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The Pioneer Anomaly
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 2065
Small observations can often mean large scale changes in the way we look at the universe. Little semantic things, like whether the Earth goes round the sun or the Sun goes round the Earth.
Small changes in the way we think can have profound impacts on the way we interact, manipulate and predict the world around us.
The Pioneer Anomaly is one such small observation. Since exiting the solar system (inner) and reaching the outer solar system, both the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 spacecraft (launched in the 70's) have slowed down more than any single factor can account for. Like the diminishing of the mass of the Kilogram, it's a small effect that might have big implications about the way we look at the universe.
Further Reading: Planetary.org, Cosmos Magazine
The Neighbors
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: People
- Hits: 1777
The neighbors downstairs have moved out.
They only lived here a couple of months, a Somali couple, I met them once when the power repeatedly went out and back on, I could hear the clicking of the fuse back and forth, went downstairs to see what was up, he was in a rage, apparently the fuse would switch off whenever he tried to cook food and work on the computer.
He was going to move out, couldn't stand living in the basement, couldn't live like that, unable to cook and work on the computer at the same time, he'd be gone at the end of the month...
I find that Middle Eastern people are frequently like that, taking offense at trifles and yet somehow ignoring really big things; it was the details that annoy them, imagined slights or insults in the wiring of the house.
I wasn't home enough to notice them, not much, sometimes you'd hear their music, curious and haunting, had they stayed I might have inquired what they were listening to. And everyday when I'd return from work there would be the smell of their cooking, delicious, and while I'd been fed at work it would make me hungry and want to eat again...the sound of children (heard but never seen), parties of taxi drivers gathering in the basement.
Now the flat is empty again, and I wonder who the next tenant will be. Were there any chance of the landlords listening I'd have some suggestions.
Kilogram Losing Mass
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 1982
Now it's a curious thing, but the official Kilogram (the standard from which the measurement is derived) is losing mass.
Not much, very little in fact, but there's really no good explanation for it. Not yet. Perhaps some of the platinum/iridium used to make it have evaporated, although that doesn't sound like something that metal does. Not over as small a time as 100 years. Maybe it wasn't initially wasn't measured correctly, but I think that possibility would have been raised already and accounted for.
No, it seems that it's gradually losing weight. Minuscule amounts, the weight of a thumbprint, year after year.
Which, as it's so far unexplained, begs some speculation....
Perhaps it's not the mass of the Kilogram that's changing, but the attraction of the mass to the earth (gravity)?
Is it just the Kilogram that's changing, or are all things on earth and throughout the universe losing mass? Is it accelerating? Could it be the expansion of the universe is somehow manifest in the expansion of all things, the weakening of the bonds of matter and hence the universe?
It's a small thing, a small loss, but it raises some possibly big questions.
Further reading: USA TODAY, Science Daily, Wiki on the Kilogram
RE:SOUND
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Rants
- Hits: 3236
The restaurant is being harassed with bills from RE:SOUND.
They claim to represent artists and send out invoices - dating back to 2003 - that attempt to collect royalties on background music played in your establishment. Now the simple fact is is that background music will help artist sales - if it's good, and if it's lousy, well, the business might not be around long enough to pay ....
Exposure helps artists. It's that simple. Free exposure, like that done by restaurants and shops that play background music - is terrific. Or was terrific, until RE:SOUND started billing....I'd be curious to know what percentage of the collected earnings actually go to the artists getting the exposure (as RE:SOUND has no knowledge of what music you're playing, how can they attribute royalties correctly?). But those questions are really irrelevant, what is important is that they collect money, and like the complacent Canadians we are nothing will be done about it ...
Link: RE:SOUND
Media: Calgary Sun, CBC
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