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Feb 122016
 

News broke yesterday that gravitational waves have finally been detected. First predicted by Einstein in 1915, gravity waves are basically ripples in spacetime. They’re created any time any mass accelerates; I suppose even an electron creates them. But they are so faint and difficult to detect that it takes truly monumental events to make them detectable. In this case, two black holes, one 29 solar masses, the other 36, were in close orbit 1.3 billion years ago. They spiraled into each other and coalesced into a single larger black hole. However, rather than forming a black hole of 65 solar masses, the new black hole only masses 62 solar masses. The mass of three suns simply vanished… radiated away in the form of gravity waves. Imagine three suns being converted *entirely* to energy in a split second; that’s the power generated here. And the power wasn’t sent out as a flash of hard radiation or a massive shockwave; instead it was sent out as a massive distortion int he fabric of reality.

Two gravitational wave detectors have been built, one in Louisiana and one in Washington. The principle of operation is a bit difficult to explain… but in short, each detector is an L-shaped construct with legs several miles long. Each leg houses a path for a laser beam; if a gravity wave wanders by it will very slightly change the length of the detector. The laser beams sent down each leg are extremely finely calibrated and measured; the way their individual waves interact with each other when they bounce back shows any change in beam path length. The fact that two detectors are located in different parts of the country means that a few microseconds difference might separate the detection times of gravity waves. This permits some rough triangulation, pointing out the direction of the event. In the recently announced case, both detectors picked up the same signal. The signal was detected in September; it has taken the team of scientists until now to go through the data to make sure they got what they thought they got.

Gravity wave detection doesn’t seem to have any immediate practical application… we won’t be using this to make anti0gravity engines or gravity deck plating for spaceships anytime soon. What it is good for is a new way to examine the universe. Right now it’s not like a telescope, looking out into the universe to see images; it’s more like a simple radio antenna, *listening* to the universe. Whenever we look at or listen to the universe in a new way, we learn new things that we didn’t even suspect before.

It’s not too likely, but one thing a sufficiently sensitive detector might pick up is intelligent signalling. How? Well, imagine an *astoundingly* advanced civilization. Kardaschev Type III or beyond civilizations might be able to grab a neutron star or a black hole and rapidly shake it. This would require vast expenditures of energy to accomplish, but the energy would be converted into gravitational energy, radiated out in waves. These waves, unlike electromagnetic radiation, would not be blocked by dust clouds. Speculatively, gravity waves might be detectable by some hypothetical life forms composed of dark matter… or even across boundaries between one universe and another.

LIGO’s First-Ever Detection of Gravitational Waves Opens a New Window on the Universe

 Posted by at 12:59 am
Feb 102016
 

Early yesterday, the land-line rang. I rarely answer it; it’s sole purpose seems to be telemarketers these days. But I answered, and it was some guy with an Indian accent telling me he’s from Microsoft, that they have detected serious problems with my computer, and… “sir, why are you laughing at me?” I told him I knew that scam, he asked how, I laughed again, he hung up. Later in the day the cel phone rang; a woman with a *thick* Indian accent starts in on the same scam. I laugh, she asked why, I said I knew that scam, she hung up immediately.

 

It has been several years since I’ve gotten that scam, and now I got it twice in one day. What are the odds?  Hmm. The night before I filled out an online resume/application for a Really Good Job that I figure I have about the same chances of getting as winning the lotto. So… I suspect whatever “Beat The Statistics” luck I might have had going for me got drained into getting two scam artists on the other side of the planet to try the same schtick with me in one day. Perfect.

 Posted by at 12:32 am
Feb 092016
 

Scientists have managed to freeze a rabbit brain solid without destroying it at the cellular level. This is certainly Big News; while cryonics has been going on for a couple generations, it has been a bad joke since Day One since the act of freezing cells destroys them. However, this – at least so far – does not make cryonics feasible. What it *does* do is permit a mammalian brain to be frozen into a solid lump with the neurons intact. What can then be done, at least in theory, is for the brain to be sliced into *incredibly* thin layers, with each layer scanned to equally high fidelity. A 3D model of the brain almost down to the molecular level could then  be assembled. *IN* *THEORY,* this would allow for complete digital emulation of the brain… functioning, personality, memories, the whole bit. Of course you only get one shot at it… a slip-up in scanning or a burp in the data would mess with the simulation. It might be as simple a thing as deleting the memory of that one time when that one thing happened, you know, the thing. If this is Hollywood, the screwup will result not only in the simulated person being rendered psychotic, but probably also psychic and susceptible to possession by electronic demons, supervillains from the future and lost aliens.

Aldehyde-stabilized cryopreservation

 

 Posted by at 8:18 pm
Feb 092016
 

I… just can’t tell. All I’m really sure of is… I want one.

So, Russia, here’s your chance: use a few hundred of these, crawl ’em under the aircraft of Monino and haul the planes, intact, to the new museum. Use them to haul Putin and his cronies out into the middle of Siberia, and leave them there at the height of skeeter season. Those will put y’all in the “redeemed” category. Use these to invade Sweden or Estonia… not so much.

Read more on the “Sherpa” here:

The Russians Make The Best Truck In The Universe For $50K

Seems this thing has a whopping 44.3 horsepower and can make it to 28 miles per hour.

 

 Posted by at 12:46 pm
Feb 092016
 

I need a single scan: a 300 DPI color scan of the bottom right corner of the cover of the February 28, 1953 issue of Collier’s magazine. The whole cover would be nice, but all I really need is the corner, to allow me to fill in my own scan which is marred by the presence of a mailing label.

1953-02-28

 Posted by at 12:32 am