Skip to main content

Griffith's Glory and Electric Glee

In this episode, Griffith's Glory and Electric Glee . . .

 

Welcome back to On the Fly, Lori asked me if I wanted to do something special for my weekend birthday (August 16th, 2024). My thought: Hmmm–It’s been over 35 years since we’ve had one of our Friday night dates at the Griffith Park Observatory.” What if we spent the weekend in Los Angeles, had dinner at a historic diner, visited the Observatory, and hiked Griffith Park the following morning?”

This was a regular occurrence when I lived in Glendale, CA., and Lori lived on Los Feliz Blvd; she could walk to the Observatory. So, we did.

Now, don't get me wrong. We've been to LA many times since moving to Carlsbad for various reasons like Dodger games, my memorable 60th birthday trip to Guitar Center, our visit to Norman's Rare Guitars, the trip to Exposition Park to see the Space Shuttle, and yearly trips to pick up Lori's Mom for Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. My blog is filled with such adventures, not just Griffith Park.

The Griffith Observatory is more than just an iconic landmark. It's a portal to science, history, and the cosmos! Built in 1935 and remodeled from 2002 to 2006, this architectural gem perched in the Hollywood hills offers stunning views of Los Angeles at night and incredible astronomical insights.

As a young instructor at GIA in 1988, trips to the observatory gave me key insights into ideas that allowed me to teach the Science of Gemology. One of my first classroom presentations as a trainee was on Light Theory. My training instructor, Diana Moran, was very complimentary, "That was the best presentation of Light Theory I've seen at GIA.” After that, I was hooked. The interactive displays at Griffith Observatory became my go-to place for additional information as I prepared my classroom presentations.

One of my favorite exhibits is The Tesla Coil. The Tesla coil, a marvel of electrical engineering, was the brainchild of the visionary inventor Nikola Tesla. It's a high-voltage transformer that produces spectacular displays of electricity. It creates a resonant electrical circuit, where energy is transferred efficiently between two coils. Tesla coils can produce output voltages from 50 kilovolts to several million volts for large coils. The result is very impressive, crackling sparks you've probably seen in videos.

While Tesla coils are renowned for their dazzling displays, they were initially conceived as a means for wireless power transmission. Tesla dreamed of a world where energy could be beamed without wires. Although this vision has yet to materialize fully, his work laid the groundwork for today's wireless technologies.

On the weekends, we would hike Griffith Park. This sprawling urban oasis, founded by Colonel Griffith J. Griffith, covers a whopping 4,210 acres. Imagine a place (In Los Angeles) where you can hike, ride horses, visit a zoo, or escape the city bustle. That's Griffith Park!

This year, on Saturday morning, we started at Ferndale and hiked to the Observatory—a 3.67-mile loop in about two hours with a 703-foot elevation gain and a temperature of 71 degrees. It was spectacular.

However, be warned: Los Angeles is extremely busy with tourists in the summer, and traffic can be defeating. The swarms of people are overwhelming, but once you're there and hiking Griffith Park, it's as if you were transported to a different world—enjoy!

I'm Patrick Ball; thanks for listening. See you in the next episode.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most Popular of All Time

Confidently Wrong: The Art of the AI Tall Tale

In this episode, A chat with Adamas the Chef on hidden recipes causing digital hallucinations. Pull up a chair and pour yourself a fresh cup of coffee—and please, for your own sake, taste it first. We need to have a quiet chat about why your computer sometimes decides to reinvent reality with the confidence of a five-star chef who has clearly lost his mind. In the world of technology, we call it a  hallucination . It sounds pretty dramatic, doesn’t it? As if the computer decided to ignore your instructions altogether in favor of a vivid, technicolor imagination that simply hasn’t met reality yet. But in truth, an AI hallucination isn’t a breakdown; it’s just a very confident, very polite mistake. Think of it like our friend Adamas , the Chef. Adamas is a master of the kitchen, but he is also a bit of a romantic who refuses to say “I don’t know.” When you ask him for a classic recipe he hasn’t made in years, he doesn’t stop to consult a cookbook—that’s far too pedestrian. Instead, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Opening Day Magic 2026 . . .

It’s back. Baseball—yes, baseball ! If you’re someone who finds themselves inexplicably drawn to this peculiar ritual, let’s be honest with each other: it’s a bit odd, right? I mean, 162 games. That’s a lot of hot dogs, a lot of standing around, and a lot of grown men in oddly tailored trousers spitting with remarkable precision. And yet, here we are, poised on the precipice of another season. Thursday, March 26, 2026, to be precise—Opening Day. It’s a curious thing, this Opening Day. You walk into a stadium, or turn on the TV, and suddenly, everyone is infected with a highly contagious strain of . . . Optimism . It’s a spectacular form of collective amnesia. All of last year’s fumbles, the endless losing streaks, the existential dread of watching your bullpen implode in the eighth inning—poof. Gone. It’s entirely replaced by a wide-eyed, childlike belief that this year, finally, the baseball gods will smile upon us. The Cycle of Hope and Despair As a Cubs fan, I know this cycle intim...
Post a Comment
Read more

Overcooking the Grid

In this episode, terrified of smart toasters, yet demanding infinite electricity for potato personality tests. Pull up that chair again, and let’s hope your coffee is safe this time. In our last chat, we talked about our well-meaning but occasionally delusional AI friend, Chef Adamas, and his penchant for hallucinating blueberries into your Carbonara. We learned how to manage his quirks by keeping our “digital pantry” organized. But today, we need to look past the chef and take a hard look at the sheer size of the kitchen we are building for him. And folks, that kitchen has gotten completely out of hand. Down in Louisiana, tech companies are currently building an artificial intelligence data center the size of 70 football fields. It is a four-million-square-foot digital brain that requires so much electricity they are building three new natural gas power plants just to keep the servers from literally melting down into a puddle of expensive silicon. And what are we using this god-like, ...
1 comment
Read more

Vintage Vinyl

In this episode - Vintage Vinyl . . . Turntables are making a big comeback; why? Listening to music should be a multi-sensory experience. Harmony, rhythm, and the deep expression of emotion. Like a warm, gentle rain in the springtime cascading around you the room is filled with a resonant, rich, melodic sound. My emotions welled up, and tears come to my eyes. Ok, I get it, we need to step back to get some perspective here. Recently a visit to Lou's Records in Encinitas, California, inspired me to dig out my Vintage vinyl LP record collection. I selected the Carpenters Singles 1969- 1973 . This musical duo reigned from 1969-to 1982 with the rich, full melodic voice of Karen Carpenter. They were one of the biggest-selling groups of the 1970s. "No fewer than ten of their singles went on to become million-sellers, and by 2005 combined worldwide sales of albums and singles well exceeded 100 million units." The tactile sensory experience of music begins with the album cover it...
4 comments
Read more