January 6, 2016

Today, my dad died. He had Parkinson's disease. He didn't die from the Parkinson's though. They believe he had a sudden and massive heart attack out of the blue. He had never had heart problems. He was in a good mood this morning. Yesterday wasn't such a good day for him. Parkinson's is like that, some days are good and others aren't. He wasn't moving well yesterday and a bit cranky. This morning he was upbeat, did his exercises (as far as he can in a wheelchair) and his mind was clear. I went out for the day with my friend. She works midnights so Wednesday is the only day she's got free to go out. We were sitting down to a late lunch when my mom called and told me she thought dad was dying and had called the ambulance. We were about an hour and a half away. We had been checking out flood damage along the Mississippi river. We headed back immediately. Dad was apparently gone by the time they got him to the hospital. My dad was the smartest man I have ever known. When I was a small child he introduced me to art, history, chemistry, archaeology and hundreds of other things that have marked me for life. I sat with mom all evening. We both had phone calls and some of her friends came by. I'm very thankful for that. I stayed and watched tv with her until she went to bed. I'm downstairs now trying to convince myself that it's ok to sleep. I'm exhausted but for some reason I don't want to sleep. I hope whomever reads this had a better day.

An issue of nomenclature and potato soup

Ok, this first bit is a rant. We are talking matter and antimatter. An antimatter proton is called an antiproton, but an antimatter electron is called a positron. Which makes sense but doesn't make sense. A regular proton is positively charged and an antiproton (being antimatter) is negatively charged. An electron is negatively charged unless it's an antimatter electron in which case it's positively charged. My issue is the nomenclature. If you are going to call an antimatter proton an antiproton then why would you name an antimatter electron a positron instead of an anti-electron? I can understand why you might want to name it a positron since it's positively charged but in that case you would want to name an antiproton a negatron, right? This has been annoying me for days. I made homemade crockpot potato soup. I used the Paula Deen recipe: 1 bag (30 oz) frozen hash-brown potatoes 2 cans (14 oz ea) chicken broth 1 can (10.75 oz) cream of chicken soup 1/2 C chopped onion 1/3 tsp ground black pepper 1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened Garnish: minced green onion, Cheddar, shredded, and bacon In a crock pot, combine potatoes, broth, soup, onion, and pepper. Cover, and cook on low for 5 hours. Stir in cream cheese, cook 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until combined. Garnish with green onion, and/or Cheddar and bacon if desired. I altered it slightly and put in a small package of those tiny ham cubes, and tossed in three slices of pepper jack cheese when I put the cream cheese in. It was LOVELY!

Through The Wormhole

I've been watching this series. It's a really great show if you want to know more about what's going on in the world of physics. And it tends to explain things in such a way that most normal people can understand it. Which is pretty cool. Right now my hero is Miguel Alcubierre. He's come up with a way to make a warp drive. Using it will result in being able to move faster than light without actually moving at all. You warp the space around the ship. I'm rooting for him. :) I'm also a huge fan of Michio Kaku. I was able to attend a lecture of his last year. Very impressive, personable and funny without detracting from the science. It was a great lecture. I recorded it. I might make it available for download at some point if anyone would like it. I think there is nothing to be gained from hoarding knowledge. The more you spread knowledge then then less chaos there ought to be in the world. Although there will always be the stupid people. By this I mean people who don't know anything and refuse to learn. Making a conscious decision to NOT learn is stupid. I will gladly admit I'm ignorant about many things. Ignorance is simply the state of not knowing something. So I make an effort to learn something every day. Let's make that sexy. Learning should be sexy, not stupidity.