Farewell to Dr. Charles David Keeling

I usually don't like serious posts, but I need to get this one out of my system after receiving a sad e-mail from a friend of mine in my research lab. It is with a heavy heart and a few tears that I post this -- the passing of one of the greatest scientists of our time. I had the privelege of meeting him at the annual MODIS conference at University of Montana last year and also hiking and chatting with him. He was a real character and extremely approachable, an energetic man who was not only one of the greatest minds but also embraced life eagerly. His papers were also inspiring to me when I read them -- they were easy to read and follow, but at the same time, spoke to me with a challenge to continue understanding the carbon cycle and climatic effects. My focus has shifted since to a remote sensing-driven model for water and carbon, but I still remember those papers from a global biogeochemistry class I took what now felt like a lifetime ago.

I, like the rest of my colleagues, will miss this wonderful scientist greatly...

Here's an excerpt and a link to the article:
"Charles David Keeling, the world's leading authority on atmospheric
greenhouse gas accumulation and climate science pioneer at Scripps
Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego (UCSD),
died Monday, June 20, 2005, while at his Montana home, of a heart attack.
He was 77 years old. Keeling has been affiliated with Scripps since 1956."

A full article is at:
http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu/article_detail.cfm?article_num=687

SpecNet Excitement

I can't quite hold this in, even if it may be a while before I actually pull this off...

I got positive reviews on my revised paper on the use of the 970nm water band index for monitoring chaparral evapotranspiration and so with a few more minor revisions, I'll get published in the SpecNet special edition of Remote Sensing of Environment. Even though I got the news yesterday, I'm still giddily happy about this since I've never really had anything published (unless you count me in an acknowledgement on someone's PhD dissertation on uranium sorption on various minerals), much less being the first author on a paper! I can't believe that I'd actually get this far, to actually be on the verge of being published in a pretigious journal! I feel... flattered... especially since in their e-mail to me they addressed me as Dr. and not Ms. or Miss... and to think that I haven't even started on my PhD yet! I know there's a lot of people who've published at earlier ages with less schooling/research experience than me in really prestigious journals but it's still a delightful feeling knowing that I actually did something significant and the thrill is up there with things like love's first kiss.

Don't Attempt This At Home

This actually happened a few weeks ago but I didn't have the nerve to post it then...

So I was enjoying a bottle of cranberry juice and I noticed that it tasted slightly different, but I assumed it was because my taste buds were slightly off from too little sleep, too much stress, and probably the super-spicy meal I just had. I just continued drinking and drinking it since it did taste really good. Then I tried to practice the harp and simple passages became unusually difficult for me. Ok, I'm just a bit tired. I'll start typing. Then I found that I couldn't type worth beans. Ok, so I'm REALLY tired. The real answer came up when I was walking around and found it hard to balance. This is getting weird. Then it struck me when I was starting to feel a headache come on and slightly nauseous. Holy crap, this feels like when I'm really drunk. I checked the expiration date on the bottle of cranberry juice, and sure enough, it was long past expiration. I was surprised I didn't see anything gross in it. And then the realization struck me -- I accidentally made moonshine and got drunk off of it! I finally put 1 and 1 together to make 10!

Let's just say... I now make it a point to be a lot more aware of what's in my fridge. I woke up with the biggest headache ever... actually, no, the second largest, with the absolute largest headache reserved for the time I walked into a wall with a nail sticking out of it and hit my forehead on the nail...

No More Finals!

Just wanted to say... as of tonight, I am now free of all my finals! No more term projects, homework sets, presentations, or anything else!

I am now a free... something or other!

I had more thoughts but my brain isn't quite functioning anymore. More later once I recover sufficiently to think :)

Finals Rant, Part 4 of n

I've been having to put a lot of entries in a short time, but then again, I suspect I won't be blogging as much once my nerves calm down :) Random thoughts... Coming to think of it, my blogging habits are a bit like TIN models (triangulated irregular network) which basically reprsent a landscape (or other space) with a network of edges, vertices and faces (ie, triangles) based on where the changes occur... different from the usual raster models which are basically square cells of fixed size and don't quite capture all the variation (more common) or overdo it on flat areas... or vector models whidc have a similar problem with either capturing too much (more common) or not enough. So yeah... right now my brain is like a bunch of tiny triangles and not a few large triangles.

Another few thoughts... is it caffeine in the bloodstream or blood in the caffeine stream? I don't remember anymore... Also for some reason, high stress levels do some funny things to the brain... somehow, I seem to have acquired a taste for the following things that I usually don't quite get too keen on:
1) Bluegrass & country music
2) Espresso without anything added
3) Eating more animal than plant products

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, a finish line for the marathon... and then I'll be able to go to my other happy place!

Finals Rant, Part 3 of n

Finals are really getting to me and I'm finding that blogging is a very good stress relief... Actually writing on anything but my term project is good stress relief :P but I digress...

Anyway, first thought... quickstep music. For those of you not familiar with ballroom, quickstep is a lively dance that's usually done to fast big-band music or other relatively fast swing-ish music. It looks a lot like waltz or foxtrot and it's a really fun dance, but the music usually drives me nuts after a while for some odd reason. Anyway, my new use for quickstep music: keeping myself from falling asleep while studying! It's so bouncy and it makes me feel much more cheerful than usual, so it's great for finals!

And the second thought... uhh... not existent... maybe once I get through double-death (aka my remote sensing and GIS modeling/spatial analysis classes) my brain might actually function

Actually the second thought was... unless you're insane, do not mix the following: caffeine, aspirin, claritin, 20 units of classes (especially if any involve heavy math or computer work), and sugar... it's a sure-fire recipe for spazz-out!

Finals Rant, Part 2 of n

So here's another installment of my finals ranting and raving... What's really on my mind right now... well, my final for the nonlinear dynamics course (CDS 104 at Caltech) that turned my brain into jello:

Consider the system: x' = x(1 - ax - y), y' = y(b - x - y) + h

Here a, b, and h are parameters. We assume that a, b > 0. If h > 0 then we are harvesting species y at a constant rate, while if h > 0, we add to the population y at a constant rate. The goal is to understand this system completely for all possible values of these parameters. As usual, we only consider the regime where x, y => 0. If y(t) <= 0 for any t > 0, then we consider this species to have become extinct.

1) First assume that h = 0. Give a complete synopsis of the behavior of this system by plotting the different behaviors you find in the a, b parameter plane.

2) Identify the points or curves in the ab-plane where bifurcations occur when h = 0 and describe them.

3) Now let h > 0. Describe the ab-parameter plane for various (fixed) h-values.

4) Repeat the previous exploration for h > 0.

5) Describe the full 3-D parameter space using pictures, flip books, 3D models, movies, or whatever you find most appropriate.

Sounds simple, doesn't it? Well... let's just say this this pretty much ripped me a new digestive tract... And no, I won't post my answers to them. At least not yet. There's still a gaggle of undergrads that are taking this final at Caltech. I don't want to violate the Honor Code .

I really should be working on the rest of my finals... More finals ranting on the way as my stress level reaches that unstable fixed point again!

Next installment: New uses for Foxtrot and Quickstep music and anything I can dig up about geography... maybe...

Finals Rant, Part 1 of n

I've reached a point where my mind is utterly and completely plugged up, at least as far as non-linear dynamics go. I have had it with bifurcations, as well as stability analyses, finding fixed points, and limit cycles! Of course, it's only a brief explosion of frustration that'll go away once I turn in my final and all :P

Anyway, the real reason for this post is to list the top 5 nasty classes I've taken, and trust me, I have taken so many classes that I could probably even do a top 10. Hell, why don't I just do the top 10?

Here's my top 10 nasty classes, with contributing factors including difficulty of assignments/projects, time consumed, dealing with the professors, dangers involved, and overall stress. The list will include the class number (if I remember), the campus, and when I took it just for kicks :)

Close contenders, but no cigar: Bio 101 (animal biology, Cal State LA), History of the Supreme Court (Caltech), Geog 269 (intro to GIS, Cal State LA)

10 -- ChE 103 Transport Phenomena, Caltech, Fall 2000
9 -- Ma 2b Introduction to Ordinary Partial Differential Equations, Caltech (taken twice, 1st time Winter 2000, 2nd time Winter 2001)
8 -- Ma 1abc Calculus of One and Many Variables, Caltech (a & b repeated -- Fall 1997, Winter 1998 1st time, Fall 1998 & Winter 1999 2nd time)
7 -- Bio 380 Cell Biology, Cal State LA, Winter 2005
6 -- CDS 104 Introduction to Nonlinear Dynamics, Caltech, Spring 2005
5 -- EE 20 Introduction to Analog Electronics, Caltech, Fall 1998
4 -- EE 90 Project in Electrical Engineering, Caltech, Spring 1999
3 -- Chem 301abc Organic Chemistry, Cal State LA, 2003-2004 academic year
2 -- ACM 95abc Complex Analysis, Ordinary & Partial Differential Equations, Caltech 2000-2001 academic year

And the #1 class is... CS/EE 5x Introduction to Microprocessor Designing at Caltech, Fall 1998 and Winter 1999

What the hell... I'm feeling pretty flustered so I'll add my top 10 classes as well:

Close contenders (but no cigar): Advanced Plant Ecology (Cal State LA), APh 180 (Solid-State Physics, audited), General Chemistry (Contra Costa College), Basic Statistics & Probability (Contra Costa College)

10 -- APh 9 Introduction to Solid-State Physics, Caltech, Fall 1997
9 -- Lit ??? Creative Writing: The Imaginary, Caltech, Spring 2000
8 -- Geog 468 Computer Cartography, Cal State LA, Fall 2003
7 -- Env/Ge ??? Biogeochemical Seminar, Caltech, Fall 2002 (audited)
5 (tied) -- Bio 408 -- Advanced Biometrics, Cal State LA, Winter 2004
(tied) -- Bio 454 -- Biological Modelling, Cal State LA, Winter 2005
4 -- Env/Ge 148b Biogeochemical Cycles, Caltech, Winter 2001
3 -- Env/Ge 148c Terrestrial Systems Studies, Caltech, Spring 1999
2 -- Geog 482 Multivariate Statistics, Cal State La, Spring 2003

And the #1 winner is... Geog 560 Multivariate Statistical Seminar, Cal State LA, Spring 2004

Ok back to work!