Dan Hagen

“Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And, the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing about physics: You are all stardust. You couldn’t be here if stars hadn’t exploded, because the elements – the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution and for life – weren’t created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars, and the only way for them to ge tinto your body is if those stars were kind enough to explode. So, forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today.”

-Lawrence Krauss

My current computer contains an AMD Phenom II x4 965 3.4Ghz processor, which is basically AMD’s flagship quad-core CPU.

I’m running it at stock speed with the stock cooler, but I applied some Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste for better heat dissipation. As it stands, with regular fan settings and AMD Cool ‘n’ Quiet turned on, the Tcase sensor reports 33 degrees celsius while idle and maxes out at 60 degrees on full load (running Prime95). Core/Tjunction values are 4 or 5 degrees higher than Tcase values for my particular processor, which is normal.

Admittedly my computer case is very cheap. It has weak cooling, with a single rear 92mm exhaust fan. Tomorrow I’m going to install a second fan in the front. It will be a 120mm intake fan. I’m not sure how much it will do in the way of CPU temperatures; if anything, it should definitely improve my video card temperatures by a little bit. I have a factory-overclocked Gigabyte Radeon 5770 that has very good cooling – 3 copper heat pipes and a good fan – but it still gets considerably hot (low 70s) which I again blame on my cheap case.

I don’t think living with two family members should be that bad. My establishment is somewhat large as well, but in spite of this,  it’s actually easy to tell if someone else is home. The walls and the floors reverberate with various sounds and noises that are undeniably caused by loud family members. I can even distinguish both individuals apart from each other simply by the way they walk; on the Richter scale, my brother’s footsteps are about a 3.9, and my mother’s are a 4.3.

This wouldn’t be so bad if the same people who are loud weren’t also early-birds with a reckless disregard for people who are still sleeping.

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I’m talking about the guy who shows up at a party with his guitar and starts playing without being prompted, thinking that this will make him appear deep and talented and probably get him laid. He’s wrong. Everyone hates that guy and they all wish he’d just shut the hell up and go home because, seriously dude, are you completely oblivious to the fact that a bootleg of the new album by the Faint, which won’t be released for six months, is on the stereo, and also that the redhead you’ve been hitting on all night came with Frank, who makes way more money than you and is an accomplished marine biologist? … Anyway, the point is that you don’t need to be the most awesome thing in the room, and trying to be will generally result in the opposite reaction.

You were on your way home when you died.

It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me.

And that’s when you met me.

“What… what happened?” You asked. “Where am I?”

“You died,” I said, matter-of-factly. No point in mincing words.

“There was a… a truck and it was skidding…”

“Yup,” I said.

“I… I died?”

“Yup. But don’t feel bad about it. Everyone dies,” I said.

You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. “What is this place?” You asked. “Is this the afterlife?”

“More or less,” I said.

“Are you god?” You asked.

“Yup,” I replied. “I’m God.” read more »

Someone took MRI scans of various fruits and vegetables and animated the results. This is a cantaloupe.

You can see the rest here.

In high school astronomy class, Mr. Lund held an open forum one day for students to discuss their thoughts on the big bang and the creation of the universe. I found it both exciting and intriguing – even if some of the students’ ideas were a bit stupid.

As to be expected with such a discussion, references to the possibility of the existence of a god or gods came up. I made a point that science is used simply to explain “what is” and not “what isn’t.” As it stands, using science for the sole purpose of further exploring the possibility of a god or supreme being is impractical. While absolutely no one can say for sure if there exists such a being, the evidence leans further and further toward no. So, while science is great for explaining something that “is”, it currently cannot explain something such as a god, which most likely “isn’t.”

Mr. Lund stated that this is why topics on god belong in the “theological realm”, and not in the “scientific realm.”

It sounds agreeable at first, but after a moment’s thought, it baffles me. Theological and scientific realms? Have you forgotten the fact that for thousands of years, religion was indeed used to explain scientific/natural phenomena?  Horus and Ra’s sailing of the sun, Prometheus’s creation of fire, to name a couple. read more »

Your computer monitor uses less energy when rendering a darker image.