Odds and Ends

Here is a collection of links about topics, some that came up during our meeting, and some that didn't.

1) The origin of the Universe was covered in this previous post on this blog. In the Lawrence Krauss video, the Universe is a natural consequence of Quantum Physics.

2) Lowell found this interesting article on natural gas fracking. Unfortunately, it missed getting into his handout sheet. Fracking was also covered in this blog post.

3) Ken has kept us informed on MD politics. But occasionally he finds a local issue in a neighboring county that needs attention. Here is a link to a Montgomery County bill which grants special favors to a single company.

4) On this April Fool's Day we had a short discussion about asteroids colliding with the earth. Oddly enough, one year ago our blog had this post about an asteroid that past near the earth on April 1, 2012.

5) Finally, we talked about the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, aka Little Kim. We dismiss his rants as crazy talk, and pay more attention to his association with Dennis Rodman than his treat of nuclear war with the US. What is often missed is the terrible plight of the people of North Korea. Since the southern border is heavily guarded, many North Koreans are escaping north into China, which is creating China's own southern immigration problem. Here is a moving Ted Talk by one of those North Korean refugees.