The origin of black holes

At lunch today, I discussed an article that has been passed around about a new supercollider in development that had the potential to trigger the discovery of new subatomic particles. It also has the (acknowledged to be true by its developers) minute chance of creating a black hole that could consume the Earth.

This possibility seems to provoke one of two reactions from people:

1. "Why the hell would you want to create something that had even the slightest chance of killing all known life?!?!"

2. "Oh, cool. Yeah, why not?"

I belong to the latter group. I mean, there's always the possibility of some real discoveries arising from this - not just new particles that nobody cares about except fringe lunatic scientists, but maybe they'll find a new energy source or something useful.

There's also a feeling that I started to feel that I haven't felt since the end of the Cold War. I was just on the cusp of a generation of Americans that grew up with a Doomsday mindset. The logical thing to think at that time of nuclear deterrence was that eventually, one of us was going to make a mistake and launch a missile, triggering a domino effect of world-wide apocalypse. Sure, it was a little scary, but it was fun, too, and it kind of freed you, to some degree, from the responsibility of your actions. If we're all likely to die in some nuclear disaster, you think, what does it matter what I do today? My wife is 5 years younger than I and doesn't remember this mentality - this thrilling game of Global Chicken - a Mexican standoff where we had nuclear missiles instead of pistolas pointed at each others head.

It reminded me very much of Dr. Strangelove, and how I loved that movie. The brilliance of that movie was the comedy that played out from the advocates of the brutal logic of nuclear deterrence - everything that every character said made sense with respect to the context it was in (except for the Purity of Essence speech by General Ripper, which was pure comedic gold), but if you look at it from the outside, you can see the silly suicidal pact that it was.

Anyway, as I was mulling over the idea of parallel universes and in how many parallel universes we would be creating this supercollider and accidentally killing ourselves in, of all things, an esoteric scientific experiment gone wrong, a funny thought occurred to me.

What if all the black holes that we see out there now are remnants of ancient civilizations, whose evolution followed the same course as ours until they decided to create their own supercolliders and turn on that button?

The idea amuses me so much that I've decided it must be true. And we're next! Off to oblivion!

We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

Books on Tape

I've been considering creating my own books on tape for some time now, having been motivated by a few factors:

1. I've been told that I have a good clear voice for audio recordings. I have no real accent to speak of (although I may have a subtle Southern accent at this point).

2. I'd like to promote some of my favorite works; perhaps even listen to my own recordings.

3. I've heard some less than impressive recordings, and I'm beginning to think anyone can do it.

One of my favorite series of books (the Rex Stout books about Nero Wolfe) has been recorded onto several books on tape, but I don't like the recordings. The reader has a strong, clear voice, but all the characters sound the same. All the men have this deep, rich, ultramasculine radio voice, and the narrator in these stories is more of a fast-talking wise guy.

I listened for a bit to a friends recording of "Ender's Shadow", a parallel story to Ender's Game. I learned of a character in the story named, as the narrator pronounced it, "A-shiel", like "a shield" without the d. Just today, I finally got around to reading the book on print, and I found the character's name on the page as:

Achilles

Finally, I downloaded a copy of "The Cask of Amontillado" from iTunes, and I found the reader's interpretation to be a bit over the top. Maudlin, and not intimidating, like the main character is.

So I think I'm going to start with that, and try recording my own audiobooks - to see if I have any talent.

I do have a few reservations, though:

1. I'm a bit shy. If I'm going to be doing character voices and imitations, I don't want anyone listening in on me while I do it. It's not just that I want to do it in privacy, I don't want anyone to eavesdrop or interrupt me - which is odd, because the point of this will be to share the recordings. I don't really have the privacy or the recording equipment at home, so I'd have to do it after work, after hours, but late enough that I'm not interrupting anyone who's working late.

2. There's also the time investment. I've been trying to get to the gym now, and get out more, and eat earlier, so my evenings lately have been extremely busy.

3. I also stumble frequently in regular speech, when I have a lot to say, even when it's not a prepared speech. I'd have to do recordings in short bursts and splice them together, and that might be more trouble than it's worth.

I'll have to weigh these reservations against the benefits. If it's anything like I've been doing, reservations will win out.

Perhaps if I had a demanding public, I'd feel the drive to get it done. Do I have any supporters out there?

Self Improvement

I have been spending a considerable amount of time trying to improve my mental health in the past few years. I don't just mean sanity and happiness here, I mean that I'm trying to keep myself clear headed, well rested, and not so angry anymore. All of this has led to little experimentations with my daily routines - going to bed earlier, going for a walk in the evenings, kicking coffee, reading books at lunch, writing in this blog to vent my frustration and stimualte my creativity - I even gave up meat for the month of January to see if I could live without it.

I'm trying to do these things without relying on any stimulants to get me through - like coffee. It's not that I'm one of these herbal remedy people who insist on an all natural solution ot anything, but I'm of the opinion that anything you take to get you through a short term fix - caffeine, sleeping pills, alcohol - is the kind of thing you eventually build a tolerance to. Which is fine until you have to go without. So I'll use these things, but try not to make a habit out of it (except for alcohol, vis a vis beer, which I drink regularly for the taste, but I can go without and not crave it).

I try not to do anything that I hate, unless I ease myself into it.