Nerd alert.

A short series on my three current scientist crushes, starting with Lawrence Krauss. He looks like Kermit but really knows his stuff.

He showed how the universe is expanding at a constantly increasing rate. And, how most (99%) of the universe is made of matter and energy that we can't even see. He extrapolated this from the work of theoretical physicists who confirmed the number of sub-atomic particles in the universe - there's just not enough protons and neutrons to make all the mass in the cosmos. Dark matter is real, and it's heavy, man.

The women and men who figure these things out are amazing. It'd be great if more people knew about their work.

Splishy splashy.

A great fun thing to do is drink alcohol, and one of the blessings of living where I do is sharing the company of good-natured beer snobs.

Here's what to do: buy 20 bucks-worth of craft piss - Tuatara or Emersons don't make bad beer so that's a good place to start. Drink the beer one bottle one at a time, dividing each by however many people are present.Talk about what you're drinking. Use words like 'hops', 'bouquet' and 'bubbly'.

Livin' in America.

Is it possible to become so superficial and disaffected - and so enabled by your peers to be this way - that you oscillate in and out of psychopathy without noticing? That's a rhetorical question, but what I do know is that Bret Easton Ellis was pretty clever to even conceive of this at 25. Full credit.

What the flux.

I don't understand a lot of things, but the thing I don't understand best is how to flux pin a superconductor.

Roger Highfield (current editor of New Scientist) was asked what his philosophy was at the magazine. He said; "...our philosophy here is 'science is interesting, and if you don't agree you can fuck off' ". Science is interesting - especially when it makes things float.

Beam it up, Jim Webb.

This is a picture of what will replace the Hubble telescope when it falls out of orbit in 2013. So far its development has cost ~$9b.

Formally shouting adults.

A good morning at home listening to Lawrence Krauss and Christopher Hitchens debate with William Lane Craig.

Some quotes:

"You think there's free will? I say 'of course there's free will; we don't have any choice in the matter', but at least when I say that I know I'm being philosophically ironic, and that some of that irony is at my expense. You, however, say 'of course we have free will; the Boss says so.' Ridiculous." - CH

"Rick Warren is a pompous asshole" - LK