Time Machines and Event Horizons » Undivided Looking I've written a pop-article about Time Machines and Event Horizons, which has appeared on the Scientific American blog Critical Opalescence. George Musser, my host, is an editor at Scientific American, and kindly gave me this opportunity to talk about some of my ideas in my article, The Generalized Second Law implies a Quantum Singularity Theorem. If you have any questions about the physics in the article, please feel free to leave comments on this post here. (Questions left on the Scientific American website will be answered in the comments to this post, if anywhere.) I am a postdoctoral researcher studying quantum gravity and black hole thermodynamics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
How to Be Smarter Than People Smarter Than You – Personal Growth Something like 50% of people don’t read a single book after school. Many of these people were “smart” in school. Here’s the thing about “smart” people. They get used to understanding things. Thank god I’m not very smart. Instead, I cheat. For the most part, I cheat by reading in these 4 areas: It doesn’t really matter whose book you read. Personally I like: You Are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero. Read a book or two, and get a plan. I’ve been broke. Doesn’t matter your career. Here are my favorites: Made to Stick and Switch by Chip and Dan HeathLaunch by Jeff WalkerBlink by Malcolm GladwellThe Rich Employee by James Altucher Okay so admittedly everything could have gone under this heading so I guess it could more accurately be called “read about human nature” Understanding the human condition is huge for both your own survival and your relationships. Try these: In 2014, my gut was deteriorating inside me. Nobody cares about your health. Start with:
Dark-Sky Site Designations | The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Dark-Sky Preserves and Urban Star Parks The RASC has developed formal guidelines and requirements for two types of light-restricted protected areas: Dark-Sky Preserves and Urban Star Parks. We are officially recognizing parks in Canada that apply for an official designation and meet these guidelines. Many parks across Canada have been designated in recent years - see the list below. If you have a favourite dark site, perhaps it could be designated by the RASC as a Dark-Sky Preserve or an Urban Star Park, so please let us know by sending us an email to Light-Pollution Abatement Committee Chair. Dark-Sky Preserve (DSP) A Dark-Sky Preserve is an area in which no artificial lighting is visible and active measures are in place to educate and promote the reduction of light pollution to the public and nearby municipalities. Urban Star Park (USP) Other non-RASC Designation Types Complete List of RASC Recognized Dark-Sky Preserves List of RASC Recognized Urban Star Parks
California - United States | 2012 Perseids meteor shower viewing times and information In 2015, the peak of the Perseids meteor shower will occur around the time of a New Moon. This will produce favorable viewing circumstances for observers expecting to get the full effect of this yearly summer experience. With upwards of 80 meteors per hour predicted, it should well be worth staying out to catch quite a few impressive bursts of light streaking through the night sky. On average, under completely clear skies, and in complete darkness, observers may witness 50 to 80 meteors per hour; but these rates can exceed up to 120 meteors per hour in rural locations. Be aware that local conditions such as light pollution, cloud cover, and precipitation will also play a major role in the number of meteors you are likely to see. For the best viewing experience, find an area unobstructed by a structure that is far away from city lights. Once you have settled down at your observation spot, face half-way up toward the northeastern portion of the sky.
The Beginning of the Universe and the Limit of Knowledge “Despite its name, the big bang theory is not really a theory of a bang at all. It is really only a theory of the aftermath of a bang.” -Alan Guth So you finally understand it. Image credit: original source unknown. The farther back we go, the closer together everything was, the higher in temperature (and shorter in wavelength) all the radiation was, and — of course — the younger the Universe was. Image credit: Ned Wright (possibly Will Kinney, too), via At some point, it was hot enough that neutral atoms couldn’t even form; as soon as an electron would find an atomic nucleus, a high-enough-energy photon would come along and ionize the atom’s constituents. Image credit: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. But not indefinitely; we can only go back a finite amount of time in the past, and that’s because what we consider “our Universe” didn’t begin from a singularity 13.8 billion years ago, but began when the previous stage — cosmic inflation — came to an end.
How I made my own VPN server in 15 minutes | TechCrunch People are (rightfully) freaking out about their privacy as the Senate voted to let internet providers share your private data with advertisers. While it’s important to protect your privacy, it doesn’t mean that you should sign up to a VPN service and tunnel all your internet traffic through VPN servers. A VPN doesn’t make you anonymous What the hell is a VPN? But if you want a brief recap, when you connect your computer or phone to a VPN server, you establish an encrypted tunnel between your device and that server. And yet, it doesn’t make you magically anonymous. That’s why I don’t recommend signing up to a VPN service. As a side note, many sites now rely on HTTPS to establish a secure connection between your browser and the website you’re using, even TechCrunch. But VPNs can be useful from time to time. Setting up your own VPN server As Woz commented on my previous VPN article before the Senate debacle, you could be running your own VPN server: Disposable VPNs
OVATION Aurora OVATION Aurora NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center/ Space Weather Prediction Testbed NOAA, National Geophysical Data Center, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab. 2011 NOAA National Weather Service. Design by SWPT. __ Contact: Email WebMaster ObservingSites.com 125 Great Science Videos: From Astronomy to Physics & Psychology Astronomy & Space Travel A Brief, Wondrous Tour of Earth (From Outer Space) - Video - Recorded from August to October, 2011 at the International Space Station, this HD footage offers a brilliant tour of our planet and stunning views of the aurora borealis.A Universe from Nothing - Video - In 53 minutes, theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss answers some big enchilada questions, including how the universe came from nothing.A Year of the Moon in 2.5 Minutes - Video - The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been orbiting the moon for over a year. The footage gets compressed into 2 slick minutes.A Day on Earth (as Seen From Space) - Video - Astronaut Don Pettit trained his camera on planet Earth, took a photo once every 15 seconds, and then created a brilliant time-lapse film.Atlantis's Final Landing at Kennedy Space Center - Video - After more than 30 years, the space shuttle era comes to a close. Physics Biology & Chemistry Environment, Geology and & Ecology Psychology & Neuroscience
Megacities, not nations, are the world's dominant, enduring social structures — Quartz Cities are mankind’s most enduring and stable mode of social organization, outlasting all empires and nations over which they have presided. Today cities have become the world’s dominant demographic and economic clusters. As the sociologist Christopher Chase-Dunn has pointed out, it is not population or territorial size that drives world-city status, but economic weight, proximity to zones of growth, political stability, and attractiveness for foreign capital. This map from my new book, Connectography, shows the distribution of the entire world’s population, with yellow representing the most dense areas. Within many emerging markets such as Brazil, Turkey, Russia, and Indonesia, the leading commercial hub or financial center accounts for at least one-third or more of national GDP. By 2025, there will be at least 40 such megacities. China’s Pearl River delta, Greater São Paulo, and Mumbai-Pune are also becoming more integrated through infrastructure.
Parallel worlds exist and interact with our world, say physicists Quantum mechanics, though firmly tested, is so weird and anti-intuitive that famed physicist Richard Feynman once remarked, "I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics." Attempts to explain some of the bizarre consequences of quantum theory have led to some mind-bending ideas, such as the Copenhagen interpretation and the many-worlds interpretation. Now there's a new theory on the block, called the "many interacting worlds" hypothesis (MIW), and the idea is just as profound as it sounds. The theory is a spinoff of the many-worlds interpretation in quantum mechanics — an idea that posits that all possible alternative histories and futures are real, each representing an actual, though parallel, world. MIW, however, says otherwise. "The idea of parallel universes in quantum mechanics has been around since 1957," explained Howard Wiseman, a physicist at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, and one of the physicists to come up with MIW. Related on MNN:
How To Identify That Light In The Sky? What is that light in the sky? Perhaps one of humanity’s more common questions, an answer may result from a few quick observations. For example — is it moving or blinking? If so, and if you live near a city,the answer is typically an airplane, since planes are so numerous and so few stars and satellites are bright enough to be seen over the din of artificial city lights. SEE ALSO: Night on Earth: biggest cities without power Still unsure?
Total Solar Eclipse 2017: When, Where and How to See It (Safely) On Aug. 21, 2017, American skywatchers will be treated to a rare and spectacular celestial show — the first total solar eclipse visible from the continental United States in nearly four decades. Next year's "Great American Total Solar Eclipse" will darken skies all the way from Oregon to South Carolina, along a stretch of land about 70 miles (113 kilometers) wide. People who descend upon this "path of totality" for the big event are in for an unforgettable experience, said eclipse expert Jay Pasachoff, an astronomer at Williams College in Massachusetts. "It's a tremendous opportunity," Pasachoff told Space.com. A total solar eclipse last darkened soil on the U.S. mainland on Feb. 26, 1979. The fact that total solar eclipses occur at all is a quirk of cosmic geometry. But most solar eclipses are of the partial variety, in which the moon appears to take a bite out of the sun's disk. Pasachoff advises folks to make that drive when the time comes. Pasachoff himself plans to be there.
Astro Bob | Celestial happenings you can see from your own backyard