theme song: calling occupants
A good song for ending this day. Obama has only 257 days remaining to announce the extraterrestrial inhabitants already on our planet. (Everything that I read on the internet is always true, of course.)
I watched the movie "Contact" for the umpteenth time tonight. I still like it a lot, as much as I liked Carl Sagan's book. Few movies accomplish that feat. I even liked it better than the new Doctor Who episode. I was flipping channels to watch both, and I found myself pausing Doctor Who so I could spend more time watching Contact. The television series is supposed to inspire hope and optimism, but I got more of that experience from the old movie tonight. Here, that optimism spills over into this song too. "We'd like to make a contact with you, baby."
The closing lyrics of the song:
Calling occupants
Calling occupants
Calling occupants of interplanetary, anti-adversary craft
We are your friends
On a related note, physicists have been able to produce hexagonal currents in a fluid. (Image on the left.) It has something to do with differential rotation, meaning that some parts spin faster than other parts. Instead of the typical whirlpools that I'd expect to see, they managed to get hexagons. The news article includes video footage of the effect which is also cool stuff.
This discovery is important, because it means that we don't need to invent hyperdimensional physics in order to explain the same effect on Saturn's north pole. (Image on the right.) There was already an alternative sonic explanation too. The important thing, though, is that Occam's razor allows us to leave the pan-dimensional mice out of the explanation now. We can recreate Saturn's hexagon in a lab, so it loses its mystique.
Score one point for the lonely sentients in the backwaters of this short galactic arm.
I watched the movie "Contact" for the umpteenth time tonight. I still like it a lot, as much as I liked Carl Sagan's book. Few movies accomplish that feat. I even liked it better than the new Doctor Who episode. I was flipping channels to watch both, and I found myself pausing Doctor Who so I could spend more time watching Contact. The television series is supposed to inspire hope and optimism, but I got more of that experience from the old movie tonight. Here, that optimism spills over into this song too. "We'd like to make a contact with you, baby."
Click to viewThe closing lyrics of the song:
Calling occupants
Calling occupants
Calling occupants of interplanetary, anti-adversary craft
We are your friends
On a related note, physicists have been able to produce hexagonal currents in a fluid. (Image on the left.) It has something to do with differential rotation, meaning that some parts spin faster than other parts. Instead of the typical whirlpools that I'd expect to see, they managed to get hexagons. The news article includes video footage of the effect which is also cool stuff.
This discovery is important, because it means that we don't need to invent hyperdimensional physics in order to explain the same effect on Saturn's north pole. (Image on the right.) There was already an alternative sonic explanation too. The important thing, though, is that Occam's razor allows us to leave the pan-dimensional mice out of the explanation now. We can recreate Saturn's hexagon in a lab, so it loses its mystique.
Score one point for the lonely sentients in the backwaters of this short galactic arm.
