June 2009 – Minus Two Fish

The union that never returned?

The word on the street is “What’s up with the MBTA?”. The Mass. Bay Transport Authority, who runs the extensive and vital public transportation system on the Boston metropolitan area, is on the public eye. MBTA threatened to increase fares, cut down lines, and increased the number of employees and their benefits. Meanwhile, a cellphone ban was enforced (and violated) after an MBTA conductor caused an accident on the Green line while texting his girlfriend. The latest news is that a major restructuring of the system will make a monstrous Department of Transportation that will now oversee the MBTA. It is too early to tell what changes this will bring to the subway system, but the MBTA union feels very threatened. The MBTA drama will continue.

This mess is a perfect excuse to listen to some good music. I was able to track down the history of a song that is very close to Bostonian’s love-hate relationship to their public transportation.

First, the original song “The Ship that Never Return”

narrates how a ship on the east coast lacks the money to pay docking fees, and was unable to return home. This song was later adapted to the more familiar “Charlie on the M.T.A.” song.

Did he ever return,
No he never returned
And his fate is still unlearn’d
He may ride forever
‘neath the streets of Boston
He’s the man who never returned.

Charlie, the man who, according to the 1948 song, didn’t have enough money to pay the exit fare and was unable to leave the subway system (then called the M.T.A).

“This could happen to YOU” [banjo]

The exit-fare system was abolished after the introduction of the CharlieCard on 2006, card system named as a tribute to the song.

And of course, this song inspired a modern version by Boston’s own Dropkick Murphys titled “Skinhead on the MBTA”.

Stupidity and Research

The importance of stupidity in scientific research [PDF]

One of the beautiful things about science is that it allows us to bumble along, getting it wrong time after time, and feel perfectly fine as long as we learn something each time.

—

If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?- Albert Einstein

Werner and Paul Adrien Maurice on a Steamer



Is this the interaction picture?

W. Heisenberg and P.A.M. Dirac, two of the founders quantum mechanics, were on a steamer boat from America to Japan. Heisenberg, a social butterfly, would participate of all the social activities, while Dirac, always very shy, would just sit quietly and watch.

“Heisenberg, why do you dance?” Dirac honestly inquires. “Well, when there are nice girls it is a pleasure to dance.” Heisenberg responds. Dirac turns silent for a few minutes, involved in deep thought. He finally questions, “Heisenberg, how do you know beforehand that the girls are nice?”

According to Heisenberg, this is a true story.

—
Lord, grant me chastity and continence… but not yet.
-St. Augustine

Nobel Prize vs. NBA

Heard on the streets of Cambridge.

In 2004, Richard Axel won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the “discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system”.

Richard Axel, Nobel Laurate

As a teenager in NYC, he attended Stuyvesant High School, one of the most competitive public schools in the nation, an institution that focuses on math and science excellence. His height made him a key player of his high school’s basketball team.

Axel recalls his most memorable experience as part of the team; it was when he faced on the court Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, the other team’s center. Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor would later change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the highest scoring player in NBA history.



Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the only man to face a Nobel Laureates and Bruce Lee

Axel has the ball, and tries to pass Alcindor’s defense on the left. Alcindor stops him. Axel goes to the right, Alcindor stops him again. Face to face, Abdul-Jabbar says to Axel:

“So, which way are you going to go now, Einstein?”

After intimidating the Nobel Laureate, Kareem proceeded to score about 50 points in that game.

Nobel Prize vs. NBA? NBA wins.

—
“Any sufficiantly advanced technology is indistinguishable from a yo-yo.” -Enoch Root