august holes
Aug. 2nd, 2006 08:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
adelaideseanSomething odd is going on in the field of black holes, if New Scientist is any judge. During my recent reading of the magazine (passive research is a wonderful thing), I've learned that they might well be: compact balls of plasma called "magnetospheric eternally collapsing objects", bubbles of dark matter known as axions, seeded by sterile neutrinos, starved compared to those in the early days of the universe, homes for entire universes (including our own), tiny and everywhere, among other suggestions.
Whether they exist or not, and in what form, remains very much an open question. It will remain that way until a fleet of new instruments gathers the data required to eliminate the competing theories. This is, therefore, an exciting time for science fiction writers using, say, the core of the Milky Way as a setting, since we don't even know how many black holes are in there, let alone their nature. Megascience has never been so fun.
On a related note, from the field of linguistics, comes a debate over the relative merits of "butt", "ass" or "arse". Me, I think the issue should be decided on a case-by-case basis, as demonstrated by "butt-face", "arse hat" and "kick-ass", none of which, imho, would be improved by substitution. I don't think I've ever used the word "butt" in this context before, but I will defend my right to use it should the need ever arise.
Which leads us neatly to my favourite site at the moment: God is Imaginary (like black holes, until demonstrated otherwise). And that in turn returns us to New Scientist's recent discussion of Feedback's Statistical Proof of Alatry , as prompted by a certain smartarse South Australian author in its august pages...
Whether they exist or not, and in what form, remains very much an open question. It will remain that way until a fleet of new instruments gathers the data required to eliminate the competing theories. This is, therefore, an exciting time for science fiction writers using, say, the core of the Milky Way as a setting, since we don't even know how many black holes are in there, let alone their nature. Megascience has never been so fun.
On a related note, from the field of linguistics, comes a debate over the relative merits of "butt", "ass" or "arse". Me, I think the issue should be decided on a case-by-case basis, as demonstrated by "butt-face", "arse hat" and "kick-ass", none of which, imho, would be improved by substitution. I don't think I've ever used the word "butt" in this context before, but I will defend my right to use it should the need ever arise.
Which leads us neatly to my favourite site at the moment: God is Imaginary (like black holes, until demonstrated otherwise). And that in turn returns us to New Scientist's recent discussion of Feedback's Statistical Proof of Alatry , as prompted by a certain smartarse South Australian author in its august pages...
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Date: 2006-08-02 12:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-02 12:48 am (UTC)Love your userpic, by the way.
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Date: 2006-08-02 12:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-02 06:15 am (UTC)I've always felt slightly deprived by having never heard of Moomin Valley until I met Kim four years ago. That Amanda hasn't heard of it either makes me wonder if that particular cultural phenomenon didn't quite reach this far inland, at least when we were growing up. Or maybe we were both deprived... :-)
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Date: 2006-08-02 06:19 am (UTC)also, I can't draw.
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Date: 2006-08-02 06:23 am (UTC)But we're both parents and managed to miss these books in shops and schools as our kids were growing up. I have no doubt that TJ is famous; for some reason it just never connected here in South Australia, perhaps.
Maybe it's because of those bestselling "Bloomin Alley" books by Rove Pansson that are so big down here... :-)
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Date: 2006-08-02 06:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-02 06:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-02 06:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-03 06:45 am (UTC)We also went to the Moominmuseum in Tampere (though at a different time to
And Little My is perfect as a user icon. Tempted to a Moomintroll or Moominpappa one myself.
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Date: 2006-08-03 06:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-03 06:59 am (UTC)Now the house if full of Totoros. At least I'm up to speed on *them*. :-)
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Date: 2006-08-02 02:54 pm (UTC)Went to the Moominmuseum in Tampere when we were in Finland, but only really to the shop.
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Date: 2006-08-03 05:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-02 03:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-02 06:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-02 06:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-02 06:18 am (UTC)"Agreed. I think it's more likely to be an imaginary number."
What's the most important thing about humor, again?