The Limits of Science

Science has taught us many things: There's water on mars, the human genome is really big, time and space are all bendy, and a golf ball hit on the surface of the moon will go really far.

But what has science told us about the sandwich? I have two specific questions:

1. Why does a sandwich taste better when someone else makes it?
2. Why does a sandwich taste better when cut in half diagonally?

Get on it, science!

CELESTIAL EMPORIUM OF BENEVOLENT KNOWLEDGE

Supposedly taken from an ancient Chinese encyclopædia entitled Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge.

The list divides all animals into one of 14 categories:

1. Those that belong to the emperor
2. Embalmed ones
3. Those that are trained
4. Suckling pigs
5. Mermaids (or Sirens)
6. Fabulous ones
7. Stray dogs
8. Those that are included in this classification
9. Those that tremble as if they were mad
10. Innumerable ones
11. Those drawn with a very fine camel hair brush
12. Et cetera
13. Those that have just broken the flower vase
14. Those that, at a distance, resemble flies

source: wikipedia

THE GRASS IS NOT ALWAYS GREENER (OR REDDER)

There's a mission, called Mars One, by a private company, to send volunteers on a one-way mission to mars. Now I want space programs to continue, I'm a big fan of science and space exploration.

But they are talking about a one-way mission to mars. And they're finding people to do this. Hundreds of thousands of people have volunteered.

I'm a fan of science fiction (good science fiction anyway) and the idea of space travel is fascinating.

But if these people are launched into space, there is going to be a point when some of them realize:  "Oh fuck, I shouldn't have done this."

There will be panic attacks and freak-outs, and when they run out of sedatives, they're in for some seriously messed up terror.

And the first time they have to jettison an dead body into space, the rest of them are going to think, "Holy fuck, I shouldn't have done this. This was a terrible idea."

And the ones to reach Mars are going to be some fucked up individual who all wish they had stayed home.

I'm all for space travel.  This plan might work, but those poor people.

You have to have a return plan. I mean Jesus Christ. Think about it.

Venn Diagrams

Earth, Jupiter and Venus (as seen from Mars)

Earth, Jupiter and Venus (listed from top to bottom) seen from Mars.  How cool is that? Go Science!

update: turns out this picture is fake.  not so much a hoax as a representation from some software that has been passed around (like I did at first) as real. See the comment below by Justin for a link to the explanation.

boo science that makes fake pics looks so real...

# Amateur Philosophy (now with audio!)

The idea that there is a beginning of the universe is insane because it would have to come from somewhere else but there is nowhere else because the universe is ... everywhere.  So there's nowhere for it to "come from" in the first place.

So the idea of like, "oh, well where did it come from?" it can't "come from" anywhere because it's everywhere.

So all the things in the universe can't come from somewhere else because there IS nowhere else (is what I'm trying to say).

So the whole argument of like, "Where did the universe come from, and where did it begin" is meaningless.

Cause we can observe everything on the planet, but everything on the planet is just a subset of everything. But we don't see everything.  So when scientists claim to know the beginning of the universe, it's impossible. Cause you can't know about every thing, every object, in an infinite universe, cause it's infinite. Even if you found 99% of it, there's always 1 more percent of it, cause it's infinite.

So, (sigh) the idea that you can find the beginning of the universe,-that's another thing—if there's nowhere for everything to come from, then it can't possibly have had a beginning because it has to have always been there. Cause everything in the universe all the objects, all the matter, that makes up the things that we observe has to have always been there because there's nowhere for it to have not been.

Uh, if that doesn't make sense, then the whole beginning of time thing, that's the other thing "Oh, what's the beginning of time?" There is no beginning of time because there's always that one second right before that. No matter what point you point at and say, "Oh, there's the beginning of time," there's always ... the moment right before that. So, the whole idea of like, "Oh, well there's gotta be a God because otherwise the universe wouldn't exist," Well that doesn't make any sense; the universe always existed because it's got nowhere to go. It can't not exist. Cause it exists. At least we think it does.

So I dunno. That's my rant about all these theological and scientific questions about the beginning of time. There isn't any. You're looking for something that's not there. Because it has to have always been here because there's nowhere for it to have come from.

All right, I'm done.

And the point I forgot to make (I was driving as I babbled this into my cheesy microphone) is this:  Although everything we see seems to have a beginning, middle, and end, those things are just temporary arrangements of atoms that eventually decompose.  But nothing (observable at least) is made or unmade.  Atoms and parts (subsets of the set of all atoms and things) just temporarily arrange themselves and fall apart.  But the universe is not an observable thing; it is not a subset of anything else, so it doesn't have a beginning or an end, since it can't fall apart (there's no way for it to become separated from itself, since it is everywhere).

Since we see everything begin and end around us, we think this attribute applies to the universe, but it doesn't. 

So the "where did the universe come from" and "how did it begin" questions don't apply to the universe itself, although these questions apply to all the stuff IN the universe. 

#81 WITH THE ANGRY SUN

Humans love their frozen treats,
As they drive along
On the sizzling streets.
Packed at the light,
Their engines run,
And they wonder what's up
With the Angry Sun.

something I heard on the radio

The lead guitarist for Queen, that's right, the super-rock group from a million years ago, is now an astrophysicist. I kid you not.

Here's the Article