Je Ne Sais Quoi

I don't know what that means, but Stephen said it on last Thursday's show and it sounded cool and dare I say it, sexy.

I know I am late getting this posted, but since last Thursday's show I have been waving my hands through molasses. Sadly, I am no closer to understanding Higgs Boson. Luckily, that means I am in the same intellectual company as Stephen, so hurray for me. Stephen's guest was  Sean Carroll. You can learn more about him over at PreposterousUniverse. It's a neat website, you can learn a lot about stuff and see his latest book, "The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World." Sean Carroll is a really smart individual (smarter than Stephen if you can believe that) but he seems like just a normal guy.

We learned that "God Particle" is not necessarily a good name for the Higgs Boson. That is more of a marketing ploy, used to show how important the particle is. By the way, it is very tiny, smaller than half an ant, smaller than a grain of rice, really really small. Over in Switzerland, they speed up the particles very fast. On a scale of 1 to Speed of Light, it's 99.999% the speed of light, so yes, fast. This cost about $9 billion but it's worth it because it made scientists happy.

There was more explanation, including talking about waving your hands through air and through molasses. Stephen said he is intellectually hydroplaning over the explanation, not because he is incapable of understanding it, but because obviously Sean Carroll is bad at explaining things. Go buy the book, read it and then explain it to Stephen and me.

Back to the beginning of the show where I really should have started. Boeing says that now that gay marriage (marriage equality) is legal in the state of Washington, they have plans to deny at least some benefits to married gay couples. University of Colorado will have segregated dorms for those with gun permits. So far, no one has signed up to live in that dorm. There is that old Mayan prediction that on December 31, 2012, the year will end. Time will tell. Stephen has a list of his favorite numbers which conveniently rearranges numbers making his book #1 best seller even though it's not. Go buy Stephen's book this week. You know you're going to buy it eventually, make Stephen happy and make his book #1 (the real #1). Note: In honor of a current bestseller book, Stephen had a tribute to Bill O'Reilly. It was touching.

Here's something else you can do. Go over here and vote for Stephen to make him #1. There is someone from South Korea who is better than him. It's not Rain, it's Psy! Go vote. Let's make Stephen #1.