here's another 1st quarter moon scene (not far from where i shot the previous one); the moon is in the upper middle of the scene, somewhere.
recently i've started reading Dan Brown's ANGELS & DEMONS, the prequel to THE DAVINCI CODE, and i can hardly stop laughing. it's all about a supposed particle physicist who has created substantial amounts of antimatter via a large particle accelerator, but the physics cited in the story is hilariously off.
supposedly, matter / antimatter explosions don't emit dangerous radiation, just a flash of light. doesn't he get that radiation IS just light, but very very high energy light? and the story goes on to propose antimatter as a great source of energy, because it explodes so cleanly & energetically with matter. what he entirely misses is that the amount of energy needed to create the antimatter in the first place would be at least equal to (if not significantly greater than) the energy output of an explosion.
sure, antimatter would make a great weapon; but it would make a LOUSY energy source (unless, say, a large chunk of antimatter could be found floating around in space and then harnessed for energy, with a lot of radiation shielding). aside from the usual Dan Brown gross (and subtle) historical inaccuracies, the distorted physics makes for some good laughs!
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oh, and i forgot to mention: i finished THE MILL ON THE FLOSS, and there isn't really any redemption in the story after all. oh well.
and i just got a copy of Radford's MINIMALIST SYNTAX: Exploring the Structure of English -- what fun!
hope you're all out there finding joy or humor (or both) in various bits of life.
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