Happy Feb!
Now where did January go? *Looks around for January but doesn't find it*. Hmm, strange, must have disappeared. Ah well, it was fun! A bit cold, but much warmer than last year to be sure. I'm hoping for a short walk this evening, along with a few games and fun afterwards.
For this week's random topic, I have picked space elevators, an idea that has been around for decades. Recently, a small event was hosted at NASA (I believe it was NASA) purely to discuss the possibilities and risks of building a space elevator. Now If I can take a rabbit trail here (thanks bunnies) a theologian may point out that an elevator to space may begin to sound a lot like a modern version of the tower of babel. However, it may also be pointed out that the tower of babel was also meant to unite the people, where a space elevator would probably cause more issues than resolve them. But I digress.
A space elevator, in its simplest form, is a long cable attached to the earth at the equator, and extending into space. It is held up by attaching a large chunk of rock, or a space station to the other end of it. This "counterweight" would use the earth's momentum to keep the cable tight. This cable could then be used like a giant elevator, to carry things and people into space and back. To imagine this, pretend you are the earth, and are swinging a rope with a weight attached to the end around and around. The rope is held tight, because you are spinning in a circle. The same holds true for earth.
Next, how would we use this? Well, once the cable is in place, we would use transport vessels similar to ski lifts, only designed to go vertically to transport cargo back and forth to space. This can include new satellites, supplies for the space station, or even one day to the moon!
However, there are some structural issues which we still need to solve. First of all, how do we propel things up this cable? Well I suppose if we had a giant chain, we could use powerful motors on earth to lift things like in an elevator. But the cables could easily be twisted or smash together. This idea probably wouldn't work. The most discussed idea is a pair of lasers providing wireless power to the cargo. You've heard of wireless charging right? imagine a really powerful version of it, one unit on earth providing power to electric engines, and the same version in the space station to propel it the rest of the way. The idea sounds plausible, but we haven't tried building one yet. Next issue: space debris, hurricanes, and natural disasters. We would need some precautions once we build this to make sure it doesn't come falling down or break. Proposals range from small thrusters on the space station to move the cable, to extra durable cable that would last a long time. Which brings us to the final and biggest issue: we do not have anything strong enough to make the cable with! Yes, this is a fundamental problem to the whole space elevator idea. Steel is nowhere near strong enough, neither is any widely available metal we know of. Scientists have been working with nanotubes, (read super strong spider silk) which may hold the answer, but we haven't even built successful prototypes. Its just barely past the theoretical stage.
If you ask me, it's more realistic to start crating underwater colonies than to colonize space. At least that way you don't have to go looking for water. :P Just something to think about:
Shaggy the Sheepdog
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Hello again,
Due to an unforeseen set of circumstances, I have been unable to post anything about the game of bridge yet. I apologize, but I seem to have been taken ill of late. This past weekend, along with several days from last week, have seen me curled up on the couch coughing and wheezing. The rabbits attempted to cure me, but of their proposed solutions (including standing on my head, chasing my tail, drinking from the far side of a glass, and hiding under the bed), I opted out and just took a nap. I'm beginning to feel better now, if a little tired still. I shall endeavor to post about this historical game when I have the brain cells to do it justice. In short, I may say bridge is played very similar to 4 handed pinochle, but with a regular deck. Each team must make a bid, and try to make their bid or they lose points and pay a penalty. One of the biggest differences is points are calculated very differently.
In other news, my master is almost done with his networking course, and hopes to finish by Wednesday afternoon. I'm excited for him, because that means more time for walks, and playing fetch. He recently went to the store and picked up a trunk-load of "rabbit food", that is carrot sticks, fruit, veggies and the like. Tasty to be sure, but a smidge low on the sugar side if you ask me. oh well, we can't all have cookies all the time I suppose.
Since this is one of those blogs where I try to add a kernel of knowledge with each post, here's todays: the east coast is having a winter blizzard (named hurricane Juno), and is buried in at least 2 feet of snow. The west coast had some amazing days at the beach over the weekend, highs around 55-60s,and the weather around here foggy as normal. :P
Well, that's all for now, I think I am going to find a blanket, book and some tea while I wait for my masters to return home. Oh, and if I'm quiet, the bunnies will stay asleep.
Due to an unforeseen set of circumstances, I have been unable to post anything about the game of bridge yet. I apologize, but I seem to have been taken ill of late. This past weekend, along with several days from last week, have seen me curled up on the couch coughing and wheezing. The rabbits attempted to cure me, but of their proposed solutions (including standing on my head, chasing my tail, drinking from the far side of a glass, and hiding under the bed), I opted out and just took a nap. I'm beginning to feel better now, if a little tired still. I shall endeavor to post about this historical game when I have the brain cells to do it justice. In short, I may say bridge is played very similar to 4 handed pinochle, but with a regular deck. Each team must make a bid, and try to make their bid or they lose points and pay a penalty. One of the biggest differences is points are calculated very differently.
In other news, my master is almost done with his networking course, and hopes to finish by Wednesday afternoon. I'm excited for him, because that means more time for walks, and playing fetch. He recently went to the store and picked up a trunk-load of "rabbit food", that is carrot sticks, fruit, veggies and the like. Tasty to be sure, but a smidge low on the sugar side if you ask me. oh well, we can't all have cookies all the time I suppose.
Since this is one of those blogs where I try to add a kernel of knowledge with each post, here's todays: the east coast is having a winter blizzard (named hurricane Juno), and is buried in at least 2 feet of snow. The west coast had some amazing days at the beach over the weekend, highs around 55-60s,and the weather around here foggy as normal. :P
Well, that's all for now, I think I am going to find a blanket, book and some tea while I wait for my masters to return home. Oh, and if I'm quiet, the bunnies will stay asleep.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Games and lengthy posts
Game Time!
After
countless hours of watching Poirot and similar shows, it may be time to have a
quick lesson on two of the classic card games at parties: Bridge, and Pinochle.
Oddly enough, these games are very
rarely played at the same time. Pinochle players tend to stick with Pinochle,
and Bridge players stick with Bridge. Below, we will run through the basic
rules of each game, that way no matter which party you attend, you will feel
right at home. :D
Enjoy!
Pinochle:
Let’s start
with this fun little game. The basic rules are simple enough, but learning the
skill and expected play styles may take a little longer. The first thing you
need to know about pinochle, is that it is played with a special deck of cards.
A pinochle deck has only 48 cards, and contains cards 9-Ace in each suit
(doubled, there are duplicates of every card). The dealer shuffles the cards,
and deals out 12 to each player. A typical game is played either 4 rounds, or
until one team gets a total of 150 points.
Pinochle is
broken into 3 stages: the bidding stage, the melding stage, and the playing
stage.
Bidding
Stage:
If you have
ever played hearts, spades, or rook, the bidding stage is similar. You bid on
how many points you and your partner can make by the end of the round. The
highest bidding team win the bid, and must make at least that many points by the end of the round, or they “go set”
that is, gain no points for the round, and go
negative the number of points they bid. The bid starts at 25 points.
Melding
Stage:
Once
players are finished bidding, the team with the winning bid calls trump (I will
get to this in a minute) and is allowed to pass exactly 4 cards facedown from
one player to the other. The player collects these cards, and selects 4 to send
back. The player who won the bid is allowed to announce which suit is trump.
His partner will then try to pass him trump cards, aces, and other helpful
cards. Then the player will build his hand, and pass back whatever he doesn’t need
to his teammate. Then, each player at the table lays down any sets of cards in
their hand which will gain their team points. I have attached a list of
available sets below:
|
Card
Combination
|
Description
|
Single
|
Double
|
|
A,K,Q,J,10
in trump
|
Run
|
15
|
150
|
|
K,Q in
trump
|
Marriage
|
4
|
8
|
|
K,Q in
suit
|
Marriage
|
2
|
4
|
|
9 in
trump
|
9
|
1
|
2
|
|
A,A,A,A
(One Ace in every suit)
|
Aces
Around
|
10
|
100
|
|
K,K,K,K
|
Kings
Around
|
8
|
80
|
|
Q,Q,Q,Q
|
Queens
Around
|
6
|
60
|
|
J,J,J,J
|
Jacks
Around
|
4
|
40
|
|
Q of
spades and
J of
diamonds
|
Pinochle
|
4
|
30
|
As you can
see, if you are able to collect a double, that is, 2 of any card combination,
this significantly increases your points.
Playing
Stage:
Once all
players have recorded their points so far, the players all pick up their hands
and play out the cards. Whichever team won the bid is allowed to pick the trump
suit for the round. They usually pick the suit they are dealt strongest in. A
trump card will always beat a non-trump card in play. When playing cards,
players must abide by the following rules:
A player
must follow the suit led unless he or she cannot.
When a
player cannot follow suit, they must
play a trump card unless they are out of trump (when a player is out of trump,
and the led suit, they may play whatever card they want).
When
following suit, a player must play a higher card if they can.
Highest
card in suit takes the trick (unless trump was played, in which case highest
trump on the table takes the trick).
When the
play is over, each team counts their point cards, and adds this to their meld
points. Points for cards are as follows:
Ace: 1
point
King: 1
point
10: 1 point
Every other
card: 0 points
Last trick
is worth 1 point
The total
points is what the team made for the round.*
*If a team
melded points, and then took no tricks during the round, they lose their melded
points.
Tips for
playing:
Once you
learn the game, you may notice little nuances in the game that you are expected
to know. Sort of like going to a poker game, and then forgetting to put up the
blind. Here is a quick list of expectations for a game of pinochle:
When
bidding, if you are dealt no cards in a suit (or just the 9 in suit) let your
partner know by giving him or her a jump bid. For example, if you opened the bidding,
start at 26. This lets your partner know you may not have the cards they need.
When
passing cards, if your partner took the bid, pass him trump first, then aces,
then 9 in trump if you have it. Remember, your goal is to help him make his
run.
Pinochle: a
double pinochle is worth 30 points, and very valuable. If your partner calls
either diamonds or spades as his trump suit, pass him any J of diamonds or Q of
spades you have.
Counting cards
is okay in this game. It is expected you are calculating where cards are likely
to be. Counting cards can be tricky at first. There are 2 of every card in the
deck. Start with your hand. What do you have? What do you need for a run? Is
your partner likely to have what you need? Then look around the table as players
meld their cards. Does another player have a lot of aces on the table? Remember
that and use it to draw out his or her aces early in the game to take control
of the end game.
I think
that’s about it for pinochle. This turned out to be along post, so I will post
Bridge separately.
Thawing out (early spring?)
*yawn* Good
Morning,
Welcome to
the New Year! Hmm, has anything changed yet? *looks around* Nope, doesn’t seem
like it. J Still the same grass to lie on
(except when its wet), still the same sun behind the clouds (we think, who
knows?). All the same, I thought 2014 would never end. It seemed jumbled up
with 2013 for some reason. 2015 is now officially its own year. My only
resolutions? Spend more time having fun, take life slow, or as slow as possible
in our fast-paced life, and to finally beat the bunnies at parchisee! Haha,
well the last one doesn’t seem so do-able – they cheat dontcha know ;) Maybe I
can beat them at chess…
*stretch*
spring is coming a little early this year it seems. I hope it will not be
another hot summer, last year was too hot, and so was the summer before. If it
gets too hot, I may wander over to the movies. This year promises a large
number of interesting titles including star wars among others.
I’m also
looking into planning a camping trip, or a couple of trips this spring, and
hopefully a trip to the beach. My masters look like they need a vacation. :P
Things in
general are going pretty well overall however, I can’t complain.
Enjoy your
Tuesday! I think I am going to take a nap now.
Santa
Woof! Merry Christmas Eve!
You may be wondering why I have been posting science posts lately. Well the answer's simple: we are endeavoring to find out how Santa is able to visit every home on earth in a single night. Based on the laws of physics as we know them, logically there is a way he can accomplish this. However, first and foremost, we must take into account a certain degree of magic. Magic does not always line up with science, but we will do our best to co-exist the two. :)
So, what degree of magic are we talking about? We know Santa uses 8 (sometimes 9) Reindeer to pull his sleigh. These reindeer are able to fly, and can pull the sleigh along at incredible heights and speeds. Furthermore, they can pull a fair amount of weight. The bag of toys in the back of the sleigh is usually filled to the brim! Of course, the toyshop, and elves and the lights of the North Pole also are magic, but we are only looking at the sleigh at the moment. There is conjecture on whether the sleigh has any magical properties, but we will assume it is a regular sleigh.
Lets talk numbers. How many presents are there to deliver? There are about 7.2 billion people in the world, and about 320 million people in the United States. Approximately 30% of them are children. Now, there are quite a few people Santa may not deliver presents to as well, for example, Buddhists, Hindu's, or Muslims who don't celebrate Christmas. Some of them do, mind you, but a lot of them don't.
7.2 Billion - 1.6b Muslims - 1b Hindus - .4b Buddhists = 4.2 Billion. Lets take 30% of this number (the children) = 1.26 Billion. Assuming 1 present for each child, this is still a lot of presents! Lets round this down to 1 Billion, both for sanity's sake, and because I have been over-estimating things.
Okay, so we have 1 Billion presents. How much do they weigh? Well, size and weigh can vary wildly. from a deck of playing cards to a bicycle! Lets take some average guesses. For small toys, a good weight may be about 1-3 pounds (action figures, games, etc). For average toys, lets say 5 pounds. For large toys, 15 pounds. Naturally, most items will be in the average category. We'll do a standard weight distributed bell curve, and assign 68 percent to average toys, and 16 percent to small toys, and 16 percent to large toys.
Small toys: .32b pounds
Average toys: 3.4b pounds
Large toys: 2.4b pounds
So the entire pile of presents will weigh about 6.1 Billion pounds or so. This is beginning to sound like a lot of presents! Let's assume the sleigh will hold 2400 pounds of presents per trip (yes, Santa will be making multiple trips). If this is the case, it will take him about 2.5 million trips. Even with our physics in play, this seems a little extravagant. But wait! Isn't Santa's bag magic? Why yes it is! He pulls all sorts of things out of that bag that clearly might not fit in there otherwise. Let's say it can reduce size and weight by 100 times. Dividing our number by 100, that means Santa will need to make 25,416 trips. Still a lot of trips, but much more manageable.
Now lets look at the physics lessons we have been talking about:
When talking about dimensions, we mentioned that time can be construed as a 4rth dimension, that is to say, we travel through time (usually ahead in time, but I digress). Our second article was about relativity, that is to say, can we travel forward or backwards through time at varying rates? Technically, yes, but this is difficult to impossible to travel backwards in time, but we can slow our passage through time by reaching close to relativistic speeds. Sadly, this doesn't help us, because we want to slow earth's time, to make the night longer for Santa to deliver the presents. Well how about wormholes? This is where we can get some help. Wormholes are mostly theoretical, and take enormous amounts of energy. But they can set up a waypoint, so to speak, where one can travel ahead in time, go into the wormhole, and come back out in the past when the wormhole was created. And Santa has magic. He creates two of these wormholes using solar energy, and the northern lights to make one at the North Pole, and one at the South pole. He is able to use these to make one trip, then drop in the south pole wormhole, and appear again in the North Pole wormhole to make the second trip, and so on and so forth. This is also why Santa may appear to be in many places at once, because he is traversing the same span of time multiple times. Using this approach, it would take him roughly 5.7 years to finish one Christmas run! That is one busy guy!
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Woof!
ps: sorry about the delay in posting this, hope you enjoy anyway!
You may be wondering why I have been posting science posts lately. Well the answer's simple: we are endeavoring to find out how Santa is able to visit every home on earth in a single night. Based on the laws of physics as we know them, logically there is a way he can accomplish this. However, first and foremost, we must take into account a certain degree of magic. Magic does not always line up with science, but we will do our best to co-exist the two. :)
So, what degree of magic are we talking about? We know Santa uses 8 (sometimes 9) Reindeer to pull his sleigh. These reindeer are able to fly, and can pull the sleigh along at incredible heights and speeds. Furthermore, they can pull a fair amount of weight. The bag of toys in the back of the sleigh is usually filled to the brim! Of course, the toyshop, and elves and the lights of the North Pole also are magic, but we are only looking at the sleigh at the moment. There is conjecture on whether the sleigh has any magical properties, but we will assume it is a regular sleigh.
Lets talk numbers. How many presents are there to deliver? There are about 7.2 billion people in the world, and about 320 million people in the United States. Approximately 30% of them are children. Now, there are quite a few people Santa may not deliver presents to as well, for example, Buddhists, Hindu's, or Muslims who don't celebrate Christmas. Some of them do, mind you, but a lot of them don't.
7.2 Billion - 1.6b Muslims - 1b Hindus - .4b Buddhists = 4.2 Billion. Lets take 30% of this number (the children) = 1.26 Billion. Assuming 1 present for each child, this is still a lot of presents! Lets round this down to 1 Billion, both for sanity's sake, and because I have been over-estimating things.
Okay, so we have 1 Billion presents. How much do they weigh? Well, size and weigh can vary wildly. from a deck of playing cards to a bicycle! Lets take some average guesses. For small toys, a good weight may be about 1-3 pounds (action figures, games, etc). For average toys, lets say 5 pounds. For large toys, 15 pounds. Naturally, most items will be in the average category. We'll do a standard weight distributed bell curve, and assign 68 percent to average toys, and 16 percent to small toys, and 16 percent to large toys.
Small toys: .32b pounds
Average toys: 3.4b pounds
Large toys: 2.4b pounds
So the entire pile of presents will weigh about 6.1 Billion pounds or so. This is beginning to sound like a lot of presents! Let's assume the sleigh will hold 2400 pounds of presents per trip (yes, Santa will be making multiple trips). If this is the case, it will take him about 2.5 million trips. Even with our physics in play, this seems a little extravagant. But wait! Isn't Santa's bag magic? Why yes it is! He pulls all sorts of things out of that bag that clearly might not fit in there otherwise. Let's say it can reduce size and weight by 100 times. Dividing our number by 100, that means Santa will need to make 25,416 trips. Still a lot of trips, but much more manageable.
Now lets look at the physics lessons we have been talking about:
When talking about dimensions, we mentioned that time can be construed as a 4rth dimension, that is to say, we travel through time (usually ahead in time, but I digress). Our second article was about relativity, that is to say, can we travel forward or backwards through time at varying rates? Technically, yes, but this is difficult to impossible to travel backwards in time, but we can slow our passage through time by reaching close to relativistic speeds. Sadly, this doesn't help us, because we want to slow earth's time, to make the night longer for Santa to deliver the presents. Well how about wormholes? This is where we can get some help. Wormholes are mostly theoretical, and take enormous amounts of energy. But they can set up a waypoint, so to speak, where one can travel ahead in time, go into the wormhole, and come back out in the past when the wormhole was created. And Santa has magic. He creates two of these wormholes using solar energy, and the northern lights to make one at the North Pole, and one at the South pole. He is able to use these to make one trip, then drop in the south pole wormhole, and appear again in the North Pole wormhole to make the second trip, and so on and so forth. This is also why Santa may appear to be in many places at once, because he is traversing the same span of time multiple times. Using this approach, it would take him roughly 5.7 years to finish one Christmas run! That is one busy guy!
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Woof!
ps: sorry about the delay in posting this, hope you enjoy anyway!
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Black Hole --Rabbits have commandeered this post!--
Weeee! We finally got a hold of the computer! Hmm, what to post? It looks like the dog was going to write about black holes? Haha, how funny! Black holes aren't real, are they? Silly dog. We should play Parcheesi! Or, even better, make up rules on how black holes work. Won't that be fun?
Hmm, so we don't know what black holes are, so we'll have to make them up. Think of a black hole like a cartoon hole that you can place anywhere:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PYPfJyIFrA
This is what a black hole is, a small flat portable hole you can carry in your pocket. Dashedly useful for when your caught cheating in Parcheesi, wot wot?
*All right, bunnies go back to your game! Silly wabbits!*
*Ahem* As I was saying, black holes are nothing at all like that. They have to do with gravity, and are often super massive. What's more, they wouldn't fit in your pocket. :P A black hole is a region of space-time where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light can escape. As a special treat, I've invited Shadow, a small black cat with extra-ordinary knowledge of black holes, to share what he knows.
Good Morning everyone. My name is Shadow. I've spent a lot of time traveling with Schwarzschild the mouse. He first introduced me to the theory of wormholes and black holes. Since then, I have been investigating in my own quiet way, the subject of black holes. As Sheepdog stated, they have a massive gravitational pull, which sucks everything around it into its center. The point where objects first begin to be pulled, and cannot escape is called the event horizon. Remember that term, I'll use it later. Anyways, this theory was first considered in the 18th century by a pair of outrageous squirrels by the name of Michell and Laplace. Their work was expanded by my friend the mouse. He really is quite bright! Black holes are what I call an observable enigma, they actually exist according to our top scientists. For example, they theorize a super-massive black hole is at the center of our galaxy, keeping all the stars rotating around it in orbit. Another fascinating feature of black holes, is even though they are by all accounts invisible, any particles including light will accelerate as they approach the black hole, giving off a blinding light until they are swallowed up. This light surrounding the black hole is perhaps the brightest objects in the universe. The center of a black hole, also called the singularity is theorized to have infinite density. Any object sucked in is compressed, and added to the total mass of the black hole. Black holes can be formed through the collapse of a star, or other giant object. Once formed, black holes were originally though to last indefinitely.
However, a recent discovery by a very intelligent hawk by the name of Stephan showed that black holes emit a kind of radiation. In short, it releases certain particles while gobbling up all other particles. If the black hole has not other particles to swallow, it will eventually release enough hawking particles that it will evaporate. A small black hole the size of a car would evaporate in an instant due to this radiation. A black hole the size of a star would take significantly longer.
Thanks Shadow. Sorry about the rabbits...
No worries. If the lesson is over for the day, I may go join them actually. A cup of cocoa sounds pretty good.
Hmm, so we don't know what black holes are, so we'll have to make them up. Think of a black hole like a cartoon hole that you can place anywhere:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PYPfJyIFrA
This is what a black hole is, a small flat portable hole you can carry in your pocket. Dashedly useful for when your caught cheating in Parcheesi, wot wot?
*All right, bunnies go back to your game! Silly wabbits!*
*Ahem* As I was saying, black holes are nothing at all like that. They have to do with gravity, and are often super massive. What's more, they wouldn't fit in your pocket. :P A black hole is a region of space-time where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light can escape. As a special treat, I've invited Shadow, a small black cat with extra-ordinary knowledge of black holes, to share what he knows.
Good Morning everyone. My name is Shadow. I've spent a lot of time traveling with Schwarzschild the mouse. He first introduced me to the theory of wormholes and black holes. Since then, I have been investigating in my own quiet way, the subject of black holes. As Sheepdog stated, they have a massive gravitational pull, which sucks everything around it into its center. The point where objects first begin to be pulled, and cannot escape is called the event horizon. Remember that term, I'll use it later. Anyways, this theory was first considered in the 18th century by a pair of outrageous squirrels by the name of Michell and Laplace. Their work was expanded by my friend the mouse. He really is quite bright! Black holes are what I call an observable enigma, they actually exist according to our top scientists. For example, they theorize a super-massive black hole is at the center of our galaxy, keeping all the stars rotating around it in orbit. Another fascinating feature of black holes, is even though they are by all accounts invisible, any particles including light will accelerate as they approach the black hole, giving off a blinding light until they are swallowed up. This light surrounding the black hole is perhaps the brightest objects in the universe. The center of a black hole, also called the singularity is theorized to have infinite density. Any object sucked in is compressed, and added to the total mass of the black hole. Black holes can be formed through the collapse of a star, or other giant object. Once formed, black holes were originally though to last indefinitely.
However, a recent discovery by a very intelligent hawk by the name of Stephan showed that black holes emit a kind of radiation. In short, it releases certain particles while gobbling up all other particles. If the black hole has not other particles to swallow, it will eventually release enough hawking particles that it will evaporate. A small black hole the size of a car would evaporate in an instant due to this radiation. A black hole the size of a star would take significantly longer.
Thanks Shadow. Sorry about the rabbits...
No worries. If the lesson is over for the day, I may go join them actually. A cup of cocoa sounds pretty good.
Wormholes (A big adventure for a small mouse)
Happy Thursday everyone!
Today we will be taking a look at wormholes (continuing discussion from our dimensions). Now currently we know nothing about wormholes except what we have seen from star trek. :P After some poking around however, I found a pair of experts on the subject; EinsteinTail, and RosenEar, a pair of white mice. They have started a science club which meets on the great golden bridge every 5th Tuesday. A smarter pair of mice you have never seen. They even managed to beat the rabbits at Parcheesi last night! And as any observer will tell you, rabbit-Parcheesi with its Calvin-ball-rules and card swapping is no easy feat. Through these lengthy discussions at the golden gate bridge (sometimes lasting for hours at a time) led to the discovery of wormholes, or is as formally known by the club: the Einstein-Rosen Bridge.
This time I traveled to the golden gate bridge to talk to these two mice, and decided to meet with their club a few days ago. They lost me in their debating and endless chattering, but the cheese buffet was delicious!
A wormhole, or Einstein-Rosen Bridge, is an unobserved hypothetical phenomenon that is basically a tunnel or shortcut from one location to another. Picture a 2-dimensional world, where the observer can only see in 2 dimensions. a wormhole would be a 3-dimensional tunnel from one spot to another. To the observer, an object would seem to disappear from sight, then re-appear in another location entirely. Now picture this in our world, only the tunnel would have a sphere as the opening, pull the object out of our 3-dimensional space, and into a different dimensional space where the distance from any one point to any other point could easily be much shorter. This is what a wormhole is. Although one has never been observed, the math behind these wormholes is sound, and many thought-experiments have developed. A senior mouse of the club, Schwarz, would often begin these thought-experiements, which included lots of paper, hard thinking, and plenty of erasers. Sadly, he was unable to come up with anything helpful. His child, a very tiny mouse, was perhaps the first to to discover a solution to a wormhole problem. He hypothesized that a wormhole in the center of a black hole meets the required properties to exist without violating natural law. A black hole has the densest matter in the universe. This gravitational pull could create, then collapse a wormhole in such a way that the entrance to the wormhole and the exit to the wormhole are in exactly the same spot. If you can picture that, imagine that because one can observe particles entering the black hole from either side, one must be able (potentially) to see them exit either side. Thus, the black hole has two sides if you will, one for the entrance of the wormhole, and one for the exit of the wormhole. These would enter and exit in to locations, or possibly in two universes. Needless to say, the small mouse was immediately praised and given a cup of hot chocolate for his efforts. Upon further examination the club discovered that such a phenomenon would almost immediately collapse in on itself. But it gave opened the door for traversable wormholes which were discussed during a very cold winter when the mice lit their fire.
It was a cold day, and the mice lit a small fire for the first time that season. They noticed that there were still 2 logs left over from last year. While the small mice began to build the fire, two older mice, known as Thorne and Morris, began theorizing about a wormhole allowing space and time travel. They wondered if the two logs represented a stable wormhole (which they conceded is impossible without some form of undiscovered exotic negative-energy), then the wormhole would start and finish at the same time in the fireplace. However, if the wormhole were created, and the 2nd log was placed in a spaceship, sent to mars and back, then by the laws of time dilation, the 2nd log would have aged 1 minute less than the 1st log which had stayed in the fireplace the whole time. Therefore, by jumping through the wormhole from the 2nd log, they would likely have traveled back in time by 1 minute. They then extended the analogy to a close-to-light-speed travel by the 2nd log. Suppose they were able to accelerate it much faster. Why then, there might be a 2 year difference between the two. While they could not travel back in time further than the creation of the wormhole, they could certainly travel back to the time it was created. Very please with themselves, they forgot all about the fire, and began eating the cheese plate because they were so hungry from all their hard thinking.
The group as a whole, with their fire finally lit, began talking about the possibility of wormholes which existed in space for hundreds of years. If such a stable wormhole already existed, why it was possible to travel to a fixed point in the past, whenever the other end of the wormhole was created, or any time between depending on the speed and trip the second portal may have taken since it's creation. Their small group gradually grew as more mice began coming to this small meeting, including Deutsch and Raychaudhuri, both mice from Harvard, who added their ideas to the masses.
Schwarzs' Child didn't come often after that. It was soon noticed that he had disappeared, and the club believed that he, getting tired of endless talk, went out and found a wormhole on his own and may be anywhere in the universe by now...
*squeak squeak*
Today we will be taking a look at wormholes (continuing discussion from our dimensions). Now currently we know nothing about wormholes except what we have seen from star trek. :P After some poking around however, I found a pair of experts on the subject; EinsteinTail, and RosenEar, a pair of white mice. They have started a science club which meets on the great golden bridge every 5th Tuesday. A smarter pair of mice you have never seen. They even managed to beat the rabbits at Parcheesi last night! And as any observer will tell you, rabbit-Parcheesi with its Calvin-ball-rules and card swapping is no easy feat. Through these lengthy discussions at the golden gate bridge (sometimes lasting for hours at a time) led to the discovery of wormholes, or is as formally known by the club: the Einstein-Rosen Bridge.
This time I traveled to the golden gate bridge to talk to these two mice, and decided to meet with their club a few days ago. They lost me in their debating and endless chattering, but the cheese buffet was delicious!
A wormhole, or Einstein-Rosen Bridge, is an unobserved hypothetical phenomenon that is basically a tunnel or shortcut from one location to another. Picture a 2-dimensional world, where the observer can only see in 2 dimensions. a wormhole would be a 3-dimensional tunnel from one spot to another. To the observer, an object would seem to disappear from sight, then re-appear in another location entirely. Now picture this in our world, only the tunnel would have a sphere as the opening, pull the object out of our 3-dimensional space, and into a different dimensional space where the distance from any one point to any other point could easily be much shorter. This is what a wormhole is. Although one has never been observed, the math behind these wormholes is sound, and many thought-experiments have developed. A senior mouse of the club, Schwarz, would often begin these thought-experiements, which included lots of paper, hard thinking, and plenty of erasers. Sadly, he was unable to come up with anything helpful. His child, a very tiny mouse, was perhaps the first to to discover a solution to a wormhole problem. He hypothesized that a wormhole in the center of a black hole meets the required properties to exist without violating natural law. A black hole has the densest matter in the universe. This gravitational pull could create, then collapse a wormhole in such a way that the entrance to the wormhole and the exit to the wormhole are in exactly the same spot. If you can picture that, imagine that because one can observe particles entering the black hole from either side, one must be able (potentially) to see them exit either side. Thus, the black hole has two sides if you will, one for the entrance of the wormhole, and one for the exit of the wormhole. These would enter and exit in to locations, or possibly in two universes. Needless to say, the small mouse was immediately praised and given a cup of hot chocolate for his efforts. Upon further examination the club discovered that such a phenomenon would almost immediately collapse in on itself. But it gave opened the door for traversable wormholes which were discussed during a very cold winter when the mice lit their fire.
It was a cold day, and the mice lit a small fire for the first time that season. They noticed that there were still 2 logs left over from last year. While the small mice began to build the fire, two older mice, known as Thorne and Morris, began theorizing about a wormhole allowing space and time travel. They wondered if the two logs represented a stable wormhole (which they conceded is impossible without some form of undiscovered exotic negative-energy), then the wormhole would start and finish at the same time in the fireplace. However, if the wormhole were created, and the 2nd log was placed in a spaceship, sent to mars and back, then by the laws of time dilation, the 2nd log would have aged 1 minute less than the 1st log which had stayed in the fireplace the whole time. Therefore, by jumping through the wormhole from the 2nd log, they would likely have traveled back in time by 1 minute. They then extended the analogy to a close-to-light-speed travel by the 2nd log. Suppose they were able to accelerate it much faster. Why then, there might be a 2 year difference between the two. While they could not travel back in time further than the creation of the wormhole, they could certainly travel back to the time it was created. Very please with themselves, they forgot all about the fire, and began eating the cheese plate because they were so hungry from all their hard thinking.
The group as a whole, with their fire finally lit, began talking about the possibility of wormholes which existed in space for hundreds of years. If such a stable wormhole already existed, why it was possible to travel to a fixed point in the past, whenever the other end of the wormhole was created, or any time between depending on the speed and trip the second portal may have taken since it's creation. Their small group gradually grew as more mice began coming to this small meeting, including Deutsch and Raychaudhuri, both mice from Harvard, who added their ideas to the masses.
Schwarzs' Child didn't come often after that. It was soon noticed that he had disappeared, and the club believed that he, getting tired of endless talk, went out and found a wormhole on his own and may be anywhere in the universe by now...
*squeak squeak*
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Relativity
Albert Einstein is most well known for his general theory of relativity. Today we are going to tackle as best we can, this theory of relativity. To do this, we have phoned in the best source we could find: Chico the 7th. Chico was Einstein's dog. Although Chico disliked Einsteins work, (and would frequently bite the mailman in efforts to cut off Einsteins correspondence) he nevertheless learned quite a bit from his master. This knowledge of relativity (in dog lingo) he passed down to his offspring. Chico the 7th has had no formal college training, but has attended several lectures on the subject, and has been working on a theory of why cats are so annoying (corollary, why cats' bones tend to disappear when they sleep). But I digress.
Chico, it's good to hear from you. What can you tell us about all this relativity nonsense?
Well, it's not nonsense, if you go in for this sort of thing. :) Now lets see, where to begin. The theory of relativity has been around since before Einstein. He just improved it. Simply put, any law of nature should be the same at all times, that is, any person observing a tree falling will see just that, a tree falling. To this we will add the dimension of time. Suppose one sees a tree falling, and then 5 minutes later, another person sees a different tree falling in the same way. By comparing these two instances, we can record and observe the results, and begin to calculate the energy involved. It is in this way scientists can make testable predictions on the laws.
Okay, I can picture that. I spend a lot of time outside and around trees. :)
Now lets look at the theory of general relativity. Einstein did most of his most famous work with the general (and special) theory of relativity. The theory of special relativity states that these laws of physics (like the tree falling) should be the same in every inertial frame of reference.
What's that mean?
It means assuming where you are standing is a non-moving entity. Technically, you would be standing in a forest, on earth. Now the earth is moving around the sun, but for our purposes, we assume the earth is standing still in reference to the tree. So, special relativity states that the laws must remain the same (the tree will fall toward the earth and emit a loud THWUMP). This allows special cases, like a non-inertial frame of reference to have a different set of laws. For example, the light from a distant star is traveling at the speed of light. How can we still see it? Because even though we seem to be standing still, the earth is traveling pretty fast, the sun is moving about our galaxy, and the light is traveling not away or across the earth, but directly towards the earth. So, we can see particles traveling at the speed of light.
You're very smart for a dog, did you know that?
Thanks fluffy. Like I said, I attended a few lectures, and the subject fascinates me. As I was saying, the theory of special relativity allows for special cases to be made. Now then, in special cases, physics professors would historically attack the problem (*gobble snarf*) using a coordinate transformation, first to an inertial reference frame (back to our tree problem), calculate it, and move it back to the special case (absolute inertia). Our star problem above would be a little more difficult. But since it would use strictly non-inertial reference frames, it is not constricted to our regular laws of nature.
Thanks...I think. Now lets move on to the question we have been dying to ask. According to Einstein, is time travel and faster-than-light travel possible?
This is a question I am often asked. This question deals with a branch of relativity called time dilation. Time dilation has been proven and tested with astronauts and the ISS. Time dilation, simply put, is an actual difference of elapsed time between two separate events relative to gravitational pull. A dog on earth with a pocket watch, and a dog in space with the same pocket watch may observe that after a day apart, their watches would be about 42 minutes off from one another. This is not due to a mechanical failure of the watch, rather the nature of space time itself. Here's another example: place a cat in a spaceship for a little over 2 months. Place another cat on earth. At the end of the time period, the cat on earth will have waited spent 81 days watching tv and taking naps. The cat in space will have only spent 80 days watching tv and taking naps. This 1 day difference is due to the space time/gravitational difference between earth and the first layer of space around our planet. furthermore, the further away from gravity you go, the slower time will appear to pass for you. The same theory holds true for velocity. The faster you are going, the slower time will pass for you. The ISS space station, for example, is moving much faster than most of our commutes to work. They are also further away from the gravitational pull of the earth. They age more slowly, (e.g. 0.007 seconds less than we do for every 6 months they are in space). The difference isn't earth shattering, but it is a marked change.
I see. So you can alter the speed you travel through time using speed, and force.
That is correct. Some scientists theorize that if you are able to move fast enough (many times the speed of light), then time will slow to a crawl, then a stop, then move backwards. At a practical level, scientists hope one day to create a strong enough propulsion system to send humans to the far reaches of the galaxy without the dramatic aging. A human may travel 8 years in space, but for them, only 1 year may have passed. Likewise, you can also travel very slowly in space, and near a dense object with a heavy gravitational pull. This would speed up your clock, and slow everyone else clock. For example, if you traveled to the center of the earth, you may emerge having spent 5 years there, only to find the earth has only spent 1 year. However, the effect of reversing it becomes a much more difficult problem to solve.
So you cannot travel backward in time?
According to our current understanding of time dilation, we can travel forward into the future, but cannot travel backwards. We have proved that traveling ahead is possible, we just lack the technology to jump forward years or decades. Einstein also proposed a universal speed limit on the universe. He believes the speed of light is the fastest possible particle. In other words, the star trek enterprise would be stuck at warp 1. :(
.
Chico, it's good to hear from you. What can you tell us about all this relativity nonsense?
Well, it's not nonsense, if you go in for this sort of thing. :) Now lets see, where to begin. The theory of relativity has been around since before Einstein. He just improved it. Simply put, any law of nature should be the same at all times, that is, any person observing a tree falling will see just that, a tree falling. To this we will add the dimension of time. Suppose one sees a tree falling, and then 5 minutes later, another person sees a different tree falling in the same way. By comparing these two instances, we can record and observe the results, and begin to calculate the energy involved. It is in this way scientists can make testable predictions on the laws.
Okay, I can picture that. I spend a lot of time outside and around trees. :)
Now lets look at the theory of general relativity. Einstein did most of his most famous work with the general (and special) theory of relativity. The theory of special relativity states that these laws of physics (like the tree falling) should be the same in every inertial frame of reference.
What's that mean?
It means assuming where you are standing is a non-moving entity. Technically, you would be standing in a forest, on earth. Now the earth is moving around the sun, but for our purposes, we assume the earth is standing still in reference to the tree. So, special relativity states that the laws must remain the same (the tree will fall toward the earth and emit a loud THWUMP). This allows special cases, like a non-inertial frame of reference to have a different set of laws. For example, the light from a distant star is traveling at the speed of light. How can we still see it? Because even though we seem to be standing still, the earth is traveling pretty fast, the sun is moving about our galaxy, and the light is traveling not away or across the earth, but directly towards the earth. So, we can see particles traveling at the speed of light.
You're very smart for a dog, did you know that?
Thanks fluffy. Like I said, I attended a few lectures, and the subject fascinates me. As I was saying, the theory of special relativity allows for special cases to be made. Now then, in special cases, physics professors would historically attack the problem (*gobble snarf*) using a coordinate transformation, first to an inertial reference frame (back to our tree problem), calculate it, and move it back to the special case (absolute inertia). Our star problem above would be a little more difficult. But since it would use strictly non-inertial reference frames, it is not constricted to our regular laws of nature.
Thanks...I think. Now lets move on to the question we have been dying to ask. According to Einstein, is time travel and faster-than-light travel possible?
This is a question I am often asked. This question deals with a branch of relativity called time dilation. Time dilation has been proven and tested with astronauts and the ISS. Time dilation, simply put, is an actual difference of elapsed time between two separate events relative to gravitational pull. A dog on earth with a pocket watch, and a dog in space with the same pocket watch may observe that after a day apart, their watches would be about 42 minutes off from one another. This is not due to a mechanical failure of the watch, rather the nature of space time itself. Here's another example: place a cat in a spaceship for a little over 2 months. Place another cat on earth. At the end of the time period, the cat on earth will have waited spent 81 days watching tv and taking naps. The cat in space will have only spent 80 days watching tv and taking naps. This 1 day difference is due to the space time/gravitational difference between earth and the first layer of space around our planet. furthermore, the further away from gravity you go, the slower time will appear to pass for you. The same theory holds true for velocity. The faster you are going, the slower time will pass for you. The ISS space station, for example, is moving much faster than most of our commutes to work. They are also further away from the gravitational pull of the earth. They age more slowly, (e.g. 0.007 seconds less than we do for every 6 months they are in space). The difference isn't earth shattering, but it is a marked change.
I see. So you can alter the speed you travel through time using speed, and force.
That is correct. Some scientists theorize that if you are able to move fast enough (many times the speed of light), then time will slow to a crawl, then a stop, then move backwards. At a practical level, scientists hope one day to create a strong enough propulsion system to send humans to the far reaches of the galaxy without the dramatic aging. A human may travel 8 years in space, but for them, only 1 year may have passed. Likewise, you can also travel very slowly in space, and near a dense object with a heavy gravitational pull. This would speed up your clock, and slow everyone else clock. For example, if you traveled to the center of the earth, you may emerge having spent 5 years there, only to find the earth has only spent 1 year. However, the effect of reversing it becomes a much more difficult problem to solve.
So you cannot travel backward in time?
According to our current understanding of time dilation, we can travel forward into the future, but cannot travel backwards. We have proved that traveling ahead is possible, we just lack the technology to jump forward years or decades. Einstein also proposed a universal speed limit on the universe. He believes the speed of light is the fastest possible particle. In other words, the star trek enterprise would be stuck at warp 1. :(
.
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Diminsions in Time and Space
Dimensions can be disputed, both how many they are, what each one is, and how they apply to our lives. A physics professor may disagree with a math professor on the details of the number and explanation of each dimension, which we will get to in a little while. Just to see what will happen, we have invited one of each to attend today's lecture:
I will begin with my rudimentary definitions of dimension:
1st Dimension: a point or line. The point or line has no width, or thickness, and can only exist in one direction.
2nd Dimension: Think about area. the second dimension is like a square or circle; flat, but with 2 directions: width and length. Circles, squares, basic shapes, and even complex shapes can all be 2 dimensional.
3rd Dimension: Now think about volume: cubes, spheres, swimming pools all have 3 directions: width, length, and height. Most of what we interact with on a daily basis is 3 dimensional. Actually, even a piece of paper has 3 dimensions, it is just very thin.
4rth Dimension: Although this can be disputed, Time is the generally accepted 4rth dimension. While time is not a spatial dimension, it can interact with the previous 3 dimensions. Water for example, when placed in a freezer will turn to ice. Was it always ice? As it progresses through time, it will change depending on its environment.
Our mathematician however, loves to complicate things: (and he loves graph paper)
The dimension of a mathematical object is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it.
Huh? Lets ask him more slowly to define this:
When drawing any object on a set of axis (graph paper), if you can refer to a point in your object using a single coordinate (such as 1,2) then the object is in the 1st dimension. Any object which requires 2 coordinates, will be in the 2nd dimension. A box for example, has area, and would need at least 2 points to define it. A sphere, would need 3 points to define it. And so on and so forth.
Ahh, that makes a little more sense. This sounds very much like our informal definition above. Oh wait, I don't think he's done:
However, there are strange cases of objects like a unit circle, which are 2 dimensional, but can be defined as being 1 dimensional! A point in a unit circle can be specified by two coordinates, but on a polar (circle graph) you only need one polor coordinate! Thus, it exists in 1 and 2 dimensional space.
Hmm, I didn't know that. Oh, he's still talking:
In vector analysis/matrices mathematics there can be many more than 4 dimensions. While these dimensions do not exist as we see, and they do not even define nth dimensional objects, they are used simply to compare points, figures, and sets to one another.
Okay, I think he lost me in there somewhere...
Fractal dimension is another example of a unique set of mathematics. Fractal dimension implies some objects may be between dimensions. For example, the perimeter of the Koch Snowflake we examined a month or two ago. The perimeter is a line, which by our definition, is 1 dimensional. However, that line weaves and swerves, and continues expanding indefinitely. This is too complex to be 1 dimensional, and yet has no area like a 2 dimensional object should have. Fractal dimensions have been put to use to define these unique case.
Ack! Okay, lets move on to the physist's, maybe he'll have some straight answers for us. Oh good, our physist is much more practical about all this: well for the time being anyway.
There are 3 dimensions which are clearly defined. The first dimension is a point or line, the second has area, the third has volume. Time is often referred to as the 4rth dimension, but is viewed as different in nature to the first 3. We can *currently* only move through time in one direction.
He agrees with our basic definitions, and will consent that time is often referred to as the 4rth dimension. He can observe things changing over time, has no problem with this.
He then launched into a 45 minute lecture about string theory and superstring theory, which involved 10 spacetime dimensions. Basically speaking, each new dimension is another force acting on our object. Gravity, for example can be a dimension, or the sun pulling on the planets, or the galaxy pulling on our solar system. This is a very rough introduction, but it led to a 90 minute argument between the mathematician, and our physicist. In the end, they both stormed out, but not before eating all the snacks. :P
I will begin with my rudimentary definitions of dimension:
1st Dimension: a point or line. The point or line has no width, or thickness, and can only exist in one direction.
2nd Dimension: Think about area. the second dimension is like a square or circle; flat, but with 2 directions: width and length. Circles, squares, basic shapes, and even complex shapes can all be 2 dimensional.
3rd Dimension: Now think about volume: cubes, spheres, swimming pools all have 3 directions: width, length, and height. Most of what we interact with on a daily basis is 3 dimensional. Actually, even a piece of paper has 3 dimensions, it is just very thin.
4rth Dimension: Although this can be disputed, Time is the generally accepted 4rth dimension. While time is not a spatial dimension, it can interact with the previous 3 dimensions. Water for example, when placed in a freezer will turn to ice. Was it always ice? As it progresses through time, it will change depending on its environment.
Our mathematician however, loves to complicate things: (and he loves graph paper)
The dimension of a mathematical object is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it.
Huh? Lets ask him more slowly to define this:
When drawing any object on a set of axis (graph paper), if you can refer to a point in your object using a single coordinate (such as 1,2) then the object is in the 1st dimension. Any object which requires 2 coordinates, will be in the 2nd dimension. A box for example, has area, and would need at least 2 points to define it. A sphere, would need 3 points to define it. And so on and so forth.
Ahh, that makes a little more sense. This sounds very much like our informal definition above. Oh wait, I don't think he's done:
However, there are strange cases of objects like a unit circle, which are 2 dimensional, but can be defined as being 1 dimensional! A point in a unit circle can be specified by two coordinates, but on a polar (circle graph) you only need one polor coordinate! Thus, it exists in 1 and 2 dimensional space.
Hmm, I didn't know that. Oh, he's still talking:
In vector analysis/matrices mathematics there can be many more than 4 dimensions. While these dimensions do not exist as we see, and they do not even define nth dimensional objects, they are used simply to compare points, figures, and sets to one another.
Okay, I think he lost me in there somewhere...
Fractal dimension is another example of a unique set of mathematics. Fractal dimension implies some objects may be between dimensions. For example, the perimeter of the Koch Snowflake we examined a month or two ago. The perimeter is a line, which by our definition, is 1 dimensional. However, that line weaves and swerves, and continues expanding indefinitely. This is too complex to be 1 dimensional, and yet has no area like a 2 dimensional object should have. Fractal dimensions have been put to use to define these unique case.
Ack! Okay, lets move on to the physist's, maybe he'll have some straight answers for us. Oh good, our physist is much more practical about all this: well for the time being anyway.
There are 3 dimensions which are clearly defined. The first dimension is a point or line, the second has area, the third has volume. Time is often referred to as the 4rth dimension, but is viewed as different in nature to the first 3. We can *currently* only move through time in one direction.
He agrees with our basic definitions, and will consent that time is often referred to as the 4rth dimension. He can observe things changing over time, has no problem with this.
He then launched into a 45 minute lecture about string theory and superstring theory, which involved 10 spacetime dimensions. Basically speaking, each new dimension is another force acting on our object. Gravity, for example can be a dimension, or the sun pulling on the planets, or the galaxy pulling on our solar system. This is a very rough introduction, but it led to a 90 minute argument between the mathematician, and our physicist. In the end, they both stormed out, but not before eating all the snacks. :P
Thursday, December 4, 2014
Cold and Wet (Brrrrrr)
Woof woof!
Good Morning everyone. I apologize for not posting last week, I admit I took a week off to enjoy stuffing, pies, Turkey, and all those wonderful things. Yessiree, it was a week to be thankful for! We began our week with some Holiday baking, (this included flour fights with the bunnies of course! Our masters weren't too happy, but it was fun!). However, they were both in good moods, having all of Thursday off work to enjoy our company, and family of course. We took a car trip to visit family, and had an awesome thanksgiving dinner! There was cranberry sauce, fresh crecent rolls, orange salad, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and of course a large Turkey! Then afterwords, we played some games, enjoyed 3 kinds of pie, chocolate bars, and ice cream! It was a great night.
The next morning however...
One of my masters went out Black Friday shopping at O-Dark Thirty. I crawled into bed and took his spot. :) He seemed to have good luck though, and came home with plenty of bags to stimulate the economy with. It was fun seeing what all he picked out, and I'm excited for Christmas! By Sunday, both masters were ready to start off the Christmas season with a bang. They decorated the place and played Christmas tunes all day. I jumped up on the couch to stay out of their way. They have been slowly adding decorations this week, and may put up the outside lights this weekend. Oh! And last night the bunnies and I made banana bread, and chocolate covered rice crispie balls.
Say...anyone up for a Christmas party? :D
Good Morning everyone. I apologize for not posting last week, I admit I took a week off to enjoy stuffing, pies, Turkey, and all those wonderful things. Yessiree, it was a week to be thankful for! We began our week with some Holiday baking, (this included flour fights with the bunnies of course! Our masters weren't too happy, but it was fun!). However, they were both in good moods, having all of Thursday off work to enjoy our company, and family of course. We took a car trip to visit family, and had an awesome thanksgiving dinner! There was cranberry sauce, fresh crecent rolls, orange salad, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and of course a large Turkey! Then afterwords, we played some games, enjoyed 3 kinds of pie, chocolate bars, and ice cream! It was a great night.
The next morning however...
One of my masters went out Black Friday shopping at O-Dark Thirty. I crawled into bed and took his spot. :) He seemed to have good luck though, and came home with plenty of bags to stimulate the economy with. It was fun seeing what all he picked out, and I'm excited for Christmas! By Sunday, both masters were ready to start off the Christmas season with a bang. They decorated the place and played Christmas tunes all day. I jumped up on the couch to stay out of their way. They have been slowly adding decorations this week, and may put up the outside lights this weekend. Oh! And last night the bunnies and I made banana bread, and chocolate covered rice crispie balls.
Say...anyone up for a Christmas party? :D
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