Try to Imagine The Reaction...

...if say Sarah Palin had said this.

That's right our wonderful, brilliant, supreme one, oratory master of a President said welcome to "Cinco de Quatro" when he was speaking on May 4, about the upcoming May 5 celebration of "Cinco de Mayo".

Now understand that I speak essentially no Spanish. I'm stumped beyond counting to about 6, ordering a beer, and asking where the bathroom is (those last two are a necessary combo). But even I know that Cinco is 5 and Mayo is not mayonaise, but May. So this poor dumb, conservative, mouth breathing, neaderthal of a Republican wouldn't have said that. I can only imagine if a Republican had said that.

Or for that matter imagine the reaction if some Republican had done this. I don't see Sen Kerry having his back.

Take a Ride That's Impossible to Return From

Here's a simulation of what one might experience if you could fall into a black hole.




When it's done you won't be quantum foam, and can go about your business. Something impossible if you ever went on the real trip.

The "Blob" Attacks - 12.9 Billion Years Ago

A report of an amazing blob. A 12.9 billion year old, 55,000 light year sized blob of something has been observed see full article.

Basically, the scientists have no idea what it is (although that didn't stop them from making some WAGs as to its identity).

The universe continues to surprise us.

Geek Heaven.

Opening Day

Today was opening day for the Padres. A 4-1 loss to the hated Dogers (not a typo or mistake, that's what they are Dog-ers). The first loss of what will probably be a great many this year.

The good news is winning and losing are not the keys to my enjoyment. A well played game is what I go to see. This one was almost in that category. A hideous stupid needless error that lead to a run in the Dog-er 3rd was the only real mar.

NCAA final four ended. My Spartans lost to a much better team. Congrats to UNC.

But, the baseball season is underway, and all is right with the world.

Physics Foolies

Yes Foolies, not Follies.

Seems there may be two new things that the all-knowing physicists didn't know (i.e., they've been fooled).

First, on March 17 Fermi Lab announces a new particle, dubbed Y(4140) - it's rest mass is about 4140 MeV. The Fermi Lab announcement on the web says

Physicists did not predict its existence because Y(4140) appears to flout nature’s known rules for fitting quarks and antiquarks together.

We will learn something new. Cool.

Speaking of cool, six days later at the American Chemical Society there was an announcement that maybe Cold Fusion is real after all. Sounds like they have a reproducible experiment and clear evidence. They even managed to publish in a peer review journal, Naturwissenschaften. It will be interesting to see if all those folks that were so full of themselves when they denounced Pons and Fleischmann 20 years ago have enough integrity to admit they were wrong.

In any case, sounds like there may be new things to learn about science after all. Isn't that what science is all about?

Hurricane Season Finally Winding Down On Jupiter?

The (at minimum) centuries old Great Red Spot on Jupiter seems to be shrinking here.

Will it disappear completely, or merely shrink then re-grow. No one knows. Ain't that great?

Here we have an object, observed for over 100 years, and yet no one understands it.

So we all get to watch the science happen right in front of our eyes.

Gotta love it.

Happy PI Day

Just in case you missed it, and no one already wished you a happy Pi day...

Well, Happy Pi Day.

The Night Sky We've Lost

If you've lived your life in American cities (like I have), then you've lost the night sky. Here are ten images of what we've all lost.

Sad.

Oh, and if you happened to look up at the right time on Monday, you might have noticed the passage of a asteroid within only 38,000 mi. That's less than 10 times the radius of the earth. A fifth of the distance to the moon. On a cosmic scale, that's freaking close.

Not quite scary, no worth losing sleep over, but someting to make you think.

Those are the two sides of the same coin. Beautiful, but dangerous and untamed.