Author Archives: laurn larson

Falcon Heavy

6 February 2025 By in History Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Seven Years ago on 6 February 2018, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy made its maiden voyage, carrying a Tesla Roadster with Starman in the driver’s seat. The rocket is designed to go beyond low Earth orbit but is not certified to carry any sentient biologics.

Recently, astronomers affiliated with Harvard announced the discovery of an asteroid in an orbit uncomfortably close to Earth. Further research by the red-faced researchers revealed that it was the Tesla roadster launched by SpaceX in 2018. The Tesla is in a heliocentric orbit and is currently on its second trip around the sun, according to Pearson.

To date, Falcon Heavy has inserted 11 payloads into GEO, GTO, HEO, LEO, and heliocentric orbits. It has up to 10 more missions scheduled through 2028. Eventually, the rocket will supposedly be retired when Starship is fully operational.

Source: US News. Person. CNET. Graphic: Falcon Heavy Demo Mission, 2018, copyright SpaceX. Falcon Heavy First Launch 6 February 2018, copyright SpaceX.

The Count

5 February 2025 By in Movies Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror: In this 1922 silent film Count Orlok wishes to establish a new outpost in Germany and become acquainted with his real estate agent’s wife. He finds her neck lovely. The film is a fairly close adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but due to objections from the author’s family, the names and places were changed to avoid copyright infringement.

In modern times, this film might seem like a curiosity, but it remains essential viewing for true movie buffs. It stands in the pantheon of early film creators, possibly second only to Georges Méliès’ 1902 classic, Le Voyage dans la Lune (the rocket in the eye of the moon movie).

Both movies pioneered special effects, compelling storytelling, and other cinematic techniques that have been refined through the ages, creating a viewing experience still admired and appreciated today. Nosferatu shocks, sexualizes, and instills suspense to great effect. While it wasn’t the first horror movie (that honor likely goes to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, released in 1920), it certainly captured the imaginations of viewers back in the roaring ’20s.

Trivia: The word “Nosferatu” originally comes from the Greek nosophoros, meaning “plague carrier.” Old Slavic languages retained this meaning, and it morphed into being synonymous with the undead or vampires in archaic Romanian. In Chapter 18 of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Professor Van Helsing states, “The Nosferatu do not die like the bee when he stings once.”

Genre: Horror

Directed by: F.W. Murnau

Screenplay by: Henrik Galeen

Music by: Hans Erdmann

Cast: Max Schreck, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schroder

Film Location: Baltic Sea, Germany, Slovakia

ElsBob: 8.0/10

IMDb: 7.8/10

Rotten Tomatoes Critics: 97%

Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter: 87%

Metacritic Metascore: 79%

Metacritic User Score: 7.4/10

Theaters: 4 March 1922

Runtime: 65-94 minutes        

Budget: $

Box Office: $

Source: Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, Metacritic. Graphic: Count Orlok, Film Poster, Public Domain. Nosferatu Trailer.

Vinos de Arganza Palacio de Arganza 2021

4 February 2025 By in Red Wine Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

Other Red Blends from El Bierzo, Spain

Cabernet Sauvignon and Mencia

Purchase Price: $12.99

Wine Enthusiast 91, James Suckling 91, ElsBob 90

ABV 13%

Ruby red in color, aromas of black fruits and flowers, medium to full-bodied, smooth, dry bitter cherry tannins. Ideal with roasted or grilled meats and Spanish shellfish Paella.

An excellent table wine at a very reasonable price…cheap even. Buy a case and set it aside if you can find it.

Trivia: Mencia grapes are only known from the Spanish and Portuguese Iberian Peninsula, producing medium-bodied aromatic red wines that will age well.

Put Your Lights On

3 February 2025 By in Music Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

While lying in a hospital bed recovering from a major heart attack at the age of 28, Everlast (Erik Schrody, aka Whitey Ford), an American singer and songwriter, wrote the song “Put Your Lights On.” A song of hope, of belief, an affirmation of caring for one’s soul. A powerful message, a warning even, signifying that “all you sinners” need to “watch out” when you find yourself in a dark place and “Put Your Lights On.”

Everlast penned the song in 1998, and after Carlos Santana asked him to contribute a track to his new album, it was included in the “Supernatural” album release in 1999. The song won a Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. As a single, it reached #18 on the charts.

Source: Songfacts. Graphic: Put Your Lights On, Santana, 2021, Video Remastered, Santana VEVO. Put Your Lights On cover 1999, copyright Arista Records.

Painter of the Real

2 February 2025 By in Art, Art Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Robert Bateman, a Canadian artist from the school of Realism, paints wildlife with the precision of a photographer, leaving the viewer to ponder reality as it is rather than relying on the interpretation of the man with a brush. Bateman, explaining his motives, says, “I try to portray an animal living its own life independent of man.”

His paintings often place the subject tangentially, guiding the line of sight from the center to an edge where the action occurs. This composition suggests a reality beyond all living things, implying that we are all bit players, regardless of our size.

Bateman’s style is reminiscent of fellow Realist Andrew Wyeth, whom he acknowledges as a significant influence. However, Wyeth never entirely let go of his early impressionistic impulses. Roger Tory Peterson noted that while Wyeth froze his subjects in the moment, Bateman’s “subjects are ready to go somewhere else, to fly away,” allowing the reality of the moment to transition to another point in time, to a different reality.

Edgar Degas, an Impressionist Realist who combined realistic details of life with the softening blur of Impressionism, commented that one of the past masters of Realism, Jean-François Millet, painted so realistically that his work almost destroyed the profession. Wallace Stevens, a 20th-century modernist poet, took a different and somewhat counterintuitive view, stating that Realism is a corruption of reality. He believed that Realism reduced the complexity and beauty of the universe to the literal, leaving no room for the experience of humanity.

Both criticize Realism for its lack of emotion and interpretation, failing to observe that a gift from God is perfect as presented.

Source: The Art of Robert Bateman by Ramsay Derry 1981. Graphic: Grizzly at Rest by Robert Bateman, 2006.

The Worst Known Natural Disasters

1 February 2025 By in History, Weather Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The three greatest loss of life from natural disasters all occurred in China. Almost 7 million people died in two catastrophic floods and an earthquake.

  1. 1931 China Floods:
    • Death Toll: Estimated around 4 million people.
    • Details: These floods, caused by the overflow of the Yellow River, Yangtze River, and Huai River during an unusually wet summer, led to one of the most catastrophic events in human history. The death toll was from drowning and post-flood starvation.
  2. 1887 Yellow River Flood, China:
  3. 1556 Shaanxi Earthquake, China:
    • Death Toll: Estimated around 830,000 people.
    • Details: 7-8 magnitude earthquake strikes …. China. Majority of inhabitants lived in loess-deposited caves, which collapsed when the quake struck.

Graphic: 1931 China Floods, china-underground.com

KISS–Not

31 January 2025 By in Science Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

An international team of researchers concluded in the January 2025 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences publication that Ockham’s Razor may need a whetstone. The authors state, “The preference for simple explanations, known as the parsimony principle, has long guided the development of scientific theories, hypotheses, and models,” but accuracy is likely sacrificed when modeling complex systems.

While acknowledging that simple models can be useful and provide accurate outcomes, in recent years, success has been demonstrated using highly complex models for scientific research, such as understanding protein folding and modeling climate over time. Their research also suggests that simple models inherently tend to have built-in biases, leading to predictions that support the initial hypothesis or narrative.

They suggest that the predictive quality of a model may improve by “Progressing from more complex to simpler models. Using more complex models, particularly in the initial stages of scientific exploration when prior knowledge is limited, can be instrumental in uncovering underlying structures in the data… Once we have a successful complex model capturing the structure of the data, this model can be effectively compressed into a more parsimonious account for future use.”

Source: Is Ockham’s razor losing its edge? New perspectives on the principle of model parsimony by Dubova etal, PNAS, 2025. Graphic: iStock Photo, licensed.

Die, Die Again

30 January 2025 By in History, Trivia Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

On 30 January 1661, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland, suffered his second death. His first death, possibly from malaria or sepsis, occurred on 3 September 1658. On that day a windstorm of supposedly hurricane strength occurred, which some claimed was the devil coming to collect his due. He was buried with honors almost two months later on 10 November 1658, at the east end of Henry VII’s chapel in Westminster Abbey.

After Cromwell’s first death, the monarchy was restored to power. The new king, expressing his gratitude to Cromwell for giving the country a taste of democracy, had his body exhumed, in preparation for his second death. His body was then hung in chains, a common fate for traitors, then decapitated, with his head placed on a spike that remained on display until 1685. His body, sans the head, was then unceremoniously thrown into a pit.

Source: History Today. World History. RMG. Graphic: Portrait of Oliver Cromwell from the studio of Robert Walker, Property of Sir Brooke Boothby.

Odysseus Cometh

29 January 2025 By in History, Movies Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The Return: After 20 years of epic battles and mythical monsters, Odysseus (Ralph Fiennes) finally returns to Ithica—an island that seems more like a foreign land than his home. Time hasn’t been kind to our hero, and he’s got a mountain to climb to reclaim his place. Meanwhile, his devoted wife Penelope (Juliette Binoche) clings to hope, even as suitors swarm like wolves to sheep, eager to force her into an unwanted marriage. She faces a grim ultimatum: choose a new husband, or they’ll choose for her—and her son’s life hangs in the balance.

This film is a masterclass in staying true to the source material, with a fresh twist: Odysseus, the weary warrior, must navigate the perils of explaining his prolonged absence and wrestling with a hometransformed by time and neglect.

While the movie may not be packed with non-stop action, it more than compensates with stellar direction from Paolini and powerful performances from Fiennes and Binoche. One medium sized gripe: Fiennes’s tendency for soap operish dramatic pauses, which he also used in excess in “Conclave,” often exceeds the patience of viewers. When William Shatner’s dramatic word chop fades from memory Fiennes Alzheimer pause memes will pick up from that point forward.

Genre: Drama–Great Books–Suspense

Directed by: Uberto Pasolini

Screenplay by: John Coilee, Edward Bond, Uberto Pasolini

Music by: Rachel Portman

Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche

Film Location: Greece and Italy

ElsBob: 7.0/10

IMDb: 6.2/10

Rotten Tomatoes Critics: 77%

Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter: 76%

Metacritic Metascore: 67%

Metacritic User Score: 6.2/10

Theaters: 6 December 2024

Runtime: 116 minutes

Budget: $

Box Office: $899,575

Source: Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, Metacritic. Graphic: The Return Poster and Trailer, copyright Bleecker Street.

Top Six Wine Varietals by Volume Sales in the US for 2024

28 January 2025 By in Wine Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
  1. Chardonnay – The white for the win. Chardonnay is the most planted grape in the world. Wine label shown is a 98-100 rated 2022 Chardonnay from Argentina priced around $140.
  2. Cabernet Sauvignon – Always popular, this red comes in a close second. The grape is a cross between Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc.
  3. Pinot Grigio/Gris – A dry, acidic favorite among white wine enthusiasts. Pinot Grigio and Pinot Gris are the same grape, just with an Italian and French name, respectively.
  4. Merlot – High sales volume but not necessarily high dollar amounts compared to other wines on this list. Merlot is more affordable due to higher yields, it can grow almost anywhere, and it doesn’t need to be aged as long as Cabernet Sauvignon.
  5. Sauvignon Blanc – Increasing in popularity every year. A lighter-bodied white with more acidity than Chardonnay.
  6. Pinot Noir – Consumers love this wine’s complex flavors. It’s a medium dry, medium-bodied wine that ages well and makes for a nice sipping wine.