Monthly Archives: December 2010

Eternal Tragedy: falling into a black hole

bennnnn

Hey everyone! The christmas season is upon us, and it’s a chance to spend some time with your friends and family.

let me share my burden with you.

Being a theoretical physicist is terribly depressing. not because of the pay. that’s depressing, but it’s not why.

Are you familiar with the Total Perspective Vortex, from the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy? Theoretical physics often involves taking a long, deep stare into it. and then afterwards, when you look at your pretty wife and happy apartment…

this is me when i’m not working. Any time you see me smile, it’s because the sand is warm around my ears.

Anyway! Merry Christmas. Today I’m going to explain what happens if you fall into a black hole. If you find it depressing, well. sorry. If you don’t find it depressing… don’t think too hard about it.

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Italian Love Affair

Patrick's Ponderables, , , , , , ,

Well, maybe it’s actually a Japanese love affair…

The Paleopals are a pretty eco-friendly bunch when it comes to commuting – Ryan is a pretty committed bicycle commuter, Charlie commutes about 35 miles partially by bike and partially by train. For much of the past seven years I either walked or bussed to work. In 2010 I moved to Berkeley, CA. I was a pretty good distance from a helpful bus line and the four miles to work was a little far to walk. I suppose I could try to bicycle it, but I flirted with that when I lived much closer to work and had less hills to deal with; it’s not for me. I’d been considering buying an Italian style motor scooter (like a Vespa) for some time, so I took the plunge with a (Japanese) 2008 Yamaha Vino 125. By the time you read this I’ll have put about 1000 commuting miles it.

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WTFudge is Net Neutrality?

Jacob's Knowledge Bombs,
Happy Monday, Paleoposse!

 

First of all, let me apologize for missing a blog post last week.  Work is hectic, but that’s no excuse!

 

Secondly, let me apologize in advance for today’s post, for it is sure to bore some of you (and there are no pictures).

 

Today’s post is about Net Neutrality: What it means, and why you should care.

 

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Diagraming Evolution, or How to read a Cladogram

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Remember the Linnaean system of classification you probably learned in grade school or high school (heck, maybe even college)? It went something like this…

Kingdom -> Phylum -> Class -> Order -> Family -> Genus-> Species

Linnaeus started using this classification system in the 1700s and he had a good run; we still use his system in certain situations. However, we’ve moved away from this ranking system mostly because of the discovery of transitional fossils that screwed with Linnaeus’s idea of neat little boxes for all of life to be categorized into. This system falls apart, for example when you have two equivalent ranks, let’s say class Osteichtyes (boney fish) and class Amphibia (amphibians), and find a transition between the two.

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PODCASTS that i enjoy

bennnnn

Hey peeps.

I listen to podcasts. A LOT OF PODCASTS. i am always wearing my headphones, and i am always listening to podcasts.

see the wire? I am listening to a podcast!

Like all the time. Podcast stories. Podcast news. Podcast science. I love podcasts!

So I decided that this week instead of telling you about awesome theoretical physics, I’ll just tell you about some podcasts that you might enjoy listening to… I call it THE 2010 Ben’s CHOICE IN EVERYTHING BUT SCIENCE PODCAST AWARDS.

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REVIEW (via iFanboy): Bone Sharps, Cowboys and Thunder Lizards

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*Note* This is a cross post from my weekly column over at iFanboy. While I’m happy to have you read it here on the blog, I encourage you to go leave a comment at iFanboy. In the interest of full disclosure, they watch my stats so it helps me out to have you read and comment there.

Bone Sharps, Cowboys and Thunder Lizards: A Tale of Edward Drinker Cope, Othniel Charles Marsh and the Gilded Age of Paleontology

Artist: Big Time Attic

$22.95 / 165 pages / G. T. Labs

Come one, come all! Step right up to the amazing pictographic tale recounting not just how the west was won, but how the west was dug!

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Brachiolope Stuph

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It’s a sale! We’ve lowered the prices on all our swag! So, if you’ve been pining away for some Science… sort of gear but thought it was just out of your price range, go check it out again.  The skinny on this sale is that December is solstice time, and in the northern half of the world  it’s the cold solstice – the time of the year when you least want to be naked. So get yourself or your loved ones some sweet, sweet brachiolope to help them maintain their core body temperature and support the show a little bit while you are at it.  The bonus is that our producer of swag will give us discounts on the production of our gear if we can sell a certain amount of stuff in December.  So, if you guys clothe your friends and family enough this month, maybe the prices can stay cheap forever!

Oh yeah, we got mugs and stuff too…
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