Saturday, February 22, 2003

We had a huge amount of snow in the last week and more than a few snowmen have appeared on local lawns. A few people go beyond the simple snowman and some people are gifted. At the moment it is raining heavily and eventually the Winter will go away ... Strangely enough I'm reading an interesting preprint on "snowflakes" during the dark age of the Universe. After the new Universe cooled down from the Big Bang, but before the first starts and quasars were born, there was a dark age that probably lasted several hundred million years (redshifts 12 to 6). The assumption is tha the period largely was composed of hydrogen and helium gas cooling down to near absolute zero. Molecular hydrogen was rare compared to atomic hydrogen, but it can freeze out and lead to the creation of "snowflakes" of solid molecular hydrogen. So it is possible that this early cosmic Winter had it own snowflakes that went away when ultraviolet light from the first stars and quasars began to shine. 6:46:22 AM     Arianna seems to like Dick about as much as she likes SUVs. Her transformation from a hardcore Gingrich Republican is remarkable, although she insists she is not a Democrat. 6:45:39 AM     Bill Moyers' NOW was fantastic last night -- they will probably put up the transcript in a week or two, but it you have a chance to watch the rebroadcast do so! Media, politics and corruption. Why is it that there is no debate these days ... why is the news corporate news? Chilling stuff and a great lead piece on Pakistan. In most areas this will re-air on PBS Sunday night. A few weeks ago the show featured an interview with Chuck Lewis of the American Center for Public Integrity on the Patriot Act. This should be required reading and there should be debate. Where is the debate? Has democracy already crumbled? 6:45:22 AM

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