Thoughts, ramblings and other stuff

Both LHC and KEK got some weird results in two different experiments that suggest possibility of new particles outside standard model. They also don't fit into the Supersymetry theory. Right now the best guesses are some new type of Higgs boson or leptoquark.

Queen Elizabeth II has become the longest reigning British monarch in history today (she just beat Victoria). It's been just over 63 years, seven months and two days since the coronation and her rule is almost at the retirement age itself.

The 10 best experiments of Dr. Bunsen Honeydew's according to blastr. They use the word scientific accuracy there but we can all agree that it only works in Muppet Labs. Science is universe specific unfortunately which is why we can't just adapt the technology that put pigs in space.

I wondered what could match Miss Piggy cameo but then I saw Team SHIELD effort and I lost it at the last one. Dubsmash battle continues.

Unfortunately only one of these isn't true. Which reminds me to have my existential crisis this week - "why am I even doing this?"

I'm I'm taking care of my friends cats and there is something purring snuggled at my side. It feels good. Unfortunately, it turns out I am allergic to cats. Not deadly - I'm going to land in hospital if I stay in your presence any longer - more like - I feel short of breath after just walking up one flight of stairs which is how I usually know my asthma is acting up. But I was fine with my cat for years so I know I can live with one. I may just need to do this for long enough for my immune system to give up. I refuse to be catless forever.

I saw RIPD. It has nice visuals. Mary Louise Parker is adorable. Jeff Bridges is entertaining. Ryan Reynolds makes great puppy dog eyes. That's about all the good things about the movie. The bad thing is that is so incredibly predictable. The whole plot is made of cliches. You know what will happen next and how the movie would end from the start. Every trope you think of at the moment you meet his partner will happen. And now you know the whole plot of this movie. It's so predictable it hurts. If there is the most cliche way to go through a scene this movie makes sure it uses it. Someone called it a mix of Man in Black and Dead Like Me and that's very apt. However, it lacks the fun of the first and emotional depth of the second. If they spend less money on the wacky deados (seriously, they even call themselves that) and concentrated more on giving some emotional depth to the heroes this might be an interesting concept (and maybe even fun summer movie). Instead you just roll you eyes (and then facepalm when in the end they walk untouchable in the hail of bullets but their every shot kills and there is only two of them because every other RIPD cop mysteriously vanished). It makes Avatar seem original.

You can watch something much more interesting and original on xkcd. Randal just announced the Time story has finished and you can go and watch the whole thing on one of the pages he linked. It's incredible how engaging can a black and white story with stick figures be.

If you are in the US you can watch the first 14 minutes of the new Syfy science fiction show Defiance. It has starships and alien landscapes and I hope this will work. I liked what I saw so far but Syfy has bad track record as far as cancelling stuff goes on one hand and The Cult (other O'Bannon show) is awful on the other so I'm a little anxious. I need some real scifi in my TV.

Every Friday people at Del Rey Spectra place a 50 page excerpt of a selected title on Suvudu and it's from across genres and includes new works from well known authors (Peter F. Hamilton, Karen Lord, Peter V. Brett my favourite George R.R. Martin stories about Tuf Wanderer) and series (Shannara, Star Wars). At least this allows you to try something new before deciding to get it.

Today's xkcd is one of those complicated ones. From time to time the story in this comic gets a new frame and moves on. If you don't have the time to sit and wait for the next event there is an auto-updating GIF posted by Primis on the forum that allows you to see the whole story so far.

I'm in love with today's xkcd. I agree with everything said in the comic but it's the alt-text that delivers the joke. At least, with p<0.05 confidence. To those who don't know this is a frequently used statistical evaluation of significance of results. If p<0.005 your findings are considered true if it's bigger then sorry - it's just junk. So after all the affirmation of science he delivers the stab. This is what we know until someone proves something different with better confidence or is unable to reproduce results.

In other news with above  p<0.05 confidence:

New way to fight obesity by turning white fat cells, that hoard reserves, into brow fat cells, that turn fat into energy. At least in mice.

Most people are aware that even newborn babies react to their mother voice but here is evidence that it actually does something to their brains other voices can't. Mother voice activates language centers.

The chemists finally had to accept the reality and adjust periodic table. I thought I had it bad back in high school when I had to memorise it but the sudents now that they will have to remember several atomic masses to acknowledge all the most popular isotopes for many of the most popular elements like carbon and oxygen.

Voyager 1 is soon to be the first one to go into interstellar space. Sooner then it was expected it's leaving the heliosphere. It's already where the solar wind stops.

Voyager 1 is the furthest a human made thing but we would still have to go 5x that to arrive at the nearest focal point of the Sun. And that would be useful because we could then use sun as a magnifying glass for all kinds of electromagnetic signals from observations of exoplanets to efficient interstellar communication.

Now that LHC failed to create black holes (so much time spent worrying what will happen when it would and now everyone is sad that it didn't) and setback proof the string theory we can look at other contenders for great unified theory. Here's a loop quantum gravity theory. I already like it because it's from my University Physics Department. I used to walk over their cyclotron every day.

And looking back to the Big Bang there are some signs that there are more universes around and they are close enough they smashed into ours at the beginning of time. And left bruises. If it gets proven we'll become even less special. Not just living on a small planet orbiting medium sized star on a verge of insignificant galaxy but also in one of many universes.

Back in our neighbourhood you can watch Titan's cold volcanoes spit icy water and maybe someday we can take samples and see if something lives there under surface.

If you prefer something you can see with your own eyes there is going to be a lunar eclipse tonight. I was  all stock up when I read the plan of events:

...the real 12 stages of a lunar eclipse are as follows:
1. Faint penumbral dimming of the moon’s disk.
2. Pervasive creeping sensations of unease.
3. Howling of wolves.
4. Unclean things walk the earth; Dick Cheney rises from the grave.
5. Contortion of the zodiac.
6. Intrusion of strange dimensions.
7. Universal gibbering madness.
8. Cthulhu.
9. A glimmer of sanity in the chaos.
10. Restoration of Euclidean geometry.
11. Fungal Mi-go from Yuggoth return captive brains to their rightful owners.
12. Applause, followed by waffles for breakfast.

However I don't feel like staying up till 2 a.m. but if you are sleepless or live further west enjoy.