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In which I show you my geek
Day 14 → a non-fictional book
To be completely honest, I don't read a lot of non-fiction, but I really like this one. The first section is my favourite because I get irrationally excited when people explain just how big and just how small things in the universe can be.
Excerpt from the book
DOESN'T THAT JUST BLOW YOUR FREAKING MIND?
In other news, January sucked and February isn't looking that much better. I can't even tell you why, life is just poo.
On the bright side, Merlin fans, how adorable was that horse video? I said this somewhere else but I really want to buy them ponies and force them to make horse puns forever, just for my amusement. And Katie, HOLY FUCK, she is stunning and totally dorky, I want to marry herrrrr.
Speaking of Merlin, I really want someone to write me a fanfic to this song by the Magnetic Fields.
I don't know what to say...
I could say I want you, that would be a bore.
Maybe in a font you haven't seen before?
I could say I'll haunt you 'til your dying day,
I could tease and taunt you but what would I say?
See, I don't know what to say...
I could say I crave you, still, you little brat,
I could rant and rave, you know I can do that.
I could say I gave you everything I had,
I could say I'll save you, you might think me mad.
So I don't know what to say...
I could try and lead you down the garden path,
I could say I'll feed you, you can do the math.
I could say I need you, offer you a ring,
I'll be guaranteed you don't believe a thing.
It's so perfectly adorkable-Arthur-trying-to-tell-Merlin-how-he-feels-but-not-knowing-how.
Also, what happened to my m/a fanmix drabble writers? *pokes*
Album rec for you guys: Erland and The Carnival (Myspace link here for track previews). I've been listening to this one non-stop since I got it a couple days ago.
To be completely honest, I don't read a lot of non-fiction, but I really like this one. The first section is my favourite because I get irrationally excited when people explain just how big and just how small things in the universe can be.
Excerpt from the book
NO MATTER HOW hard you try you will never be able to grasp just how tiny, how spatially unassuming, is a proton. It is just way too small.
A proton is an infinitesimal part of an atom, which is itself of course an insubstantial thing. Protons are so small that a little dib of ink like the dot on this i can hold something in the region of 500,000,000,000 of them, rather more than the number of seconds contained in half a million years. So protons are exceedingly microscopic, to say the very least.
Now imagine if you can (and of course you can't) shrinking one of those protons down to a billionth of its normal size into a space so small that it would make a proton look enormous. Now pack into that tiny, tiny space about an ounce of matter. Excellent. You are ready to start a universe.
I'm assuming of course that you wish to build an inflationary universe. If you'd prefer instead to build a more old-fashioned, standard Big Bang universe, you'll need additional materials. In fact, you will need to gather up everything there is--every last mote and particle of matter between here and the edge of creation--and squeeze it into a spot so infinitesimally compact that it has no dimensions at all. It is known as a singularity.
In either case, get ready for a really big bang. Naturally, you will wish to retire to a safe place to observe the spectacle. Unfortunately, there is nowhere to retire to because outside the singularity there is no where. When the universe begins to expand, it won't be spreading out to fill a larger emptiness. The only space that exists is the space it creates as it goes.
It is natural but wrong to visualize the singularity as a kind of pregnant dot hanging in a dark, boundless void. But there is no space, no darkness. The singularity has no "around" around it. There is no space for it to occupy, no place for it to be. We can't even ask how long it has been there--whether it has just lately popped into being, like a good idea, or whether it has been there forever, quietly awaiting the right moment. Time doesn't exist. There is no past for it to emerge from.
And so, from nothing, our universe begins.
DOESN'T THAT JUST BLOW YOUR FREAKING MIND?
In other news, January sucked and February isn't looking that much better. I can't even tell you why, life is just poo.
On the bright side, Merlin fans, how adorable was that horse video? I said this somewhere else but I really want to buy them ponies and force them to make horse puns forever, just for my amusement. And Katie, HOLY FUCK, she is stunning and totally dorky, I want to marry herrrrr.
Speaking of Merlin, I really want someone to write me a fanfic to this song by the Magnetic Fields.
I don't know what to say...
I could say I want you, that would be a bore.
Maybe in a font you haven't seen before?
I could say I'll haunt you 'til your dying day,
I could tease and taunt you but what would I say?
See, I don't know what to say...
I could say I crave you, still, you little brat,
I could rant and rave, you know I can do that.
I could say I gave you everything I had,
I could say I'll save you, you might think me mad.
So I don't know what to say...
I could try and lead you down the garden path,
I could say I'll feed you, you can do the math.
I could say I need you, offer you a ring,
I'll be guaranteed you don't believe a thing.
It's so perfectly adorkable-Arthur-trying-to-tell-Merlin-how-he-feels-but-not-knowing-how.
Also, what happened to my m/a fanmix drabble writers? *pokes*
Album rec for you guys: Erland and The Carnival (Myspace link here for track previews). I've been listening to this one non-stop since I got it a couple days ago.
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HERE HERE!
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