Cool science stuff

Why did the pervert cross the road?

Because his dick was stuck in the chicken.


Not exactly a physics joke, maybe metaphysics.

 

I got up this morning to see the planetary alignment. The moon is in a bad spot and washed out the viewing, but I suppose the moonlight blocked out the background stars and helped make the planets stand out.

 

Now to thread jack this into another youth-school activities thread, today I was talking to my nephew StarBro, 16 and a junior in HS, and found out he is serious about a career in astrodynamics: the study and research of celestial bodies (or vehicles) in orbital motion. He's the one with the Dobsonian telescope in his bedroom.

He has a GPA of 4.32 (including AP credits) from a top-10 HS, and nailed a 35 on the ACT, so this isn't just daydreaming on his part. Right now his college choices are focusing on Michigan, Purdue, CalTech and MIT. The question appears to not whether he can get in, but whether he is going to get full rides. Holy sheet.

I mean, I can talk about what the term "astrodynamics" means, but I can't do it. He can.

 

At what age did he start reading newspapers?

 

Newspapers? LOL.

He had a computer at about 4.

Pretty much all that bunch started reading at 4-5.

 

So, he will be on ADD drugs by age 12 and more likely to commit mass murder due to media and video games?

(jk)

 

Well, we will see.

So far, his youth seems absolutely docile compared to my days in the Dazed and Confused Seventies.

And it's definitely a hell of a change for the better. The Seventies were the days of free expression, do your own thing, a 3.0 GPA is good enough, etc etc.

 

Since he's of Starman stock, the better question is when did he start reading Ayn Rand? And when did he realize he was smarter than her?

 

A few years ago. You don't have to be a super ultra genius to figure out Ayn Rand is an incompetent hack writer and basically an intellectual dullard. That should be obvious pretty quickly to even the casual reader.

 

That's great. I was just reading the other day that CalTech provides the greatest return on investment of tuition than any other school in the country.

 

I got up early this morning to see all five. I used binoculars to spot Mercury, but once I knew where it was I was able to see it without them.

If you were having trouble finding Mars, this would have been the morning to look -- it was right next to the moon, couldn't miss it if you tried. And Saturn is easy to find because it's even in the sky with Antares, the bright red star that forms the heart of the scorpion in the constellation Scorpio.

 

More wonders of graphene: Graphene optical lens a billionth of a meter thick breaks the diffraction limit