Thinking About the Universe

I was reading a blog called Stones in the Field written the other day (or was it night?)while the author was somewhat sleep deprived. This sparked a vague remembrance of something cosmological I read in the Stephen Baxter "Manifold" trilogy. Mr. Baxter and I share a birthyear as well.

All this started me on one of those research trips that take a number of what are nearly stream of consciousness twists and turns that only Google, embedded hyperlinks and Wikipedia can give one while still lounging in the comfort of one's home.

I am now completely fascinated by the anthropic principle and the "Carter prediction" or catastrophe - that one was a bit hard to track down as Google kept hitting on Jimmy Carter stuff. Turns out this is a pseudonymous theory by one Brandon Carter who is better known for his work on the properties of black holes and the anthropic principle. At this writing I haven't found much more on the Carter catastrophe unless it's something to do with Jimmy Carter and that rabbit.

apropos of almost nothing, but saved by being in one of the anthropic articles I read, is this Hawking quote I came upon which delights me "Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?" (Hawking, 1988)."

I decided to put some more mundate things here below the cut. I worked from home today because we received a notice from the house painters that they wanted to paint our front door. There was a sign up sheet. I looked at my schedule and this morning seemed the best time to choose. I asked my boss if I could work from home all morning. He was fine with that.

The painter came bright and early (the schedule was for a 2 hr window from 7:30 to 9:30 and he showed up at 7:30) and did the front door. Then he asked me to open the back door as he was going to paint that as well. It didn't seem to matter since the doors would both be dry enough for me to leave around noon. When he finished he said he would have to come back and do another coat. I asked when. He said tomorrow? I said no, I was off today so when *today* could he come back and he said noon. I sent an IM to my boss saying I'd have to work from home all day. He was ok with that as well.

Noon passed, then 1 then 2 then 3. A bit after 3 the painter and two others from the painting crew walked down the sidewalk looking like they were done for the day. I asked the painter who did my door when he was going to do the back door second coat. He said "Noon tomorrow" I reminded him we'd agreed that he needed to do it today as I could not stay home from work tomorrow and had already stayed home all day today. He was very nice and came back to do the back door. By 5 pm the door was dry and we closed it much to the relief of our cats who had been shut up in the master bedroom all day.

For anyone who's interested I've had some bad days where I smoked either 8 or 10 cigarettes. Today was an 8 day. It's too easy to get up and stand outside to smoke here. *sigh*

Posted by Dawno at August 4, 2005 09:56 PM