Stray Hawkeye

Here’s an interesting video on quantum physics, presented in a fairly lay person approachable manner:

Where this makes me a little paranoid is the fact that one of the central claims of safety for the LHC is that the types of collisions they’re going to create happen all the time in the atmosphere, and at higher energies, and the Earth hasn’t been destroyed yet, so it must be safe.  The only problem is that we’re not observing the collisions in the atmosphere.  The whole point of the LHC is to put an observer into the equation.  Which, if what we know about quantum physics is any guide, totally changes the situation, and may effect what is actually happening in the collision.

A side thought, the plan is to get one stream going 99.99….% the speed of light in one direction, and another going the same speed in the other direction.  So, if you used one as the frame of reference for the other, or even if you just measured one against a frame of reference like the galactic center, which we’re moving quite fast relative to, wouldn’t you have a fair shot at having something moving faster than the speed of light?  Or is this where relativity makes things all weird with time actually slowing down around the the particles as they increase in speed?  And if so, with the rapid deceleration once they hit, is it possible to create something like a time shock wave?  I need to read up on my advanced physics at some point.  The “how does stuff work” mixed with the mind bending thought experiment factor makes it too interesting to not think about.

Also, for the “this happens in nature all the time” argument – I can see how one particle traveling at that speed could hit another one that is relatively fixed (like in the atmosphere), but having two, and even more so, two whole groups of them, traveling in exactly opposite directions at nearly the speed of light and colliding exactly head on doesn’t seem like something that would happen that often.  With the size of the universe, I’m sure it probably has happened, but I have a hard time thinking it does that so frequently that “the earth is still here” argument is all that waterproof.

Either way, I still get a laugh every day when I get my rss update from
http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com

Though really, they’re just getting things going in one direction right now.  No real colliding yet.

My computer is back up and running.  Let the blogging resume.

Hi All,

An administrative note.  My home computer is having some issues, so I’ll be taking a slight hiatus from blogging in order to get it fixed up.  Posting will be a bit sporadic, and less frequent than my current usual of one per day.  No worries, I still have lots more to share.  Hopefully I should get things straightened out with that within a week or so, and then get back to my usual schedule,

Kearn

Some old, awesome pictures from the sets of Godzilla movies:

link: http://patrickmacias.blogs.com/er/2008/05/godzilla-may-19.html

link: http://patrickmacias.blogs.com/er/2008/04/new-category-go.html

More here, here, and (*ahem*) here.

Also, and ongoing list of Godzilla related posts on that blog here.

So today I was having a Caribou Iced Coffee that I got at a race.  Basically it’s coffee, which is cold, and comes in an aluminum can.  I was curious what was in it, so I read the list of ingredients:

Coffee, reduced fat milk, sugar, sodium bicarbonate, natural flavors, carrageenan

Those all sounded pretty familiar, except carrageenan.  I was curious what it was, and even more so, how to pronounce it.  It strikes me a fun sounding word, though I’m still not sure if I’ve got it right.  That’s one of the major downsides of the internet- you can read about something all you like and become an expert on it, but as soon as you go to talk about it, you’ll sound like an idiot for saying it wrong.  Either way, it’s kind of fun to try to say. Carrageenan.

So anyway, I looked up what it is on Wikipedia.  Apparently, it’s an extract from a type of red seaweed that grows off of the coast of Ireland.  Aside from iced coffee, it’s also used in processed meat, fire fighting foam, shampoo, and shoe polish.  Oh yeah, and it might also be useful as a sexual lubricant and microbicide.

Amazing the things you can learn reading an ingredient list while highly caffeinated.

What will they do with red Irish seaweed next?

Sort of a random, weird, quirky event.  This weekend a dance company along with a orchestra are putting on a show at the bottom of an open quarry in semi-rural Minnesota.  The show looks as if it might be a bit pretentious, but the fact that they’re staging it at the bottom of a quarry outside of St Cloud, Minnesota makes it seem just damn cool.

Article

Show’s website

There’s a galaxy called “Dwingeloo 1“.  That’s the actual, official name, of a whole galaxy.  I’m not sure if that’s the coolest name ever, or one that will cause poor little Dwingeloo to endure countless wedgies when it get’s to Local Group Junior High.  I would guess the Great Andromeda Galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, and of course M33 (too tough for a real name) will be gunning for him, though Pegasus Dwarf Irregular and Sextans Dwarf Spheroidal will probably be the real whipping boys of the group.

Large Hadron Rap (nerdcore):

And, in case you want to keep track of if the LHC has destoryed the earth yet, Daniel Drucker has made a website to help you out:

http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/

There’s also an rss feed you can subscribe to, with daily updates :) :

http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/rss.xml

So I saw a poster up outside the movie theater for House Bunny, which looks like a full frontal tactical assault on the intelligence of anyone who dare watch it. This is the poster:

Does that mixture of a purely vacant expression, with the excess makeup/photoshoppedness cause anyone else’s first impression be to a double take accompanied by the thought “Wait, is that a giant poster of an animatronic blow up doll’s head?”

Ever get really bored while making graphs and chart for PowerPoints at work?  Apparently you’re not the only one.  Graph Jam is a bit of humor, politics, cultural allusions, and, well, graphs, mixed all together and hilariousness, or at least occasional giggles, ensue.  A few examples:

link (and so, so true)

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