Thane Plambeck

Missing Chocolate

GLORIA: Are both of my chocolates still in the refrigerator?

COLE: One of them has been missing.

GLORIA: "Been missing?!"

COLE: Right.

THANE: Maybe it went for a walk or something.

COLE: Maybe.

Genesis vs "The role of black holes in galaxy formation & evolution," by Cattaneo, Faber, et. al, 9 July 2009 Nature magazine

In the standard picture, most of the Universe is composed of dark matter, whose nature is unknown.  Protons, electrons and neutrons, which compose gas and stars, make up the rest.  They interact with dark matter purely through gravity, which determines the evolution of the Universe on large scales.  The Universe emerged from the Big Bang with small inhomogeneities.  These eventually grew into lumps, called haloes, by attracting surrounding matter gravitationally.  The competition between radiative colling and gravitational heating determines the fate of gas in these haloes.  In low-mass haloes, cooling dominates.  Galaxies grow through the accretion of gas that falls to the centre in cold flows.

* * *
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

Mini cairns, II

Mini cairns

Mini cairns, originally uploaded by thane.

prison break classic

The following news story at CNN today follows the logic in my prison break story generation algorithm almost exactly.  A couple of changes and it might even have been output by it!

(CNN) -- One of three inmates who escaped from an Indiana maximum-security prison was captured Monday about eight miles away in southwestern Michigan, officials said.

Charles Smith, 48, was serving time on a murder charge and was captured in Grand Beach, Michigan, said public information officer John Schrader of the Indiana Department of Corrections. Smith escaped from the prison in Michigan City on Sunday along with murderer Mark Booher, 46, and rapist Lance Battreal, 45, Schrader said Monday.

"It appears they escaped by traveling in tunnels under the prison grounds," Schrader said at a news briefing Sunday. "This is a very unusual occurrence."

The three were discovered missing from their housing unit during a routine count Sunday, prison officials said. All three had at least 30 years left on their sentences.

Residents should take precautions, Schrader said.

"There should obviously be concern because the individuals are, in fact, dangerous," he said.

This shall be the title of this post

1) Cole returned from springboard/platform diving camp at UT Austin seemingly 1/2 inch taller and with a bunch of new dives:  His summary: "They say 'y'all" a lot."

2) Witnessed a stirring victory of the 12 year-old Palo Alto Nationals Little League baseball All Stars over Foster City, with a home run by Noah and a grandslam by Corbin.  I'd counted them out when they were down 7-0, but they won 19-9.  They play the next round on Monday.

3) Increasingly ignoring this blog because I'm wasting time on Facebook instead.

4) Very sore from increasing my activity level by the smallest amount conceivable.  As I (attempt) to run, the images that come to mind are of 1) a single donkey, chained to a 10,000lb plow;  2) A person near death, flogged into exercise by an overzealous personal trainer; 3) A pretzel flexed to the breaking point ("why aren't you more flexible...")