Showing posts with label Something you might not have known about me. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Something you might not have known about me. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Theoretical Physics and Modern Art.
A physicist at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva - the world’s biggest scientific experiment! – speculate that the failure of the collider because of a helium leak soon after it was switched on in September was caused by intervention (ripples!) from the future to stop the experiment happening.
(Kevin Black’s speculation is here and it makes my head hurt but Poneke sums it up thusly: given its complexity I won’t go into the details, but in brief, and quoting other research he was initially sceptical of, he suggests that the expected creation by the LHC of the fabled Higg’s Boson[*] might have created the possibility of Higg’s Bosons from the future coming back to 2008 to stop the creation of multiple Higg’s Bosons upsetting the universe by being created by the LHC.
And as in Back to the Future, this is the paradox that if you could go back in time and while doing so killed your grandfather (or stopped your father meeting your mother), you would cease to exist because you would not be capable of being born.
The LHC is intended to prove whether or not the Higgs Boson exists. What Kevin Black is postulating is that the Higgs Boson may indeed exist, but has come from the future to stop the smarties at CERN finding it, for reasons best known to itself. Although I would also like to know!
Via Poneke's Weblog.
What? You didn't know that I love theoretical physics & thought experiments?
You learn something new every day.**
This orange building the Netherlands is called the Habog Facility and it contains nuclear waste material that they have to store for 100 years while it loses its toxicity, is covered in physics formulas by Einstein and Planck.
Every twenty years, the building will be repainted in a lighter color to symbolize the slowly decaying radiation in the waste.
William Verstraeten, the artist who designed the facility, views his piece as a commentary on metaphorphosis. Open for tours, the building also contains four symbolic paintings. And I WANT TO GO THERE!
* I heart the Higgs Boson! although my mother insisted on likening it to an angel. It is theoretically the most fundamental particle of matter and is what gives atoms mass and gravity. But its existence is totally theoretical. Of course.
**My baby pet favourite theories? Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and Schrödinger's Cat.
(Kevin Black’s speculation is here and it makes my head hurt but Poneke sums it up thusly: given its complexity I won’t go into the details, but in brief, and quoting other research he was initially sceptical of, he suggests that the expected creation by the LHC of the fabled Higg’s Boson[*] might have created the possibility of Higg’s Bosons from the future coming back to 2008 to stop the creation of multiple Higg’s Bosons upsetting the universe by being created by the LHC.
And as in Back to the Future, this is the paradox that if you could go back in time and while doing so killed your grandfather (or stopped your father meeting your mother), you would cease to exist because you would not be capable of being born.
The LHC is intended to prove whether or not the Higgs Boson exists. What Kevin Black is postulating is that the Higgs Boson may indeed exist, but has come from the future to stop the smarties at CERN finding it, for reasons best known to itself. Although I would also like to know!
Via Poneke's Weblog.
What? You didn't know that I love theoretical physics & thought experiments?
You learn something new every day.**
This orange building the Netherlands is called the Habog Facility and it contains nuclear waste material that they have to store for 100 years while it loses its toxicity, is covered in physics formulas by Einstein and Planck.
Every twenty years, the building will be repainted in a lighter color to symbolize the slowly decaying radiation in the waste.
William Verstraeten, the artist who designed the facility, views his piece as a commentary on metaphorphosis. Open for tours, the building also contains four symbolic paintings. And I WANT TO GO THERE!
* I heart the Higgs Boson! although my mother insisted on likening it to an angel. It is theoretically the most fundamental particle of matter and is what gives atoms mass and gravity. But its existence is totally theoretical. Of course.
**My baby pet favourite theories? Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and Schrödinger's Cat.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
I am miniature. People find this Hilarious.
Disclaimer: I am (in my opinion) just a regular small-sized person. Others would beg to differ. There is nothing (as far as we know) medically causing my lack of ... size, but my mother did smoke while she was pregnant.
This weekend my mother found my diminutive stature frankly, hilarious.
I was sitting in the drivers seat (ssh. more on this later) and I said
Sarah : So, you just push the pedals with your toes then?
Mum : Uh, yea, the balls of your feet.
Sarah : Oh. So your feet are just meant to hang there?
Mum : No, you push the pedals.
Sarah : It's awkward to do that with my toes
Mum : No, the balls of your feet!
Sarah : The balls of my feet don't reach the pedals if my feet are touching the floor of the car!
And every single time she got behind the wheel to reverse or turn us around or steer us around a very solid parked car she looked in the rearview mirror at my other sister (also learning to drive. But she's 15, and much taller than I) and collapse into laughter.
After seeing this I knew that Craig and I would never be able to share a car, he already complains about his new midget driving position when my mother moves the seat. I don't think he'll even be able to get into the car after I've used it!
Which might actually be kind of fun in an Oh godDAMN it Sarah! kind of way.
Oddly enough, I too found it difficult to get out of the car when the seat was pushed up against the steering column.
I guess 5"1 is really that short after all.
This really means that something monumental is happening.
I AM LEARNING TO DRIVE!
After 7 years of conscientious objection I am finally giving in and learning to drive.
More than that! (which is seriously, huge enough news as it is) I am doing so not to settle a score, or to prove my (darling)husband wrong but just because.
Ok. Fine. Not just because but because of an undesirable comparison to someone else who shall not be named (Voldemort!?) who also cannot drive.
My first lesson was this past saturday and when I returned home I found Craig out in the garage and burbled wildly
Sarah : Hey baby, I drove!
Craig : Yea?
Sarah : Yea! I didn't cry or crash or anything. And I went into second gear and turned in a circle!!
Craig : Well done.
He's just glad I haven't been scared off ... yet.
NB: I also have short grandmothers. So it's Genetics vs Cigarettes and I think it's Genetics for the win
This weekend my mother found my diminutive stature frankly, hilarious.
I was sitting in the drivers seat (ssh. more on this later) and I said
Sarah : So, you just push the pedals with your toes then?
Mum : Uh, yea, the balls of your feet.
Sarah : Oh. So your feet are just meant to hang there?
Mum : No, you push the pedals.
Sarah : It's awkward to do that with my toes
Mum : No, the balls of your feet!
Sarah : The balls of my feet don't reach the pedals if my feet are touching the floor of the car!
And every single time she got behind the wheel to reverse or turn us around or steer us around a very solid parked car she looked in the rearview mirror at my other sister (also learning to drive. But she's 15, and much taller than I) and collapse into laughter.
After seeing this I knew that Craig and I would never be able to share a car, he already complains about his new midget driving position when my mother moves the seat. I don't think he'll even be able to get into the car after I've used it!
Which might actually be kind of fun in an Oh godDAMN it Sarah! kind of way.
Oddly enough, I too found it difficult to get out of the car when the seat was pushed up against the steering column.
I guess 5"1 is really that short after all.
This really means that something monumental is happening.
After 7 years of conscientious objection I am finally giving in and learning to drive.
More than that! (which is seriously, huge enough news as it is) I am doing so not to settle a score, or to prove my (darling)husband wrong but just because.
Ok. Fine. Not just because but because of an undesirable comparison to someone else who shall not be named (Voldemort!?) who also cannot drive.
My first lesson was this past saturday and when I returned home I found Craig out in the garage and burbled wildly
Sarah : Hey baby, I drove!
Craig : Yea?
Sarah : Yea! I didn't cry or crash or anything. And I went into second gear and turned in a circle!!
Craig : Well done.
He's just glad I haven't been scared off ... yet.
NB: I also have short grandmothers. So it's Genetics vs Cigarettes and I think it's Genetics for the win
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