Thursday, February 22, 2007

Wanderers 2007.2.21

Given out of town guests, I was planning to be late, but given the sudden need for a laptop capable of PowerPoint, I was to the rescue with Toshiba. Carla and Scott were ready to rest anyway, our having stuffed 'em with the best Chinese food from Fujin, where Becky, born Year of the Boar, doesn't think it matters if "Pig" is a synonym (a subject for teasing, either way).

Michael Armstrong is a behind the scenes publisher without much experience around scientists, judging from his performance. Bob McGown was especially interested in the subject, given his avid love of cosmology. Glenn Stockton has likewise studied their comings and goings. David Feinstein left early, back to analyzing the 10K or so shirt models he's been given, in terms of key measurements, some missing (so how to fill in, based on a smart model?). I got to sit next to Shomar in the coupe for a fun couple moments.

Electric Universe begins by zapping the sheer fabric of current doctrines, all centered around gravity countering nuclear energy, cohering the orbits (albeit chaotically, precessionally). "This cannot stand" is the obvious counter argument, and given what one might do electrically in the laboratory, all kinds of analogies might be cooked up, such that the literal truth of the Bible will once again be restored.

Brian the birdman swooped through, interested in the psychological implications. A cosmology is likewise a psychology (as above, so below), is the key teaching here.