Saturday, February 19, 2005

2/19/05 Rocky IV

They just don't make movies like Rocky IV anymore. The movie is just un-turn-offable. I had laundry sitting in a public laudromat on a late Saturday afternoon, so needless to say, machines were at a premium. And I could not, for the life of me, miss Rocky Balboa's knockout of Ivan Drago in the 15th PA3 (apparently PA3 is Round in Russian, or so I gathered from the movie). Between Rocky IV and the Indiana Jones trilogy on the Sci-Fi channel, it's amazing I've done anything today.

Last summer I read a book about gravity waves. In a nutshell, among Einstein's many theories and predictions, gravity waves is the last major one yet to be proven experimentally. From what I understand, changes in gravity, such as a supernova, will cause ripples in space time, much like a stone being thrown into a pond. The result would be a quick expansion and contraction of all matter. There are two experimental centers in the U.S. that are recording data (I won't go into the specifics of how it's done since I don't understand it completely, nor do I want to write for the next hour and a half). Long story short, there is now software you can load onto your computer to help process the information called Einstein At Home. It's exactly like Seti @ Home where it uses your computer only when you're not, but instead of looking for ET, you'd be looking for gravity waves.

Get a free subscription to Blender Magazine - Thanks Mike!

Also from Mike - A neat look into the mind of an autistic savant.

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