Category: Uncategorized

CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK. “Respiratory disease meant I was deprived of a grandfather. His only presence in my life was through one of his rib bones; it was cut out of his chest during an operation, cleaned up and kept by his widow as a memento. Years later, my grandmother would use it to open her morning post and then leave it to rest on the living room table. My grandfather never held me to his chest, but I’ve held part of his chest to me.” Simply, wow. https://lnkd.in/dbTpr_S View in LinkedIn

CANDIDATE STRANGE STARS. “Now, based on this feature of these strange worlds, scientists in China say they may have detected four good candidates for strange planets. These exoplanets revolve around pulsars — rapidly spinning neutron stars that appear to flash like lighthouse beacons from our perspective here on Earth — in orbits of about 348,000 miles (560,000 km) or less.” https://lnkd.in/dhCeUnA View in LinkedIn

EXTREME PROXIMITY. “The extraordinary density of strange planets means they can survive even if they come within 14.7 miles (23.7 km) of a strange quark star they are orbiting, virtually grazing its surface. In contrast, a normal planet's orbit can take it only as close as about 348,000 miles (560,000 km) before getting ripped apart by the dead star's gravitational pull.” https://lnkd.in/dhCeUnA View in LinkedIn

EXTREME DENSITIES. “Normal planets have densities that are no more than 1,870 lbs. per cubic foot (30 grams per cubic centimeter). In contrast, strange planets would typically have densities of nearly 25 million billion lbs. per cubic foot (400 trillion grams per cubic centimeter). (For comparison, gold has a density of about 1,200 lbs. per cubic foot, or nearly 19.3 grams per cubic centimeter.).” https://lnkd.in/dhCeUnA View in LinkedIn

NEW PHYSICS. “Until the 20th century, physics only dealt with matter and its interactions with energy and the universe. However, in recent decades, physicists have had to redefine the concept of matter, and limit it to ordinary matter, because new types have been appearing that need their own names. Dark matter, antimatter or exotic matter are some examples… and, without a doubt, among all the new theoretical types of matter, the least known and most radically different would be strange matter, as it would literally break our laws of physics.” https://lnkd.in/dJQmuRd View in LinkedIn

APPLICATIONS. “Strange Matter May One Day Fuel Reactors.”(1989). https://lnkd.in/d2BjwRQ View in LinkedIn

Alively exampke of spectacularly vivid Rosa Gerona limestone in a local wall. View in LinkedIn

FAILSAFE BUTTON NEEDED. “Assuming that a superintelligence will contain a program that includes all the programs that can be executed by a universal Turing machine on input potentially as complex as the state of the world, strict containment requires simulations of such a program, something theoretically (and practically) impossible.” Disturbing at the least, https://lnkd.in/ddCku3H View in LinkedIn

Return from the night concert. View in LinkedIn