Well, certain racists in Texas might call ’em “Black Holes” but that’s just a nasty slur like in an earlier post of mine (scroll down in that post for the Texas county official fighting the good fight). We don’t do that sort thing over here at The Folly. We only deal in Ultra-Low-Intensity Holes (the only other holes we cover are ASSholes but that’s another post).
Weighing ULI Holes… Well, who wouldn’t try the simple approach and use a scale? I would have thought that the link in Weasel’s post would have a scale big enough, like this one, but no joy.
A new way to weigh giant black holes <— slur not mine.
Caption: A composite image from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (shown in purple) and Hubble Space Telescope (blue) shows the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 4649. By applying a new technique, scientists used Chandra data to measure the black hole at its center to be about 3.4 billion times more massive than the Sun. The value from this X-ray technique is consistent with a more traditional method using the motions of stars near the black hole. NGC 4649 is now one of only a handful of galaxies for which the mass of a supermassive black hole has been measured with two different methods.
Presumably they used a composite image because there was no positive ID, just eyewitness accounts.
… ? …
From the Smithsonian, a really cool article even if it doesn’t read like a paper published in Physics Today.
Homing in on Black Holes <— it’s not me!
Andrea Ghez of UCLA has been tracking ULI Holes for a while now, estimating the fastest star orbiting the one in our galaxy as moving around 20 million mph – 3% of light speed. That is DAMN fast and it is a scary amount of energy require to push a star many times larger than our sun to that velocity.
Our galaxy’s fearsome future aside, Loeb hopes that soon—perhaps within a decade—we’ll have the first image of the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole, thanks to an emerging global network of “millimeter wave” telescopes. Named for the wavelength of infrared light they detect, the instruments technically won’t see the black hole itself. Rather, they’ll act in concert to photograph the shadow the black hole casts on a curtain of hot gas behind it. If all goes well, the image should show a black shadow, possibly with a distinctive shape. Theorists expect the black hole to be spinning. If so, according to the counterintuitive dragging of space predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity, our view of the shadow will be distorted into something like a lopsided and squashed teardrop. “It would be the most remarkable picture we could have,” says Loeb.
In other words, one big-assed weenie roast.
One of the truly heebiedejeebious places in the universe is a Quasar, which is a ULI Hole eating a galaxy for breakfast. (click that there image to see it in all it’s biggishness)
Man, I may be an enginerd science-geek, but you gotta admit this stuff has a high groovitude quotient…
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While we ponder double-standards, let’s look at Je$$ie Ja¢k$on again, shall we? Yet people love this guy. And what is reserved for Condi Rice, Colin Powell, Mychal Massie, Thomas Sowell, and Bill Cosby…? Crap, that’s what.
As for Je$$ie Ja¢k$on, open mouth, insert both feet, anything to shut him up before he says something else really stupid.
Breaking: What Else Jesse Jackson Said on That FNC Tape
Exclusive: TVNewser has been sent the transcript of what Jesse Jackson said Sunday morning July 6, as he prepared for an interview on Fox & Friends Weekend. Below is the partial transcript we received in our tips box, and confirmed to be authentic by Fox News Channel representatives.
Barack…he’s talking down to black people…telling n—s how to behave.
So, yes. Jesse Jackson did use the “N” word. But it was not directed at Barack Obama. Fox News and Bill O’Reilly have maintained there was more on the tape, but that the un-aired portion was not relevant to the issue at hand: about whether Obama was “talking down” to the black community.
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Now, I’m not going to name names because Cruel Wife wouldn’t speak to me, but I have had this hammer in my house that I did not buy nor could I bring myself to touch it w/o latex gloves. Just thought you’d want to see an example of Feminine Construction.
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Can’t seem to keep the UN’s grubby little paws off of anything, can we?
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I’ll leave you with one last picture, since I don’t know when I’ll be able to post again… be safe and take care of yourselves! Talk at you all later.
I wish you’d stop using such a blatenly RACIST!!! term like “Black Hole” Lemur King. Please – show some sensitivity and use a more neutral term like “African-American Hole”.
Wow, Enas… you skirted closer to the brink of total assholedom than I was able to. You are a shining example of a true Moronblogger. Someday, perhaps, I will snatch the pebble from your hand.
I had considered the term “ULI Coordinates of Nullity” but thought that sounded too pretentious.
I am a bad person, aren’t I? I’m an insensitive pig.
OOOPS! Sorry, upon further review the term “African-American Hole” might well be considered derogatory and racially insensitive as well. This is more complicated than I first thought.
Hope I didn’t come across in a mean way there, Enas. If I hadn’t known full well you didn’t mean anything by it I might have said something.
I try very hard to NOT be racist, but it’s almost certain that in spite of my obvious mocking and satirical tone, people will manage to take things personally. I’m laughing at the entire situation, the whole context in which all this had to ridiculously come to this condition in the first place.
But I can’t help but make fun of Jackson, Sharpton, Obama, and guys like the Texas county commish (because he’s a self-centered boob). These are targets of opportunity, just as I make fun of lots of other people (and myself as well)… Rosie, Dowd, Robbins, Clooney, Britney (and other pop-tarts), and idiots who do dangerous and dumb things.
I’m just no fan of PC, rewriting history, expunging words, banning books or flags – just as passionately I’d dearly love for racial hatreds to die out on all sides. Probably won’t ever happen. so we might as well all learn to get along and not make the problems worse. We need to grow thicker skin and learn to not take offense when none was meant.
I’m thinking this whole topic would be a great discussion post. Get people’s insights on both sides of the equation but put the brakes on any input that starts to get driven by emotionalism and anger – keep it in the realm of polite discussion and honest desire to get a better handle on things. You see precious little of that.
Hey man… that is one pretty hammer!!! I like that!
Oh, I shoulda seen that one coming! It just glistens with estrogen and reeks of feminine beauty (totally hearsay).
I just look at it and shiver, because… it’s a TOOL. Tools aren’t supposed to be frilly. It’s an offense to men’s sensibilities. 🙂