Maternal Instincts

[lapsedmodernist]

So today I came thisclose to falling into Lake Titicaca. Trying to do an interview on a moving boat with a shitty tripod is...interesting. Anyway, when at one moment it seemed inevitable that either I or my camera were about to end up overboard, my body's instinctual first reaction, without any cognitive assessment of the situation or decision-making process was to protect the camera. Fortunately I was pulled back into the boat by my subjects, who thought it was hilarious, and it's a good thing too, because I nearly got hypothermia as it was. On the boatride back to Puno I was shivering uncontrollably. Camera viewfinder used as impromptu mirror indicated that my lips turned blue (and I assure you I white balanced properly) and I psychosomatized that my teeth were made of ice, which was a weird sensation and also made me think of a book from my childhood, "Old Man Hottabych", where a young pioneer lets an ancient Arabian genie out of a bottle and wackiness ensues. Anyway, at some point the goodnatured genie of the title, whose ideas of bling-bling are still more Arabian Nights than Victory of Communism, makes all of his teeth gold. Later in the book, while on a tour of the Arctic, the protagonists discover another bottle, this one housing the genie's much less benevolently inclined brother. More wackiness ensues, but the first thing that the newly liberated and very envious brother does is turn all of his teeth into diamonds. This, of course, turns out to be a terrible idea, because he looks toothless unless sunlight hits his teeth at just the right angle, and also they keep cutting his mouth, but he does not want to admit his fuckup, so he suffers with his diamond teeth.

Anyway, excuse me, I am a bit tipsy becuase upon return to town I had to self-administer a number of hot (or not!) alcoholic drinks (coffee with Bailey's, coffee with Amaretto, wine, you get the idea) on account of being chilled to the bone. Despite all the drinking and the scalding hot soup I am still cold, which might indicate hypothermia now that I think about it, but, fortunately, I am drunk, so I don't care.

Despite being drunk I DO care about "lab fireball may be black hole":

A fireball created in a US particle accelerator has the characteristics of a black hole, a physicist has said.

These form a ball of plasma about 300 times hotter than the surface of the Sun. This fireball, which lasts just 10 million, billion, billionths of a second, can be detected because it absorbs jets of particles produced by the beam collisions.

Horatiu Nastase says his calculations show that the core of the fireball has a striking similarity to a black hole...

This fireball, which lasts just 10 million, billion, billionths of a second, can be detected because it absorbs jets of particles produced by the beam collisions.

But Nastase, of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, says there is something unusual about it.

Ten times as many jets were being absorbed by the fireball as were predicted by calculations.

The Brown researcher thinks the particles are disappearing into the fireball's core and reappearing as thermal radiation, just as matter is thought to fall into a black hole and come out as "Hawking" radiation.

However, even if the ball of plasma is a black hole, it is not thought to pose a threat. At these energies and distances, gravity is not the dominant force in a black hole.

Somehow the first thing that comes to mind is the (kinda offensive) Buffy Thanksgiving episode in season 4, where the wounded Chumash Indian turns into a bear and charges Spike, who yells at Buffy: "A bear! You made a bear!" and after she squeals "I didn't mean to!" he screams "Undo it! Undo it!"

PS: Do we like my new icon?

Comments

[apropos.livejournal.com]

I like the icon.

Be careful of hypothermia! It is serious shit.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

You know what else is serious shit???
The fireball that is a black hole! (see the new edited version of the post).

[mjmj.livejournal.com]

i wish i could remember more details, but this reminds me of a profile or interview i read in the past year or two about well-known british scientist who was promoting a book. the reporter was asking an intentionally goofy, sensationalist question wondering whether there was a risk that someone could destroy the earth. he said that the scary thing about the scientist's response was 1) he didn't immediately answer 'no', and 2) he said there was a small risk.

the more studies that come out about global warming and the more warnings about the next flu pandemic, the more worried i get. but, yes, tell the physicists to turn off those particle accelerators. we have enough problems right now.

[mjmj.livejournal.com]

oh, and this has been getting some attention on the internets:

http://ned.ucam.org/~sdh31/misc/destroy.html

[castironskillet.livejournal.com]

I had decided to comment on your icon early in reading your post, and then after another few sentences decided doing so would be gauche. Since you asked, I love it! Am I part of "we"?

Another thing I like is your drunken literary sense! Hope you're plenty warm.

[mysteryjesse.livejournal.com]

I like the icon.

I like your adherance to proper white balancing, I have a similar love for color temperature as expressed on film.

"Fucking A," about the fireball.

Tipsy also, no more to add!


yours,
jesse

[atallvlad.livejournal.com]

Cute Icon! One wonders why we can't experiment with potentially earth destroying phenomena on .. the moon or mars or something.

[isolt.livejournal.com]

Nice icon.

The fireball is serious shit! There's some sci-fi books I've read in which the earth is destroyed by a black hole accidentally created by scientists; it's referred to as the Great Mistake of '08. So this is too weird.

[boobirdsfly.livejournal.com]

I like the icon ! Reminds me of cut out silhouettes i used to make when i was a kid...

I witnessed my ex bf hypothermia while travelling India and he started talking non sense and also turned blue. scary scary stuff. I am glad you're ok. or... hope you're ok. :)

[alice-ayers.livejournal.com]

We likely the icon.

[boymaenad.livejournal.com]

I want it on the mud flaps of my big rig.

artbot

[artbothuh.livejournal.com]

You-know-who would be so proud that your first instinct was to protect a camera! Much like mine when i almost got ran over in the road and our prof looked all aghast. I was thinking of you cuz I had a dream last night that you were back in town, and you were wearing an AWESOME dress...it was sort of black and white striped, very flowy, sort of hippie-ish. Random, I know...

artbot, huh?

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

Wait, when did you almost get run over? Was it during one of the exercises?
I can't wait to be back. I wish I had a dress like you describe.
I am also kind of freaking out because something weird has been going on with my lips ever since I got to La Paz, they kind of go numb on and off. Maybe it's the altitude or lack of Oxygen...but what if it is the first sign of some degenerative neurological disorder, like the stuff you read in Marie Claire where some woman is like "the first sign I had that something was wrong was the tingling in my lips." Have you ever had this happen at high altitudes? Was where you were in India even at a high altitude? Gah, I hate my hypochondria.

Re: artbot, huh?

[artbothuh.livejournal.com]

Yeah it was during one of the exercises, i remember we were walking from the department and I was carrying one of the cameras and walked into the street without looking, and there was a 'near miss', and he just had this hilarious look on his face.
I was at a high elevation but i don't remember any tingling. are you eating anything different that you could be allergic to? but i totally know what you're talking about re: "the first sign" stuff. i remember i had a side pain, and i read an article about this dancer who had a side pain, and then it turned out she had cancer! so, you are not alone.

[damiella.livejournal.com]

I think the new icon is darling!

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

thankyou.

[mjmj.livejournal.com]

> Somehow the first thing that comes to mind is the (kinda offensive) Buffy Thanksgiving episode in season 4, where the wounded Chumash Indian turns into a bear and charges Spike, who yells at Buffy: "A bear! You made a bear!" and after she squeals "I didn't mean to!" he screams "Undo it! Undo it!"

in my wanderings on the internets today, i came across this:

Spike: The Movie? (http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=30049)