Perplexed

Ah!  June.  It comes after April showers and May flowers.  One might think that for a large portion of the Earth this leads to continuous sunny days.  But I can tell you that the number of warm sunny days this year I've had here in Giessen can be counted on 2 hands.  From what I hear, my home of Seattle has also been getting an extended winter.  Oregon and Montana as well.  What gives?  It's overcast and about a high of 19°C today.  This is not June 1st weather.  Does anybody have a handle on this conundrum?  I fear that spring will be glossed over altogether and I'll be forced to adapt to 32°C temperatures immediately.  Oh well.

In other news, today marks the day I first began counting down the days until my return to the States.  T-minus 69 days and counting.  

Stupid Questions

I just read a post on io9 that asked a question that irks me to no end regarding money and science.  Is it worth spending a crap-ton of money to prove [insert some science-y thing here] right/wrong?  That's the question?  I never really had a good counter argument that I really liked until I saw a fellow reader's comment back.  It went along the lines of "if we can spend crap-tons of money on movies that suck, why not on something more constructive like furthering humanity's knowledge."  Booya!  

Now, don't get me wrong.  I enjoy a beautiful CG romp of mayhem and destruction as much as the next guy, but if the plot is going to be crap it just isn't worth it.  This guy listed, among others, Transformers and the Star Wars prequels and I have to agree.  Big movies and all the money went into big names and fancy CG.  So what do we have?  2-3 hours of cool special effects, bad plot and a coaster (if you bought the movie).  I just wish that whoever funded these works of suck would consider sacrificing one movie's budget to fund a science project.  (Note: if they already do this, let me know and I'll apologize).  

To summarize, it is a ridiculous question to ask when so much money is spent on other less useful things.  But it does not have to be just on science either!  Sacrifice a movie and feed some people for a month or restore a poisoned water supply or anything like that.  I would love to hear about that happening as well.  It's just that this article was related to science so that is the first thing I thought about.  

Outraged

While reading the XKCD for today, I read on the mouseover that NASA pretty much threw in the towel on the Mars rover Spirit.  My best understanding of what has happened is that Spirit got stuck and has been immobile for some time.  NASA now calls it a "stationary research station" and expects dust buildup on the solar panels to eventually force a final shutdown.  Of course, this little rover has been active for 5 years more that it was supposed to be so big kudos to the design gang.  Wanting to get the full story though, I performed a search for 'NASA news' and the first thing to pop up was this.  Obama is canceling the Constellation program!?  I am so pissed right now.  First Bush cans the shuttle program thereby removing any independent method for the US to get people into space, and then this guy cancels funding for the next generation of space-faring craft.  Instead the government will outsource ISS trips to other governments and encourage funding for private sectors to develop spacecraft or some crap like that.  I can understand canceling the shuttles; they're old and we need something new.  But scrapping the new plan is stupid.  Also don't misunderstand me in that I think it's great that other countries are getting to develop their own manned missions.  I'm just angry that we (the US) won't have one anymore.  The article also says that NASA will be encouraged to focus on Earth-based science like "monitoring climate change."  Huh?  Doesn't the government already have somebody (who is already getting funding) doing that?  I suppose the next step would be to shut down satellites that do silly non-climate-change-sciency things.  What does 1/4 of NASA stand for again?  Space.

**Disclaimer after the fact: I apologize for my poorly researched rant.  Should anything I've said not be true, please inform me nicely.

Here is the story about Spirit though.

Three Months In

It has been over three months since I moved to Germany to study physics for a year.  You may ask, "Hey Brian, how's it going?"  To which I would naturally respond with "great!" or "it's different, but alright."  But of course, on the inside there is something else that is going on that isn't quite on the level of 'great.'  Inside I'm a spinning turbine of unknown energies and power.  

What does that even mean!?

Got me, this is more of a free-verse-poem-prose-write thing than a normal post.  -rant, I forgot -rant as well.  So what's got me all riled and contorted into some weird brain fart thing?  Well...

I once knew a man in Reno,

who was very tired of Dino

and went from bored to crazy

with a great big oops-a-daisy

cause he didn't know what he said!

So I lied about the free and -verse and -poem part.  Anyway, it's the fact that my classes are in German.  Yes, I hear you laughing from here when you say, "but Brian, you knew what you were signing up for, didn't you?"  Of course I did!  That's not the point.  The point is in the crappy verse I just wrote.  Imagine spending two hours on a hard wooden seat while somebody who you know is intelligent and has something important to tell you jabbers on in a language of which you can follow about 50 percent at best.  This is what happens every class period.

I take notes and notes from boards or powerpoints have always made sense nearly immediately, be it straight math or straight physics.  The real beauty of my notes is from notes I make to the notes themselves, and that comes from the extra things the professor says while he isn't writing on the board.  My notes are crap! because of how little extra stuff I'm able to write down.  I'm borderline twiddling my thumbs sometimes when there is no writing happening on the board.  Thank goodness these professors don't have any odd mannerisms or I'd be caught staring to the point of mesmerization.  

I'm not saying the my German hasn't improved because it has indeed.  It's just that it's not at the point where I can learn as well as I know I can.  And I hope that made sense cause this is a rant and there is no time to correct typos or grammar.  So there.  

Cheers. 

p.s. Additionally and aside from missing Mac&Cheese, IPA, Kiss Cafe, small and intimate coffee shops, regular interaction with animals, my friends and my family, I have no complaints about living in Germany at all.  It's beautiful and the food is great.

Lernen Sie Deutsch!

We're in the fifth week of intensive German now. Tomorrow will be the halfway mark and will also signal that only five weeks remain until my journey to Giessen. Hoo boy! I admit to being in a state of disbelief still. I also think my subconscious is secretly panicking. Who honestly signs up to be away from everything and everybody they love for a whole year? I must have been slightly crazy that morning when I decided to put in my application. I'm sure that when I'm dropped off at the airport it will finally hit me that I won't see (insert person(s) who dropped me off) or anybody for more than a year. I might cry, honest. And then when I land in Frankfurt...oh my. Nobody speaking English, all the signs pointing this way and that saying things that I have to think about first...oi! Thanks goodness Rachel will be there. Of course, I think I'd be pissed if I got there and I heard English in the first five minutes. It's an airport. I left surrounded by English speakers. I'd like to arrive surrounded by German speakers.

In other news, there is no other news because intensive German is occupying my life.

Rachel and I are watching the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica from miniseries to finish right now. We're only 6 or 7 episodes in but watching it, for me, the second time only serves to increase my appreciation for how well done the show was done. Yes, there were times when it seemed the stories sucked or that it was drifting away from it's original concept and yes, there was the ending but it was still a great show and I'm happy Rachel likes it and I get to watch it again with somebody. I love knowing everything and catching the hints and rumors of what's to come. Additionally, the new Stargate series will be starting in October. I still don't know what to make of this addition to the series. No matter what the producers of SG-1, then Atlantis, and now Universe have to say, I think they intentionally canceled Atlantis because they wanted to throw all their money into Universe. It pisses me off because for 2 years they ran two shows at once. If they really wanted Universe, they could have kept Atlantis and finished it off decently. Instead, we got hack writers for the last two seasons who didn't know a story from their dirty laundry. I could rant for a while but nobody wants to read that. In fact, I'm astonished you got to this sentence. Thank you.

Cheers for now!

Stupid Irony

Just a quick little blurb about something I found on the internet. Yes, I know, I've succumbed to sharing things on a blog that I found while surfing. Well, this deserves it. Check it out if you want because it is really short. Here is the skinny. Some clock in New York City has been showing a running total of the national debt since 1989. The debt is now too large for the clock to properly show. What are we doing about it? We're getting a frakkin' new clock! Why in the name of all good and sensible things would we pay for a (no doubt cool looking, digital, fancy, atomic, large, very pricey for something so dumb, and pointless) new clock??!! Who cares? It's going to be ready in a year. Can you think of how much a clock thing that takes a year to build would cost? Even if it was ten dollars, I'd say, screw the clock and go buy that homeless man down the street a new sweater. I can't believe this country. Do you see the irony?

Sorrow

As if having Finals this Friday wasn't bad enough, I was quietly perusing the Internet when I ran across a post on a site I frequent, GateWorld (home of all thing Gate related). Lo and behold, they have canceled Stargate Atlantis, the successful spin off of Stargate SG-1. Although it was unavoidable, expletives great in number flew through my brain and were directed wholly at the Nielson (of the rating system) and at the SciFi network. They have canceled so many shows as of late and they are starting to hit close to home. I don't mind if a show's producers, writers, and actors decide to end a show, like Battlestar Galactica is doing, but I do hate it when they are canceled.

So who is to blame? Apparently ratings. And you know what, I just got my week old telegraph from my broker in New York about ocean front property for sale in Utah. COME ON PEOPLE! You can not use a live "night-of" rating system anymore with the power of the Internet out there. I'm sorry. I don't have TV, can't afford cable and so watch my favorite shows online. How dare a network cancel a show just because I wasn't watching their damned commercials?! I was so irate that I found the feedback email for SciFi and sent a very nice email basically saying that they're frakkin' idiots. Here is the address in case anyone wants to join in. feedback@scifi.com

I can't really say much else right now. I haven't been too impressed with the show the last season and a half but had high hopes for this season. I saw the mistakes that were being made but still watched, believing it would recover. But canceling it is just wrong.

Up and Running

Well, we're back. Not having the internet for...hold on let me check...12 days was pretty incredible (in an absolutely disturbing way). The lack of ability to do something really does show you how much you may have come to rely on that something. Not having the ability to check my email (what little there ever is) or my facebook (Lord forbid!) or my favorite sites like io9 or xkcd was just painful. On the other hand, not having the distracting power of the internet allowed me to get all sorts of other things done. Let me share.

The period during which my apartment was without internet was a busy time for schoolwork. There were two take home tests to complete, homework assignments to muddle through and readings off the wazoo that needed to be...well read. S without the distraction, coupled with my new favorite coffee shop also not having their free internet (!), I got a lot of work done. Wednesday, we were up and running again and let me tell you how much schoolwork I've done since that night. I've read two chapters out of my thermal physics book and most of that was while I was waiting for food to cook in the kitchen.

I'm a terrible addict! I hate it so much! What happened to the good ol' days when we were not all connected nearly instantaneously to each other? I can't even be at home without succumbing to the temptation of the 'net! I have to go somewhere else either without my computer (if there is internet there) or someplace with my computer that doesn't have internet (i.e. Barnes and Noble? [ah, but then there is the temptation of leaving with new books.]).

It's very important to recognize you're an easily-distracted-by-the-internet person. It's the first step on the road to recovery. Unless of course they pull a 1984 and are secretly watching me right now, will abduct me, reconvert me, and release me back to the public as an adoring fan of the internet... hmmmm. I love Big Brother.

The Multiverse

Regardless of what the masses believe regarding the soon to be mentioned subject (preview: the multiverse theory), I believe I have come to the ultimate justification for any expenditure in proving and utilizing, if proven true, the following theory: the multiverse. Yes, the multiverse. WTF is a multiverse you ask? A brief history (as far as I understand where they [i.e. present day scientists] get their ideas), complete with diagrams.

The multiverse theory seems to me to come from two different ideas and or observations and I think either one is just dandy. Today, there is a debate about whether light is a particle or a wave, or some fancy combination of both. By particle, I mean individual "photons" of light and when I say wave, I mean the electromagnetic wave that propagates all around us allowing us to see. So, which is it? Well if you use what is called the "Double-Slit Experiment," you can demonstrate that light acts like a wave. By shining a laser at a double slit, you set up an interference pattern on a screen beyond the slit like so:
This is produced by overlapping waves. Now, the interesting thing is if you reduce the intensity of the light until only one photon of light is coming at a time through this double slit, then you get something quite interesting and remarkable. This:
Astonishing! I believe the popular opinion among the more extreme thinking branches is that the only way these single, tiny balls of light still make this pattern, even though there is nothing else in the way to hit it or knock it off course, is that in another parallel universe, somebody is running the same experiment, and those photons are interacting with out photons. There's more to say, but this is a blog and nobody cares.

The second idea is much simpler and I don't think there are any proofs yet for this. It is merely that every choice that anybody in any time has ever had to make has spawned a parallel universe; one where you did the alternative to whatever choice you eventually made. One where you went with brown socks and then destroyed the world and one where you stuck with white socks and had a good day at school. Get the drift? Good. It makes for fascinating discussions about science, psychology, morality, and Western civilization. For your viewing pleasure, I have drawn the first four dimensions and then what the multiverse would be like. Think of the sphere as one time unit. (The fourth dimension having popularly been accepted as time.)Theoretically, since there are an infinite number of these universes, there is one where everybody has blue hair naturally, or where the sky is a deep and majestic shade of purple-green, or where most everybody is a comfortable baked clam. Yes, I know. "What a stupid theory," you must be saying. Well, I would postulate that those universes would be infinitely "far away" from us and we don't need to worry about it. If you were to think of all these universes as little beads strung along a wire, then the one where everybody is a baked clam is probably ten to the ten trillion universes away from us. It doesn't matter. I'm concerned with the universes maybe fifty or more away on either side of use. Now we come to the reason for my sharing and the justification.

Somewhere, and most likely not to far away down that imaginary line of universes, is a planet Earth where the sci-fi TV show Firefly did not get canceled. It got signed for five or six or even more seasons and went on to great things. I am going to go to this universe someday and bring back the DVD sets of these seasons, so that this world doesn't have to suffer the stupidity of certain network executives and their shortsightedness by canceling the show before it even had a chance.

(Yes, you read all that sci-babble for that. Sorry)

p.s. Even more astonishing, though I didn't include any numbers in my picture, is that these parallel universes don't necessarily have to be at the same time in...well time. You could go to a universe that is our exact universe except at an earlier or later time frame. How cool would that be?

Coffee Injustice

I've had a major epiphany and I'm gonna need good, stout-hearted folk to rise up with me against this tyranny I've seen. Did you ever read The Flying Inn? Well it's going to be like that...only not so important. But it'll be important enough I tell you!!

When your friendly barista says to you, "is that for here?" and you of course say, "Yes," do you know what you just ordered? You just asked for your coffee to be placed in a container designed to extract heat from liquids at a remarkable rate. It seems that I get my coffee, and before you know it, it's cold!! What gives? I may like to drink my coffee rather fast, but this stuff cools it off too fast, leaving me with a cold coffee experience.

Good people, we must rise up against this. It's exactly the same situation as the Big Oil companies, hoarding the remarkable technology of gas-free cars and trucks. Big Coffee has a thermally insulating cup that cost the same as their regular 'for-here' cups. Why don't they employ it? Money, of course. But if we strike back now, while they think we're ignorant, we'll have gained an upper hand and possibly changed the course of lives everywhere, or at the very least, of coffee drinkers lives everywhere.

I don't blame the baristas. I blame their ethereal and slightly non-corporeal unknown superiors 60 times removed from them who sit in some plush chair in some plush office in some plush city, drinking their lattes in 'for-here' cups that are thermally insulated. I'll be sitting outside a random coffee shop, protesting, starting on the next day that doesn't end in 'y.' Join me.