Onion News Flash

Monterey Part II

Took another trip to Monterey, California recently. Of course there was lots of news about the wildfires. Here is a NASA image of how it looked the day I flew up the coast from LA. The Santa Anna winds eventually changed direction and now they have the fires under control.

After getting settled in, some friends and I had dinner at the Mission Ranch in Carmel. Apparently it used to be owned by Clint Eastwood. I had the clam chowder which was deliciously light and good textured, and the fillet mignon, which was pretty much average in my book. The atmosphere sitting on the terrace was delightful though.

The next day, got some fine coffee at Plumes Coffee Shop.


Later, headed back to Carmel by the Sea and the restaurant simply named The Grill. Ordered the roasted artichoke appetizer and walnut crusted chicken on top of squash tortellini and ginger for the main course. Very good service and top notch food.


After a night of debaucheries, I headed back down to The Wharf. Bought my friend a nice but very reasonably priced silver pendant with amethyst stone and silver chain at the Monterey Bay Silver Company. Next went to a very touristy restaurant called Rappa's at the "End of the Wharf". Can't complain about the idea of eating fried artichoke hearts and award winning clam chowder though.


As it got later, I found some nightlife. Ending up meeting a movie star named Rick Irvin who is starring in the just released horror flick Ghost Month. His line in the trailer is, "Is that a crime?" hehe


Onward down the street I meet some gentlemen with a big sign that says, "If you were to die today, would you go to hell?" I candidly tell them, "yes", and proceed to lecture THEM for 15 minutes about the quantum void, with many passerby stopping to listen.

Ironically, when I leave they hand me a pamphlet that has many interesting ideas and the following quotes that affirm everything I told them:

"But the modern view of the vacuum is not that of emptiness and void. The vacuum seems to be a boundary layer, a substratum or interface, between the physical and the spiritual realms of creation." ... "It is the invisible dimension of the spiritual world where God himself dwells." ... "For one thing, something has gone wrong in the original material creation which produces death and decay, corruption and disentigration." ... , and then something about some guy who already knew all this stuff way back when.

Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit ("Out of Nothing Nothing Comes")

Quantum Void

Zero Point Energy


Was reading an interesting article today about the zero point energy (ZPE), and came across these amazing facts:

"In order to appreciate the magnitude of the ZPE in each cubic centimetre of space, consider a conservative estimate of 10⁵² ergs/cc. Most people are familiar with the light bulbs with which we illuminate our houses. The one in my office is labelled as 150 watts. (A watt is defined as 10⁷ ergs per second.) By comparison, our sun radiates energy at the rate of 3.8 x 10²⁰ watts. In our galaxy there are in excess of 100 billion stars. If we assume they all radiate at about the same intensity as our sun, then the amount of energy expended by our entire galaxy of stars shining for one million years is roughly equivalent to the energy locked up in one cubic centimetre of space."

...

"The physical vacuum of space therefore appears to be made up of an all-pervasive sea of Planck particles whose density is an unbelievable 3.6 x 10⁹³ grams per cubic centimetre. It might be wondered how anything can move through such a medium. It is because de Broglie wavelengths of elementary particles are so long compared with the Planck length, L*, that the vacuum is 'transparent' to these elementary particles. It is for the same reason that long wavelength infrared light can travel through a dense cloud in space and reveal what is within instead of being absorbed, and why light can pass through dense glass. Therefore, motion of elementary particles through the vacuum will be effortless, as long as these particles do not have energies of the magnitude of what is referred to as Planck energy, or M* c² ('c' is the velocity of light). Atomic particles of that energy would simply be absorbed by the structure of the vacuum. From the figures for the density given above, the energy associated with this Planck particle sea making up the physical vacuum can be calculated to be of the order of 10¹¹⁴ ergs per cubic centimetre, the same as the maximum value for the ZPE."

... More information on the Casmir effect, why atoms don't self destruct, the variable speed of light, and galactic redshift can be found in the original article here.