Starship Asterisk*

http://www.universetoday.com/70111/astronomy-without-a-telescope-strange-stars/#more-70111 wrote: Astronomy Without A Telescope – A ‘naked’ strange star
Posted in: Astronomy, Physics by Steve Nerlich

One step closer to a black hole? A hypothetical strange star results from extreme gravitational compression overcoming the strong interaction that holds neutrons together. Credit: Swinburne University - astronomy.swin.edu.au

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<<Atoms are made of protons, neutrons and electrons. If you cram them together and heat them up you get plasma where the electrons are only loosely associated with individual nuclei and you get a dynamic, light-emitting mix of positively charged ions and negatively charged electrons. If you cram that matter together even further, you drive electrons to merge with protons and you are left with a collection of neutrons – like in a neutron star. So, what if you keep cramming that collection of neutrons together into an even higher density? Well, eventually you get a black hole – but before that (at least hypothetically) you get a strange star.

The theory has it that compressing neutrons can eventually overcome the strong interaction, breaking down a neutron into its constituent quarks, giving a roughly equal mix of up, down and strange quarks – allowing these particles to be crammed even closer together in a smaller volume. By convention, this is called strange matter. It has been suggested that very massive neutron stars may have strange matter in their compressed cores.

However, some say that strange matter has a more fundamentally stable configuration than other matter. So, once a star’s core becomes strange, contact between it and baryonic (i.e. protons and neutrons) matter might drive the baryonic matter to adopt the strange (but more stable) matter configuration. This is the sort of thinking behind why the Large Hadron Collider might have destroyed the Earth by producing strangelets, which then produce a Kurt Vonnegut Ice-9 scenario. However, since the LHC hasn’t done any such thing, it’s reasonable to think that strange stars probably don’t form this way either.

More likely a ‘naked’ strange star, with strange matter extending from its core to its surface, might evolve naturally under its own self gravity. Once a neutron star's core becomes strange matter, it should contract inwards leaving behind volume for an outer layer to be pulled inwards into a smaller radius and a higher density, at which point that outer layer might also become strange… and so on. Just as it seems implausible to have a star whose core is so dense that it’s essentially a black hole, but still with a star-like crust – so it may be that when a neutron star develops a strange core it inevitably becomes strange throughout.

Anyhow, if they exist at all, strange stars should have some tell tale characteristics. We know that neutron stars tend to lie in the range of 1.4 to 2 solar masses – and that any star with a neutron star's density that's over 10 solar masses has to become a black hole. That leaves a bit of a gap – although there is evidence of stellar black holes down to only 3 solar masses, so the gap for strange stars to form may only be in that 2 to 3 solar masses range.

The likely electrodynamic properties of strange stars are also of interest. It is likely that electrons will be displaced towards the surface – leaving the body of the star with a net positive charge surrounded by an atmosphere of negatively charged electrons. Presuming a degree of differential rotation between the star and its electron atmosphere, such a structure would generate a magnetic field of the magnitude that can be observed in a number of candidate stars. Another distinct feature should be a size that is smaller than most neutron stars. One strange star candidate is RXJ1856, which appears to be a neutron star, but is only 11 km in diameter. Some astrophysicists may have muttered hmmm… that’s strange on hearing about it – but it remains to be confirmed that it really is.>>

beyond wrote:Everything is STRANGE. That's NORMAL.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land wrote:
<<_Stranger in a Strange Land_ is a best-selling 1961 Hugo Award-winning science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human raised by Martians on the planet Mars, after his return to Earth in early adulthood. The novel explores his interaction with—and the eventual transformation of—Earth culture. The novel's title refers to the Biblical Book of Exodus. The late-1960s counterculture, popularized by the hippie movement, was influenced by its themes of individual liberty, self-responsibility, sexual freedom, and the influence of organized religion on human culture and government, and adopted the book as something of a manifesto.

Valentine Michael Smith is the son of astronauts from the first expedition to the planet Mars. Orphaned after the entire crew died, Smith was raised in the culture of the Martian natives, beings with full control over their minds and bodies (learned skills which Smith acquires). A second expedition to the planet some twenty years later brings Smith "home" to Earth. Since he is heir to the fortunes of the entire exploration party, which includes several valuable inventions, Smith becomes a political pawn in government struggles.

Since Smith is unaccustomed to the atmosphere and gravity of Earth, he is confined at Bethesda Hospital. Having never seen a human female, Smith is attended by male staff only. Seeing this restriction as a challenge, Nurse Gillian Boardman eludes guards to see Smith and in doing so inadvertently becomes his first female "water brother" by sharing a glass of water with him. To him, this is a holy relationship based on the customs of arid Mars.

Gillian tells reporter Ben Caxton about her encounter with Smith, and they, together with Jubal Harshaw, a famous author who writes under several names, try to counteract the government's lies about Smith. Gillian persuades Smith to leave the hospital with her, but they only get as far as Ben's apartment before agents attempt to kidnap them. Smith causes the agents to disappear, and he is so shocked by Gillian's terrified reaction that he enters what seems to be a catatonic state.

Smith continues to demonstrate psychic abilities and superhuman intelligence coupled with a childlike naïveté. When Jubal tries to explain religion to him, Smith understands the concept of God only as "one who groks", which includes every living person, plant, and animal. This leads him to express the Martian concept of the oneness of life as the phrase "Thou art God". Many other human concepts—such as war, clothing, and jealousy—are strange to him, while the idea of an afterlife is something he takes as a given because the government on Mars is composed of "Old Ones", the spirits of Martians who have died. It is also customary for loved ones and friends to eat the bodies of the dead, in a spirit of Holy Communion.

Eventually Harshaw brokers a deal which includes freedom for Smith and recognition that human law, which would have granted ownership of Mars to Smith, has no applicability to a planet already inhabited by intelligent aliens.

Now free to travel, Smith becomes a celebrity, and is feted by elite of Earth. He investigates the Fosterite Church of the New Revelation, a populist megachurch where sex, gambling, drinking and other earthly pleasures are not considered sinful but encouraged, even within the church building. The church is organized in a complexity of initiatory levels; an outer circle, open to the public; a middle circle of ordinary members who support the church financially; and an inner circle of the "eternally saved" — attractive, highly sexed men and women, who serve as clergy and recruit new members. The Church owns many politicians and takes violent action against those who oppose it. Smith also has a brief career as a magician in a carnival where he and Jill share water with the tattooed lady in the show, an "eternally saved" Fosterite woman named Patricia Paiwonski. Eventually Smith starts a Martian-influenced "Church of All Worlds," which teaches its members how to rise above suffering.

Smith's church combines elements of the Fosterite cult (especially the sexual aspects) with mystery religions and initiation. Members learn the Martian language and acquire psychic abilities. The church is eventually besieged by Fosterites for practicing "blasphemy" and the church building is destroyed. However, Smith and his followers teleport to safety. Smith is arrested by the police but he escapes by disintegrating the prison walls and he returns to the hotel where his followers are staying. Smith explains to Jubal that his gigantic fortune has been bequeathed to the Church. With it and their paranormal abilities, Church members will be able to take over the world and reshape human societies and cultures. Smith leaves the hotel to confront the crowd, instead of performing large miracles he simply tries to talk to the mob, but they attack and brutally kill him, while he does not try to heal himself. The book ends with Jubal and some of the Church members returning to Jubal's home, while Smith is promoted to another plane of existence.>>

beyond wrote:Hey Neufer, whats going on with Miranda?

beyond wrote:The last word [in the Miranda Shakespeare quote] is >in't.
I figure it must actually be -in it-.

So....is this a NEW Miranda Right - to abreviate any word under the sun?

• You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
  You have the right to speak to an SNO-BALL. If you cannot afford an SNO-BALL, one will be appointed to you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contraction_%28grammar%29 wrote:
<<A contraction is the shortening of a word, syllable, or word group by omission of internal letters. Contractions should not be confused with abbreviations or acronyms, with which they share some semantic and phonetic functions, though all three are connoted by the term "abbreviation" in loose parlance. An informal type of contraction occurs frequently in speech and writing, in which a syllable is substituted by an apostrophe and/or other mode of elision, e.g., can't for "cannot", won't for "will not". Such contractions are often either negations with not or combinations of pronouns with auxiliary verbs, e.g., I'll for "I will". At least one study has sought to analyze the category of negative informal contractions as the attachment of an inflectional suffix.

Code: Select all

Full form 	Contracted 	Notes
.............................................
not 	         –n't 	
let us 	      –let's 	
am 	          –'m 	
are 	         –'re 	
is, does, has   –'s 	
have 	        –'ve
had, did, would –'d
will 	        –'ll 	
of 	          o'– 	used mostly in o'clock
it 	          't– 	Archaic

Informal speech sometimes allows multiple contracted forms to pile up, producing constructions like wouldn't've for "would not have". Another stereotypically informal contraction is ain't, for "am not" or "is not".

A commonly used English contraction of two words that does not fall into either of the above categories is let's, a contraction of "let us" that is used in forming the imperative mood in the first-person plural (e.g., "Let's go [somewhere]"). Use of the uncontracted "let us" typically carries an entirely different meaning, e.g., "Let us go [free]". "Let us" is rarely seen in the former sense and "let's" is never seen in the latter one.

Informal contractions are, by their nature, more frequent in speech than writing, e.g., John'd fix your television if you asked him. Contractions in English are generally not mandatory as in some other languages. It is almost always acceptable to write out (or say) all of the words of a contraction, though native speakers of English may judge a person not using contractions as sounding overly formal.

Common single-word contractions include: St for "Saint" (in proper names), ma'am for "madam" and fo'c'sle for "forecastle". St meaning "Street" (in proper names) is sometimes given a full point to eliminate any confusion with "Saint". Forms like gov't (or govt) for "government" and int'l (or intl) for "international" are purely written contractions.>>

neufer wrote:No one is still not allowed to abbreviate abbreviate