Good morning, Whitewater
In the city today, there are two scheduled, municipal public meetings. At 4:30 p.m., the Urban Forestry Task Force meets, and at 7 p.m., the League of Women Voters will meet in the municipal building.
It’s picture retake day, and take your family to school day, at Lakeview School. It’s market pickup day at Lincoln School.
There’s a fascinating story over at Wired, about the artificial creation of a desktop black hole:
Two Chinese scientists have successfully made an artificial black hole. Since you’re still reading this, it’s safe to say that Earth hasn’t been sucked into its vortex.
That’s because a black hole doesn’t technically require a massive, highly concentrated gravitational field that prevents light from escaping, as postulated by Albert Einstein. It just needs to capture light — or, to be more precise, electromagnetic radiation, of which visually perceived light is one form.
The desktop black hole, described in a paper submitted to arXiv on Monday, is made from 60 concentrically arranged layers of circuit board. Each layer is coated in copper and printed with patterns that alternately vibrate or don’t vibrate in response to electromagnetic waves.
Together, the patterns completely absorbed microwave radiation coming from any direction, and converted their energy to heat.
Here’s today’s almanac:
| Thursday, October 15, 2009 | Sunrise | Sunset |
|---|---|---|
| Official Time | 07:08 AM | 06:12 PM |
| Civil Twilight | 06:39 AM | 06:41 PM |
| Tomorrow | 07:09 AM | 06:11 PM |
| Tomorrow will be: | 2 minutes shorter | |
| Amount of sunlight: | 11h 4 m | |
| Amount of daylight: | 12h 2 m | |
| Moon phase: | Waning crescent | |