J.N.Shaumeyer : Analytical Artistry

A Brief Career Self-Portrait

JNShaumeyer — 2008-05-14T03:34:54Z

My personal history has been one of productive conflict between my right brain and my left brain. From my earliest days I've been simultaneously drawn to the arts and to the sciences. In college I majored in physics, math, and music. Following college my left hemisphere dominated and I went to graduate school in physics.

In graduate school I worked in a cryogenics laboratory, doing experiments in Rayleigh-Bénard (thermally driven) convection, turbulence, transport phenomena in liquid helium, and critical phenomena in general.

My academic training and early scientific career coincided with the dawn of personal computers, which were quickly pressed into service in the lab. I programmed them to relieve me of as much scientific drudgery as possible.

After finishing my graduate degree I stayed with critical phenomena and high-precision temperature measurement and control, which had been part of my experimental expertise in graduate school. This time, though, I worked at room temperature—no more liquid helium! Our main technique was light-scattering spectroscopy, using high-speed digital correlators in the time-domain to do our measurements.

That phase of my career lasted for some fourteen years: we were developing a spectrometer that we could fly on the US Space Shuttle to perform our experiments very near a critical point in low gravity. A project like that takes time, money, and people. We did what we promised with the experiment and flew two missions, in 1994 and 1996.

This early familiarity with the scientific use of computers held me in good stead when career projects saw me developing computer systems that could autonomously operate our advanced scientific experiment on the Space Shuttle, and, later, run extensive self tests on the new computer brain of the Hubble Space Telescope.

I moved on that computer was installed in the HST and joined a long-time colleague of mine who was starting a company to commercialize a project we had had worked on providing satellite communications for deep-ocean research buoys. We had some success for a few years, but had to close our doors prematurely in 2002 thanks to an economic down-turn and cash-flow crisis.

I am now working at bringing my left-brain and right-brain back into alignment by Ars Hermeneutica, Limited into existence. Ars is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, nonprofit corporation devoted to understanding and communicating science: hermeneutics is what we do, science is what we do it to.

My Book Reviews

JNShaumeyer — 2007-11-03T02:51:21Z

For Ars Hermeneutica's Science Besieged project I have written a number of Book Notes, short reviews of nonfiction books with a scientific attitude. Here is the list of those book notes, in alphabetical order by author's last name.

Geoffrey Abbott, What a Way to Go : The Guillotine, The Pendulum, the Thousand Cuts, the Spanish Donkey, and 66 Other Ways of Putting Someone to Death.
Amir D Aczel, The Mystery of the Aleph : Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity
Arthur Allen, Vaccine : The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver.
Richard B. Alley, The Two-Mile Time Machine : Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future
Solly Angel, The Tale of the Scale : An Odyssey of Invention.
Wallace Arthur, Creatures of Accident : The Rise of the Animal Kingdom.
P.W. Atkins, The Periodic Kingdom: A Journey in the Land of the Chemical Elements
Nicholson Baker, Double Fold : Libraries and the Assault on Paper.
Philip Ball, Bright Earth : Art and the Invention of Color.
Philip Ball, Critical Mass : How One Thing Leads to Another.
Philip Ball, Stories of the Invisible : A Guided Tour of Molecules.
Philip Ball, The Ingredients : A Guided Tour of the Elements.
Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, American Prometheus : The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Clark Blaise, Time Lord : Sir Sandford Fleming and the Creation of Standard Time.
Jan Bondeson, Buried Alive: The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear.
William C. Burger, Flowers : How They Changed the World.
James Burke, Circles : 50 Round Trips through History, Technology, Science, Culture.
James Burke, Connections.
Sean B. Carroll, Endless Forms Most Beautiful : The New Science of Evo Devo.
Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson, Napoleon's Buttons : How 17 Molecules Changed History.
Bunny Crumpacker, Perfect Figures : The Lore of Numbers and How we Learned to Count
Richard Dawkins, The Ancestor's Tale : A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution.
Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker : Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design.
Richard Dawkins, Climbing Mount Improbable.
Daniel C. Dennett, Breaking the Spell : Religion as a Natural Phenomenon.
Daniel C. Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea : Evolution and the Meanings of Life.
Daniel C. Dennett, Freedom Evolves.
Jared Diamond, Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.
Jared Diamond, The Third Chimpanzee : The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal.
Kitty Ferguson, Tycho & Kepler : The Unlikely Partnership That Forever Changed Our Understanding of the Heavens.
Victoria Finlay, Jewels : A Secret History.
Sarah Flannery, with David Flannery, In Code : A Mathematical Journey
Peter Forbes, The Gecko's Foot : Bio-Inspiration : Engineering New Materials from Nature.
James Gleick, Isaac Newton.
Stephen Jay Gould, The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox : Mending the Gap Between Science and the Humanities.
Jennifer Michael Hecht, Doubt, A History : The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickenson.
Darrell Huff, How to Lie with Statistics
Scott Huler, Defining the Wind : The Beaufort Scale, and How a Nineteenth-Century Admiral Turned Science into Poetry.
Lisa Jardine, Ingenious Pursuits : Building the Scientific Revolution.
Diarmuid Jeffreys, Aspirin : The Remarkable Story of a Wonder Drug.
George Johnson, The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments
Alfred C. Kinsey, Wardell B. Pomeroy, and Clyde E. Martin, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male.
Mark Kurlansky, The Big Oyster : History on the Half Shell
Erik Larson, Isaac's Storm : A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
Janet Lembke, Despicable Species : On Cowbirds, Kudzu, Hornworms, and Other Scourges.
Simon LeVay, When Science Goes Wrong : Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery
Roger Lewin, Complexity: Life at the Edge of Chaos.
John H. Lienhard, How Invention Begins : Echoes of Old Voices in the Rise of New Machines.
John H. Lienhard, Inventing Modern : Growing up with X-Rays, Skyscrapers, and Tailfins.
Alan Lightman, A Sense of the Mysterious : Science and the Human Spirit.
Mario Livio, The Golden Ratio : The Story of Phi, The World's Most Astonishing Number
Alberto Manguel, A History of Reading.
Mark Monmonier, Air Apparent : How Meteorologists Learned to Map, Predict, and Dramatize Weather.
Chris Mooney. The Republican War on Science.
Henry Petroski, Success Through Failure : The Paradox of Design.
Steven Pinker, The Stuff of Thought : Language as a Window into Human Nature.
David Quammen, The Boilerplate Rhine : Nature in the Eye of the Beholder.
David Quammen, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin : An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution.
Chet Raymo, Walking Zero : Discovering Cosmic Space and Time Along the Prime Meridian.
Richard Rhodes, Arsenals of Folly : The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race.
Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb.
John S. Rigden, Hydrogen : The Essential Element
Matt Ridley, The Red Queen : Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature.
Mary Roach, Spook : Science Tackles the Afterlife.
Mary Roach, Stiff : The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers.
Andrew Robinson, The Story of Measurement.
Mort Rosenblum, Chocolate : A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light.
Eric Roston, The Carbon Age : How Life's Core Element has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat
Oliver W. Sacks, Uncle Tungsten : Memories of a Chemical Boyhood.
James Schwartz, In Pursuit of the Gene : From Darwin to DNA
Michael Shermer, Science Friction : Where the Known Meets the Unknown.
John Rennie Short, The World Through Maps : A History of Cartography.
Dava Sobel and William J. H. Andrewes, The Illustrated Longitude.
Robert Sullivan, Rats : Observations on the History & Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants.
Lewis Thomas, The Lives of a Cell : Notes of a Biology Watcher
Colin Tudge, The Time Before History : 5 Million Years of Human Impact
Steven Vogel, Cat's Paws and Catapults : Mechanical Worlds of Nature and People.
Peter Watson, Ideas : A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud
Simon Winchester, The Map that Changed the World : William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology
Edward O. Wilson, The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth.

My Squidoo Lenses

JNShaumeyer — 2007-11-03T01:18:03Z

In addition to the lenses I've been writing at Squidoo, I also run the group

Classical Music & Friends, a place to accommodate all of us who write about classical music and related topics.

Here is the growing list of lenses I have finished.

"'Musical' Wind Machines", all about the peculiar device in the orchestral percussion section known as the wind machine, including an exhaustive list of its repertoire.
"Spooky Classical Music for Halloween", is just what it says: some music we'd like to suggest is perfectly spooky enough to join Bach's famous toccata and fugue in d minor as musical accompaniment.
"It's Only Rocket Science", is a few notes about how not scary science can be, and a sample of posts from my blog filed in the category.
Jeff Shaumeyer, a short lens about your author.

The Desperation Trio Rode Once

JNShaumeyer — 2007-01-25T04:03:42Z

Twice a year or so, Isaac arranges a recital at the church where he is the music director, a recital for "organ and friends". He's been doing this since the current Cassavant pipe organ was installed in 1993. Originally the recitals featured only Isaac playing the organ, but pretty soon expanded to include several performers. Some, such as his assistant organist Chuck Mock, appear regularly. Sometimes the recital will even present a "sneak preview" of the next show to be performed by our theatre troupe.

The recitals always feature a "mystery guest artist", and some of the mystery guests have been delightful and rare surprises for the small but dedicated audience. Friends of ours, friends of friends, student performers, mature performers.

Then there was the time in 2003 when we were planning the recital and the expected mystery guest artist, we discovered with mere days to go, would be unable to perform.

Thus was born "The Desperation Trio". Chuck had a piece of decidedly patriotic music for a trio of men's voices that he thought would suit our vocal talents: "Who Are the Brave?", words by J. Paul Williams and music by Joseph M. Martin, published in 1992. We snuck in a rehearsal after a Thursday evening choir rehearsal and we were ready to go the next Sunday afternoon.

We sang lustily and, I'm happy to report, our performance was well received. It happened that there was a photographer there (Bryan Haynes) from a local newspaper (The Bowie Star, no longer published under that name) to capture the three of us singing, accompanied by the very able and happily willing Mary Jennings.

The photo is from the Bowie Star, 8 June 2003.

Michael Innes

JNShaumeyer — 2007-01-18T05:05:44Z

Michael Innes, an academic (English Professor) whose "real" name was J.I.M. Stewart, died in 1994; as I write this, he's one of only two authors on my TTMA05 list not still living and producing. He's also the author on this list I'm least likely to recommend without reservation, because I can't bring myself to say that his mystery novels are the pinnacle of the genre, although I find them vastly entertaining and very much to my taste and sense of humor. Sense of humor, however, is far from universal.

The first book of his that I read, probably twenty years ago, was From London Far (published in 1946). It chronicles the adventures of an English don, prone to muttering fragments of poetry, who happens to mutter a fragment in a tobacconist's shop that causes him to be mistaken for the leader of an international art-smuggling ring (and that's just the beginning of an entire string of ridiculous improbabilities). Not long thereafter the don finds himself momentarily alone in a secret room beneath the tobacconist's shop, wondering whether he is about to be rubbed out, then stops to ponder at some length whether "to rub out" is still current vernacular. I laughed out loud repeatedly, and I rarely laugh out loud from reading a book.

There are two things about Innes that stand out for me: 1) his series featuring the very sophisticated Inspector John Appleby (later Sir John), perhaps the last in the long line of credible characters descended from Lord Peter Wimsey; and 2) his (non-series) books with the utterly ridiculous plots, like From London Far: arch, ironically erudite, and silly in precisely the form that I prefer my silliness.

Jo Bannister

JNShaumeyer — 2007-01-18T05:03:58Z

A prolific British author, Jo Bannister has written a number of novels, including three mystery series. It is her series set in the East Anglian town of Castlemere, featuring a trio of CID officers (Sergeant Donovan, Inspector Liz Graham, Superintendent Frank Shapiro) that I'm most familiar with, but I have read one of the "Brodie Farrell" series (True Witness) and liked it too.

The Castlemere set is, on the surface, a police procedural, but they read more like the best psychological thrillers. This CID trio, on the face of it, sounds like an assemblage of neuroses stapled to cardboard cutouts, but in Bannister's writing they become very realistic and very believably woven into the tense, detailed plots. As in all thrillers, each takes his or her turn being in mortal danger or severely injured, but in this case there are consequences when bad things happen: they don't just pop up and keep on fighting, but may spend the next book recuperating from serious physical damage.

Ms. Bannister is one of a couple authors on my list who seem hard to find for some reason, at least in the US. I suppose one can buy their books now easily enough online, but I rarely run across them in my library or my local brick-and-mortar bookstores. I wouldn't have read the ones I did read if it weren't for Isaac's sister's giving me some used UK editions she'd somehow come across. But difficult to find or not, her books are worth looking for.

[I originally wrote this profile for my blog in May 2005; I have since come up to date with the rest of her Brodie Farrell series, and they only enhance my opinion of Jo Bannister as an author.]

Nancy Atherton

JNShaumeyer — 2007-01-18T05:00:18Z

I once went into a mystery bookstore of the rather snooty variety, and had a brief chat with the owner about Ms. Atherton and her Aunt Dimity series.

"Oh," he sniffed, "she's so terribly sentimental and precious, don't you think?"

"Exactly," I said, "and she's very, very good at it, too."

Aunt Dimity is the very English aunt of the transplanted-from-America-to-England protagonist, Lori Shepherd, from whose viewpoint the books are written. They all take place in modern times, generally in a small, English village named Finch. As our protagonist goes through her life and encounters gossips, dark plots, and bodies, she's helped out on occasion by Aunt Dimity. Oh, and Aunt Dimity is dead by the way — has been for some time. Fortunately, we are spared any sort of ghostly apparitions: Aunt Dimity converses with Ms. Shepherd by writing in a diary, a charming conceit that adroitly sidesteps a whole catalog of ghostly silliness.

The series is uniformly good, and the characters progress through time as the series proceeds. These are English-style Cozies (yes, with a capital "C") but with modern characters with modern sensibilities. Indeed, as Mr. Snooty felt, the books are sentimental and precious; they're also very good, charming, and very engaging stories. Ms. Atherton convinces me that writing sentimental and precious is not nearly so easy as she makes it look, at least to do it so well as she does it.

The official website: aunt-dimity.com.

Favorite Mystery Authors

JNShaumeyer — 2007-01-18T01:03:58Z

I've written this list, first compiled in 2005 on my blog (My Top 20 Mystery Authors: 2005), as though it is a list of lifetime favorites, but it is a list of lifetime favorites today. That's just my way of saying that the list may change at any time and without notice. I also doubt that it will continue for long with only 20 names on it. So there.

These are not ranked in order of preference or anything; it's in reverse alphabetical order, which did let me put Ruth Rendell at the top via her alternym Barbara Vine, because she has been at the top of my favorites for many, many years.

Ruth Rendell / Barbara Vine
Peter Robinson
Ian Rankin
Sharan Newman
John Mortimer
Henning Mankell
Jane Langton
P.D. James
Michael Innes
Reginald Hill
Martha Grimes
Frances Fyfield
John Farrow
Stephen Dobyns
Michael Dibdin
Michael Connelly
Raymond Chandler
Lawrence Block
Jo Bannister
Nancy Atherton

Selections from Bearcastle Blog

JNShaumeyer — 2007-01-17T23:35:48Z

First, I want to make mention of the special feature:

Beard of the Week: interesting beards and associated essays. Rarely, however, do I manage to contribute weekly.

Now on with the list. Choice or popular or just plain peculiar, these are some of my favorite entries from my blog.

Beard of the Week XXV: Welcome 2007, 31 December 2006: My look back at personal events during 2006.
My Passion for Cookbooks, 30 September 2006: there are many reasons why I enjoy collecting cookbooks.
Farewell to James Van Allen, 12 August 2006: On familiar names as history in science.
My Gay Belt, 24 May 2006: Secret symbols lead to unexpected conversations.
Dandelion Wine, 13 October 2005: memories in a recipe for dandelion wine.
Spam Cake, 30 September 2005: at last, the recipe comes to light for this venerable favorite.
The Matthew Effect, 6 August 2005: Who really first said "The plural of anecdote is not data"?
Chicken Feathers, 27 June 2005: Personal history and reflections on chicken-feather technology.
Diabetes for Beginners, 27 May 2005: Rules of thumb for new diabetics.
My Pointy Ears, 14 April 2005: Does my personal history make me more logical, or do I just look like Spock?
Doilies & Chaos Theory, 28 March 2005: relating elements of chaos theory to pineapple designs in crocheted doilies — really!
Earworm Origins, 14 March 2005: my contribution to the dispute over the origins of the term "earworm".
The Tyranny of Morning People, 23 February 2005: I'm a night person, and night people rule!
The Act-Up Effect, 14 January 2005: on how to overcome social inertia and effect change.
Great Book Titles, 12 January 2005: One good title prompts revelation of another.
Frank & Kenneth, 10 December 2004: the eponymous pair discuss the President's penchant for fractured clichés that allude to body parts.

Introduction to "old soc.motss posts"

JNShaumeyer — 2007-01-17T00:16:17Z

This is a collection of short posts to the Usenet newsgroup soc.motss that I made between 1992 and 1994, listed in vaguely alphabetical order. For those who are not aware, the "motss" in the name is an acronym for "members of the same sex", the name given to the group in the late 80s by its founder, Steve Dyer, that kept its profile low enough to avoid attracting lots and lots of gratuitous online gay bashing. In the early days — before the internet existed for the general public — newsgroups operated rather like today's blogs + comments. Back then, they were likened to "bulletin boards", itself nearly a obsolete and unfamiliar concept.

The section criteria for these examples, drawn from the no-doubt hundreds of posts that I wrote (quick but far-from-precise searches of soc.motss at Google groups suggests about 700), are mysterious to me.

The proximate cause for this collection was an application I made for a job c. 1996 with a group who wanted writing samples, and they claimed they wanted writing sample that were out of the ordinary. I gathered up these as possible sample and used some five or six of them in my application. I suspect I was too out of the ordinary, since I heard nary a word from them.

Regardless of why, I persist in keeping these as a collection with some personal, historical value, with nostalgic overtones: when I look again at one or another they tend to flash me back to an earlier time. They also suggest to me that a lot of my thoughts on some of these subjects haven't changed so much over the year, although a few have.

Overall, this collection provides one self-portrait from the time, on that is not the most flattering in all ways, but one that I think is interesting and reasonably precise — as far as it goes. This list, by the way, is in an arbitrary, nearly alphabetical order by title of the original discussion thread, which frequently has nearly nothing to do with the content of the piece. Think of them as Dada titles.