Me Meme

Stolen from jesshartley. I promise I'll get caught up on the other meme over the weekend!

1) Bold what is true about you.
2) Underline what is half true.
3) Italicize what you wish was true about you.
4) Add one true thing about you to the end of the list.
5) Tag five LJ friends.
6) Ask me anything about the bold/italicized/underlined.

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C is for Catamount

Catamount is a term used for a wide variety of wildcats, such as those with short tails and tufted ears like the lynx or bobcat, and bigger lion-like cats such as the panther or puma (not to be confused with an armored vehicle that might also be called a warthog and found in certain video games). Most commonly it is associated with the mountain lion.

Every year painted_wolf and I shrug off our disdain for the local science center (the source of our disdain being that they dug up an Abenaki burial ground to install a septic system. nice.) and visit for NH Day, when any NH resident can get in for $1. They have a few catamounts there, including a pair of mountain lions that apparently recently gave birth to cubs. I was rather concerned when last we attended this spring because the female of the pair was pacing around the enclosure (which if you ask me is WAY too small for them!) as if stressed. I'm not sure if it was the lack of her newborn cubs around or just general stress from being caged in.

New Hampshire definitely has bobcats, and I'm not just talking about the local high school sports teams. I've yet to see one in the wild around here (which I can only assume is a good thing), but I know they're around. There may also be the odd lynx, though certainly not as common as the bobcat. According to painted_wolf, there's some speculation that there might even be mountain lions i the state now, which is supported by not only sightings but also tracks and scat, but this is something that she says the state wants to keep hush-hush, just like the whole rattlesnake thing.

D is for Demagogy

See also: Bush Administration, Nazi Germany

Demagogy is the political practice of preying on the public's fears and prejudices to gain political power or achieve a political objective. Demagogy generally isn't so much outright lying as much as it is logical fallacies, half-truths, omissions, distortions, distractions, nationalistic rhetoric, false dilemmas ("Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."), and/or demonization/scapegoating.

Adolf Hitler is generally regarded as the epitome of a demagogue.

E is for Event Horizon

Infinite Space! Infinite Terror! The year is 2047 and... *shut yo mouth!* But I'm talkin' 'bout physics. *we can dig it!*

An event horizon is a spacetime boundary often associated with (but not limited to) black holes. Events happening within the boundary cannot reach the observer watching from beyond that boundary (on the outside, of course). Once an object crosses the event horizon, fuhgetaboutit. It will never be seen again.

So let's say Major Tom was approaching a black hole instead of just going for a spacewalk and getting lost. He's approaching the event horizon but hasn't crossed it yet.

GC: "Ground Control to Major Tom."
MT: "This is Major Tom to Ground Control. The event horizon looks really far away. And I think my spaceship knows which way to go."
GC: "Ground Control to Major Tom. No shit, sherlock. It's being sucked in by the black hole's groovitational pull. And, uhhh, the event horizon isn't that far away. We can all see it fine here and you're getting close, though it doesn't appear you've crossed it yet. How far out are you, man?"
MT: "I'm pretty far out."
GC: "That's pretty far out, man."
MT: "Tell my wife I love her very much."
GC: "She knows! Ground Control to Major Tom, your circuit's dead, there's something wrong. Can you hear me Major Tom?"
MT: "Here am I floating in my tin can. Far away from the event horizon."
GC: "We can't hear you. You didn't do something stupid like cross the event horizon, never to be heard again, did you? I mean seriously. You don't appear to have crossed the event horizon, but we can't see or hear you."
Mother: "Tommy?"
GC: "Who the hell said that?!"

Okay, okay... I got carried away. So anyhow... if Major Tom was entering the black hole slowly, say in a floating tin can of a spaceship insulated only by fancy tin foil, he would never observe himself crossing the event horizon. It would always seem far away to him. Ground Control, being the distant observer, would never actually really see Major Tom cross the event horizon, but they and several other distant observers at various unique positions could observe and verify what they perceive as a definite event horizon to be crossed.

It's pretty freaky, Bowie.

Writer's Block: Just Desserts

[Error: unknown template qotd]I will gladly eat either on occasion, but I prefer pie. My two favorites I share with my parents. My Mom and I both enjoy a heated apple pie a la mode with just a spot of mustard. My Dad and I both enjoy a nice, cold banana cream pie. Mmmmmmm.

Great, now I want pie.