Prince Rupert's Drop

Physics is something that has always amazed and intrigued me. So when I see videos on the internet displaying physical properties, especially ones I didn't know about, I'm like a giddy kid at a candy shop where they make candy in front of your face. This video displays a peculiar property of glass: if you drop it in water and let it solidify, the bulbous droplet part is virtually indestructible. But if you snap off the frail little end, the thing explodes! SO cOOL!

Now you see me...

This is really incredible. According to the original post, scientists still don't know what cause this reaction. It reminds me of the lizard dude in X-Men who can teleport short distances, or the image conjured in my mind by the spread of Ice-9 in Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. Very neat.

Je l'ai déjà vu

Zach and I were just talking yesterday about the phenomenon of déjà vu. I personally sometimes am able to hold onto or regenerate my sensation of déjà vu when I experience it so that it becomes more durable, more lasting. I've always been deeply excited by it, because I get the distinct feeling that it is something more than random nerve firings, a purely rudimentary-scientific experience. I do think that science can ultimately explain everything -- I think there is no reason that God can't be explained by science, but no way will we figure that out anytime soon -- but like God, I think that déjà vu functions on a very metaphysical level that indicates something very unique. Perhaps it is the same phenomenon of Siddhartha's river of time... perhaps time flows both forwards AND backwards, so as a result we have some kind of metaphysical memory of the future...

But why, then, is it the tiny moments that we experience it? A flick of the hair, the pattern of tiles on the bathroom floor, the way someone says something? I don't know. But there's got to be a fabric to reality, and perhaps it's just that at the tiny moments we're able to see the tiny holes in the fabric, see through to the other side.

Ultimately I have no idea what déjà vu is. Some scientists at MIT seem to have an idea (check it out here) of what it is. Personally, I don't by it. But that's just My Opinion.

A couple of other already-seen links via BoingBoing:
Chronic Deja-Vu (really interesting!! constant deja-vu...)
A more plausible explanation than MIT presents

Anonymous? More like Anony-AWESOME!

Ok maybe that doesn't work...

BUT!

Thanks, Anonymous, for joining the conversation!! For those of you who missed it, a couple of posts ago I mentioned the discovery of a significant amount of ice on the south pole of Mars. I received a comment saying that maybe a good plan would be to stimulate global warming on Mars. GOOD IDEA! I say, let's do it.

I think there might be some technical drawbacks, such as the lack of initial atmosphere, but hey, NASA's got smart people, right? We've got cellophane and rockets, make something happen!

This has been My Opinion, shared with that of Anonymous.

Mars, swimming pool

I'm pretty excited today to read on BoingBoing that they discovered a significant amount of water ice at it's south pole. It's enough ice, they say, to cover the entire planet in more than thirty feet of water!!!



Now granted, our oceans are miles upon miles deep, which is different from 30ft. However, that's a lot of water! There is so much possibility for life in all of that water... The mind reels.

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TIME TRAVEL!

In My Opinion, time travel is one of the sweetest things of my life (other science topics that are the sweetest things of my life include Super/String Theory, general physics, Synchronicity).

This is a nice little article from the Smithsonian about time travel.

Fox, the External Uterus, and the Boing

I was running on the treadmill today and for whatever reason, one of the TVs was tuned to Fox News (which it has been for a while now. It's the only reason I know anything about the Anna Nicole Smith-related trials, which, if you haven't seen them, are a god damned media circus that exist completely outside the realm of normal legal process). And it tickled me in a sick way when one of their spots in between programming and commercial was highlighting its news programs... and it ended by saying, "Fox News: Fair and Balanced." And I thought, well, you're sort of, KIND OF wrong. And hilariously so. This is coming from the news station that announces right-wingers who turn out to be child molesters are actually Democrats. I just thought I'd vent about that.

Also, I discovered something interesting in class today: we have the technology to make a fully-functioning uterus that exists outside of a human body. That makes me kind of scared. The kind that makes me laugh out loud because I'm so scared. We were talking about stem cell research vis-a-vis cloning and embryos (whether destroying an embryo is destroying a human being), and it was brought up that not only can we perform in-vitro fertilization, we can even perform in-vitro gestation!!!! CRAZY!

And, for your daily Boing:
A Reason to be Outraged

THE RING OF FIRE!!!!!!

Saturday March 3 is an exciting date for two reasons: Sorry Safari (Me band!) will be performing live with Carlon (Me cousin's band!) at the Nines in Ithaca, NY, and there will be a very exciting Lunar Eclipse that will turn the Moon red. It will be a sight to see!

Also, sorry for the dual posts today in CAPS. I'm not screaming at you, I promise. Well, I mean, I am, but not because I'm angry.