jambalaya (on the bayou)

It's no secret that I like jazz, blues, and southern food. I really wonder why I haven't been to New Orleans (NOLA) yet. I know it's a changed place since Katrina, but it really behooves us Americans to save the city, the culture, the music, the food. There's no place else in the world that has what New Orleans has.

If you don't believe me, try catching the documentary Saving Jazz (Sundance Channel, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam), a fantastic film featuring jazz photographer Herman Leonard.

So, what got me on this topic? I went to Cassatt's, a Kiwi (New Zealand) cafe and heard Rick Franklin, a local acoustic blues musician who plays an acoustic steel guitar. Of course, I enjoyed the 1920s-30s jazz with a glass of Shiraz in one hand and my camera in the other. Two songs really stood out: Eagle Ridin' Papa by Big Bill Broonzy and Jambalaya (On the Bayou) by Hank Williams. Jambalaya the dish is fantastic, but the song is just plain fun:

Goodbye Joe, me gotta go, me oh my oh
Me gotta go pole the pirogue down the bayou
My yvonne, the sweetest one, me oh my oh
Son of a gun, we'll have good fun on the bayou

Jambalaya, a-crawfish pie and-a fillet gumbo
'cause tonight I'm gonna see my machez amio
Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gay-oh
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou.

Thibodeaux, fountaineaux, the place is buzzin'
Kinfolk come to see yvonne by the dozen
Dress in style, go hog wild, me oh my oh
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou.

Jambalaya, a-crawfish pie and-a fillet gumbo
'cause tonight I'm gonna see my machez amio
Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gay-oh
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou.

Jambalaya, a-crawfish pie and-a fillet gumbo
'cause tonight I'm gonna see my machez amio
Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gay-oh
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou.
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou.
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou.

Fuzzy Version


Sharp Version

If you want to help save a piece of American culture, the Bush Clinton Katrina Fund is a great place to start.

diet coke, mentos, and science fair projects

At a family gathering a while back, one of my cousins was trying to get some ideas for a high school science fair project. Of course, I thought back to my old experiment on edible mushroom cultivation and what kind of substrates they best grow on. I clearly remember losing the competition to another project that effectively answered the question, "Why do shellfish turn from blue to red when cooked?" The technical aspects of both experiments were comparable, but the shellfish question was just a lot more interesting than my mushroom question.

Three computer scientists (my siblings and I) brainstormed to find a flashy but viable idea for my cousin to think about and we came up with a question, "What causes the Diet Coke and Mentos reaction?" Yes, we were thinking of the youtube video.

I tested this idea at a get together with some friends. I'm not sure if it was the beer talking, but it was a hit. Within a minute of mentioning it, everyone was coming up with hypotheses, possible experiments, and just some plain old hilarious ideas.

The problem about high school science fair projects is how limiting they are. Essentially my cousin had to title his experiment:

The Effect of (Independent Variable) on (Dependent Variable)

Phrasing the science project in the question above almost implies that one has to know that there is a relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable, otherwise the project will be a dud (i.e. the conclusion = there is no effect.) Well, it's never really a dud, because knowing that a relationship between two variables does not exist is just as important as when a relationship does exist. Unfortunately, no one puts any reward or glory into finding the non-relationships.

As another aside, I never liked those terms independent variable and dependent variable. Independent of what? Dependent on what? My preference is for the engineering or statistical terminology:

The Effect of (Predictor Variable) on (Response Variable)

Back to my main point though -- one and only one variable?! Boring! No wonder kids don't get excited about science. The world is multivariate, non-linear, non-continuous, and full of complex relationships. Students shouldn't be focusing on data collection and plotting an x-y line graph. Students should be focusing on problem solving and experimental design. That is, how does one go about answering the question at hand (or proving their hypothesis). Not that data collection and data analysis aren't important. I just think that they should be activities taught as tools to reach an end goal, not as the end goal themselves.

In the case of the Diet Coke and Mentos idea, the science project could have been to run experiments to isolate which two elements in the Diet Coke and Mentos react together to produce gas. More or less, running experiments to eliminate variables that don't matter and to confirm the ones that do matter.

In the Diet Coke and Mentos idea, think of what questions need to be answered:
- Can the reaction occur with another carbonated drink?
(Ginger ale is fizzier than diet coke)
- Can the reaction occur with another candy?
- Is the reaction physical or chemical?
- If the reaction is physical, do pebbles work instead?
- If the reaction is chemical, what are the compounds at work?

I think this would be fun for kids to work on and help them work on their design and logical thinking skills, kind of like a detective mystery, but fizzy. Besides, we all want to know the answer to the question.

two business books

A quick post to note references for two books that I found to be gems in a sea of trashy business books. If the words rich, money, fast, or easy appear on the cover, it's a safe bet to assume the book has no real content other than cheap ploys to draw on underlying human desires.

Hawken, P. (1988). Growing a Business. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Sahlman, W. A. Stevenson, H. H., Roberts, M. J., & Bhide, A. (Eds.). (1999). The Entrepreneurial Venture (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Paul Hawken's book really reflects the values that I hold in running a business. After reading tons of the same business books, Hawken's really stood out because of its principles, even if it is a little dated. The Sahlman book is a little more technical—it's a collection of papers that one would probably find in a graduate course, but it's definitely got substance—a lot more than anecdotes and myths that I find in most every other supposed "how-to" guide out there.

available light, lens flare, and bokeh

I'm not sure what my aversion to the camera flash is (I know it's useful under certain circumstances), but I'm really into taking photos using only available light. Of course, when it's night, available light can be pretty scarce. I went out on Halloween and took two dozen photos, but only two came out the way I wanted them to.

Police Motorcycle Line

There's an annoying green blip in the center of this photo. It's lens flare, but for some reason, sodium vapor streetlights (the yellow-orangish kind) flare as green in the lens. I'm not sure why that is, but I'm still actively researching the subject. If anyone has any insight as to why this happens -- I'd appreciate a good lead or theory.

Classic Bart


One of the prominent effects in low light photography is the shallow depth of field and what some people call bokeh (Japanese for blur). Bokeh isn't well-defined, but people seem to know it when they see it. My definition of bokeh is "background blurring with intentional aesthetic consideration." Background blur is pretty common in portraits to bring attention to the subject of the portrait (as in Classic Bart above), by diffusing the background details away. Bokeh involves using the background, but diffuses it to make it abstract (as in Police Motorcycle Line above). My goal in that photo was to have the streetlights take on a feel of festival/holiday lights by appearing as an abstract string of point lights in the background, as well as provide a depth cue. This is my own definition of what bokeh is though -- I'm sure there will be differing opinions as all of this is pretty subjective. I still don't know what people are talking about when they say the bokeh is "smooth and creamy" though.

This brings me to my camera tip of the day. If anyone out there would like to try their hand at experimenting with depth of field, background blur, and bokeh you can do it day or night by setting you camera's aperture to be larger. Check your camera manual and see if it has an "aperture priority" mode. If so, set the aperture to be as large as possible (smaller f-number = larger aperture). Focus on your subject (particularly the eyes and nose if it's a person or animal), and snap. The result won't be visible until after the picture is taken (i.e. you won't see the blur in your viewfinder). The aperture is set only when the shutter clicks, which is why one does not see the blur in the viewfinder.

A lens with large maximum aperture (f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2.8) really helps in getting these effects. Most consumer lenses on point-and-shoots as well as SLR kits have much smaller apertures (f/4.5, f/5.6) which makes background blur almost impossible. This is why I'm on a mission to get consumers the information they need to get a camera, either point-and-shoot or SLR. That is, to stop making decisions based on megapixel count and image stabilization features, but rather the quality and attributes of the lens. The lens is the limiting factor on what a camera can and can't do, even in full automatic mode.