Gravity Waves In The Early Universe

This picture is circulating around the internet as proof of inflation. Grains of salt people!

I had to sit on the floor like many people.

As many people know, there was a big bang. It happened some 13.7 billion years ago, and ever since the universe has been evolving in mysterious ways. We suspect there was a period of time where space-time underwent a quickly period of expansion. More definitely, a quasi-de Sitter period where gravity waves were created. We've never had direct observations of this until now. We think we've found a signal. Today, we had a speaker give us the low down on this recent news. The room was packed. It was beautifully delivered.

Note the slide title: "The End of the World as We Know It".

Jacob's Visit

Jacob finally left The Shire, and made his way to Europe. He spent a good month travelling around having all sorts of unexpected adventures with Amanda. At the very end they made their way to Holland. They spent the days exploring on their own, and we would all meet up in the evenings eating good food, and go out. We also rented a car and did a day trip to Groningen, about 200 north of Amsterdam, to a seed event for Jacob. I hope he enjoyed his little tour.

Dinner at my place on the second night. Red wine. Provolone tortellini, with mushroom, chicken, broccoli, creamy sauce, spinach and red cabbage. Very spicy too.

Amanda helped me in the kitchen, while Mark and Jacob sat about in the living room. That night, Jacob had a column to submit to the Orillia Packet, a newspaper he puns for in Canada, so we helped him clarify his arguments after dinner, and generally made his topic of social inequality sound better.

Adding cabbage juice to the creme fraiche sauce for colour.

I totally enjoyed this night with friends, eating our faces off, and playing music. Also, managed to Skype in Samira from Toronto.

That's rooting hormone in the centre. We were doing some impromptu gardening before breakfast.

On the last morning, before Jacob and Amanda left, we had an amazing breakfast at Mark's place. Chocolate pancakes, fruit salad, melted chocolate, avocados, bacon, juice, olive leaf tea, and crushed nuts. We brought them to the station on the back of our bikes and said our goodbyes. With hugs, and full bellies, they were off on their own adventure again.

Pictures Off My Phone

Was looking at my phone's memory and noticed some pictures.

GSD I met at the train station. He's 15 years old. His name is Guss.

Cousin Scott visited, this is us cheersing.

Boob cobblestone in Amsterdam.

Sinter Klaus dancing with an astronomer.

Crocuses grow everywhere in the Spring.

Helped Mark carry a bed-futon across town. This is us taking a break on the side of the road. Shoulda brought beer.

Mark paid for my help with Greek food!

Garfield is the fattest cat in the neighborhood.

1 of 50 rabbits living around the Observatory grounds.

Maggie's look-a-like eating grass near my bike shed.

A guy who looks like an old neighbor back in Toronto. Tom.

A wall with the signatures of all the famous astronomers/physicists who have given talks at Leiden. Einstein, Planck, Dirac, ..., all of them.

More rabbits chilling.

Reflecting by a canal at night... See what I did there?

Anonymous showed up at the market. I'm sure they will be in the Hague this week, with the nuclear talks going on.

Bench that reminds me of the bench I'm making with my dad.

How to wrap leftovers, like a swan.