|
|||
|
This photo gallery contains humourous and/or just plain strange photos somewhat related to the lab's research and/or researchers. |
|||
 Richard transferring a fluid other than liquid helium into his dewar.   Pat repairing a lame ski.  This should be self-explanatory.  Microwave susceptibility of AOL CD-ROMs: They're very susceptible in the microwave.  This is a photo of Darren playing the three-note pumping line at the department's Christmas party (2001). While this was intended to be part of Pat's apparatus, and Pat came up with the idea of playing it, Pat elected not to attend this party. The responsibility fell to Darren.  Two of Nick Jaeger's students are shown in our lab, using the vector network analyzer to measure the microwave properties of something or other. Aside from the ever-present cellular phone, designed to screw up their results while supporting their sponsors, we got a chuckle out of something else. Although the $250 000 machine is nice, they really visited just to use our $0.50 orange measuring tape. This task requires two students because of the aforementioned cell phones: each student can be expected to have one hand free on average.  Ricky Chu is shown trying to escape from our summer student "storage area," using a drill we mistakenly left within his reach. Luckily, the noise of the drill got our attention, and we were able to stop him before he got very far.  In fall 2002, a hideous building sprung up outside our window, cobbled together from 13 trailers, to irritate us for only "three years" (three UBC years would end around 2083). This aerial view shows it editorializing about Tom Tiedje's MBE lab, located up on the fourth floor of our building. A nighttime view of the un-mangled artwork may be found here. |
|||
|
Every few months, a movie is filmed in AMPEL. The following few shots involve us wreaking a little havoc on unattended sets for the movie K-9 III. No animals were harmed in the making of these pictures.  Some subset of the group pays a visit to the vet. One member realizes that they aren't really there to get "tutored".  Dr. Broun performs surgery on some poor unsuspecting creature.  The wild Darrenosaurus Peets stalks his prey through the labyrinthine crawl spaces in the AMPEL basement. |
|||
|
The following few shots involve an unattended set for the Fox TV show John Doe, filmed here in late August, 2002. They filmed portions of the fourth episode in Sawatzky's and Tiedje's labs, but the latter already looked so much like the disordered lab of a mad scientist that only a few books had to be added -- it wasn't worth our while. Even the requisite fog was normal -- they just filled the MBE machine's nitrogen jacket.  George Sawatzky is well-known for studying almost everything. He's a chemist and a physicist, and he's a theorist and an experimentalist. Here he is in his lab, AMPEL 245, with his MRI machine.  What's this thing doing in the middle of the forest? I could have sworn I was headed north...  Harold, our lab's rubber chicken, is shown strapped in for his brain scan. It came back negative. |
|||
|
The following photos are thanks to the NBC miniseries 10.5, filmed here in July 2003. AMPEL was the Southern California Disaster Management Center. We found this quite fitting, because we've become experts at creating and managing disasters. Sadly, the signs were only in place very briefly, and we didn't get a photo. The lunchroom was turned into two very boring offices, with little to make fun of. If you watched the miniseries, you might have seen how the hallways and walkways near our lab fared in an earthquake. Our microwave probes and glass dewar systems do not stand up well in 10.5-magnitude earthquakes.  Darren is shown relaxing in a comfy chair, surrounded by Harold The Rubber Chicken, pictures of his family, random clutter, and pointless flags. Unfortunately, the prop people replaced the picture on the wall with a photo of a boring building, prior to filming.  Guillaume enjoys some even nicer furniture, along with some good L.A. reading (Vancouver magazine). |
|||
|
The following photos are due to an ABC show called Kyle XY, filmed here in May 2007. AMPEL was the headquarters of Madacorp. A wall of exterior windows suddenly became concrete, and our floor gained a second elevator where we'd always thought there was a communications room. We also ended up with bamboo and a mirror. That doesn't give us much to work with, so you get some shots of Harold the Rubber Chicken.  Harold, the Madacorp mirror, and the fake elevator.  And Harold again. Which elevator's floor number is more believable -- far (2) or near (squiggle)? |
|||
|
Fortunately, they came back in August 2008, and Harold The Rubber Chicken had a much better opportunity to explore some interesting sets.  Here we see Harold reminiscing about his childhood. Is this his incubator?  "Did I get laid around here somewhere?"  "Oh wait, no, this one's for chicks..."  Harold visits the location where he and his predecessor used to get fired out of a cannon. To enforce the resulting AMPEL Liquid Nitrogen Policy, someone decided to install a security checkpoint. Harold's grounded for the time being, apparently...  But wait, the guard has left his post! Maybe Harold can get airborne today! |
|||
|
Every so often, a loud bang is heard near our building. It is believed that this is due to people setting off liquid nitrogen bombs and cannons. We have no idea what's going on. It couldn't possibly be us, especially since our building's safety committee introduced its new policy forbidding the use of liquid nitrogen for potentially explosive, unsafe, or inappropriate purposes. We'd also like to point out that, this being Canada, we are innocent until proven guilty. Don't even consider trying this at home. The safety committee formulated its new policy after a professor in the building complained about several large explosions near his new car, and took some nice photographs of Dave's Physics 474 class inspecting pieces of shredded plastic.  This coke bottle was used as the charge in a liquid nitrogen-powered cannon. It's not clear what the recycling people think when they see this sort of mangled bottle, but we've had nearly perfect success in returning them for refunds. This may be due to the fact that bottles which are shredded into more than 3 unrecognizable chunks are tough to keep track of, and we can therefore only attempt to return a limited number at once. We were unable to photograph the projectile fired by this bottle, but we believe we know which roof it's on.  This is a link to a QuickTime movie of the cannon firing an unsuspecting orange road hockey ball straight up in the air. The ball is not visible in the movie clip, and was not seen again for quite some time, but we believe this was the origin of the ball found on our building's roof a year later. The movie has no sound and weighs 5.13MB. Like most movies taken with our lab's digital camera, it's not set up for streaming, so you will almost certainly have to download it.   This QuickTime movie shows a 2L pop bottle exploding, with a sacrificial (empty) pop can to demonstrate the force of the blast. You can imagine the effect on your eardrums at that range. This movie is 1.70MB.  For this firing of the cannon, the cannon's barrel was filled with water, to create a giant plume of water. Unfortunately, unforseen effects of that considerable mass caused other material to be flung into the air as well, notably a cubic foot of flower bed. We put it back where we found it. 6.65MB.  This movie, while still QuickTime, was taken with a different camera, and has sound. It is a montage of clips related to two cannon shots, both involving the same rubber chicken. While a rubber chicken is a really awful projectile if you want distance or height, it is certainly spectacular. The rubber chicken had been hanging from the ceiling in our lab for several years, and was beginning to decay, so it had to be replaced anyhow. The loud bang as the cannon fires isn't too compatible with the microphone used, so keep in mind that it's louder in real life. No rubber chickens were all that seriously harmed or disfigured in the making of this film. A pop can full of water fired with the chicken failed to dump its water and drift gently down as had been planned. 11.55MB, 110 seconds.  Like the chicken movie, this has sound. Frosty The Snowman may be seen suffering some severe indigestion, and the snow muffles enough of the sound to allow the camera to reproduce it reliably. Yes, it actually snowed here (in January 2002). 15.11MB, 65 seconds. If you want a better look, the key part is available in 640×480, at 30 frames per second (normal is 320×240, 15 frames per second). This allows you to analyze Frosty's untimely demise much more carefully. You'll need a fast computer to watch this one at full speed. 5.99MB, 4.24 seconds: 
You may wonder whether this type of explosion is strong enough to break glass. We certainly did. This is a picture of an old-ish window. Note that the above is a "before" picture, while the picture below is definitely "after." 
While we attempted to film this using our digital camera, an
unfortunate RAM limitation allowed us to only capture two interesting
frames (1/15 second per frame). For an assortment of reasons, this
experiment could not be repeated, so don't expect to see an actual
video. We did generate an animated GIF, however: |
|||
|
