That's awesome, Aimee. The one time I wrote them (about something really stupid), we had a hilarious back-and-forth.

They are going to love that Aimee!

Wow.

Now it is possible to see a movie of an electron. The movie shows how an electron rides on a light wave after just having been pulled away from an atom. This is the first time an electron has ever been filmed, and the results are presented in the latest issue of Physical Review Letters.

Previously it has been impossible to photograph electrons since their extremely high velocities have produced blurry pictures. In order to capture these rapid events, extremely short flashes of light are necessary, but such flashes were not previously available. With the use of a newly developed technology for generating short pulses from intense laser light, so-called attosecond pulses, scientists at the Lund University Faculty of Engineering in Sweden have managed to capture the electron motion for the first time.

“It takes about 150 attoseconds for an electron to circle the nucleus of an atom. An attosecond is 10-18 seconds long, or, expressed in another way: an attosecond is related to a second as a second is related to the age of the universe,” says Johan Mauritsson, an assistant professor in atomic physics at the Faculty of Engineering, Lund University. He is one of seven researchers behind the study, which was directed by him and Professor Anne L’Huillier.

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Or somewhat more technically (with a video):

We demonstrate a quantum stroboscope based on a sequence of identical attosecond pulses that are used to release electrons into a strong infrared laser field exactly once per laser cycle. The resulting electron momentum distributions are recorded as a function of time delay between the IR laser and the attosecond pulse train using a velocity map imaging spectrometer.

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Why this doesn't violate the uncertainty principle I'm not sure. I think each frame/laser burst is a separate electron (timed to look like a single one)?

Seriously, I don't know what people are seeing with that Jennifer Hudson thing. Maybe it's just that she looks better than she did last year.

I've been reading this, and it really unnerves me. Obama was actually in Cincinnati today, at the university (which is 5 minutes from my house), and I opted to not go because of what I've read about the shitty security. It just gives me a creepy feeling.

The part of me that's not ready to be fitted for a tinfoil hat thinks it's because entrance checks are really more security theater than actual security, just like airport screening only less obnoxious, and that the Secret Service doesn't want an assassination on their watch and is therefore taking their job seriously. But life under Dubya has made me a lot more tinfoil hatty than I ever was before.

So, according to The Associated Press, the band playing off Marketa Irglova before she gave her acceptance speech was an accident:

Oscar producer Gil Cates said the show director was looking down and queued the music when Hansard finished speaking. “She was accidentally played off. No one wanted to play her off. ... I asked her to come back. I asked Jon to please bring her back. It was a very emotional moment.”

I asked Jon to please bring her back. It was a very emotional moment

aw!

When will Renée Zellweger realize should should wear brighter colors? They would look so much better on her.

She wore a bright yellow one time that looked very good. Well, except for the part where her brain is sucking her eyes into her skull. Colour can't help with that.

Well, except for the part where her brain is sucking her eyes into her skull. Colour can't help with that.

Hee!! So true. The disappearing eyes are the most annoying thing about her.

always am disposed to like Renee Zellweger because I think she looks like my acting teacher, who is the top picture on this page:

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