Do black holes really exist?

Tanmay Vachaspati and his colleagues at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, US, have tried to calculate what happens as a black hole is forming. Using an unusual mathematical approach called the functional Schrodinger equation, they follow a sphere of stuff as it collapses inwards, and predict what a distant observer would see.

They find that the gravity of the collapsing mass starts to disrupt the quantum vacuum, generating what they call "pre-Hawking" radiation. Losing that radiation reduces the total mass-energy of the object – so that it never gets dense enough to form an event horizon and a true black hole. "There are no such things", Vachaspati told New Scientist. "There are only stars going toward being a black hole but not getting there."

If true, this is way-worse than Pluto....

eta: But there is massive skepticism amongst scientists - perhaps so massive it could collapse into a very dark, hole-like thing....

A picture (photo) of a printed newspaper article about this "LOLcat" thing - anyone heard of it? [link]

Actual article: I’M IN UR NEWSPAPER WRITIN MAH COLUM

Rapidly spreading Web photo-posting phenomenon centers on felines with poor spelling

But the first link has an awesome cat photo....

We know your Prius is fuel efficient, yes. We know your Prius makes you feel environmentally-friendly, yes. However, your Prius is not a train. Do not try and make it one. If you do it in San Francisco in the sunset tunnel at Duboce Triangle, you'll find yourself the owner of a pretty ticket citing city ordinance 22.521 -- blocking railroad tracks. That'll cost you $55, hold up hundreds of people and a bunch of trains and cause yourself all manner of humiliation and ridicule at the hands of your fellow Bay Area citizens.

[link]

I'M IN UR... nevermind....

Whatever happened to Naturalist/ism as a term? I mean, yes, could be seen as slightly granola, but, still. Or Materialist/ism.

Yeah. Or humanist. You only hear that term used by the right-wing religious types...

I know that tunnel very well, actually...

And may I say, WTF with the $55 ticket? This city hands out $40 parking tickets for street cleaning like candy (Hec and I currently owe $120 because we failed to move our car in time on street cleaning day -- which is to say, we moved the car an hour and 45 minutes before the street sweeper came by instead of the full 2 hours), will fine you $200 for parking anywhere near anything that even looks like it might have been a ramp at one time even if there's no other handicapped designation anywhere (no sign, no curb paint, no nothin'), and this moron BLOCKS THE N JUDAH TUNNEL and gets busted fuckin' $55?

I love this city, but sometimes I totally hate it.

Maybe there was no other appropriate thing to fine him with? Or the cop couldn't think of any? Still, I'd think trespassing in the tunnel would carry a big fine....

Speaking of Jesse dopplegangers, there's someone who works in the bookstore near work that remonds me of Jesse everytimg I see her. But I'm not sure if it's because she sort of looks like Jesse, or reminds me of her in some other way.

Am back. Have not slept, to speak of, in a couple of days. Have skipped.

Had dinner at Rick Bayless's restaurant Topolobampo. Was...not good. I hoped to do a Meara-like breakdown, but it didn't work out that way. For a $200 dinner, I'd have hoped to find more than one thing to wow about (the Sopa Azteca). And given all the problems, I'd have expected to see more taken off the bill than the entree we sent back. And Bayless was in the restaurant. Disappointing.

Ah well. More details possibly to follow.

What a shame, Brenda!!

I had a lovely dinner in Portland. Cocktails (I had some fresh ginger and peach thing, and my coworker had a basil and grape and vodka thing...we actually ordered the other way around, then tasted them and switched.) Then we split a strawberry and arugula salad--best sweetest strawberries ever! And some kind of cheese. And then I had halibut with apples and potatoes and some kind of cider marinade or sauce or something, and my coworker had scallops and shortribs with this delicious sauce...(I convinced her that sweetbreads in the rabbit were not, in fact, cornbread-esque). We decided against dessert.