Almost there. Mostly just some detailing left to do.
Jul 082013
Jul 082013
Nothing good will come of this…
Antarctica’s hidden Lake Vostok found to teem with life
Ice samples from just above the lake, which has been buried under 2 miles of ice for 15 million years, include DNA from a wide range of bacteria and single cell organisms. Some of the bacteria is generally found in the digestive tracts of fish, leading to speculation that there might be fish in the lake (though I wonder if the fishgut bugs just evolved to survive on their own).
Jul 082013
New type of stellar body theorized: the “blitzar.” In short: a static neutron star can only get just so massive. After passing a certain mass limit (the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit, about 1.97±0.04 solar masses), the force of gravity is enough that the separate neutrons that form a neutron star get mashed together into a new, denser form… allowing the neutron star to collapse further into a black hole. However, there is evidence that it may be possible for a neutron star to exceed the TOV limit while not collapsing into a black hole. This can be done by extremely fast rotation… the centripetal force counters some of the force of gravity, allowing the neutron star to have extra mass.
Rapidly rotating neutron stars also have powerful magnetic fields. The interplay of the magnetic field with the larger environment will, over time, slow the rotation of the neutron star. A this happens, the star might slow enough that the TOV limit comes into effect, and the neutron star collapses into a black hole. This will happen in, well under “blink of an eye,” with the result being that the engine that drives the magnetic field has collapsed beyond the event horizon while the magnetic field is still operating. The result of that, apparently, is that the magnetic field goes “boom,” and releases a massive but very brief burst of radio waves. This hypothetical event is the “blitzar.”
Possible explanation for radio bursts: Meet the “blitzar”
There is evidence that this has been observed several times. Fast Radio Bursts have been picked up by radio telescopes; duration of the event is less than five milliseconds, followed by silence.
Mysterious radio bursts come from outside our galaxy
Jul 082013
A script reading. NSFW language (including multiple uses of Politically Incorrect Words), but funny as hell. Over the top, but there are people who’d buy into this.
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1khJlTiBwn5
Jul 072013
A clearer view of the jet engine pod…
Jul 072013
A form of Tourettes, perhaps?
[youtube mk0wDbyKcSg]
Jul 072013
Some recent photos taken at local sunset in Thatcher.
Jul 072013
Marvin, for those keeping tabs, has reached a state of equilibrium, I think. She’s an old cat and moves like an old cat… slow, not any further than she has to. She spends the bulk of the sleeping under a bed, usually only coming out to eat, drink and pee&poop. But she gets along ok with the other cats, and the other cats get along ng with her; even Buttons has learned that she is not a toy or playpal. The other cats treat her with either respect or, at worst, they ignore her… which seems to suit her fine.
Yesterday I didn’t see her all day, which was unusual. So I went looking for her in her usual hiding spots; couldn’t find her. Finally I found her hanging out at the top of a flight of stairs. Surprising that she worked her way up there.
Jul 072013
If you’ve watched footage from the protests in Cairo, you’ve undoubtedly seen the lasers people are waving around. Well, there are a *lot* of them. And they are being used to light up military helicopters, with the potential of blinding the pilots. Check out photos:
Egypt crisis: Why are Cairo protesters using laser pens?
Egyptian Protesters Bombard Helicopter With Lasers (PHOTOS)
The claim is that these are being used in a celebratory fashion, not as weapons. Keep in mind, this is an area of the world where people celebrate weddings and whatnot by spraying automatic weapons fire into the sky, so it’s hardly surprising that lasers are being used in this fashion. But hosing down helicopters with powerful lasers (note that the lasers lighting up the chopper are green and blue, indicating lasers of perhaps 1.4 watts output, where a standard laser pointer is limited by law to 5 milliwatts) is a damned fine way to blind the pilots.
Jul 062013
With planes crashing and rockets crashing and governments crashing… there’s this video from June 14, where the SpaceX Grasshopper *doesn’t* crash:
[youtube eGimzB5QM1M]
There’s a line from Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop” that describes this well in only four words.