Posted by Dave Bacon on September 15, 2008 Dum, dum, dum, DUM DUM
No, it’s not the monolith from 2001, but instead Millikan library at Caltech which I’m visiting. If you’re ever around Caltech on Halloween, be sure to check out the pumpkin drop where frozen pumpkins are dropped off this gigantic monolith. I thought I saw a blue spark…
Always a bit strange going back to the place where you spent seven plus years of your life. Especially when it’s a place like Caltech, I suppose.
So do the pumpkins actually light on impact? I always thought it was cool that crushing polo mints gives off light.
That photo shows an approximately catenary arch over Millikan Pond, just beyond a kinetic sculpture turning in wind and fountain-water.
I remember times when the pond was dyed as a prank. And there were banners hanging down the building with messages. For instance, when the Caltech President left Caltech to join the Nixon administration, the banner read: “D.C. You’r Loss is Our Gain!”
Competitions were held for how fast to circumnavigate the (in this picture, not quite visible) ledge around the roof. Once records were set, to do the same on roller skates.
This noble building was, with the temporary placque “Van Damm Industries”, featured in an epsiode of the original “MIssion Impossible.”
That polygonal room jutting out towards us is where the Board of Directors meets.
So, what are you at Caltech to do? Is there some cool public event that I am missing, maybe in CS or PHysics or both, as I teach 5 miles away?
Just visiting the Institute for Quantum Information where I was once a postdoc.
September 15, 2008
September 16, 2008
September 18, 2008