TTThThhheeee RRReReeelllluuuuccccttttaaaannnntttt FFFaFaaammmmuuuulllluuuussss ###7#7775555 MMaaaayyyy 2220200011110000 Thomas D. Sadler, Editor/Publisher, etc. 305 Gill Branch Road, Owenton, KY 40359 Phone: 502-484-3766 E-mail: [email protected] CCCoCooonnnntttteeeennnnttttssss Introduction, Editor 1 Old Kit Bag, Robert Sabella 6 Rat Stew, Gene Stewart 8 Why This Issue is Late 12 Kentuckiana, Al Byrd 1 13 I Fail to Get the Connection, Sheryl Birkhead 17 Search, Editor 22 A Reprint 27 LoCs 31 AAArArrrttttwwwwoooorrrrkkkk A. B. Kynock Covers, 31, 35, 39, 43, 47 Sheryl Birkhead 16, 33, 37, 41, 45, 46 Tom Doubrley 22, 24, 25, 26 Brad Foster 34, 38, 42, 49 Alexis Gilliland 32, 36, 40, 44, 48 The Reluctant Famulus is a product of Strange Dwarf Publications. Many of the comments expressed herein are solely those of the Editor/Publisher and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts of any sane, rational persons who know what they are doing and have carefully thought out beforehand what they wanted to say. Material not writ- ten or produced by the Editor/Publisher is printed by permission of the various writers and artists and is copyright by them and remains their sole property. Permission is granted to any persons who wish to reprint material pre- sented herein, provided proper and due credit is given both to the author/artist who produced the material and to the original publication in which it appeared. TRF maybe obtained for The Usual but especially in return for writ- ten material and artwork (Pretty please!) postage costs, The Meaning of Life, , and Editorial Whim. The Reluctant Famulus TTThThhhaaaatttt CCCrCrrraaaazzzzyyyy BBBuBuuucccckkkk RRooooggggeeeerrrrssss SSStStttuuuuffffff No. I’m not referring to science fiction, peared in Physics Letters B theorizes that our at least not directly. I’m thinking of other universe could be located in the interior of a equally strange and far out subjects which wormhole, part of a black hole that lies with- could be thought of in the same derogatory in a much larger universe. Poplawski admits manner applied to science fiction. What I only experiment or observation can reveal have in mind are matters presented by peo- the motion of a particle falling into an actual ple who are considered sober, serious and black hole. Observers can only see the out- objective in their thinking—scientists. Over side of the black hole; the interior cannot be the years—and especially over the past two observed unless an observer enters or resides or three—I have read news stories about sci- within one. entific discoveries and theories which in He further said, because Einstein’s gen- some cases make science fiction look tame eral theory of relativity does not choose a and yet have been propounded in all serious- time orientation, if a black hole can form ness. I’ve already passed along the discovery from the gravitational collapse of matter that light can be tied into knots. But now through an event horizon in the future then comes another surprising aspect of light. the reverse process is also possible. Such a As if that weren’t odd enough, not long process would describe an exploding white after reading about that unexpected property hole: matter emerging from an event horizon of light I stumbled across a brief news article in the past, like the expanding universe.” which claimed that in addition to light being Poplawski explains that a white hole is bent by matter it could also twist or bend connected to a black hole by an Einstein- matter as well. Apparently, however, it did Rosen bridge (wormhole) and is hypothetical- so only on a nanoscale. At the time, ly the time reversal of a black hole. Poplaws- researchers were working in a darkened ki suggests that all black holes, not just room on ribbons of nanoparticles, the sur- Schwarzschild and Einstein-Rosen black face of which was of cadmium sulfide. To be holes, may have Einstein-Rosen bridges, fair, none of them believed the results at first each with a new universe inside that formed and spent the next three and a half years try- simultaneously with the black hole.our uni- ing to figure out how it did so.1 The verse could have itself formed from inside a researchers believe this odd property of light black hole existing inside another universe. could have practical applications in the field Poplawski concludes that “our universe of optics. Whether or not light would bend could have formed from inside a black hole matter on a larger scale wasn’t mentioned in existing in another universe.” the article. I’m having enough trouble coping with Leaving the matter-bending light, I turn what I thought this universe of ours was like: now to a more recent news story from April billions of years old, and rapidly expanding-- 7, 2010 with the lead “Our Universe at and the only one. Then along comes ideas Home Within a Larger Universe? So Sug- such as that there are multiple universes all gests Physicist's Wormhole Research” existing adjacent to one another in a vastly Which should be self-explanatory but a bit large area and now this one, that our uni- more detail wouldn’t be amiss. It seems that verse could conceivably exist inside a black Nikodem Poplawski2 a theoretical physicist hole in another universe. Does that mean, at Indiana University, in a paper which ap- then, that there may be other universes exist- 1 ing within the black holes in this universe? “While it is a paradox to go back in time Don’t ask me. Ask the guys with all those and kill your grandfather, physicists agree mystical mathematical equations.3 I had and there is no paradox if you go back in time have enough trouble with plain old basic and save him from being hit by a bus,” Dan- math, never mind the strings of numbers and nis Overbye wrote in the New York Times letters and other curious symbols. In my “In the case of the Higgs and the collid- massive ignorance, such a theory doesn’t er, it is as if something is going back in time seem possible and more like something for a to keep the universe from being hit by a science fiction story. But since I haven’t the bus.” mathematical skills (or the brains) of “It must be our prediction that all Higgs Poplawski, Hawking, and others why should producing machines shall have bad luck,” Dr anyone pay any attention to me. Nielsen told the #ew York Times. Now I’ll move a bit farther back in time After reading the article I found myself (which, as you will see, is an appropriate wondering how Nielsen and Ninomiya, or at way of putting it) to a news article from least Nielsen, could be so sure that “. God October 2009 which some of you may have rather hates Higgs particles, and attempts to seen and read. This piece deals with the prob- avoid them.” If, as so many people believe6, lems which befell the Large Hadron Collid- God created the heavens and the earth (and er, aside from the doomsayers protesting thus everything else) then surely God also against the possible destruction of Earth by a created the Higgs boson--if such a particle black hole formed when the LHC goes into actually exists, and I’m certainly in no posi- service. tion to make a claim that it doesn't. So if the It seems that a couple of scientists, Dan- Higgs particle does exist and God created it ish physicist Dr. Holger Bech Nielsen4 and also surely He wouldn’t be bothered by Dr. Masao Ninomiya5 from Japan claim humans finding and producing yet another nature is trying to prevent the LHC from particle. It seems doubtful to me that He finding the elusive Higgs boson. Called the would even see it as a threat. As far as that “God particle,” the theoretical boson could goes, God may not think about the Higgs explain the origins of mass in the universe. Boson at all. He may have more important But that depends on whether or not physi- matters on His mind, ones of which we’re cists can find the damned thing. Or if it even totally unaware. Isn’t it rather absurd or pre- really exists. (Yeah, that’s a bold statement sumptuous, then, for humans to presume coming from a senior citizen non-physicist know what God feels or fears or even that he who could’t create an equation if a gun were fears? pointed at his head and sometimes has prob- I thought I had problems believing light lems getting electric can openers to work could bend matter and a possibility our uni- right.) verse is inside a black hole and then came The scientists say their math (see foot- news of the theory the LHC might be sabo- note 3) proves nature will “ripple backward taged by the future. It’s all too much for this through time” to stop the LHC before it can tired old brain to encompass and I was create the God particle, like a time traveler almost prepared to dismiss especially the who goes back in time to kill his grandfa- LHC story. But then along came another arti- ther. cle, Back From the Future, in the April 2010 “One could even almost say that we issue of Discover7 this time, which dealt have a model for God,” Dr Nielsen says in with the time travel concept in the LHC-relat- an unpublished essay. “He rather hates Hig- ed article in much greater depth.