Inspirations provided by Stephen Hawking

I'm almost all the through with Stephen Hawking's monumental work of non-fiction, "A Brief History of Time" which analyzes the creation and structure and function of the universe according to physics making use of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics.

Anyways something got me thinking.  It is a possibility that the universe was created with the "Big Bang" (a singularity about ten thousand million years ago that caused the universe to literally explode into existence) and it is a known fact that the universe has been expanding since then.  But because of gravity and the gravitational effects between planets and stars, the universe might reach a point where it can no longer expand, and will instead recollapse into a singularity similar to how the universe began.  Now something interesting about the recollapse of the universe is that the laws of physics and life as we know it would be reversed.  For example, rather than watching a movie forwards, we would be watching a movie backwards.  The past and the future would switch places.

What we don't know is what caused the Big Bang.  So feasibly the universe could recollapse into an infinitely dense, infinitely hot, singularity.  Therefore, something could cause it to explode again.  Maybe our universe has been constantly expanding and contracting for an infinite amount of time with life evolving differently every time.  Maybe that's what our omnipotent creator is doing with us.  He's watching to see how things turn out each time when he blows up the universe.  Anyways, it just got met thinking.

Summary of DC Vacation

So, I have now returned from my vacation in our nations capitol, Washington DC, and it was quite a fantastic trip!  There was a lot of really great stuff to see and the city of Washington is a pretty cool place and a great setting for the National Mall and everything associated with the federal government.  We didn't really have to drive anywhere because the metro system is so great, which was really nice because it would have been hell to park anywhere.  The only problem is that my family and I were in DC for a week and half and I still didn't get to see everything (there is soooooo much to see!).  I spent a lot of time in the different Smithsonians and checking out all of the national monuments and war memorials and touring different federal buildings, and we even got a chance to go out to the Atlantic Ocean!  So here is a summary of everything I got to see:

National Mall:

• Lincoln Memorial/Reflecting Pool
• Washington Monument
• Capitol Building
• White House (from the outside)
• Korean War Memorial
• WWII Memorial
• WWI Memorial
• Jefferson Memorial (from afar)
• Vietnam Memorial

Smithsonian Institute:

• Museum of Natural History
• Air and Space Museum
• National Museum of Art
• Hircshorn Contempory Art Museum and Sculpture Garden
• Museum of American History
• Smithsonian Castle
• National Portrait Gallery
• National Zoo

Other:

• International Spy Museum
• Mt. Vernon (George Washington's House)
• Annapolis Naval Academy
• Rehoboth Beach (on the Atlantic)
• Gettysburg
• Supreme Court
• Library of Congress

I think that's just about everything.  Great trip!  But I'm definitely museumed out for a while.

American Ignorance (Part 3)

Round two of complaining about worthless things in the Smithsonian. So fat I've seen a lot of people who work in the smithsonian museums, including security guards and ticket takers and things like that. Basically every single one of these people I've seen looks like they hate their jobs and they hate everybody around them. I hate it when locals don't take kindly to tourists visiting because tourists are the people who are making your very existence possible and in a lot of cases it makes the very place that you live in what it is. If I were you I would be embracing every single tourist that I came into contact with the utmost respect and kindness. I say this because a lot of the employees around DC and around the Smithsonian institute were less than welcoming and pretty rude a lot of the time. Anyways, I thought I'd just rant a little bit and find something to complain about while experiencing this amazing city.

American Ignorance (part 2)

This week I have the opportunity of seeing the great collection of Smithsonian museums in Washington DC. Today I checked out the relatively famous Museum of Natural History. For this of you who don't know that's the one with the fully assembles dinosaur skeletons. It would be an understatement to say that the collection of this museum is big (it's basically unparalleled anywhere in the world), and it would be an understatement to say I enjoyed it. There is such as vast amount of information on all topics relating to natural history and it's not just geared towards a younger audience. However, most of the people where completely passing by this plethora of information and solely relying on the models and pictures as their source of learning and self-enlightenment. Leave it to the American people to not realize what they have and merely pass these exhibits off as just another museum full of old stuff. I'm pretty sure the French people I saw (or heard, and there were plenty of them) were getting more out of the English text than cousin Billy next to me with his wife/sister. Thank you very I'm moving to France. By the way I'm not drinking anything right, but am rather having a pleasant bowel movement!