It's scary when a piece of fiction *could* be true.

Ann Coulter Walks Out of Star Trek, Claims 'Too Many Minorities'

http://dailycurrant.com/2013/05/16/ann-coulter-walks-out-of-star-trek-claims-too-many-minorities/

What if ...

 

Answering your hypothetical questions with physics, every Tuesday.
New: @whatifnumbers, a Twitter feed of numbers I find while answering questions.

 

Alien Astronomers

 

Let's assume there's life on the the nearest habitable exoplanet and that they have technology comparable to ours. If they looked at our star right now, what would they see?

—Chuck H.

Answer:

Let's try a more complete answer. We'll start with ...

Radio transmissions

Contact popularized the idea of aliens listening in on our transmissions. Sadly, the odds are against it.

Here's the problem: Space is big. Really big.^[1]

You can work through the physics of interstellar radio attenuation, but the problem is captured pretty well by considering the economics of the situation: If your TV signals are getting to another star, you're losing money. Powering a transmitter is expensive, and creatures on other stars aren't buying the products in the TV commercials that pay your electricity bill.

The full picture is more complicated, but the bottom line is that as our technology has advanced, less of our radio traffic has been leaking out into space. We're closing down the giant transmitting antennas and switching to cable and fiber and tightly-focused cell-tower networks.^[2]

While our TV signals may have been detectable—with great effort—for a while,^[3] that window is closing. In the late 20th century, when we were using TV and radio to scream into the void at the top of our lungs, the signal probably faded to undetectability after a few light-years.^[4] The potentially habitable exoplanets we've spotted so far are dozens of light-years away, so the odds are they aren't currently repeating our catchphrases.

But TV and radio transmissions still weren't Earth's most powerful radio signal. They were outshone by the beams from early-warning radar.^[4]

Early-warning radar, a product of the Cold War, consisted of a bunch of ground and airborne stations scattered around the Arctic. These stations swept the atmosphere with powerful radar beams 24/7, often bouncing them off the ionosphere, and people obsessively monitored the echos for any hints of enemy movement. (I wasn't alive during most of this period, but from what I hear, the mood was a little tense.)

These radar transmissions leaked into space, and could probably be picked up by nearby exoplanets^[5] if they happened to be listening when the beam swept over their part of the sky. But the same march of technological progress that made the TV broadcast towers obsolete has had the same effect on early-warning radar. Today's systems—where they exist at all—are much quieter, and may eventually be replaced completely by new technology.

Earth's most powerful radio signal is the beam from the Arecibo telescope. This massive dish in Puerto Rico can function as a radar transmitter, bouncing a signal off nearby targets like Mercury and the asteroid belt. It's essentially a flashlight which we shine on planets to see them better. (This is just as crazy as it sounds.)

But it transmits only occasionally, and in a narrow beam. If an exoplanet happened to be caught in the beam, and they were lucky enough to be pointing a receiving antenna at our corner of the sky at the time, all they would pick up would be a brief pulse of radio energy, then silence.

So hypothetical aliens looking at Earth probably wouldn't pick us up with radio antennas.

But there's also ...

Visible light

This is more promising. The Sun is really bright^{[citation needed]} and its light illuminates the Earth.^{[citation needed]} Some of that light is reflected back into space as "Earthshine". Some of it skims close to our planet and passes through our atmosphere before continuing on to the stars. Both of these effects could potentially be detected from an exoplanet.^[4][6]

They wouldn't tell you anything about humans directly, but if you watched the Earth for long enough, you could figure out a lot about our atmosphere from the reflectivity. You could probably figure out what our water cycle looked like, and our oxygen-rich atmosphere would give you a hint that something weird was going on.

So in the end, the clearest signal from Earth might not be from us at all. It might be from the algae that have been terraforming the planet—and altering the signals we send into space—for billions of years.

Of course, if we wanted to send a clearer signal, we could. A radio transmission has the problem that they have to be paying attention when it arrives.

Instead, we could make them pay attention. With ion drives, nuclear pulse propulsion, or just clever use of gravitational slingshots, we could probably send a probe out of the Solar System fast enough to reach a given nearby star in a few dozen millennia. If we can figure out how to make a guidance system that survives the trip (which would be tough) we could use it to steer toward any inhabited planet.

To land safely, we'd have to slow down. But slowing down takes even more fuel. And, hey, the whole point of this was for them to notice us, right?

So maybe if those aliens looked toward our Solar System, this is what they'd see:

 

What Kind of Geek are YOU ?

 

http://www.makeuseof.com/tech-fun/what-kind-of-geek-are-you-the-sacred-order-of-geeks/


There is one missing:
The Monty Python Geek - will spontaneously recite entire Monty Python routines when given keywords like "Dead Parrot" or "Burn Witches."

Science Kitty

 

Google's Gender

Curses. Foiled again.

 

Cat bearding! It’s that thing where your cat is also your beard.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/the-25-most-epic-cat-beards-of-all-time

They should put these Here, There and Everywhere.

 

Want to drink like your favorite character? Now you can.

Pop Chart Lab has created this handy chart brimming with recipes for the signature drinks of several unforgettable characters. Whether drinking to cope with a regrettable past (Dick Whitman, aka Don Draper, likes a classic Old Fashioned), bulk up (Rocky Balboa's super-manly all-egg Protein Shake), or waste your flighty, privileged life away (lookin' at you, Daisy), you'll be in good hands with this exhaustive guide.

http://popchartlab.com/collections/prints/products/the-cocktail-chart-of-film-literature
(click on the picture to see an enlarged (and legible) version on your screen)

=====

I like the Hannibal Lecter: A nice Chianti with fava beans and liver.

Funky Venn Diagram

 

UberGeek Alert

Spaceship Race!

Interactive graphic compares the time it would take to reach various points in space.
Entrants include the Enterprise, the Millennium Falcon, Jupiter 2, TARDIS, Serenity, and more.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/map_of_the_week/2013/05/star_trek_enterprise_vs_star_wars_millennium_falcon_which_ship_is_fastest.html

Bacon Taco.

Not taco with bacon.
We're talking Bacon Taco.

What was your first car? Get the Brochure

Your first car...get the brochure!

This is a website featuring the original factory brochures for nearly every American car you have ever owned.

 

Pick the manufacturer, the year and the Model.

http://www.lov2xlr8.no/broch1.html



 

 

 

A little inspired silliness on my part.

Old Spock battles New Spock in the greatest car commercial ever

 

http://io9.com/old-spock-battles-new-spock-in-the-greatest-car-commerc-493836696

Sorry, Volkswagen Darth Vader Kid. This new Audi commercial, starring both Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto, has beat you.

The POWER of the Brain

This day in History:

May 6, 1937: The German airship Hindenburg blew up and burst into flames at Lakehurst, N.J.

for May 5th

This American Life - "Music Lessons"

One of the best episodes of This American Life, featuring both David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell.

A case study of how children are asked to live the unlived lives of their parents. Author David Sedaris had a father who loved jazz but played no instrument himself. Instead, he dreamt that his children would learn to play and form a little jazz combo. He sent David to take guitar lessons. David, however, had dreams of his own.

As a teenager, Sarah Vowell was not casual about music lessons — music became her life. She was in marching band, jazz band, Band One, symphony band, pep band and the Bozeman Recorder Ensemble. Here Sarah recalls all the things she learned in music class that had nothing to with music.

right-click the "download" link near the top of the page
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/104/music-lessons

Nutella Fined 3 Million Dollars for Misleading About Health

Nutella is paying just over $3 million to settle a class action lawsuit.
Apparently, it had been misleading consumers to think it was a healthy food.

http://blog.fooducate.com/2012/04/30/nutella-fined-3-million-dollars-for-misleading-about-health/

=====

Nutella fined for false advertising. Misleading Political advertisements are never fined.
What does it say about our society when a sandwich spread is held to higher standards of truth than our politicians?

How your brain sees your body: Meet the cortical homunculus

---

We all know what bodies look like from the outside.
This cortical homunculus is how your brain sees your body from the inside.

http://io9.com/5670064/how-your-brain-sees-your-body-meet-the-cortical-homunculus

RE: Dick Cavett remembers Johnathan Winters / "The Stick"

"Robin Williams's fine piece on Jonathan told of the legendary Night of the Stick. Jack, perhaps thinking he might stump Jonny, handed him a two-foot plain stick of polished wood, and a classic was born. Instantly it became a fishing pole, Jonathan orally supplying authentic sounds of the reel and the splash. "
 
...and more.
PLENTY more.

Watch it at

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwWDa1xPTPA

Four minutes of comic brilliance

---

Dick Cavett remembers Johnathan Winters

I'm just antique enough to remember when Jonathan first hit. Or at least for me. It was the Jack Paar "Tonight Show" and no one had ever seen anything remotely like it.

A slightly chubby, amiable, Midwesternly looking man who could have been an accountant or a bus driver, nicely dressed in dark suit and tie, stepped out, a bit timorously, from behind the curtain and, on the spot and before our eyes, created a whole mad little world.

There were sudden, instant changes of character, gender and manner, each with a new face, a different voice, even different physique, it seemed.

Make that lightning character changes, switching in less than an eye wink from an old person to a juvenile, from tough drill sergeant to mincing hairdresser, from adult human to feisty feline, from bumpkin to society type to rube to sophisticate; from iron-jawed right winger to gelatinous liberal, from adult to child to repellently cute baby; each change so fast and total it was as if frames had been cut from a film.

Here was originality personified. And unprecedented.

Never had a comic done anything remotely like this. Jonathan was born full-blown from the head of no one. He was in no known comic tradition. No familiar style. No pre-existing category of humor. He stood on no predecessors' shoulders.

Here, suddenly, was a comedian who never told a joke.

Into the world of humor a new planet had been born.


full @ http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/26/with-winters-gone-can-we-be-far-behind

Comedy: Der Fuehrer's FARBY freak-out.

Hitler rants about the state of Civil War and World War II reenacting... all in good fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rPmUO_QEHI

seen on FB

 

Bacon: the Other White Heat

You know bacon is delicious, but did you know it contains enough energy to melt metal?

I recently committed myself to the goal, before the weekend was out, of creating a device entirely from bacon and using it to cut a steel pan in half. My initial attempts were failures, but I knew success was within reach when I was able to ignite and melt the pan using seven beef sticks and a cucumber.

No, seriously. The device I built was a form of thermal lance. A thermal lance, typically made of iron instead of bacon, is used to cut up scrap metal and rescue people from collapsed buildings. It works by blowing pure oxygen gas through a pipe packed with iron and magnesium rods. These metals are surprisingly flammable in pure oxygen, releasing a huge amount of heat as they are consumed. The result is a jet of superheated iron plasma coming out of the end of the pipe. For sheer destructive force, few tools match a thermal lance. But iron isn't the only thing that's flammable in a stream of pure oxygen.

I used prosciutto (Italian for "expensive bacon") because it is a superior engineering grade of meat.

http://www.popsci.com/bacon

Bacon: the Other White Heat

You know bacon is delicious, but did you know it contains enough energy to melt metal?

I recently committed myself to the goal, before the weekend was out, of creating a device entirely from bacon and using it to cut a steel pan in half. My initial attempts were failures, but I knew success was within reach when I was able to ignite and melt the pan using seven beef sticks and a cucumber.

No, seriously. The device I built was a form of thermal lance. A thermal lance, typically made of iron instead of bacon, is used to cut up scrap metal and rescue people from collapsed buildings. It works by blowing pure oxygen gas through a pipe packed with iron and magnesium rods. These metals are surprisingly flammable in pure oxygen, releasing a huge amount of heat as they are consumed. The result is a jet of superheated iron plasma coming out of the end of the pipe. For sheer destructive force, few tools match a thermal lance. But iron isn't the only thing that's flammable in a stream of pure oxygen.

I used prosciutto (Italian for "expensive bacon") because it is a superior engineering grade of meat.

http://www.popsci.com/bacon

Rolf Harris in sex offence inquiry

Rolf Harris is the previously unnamed entertainer arrested in the UK as part of an inquiry into historical allegations of sexual offences.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22212131

=====

I don't want to know what kinky stuff he did after he tied his kangaroo down...

A bit of Nostalgic Fun to commemorate the Events of April 19, 1775

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ikO6LMxF4&sns=em


Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem! 
(Massachusetts state motto)

Raj Koothrappali has his REVENGE!

 Aquaman no longer sucks.

Damn you, Science!

A final toast for the Doolittle Raiders

On Tuesday, in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, the surviving Doolittle Raiders will gather publicly for the last time.

They once were among the most universally admired and revered men in the United States. There were 80 of the Raiders in April 1942, when they carried out one of the most courageous and heart-stirring military operations in this nation's history. The mere mention of their unit's name, in those years, would bring tears to the eyes of grateful Americans.

Now only four survive.

After Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, with the United States reeling and wounded, something dramatic was needed to turn the war effort around.

Even though there were no friendly airfields close enough to Japan for the United States to launch a retaliation, a daring plan was devised. Sixteen B-25s were modified so that they could take off from the deck of an aircraft carrier. This had never before been tried -- sending such big, heavy bombers from a carrier.

The 16 five-man crews, under the command of Lt. Col. James Doolittle, who himself flew the lead plane off the USS Hornet, knew that they would not be able to return to the carrier. They would have to hit Japan and then hope to make it to China for a safe landing.

But on the day of the raid, the Japanese military caught wind of the plan. The Raiders were told that they would have to take off from much farther out in the Pacific Ocean than they had counted on. They were told that because of this they would not have enough fuel to make it to safety.

And those men went anyway.

full @ http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/14/opinion/greene-doolittle-raiders

Seen on Facebook

Patton Oswalt posted:

Boston. Fucking horrible.


I remember, when 9/11 went down, my reaction was, "Well, I've had it with humanity."


But I was wrong. I don't know what's going to be revealed to be behind all of this mayhem. One human insect or a poisonous mass of broken sociopaths.


But here's what I DO know. If it's one person or a HUNDRED people, that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet. You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out. (Thanks FAKE Gallery founder and owner Paul Kozlowski for pointing this out to me). This is a giant planet and we're lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they're pointed towards darkness.


But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We'd have eaten ourselves alive long ago.


So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, "The good outnumber you, and we always will."

The many varieties of Eppendorfasaurus.

 

Time for some Friday silliness

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qnydFmqHuVo

Reasons My Son Is Crying

A dad documents his son's tantrums, and the reason for them.

(e.g., " I wouldn't let him drown in this pond. ")

http://reasonsmysoniscrying.tumblr.com/

Don't daydream—success in science depends on focus

 

Gomer Pyle