The Penguin

Sorry, Bill Watterson, but I just couldn't resist using this one...all hail Calvin and Hobbes! This comic illustrates a point that confronts us when we attempt to speak about the titanic phenomena occurring in the universe every day. We can speak of a supernova exploding "with the force of x  megaton bombs", or a star that "could hold a million of our suns"...but ultimately all this is meaningless. When the standard unit of interstellar measurement, the light year, is about 8.7 x 10¹² miles, human language (and thus, comprehension) just sort of...blanks out. Here's a lovely example: I'm currently watching a JINA-CEE video about novas in parasitic binary star systems . Essentially, a small, dense star (such as a neutron star) will form an orbital relationship with a larger, less-dense giant. The denser of the two will start vacuuming material off its host, adding to its mass; however, because of its size, it compresses the material into its ...

Greetings, Fiendish Readers. Yessir, we just got back up from Columbus after two days of debauchery in that decadent southern paradise we call Ohio...okay, maybe there was only one  orgy, and only five people showed up, and nobody was really into it...but still! Hedonism! The Downfall of Midwestern Civilization! The drive down was pretty harrowing, firstly because of the ice on the freeway (like driving over a glacier, damndest thing I've ever seen) and secondly because the Ohio freeway system is proudly, defiantly, exasperatingly committed to labeling every highway with three or four numbers, and interrupting their ostensibly free ways with traffic lights. We got turned around somewhere south of Findlay and ended up driving through cornfields for an hour before finally picking up 75 again. Honestly I don't think I've ever driven through Ohio without getting lost once; the state likes to suck in outsiders and funnel them into its empty interior, there to circle endlessl...