Black Hole
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- Date published:
8:16 am, April 11th, 2019 - 126 comments
Categories: class war, Deep stuff, energy -
Tags: black hole, simon bridges
The first image of a black hole has been released. It’s a composite built by the observations of 8 telescopes and confirms the existence of a massive Eye of Sauron in space.
In short, a black hole is what you get when a star collapses in on itself and creates a feedback loop that entraps everything that comes near it. All substance, all light and all energy disappears into the void, crushed and atomised.
Once you’ve entered the black hole, there is nothing but darkness and no hope of escape.
However, NASA have confirmed that, despite the similarities, there is no truth to the rumour that the black hole is to be named Simon.
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you mean it was not a hollywood production?
gosh, who would have thought?
Heh.
Perhaps one day when science explains everything religious…
it will be that light is heaven and the black hole is hell
and that will be it.
‘god’ was never anything but physical matters twisted and warped in space.
proving, like dolly the sheep did, that the spiritual is a subset of the physical and not the other way around
Perhaps one day when science explains everything religious
If you reckon ‘science’ could explain any such thing then you do not understand what ‘science’ is…and what it is not…
much ‘religion’ has already been explained, and it is increasing exponentially. Example: the sun
Define ‘religion’ for the context of your comment…
Define ‘explained’…
Genuinely interested in your original comment and the sheep analogy, for which you have use ‘the sun’ as an example of …religion being explained …sun…’god’…I am assuming…
gotta fly but..
if you accept that dolly the sheep had a spirit/soul, then it becomes apparent that that was created by man through physical means. Dolly’s spirit/soul arose from the physical
When you get back, if you feel so inclined…
Perhaps you could have a go at articulating the two definitions I asked about…
Religion
Explained…
So, I’m reading…
1. You accept dolly had a spirit/soul – you see these things as the same..
2. However, because dolly was supposedly a ‘lab creation’…science experiment..
3. That there is no ‘spirituality’ which can exist outside of the physical being body/mind (single entity)…
4. Therefore there is no external ‘spirituality’ ergo no ‘god/religion’…
5. Because ‘science’ says so ….
About right?
Plus or minus…
The spiritual sprung from the physical. The spiritual is an as yet unnamed and undiscovered physical state.
I suspect one day ‘religious features’ will all be described as ‘physical features’. Same example; the sun.
as a tangent – as far as I’m aware no space exploration (by rocket or telescope) to date has discovered any new elements in outer space. Everything found to date out in space is made of materials that are found on earth. Everything…
There is something in that too.
Argh…ok….scientism…
That’s what my presumption was…thanks for the response to affirm…
Do you consider yourself an atheist ?
If I might ask you a question now – assuming you are of a religious view, how then did dolly the sheep acquire the spiritual? From where did it come? (all on the assumption dolly had such)
You’ve not answered the any of the questions…generally speaking…answering the asked question before coming back with some of your own is the sequence…
In a gesture of good faith, I’ll respond to one of yours… ‘where did dolly acquire the spiritual from’…
I am not for or against any religious persuasion…
…and in response to the question…if the ‘science’ you believe in had the answers…then you would not need to ask such a question…because the ‘science’ would already have provided you with an answer…
Which you could then use to confirm internal and external bias…
So …do you consider yourself an atheist ?
“if the ‘science’ you believe in had the answers…then you would not need to ask such a question…because the ‘science’ would already have provided you with an answer…”
This makes no sense in the context of science and its rising position within the world… Science hasn’t been able to describe everything yet – it takes time…
…for examples, plate tectonics were only discovered in the 1950’s. Anthropology is also only a very young science. Black holes were only recently discovered. It has only recently been accepted that it is now a matter of if, not when, life is found elsewhere (only 20 years you would be laughed at in suggesting such).
So imo to suggest that science would have provided the answer already is a nonsense.
To your question as to whether I am an atheist – reserving my position. I suspect that ‘god’ will end up being a physical state/thing somewhere which can be measured and described. Like the sun now can be.
Fair play on ‘reserving your position’ vto…
Measured and described…
The examples you provide are physical world…the belief in identifying measuring and describing the supposed ‘non physical’ … is pure scientism…among other things…cult like belief in ‘the science’…
‘Science’ cannot and will not explain everything…not ‘the science’ you’re refering to…not on an infinite timeline…absolutely not on a human timeline…
If you understood the limitations of ‘science’…then you would have appreciated what I was saying…
Einstein understood limitations…the so called ‘greatest minds’ did…
Many of them were deeply religious…Einstein was…
Perhaps you were not aware…
The examples you provide are physical world…the belief in identifying measuring and describing the supposed ‘non physical’ … is pure scientism…
Oh, the religious things that people just make up can be measured and described alright, just not in a way that the people believing the made-up stuff would find very flattering.
Depends on the definition of made up stuff…
So many examples in ‘science’… is made up stuff…best guess…
You know, milt…those things which ‘science’ leaves gaping holes while explaining…
“The examples you provide are physical world…”
No. The examples were not ‘physical world’. They may be physical world now, because science has measured them, but they were not physical world in the past. The sun was not considered a ‘physical’ – that only came later…
.. which can be applied to the rest of the supposed non-physical today, like a ‘spiritual world’. i.e. they too will get measured… which brings me back to dolly the sheep and any spirit/soul she may have had…
We are not at any end-point one two.
…
and this: “‘Science’ cannot and will not explain everything”
I don’t see how it is possible to say that. Especially on the trajectory of science over the last 200 years, and especially the last 20 years…
Science is explaining more, while religion is explaining less.
Note the tangent referred to previously – no new physical matter has been found in space yet.
BTW, where do you suppose Dolly’s spirit/soul came from? How did it arise? You haven’t answered that yet.
…
As to your limitations point etc, sure I can see how religion and science may converge one day, but imo it will be by way of a scientific proof.. Based on current trajectory that is
they may be physical world now because science has measured them…
Vto..I think I get where you’re coming from…science ia not the apex of anything which your comments indicate you believe it to be…
Unless you’re referring to science as having ‘god like’ status…which again…pure scientism…not science at all…
You’re indicating a faith based belief that ‘science’ …’knows’ all…and what it doesn’t yet ‘know’…doesn’t yet exist…but surely will…because science…
You’re practicing a religion…vto…faith based scientism…not scientific at all..
You keep repeating..’no new physical matter has been found in space…yet…
As if that can at some point on a timeline ever prove that what…pointlessness of religion’…will that prove anything at all…if such a thing could ever be proven…which it can’t…
But …but…just not yet..
You’re practising a form of religious faith…vto…
Why are you still asking about dolly and a soul…I don’t have the answer…neither does ‘science’…and it never will…not as you believe it can…
I’m not an absolutist…except on the cult of scientism…because proving something existential does not exist…
Is impossible vto…think it through…you’ve got some ‘time’…
One Two, you keep putting words in my mouth which aren;t there. Examples;
1- “science ia not the apex of anything which your comments indicate you believe it to be”. Never said that. It is not an apex, but it is certainly pointing towards an apex I think at the moment in the world.
2- “Your indicating a faith based belief that ‘science’ …knows all…and what it doesn’t yet ‘know’…doesn’t yet exist…but surely will…”. No, I am simply extrapolating the last 200 years of scientific advancement. Such extrapolation is of course a ‘forecast’ only, with associated uncertainty and risk.
3-“You’re practicing a religion” No – see above.
4-“still asking about dolly and a soul…I don’t have the answer…neither does ‘science’…and it never will…not as you believe it can…”. Not correct. Science created Dolly. Did Dolly have a soul/spirit? Can science measure a soul/spirit? There are already such suggestions…
You say you are not an absolutist, yet there you are being absolutist.
You need to think about what science has learned, especially in the last 20 years, and even the last 2 years. What science has learned has already debunked countless ‘religious’ matters. It is on an exponential rise.
The problem science has today, are the religious and others amongst us who act like conspiracy theorists and trump supporters in this age of fake news and bullshit… they say “how can you know anything?”… waste of space comment that one.
That is what you are doing.
…………
Finally, the point about no new material yet being discovered in outer space – it seems to flummox you. Come back to me later when thoughts occur about what that might mean..
I’m seeking to interpret your comments, vto…if I am not interpreting as you intend…you can clarify…as you’re trying to do here..
To your numbered points.
1. Your comments indicated enough for me to make the ‘apex’ remark…and you’ve confirmed it with your own words…previously…and again…
certainly pointing towards apex I think in the world…
2. How are you extrapolating…what method are you using…send links…give quantified examples…provide the authors you’re reading etc…
3. You don’t yet understand that you’re practicing a faith based religion…built on ‘forecasts’…extrapolations’…suggestions…
4. Post links to the studies ‘suggesting’ measuring soul/spirit…go right ahead…or are you being suggestive only…
If it is not defined…it can’t be measured…again…provide definitions…your own…not someone else’s…science can’t define the spirit or soul…science can’t measure it…no matter what ‘science’ says…
On the cult of scientism…I am absolutist…I stated exactly that…
As for the remainder of your comment…it reads like you have a long journey ahead…and alot of time to learn and grow…
I wish you all the very best, vto…thanks for the responses…
Both science and religion are models of reality however only one of these models has predictive capability….
The three basal starting points of models of reality (and the philosophy of reality) are:
1. We assume the universe exists.
2. If we assume the universe exists then we can assume that we can learn something about it
3. That which has most predictive power is a better model than that which does not.
Science predicts, religion does not so religion is a defunct model of reality
replying to my own: “Finally, the point about no new material yet being discovered in outer space – it seems to flummox you. Come back to me later when thoughts occur about what that might mean..”
I find this fascinating, though don’t know where it might end up…
What I suspect, in one short sentence, is that this means there is in fact a knowable end point to everything in the universe.
The end.
But wait there’s more… “What I suspect, in one short sentence, is that this means there is in fact a knowable end point to everything in the universe.”
Which would make sense given that we can glean as much about everything from looking down and inwards, as we can looking up and outwards. For example, the riddles of the universe can be solved probably by looking at the atom as much as looking at distant stars. And this ties in with there being nothing new out in space. It is all here right now.
The second end ha ha.
Telescopes probe the universe while the Large Hadron Collider probes the particles
I think in the grand scheme of the universe size is irrelevant and is a human construct
Selway…you returned…to share more of the ‘selway science’…
You made a grandiose exit…twisted up many commemts…your own involvment…and now you’ve flip floped back…
It’s ‘all’ human construct…except you know…the immeasursble volume of what isn’t known…
See if you can ‘selway science’ that….
Third end herewith, sorry;
“this means there is in fact a knowable end point to everything in the universe”
and therein lies God
the convergence is complete
One Two: “It’s ‘all’ human construct”
But if everything out in space is the same as what is on earth, then it is clearly not “all human construct” is it…. It is “all earth construct”
the whole universe is made of the same stuff that earth is made of
humans have nothing to do with it
The tools used to ‘define and measure’…are 100% human constructs…
Aren’t they…
If by “selway science” you mean “mainstream science” then yes.
I’m not sure what else you could be talking about but if you think I have made an error please point it out rather than just puffing out your chest. I will gladly retract any errors I have made if you could be a dear and show them to me.
Basically put up or shut up
Your (selway science) errors were called out…not just by me…and then a short time after you went on an abusive tirade on a different thread with a bunch of others…
You then got on a soapbox and announced you were moving on…seeking to absolve yourself of responsibility…a fewer number of handles corrected your written nonsense…and waved you goodbye…
Lacking of conviction…you’ve decided to come back…or are you someone else ?
Again…off topic…so I’ll leave it at that…
Plate tectonics was ‘described’ well before the 1950s
‘in 1912 the meteorologist Alfred Wegener amply described what he called continental drift, expanded in his 1915 book The Origin of Continents and Oceans’.. wiki
While Selway Science has a nice ring to it I prefer mainstream science. You know, shit that can be demonstrated and repeated.
Mainstream science is shit…you have that right on…
Corporatized, lobbied, corrupted, fraudulant, privarized and paid for…
Sound bites repeated ad nauseum for easy digestion…low cpu cycle requirements…narrow bands of thought…
Explains your pre soapbox commentary ‘I know the scientific method’…et al…
Mainstream ‘shit’ science…selway science…
A symbiotic embrace…
One Two “The tools used to ‘define and measure’…are 100% human constructs…”
Misses the point by a large margin – doesn’t matter whose or what tools are used to describe, the fact is that all the stuff out there is the same as the stuff here on planet earth. Use a martian or some mountain guru to measure it for all I care, it is the same stuff. That was the point, no matter how much you try to pull it back to the current shortcomings of humanity and their uninformed brains.
Humans have nothing to do with it. Perhaps re-read the point.
Vto…you appear to have missed that my response was to selways comment about universe size and human construct…
So in the context of my response…your question and my answer…about tools and definitions…that you are maligned…and off track…
Now…your eagerness to enforce that planet earth is same same…’star dust’…sure…but only to the best of human knowledge using human understanding of physics and maths etc…invented by human beings…
You’re rushing…a little lost…and keen to share your knowledge…that’s great…keep at it…
Will the Martians use science to gain ‘infinite knowlege’…
Or is that a uniquely egoistic human endevour…you reckon…
Hey vto welcome to the one two black hole. Lol – use maximum thrusters NOW before it’s too late man.
One Two, appreciate swapping notes with you but I’m going to stop now as the cry “nobody can ever know anything for sure because human” is a waste of time and can, by its own definition, never get anywhere.
And that has been the sole response from you at each point.
Your view is self-defeating and ever-decreasing-circulary.
See you in outer space one day, if it actually even exists… those stars tonight I guess I am seeing with my human eyes so may not even exist, how would I know, eh ………
Good luck
edit: @marty, heh yeah I think I finally clicked onto that. Have thrustered out now and cruising in my own orbit again …..
Cheers vto…your comments are positive and in good faith…I appreciate that…
The core of your comments as I read them was…science will eventually measure and explain ‘everything’…that is your stated position as I interpreted it…
I simply highlighted where that perspective has gaps in logic…we kept it light…
It reads like you have genuine curiosity which is such a cool trait to have…
Imagination is another amazing power to possess…
Science, will never be able to explain imagination…sure it can tell you which synapses are firing and even claim to be able to read thoughts…
But science will never be so apex,that it can explain imagination, where it comes from…
Nor will science rationally be able to measure or describe human spirit or soul…nor dolly the sheeps…
Cheers again vto…I’ve enjoyed swapping notes too…your style is open and friendly…
Stargazing and stardust…amazing…
@Marty
It’s one hell of a black hole. Lucky for me though following mainstream science is now “Selway Science”. I want a nobel prize now.
Here’s a couple of sites to help you understand the nature of what you’re up against.
http://sebpearce.com/bullshit/
http://wisdomofchopra.com/
Vto has been around this site for some time, and reads as too positive to be interested in joining the ‘angry little mans’ group, Andre…
Vto reads as far more capable than requiring bad advice from your grudge carrying quater…
Selways back…reckon you should sign him up…regardless the numbers in the group…none of you provide any challenge…individually or collectively…
Post some more on OM…you know the stuff I mean…
Meanwhile, back in the shop……
https://twitter.com/Jcrudess/status/1112504855375970306
Yeah – fuck mainstream science!
(Says the guy whose whole life is dependant on the work of mainstream science)
lol me too.
Depending on when the apocalypse hits, a week from when one med runs out I’ll be screaming in agony, and as the others run out various chronic conditions will start clocking off.
I might live another twenty years without them, but those years will totally suck until I have an event that kills me outright (if I’m lucky) or leaves me to starve where I fall if I’m unlucky.
With science… who knows how long I’ll hang around 🙂
Reading through this conversation it becomes apparent at this point that One Two is so named because they like to dance. No straight answers, just manipulation, twisting of words and general shit talk.
Soimon… Is that you?
Is there a black hole deep enough?
“Where the laws of physics break down”
Look, in the center, that’s where real magic happens.
I’ve heard tell you can turn lead into gold. We should send a delegation of investment bankers to investigate.
I feel like you’re all not fully grasping how mind-blowing this image actually is. The light in those images is from 54 million years ago!
When that light started heading toward us, the Himalayan mountain range was still 4 million years away from rapidly (geologically speaking) springing up. The European and North American continents were only just starting to break apart. Almost the entire world from pole to pole was covered in dense forests.
The earliest forms of ‘modern’ mammals (ancestors of elephants, primates, rodents etc) were only just starting to emerge. The earth was not particularly far past having dinosaurs dominate the ecosystem.
Well, more like microwaves than light. The EHT detects 1.3mm wavelengths, which is roughly 230 GHz.
https://eventhorizontelescope.org/
Impossible to get one’s head around but still truly remarkable.
So, that image was reality 54 million years ago! What is the likely reality today?
Cue discussion of relativity and what “today” means in terms of information travelling vast distances etc etc.
In terms of what we are likely to observe from earth in 54 Million years’ time, I suspect the answer is “not much different to what we observe today”. 54 million years really isn’t much in terms of the lifetimes of galaxies, stars, black holes. It might be a bit brighter if it manages to snarf down a few more stars in the meantime, or maybe a bit dimmer if our observation now isn’t long after it’s had a snack.
But if you want some real eyes-glazed-over stuff, here’s a goodie about the life and times of supermassive black holes.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4561239/
Thanks Andre. I suspected as much.
I will check out the link later. Too early still….
That’ll teach all the Fundies’ mumbo jumbo claims that God made heaven and earth (presumably with his bare hands) in ten days around 12,000 years ago. 😈
often overlooked is the formidable mathematical theory on black holes formulated by NZ Roy Kerr.
“Nobel laureate S. Chandrasekhar, who said that in his entire scientific life, “the most shattering experience has been the realization that [the Kerr metric] provides the absolutely exact representation of untold numbers of massive black holes that populate the Universe.”
https://physics.aps.org/articles/v7/18
And the Bald wig wearing black holes.
https://astrobites.org/2017/07/27/bald-black-holes-wearing-wigs/
often overlooked is the formidable mathematical theory on black holes formulated by NZ Roy Kerr.
He was given full recognition on both TV1 and TV3 this evening. Such a humble person too.
“That’ll teach all the Fundies’ mumbo jumbo claims that God made heaven and earth (presumably with his bare hands) in ten days around 12,000 years ago.”
You’d think so, right, but if common sense, carbon dated fossils and some brilliant scientific minds can’t break the grip of the 6,000 year old earth lie, sadly, a fuzzy photo of space aint got a hope.
I should have added a (sarc).
Quite agree but then Fundies sit on the lowest bar of the human IQ range.
No surprise most of them live in the US.
https://twitter.com/dakami/status/1114829101167079426
My late Dad was saying the same sort of thing as far back as the 60s and 70s but nowhere near as eloquently as Carl Sagan.
I knew where you were coming from so no need for a (sarc).
My personal opinion isn’t generally favourable to religions or the religious, but the really stupid ones, well they’re like flat earthers, anti vaxers and all the other weirdo conspiracists rolled into one giant nutbar.
That aussie meat head rugby player being a prime example.
Also remember Al1en something I read somewhere the other day, could have been on here
“Flat earthers have nothing to fear but sphere itself.”
Well I laughed
Good stuff.
I like the Neil deGrasse Tyson tweet – “A lunar eclipse flat – Earthers have never seen”
https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/934906611088359426
In using dismissive comments, abusive language, terminologies and pejoratives…
You are exhibiting many of the most negative personality traits…
How many can you list ?
Make a start, and I will continue the list for you…
I don’t give a flying f*ck what point you’re failing to make.
Though if you want to make a case for religion, 5g mind melting, flat earthers, anti vaxers and all the other weirdo conspiracists rolled into one giant nutbar, you go for it.
It’s you’re right to make a laughing stock of yourself.
I thought I had made it simple enough that you could understand…
Use of insults and other dismissive language serves only to illustrate the negative traits of the user…
All highly transparent…and separate from any specific subject matter…
Unsurprising you’d rather seek to deflect/project…using more abusive language…
This is getting off topic, so I’ll leave it at that..
Thanks for stopping by on your way to your next ill fated cause de jour.
It’s still your* right to make a laughing stock of yourself.
*Misspelling corrected from above.
immediately followed by
lols
What a fucking tool
“Make a start, and I will continue the list for you…”
1 1,2.. are you related to 3,5, n
2 if so would you be a bunny?
“You are exhibiting many of the most negative personality traits…
How many can you list ?
Make a start, and I will continue the list for you…”
wow that is sad that you’d want to list out someones negative personality traits – pretty cruel shit that. Your commentary has really changed over the last few months – you seem really angry and nit-picky and judgmental and on some kind of mission. WTF is going on with you?
Give it up marty…your weak attempts to project onto my comments are transparent…are you trawling comments looking for something you latch onto…
Alien handed over the negative traits…maybe take it up at the source…or more likely the aggressive swearing style appeals to you on a visceral level…and as a tacit endorsement of TA’s ‘style…you’ve tried to hang it on me…its not worked…you’re not able to pull that off marty…not with me…
You’re looking for something from me…you need to find things for yourself…stop talking your internal BS so openly…stop needing to apologize…stop promising to vaccinate your kids and hold someone else responsible…and then ignore repeated requests to show the certs…or admit you were simply mouthing off..again…
How many times have you apologized to me recently…and to others here for your angry foul mouthed insults…plenty…
And you are deluded enough to pass judgement on my comments…using a poorly thought out approach…
Move along marty…I’m not the target you should keep engaging with…it’s pointless for you…
I wouldn’t worry about it MM. You, like most here, know what 12 is like.
Don’t waste your time with bitter game players. Stick to knowledgeable debate and good conversation with those open to both.
Just an observation, 1-2; yours is a fairly demanding comment (@11:04 pm), quite poetic in its own way.
come on The Al1en – turn that shit into a hit – you got the skills – I’ve listened to your shit. There you go mate a bit more lyric for ya lol
I do remember doing ‘Link Whore’ for the original Phil. 😆
mumbo jumbo claims that God made heaven and earth
Whatever last vestiges of religion remained in my brain from Catholic schooling, they were wiped away when I read Sagan’s “Cosmos”.
My local Presbyterian minister (long since passed this mortal coil) was always running down the Catholic Church and by inference anyone who was a Catholic. Around 17 years of age I started to realise he was talking a load of codswallop. That got me to thinking about all the rest of the stuff and I came to the conclusion it was all a load of cods…….. 😉
Having said that, I have known over the years some truly good people who were/are devout Christians and were representative of all the Christian denominations.
At 17 years old I was just jealous of my catholic mate who went to a catholic school because the parties put on by his schoolmates were much rowdier and raunchier than the ones put on by my secular schoolmates.
Cosmos is one of my favourite books (and Sagan my favourite popular scientist. Tyson can fuck right off….Sagan is king)
More interesting info
“The iconic image offers humanity its first glimpse at the gas and debris that swirl around its event horizon, the point beyond which material disappears forever. A favorite object of science fiction has finally been made real on screen.
Their target was a nearby galaxy dubbed M87 and its supermassive black hole, which packs the mass of six and half billion suns. Despite its size, the black hole is so far from Earth – 53 million light-years – that capturing the image took a telescope the size of the planet.”
http://www.astronomy.com/news/2019/04/event-horizon-telescope-releases-first-ever-black-hole-image
Theres a massive black hole at the centre of our universe , the Milky Way, too.
“oday’s image is just the first astronomers expect EHT to produce. The observatory’s other main target is the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A*. While it sits 1,000 times closer than M87, it’s also roughly 1,000 times smaller, so it takes the same amount of observing power. But because it’s smaller, the material swirling around its event horizon moves much faster, completing one circuit every few minutes, as opposed to a few days to circle M87”
Too much data even for the internet for the M87 telescopes
“Another complication is just the logistics of moving around so much data. Each station takes data over a range of wavelengths, resulting in massive amounts of information, as much as 5,000 hours of mp3 music files – too much to transmit. For instance, to transport data back from the South Pole Telescope, scientists had to wait until Antarctic spring when the planes finally started flying out again. A shipping pallet packed with the hard drives had to be sent back to the Northern Hemisphere, where data analysis was done ..” Astronomy.com
Yeah I’ve just been marvelling at the science in that article – who knew you could weigh a black hole – mindblowing.
weight ain’t mass 😉
It’s one of the nice things about science and astronomy in particular that great efforts often rest on a rather elegant application of basic physical laws. As soon as you can lock down one or two values (like an orbital trajectory and distance from the body being orbited) the rest of the math fall into place and a schoolkid can do it.
It just takes someone really smart to lock down, with a decent model, experimental evidence, and the ability to explain their reasoning, those initial few values.
But marty didn’t say “weight”, he said “weigh”. Using the verb “weigh” as a shorter version of “determine the mass of” seems just fine to me.
Hmmmm
I’m not sure I agree with you, but it’s a fair point. I might have over-smartarsed myself 🙂
I will say I created the sentence to try and get people to read the article
And it should be noted the article did use “weight” incorrectly at least once to refer to a black hole’s mass.
National’s new logo design.
New National Party logo.
+1000
Has my vote 😀
Better logo for the minister of statistics.As physical information that enters a black hole is lost for ever.
Haha, nicely done Te Reo.
The parallels between black holes and National are interesting to say the least – A massive gassy ball of energy that isn’t sustainable and eventually runs out of fuel and implodes. What’s left is the void, a great gaping vortex of nothingness that’s infinitely dense. In this dying phase a black hole emits Hawking radiation affecting hapless particles that get too close to its event horizon – kinda like what we see with National ATM.
This topic is fine fuel for poetry 🙂
Death of a Gassy Giant
Do black holes grieve as Nats
for lost days of blazed trails
and spiraling companions.
Are they stained by death as Nats
now left to hawking their wares
to woeful passerby’s;
the lack of which
keeps Simon in the cold,
or will they learn as others have
that greatness isn’t girth.
I like it.
Stardust sprinkled sky
Simon aims for the moon
falls in the black hole
Ohhh haiku challenge! Yuss!
You had me at infinitely dense.
“You know of what I speak, Gandalf — a great Eye… lidless… wreathed in flame.”
The universe is so strange and has no discernible purpose.
So how then do we conduct ourselves?
The rain has cleared from the south and I am watching a kingfisher on the fence.
We try, in general, to not be dicks.
The abscence of an overarching meaning to the universe doesn’t have to result in a vicious, abusive society, any more than being asocial means one has to become a predatory wolf rather than a protecting sheepdog.
As social animals, we try to get along with each other, and we tend to ostracise the abusers. So from an enlightened self interest point of view, it’s usually best to try to avoid being a dick.
As social animals, we enjoy helping each other, being of service. We tend, to greater and lesser degrees, to avoid wanting to be dicks to others.
And if the dinosaur bones, laws of physics, and black holes are all just god playing hard to get, then as long as we’re not too much of a dick, we’ll probably be okay in the eyes of god, anyway. So not being a dick hedges the bet against the existence of an afterlife. And if not, then god’s a bit of a dick, too.
Yeah – that’ll do for now. Thanks McFlock.
Mcflock, you’re a self proclaimed bit of a dick…and certainly abusive through your comments on this blog site…following the bouncing ball…you’re contributing to an abusive society…
Through being a bit of a dick…
Enlightenment via self awareness …?
Hypocrisy?
Nobody’s perfect.
The vast bulk of your comments consist of belittling others while pretending to be working at some “higher level” than everyone else. Is that really any less dickish than calling someone a “fucking tool”?
At least I’m honest about my imperfections, dick.
Nobody is perfect…absolutely agree…we’re all a work in progress…
The rest of your musing is, as I have expressed to you before…flawed interpretations of my comments…but you can’t or won’t accept that…
You’re threatened in some way…and like others with a long archive of abusive history on this site…you go looking for ways to make the abuse sound as it it was somehow warranted or deserved…
If you were being even slightly honest with yourself…you’d have managed away from posting abuse on this site (your handle goes back a very long way…little change)…anonymous or not…it is a part of your contribution to society…
You prefer to write three paragraphs belittling another commenter and telling them how to live their lives.
I prefer to say “fuck off, you fucking tool”.
Potayto, potahto.
One Two is not only a wifi nut, but anti-vax & probably a bible banger as well, but too scared to admit it. He suffers from a writing affliction where he can’t finish his sentences …….
Thinks it makes him look superior to everyone else when he is none too bright. As for The claim that Einstein was deeply religious, what a load of bollocks. But he provides good entertainment for this website that can be a tad serious at times.
Didn’t Einstein shag his cousin? that’s pretty biblical…
Albert Einstein may have been a genius but his brother Frank was a monster
ugh 🙂
… and both of them were cheap drunks, getting hammered on one german mug of beer apiece.
Einstein walks into a bar and says to the bartender, “I’ll take a beer, and a beer for my friend, Heisenberg.”
The bartender looks around and asks, “Is your friend here?”
“Well,” says Einstein, “he is and he isn’t.”
Enrico Fermi walks into a bar, looks around, and says “where the bloody hell is everybody?”
Two hydrogen atoms walk into a bar.
One says, “I think I’ve lost an electron.”
The other says, “Are you sure?”
The first replies, “Yes, I’m positive…”
And finally
A neutron walks into a bar and orders a drink. Upon being asked the price, the bartender responded, “For you? No charge.”
She was his first and second cousin. Family games indeed.
Katie Bouman, lady nerd de jour.
https://twitter.com/Miss604/status/1116071474786234368
It’s been a big day for science. And an even bigger day for women scientists.
On Wednesday, we Earthlings got our first direct look at a black hole, thanks to the Event Horizon Telescope, an array of eight radio telescopes around the world working together to create the image. But in the midst of making jokes about how that photo kinda sorta looks the eye of Sauron and wondering how this newfound information could impact Albert Einstein’s theories of gravity, social media focused on making sure one of the women behind the project gets credit for her contributions.
Katie Bouman, an MIT grad, helped develop a computer program while still in school. Along with others, it helped create the image of the black hole. She also led testing to verify the images.
https://www.cnet.com/news/katie-bouman-was-key-to-that-black-hole-photo-and-the-internet-loves-her/
Thank you Joe. This woman deserves recognition for her fine work.
“….but kinda underwhelming….”
WTF? I know I said I wasn’t going to post here again but after reading that…WTF?
It’s a picture of a Black Hole! That, by definition, cannot be underwhelming!
Lovely to see you back commenting, John. I agree entirely about the awesomeness of the black hole. However the ‘kinda underwhelming’ line needs to be read in context of the post, particularly the last word 😉
I left for awhile because of the abuse really. People who seemed to think disagreement/fact checking claims etc = YOU’RE A RWNJ!
(I’m far from Right-Wing).
Sometimes it is a distracting and overwhelmingly negative. Particularly when people who say such things won’t back it up, just believing that shouting it loudly at someone makes it true.
Anyway – this is a great day for humans and a great day for scientific advancement.
If I contributed to you going in any way – my apologies. I do recall butting heads over the usefulness of meta-analysis. It was not important. What is important (for me) is owning my own foibles and screw ups.
We might disagree again, but I will TRY not to be such a dick.
Apologies.
I can handle butting heads – its all good.
It was people like Muttonbird (who repeatedly called me an RWNJ just because I disagreed with him/her) and One Two he resorts to ad homs instead of any real argument
Yes, life is too short for some people’s nonsense.
But if you’re in the right mood for it, it can be very entertaining nonsense.
#notallnonsense
I like space but that photo didnt get me fizzing at all . Looks like a soft focus pic of the top of an apple.
Yeah, you would’ve thought they’d have got in focus, eh bagthorn!
So its a black hole,… so is this.
The Black Picture – YouTube
They photoshopped out the Starship Enterprise, didn’t they?
An interesting explainer of the image.
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/4/11/18306110/first-image-black-hole-eht-event-horizon-singularity