Black holes

[chicken]

Hey, mmcirvin and other Physics-interested people -- right now on WBUR, they are discussing Stephen Hawking's new theory about how stuff (my bad word choice) actually can get out of black holes.

Neato. Can't listen to the rest of it myself, but you all go have a listen. They will repeat it tonight and archive it for listening later tomorrow as usual.

Comments

[livinglaurel.livejournal.com]

The spousal overunit, when he heard of the news, said "So Hawking has finally decided that black holes are, in fact, hairy!" I tell you the thing about living with an ex-physics geek is the jokes....

....then he sat down and talked to me very seriously about john archibald wheeler and energy and black holes radiating something something and it all made grand sense at the time, and, as most non-Eng-lit stuff tends to do, ran out my ears shortly after I heard it.

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's me, too. Sometimes I can be persuaded to believe and understand quite a few fantastic things, by a good science fiction story. But the second I'm done reading the book, all the information dribbles right out of my brain. Damn brain.

[livinglaurel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, stupid frelling brain. I discovered during one of those VH1 We Love that You're Old Now specials that my brain had kept the lyrics to "Macarena." The lyrics to "Macarena!" I was sitting there on the couch singing along while the spousal overunit stared, amazed. Or possibly aghast. "A little Einstein, a little quantum mechanics, just possibly so we could follow along with the hubby's hobbies -- NO! We want the MACARENA!"

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. A graduate student in the Classics department here once cursed her ability to remember all the words to Soft Cell's Tainted Love (which she hated but which I like, just because Marc Almond was so wonderfully swishy).

[livinglaurel.livejournal.com]

Oh man, don't even start on the swishy eighties dance classics....the Cure, Depeche Mode, Tainted Love, Bronski Beat....they're all in there....thank you, brain!

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

I love 'em all. Of course, unlike some people, I don't listen to them constantly anymore. But I have to watch Depeche Mode 101 about once a year. Dave Gahan, whoa.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Well, as far as I can figure, it's not exactly "stuff getting out" so much as "correlations in faint radiation that have information content comparable to all the doomed stuff that died screaming on the way in".

And this actually brings Hawking closer to what seems to be a gathering consensus on this particular theoretical puzzle.

[livinglaurel.livejournal.com]

I....I....I bought his solo album.

((scuttles off))

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

Don't be ashamed!

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

Well, that didn't make any sense to me, but I'll take your word for it.

[livinglaurel.livejournal.com]

Well, I should be, cause it was kinda sucky, actually. He writes songs OK, but he's no Martin Gore or whatever that chappie's name is....

[livinglaurel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that actually sounds like something Tim said. It was information something something lost something black hole hair something something information something.

Paraphrasing.

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

Yes, Martin Gore was the brains of the operation, song-writing-wise.

[livinglaurel.livejournal.com]

Does he sing well? I've seen he has solo albums....

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

He sang A Question of Lust by himself, on Black Celebration. If you liked him singing that song, I suppose you'll like his voice a lot.

[livinglaurel.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhhhh, really? I do like that song. I thought it was Gahan (sp?), tho. Wasn't there one song the drummer came out and sang, a high one....

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

There isn't really a drummer, right ... they were one of the first bands to make using a drumbeat machine on stage acceptable.

The high songs are usually sung by Martin.