This is old news but I’m just getting around to blogging about it.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a news story about information loss in black holes. One such story is here.

I’ve always had a problem with the information loss theory of black holes. The basic tenets of the law of conservation of energy states that it is neither created nor destroyed. Light, being energy, is absorbed by a black hole and either must be added to the energy of a black hole or, my new thinking, change state.

The idea of energy being converted to a different energy state by a black hole brings up many interesting questions. The biggest, in my mind, is what state does it enter? My thoughts then drifted towards dark energy and matter. Could black holes be the key? Do black holes convert the light into dark? Are black holes the gateway to the darkness?

The biggest reason I was drawn to this conclusion is the unseemingly drastic end of energy once it enters the black hole’s event horizon. Almost nothing in our universe is a singleton. Everything changes state, phase, shape, mass, etc. Conserving the mass along the way. For a photon to drop into a black hole and become nothing infers that it’s either being wisked away to the other side of our universe (perhaps fueling a white hole in our adjecent universe) or, more likely, being converted to a different energy state. Occam’s razor is a beautiful thing.

In any case, since I’m an uneducated closet astrophysicist poser, I’ll let the geniuses figure this one out. But that’s just my $0.02.

I found this picture last night on MyConfinedSpace.com and laughed pretty hard. Being a lolcat and Cthulhu fan, I just found it hilarious.

So I’ve been pondering some theoretical physics and astronomy lately and have had some thoughts on the matter.

For those of you who don’t know, the universe is enormous. But the mass we can see only accounts for a small portion of the mass we expect the universe to be. Scientists have dubbed this missing mass as dark matter. Dark matter has a counterpart called dark energy. It’s energy and matter that is invisible to our current technology.

I find all of this fascinating and for the life of me cannot understand why dark matter and/or dark energy would exist. I have another explanation that I will try to verbalize.

Astrophysicists have discovered that the universe, since the big bang, has expanded. This inflation is not uniform. Thus space must be expanding in between objects as well. This is the only way that objects can speed up as they move away from the singularity of the big bang. That’s all well and good.

The interesting thing is that the universe is very ordered. Gasses coalesce into solids. Solids coalesce into planets, asteroids, comets, and stars. These all coalesce into galaxies. Galaxies coalesce into clusters. What scientists have found is that these clusters fall into what they describe as the cosmic web.

This web of galaxies and matter are held in place by the elusive dark matter and dark energy.

When I hear scientists talk of this dark stuff, I am reminded of how we (humans) used to think the air was the ether. And stars were close, and so on.

So I have two thoughts/theories on this:

1. Dark matter and dark energy is/are a dimensional phenomenon. Since it is, we won’t, as four dimensional creatures, be able to ever comprehend its nature. Just as a point cannot comprehend a cube. It may be forever elusive.

2. Dark matter and energy are a force that is exerted upon our universe by the structures on the other side of the fabric of space time. This theory is a little more complicated in my mind. It really boils down to anti-gravity. If the fabric of space time is like a sheet. And objects with mass distort the sheet thus causing gravititational pulls on other objects (they fall into the holes) then it stands to reason that there may be an equal and opposite force being exerted upon the fabric from the other side to balance it out. In my mind I think of the cosmic web tendrils as tube socks. The mass of the contents distort the outside of the tube. Perhaps the dark stuff is merely the universe balancing back.

Nature always seeks a balance. Where is the balancing force for gravity?

Anyway, it’s quite clear in my mind and I thought I’d share.

So I was reading about the puppet master retiring at the end of August and checked my portfolio to see how much money I’ve lost from my retirement fund today and saw this:

 My Microsoft position was up a total of $666.01. It just kind of made me chuckle. Karl Rove stepping down, Microsoft up $0.03 which, times $222 is $666. I won’t even go into the number of 23’s in there. I think you get where I’m going with this…

I’ve long believed that the economic situation in this country hasn’t been right for some time. Yes, I know the Bush administration continually says it’s strong and that everything is great. But I live outside of the bubble in which they live. I see, every day, the people of this country. I witness the disgruntled attitudes and the lack of interest. I determined long ago that we were still in a recession but we refused to admit it. Yes America, you are in denial!

Yesterday’s 311 point plunge in the Dow Jones is a reality check. Sure, technically, it could be massive profit-taking in an over bought market. However, I think more the fundamentals are at play here. We’ve got a crumbling housing market and that whole sub-prime lending thing is a house of cards. Remember when Donald Trump’s empire came crashing down twenty years ago? Well, that’s what’s happening here. We’ve got too much built up on nothing.

Holy shit do I love seeing the number 666. Not only does it instill fear in the hearts of mindless idiots who subscribe to organized superstition, but it’s such a cool number! Ah, the endless numerological possibilities. Anyway, today I noticed that the NASDAQ was down $6.66 so I thought I’d capture the moment.

Yeah, so, I was working on the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Wikipedia page when I decided to poke around for spoilers. Well, apparently I found one.

Some guys hacked into something, got the book and posted the plot summary. I read it, had to… like a train wreck: couldn’t stop.

 If you want to read it, this is the link.

I’ve been in Boston for the 6th Annual eBay Developer’s Convention. This is the fifth year I’ve attended. It’s always a pleasure to hobnob with people in my industry and generally hang out with people smarter than myself. Tonite was the traditional private event. Last year was at the top of the Mandalay Bay on the outside patio. The usual, open bar, flowing hors d’oeuvres and the chatter. Tonite’s was at the LTK — Legal Test Kitchen. It’s a great little place down at the seaport of Boston. The food was great.

It’s great how the evening starts where everyone talks about their web site or application and how it works. Sure, some are guarded with secrets and what not as we are mostly competitors. But down deep, we’re all geeks. And geeks like to “geek out”. And, if you pour a little liquor into that mix, well, things turn away from work to more traditional (and non-traditional) conversation. That’s my favorite. I’m tired of talking about work, my company, our technology, why we’re better, yada, yada, yada. Everyone needs to use our system, we’re the best, period. OK?

Anyway, I met some cool folks tonite. One was Alex Barnett from Bungee Labs. They’ve developed a way-cool browser based, drag and drop IDE for developing applications that utilize the eBay API. You can build widgets/plug-ins/components in their tool that you can license to other tool users on a pay-per-use basis. Very interesting stuff.

Also talked with the usual suspects from eBay. Most notably is Alan Lewis who is an eBay Evangelist. He’s heading up the San Dimas project. This is a tool built in Adobe’s new Apollo system. I think they’ve actually renamed Apollo to AIR, but I’m not sure.

Long time colleague at PayPal, Patrick Breitenbach and his fiancee joined us for a while.

Finally I talked mostly with Garry Heath from DealTree. They do logistics management and private marketplaces. Very interesting dude, had lots to talk about.

I know as well as the next guy, it’s hard to think up the next pet rock.

However I think that music-infused bottled water is not the ticket to the yacht club. These guys have a great little idea but does it have legs?

Last night was Cassandra’s chorus concert, Dancing Through Life. Dancing Through Life is a song from the musical Wicked with which apparently the music teacher is quite enamored.

The chorus concert was great. The kids are just really into it and the music selection was well done. I was quite impressed as were the other parents I’m sure. Cassandra had an awesome solo. I wish I’d brought the video camera.

However, it was staged in the school cafeteria which conveniently has a stage. It’s always hot in that school, not sure why. Maybe the like to keep the kiddies warm. But it was hot as hell, a jillion degrees. And because it’s in the cafeteria there is the lingering smell of children’s lunch.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the fine art of baloney sandwich preparation I submit to you the complete idiot’s guide to making a baloney sandwich.