Sunday, July 31, 2011

Let's Cover The Moon With Yogurt!...

...no, let's cover the moon with Quark!

no, let's go find Quarks!

no, let's find the Higgs boson, the Holy Grail!
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18 comments:

  1. chickelitJuly 31, 2011 at 10:24 AM

    Cynics say that politicians only play the spending game because it works: people reelect them because they bring home the bacon and other pork products back from DC.

    The Tea Party is going to change this: the new paradigm is to reward politicians for rejecting this selfish and destructive behavior. The devil is in the details, but that's the basic premise.

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  2. Carol_HermanJuly 31, 2011 at 10:55 AM

    I love you!

    "Quarks" comes from James Joyce's Ulysses.

    What was the name of the guy who worked with Feynman at Caltech? I'm bugged that I can't remember it.

    And, I think Paul Ryan ... addressing Speaker Boehner by the way ... said look at the trillions we would save if we just wrote a law saying we were going to THROW YOGURT ON THE MOON!

    It's getting very little coverage. Except for a Breitbart post ... where he produced the actual film clip.

    We've got a crisis in DC ... and it would be such a shame not to pay attention ... so that it goes to waste.

    Wouldn't the moon benefit by putting yogurt on top? Then, the cow wouldn't have to keep jumping over ... She's know she produced enough milk ... that sending yogurt up would be a benefit.

    And, yes. It would benefit Wisconsin.

    You'd no longer have to wait for the Moon to turn Blue.

    I'm in favor of the motion to pass the yogurt toss. How high can we make it go?

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  3. Carol_HermanJuly 31, 2011 at 10:57 AM

    What if they find the HIggs Boson goes backwards in time? So the moment it's found was yesterday?

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  4. Carol_HermanJuly 31, 2011 at 1:54 PM

    Murray Gell-Mann ... And, yes. Feynman had fun with the (fake) hyphenation. And, the double-m. Friends can be like that!

    After Feynman died, the air went out of Gell-Mann. And, he retired from Caltech.

    I learned, then, that friends keep humor rights alive.

    And, I remembered Gell-Mann while I was eating lunch. Thinking about other stuff. It just popped into my head.

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  5. Carol_HermanJuly 31, 2011 at 1:55 PM

    Double "N" ... What was I thinking? Does dyslexia ever really leave?

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  6. chickelitJuly 31, 2011 at 4:47 PM

    Gell-man sounds like a slavic version of Hellman. The Russians don't have an "H" in their language--that's why Red soldiers scrawled "Gitler Kaputt" all over the the inside of the Reichstag when they took over the situation in 1945.

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  7. Carol_HermanJuly 31, 2011 at 7:36 PM

    Murray Gell-Mann is Jewish.

    He and Feynman would go to bars, together, to pick up chicks. Sometimes they went to Vegas. More chicks and tits stories.

    I thought you said you read up on Feynman?

    If you did, you read Murray Gell-Mann stories. And, the hyphenation was an affectation. Jeez.

    Because Quantum Man has an index I know Gell-Mann is going to show up on page 195.

    Richard Rhodes, however, DOES NOT! (Still, I went to Amazon and bought his paperback.)

    But you need to read the books I've read about Feynman. (Caltech is very nearby my home!) My heart carries a flame for Feynman.

    Hellman is the world's best mayonnaise. Slavic, to you? Egg yolks and oil. Not Slavic to me.

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  8. Carol_HermanJuly 31, 2011 at 7:45 PM

    You know why the russians were in berlin, don't cha? Eisenhower refused to waste ONE Allied life ... getting to hitler! That's when stalin was told he could send in his six divisions. All of the russian generals were in competition with one another, for stalin's approval!

    What should have been done in 3 days ... took those russian incompetents about a month. Their tanks immediately got stuck in the mud. There were one million russian troops ... who killed everybody (and all animals, too), in their sights. It was CARNAGE!

    Of course, Japan got to know carnage in the summer of '45. August.

    In mid-July of 1945, we dropped Trinity in the desert near Los Alamos. Afterward, Feynman said "see" ... "I knew it would work!"

    Truman was at Postdam meeting stalin. When he was asked to instruct the military on what they could do. Truman shot back, "the patient can have the operation anytime starting August 1st."

    When did the bomb drop on Nagasaki? August 2nd? Or 3rd. Then, because the Japanese were not convinced. We sent "fat man" to Heroshima.

    Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in a flash. Before the Japanese high command was willing to call it quits.

    MacArthur was told by Truman that he could decide Hirohito's fate. That's the only reason Hirohito escaped hanging.

    Halsey wanted him hung.

    And, Halsey wanted all the men to wear their pistols on surrender day.

    MacArthur said if Halsey were to wear his pistol he, MacArthur, would PERSONALLY THROW HIM OVERBOARD.

    Man I love to read.

    Mark Twain said we really don't remember what we read. And, I guess this is true.

    But the stuff that sticks sure can compose itself out, again.

    How come, Bruce, you come up short on Feynman?

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  9. Carol_HermanJuly 31, 2011 at 7:47 PM

    I think the only reason hitler killed himself is that he was terrified of the russians coming down the bunker.

    I'd bet he kept hoping he'd be caught by the Americans. But they only stayed west of berlin.

    The price? The russians played nasty with us, too. And, Berlin got a wall. Everything east went under stalin's boot.

    When I shrug my shrugs, I point out to you that North Korea doesn't stand a chance at unification! Because the price to the germans wasn't worth it.

    It makes me laugh.

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  10. Carol_HermanJuly 31, 2011 at 8:02 PM

    Feynman "bounced off people." You pick this up in the stories told. Murray Gell-Mann both came to Caltech at about the same time. Their offices were near each other. I think divided by the office that held their secretaries.

    The offices had doors INTO the secretaries space.

    And, had doors to the hallway.

    Feynman kept on working until the week where he died. And, after he died (like a Siamese Twin), Gell-Mann retired.

    Feynman was 70 when he passed away.

    I'm going to check Google to see when Gell-Man was born.

    I keep thinking Millican (sp?) was the president of Caltech ... Then? Baltimore came in. On the east coast there were real attempts to destroy Baltimore.

    Remember the PHONY charge that a woman didn't keep good lab records? (Turns out her accuser was dishonest.)

    But I don't think Baltimore got to Caltech as President ... until 1997?

    I'm terrible with dates!

    Caltech is very special! When my son went to Mudd, a classmate (whose parents were Russian ... and she was advanced to 2nd grade. Yet she was always first in class!) Won the Westinghouse Prize. She came in 2nd, working with slugs. On a hearing experiment.

    She was a senior in high school, when she won. And, she was also going to to to Mudd. But her WIN had Caltech opening it's vault. (Yeah, her mother complained to me she still had to pay room and board!)

    I asked Carrie, if she liked Caltech. And, if she was treated well. She told me her professors (some with Nobels) ... had offices that always gave her access! To get treated lousy ... you have to go to havahd!

    Of course, Mudd was excellent! (My son complained about all the work. Which I was paying for. But when I spoke to the president, I said "that was fine with me.")

    My son complained, so what?

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  11. chickelitJuly 31, 2011 at 8:38 PM

    How come, Bruce, you come up short on Feynman?

    Because I'm better with chemistry than with physics? You are like 90% of the general public who romanticize physics and biology and give short shrift to chemistry. That's why chemistry has mostly moved off shore. That's kind of why I'm no longer employed in the industry.

    If you want me to blog about physics instead, I suggest you go find a different blog.

    Next question?

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  12. Carol_HermanJuly 31, 2011 at 9:26 PM

    Well, physics is "quicker."

    And, like I said, one of the few friends I've had since 1985 is a chemist. And, I adore Alan!

    He is so completely different from me. Very logical. And, when he runs into a problem he solves it "slowly."

    The same way you do in a lab. When you're going to test something ... that takes a long time where you have to observe and notate.

    I haven't got the math skills! Keep this in mind! I'm sort'a self taught. And, I blanked out on numbers.

    WORSE! (It may be a problem some females have) ... I cannot visualize space! Remember those test questions ... where they'd show you a "box" ... but you'd only see the front of it pictured, and you were asked to draw the unseen portion? GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!

    Explain to me how you can see around corners?

    As to chemistry ... when it comes to cooking ... I love the fact that you can mix flour and water ... and get it to become something else.

    You know, I can still picture my grandma, with a pile of flour. She'd make a hole in the middle of it. And, drop in one egg. And, use a fork ... going round and round ... till she got a ball of dough.

    She'd then, after rolling, making strands of noodles. Or my favorite: Kreplach! (Which after they were completed had to dry. Before they could be cooked.) I can still remember the kreplach left to dry, in a single layer. On the bed. Till they were ready.)

    You know raw you wouldn't even eat this!

    Cooked in boiling salted water ... and then put into soup. WOW!

    Isn't that what chemistry had before it became a science? Somebody had to observe what you could do with flour.

    (In ancient Egypt they made bread ... on par with what you'd get in France, today!) And, as a byproduct, they got beer.

    Among the sciences, by the way, chemistry is the youngest!

    You know, QUANTUM MAN is spectacular! Because Feynman VISUALIZED. Which is how intuition works.

    If this were put to song ... you'd hear ... "First, you gotta dream."

    I ain't going anywhere.

    You want a question? How do you keep the kids from breaking the test tubes?

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  13. Carol_HermanJuly 31, 2011 at 9:29 PM

    "First, you gotta have a dream." So said Oscar Hammerstein. Prejudice, on the other hand, you had to be taught.

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  14. LLAugust 2, 2011 at 8:14 AM

    Are you advocating throwing plain yogurt at the moon, or something with more additives, sugar and fruit --like Yoplait -- made in France perhaps?

    These are some of the really essential questions that need asking.

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  15. Carol_HermanAugust 2, 2011 at 10:18 AM

    LL: It was Paul Ryan who said Congress should CUT THE BUDGET, by first advocating a $14-trillion-dollar program to "throw yogurt on the moon."

    And, then when the program was "cut" ... our budget would have a $14-trillion-dollar-savings.

    You should have seen it in the original.

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  16. Carol_HermanAugust 2, 2011 at 10:20 AM

    The Higgs-Boson, being god's particle. Will never be found tomorrow. Because it is so yesterday.

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  17. chickelitAugust 2, 2011 at 11:25 AM

    Are you advocating throwing plain yogurt at the moon, or something with more additives, sugar and fruit --like Yoplait -- made in France perhaps?

    No whey!

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  18. LLAugust 3, 2011 at 3:47 PM

    No whey!

    I feel strangely vindicated...

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