Ben Monreal
@benmonreal.bsky.social
Nuclear, particle, and astrophysics experimentalist at Case Western. Posting about physics, climate, urbanism, Cleveland. See also:
https://bmonreal.github.io/personal.html
https://www.project8.org/
https://bmonreal.github.io/personal.html
https://www.project8.org/
Perhaps she'd like to read Redcliffe Salaman's supposedly classic "The History and Social Influence of the Potato" (1949). From the preface:
November 17, 2025 at 2:18 AM
Perhaps she'd like to read Redcliffe Salaman's supposedly classic "The History and Social Influence of the Potato" (1949). From the preface:
I want to post a bit about my BACKYARD SOLAR PERGOLA in case someone else is in a situation like mine.
a) Weird roofline/clay tile makes rooftop hard
b) Couldn't make ground mount or pole mount work since they're too ugly for local zoning
Solution: #solar pergola! 🔌💡☀️ Details: 1/
a) Weird roofline/clay tile makes rooftop hard
b) Couldn't make ground mount or pole mount work since they're too ugly for local zoning
Solution: #solar pergola! 🔌💡☀️ Details: 1/
November 15, 2025 at 4:25 PM
I want to post a bit about my BACKYARD SOLAR PERGOLA in case someone else is in a situation like mine.
a) Weird roofline/clay tile makes rooftop hard
b) Couldn't make ground mount or pole mount work since they're too ugly for local zoning
Solution: #solar pergola! 🔌💡☀️ Details: 1/
a) Weird roofline/clay tile makes rooftop hard
b) Couldn't make ground mount or pole mount work since they're too ugly for local zoning
Solution: #solar pergola! 🔌💡☀️ Details: 1/
Every fall when baseball season ends and football, inexplicably, begins, I think again about features I like and dislike about spectator sports, and every year I futilely dream we will someday REPLACE AMERICAN FOOTBALL WITH KABADDI
November 2, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Every fall when baseball season ends and football, inexplicably, begins, I think again about features I like and dislike about spectator sports, and every year I futilely dream we will someday REPLACE AMERICAN FOOTBALL WITH KABADDI
OK finally one thing I want to quote because misreading it made me laugh. The dead mother's funeral reception. Here's the pastor. I got to the sentence beginning "The overall theme" and pulled up short. 12/
October 31, 2025 at 7:06 PM
OK finally one thing I want to quote because misreading it made me laugh. The dead mother's funeral reception. Here's the pastor. I got to the sentence beginning "The overall theme" and pulled up short. 12/
Here's a qualitative, draft infographic expressing the following hypothesis: Your urban public transit dollars pay working-class wages within your city; car-ownership dollars pay richer people farther away.
Is that right? If so, is there research that says this quantitatively? 🚫🚗
Is that right? If so, is there research that says this quantitatively? 🚫🚗
October 1, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Here's a qualitative, draft infographic expressing the following hypothesis: Your urban public transit dollars pay working-class wages within your city; car-ownership dollars pay richer people farther away.
Is that right? If so, is there research that says this quantitatively? 🚫🚗
Is that right? If so, is there research that says this quantitatively? 🚫🚗
Remember the Department of Energy's SBIR/STTR small business grants, a beloved bipartisan program that's de-facto the seed fund for America's green energy R&D startups? Were Phase I awards announced 5/29, as planned? No, in June they delayed to 8/29. Were awards announced 8/29? Also no.🔌💡🧪
September 12, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Remember the Department of Energy's SBIR/STTR small business grants, a beloved bipartisan program that's de-facto the seed fund for America's green energy R&D startups? Were Phase I awards announced 5/29, as planned? No, in June they delayed to 8/29. Were awards announced 8/29? Also no.🔌💡🧪
Surprising nature sighting today: little ~15mm mushroom (puffball?) emerging from shale along a stream bank. Is it eating the mossy surface detritus, or tree roots in the cracks? It can't eat kerogens in the shale, can it? (Cuyahoga Formation shale, Southerly Park, Shaker Heights OH) 🧪
August 31, 2025 at 1:06 AM
Surprising nature sighting today: little ~15mm mushroom (puffball?) emerging from shale along a stream bank. Is it eating the mossy surface detritus, or tree roots in the cracks? It can't eat kerogens in the shale, can it? (Cuyahoga Formation shale, Southerly Park, Shaker Heights OH) 🧪
It reminds me of Yeesookyung's art from the "translated vase" series where she assembles broken ceramics into giant frankenpots. (Saw one of these at SFO once and never forgot it.)
www.yeesookyung.com/translated-v...
www.yeesookyung.com/translated-v...
August 15, 2025 at 2:07 PM
It reminds me of Yeesookyung's art from the "translated vase" series where she assembles broken ceramics into giant frankenpots. (Saw one of these at SFO once and never forgot it.)
www.yeesookyung.com/translated-v...
www.yeesookyung.com/translated-v...
I think about this every once in a while #waroncars
August 5, 2025 at 4:56 PM
I think about this every once in a while #waroncars
<sigh> have to reset the sign
August 2, 2025 at 11:53 PM
<sigh> have to reset the sign
I don't know if that's what the filmmakers are trying to do, but that's what I think of whenever I see a tracking shot of Superman speeding through the blue sky. /end
July 23, 2025 at 3:31 PM
I don't know if that's what the filmmakers are trying to do, but that's what I think of whenever I see a tracking shot of Superman speeding through the blue sky. /end
Edson recruited Tombaugh to join him at White Sands to test it. It took most of 1946 to get it to work. V-2 launch #16, on Dec 5 1946, was the first missile photographed at long distance. Tombaugh stayed at White Sands developing optical instruments until 1955. 9/10
July 23, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Edson recruited Tombaugh to join him at White Sands to test it. It took most of 1946 to get it to work. V-2 launch #16, on Dec 5 1946, was the first missile photographed at long distance. Tombaugh stayed at White Sands developing optical instruments until 1955. 9/10
After WWII, White Sands Proving Ground wanted to test fire (and study!) captured German V-2 rockets. James Edson---also a Lowell Observatory veteran, and Tombaugh's brother-in-law!---had bolted a telescope to an M-45 antiaircraft gun mount at Aberdeen and called it "Little Bright Eyes". 8/10
July 23, 2025 at 3:31 PM
After WWII, White Sands Proving Ground wanted to test fire (and study!) captured German V-2 rockets. James Edson---also a Lowell Observatory veteran, and Tombaugh's brother-in-law!---had bolted a telescope to an M-45 antiaircraft gun mount at Aberdeen and called it "Little Bright Eyes". 8/10
beachwear for Orko from the 1980s He-Man cartoons
June 22, 2025 at 6:22 PM
beachwear for Orko from the 1980s He-Man cartoons
I'm not sure the average physicist would get this right at first glance unless they've been playing Kerbal Space Program. (Also this is why Buzz Aldrin's Ph.D. thesis was basically "don't point the spacecraft in the direction you want to go, dummy")
June 17, 2025 at 4:07 PM
I'm not sure the average physicist would get this right at first glance unless they've been playing Kerbal Space Program. (Also this is why Buzz Aldrin's Ph.D. thesis was basically "don't point the spacecraft in the direction you want to go, dummy")
This---from du Halde's compendia (1736) of Jesuit missionary reports from China, used to illustrate a dictionary entry by Rousseau (1767), cribbed by Carl Maria von Weber for incidental music (1809) for Gozzi's Turandot---is recognizable today to fans of Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphoses (1943).
June 10, 2025 at 7:25 PM
This---from du Halde's compendia (1736) of Jesuit missionary reports from China, used to illustrate a dictionary entry by Rousseau (1767), cribbed by Carl Maria von Weber for incidental music (1809) for Gozzi's Turandot---is recognizable today to fans of Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphoses (1943).
Around 1983, a family moved to Syracuse, NY from, I forget, Pullman or Spokane or something. New kid joined my 1st-grade class, stood up for show-and-tell, and opened a box of Mt St Helens ash! Everyone took a baggie home. 40+ years later I still have it. @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social
May 18, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Around 1983, a family moved to Syracuse, NY from, I forget, Pullman or Spokane or something. New kid joined my 1st-grade class, stood up for show-and-tell, and opened a box of Mt St Helens ash! Everyone took a baggie home. 40+ years later I still have it. @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social
it's my new glovebox!
April 23, 2025 at 3:01 PM
it's my new glovebox!
I have walked past this sculpture on the Cleveland Museum of Art south lawn before; today for the first time I noticed the title is THE CITY FETTERING NATURE. The CMA listing says the city figures represent "beauty" and "utility" so I think the sculptor is cheering for them to bring down the brute.
April 17, 2025 at 4:56 PM
I have walked past this sculpture on the Cleveland Museum of Art south lawn before; today for the first time I noticed the title is THE CITY FETTERING NATURE. The CMA listing says the city figures represent "beauty" and "utility" so I think the sculptor is cheering for them to bring down the brute.
The Lytton and Lynmouth cliff railway. There are two cars connected by a rope and an unpowered pulley. Each car has a 700-gallon water tank under it. When the clifftop station adds water to its car, and the sea-level station dumps water from its car, gravity takes over and the cars move.
April 11, 2025 at 7:02 PM
The Lytton and Lynmouth cliff railway. There are two cars connected by a rope and an unpowered pulley. Each car has a 700-gallon water tank under it. When the clifftop station adds water to its car, and the sea-level station dumps water from its car, gravity takes over and the cars move.
I brought this to #standupforscience instead of a sign---an American flag that flew in space! (My thesis data came from this flight!)
a) Science is patriotic!
b) Science trains people!
c) "NASA is awesome" used to be a "water is wet" consensus until the Mad King declared opposite day
a) Science is patriotic!
b) Science trains people!
c) "NASA is awesome" used to be a "water is wet" consensus until the Mad King declared opposite day
March 7, 2025 at 7:38 PM
I brought this to #standupforscience instead of a sign---an American flag that flew in space! (My thesis data came from this flight!)
a) Science is patriotic!
b) Science trains people!
c) "NASA is awesome" used to be a "water is wet" consensus until the Mad King declared opposite day
a) Science is patriotic!
b) Science trains people!
c) "NASA is awesome" used to be a "water is wet" consensus until the Mad King declared opposite day
My favorite bits of Eliot are the little chapter-end stingers where she steps back for a cutting diagnosis a character's inner world, then turns to the reader and says "this applies to you too".
January 18, 2025 at 3:01 PM
My favorite bits of Eliot are the little chapter-end stingers where she steps back for a cutting diagnosis a character's inner world, then turns to the reader and says "this applies to you too".
"What is that little animal you are so tender of?”
“He is my dog, Toto,” answered Dorothy.
“Is he made of tin, or stuffed?” asked the Lion.
“Neither. He’s a—a—a meat dog,” said the girl.
“He is my dog, Toto,” answered Dorothy.
“Is he made of tin, or stuffed?” asked the Lion.
“Neither. He’s a—a—a meat dog,” said the girl.
December 23, 2024 at 5:27 AM
"What is that little animal you are so tender of?”
“He is my dog, Toto,” answered Dorothy.
“Is he made of tin, or stuffed?” asked the Lion.
“Neither. He’s a—a—a meat dog,” said the girl.
“He is my dog, Toto,” answered Dorothy.
“Is he made of tin, or stuffed?” asked the Lion.
“Neither. He’s a—a—a meat dog,” said the girl.
Keynote's and Powerpoint's line-style options were devised by someone who does a lot of business illustrations ("I want to underline the word 'synergy', I need a dynamic swoop") and not by a scientist ("I want to put photons into a complicated technical illustration; I need a goddamn sine wave")
December 19, 2024 at 6:03 PM
Keynote's and Powerpoint's line-style options were devised by someone who does a lot of business illustrations ("I want to underline the word 'synergy', I need a dynamic swoop") and not by a scientist ("I want to put photons into a complicated technical illustration; I need a goddamn sine wave")
the other 20% of the appeal is when you're wondering why this job is taking so long and you discover you'd compiled it with OMP_NUM_THREADS=2
December 12, 2024 at 4:40 PM
the other 20% of the appeal is when you're wondering why this job is taking so long and you discover you'd compiled it with OMP_NUM_THREADS=2