Siloscrapers in Illinois

One of the realizations that I have come to, living in the Midwest, is that the "rural" landscape here is of an entirely different nature than I have been used to growing up in New England or traveling out West. The rural lands here are not empty or unused, but instead are fully embraced as components of a complex industrial system. The fields of corn and soy are just out-flung biological solar panels, tied into a ubiquitous network of towering complexes of silos the size of skyscrapers: these here, along the side of a highway in Illinois, are at least 10 stories tall, probably closer to 20 for the top of the tallest tower, and embrace volume on the scale of the headquarters of a major corporation.

Colored Circles, Chicago O'Hare Airport

Jauntily colored circles from the side of an exhibit on the life of Butch O'Hare, the World War II fighter pilot after which Chicago O'Hare Airport is named.

Iowa City Public Library Light

A complex flight fixture in the entryway to the Iowa City Public Library, seen from directly below.

Cicada shell on fencepost, Iowa City

All around us right now, giant insectoid monsters are erupting from the soil, then climbing to the highest place they can find to shed their skins and take to the air. I never actually saw a cicada before last year: I just heard them shrieking in the trees. Last year, however, Harriet and I discovered some cicada shells underneath leaves on the small lilac in our front yard, and my wonderful field biologist aunt Sally helped us identify the mystery monsters. Now that I've got a good search image for them, I am seeing them everywhere this year, and I am delighted to keep pointing them out to others as well. This one was found at the birthday party of one of Harriet's friends, and a whole group of little kids gathered to "ooh" and "aah" at it before their 5-year old attention spans went elsewhere.

Long-term diffusion of food coloring

And here we have the final state of each of the two experimental conditions after an hour or so, water + detergent above, milk + detergent below. I was quite surprised that in the end the food coloring diffused so little through the water. The chemical motor of the milk / detergent reaction, however, proved to be remarkably effective at mixing: you can even see a point surrounded by circles in the upper middle where an upwelling of milk driven from below was circulating, driving the continued mixing of the fluid.

Food coloring in milk and detergent

Partway through the experiment, we put a drop of detergent in each dish, breaking up the surface tension of the water and destroying the emulsion of the milk. At this point, the milk actually began mixing much faster than the water, in complex streaks as globules of fat began to coalesce, creating forces that actually mixed the food coloring around. This image is mostly the blue food coloring, but the contrasts showed up much more nicely in black and white.

Blue and yellow food coloring in water

In water, of course, food coloring diffuses much more quickly. I was surprised, however, to see how complex and uneven the diffusion can be. Here we see a drop of blue food coloring apparently following a hidden current in the upper layer of the otherwise still water, "dripping" down to the bottom in swirling pattern of turbulence.

Green food coloring drop in milk

Over the weekend, we did some experiments out of a science book that one of Harriet's friends gave her for her birthday. The one on diffusion produced some beautiful images that I just had to capture. Here you see a drop of green food coloring in milk, diffusing only very slowly and slightly since milk is an emulsion of water and fat.

Flag water tank, Kentucky

Another proud local water-tower, this one themed on the American flag, somewhere in Kentucky.

Metropolis, Home of Superman

Many small towns in the Midwest express their identities through their water-towers. Here we see the pride and joy of the little town of Metropolis, a community in far Southern Illinois of about six thousand people that is officially and legally the home of Superman, according to both DC Comics and the Illinois State Legislature.

Schoolbus storage, near Chicago

I love finding places where you see lots of things from above that normally you only see one or two at a time, like this storage yard filled with dozens of school buses.

High density housing near Chicago

Tight straight townhouses forming a strained approximation of the curves of roads and cul-de-sacs.

Chicago neighborhood

Back to America now, and the complex suburban sigils of our low-density housing patterns.

Intruding medieval tomb, Rimini, Italy

While the modern discoverers of these ancient Roman homes have done their best to preserve them, this was not the case in other eras. Scattered through the site are intrusions from the medieval era, when a cemetery was located atop the site and the deeper burials smashed right through the mosaics to construct their tombs. Ironically, these acts of vandalism are now also ancient historical sites well worth preserving, being well over a thousand years old themselves.

Roman hypocaust, Rimini, Italy

Roman homes were often heated by a hypocaust (literally "under-burn" in Greek): channels beneath a floor into which hot air was forced. The air then heats the floor, which keeps the rest of the house warm as well. Here we see those channels exposed by the breakages of the floor. Hypocausts are a really nice solution that is both efficient and comfortable, and they're occasionally used in modern construction by people rediscovering this architectural innovations---which is how I know that a hypocaust feels really nice on one's feet on a cold winter morning.

Roman mosaic, Rimini, Italy

Mosaic of overlapping circles, blurred by damage but still overall quite clear.

Roman mosaic, Rimini, Italy

Tesselating knots and parallelograms in another floor mosaic.

Roman mosaic, Rimini, Italy

Detail from the edge of another floor mosaic, with waves and braided cords bordering a more complex geometric pattern in the middle.

Roman mosaic, Rimini, Italy

An antelope dashes through one panel of a Roman mosaic.

Roman mosaic, Rimini, Italy

Some of the mosaics unearthed in the old Roman homes are remarkably well preserved. Their colors have faded, but their contends are clear and sharp.

Roman ruins, Rimini, Italy

A map of the site, showing two Roman homes (one a surgeon's house from the height of the Pax Romana, the other from a wealthy person in the late Empire) and more areas under cover. The site was discovered during the course of ordinary urban renovations, which were then pre-empted by archaeology. I can only think what a mixed blessing it is to build in such ancient lands, where fabulous discoveries and shattered current plans go hand in hand.

Roman ruins, Rimini, Italy

In the middle of Rimini is a wonderful archeological site: the ruins of two old Roman apartment houses, uncovered and preserved in situ in a low half-buried building capping the location where they were discovered beneath a city square. Most of what you see is the floors, but enough low wall bases remain to get a good sense of the shape of these upper-middle-class homes from two thousand years in the past. The size is not unlike that of one of the smaller New York City apartments today.

Roman gate, Rimini, Italy

Closeups on the Arch of Augustus, showing some still-intact portions of its incriptions: part of a "Senatus Populusque Romanus" (The Senate and the People of Rome) and part of the explanation that this is celebrating Augustus' work on the roads. The structures on top, however, are not Roman, but from a later period, when the city actually needed to be defended.

Roman gate, Rimini, Italy

The Arch of Augustus stands at the edge of Roman Rimini, where it once marked the start of a great Roman road spanning from there to the capital.

Ponte di Tiberio, Rimini, Italy

Closer views of the Ponte di Tiberio, showing its long-weathered surfaces and the abundant mosses and other plants that have lodged themselves in its sides.

Ponte di Tiberio, Rimini, Italy

The Ponte di Tiberio is a bridge dating from the time of the Emperor Tiberius, finished around 20 AD. The Romans being the remarkable engineers that they were, it still carries vehicle traffic today.

Roman amphitheater, Rimini, Italy

All of the rest of the touristy stuff in Rimini is fun to see, but the real treat for me is what I have saved for last: a number of Roman artifacts and ruins, scattered about the city, such as this amphitheater.

Poe by the river, Rimini, Italy

Edgar Allen Poe looks worriedly out from his pose by the corner of a riverbank mural.

And because it's the 4th of July, let me call back to "American Street Food" and "E'Tornato L'Americano."

Avian Love, Rimini, Italy

A peacock and chicken fondly touch beaks in a mural on the riverbank in Rimini. I don't know if there's supposed to be some sort of deeper symbolism there, or if it's just a fun image.

Boat parking, Rimini, Italy

Jam-packed boats parked in the river at Rimini.

Naviglio, Rimini, Italy

A river / canal enters the sea at Rimini, packed with boats and its sides pained in colorful murals and graffiti.