New Tests of Einstein's General Relativity

Like Charles Darwin's theory of the diversity of life, Evolution by Natural Selection, Albert Einstein's theory of gravity, General Relativity, has been around for a hundred year now, and it is still being tested by current independent studies based on real observations... without failing to produce accurate results.

Chandra X-Ray Observatory recently (as of April 14th, 2010) reported on how Einstein's theory stood up better to independent observations of gravitational effects in distant galaxies than its two new challenging theories; the f(R) theory and the DGP gravity, do (calculations based on General Relativity correspond better to what were observed than calculations based on the other two theories do).

This doesn't mean that Einstein's theory has been positively proven to be 100% accurate, of course. Science is not in the business of offering 100% certainty. It is in the business of minimizing uncertainties. And the more theories like General Relativity and Evolution by Natural Selection withstand their (almost daily) tests against real observations and experimental data, the more confidence they earn in that they are the current best description of the natural phenomena they describe. And since the people that came up with f(R) and DGP gravity are good and real scientists, they aren't pushing for their idea to be given equal time in science class with the theory that beat them.... Unlike what those people who are trying to push for a religion in disguise as a 'science' to be taught in science classes in America regardless of how thoroughly it had been debunked like to do...

Courtly Noyse at Museum of Art & a visit with a few local birds

Entrance to the San Diego Museum of Arts

I was surfing the internet for classical music groups in San Diego area when I came across the San Diego Early Music Society website and saw a listing of Renaissance music concert at the Museum of Art on Easter Sunday. The MoA being within a walking distance from my pad, I decided to have a go even though I had some misgivings about non-opera music from the Baroque period and before (come to think of it, I even have misgivings about Baroque opera music... The arias are wonderful, but after a bunch of them in a roll they start to sound the same).

Naturally I was most delightfully surprised by how refreshingly diverse and earthy the Renaissance music the Courtlÿ Noÿse early music group played for an hour long concert at the MoA's 2nd floor Hibben Gallery proved to be. Not only did they show up in period costume (and looked good in it!), they also played on period instruments - some that they made themselves!

The 3 women 3 men group performed 19 pieces of music ranging from the late 1300's to mid 1600's. Each musician played multiple instruments and even sang everything from soulful songs of longing to rousing drinking songs that had the audiences swaying and wishing for stein-fuls of beer to pass around to highlight the merry mood with. The voices were quite well trained and cast a hypnotic effect both singing a capella and accompanied by a continuo viola da gamba or a viol.

The program presented was so witty and wisely diversed (and the tone colors of the period instruments were so interesting) that an hour felt like a few minutes. The only glitch was when one of the performers' cellphone rang unanswered during the show (she was a good sport, though, and owned up to it immediately after the song). The enthusiastic crowd didn't mind and successfully demanded a spirited encore number with a prolonged round of applause.

The group also has its first CD, Courtly Noyse: A Portrait, out on sale for $15. You can sample a few track at their website. It is well worth the price!



On the quaky way back home I made a detour through Florida Canyon hiking trail and caught a few local birds along the way. It is amazing how plump and fluffy the hummingbirds look when they are staying still! I wish I have more zoom power on my camera since I couldn't get close enough to many of the shyer birds to get a good photo of them (that redtailed hawk saw me coming from like a mile away!). San Diego is really a great place for bird-watchers... There really are many cool bird species around to see there when you stop to look for them (look for bare-ish branches near the top of flowering trees. Red bottlebrushes are favorites of hummingbirds and hooded orioles!).

A note of excuse...

Just dropping in a little note to beg your pardon for my increasing state of slow-sluggedness when it comes to posting, emailing, and commenting online. The modem died an peaceful sleep late last week and my landlord had decided to improvise with a friend's spare modem... which doesn't seem to be interfacing very well with the signal provider. It comes and goes on a whim and is driving me batty trying to stay online for longer than 10 minutes at a time. Hopefully this will get fixed soon. Though... for the moment yours Smorgily is by necessity more of an internet sloth than usual. :o(

If you hadn't caught them, though, I did release 2 new interviews in the past week at AssociatedContent with Christy Erb (ex-LPGA Tour player who now writes books and articles) and Arturo Chacon Cruz (a really good young operatic tenor whose brain is as fetching as his voice is).

And yes, I did feel the earthquakes yesterday (and this morning). Was out at Cactus Garden in Balboa Park trying to catch a few birds on film when the ground started rolling (I think this one is a black-chinned hummingbird). Hope the folks down in Mexico are ok!

Happy Easter/Spring!

Spring is here! I don't know if all the flowers are blooming, but the colorful Ranunculus at Carlsbad's famous Flower Fields are.... along with the roses at their Walk of Fame. Yours truly spent a day acting quite less than my age while putting my camera (now with a clean lens. Thanks very much!) to good use.


So, here's a flowery spring greeting and happy Easter (or Passover or whatever else is being celebrated this weekend) wishes to all in the northern hemisphere. To our friends on the south side of the Equator, though, happy autumn! Aren't you glad you survived summer without melting? :oD

The soundtrack is from Vesselina Kasarova's recital at Konzerthaus Wien in 2006.

SD Master Chorale at St. Paul's Cathedral & Balboa Park at Night

Apology for a really late post. What an annoying coughy bug that last flu was (it's been over two weeks and I'm still in the process of shaking it off), though it wasn't quite nasty enough to prevent me from going off to St. Paul's Cathedral a couple of Saturdays ago to catch the San Diego Master Chorale in a concert of church music.

The program was packed mostly with music by Vaughan Williams and other composers I'm not very familiar with (the exception being the text-setting of Barber's famous Adagio for strings, of course). They were taping the show and I did my best (if not all that successfully) not to cough too much. There was a consolation in that the gentleman in the row in front of me was having an even harder time at it. That Mr. Flu sure has been wreaking havoc around town!

The SDMC was joined by St. Paul's Cathedral Chorus, St. Cecilia Choir, and the Cathedral Choristers who thrilled the capacity audience with their exuberant singing in surround-sound (literally, since the choruses split and sang from opposite ends of the hall in many numbers. The brass players were also having a good time... It had been a long time since I last got to hear trumpets and trombones in a cathedral setting. They really sounded wonderful and made me half expect St. Paul and the archangels to burst through the high ceiling during the proceeding during the voluntaries!

Anyhow, the concert went very well and was dedicated to Harriet Peckenpaugh, a Master Chorale alto who passed away recently.

By the way, the SDMC is planning an ambitious and very Latino-friendly season ending concert called 'Amigos en Concierto' at Copley Hall in Downtown San Diego on June 19th. It is a collaboration between the SDMC, The Romero Duo, Mariachi Garibaldi, The San Diego Children's Choir and Tijuana Children's Choir, and will feature Enrique Toral (tenor) and Monica Abrego (soprano) as vocal soloists.

It was only 9:30PM when I walked out of the cathedral, so I decided to take a stroll through Balboa Park to get a night look at it before catching bus 7 home on the other side (won't have to take any connecting bus, then as I would have to from 5th Avenue). The place really is amazingly romantic and peaceful at night... There were a few migrants sleeping here and there, mind you, but they are probably more afraid of being harassed by the passerby than the other way around.



If you ever stop by to visit San Diego for a few days, you really have to jot Balboa Park down as one of the places to visit at night.