We Only Know What Makes Up Less than 5% of the Universe

Via

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Negativity is a character trait.

- How confident are we that Dark Matter is real? As an aside Vera Rubin should have won a Nobel Prize. (HT Newmark's Door)

- Interesting - Arabian coins found in Rhode Island may unlock 17th century pirate mystery.

- Paul Graham - How people get rich now. Fascinating economics history. 

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

The passing of Rush Limbaugh leaves a large vacuum on the Right for information and entertainment programming. Wonder if Donald Trump could somehow fill that gap with a syndicated radio show? Many had been speculating about Trump launching his own TV network but this seems to be an opportunity too glaring to ignore... Government Cheese Vaccines would be a good name for a band...Could Dark Matter simply be the leftover quantum entanglements from matter and anti-matter that were annihilated just after the Big Bang?... Bill Belichick considering bringing back Cam Newton as his starting QB is a macroagression against Patriots fans. I'll need a safe space if that comes to pass... Cult of Inhibitions - band name or all-inclusive singles resort?...  Actually wouldn't mind if the Patriots gave Gardner Minshew a shot as their QB in 2021... 

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Some economic good news. I would consider myself in that 53% as well.

- Heh Heh

- Google, NBC "News", and The Federalist. As others have mentioned the idea of Google, which owns YouTube, having issues with the comment sections of anyone is the height of hypocrisy.

- Heh Heh

- This illustrates just how little we know. Physicists are pretty sure they know about 2.5 percent of the matter that makes up the universe and now they think they've identified another 2.5 percent. But that last 95% made up of Dark Matter - yeah we still don't know what that is.

- Heh Heh

- Winners of NASA's Photographer of the Year contest.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Now that Harvey Weinstein is a convicted rapist just a reminder that while he was President - Barack Obama got his daughter Malia an internship with Weinstein's company... Just curious but if The Rent is Too Damn High guy was running for President as a Democrat how do you think he'd be polling against this field? Have to be double digits right?... Adult Swim should have a show called Rick Santorum: Vatican Spy. It would be a cross between The West Wing and Archer. Tell me you wouldn't watch that show!... I'd like more Randy Quaid in my life (Tweet is a year old but damn)... I know stereotyping is bad but if I see the back of your car has 10 or more bumper stickers and two of them are for Coexist and Bernie Sanders - I'm going to go right ahead and assume that your home smells like cat piss... Deep thoughts from Chris - could Dark Matter simply be the leftover quantum entanglements from the matter and anti-matter that was annihilated just after the Big Bang? (Please note that if this turns out to be true the Nobel committee must credit A Large Regular)... Ed Asner could be this decade's Abe Vigoda. Every time his name comes up I'm surprised to learn he's actually still alive...

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- New sanctions on Iran's Supreme Leader's business interests should be heavy blow. As an aside maybe it should just be policy to have heavy sanctions on any country led by someone who calls themselves "Supreme Leader"

- Before Jordan Peterson had his book 12 Rules for Life - he listed 42 rules people should follow.

- I agree with Tom E. Curran that Gronk isn't coming back to the Patriots. At this point, as a fan, I don't even want him to. He retired on top and his body is getting healthy. Enjoy life Gronk - you've earned it!

- Interesting - Kepler's forgotten idea about "morphogenic fields" and symmetry may help explain spiral galaxies without the input of dark matter

- Heh Heh

- Mental Floss's list of the top 50 TV shows to binge watch. Is it strange that lately I've been thinking I should watch MORE TV? For month's I've cut back TV to just sports, stand-up comedy specials, and documentaries. Damn you Game of Thrones!

- I hope the term "Spanish Submarine" gets added to the Urban dictionary as meaning "a completely fucked up thing". Oh by the way - the S-80 Submarine has been offered for export.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- The Disney+ app looks pretty cool.

- Interesting new design for space telescopes

- Heh Heh

- Is Dark Matter older than the Big Bang?

- Heh Heh

- Interesting Ted Talk on growing new brain cells.

- Bitter Wheat looks like an entertaining play. Too bad Hollywood would never make a movie out of it.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

At this point the White House Correspondents Dinner should just cease to be out of pure shame over how Russiagate has been handled. This, of course, would assume these folks had any shame to begin with... Sometimes there's little or no difference between physics and magic... Why hasn't Taylor Swift commented on the Mueller Report yet? What is she hiding?... Deep thoughts from Chris - could Dark Matter simply be the leftover quantum entanglements from the matter and anti-matter that was annihilated just after the Big Band?... Cult of Inhibitions - band name or all-inclusive singles resort?... I tried watching the new Amy Schumer Netflix special. I lasted just 15 minutes. It was awful. AWFUL!... What is Dark Matter? Even the best theories are crumbling. (Maybe that's because my hypothesis hasn't been tested yet!)

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

I keep waiting for some MSM reporter to explain where the chemical weapons in Syria came from in the first place. I bet much of the stockpiles came from Saddam but reporting that would ruin the idea that there were never any WMD's in Iraq... Hopefully the Zuckerberg hearings in Europe will be broadcast in the US... Could dark matter simply be the leftover quantum entanglement from the matter and antimatter that was annihilated just after the Big Bang?... Elon Musk might end up being President Trump's biggest supporter if Trump can get Musk a manufacturing plant in China without giving up ownership and if Trump can get the NTSB off Tesla's back... "Tiger" running amok in Manhattan was actually a raccoon.  And the existential threat to the fabric of Western Civilization was actually just a Chick Fil-A franchise... Historically - which rock band was more dysfunctional The Kinks or The Ramones?...  The truth in advertising back cover to James Comey's new book...

Super Tuesday and Dark Energy

No I'm not trying to make some racist joke at Barack Obama's expense. I'm just trying to make an astronomy analogy with the US political process.

Like many people I was very interested in the results from Super Tuesday. So I tried watching Fox News, CNN and MSNBC to get my political jones fix. Exciting it was not. Watching the election results is like watching paint dry. It was so boring that I flipped over to the History Channel to watch a show on dark energy and dark matter (a show I had already seen before).

Scientists believe that dark energy makes up 70% of the universe while dark matter makes up 25% of the universe. We don't even really know what makes up dark energy or dark matter - everything is purely hypothetical. The stuff we do know about only makes up 5% of the universe.

The United States has a population of just over 301 million people. On Super Tuesday 24 states are holding primaries or caucuses. Massachusetts has a population of about 6.5 million people. Looking at the results it occurred to me that it seemed like just 5% of that population was voting. It seemed similar across the board as far as turnout. The rest of the population might as well been dark energy and dark matter.