Time: a glacier, not a stream

Via Sean Carroll: I Tweeted the following inscrutable remark. Probably best left unexplained, but upon reflection I can’t resist. My consciousness freely travels up and down my world line, but sadly it only carries the memories appropriate to the moment it inhabits. The point is that (some) people don’t think about the flow of time [...]

The big questions

Given special relativity, by which events taking place at near-light speeds over nonzero spans of space can be described in multiple, contradictory, but equally correct sequences by various observers in different frames of reference, it might be a meaningless question to ask whether Han shot first.

Ninth and Prospect will be Avenged!

I live in a suburb of Cleveland, and work in the city proper–that’s probably the first time I’ve mentioned that in this blog. Anyway, parts of downtown are blocked off because a director of whom I have formed an opinion is shooting a quirky little indie film called (checks IMDB) “The Avengers.” Today, I ducked [...]

WE ARE SURROUNDED BY ANTIMATTER EVERYBODY PANIC

THE ONLY WAY OUT IS TO TUNNEL THROUGH THE EARTH AND BEG THE HYPERBORIANS FOR SAFE PASSAGE THROUGH THE FOURTH DIMENSION GIVE THEM ANYTHING THEY WANT OUR CIVILIZATION IS AT STAKE. PRIDE IS A LUXURY OF AN AGE OF INNOCENCE WE SHALL NEVER KNOW AGAIN. TELL US OF OUR DOOM, BBC! A thin band of [...]

What if you’re somebody’s shadow?

Two days ago, I discussed several theories which call for universes parallel to our own. Brian Greene, writing in Discover Magazine, floats another one even queerer than the three I mentioned. Whereas the other worlds in my last post were causally isolated from our own, this hypothesis posits that all the events in our universe are [...]

Inflationary multiverse theory may have recieved first direct empirical evidence

Democritus, or perhaps Leucippus, was the first Western thinker to propose an infinite universe. Many of Democritus’ commentators in early Greek philosophy, most notably Aristotle, found the hypothesis extravagant. However, numerous strands of 20th century physics suggest Democritus not have gone far enough, and advance a succession of theories positing an infinite number of universes. Quantum [...]

Some hobbyists collect stamps; others probe the very heart of matter

To each their own. Via the Washington Post:  A Swedish man who was arrested after trying to split atoms in his kitchen said Wednesday he was only doing it as a hobby. Richard Handl told The Associated Press that he had the radioactive elements radium, americium and uranium in his apartment in southern Sweden when [...]

Is this the first fish ever caught using tools?

Via io9′s Alasdair Wilkins:   This blackspot tuskfish, found in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, held a clam in its mouth and smashed it against a rock to reach the food inside. This photo is the first incontrovertible proof that fish are capable of tool use. While tool use was once seen as a uniquely human [...]

Your mother made tremendous sacrifices for you*

But she never fed you her skin. *If you’re reading this, even the shittiest of my readers’ mothers can be said to have carried their child to viability, which is always a sacrifice.

African Gray Parrots can solve simple logic puzzles

Via MSNBC: Parrots are capable of logical leaps, according to a new study in which a gray parrot named Awisa used reasoning to figure out where a bit of food was hidden. The task is one that kids as young as 4 could figure out, but the only other animals that have been shown to [...]