In which I marry my two passions: fluid dynamics and the bladed spoke

update: An alert readers points out that my attempts to link to my ABQJournal stories are apparently being thwarted in at least some cases. Call this “fair use”:

If you have tried to ride a bicycle fast on a windy day, you likely have an intuitive understanding of the basic principles of fluid mechanics. A brisk wind in your face can make it feel as though you are climbing a steep hill.
The people who will line up at the start of the Record Challenge bicycle race south of Moriarty this weekend have thought the issue through in a little more detail.
On N.M. 41 this Sunday and Monday, you will see wheels made of solid disks rather than spokes, strange helmets that have been described as looking like something out of a 1960s science fiction cartoon, and handlebars that look as though they’re pinning riders’ arms down in some bizarre torture ritual.
It is all in the name of beating the wind, and riders from all over the country will converge on Moriarty this weekend to have another crack at the problem. The race is popular in the local bike racing community, but more than half of the 120 or so riders who typically show up come from out of state, said Bill McLain, the race’s organizer.

A friend last week sent me, with some astonishment, a link to Iain Murray’s Tech Central Station piece on obesity. I’ve been an, uh, “fan” of Murray’s climate change writing, but I wasn’t aware of the breathtaking scope of his intellect.

Murray has figured out something the rest of us have missed, a way of making lemonade out of some incredibly tart and nasty lemons, but in retrospect it’s so obvious.

Obesity is a good thing. Follow me here. Obesity is a byproduct of affluence. Affluence is good. Therefore obesity is good. “Obesity,” he writes, “is not a symptom of a sick society, but a sign of a very healthy one.” Whew. That’s a relief.

This gives me hope for a whole range of other problems that have been vexing me. Take traffic accidents. I’ve always thought it a tragedy that automobile accidents take more than 40,000 lives per year in this country. Turns out I’ve had it all wrong! Traffic accidents are a byproduct of our system of transportation, which allows me to get to work easily every day. Getting to work easily every day is a good thing. Therefore traffic accidents are good!

This line of argument can be applied problems large and small. Leaking roof? No problem! It’s just a sign that I’ve got a house! AIDS in Africa? No problem! It’s just a sign that all those Africans are getting laid!

Thanks, Iain. You’ve eased my mind. I think I’ll go out for fast food.

Rich –

For an accessible introduction to quantum computing, you might try George Johnson’s A Shortcut Through Time. In addition to being a terrific introduction to the topic, it’s a delightful read.

I have always loved the strange and wonderful tale of Lewis Fry Richardson, the British scientist who spent much of World War I driving an ambulance and calculating, by hand, a one-day weather forecast.

That obviously was not practical, so Richardson dreamed up a stadium-sized room full of “computers” (they were people who computed back then), doing their calculations and passing paper back and forth among their neighbors.

The architecture of Sandia National Laboratories new Red Storm supercomputer is very Richardson-like (lots of near-neighbor message passing), so I took the opportunity for an extended riff.