CLOSE UP by Brian Rudnick

Time between screams down black hole

This is an illustration from a kids’ course on black holes. I’m teaching black holes in elementary school now and some kid did an illustration of a guy falling in. What happens when you fall into a black hole is that you slow down or you seem to slow down. This is your first scream, second scream, third, fourth, fifth, and it’s taking more and more time between each scream . . .So we think we understand something about time . We think we know something about quantum mechanics and we have no idea how to fit the two together. John Ashmead, “Time and Quantum Mechanics.” From his blog entry of July 11, 2010:"Spoke at noon yesterday (July 10th, 2010) at the Chestnut Hill Book Festival; in spite of heavy rain a nice crowd. This was my Balticon Time & Quantum Mechanics talk, adjusted for a general (rather than a science fictional) audience. I covered over a hundred years of physics in less than an hour — a lot — but the audience survived & even seemed to prosper, asking some good questions!"Click here to see video excerpt from talk and 9 second interview.

A Jew and Jehovah's Witnesses engage

THE PROBLEM I HAVE WITH THE BIBLE IS THE HEAVEN AND HELL STUFF THAT IF I DON’T BELIEVE A CERTAIN WAY I’M GOING TO GO TO HELL? DO YOU BELIEVE I’M GOING TO GO TO HELL? Carol Peopples: “No, well…” Alice Tillman “You have to understand what hell is” CP: Yes, in getting with the doctrine… AT: …the Bible has its own definition of these things. What people believe hell is and what people believe heaven is you’d be surprised. The Bible gives you a reasonable and appropriate answer for it. Carol Peopples, left, and Alice Tillman, right, Jehovah Witnesses on Mrs. Peopples second or third impromptu visit to our house. Watch video interview here

Poetry slamming to the nationals in Philly

YOU CAME BUT YOU’RE NOT SURE YOU WANT TO READ ALOUD? “Yeah, I’m not sure because I do poetry a whole lot and sometimes I want to sit back and listen. BUT YOU HAVE SOME STUFF JUST IN CASE? I do, definitely. I have stuff. [Later that evening] “If you don’t believe in the second coming of Christ I can guarantee you’re going to feel him through these rhymes of mine. I’ve been criticized. They say she thinks she a prophet, maybe because I’m looking for profit like these televised preachers pocketing paper…” Alyesha Wise of West Philadelphia, a champion poet, goes by “Ms. Wise.” With friend Jenica Jones at “the Fuze” open mic and poetry slam, InFusion Coffee and Tea Gallery, Mount Airy. See http://www.mswisedecision.com/ Watch video interview and poetry segment here

"Open mic is anybody can go up for probably 3 to 4 minutes and they can read a poem or a short story or do anything- they can sing. Then the slam is a poetry competition. People have a time limit of 3 minutes and there will be judging and at the end there will be a cumulative score. People will be ranked. And this specific slam is to be qualified for iWPS which is a national individual poetry slam that will be in Philly this year in October." Hannah Adams of South Philly, before she went on to take top prize at theFUZE poetry slam, InFusion Coffee and Tea Gallery, Mount Airy. Watch video interview and slam segments here

Takes just herself to movies for first time

YOU’RE TAKING YOURSELF TO THE MOVIES TODAY? “Yes I am.” AND YOU CONFESSED THAT IT’S THE FIRST TIME THAT YOU’RE TAKING JUST YOURSELF? “First time taking myself to the movies.” WHAT’S THE OCCASION? “I just said, you know what, why not? If there’s something that you want to do, life’s too short to wait for other people. Just pick up yourself and go. WHAT ARE YOU SEEING TODAY? Karate Kid. I heard it was really exciting. I’ve been promoting it with people. So I’m telling people to go for it. Go and see it. I’m a supporter, love Will Smith, love Jaden.” Leslie Burnley of Overbrook at United Artists Movie Theater, Manayunk. Watch video interview here.

Light from sun powers gong

Aviva: These things are solar powered so that when the-

Zachary: The stronger the light is, the faster you hear the chime.

Aviva: Then, when the mallet goes all the way up, it bangs against the thing so it’s a solar powered gong.

NEAT. DID YOU HEAR IT GONG?

Aviva: We didn’t hear the one of the ones out here.

Zachary: Oh the one over there gongs!

Aviva: The ones inside gong much faster because

Zachary: there are lights shining.

Zachary and Aviva Schuh of Merion at the Schuylkill Center’s indoor/outdoor exhibit, “Elemental Energy: Art Powered by Nature” talking about "Solar Thumpers" by Jason Krugman and Christian Cerrito.

Watch video interview here.

Video of opening reception inside and outside artworks

To you be your way, to me be mine

A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE PREJUDICE AGAINST MUSLIMS TODAY BECAUSE OF WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE WORLD. WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE PEOPLE TO KNOW ABOUT ISLAM? “Islam is not a terroristic religion. It just means submission to the will of Allah. And we follow the sunnah or the customs or the ways of the prophet Mohammed, peace and blessings be upon him and his companions. May Allah be pleased with them all. We as Muslims implore people to come together, not to fight, even if you don’t have the same religion as ours. There’s an ayah in the Koran which says, “Lakum deenukum waliya deeni” which means, ‘to you be your way and to me be mine,” A lot of times in religions you see people may be extremists but someone who is in the right middle course of Islam you will not find them doing any of those acts that a lot of people have heard that we do.” Mikal Abdur Rahman, member of Masjid As-Sunnah An-Nabawiyyah, Germantown, on  East Evergreen Avenue. Watch video interview here.

Shopper spots doctor cousin on shopping cart advertisment

YOU JUST STOPPED ME TO TAKE A LOOK AT THE PHOTOGRAPH [ON THE SHOPPING CART] “Yes, I noticed it was my cousin, Dr. Milbourne, my name is Aaron Donaldson. He started out wanting to be a veterinarian. As a child he always loved animals, always had a lot of passion towards this life. He turned out to be a heart doctor and what a great heart doctor he is. One of the proudest moments of our entire family is him. We love him dearly.” Aaron Donaldson, outside Pathmark. Watch video interview here.

Flourtown evacuates heart patient by helicopter

“What it is- we get involved. It’s the heart rescue program out of Chestnut Hill Hospital. The individual has a ‘STEMI’, a blockage in his neck and they get to Penn Presbyterian within a 90 minute time frame and they have a 95% recovery rate. So the fastest way to get down there for them is to take him by helicopter. This year we’re also celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Flourtown Fire Company being a hundred percent volunteer- started in 1910 and still going strong in 2010.” George B. Wilmot III, Chief, Flourtown Fire Company.

Watch helicopter evacuation and interview here.

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Daughters of Confederacy honor civil war dead

AS A YANKEE- WE GENERALLY ASSOCIATE THE CONFEDERACY WITH SLAVERY. IT’S HARD TO OVERCOME THAT. “I understand that. Yes, slavery was a very hot topic back then you could say, even twenty years prior to that, even, especially in the Kansas-Missouri border states, the abolitionists and all that went on out there. It was fought more- states’ rights started everything, I feel. The South wanted to do things their way and the North wanted to control that and that’s what fueled the fire for South Carolina to secede from the Union to begin with. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT BEING IN THE UNION TODAY? “I love it.” THINGS WORKED OUT FOR THE BEST? “Who knows what it would be like? Nobody can say it would be better or worse but it’s still a great country.” Kimberly Mauch, president of the Turner Ashby chapter, No. 184, United Daughters of the Confederacy of Winchester Virginia, is the blood descendant of four men who served, and some of whom perished, in the Confederate forces in Missouri: her great-great-great grandfather Blair McGee and his brothers Daniel and Hugh, and her great-great grandfather W.C. Jarret. The pins on the ribbon she wears bear their names. She began to take a particular interest in her civil wartime heritage when she was eight years old. To be eligible to join the Daughters, she needed to muster evidence of her blood connection and of her ancestors’ service. She was able to do this partly through the narrative of one of her forbears' slaves, collected during the 1930s by the Federal Writers Project, part of the Works Progress Administration. Confederate Memorial Ceremony, University of Virginia Confederate Cemetery, Charlottesville, Virginia.

Geocaches to fight muscle disease

HOW’D YOU GET STARTED GEOCACHING? “A friend introduced me when we went to hawk mountain, you know the bird observatory. He had his IPhone or his Droid and he had a geocaching app on it. So we decided to do some caching and I got hooked because the first one I found was in the middle of a beautiful valley surrounded by pine trees with a mountain range in front of us. It was a gorgeous view. I think the name of the cache was ‘The View’. Went to Cabela’s, bought myself a GPS for a couple hundred bucks and I’ve been doing it ever since. And it gets me out. I’m on oxygen because I have a muscle disease. It gets me out and moving instead of being sedentary- you know, getting atrophied and dying.” Dan McGrogan, Core Creek Park, Middletown, Bucks County.

Watch video here.