Particular Thoughts

The cubic and

plum pudding mode

replaced by Bohr’s

old standard code’s

made obsolete

by quantum’s load

The names are strange

like hadron who

must buddy up

and use some gluon

bosons, mesons,

pions, too

But proofs exist

for leptons or

half integer

spins of fermion lore,

for up/down quarks

and much much more.

Links: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-gluon.htm  

http://www.particleadventure.org/fermibos.html  

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/particles/quark.html 

 

From the Dome--updates

When all one’s energy is spent on yard work, a little help is in order. Yes, we finally hired someone to do the most important thing the half acre above the horses needed—install sprinklers. Now the Augustine grass will take over quickly and we’ll only need to mow.

It has been a busy week since our little Lance came home yesterday. http://www.lancecamper.com/video.php  The trip to Lancaster would have taken only an hour, but with a nineteen car pile up on the 14 Freeway, getting back was almost impossible. http://totaltrafficla.com/2012/06/26/14-south-closed-at-escondido-cyn-due-to-big-rig-crash/26609  How did we do it? We took the 138 across to Gorman and came down the 5 instead. Twice as long, but under the circumstances, faster. Besides, we got a peek across Holiday Valley where our fully paid for five acres of desert lie. Looks like they’re planning to build a ton of homes in the area. Gawking at it as we passed warmed the heart. It’s actually prettier than we remember it. From the Holiday Valley homes, looking north to our property, the valley adjacent to the 138 gently slopes up to the Tejon Ranch which abuts our property on the north. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neenach,_California

No horsing around this week, except of course their daily care, which includes picking up the little green apples (poopies) and brushing them down, fly spraying them, and putting on their fly masks.

Maybe we should haul them out to our property and ride onto the Tejon Ranch. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tejon_Ranch

The Pacific Crest Trail runs right past our property too. Great for riding the horses or just hiking. Use your little magnifying glass and aim it at the Gorman area. You'll get an enlarged view of the trail cutting through our property above Highway 138 http://www.pcta.org/images/media/pct_map_high.jpg

A couple of visits kept us engaged. Oma, who we try to see at least once a week, is doing well in the nursing home. The nursed take good care of Wally’s 98 year old Mamma. She always smells fresh, gets a daily shower and lots of good food. From there we drove on to meet up with our son for a low key day of movie watching, steak grilling, and just catching up on hugs.

The monthly booklet being sent to our son is a gem. Paging through the Magnificat, https://www.magnificat.net/english/index.asp  we found lots of interesting tidbits about the Catholic faith  it lists lots of unknown Saints, has a Lectio Divina http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lectio_Divina and includes the Mass prayers. It is a combination missal, prayer book, and lives of the saints. No wonder it’s in the hands of so many people who go to daily Mass.

The Pipe

“Sanae,” a voice said out of the gloom. Giro stood over her, worry on his face. He pulled at her red shirtsleave. “C’mon, there’s a city down below.”

Sanae scrambled to her feet and looked around. The sky was pale lavender.

“I wonder if this is a parallel universe,” said Giro, “but things look different here.” He pointed at the tree next to what used to be the parking lot. It had changed. It had no leaves. Instead, its branches looked like roots, as if the tree had planted itself upside down.

“What’s a parallel universe?” asked Sanae.

“It’s hard to explain,” said Giro. “Scientists think there are more worlds like ours in the universe.”

“I guess it could be. I can breathe fine, and things here don’t look that weird.” Sanae looked at her watch again. She wanted to investigate a little longer.

“Well, scientists say the parallel world would be exactly like ours, and there would be a couple of kids just like us, too,” said Giro thoughtfully, “but this place isn’t the same. Look there’s a city instead of Corey Park.”

“Let’s go down,” said Sanae. “Maybe we will meet our twins.” She slid down ahead of Giro, who was grateful that it wasn’t as hot here as at home. At the bottom of the hill, a short road led toward the city. It was made of the same soft, pliable material the pipe had been made of and it glowed soft in the purplish daylight. As the two walked toward the city, a spaceship whizzed above their heads. Its black shape sped toward the city center. The children hurried on wanting to meet the people of this place, but the road stayed empty.

“This place scares me, Giro,” said Sanae. “Maybe we should go back?”

“I really want to know why the sun is purple,” said Giro.

“You go ahead,” said Sanae. “I’ll wait for you by the pipe.”  She turned around and looked up at the hill. She couldn’t see the trail she had come down. She couldn’t see the opening in the rocks where the pipe was, either. The only glow she saw came from the road, not the pipe she had left behind.

“It’s ok,” said Giro, his voice uncertain. “We’ll find our way back. There'll be answers in the city.”

Sanae reached out to take hold of Giro’s hand. Together they walked on toward the glowing city with its geometrically perfect architecture.

(to be continued)

VCAS

Tomorrow night marks our monthly Ventura County Astronomical Society star party. The Moorpark College Observatory will host the party, made up of amateur astronomers watching the night sky from the observatory pad. For information, visit the observatory website: http://www.vcas.org/star-party-moorpark-observatory.html

RTMC Star Party

The club is very active in outreach and especially in the summer invites the public to these events. Nothing more is required than to bring your eyes and interest. We members supply the rest. vcas.org