Category Archives: Physics

13 things that do not make sense

Posted on by

Mr Burns is weirdThat's a scientist for ya. He thinks there are only 13 things in this world that do not make sense. He obviously doesn't read as widely as I do.

The New Scientist, on 13 things that do not make sense. Bonus points if you've actually heard of all these things; you're pre-confused, and thus ahead of the rest of us.

“Something on Mars is ingesting nutrients, metabolising them and then belching out radioactive methane”

  1. the placebo effect
  2. the horizon problem
  3. ultra-energetic cosmic rays
  4. Belfast homeopathy results
  5. dark matter
  6. Viking's methane
  7. tetraneutrons
  8. the Pioneer anomaly
  9. dark energy
  10. the Kuiper cliff
  11. the Wow signal
  12. not so constant constants
  13. cold fusion

Weird Science

The 100 Most Influential People in History…and their Religions!

Posted on by

For the next time you're looking for some way to stir the pot at a boring party. This is from Michael H. Hart's book The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History. No matter what the religion, you can find people the world would have been worse off without. But I didn't know Manicheanism was considered a whole separate religion: seems to me just a quality of most of them. Live and learn. Here's the top twelve:

Rank Name Religious Affiliation Influence
1 Muhammad Islam Prophet of Islam; conqueror of Arabia; Hart recognized that ranking Muhammad first might be controversial, but felt that, from a secular historian's perspective, this was the correct choice because Muhammad is the only man to have been both a founder of a major world religion and a major military/political leader. More
2 Isaac Newton Anglican (rejected Trinitarianism, i.e., Athanasianism; believed in the Arianism of the Primitive Church) physicist; theory of universal gravitation; laws of motion
3 Jesus Christ * Judaism; Christianity founder of Christianity
4 Buddha Hinduism; Buddhism founder of Buddhism
5 Confucius Confucianism founder of Confucianism
6 St. Paul Judaism; Christianity proselytizer of Christianity
7 Ts'ai Lun Chinese traditional religion inventor of paper
8 Johann Gutenberg Catholic developed movable type; printed Bibles
9 Christopher Columbus Catholic explorer; led Europe to Americas
10 Albert Einstein Jewish physicist; relativity; Einsteinian physics
11 Louis Pasteur Catholic scientist; pasteurization
12 Galileo Galilei Catholic astronomer; accurately described heliocentric solar system

 And an interesting table:

Religious Affiliation % in List
Catholic 31%
Anglican/Episcopalian 13%
Jewish 7%
Atheist 6%
Greco-Roman paganism 6%
Chinese traditional religion/Confucianism 5%
Lutheran 5%
Russian Orthodox 4%
pre-Nicene Christianity 3%
Platonism 3%
Islam 2%
Hindu 2%
Buddhist 2%
Presbyterian 2%
Zoroastrian 2%
Manicheanism 2%
Quaker 2%
Unitarian/Universalist 2%
Calvinist 2%
Jain 1%
Jansenist 1%
United Brethren 1%
Congregationalist 1%
Dutch Reformed 1%
Egyptian paganism 1%
Mongolian shamanism 1%
Taoism 1%
Baptist 1%
Sandemanian 1%
Protestant (denomination unknown) 6%
unknown 5%

Newton’s Laws of Physics

Posted on by

as presented by a group of athletic, yet highly impaired teenage boys. With slo-mo replay from multiple angles. Do not operate heavy machinery or videocameras under the influence of whatever it was that they just took. Although apparently it prevents you from feeling pain…

Manhattanhenge: May 28

Posted on by

From Gothamist:ManhattanHenge!

Manhattan-what? Here, let's let the director of the Hayden Planetarium explain:

"Next Sunday and on July 13, the sun will fully illuminate every Manhattan cross street (not the curved or angled ones) on the street grid during the last 15 minutes of daylight, and it will set on each street's center line. The sight is breathtaking."

You know, of course, what the longterm effect will be? Centuries from now, puzzled archaeologists will conclude that ancient Manhattanites worshipped the sun; devotion was displayed in the common "Mystic" tans, and the city was laid out on a celestial grid. The festival known as "May Two-Four-Plus-Four" was the holiest of days.

Of course.

Trojan Assplosion: insert obscure classical reference here

Posted on by

The Trojan nuclear reactor cooling tower on the Hood River in Oregon goes down. Just like it was aspozed to.

No Muslims were harmed during the making of this video.

Just a note; isn't it odd that the screaming doesn't start until they hear the big BOOM, several seconds after they see the explosion? I wonder what that means…