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NASA Predicts Asteroid 2024 YR4 Might Hit The Moon.

According to observations made by NASA using the James Webb Space Telescope, there is a three point...

Basically No chance 2024 YR4 will hit Earth.

Recent observations have virtually eliminated any concern about an impact from asteroid 2024 YR4...

Asteroid 2024 YR4: A 2032 Threat? Not on Our Watch

Back in December 2024, astronomers caught wind of something unusual—a small, fast-moving rock...

No, Trump’s Executive Orders Can’t Cancel Your Rights.

Donald Trump does not have the power to rescind either constitutional amendments or federal laws...

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Hontas FarmerRSS Feed of this column.

My research focuses on astrophysics from massive star formation to astroparticle physics. Born and raised in Chicagoland I have lived in Bellwood, IL since 1984 and attended public schools here... Read More »

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The blogosphere misses what peer review hits... for once.

The blogosphere misses what peer review hits... for once.

Jul 11 2009 | comment(s)

I posted a very short rough paper here a while back.  "Dark Matter and Energy as Particles and Fields of Unobserved Scalar and Vector Fields (PDF) (rev2).." Since then certain comments and supposed extremely elementary errors have been pointed out.  The following is a referee report from a well respected journal.  These are (mostly) valid critiques stated in a polite and professional manner.  None of the things which were pointed out by bloggers are here, which were for the most part so elementary that if true there would not even have been a peer review. 
Black holes you can play with! Sonic black holes that is...

Black holes you can play with! Sonic black holes that is...

Jun 13 2009 | comment(s)

Created in a Bose Einstein Condensate, sound may enter these acoustic black holes but it may not leave.  This creates an system we can experiment with on a table top level and learn about black holes from it.  

The strange and unique features of the Bose condensate never cease to surprise us.  A while back they were used to slow a beam of light almost to a standstill. Now a research team out of the institute of technology in Haifa Israel claims to have created "A sonic black hole in a density-inverted Bose-Einstein condensate." by O. Lahav, A. Itah, A. Blumkin, C. Gordon, and J. Steinhauer (Arxiv link to PDF). 
Harry Benjamin Syndrome Revealed: The naked bigotry of some transwomen against others.

Harry Benjamin Syndrome Revealed: The naked bigotry of some transwomen against others.

May 24 2009 | comment(s)

Harry Benjamin Syndrome, at first a uncontroversial and innocuous idea that transsexual brains are different from other brains, has morphed into a platform for some to denigrate others under a cloak of true pseudoscience proposed by laypeople and supported by not one reputable sexologist, psychologist, or psychiatrist.  What some of them have done is take to attacking anyone who does not fit with their ideal of what a real "woman born transsexual" is (Like a transsexual who does not want sexual reassignment surgery.)  All they while complaining about how oppressed they feel.  This is just a little snapshot of the bigotry, hy
The kind of comment that makes bloggers sick.

The kind of comment that makes bloggers sick.

May 14 2009 | comment(s)

In spite of not having any where near as much physics education some people feel a need to prove they know more than I do.  These people are never physicist themselves, they have nothing to prove.  Usually they are someone with little education and/or self esteem.
For example my last blog entry "Dark Matter and Dark Energy as Undiscovered Particles of Scalar and Vector Fields.".
In which I am describing quantum field theory in curved space-time.  There are no matrices being used here yet.  I get this hostility laden response. 
Dark Matter and Dark Energy as Undiscovered Particles of Scalar and Vector Fields.

Dark Matter and Dark Energy as Undiscovered Particles of Scalar and Vector Fields.

May 12 2009 | comment(s)

Dark matter, dark energy and scalar tensor vector theories of gravity are widely thought of as at odds.  I have shown that if the scalar and vector fields common to alternative gravities are considered as any other quantum fields on a curved space time the consequence is the creation of particles and matter which need not couple into the electromagnetic force.  In short if there are "extra" fundamental forces of nature then there will be "extra" dark matter particles related to those forces. 
According to Moser

According to Moser "Autogynephilia in Women". What could this mean?

Apr 30 2009 | comment(s)

Autogynephilia: The love of one's self as a woman.  As used by psychologist and sexologist Ray Blanchard autogynephilia is a male's sexual attraction to the idea or image of their feminized self.