'est Magnifique! I also had a conversation with a French lady in French, despite my protests that I spoke none of it. I just guessed at answers to here questions until I was right. She was very insistent about it, and it was a lot of fun.

"I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask where they're going, and hook up with 'em later."
-Mitch Hedberg.

Heaven

Being here in Paris, one can often wonder about Heaven.

Let me tell you about the food they serve there.

In Paris, if one is willing to take the time to find them, there are several great restaurants. I have found one of the top shelf ones. It is a little pricey, but not too bad really for the amount of food and the atmosphere, not to mention the quality. The quality is superb. It's a little bar and restaurant called Zango Daguerre located on the Rue de Daguerre and it's absolutely fantastic. They play music every Sunday (Dimanche for you Frog-talkers), and so far I've enjoyed both bands I've heard. There are meals named after explorers that feature food from all over but it's all very well prepared and presented and tastes fan-freaking-tastic.

So I imagine the food they serve up in Heaven probably tastes way better, but the shadows are nice too.

"I've never been to heaven, but I've been to Oklahoma."
-Hoyt Wayne Axton

Playing Around

In honor of it being (American) Father's Day tomorrow, please enjoy The Boss.

The last couple of days have been nice and relaxing. I didn't have work Friday because my PhD student had to get his knee checked out by a surgeon so there was nobody in the office. I enjoyed my day by running and reading. It was quite nice. Then I watched the France Football Federation win 2-0 against Ukraine with some German students from Cité. It was a lot of fun. 

This morning, Drew and I went on a roving adventure to Disneyland Paris. It was so great. It just made me feel like a kid, and we didn't even go inside the Park (cause it's like 74 Euro). On the way we also found a market where I bought a semi-fancy watch for only 15 euro, and we also found some great sandwiches called chipolatas, which I think is just sausage. Also bought our train tickets to Arras so we're that much closer to being prepared for the Festival. Getting excited. 

"Imagination is there to compensate man for what he is not, humor to console him for what he is."

-Francis Bacon 

Physics is Phun

< Dr Dog anyone?  >
Anyway today has been another slow day, but still good. I did go over the start up process for the laser system, making a useful procedure document for anyone besides Aurelion who would like to turn the laser on, which is important because he'll be gone in a few weeks.

One of things I've noticed while working in the lab is the use of these ruby-red laser shields, which remind me an awful lot of Cyclops's glasses from the X-Men.

One of the remarkable things about the shields is that you cannot see the green laser at all. So it got me thinking about the physics of Marvel's superhero. To all the true believers out there, it will come as no surprise that the simple glass of his visor should actually be able to block his destructive lasers, given that they block whatever wavelength his eyes operate on. However, since his optic blasts are clearly red, his visor should not be red too since that would allow the light to pass through. Think filters on stage lights, white light hits the red filter, the red filter blocks all other wavelength and allows red to pass through. In short, we're all living a lie. 

I forgot a quote on my last post, so here's two. 

"Watch it, bub."

-Wolverine

"Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in the face of certain defeat."

-Ralph Ellison

Weekend Recap #1

< Rest and Relax  >

This weekend was quite nice as weekends in Paris go, which is generally pretty good I'm assuming. Started off the weekend by going on a run and doing laundry. I was so productive during Saturday morning that I didn't do anything else useful the rest of my time. I did go see some things. Saturday we (Zak, Kierstin, and I) toured the inside and outside of Versailles, the definition of opulence. The inside was not as exciting as I was hoping it would be and was rather pricey so I'm glad I saw it, but I'm not going back. The gardens, however, are incredible. Absolutely gorgeous. At one point it looks like a canyon of hedges. It's incredible. Then back to Cité for some pizza, and chilling on the lawn, followed by bed.

On Sunday, Drew, Kierstin, and I tried to go to mass at Saint-Suplice but we missed what we thought was the early mass at 6h20, in the morning, and then thought it started at 7h but no one got up to preach... so we just left. The church was very pretty though.

We toured the Luxembourg gardens and waited for a café to open for breakfast. Once they finally had (nothing opens until about 8h or 8h30 here) we went to the Columbus Café, which had a pigeon problem, because it sold muffins. The muffins were really quite good, and so was the hot chocolate which warmed all of us up, except Kierstin who had tea, but I suppose that warmed her up too. France is cold in the morning.

This is just one of the many fun things to discover while walking Paris

After that, we went to see the Stadium du France which was impressive but we could not approach it.

On the train there we saw the tops of Sacre Coeur, and determined to go see it. We got distracted on our way by the Opera house, which had Kierstin swooning for a good three hours. After a tour of the inside, we wound our way to Sacre Coeur, which is up a steep hill in case you didn't know.

The opera house is above. Sacre Coeur is incredible. I highly recommend it to all. Even if you have only three days to go see things in Paris, go see this. It's crowded but beautiful and well worth the climb. You can't take pictures of the inside but it's fantastic in there too. Just sitting in the Cathedral is an experience. I loved it. 

Thought my mom would really like that poster.

View of Sacre Coeur from the bottom. On our way down we saw this street performer climb a pole with a soccer ball balanced on his head. It was awesome. He then juggled it up at the top of the pole and did some other ungodly athletic things. 

Later on, I wandered Paris and discovered a sweet little bar/restaurant thing with a band (a violin, upright bass, piano) playing folky jazz music. It capped off an excellent weekend in a way I can't begin to describe. The music that played was spot on, and I sat and listened and enjoyed a good cheap beer. Phenomenal. 

But now it's Monday, and work has started again. Game on. 

Significantly Less Physics than last Post (promise)

Here, be easy.

Just photos (plus captions)

Where we were at U Mich 

proof America has pretty buildings too

Burritos (before leaving.)

Cité Universitaire (University of where I'm staying, but not this building.)

Le Seine (yeah places like this exist in the middle of Paris.)

Rose garden next to the Seine (again, see above)

old men playing bocce ball but the french version

Nyan cat subway

compulsory photo of Notre Dame (I live in the same city. How awesome is that?)

Pirate ship on the Seine 

Clock of the Museé d'Orsay (seemed appropriate cause I'm making a much smaller clock)

Really pretty Monet at the Museé. It's of just one person which is weird for him, and the way he painted her is just fantastic. 

Henri Toulouse-Loutrec one of my favorite artists. Period. 

My buildings just to the right here but I think this building looks neater. (The French students here call it Hogwartz) 

"Twas brillig and the slithy toves

 Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

 All mimsy were the borogoves 

 And the mome rathes outgrabe"

-Lewis Carroll 

Theory

So today was a bit of slow day here at LOA, my project's not quite ready for me despite how ready I might be. We're mostly just setting up the lab, but I can't really be trusted with the equipment cause I have no idea what it does so I mostly just help in whatever small way I can. Anyway, I thought it'd be helpful to go into a bit of the theory of my measurement for my sake. So here goes. When a laser as powerful as the lasers we're dealing with hits a solid object it immediately creates a plasma. You might be asking yourself, "self, what's a plasma?" Well hold on, I'll explain. It's the fourth state of matter. Not enough? Yeah I didn't get it after that either. Basically it's a state of matter where all the particles are ionized. You can think of it as almost a jello-like structure with layers of negative charge/positive charge,      

(delicious and plasma-y)

and when you push on one side of the jello, the forces between the charge particles cause them to oscillate  which is a fancy word for jiggle, in this case. (This metaphor brought to you by the Letter J, for John Nees) So when the laser hits the solid object, ion jello is made because of the energy of the light. Now if this plasma is dense enough, it will act as a mirror more or less, causing the light to be reflected, and also transferring energy to the light. The natural reaction for things with energy imparted to them is for them to speed up. (Think kicking a soccer ball). However light is the speed limit for the universe, and unlike road speed limits, you can't surpass it. So the light cannot speed up. What it does do is speed up its frequency. So say the light was traveling roughly with a frequency of 10^-15 s or a femtosecond, which creates this plasma, and is thus reflected off of it. It would leave with a frequency of 10^-18 s. Or an attosecond (abbreviated as).

What my mission, should I choose to accept it (which I already have I suppose), is to help create a machine that will emit attosecond pulses of light.

"In the time of chimpanzees, I was a monkey."
-Beck

Back in Black

First day here almost done. I'm working in the black laboratory for LOA (labortoire d'optical apliquee) for Ensta. Saw my set up today. I'm really excited. It looks to be very hands on and independent. If I understand everything right, I will be working on a mechanism that can spin glass super fast with an accuracy on the order of nanometers. Game on.

The theory behind a lot of the measurement is a bit over my head, so it kind of feels like I'm drinking out of a fire hose right now. I'm sure it will calm down quite soon.

As a side note, everybody here speaks French and they speak it often, so I'd like to apologize for all the times I made fun of my friends for learning French instead of Spanish. Clearly it is kind of useful, I was wrong. It does make it easy to know when I'm being spoken to because then they speak in English.

Yesterday, I didn't have to come in because my professor (Rodrigo who is quite nice) wouldn't have had time to show me around, so I had a free day in Paris, which is always nice. I saw the Musee d'Orsay and saw some really great works of art. The French are so art-rich it's stupid. I walked most of the way to the Musee after taking the metro to Notre Dame. The walk was really pretty as well. I then took a nap, and ate dinner with group plus Emmanuelle and then headed to the Eiffel Tower for the night. Quite the day, if I may say so myself.

"Got my physics in Paris and they going gorillas!"
-Kanye West (modified)

First Day of Work! (not really)

I will take a cue from Banjo, please join me in some Paris Music

As the title suggests it was supposed to be my first day of work, but instead I just saw the grounds and found out my instructor wasn't there. So I got the day off. Pretty Sweet. I bought a phone, and took the metro to semi-random locations like Bastille. Paris is gorgeous. Almost every stop has something incredible. (Honeymoon phase.) While I was there, I met a very nice Italian who spoke the Queen's English named Lucca. So wherever you are Lucca, thank you. Also saw Moonrise Kingdom with Jay. It was fantastic. Highly recommend it. Plus movies in Paris are around 4 Euro for students.

-"Life is too short to learn German"
Old French proverb.

Last day before Work

Yo. So yesterday we arrived in Paris and after exploring a bit for some towels and some ping pong, we ended up on the front lawn with some Parisians. Just kicking it. Mir and I slept way in today which was nice cause we were super jet lagged/ tired from the flight and all that but we did manage to get to stay awake to 11 PM which helps. Then today was spent getting some food for lunch, going to see Notre Dame (absolutely beautiful), then the bird/flower shops which were pretty fun, then to the Louvre cause it's free on first sundays. We saw the Ancient Egyptian exhibit plus the statue garden (which was much more impressive honestly and gorgeous). Then dinner at an Italian place, and gelato for dessert. They put the gelato on the cone like a rose. It was incredible. We just wandered around to see what we could see after that, and we found the church near St Germaine but I forget it's real name (sorry Laura), and it was incroyable as the French would say. There was a statue of the Madonna with child that'll blow your mind. I lit a votive candle there but I was supposed pay 2 euro but only put in 25 cents. Makes you wonder though, the whole Jesus turning tables thing seems contrary to that. Still it was very nice inside and if it helps with the upkeep I'll pay. When I have the change that is. Then we toured the grounds of the Luxembourg Palais which can absolutely take your breath away. So pretty. There were statues and beautiful trees and things all over the place. Fantastique. On top of it all, the thunder tied the series which just is the cherry on top.

"Will you succeed? Yes you will! Ninety-eight and three quarters percent guaranteed!"
-Dr Suess

Almost Paris

Today is our last day before leaving for Paris. I guess technically we leave tonight but arrive tomorrow so it counts. Yesterday was spent attempting to construct a hologram that could be view panoramically, however my group was unsuccessful in creating one. We did manage to develop the proper technique, but lacked the resources to accomplish them. In other words, we failed. So it goes.

In other news, the Thunder finally beat the Spurs. Zak, Jay, Josh, and I all watched the game together. Good times. Oh and curiosity cola is delicious. If you ever happen to be in Ann Arbor, check it out.

"People think dreams aren't real because they aren't made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes."

-Neil Gaiman in Sandman