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Saturday, June 26, 2010

Astrology Watch: Partial Eclipse of the Moon


Let's ignore all those quantum physicists and astronomers for a moment and have a look at what the mythological interpreters of the stars are saying.  Astrologers are pretty excited about a partial lunar eclipse  of the full moon on June 26 in Capricorn.  The Wiki entry on the eclipse is here.  Everyone from NASA to the Lexington Vampire Examiner are reporting on it. Twelve major American cities will be hosting special events for Twilight fans.  Astrologer Susan Miller has announced that this lunar eclipse is the most important eclipse, astrologically speaking, in 500 years.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Ghost Particle (almost) Measured


BBC is reporting that a presentation at the Weizmann conference, The Cosmic Enigma: Scientific Symposia, running at UCL on 22 and 23 June, will reveal that scientists have narrowed down the weight of one of the smallest particles, the neutrino, popularly known as the 'ghost particle.'  This discovery in the world of the very small depends upon examination of the world of the very large.  Scientists examined data on the distribution of galaxies in order to determine that mass of a neutrino is "no greater than 0.28 electron volts [which] ... is less than a billionth of the mass of a single hydrogen atom."  This is important because neutrinos are considered to be a verifiable component of Dark Matter.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Fountain of Youth 7: Welcome to Midsummer

Midsummer Night's Dream by P. D. White.

I am running late, I hope Titania won't mind.  Happy Midsummer!  In Roman times, the solstice was celebrated on June 24th and in some places, still is.  This year, the solstice fell astronomically on the 21st.  Ancient pagans were on to something, with their religious awareness of the ebb and flow of the natural world, the tilt of the planet, the angle of the sun, the length of days, the magnetic pull on the senses.

Kubrick's Lost Concept Art


New York under water: Concept art for A.I. by Stanley Kubrick.

I09 is reporting that concept art by Stanley Kubrick has surfaced for the movie on artificial intelligence that he never made.  Steven Spielberg finished the film, A.I. in 2001.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Fountain of Youth 6: The Methuselah Mouse Prize


Since 2003, the Methuselah Foundation has run a competition for the most avant-garde research on anti-aging.   It awards the Methuselah Mouse Prize, also called the M Prize, "a prize designed to accelerate research into effective life extension interventions by awarding monetary prizes to researchers who extend the healthy lifespan of mice to unprecedented lengths."