the universe

Last August, astronomers working on the analysis of data being acquired by NASA’s WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) satellite announced that they found a huge void in the universe. A void is a region of space that has much less material (stars, nebulae, dust and other material) than the average. Since our universe is relatively heterogeneous, empty spaces are not rare, but in this case the enormous magnitude of the hole is way outside the expected range. The hole found in the constellation of Eridanus is about a billion light years across, which is roughly 10,000 times as large as our galaxy or 400 times the distance to Andromeda, the closest “large” galaxy.

The dimension of the hole is so big that at first glance, it results impossible to explain under the current cosmological theories, although scientists put forward some explanations based on certain theoretical models that might predict the existence of “giant knots” in space known as topological defects.

However, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill physics Professor Laura Mersini-Houghton made a staggering claim. She says, “Standard cosmology cannot explain such a giant cosmic hole” and goes further with the ground-breaking hypothesis that the huge void is “… the unmistakable imprint of another universe beyond the edge of our own“.

So if that's true, this can't very well be the universe anymore, can it?

runners

another run on peachtree this morning---the track club's marathon and half marathon are today, but i didn't think that began until 11:30----anyway, a lot of people out running in a chilly (63) rain---mostly quiet, except for some cow bells now and then, and the horde of marines running in lockstep and chanting as they went---

bugs

"To explore how groups of cockroaches make collective decisions, scientists have created a robotic cockroach that the real insects accept as one of their own. The robot doesn't look anything like a cockroach to human eyes. "It looks like an electronic matchbox," said Jose Halloy, a researcher at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium. But that doesn't matter, he says, "because in fact it has to look like a cockroach from a cockroach perspective." Basically, it has to smell like a cockroach. The scientists coat the boxy robots with a chemical, a cockroach smell, so the real roaches won't run away. "The cockroaches are not at all stressed by the robots because they are perceived as cockroaches," Halloy said. "So the cockroach is just accepting that kind of strange buddy."

He lives!

When some of the world's leading religious scholars gather in San Diego this weekend, pasta will be on the intellectual menu. They'll be talking about a satirical pseudo-deity called the Flying Spaghetti Monster, whose growing pop culture fame gets laughs but also raises serious questions about the essence of religion . . . . "We have evidence that a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe. None of us, of course, were around to see it, but we have written accounts of it," Henderson wrote. As for scientific vidence to the contrary, "what our scientist does not realize is that every time he makes a measurement, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is there changing the results with His Noodly Appendage."

fayette county

viewpoint

the exterior is nearing completion and they are installing landscaping on the terraces, which are on the 10th floor or so and apparently on both sides of the tower---the trees on our terrace are dying from lack of water---meanwhile aqua is offering to pay two years of association fees for each new purchase----

fayette county

yesterday

obama '08

main street

the g-great granddaughter of s. r. young the first stumbled across my post on her grandfather's death in august, two days before we closed on the purchase----she said he built the fish pond when he was a teenager, or before 1935---and she told me that her brother drowned the day after we closed---she was googling his name when she came across my post---
a lot of loose ends to finish up, but they refinished the floors upstairs this week---the two apartments up there are looking very good----

another benefit of tax cuts for the rich

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More than 25 percent of the homeless population in the United States are military veterans, although they represent 11 percent of the civilian adult population, according to a new report.

old whitehall street

old peachtree street

this morning

the cube

i relocated and now reside in a lovely cubicle next to one of the windows over alabama street---










and the view from my window:

the proposed enlargement of donald's domicile

the lees

i stumbled across an old post from somebody with the east point historical society who has been helping maintain the old lee family cemetery on washington road in east point---my g-g-grandpa john lee moved to what is now the west side of east point in the 1840s---one of my favorite pictures from that side of the family is this one, taken about 1925, showing ipson and tommie lee, my g-grandparents, in front of their house on washington rd., which was torn down about 1970---in the background is john lee's old antebellum house, which was torn down before world war II---the photo was taken not long before they sold the place and moved into town---ipson hated leaving the farm and killed himself a few years later---

fall

longview road, fayette county----

glutted markets

so aqua is finished, but they still haven't sold all the units---only a few people have moved in----kinda sad that, since w. peachtree is one-way northbound, the only people who really see the building's facade are the perverts waiting to get out of the parking lot at the dirty book store-----meanwhile 1010 is moving right along and viewpoint has been topped out---

i spotted the hawk that was hanging out in the pine tree next door, on top of the church steeple---

another canon

small enough to fit in my pocket----i'm gonna be taking more pitchers i think----

i got my new camera today

but i'm just figuring it out so i didn't take this picture --- check out some amazing photography here