I have been contacted by a doctoral student conducting a study on personality and morality. (A definite interest of mine.) He needs volunteers to complete a survey.

The survey: Relationships of Well-Being, Social Morals, and Personality Among Individuals of Faith and No-Faith.

Without data, there is no science. If you have the time and interest, I encourage you to participate.

I’ve got a new website up with material from my book: MP3 files to listen to or download (embedded YouTube videos have half-baked, value-added “visualizations” as well).

Success yesterday. (Those are my feet. My wife had some difficulty following me with the camera on zoom.) The waves weren’t big, but had enough size and power to ride. I don’t get to the beach much, so when I do, and have the chance to surf, I’m happy.

Why the “physics lab” in the title? At the beach I find so many fascinating phenomena that interest the scientist in me. When not 100% focused on enjoying the purely wonderful sensual experiences, questions arise, hypotheses form:

- How big does a wave have to be to propel a 5’11″, nearly 170 pound surfer on a 7ft surfboard? Must it provide a force only in terms of pounds per square feet, or need there be a “per second” in the equation, an acceleration?

How closely does the form of a wave, visible above the surface, coincide with the changes to the sea floor below? What is the lag time for a wave to be influenced by, say, a sudden low spot in an otherwise shallow sandbar?

Those isolated showers on the horizon — seemingly single clouds with dark bellies and a veil of precipitation beneath — do they form in any way similar to how dust bunnies under a bed do?

Physics is fun. I think. Not quite as much as surfing. But fun.

I’ll report back if I have success. Much depends on the waves . . .

[p.s. above image is not me, from Surfstation.com]

Do beautiful images stimulate the release of endo-quaalude type substances in our minds? I could sure use some right about now. Have spent most of the day getting this website back up (other ones I manage, as well). They were hacked. I’m not confident I’ve permanently fixed the issue. But right now my mind is swimming with file names and code and all sorts of complex stuff. Time for a nature break!