Am I the only one on the planet who thought this

post from Pharyngula on 14 June 2011 05:40:48 PM. © Pharyngula

OK, I saw this strange video, and my first thought was that this had to have some sex and porn applications. And then I felt ashamed of myself.

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ly_one_on_the_plane.php

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Time to Get Your Wrinklon

post from Physics Buzz on 14 June 2011 04:15:44 PM. © Physics Buzz

I've never bought curtains. As far as I can tell, they always come with the house, apartment or condo I move into. On one occasion or another, a girlfriend or roommate of mine may have put in new curtains, but I prefer to attribute such interior design changes to magical curtain fairies. I guess what I'm trying to say is curtain shopping has never really interested me . . . at all . . . ever. Until today, that it is.

The one thing that seems to have been enough to help me overcome my passionate disinterest in curtains is a new concept introduced in a paper published in Physical Review Letters a few weeks ago. In case you don't read PRL, I would like to present to you the wrinklon.

Now, I have to admit that i didn't read the paper too closely, and I am not planning to anytime soon. The APS Physics Synopsis, however gave me plenty of information to send me in search of my nearest curtain store.

Basically, as I understand it, a bunch of physicists looked at wrinkled sheets and developed a theory about a hypothetical, particle-like thing that they named wrinklon. The term hints at the ways wrinklons are analogous to particles like photons, phonons, and electrons. I'm not sure what that means, but they used the concept to come up with an equation that has a characteristic number (which I'm calling the wrinklon exponent) that describes how sheets wrinkle.

A heavy rubber sheet has a low wrinklon exponent of 1/2 or so, and a light sheet may have a high wrinklon exponent of 2/3.

I may have no taste in colors, patterns or fabrics (or so I've been told about a million times), but I know I prefer me some low wrinklon exponent curtains with big, heavy ripples. You might talk me into a some lacy, high exponent stuff over the kitchen window, I suppose, pushing 3/5 at the most, but that's as far as I'll go.

The bottom line is this: physics jargon is fun, especially when wielded against unsuspecting interior designers who are always going on about my tendency to wear plaid shorts with paisley shirts, or to put orange place mats on a blue table cloth. That's all a matter of opinion, while wrinklons are science.

I think I'll head out tonight and get my wrinklon!

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Neil Tyson and I talk time travel

post from Bad Astronomy on 14 June 2011 03:30:39 PM. © Bad Astronomy

A few weeks ago I was in New York City to attend NECSS, a skeptic meeting. While I was there, I swung by my pal Neil Tyson’s radio studio to record a couple of episodes of his wildly popular "Star Talk Radio" show. The first episode,[...]

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URGENT: Call Appropriations Committee members to
support Pu-238 production

post from Planetary Society Weblog on 14 June 2011 03:21:02 PM. © Planetary Society Weblog

I just got the following email from the American Geophysical Union (AGU), requesting anyone whose Congressperson sits on the Appropriations Committee to place a phone call to support the production of Plutonium-238, the isotope of plutonium that powers spacecraft that cannot run on solar power. We're basically out of the stuff, and no one is making more, which dims future prospects for the exploration of the outer planets and other distant ....

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USB Power Pot Uses Excess Heat to Charge Your
Gadgets

post from CR4 - Recent Blog Entries on 14 June 2011 02:05:28 PM. © CR4 - Recent Blog Entries

From Engadget: Most stoves produce heat that far exceeds the temperature necessary to boil water, but TES NewEnergy has found a way to convert that excess energy into power, which can subsequently be used to charge your USB gadgets. Released yesterday in Japan, the Hitochaja HC-5 USB pow

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Rosetta has entered its long sleep

post from Planetary Society Weblog on 14 June 2011 01:25:43 PM. © Planetary Society Weblog

One big space event that I missed while I was on vacation was Rosetta's entry into hibernation. Rosetta is the biggest interplanetary spacecraft that has been launched by ESA, and it has the groundbreaking goal of entering orbit around a comet and dropping a lander onto it. Its chosen comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (a.k.a. "Cherry Gary"), will be close to its aphelion (farthest distance from the Sun) at 5.25 astronomical units when Rosetta ....

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June Issue of AJOB Now Available Online!

post from blog.bioethics.net on 14 June 2011 01:15:22 PM. © blog.bioethics.net

The summertime is already upon us, as is the June issue of The American Journal of Bioethics. This month we feature a debate over the controversial practice of continuous sedation as proposed by three Dutch authors as an alternative to...

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The Sun may be headed for a little quiet time

Is the solar cycle shutting down?New results indicate it may very well be, at least temporarily. Even though the Sun is currently approaching the peak of its cycle in 2013, and we’re seeing an increase in activity (more sunspots, flares, and other[...]

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In Record Drought, Texas Frackers Firefighters
And Farmers Compete For Water

From TreeHugger: Farmers everywhere require water to raise crops or animals. Texas fracking drillers need water - in some counties extraordinary amounts - to extract their product. Fire fighters too need water to douse the flames (as pictured). When there's a serious, extended drought, a

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London's Olympics Basketball Stadium Looks
Inflatable But Is Actually Recyclable

From Gizmodo: Amazingly, another of London's Olympics stadiums has actually been completed on time, with the basketball stadium becoming the fourth to be finished off. Designed to be temporary, the building will be recycled after the 2012 London Olympics. Read the whole article

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oks-Inflatable-But-Is-Actually-Recyclable?from_rss=1

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