Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

“What about the main thing in life, all its riddles? If you want, I’ll spell it out for you right now. Do not pursue what is illusionary property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade, and is confiscated in one fell night. Live with a steady superiority over life don’t be afraid of misfortune, and do not yearn for happiness; it is, after all, all the same: the bitter doesn’t last forever, and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing. It is enough if you don’t freeze in the cold and if thirst and hunger don’t claw at your insides. If your back isn’t broken, if your feet can walk, if both arms can bend, if both eyes can see, if both ears hear, then whom should you envy? And why? Our envy of others devours us most of all. Rub your eyes and purify your heart and prize above all else in the world those who love you and who wish you well. Do not hurt them or scold them, and never part from any of them in anger; after all, you simply do not know: it may be your last act before your arrest, and that will be how you are imprinted on their memory.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Sreenivasan and Antonia

“But we can sympathize readily with a theorist who is frustrated by the uncertainly surrounding the experimental results. Definitive progress in the subject is linked inextricably to obtaining measurements of vastly improved quality. It would be presumptuous to relegate theory to the role of merely explaining empirical facts. On the contrary, we emphasize that theory should play a major part in posing the right questions,” Sreenivasan and Antonia, `Small-Scale Turbulence,’ Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech., 1997.

New Site Update

I have updated my site to be compatible with my new professorship. I will update it soon. I have not retained my previous three years of posts. Thank you.

Edit: I should say that I lost the database and could not recover it.

Combustion

I have begun a new journey in the field of combustion. Currently I am reviewing flammability limits, heat release, flame extinction, acoustics, etc. There is some limited literature on acoustic waves from combustion. I am hopeful that I might eventually place these papers on a more grounded theoretical basis. Current models in use are mainly almost empirical in nature or entirely computational. It seems that the field is open to a more advanced mathematical model.

Impressionist Artist Garden in Norfolk Exhibit

This weekend I was able to visit the Artist’s Garden Exhibit at The Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk Virginia. The exhibit is open until early September. Approximately seventy works are on display. This space shows American artists that used gardens essentially as laboratories for their studies in color theory in the impressionist style. Those who are regular visitors will certainly reconize some of the American artists by name and perhaps style. I certainly discovered a few new favorites. The growth of the American middle class in the late 19th century was able to have and explore gardens. A theme emerges in the exhibit of showcasing feminity within the walled garden. In my view many of the artists saw their female models as idealizations within the walled garden. Exagerations are present in some of the work of both the flowers (eg: painted larger and more vivid) and the models aesthetic ideal of the time-period. Nonetheless, the works are inspiring, and I will certainly be going again and again.