THE BEGINNING IS NIGH!

Lots of people like to make fun of the people who wear or wave signs that say "THE END IS NIGH!" (or near).  Last week I read about Stephen Hawking's new book "The Grand Design" with which Hawking argues that because of the Law of Gravity the Universe had to create itself out of absolutely nothing. He is quoted as saying:

"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing," .... "Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist." 

Maybe you remember the "Mother Of All Bombs" or MOAB that the USA developed and exploded just before their invasion of Iraq in 2003. Some say the demonstration explosion in Florida of the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in the world was the first shot in the "Shock and Awe" campaign. Well the MOAB weighs in at 10.3 tonnes and I've got to say based on what I learned last week, when I asked "How much does nothing weigh again?" the MOAB is most obviously an example of typical USA over indulgence and over engineering. They didn't need a 10.3 tonne weapon, they needed nothing at all... which takes us to a terrifying point of discussion! 

The Discovery Channel's Mythbusters represent a "clear and present danger" to, not just the USA but the Universe as a whole! Back in 2008 the Mythbusters decided to bust the myth that says the NASA Moon landings were a big fat hoax. Little did any of us know at the time that these men and women had our very existence in their little hands!


Stephen Hawking says that because of the Law of Gravity the Universe can and will create itself out of nothing. Part of the episode was testing if a flag cannot flap in a vacuum. Here's what MythbustersResults.com had to say about this test.

A flag cannot flap in a vacuum.

BUSTED

The Build Team placed a replica of the American flag planted on the moon into a vacuum chamber at the Marshall Space Flight Center. They first tested at normal pressure and manipulated the flag. The momentum moved the flag around but the motion quickly dissipated. In vacuum conditions, manipulating the flag caused it to flap vigorously as if it were being blown by a breeze. This demonstrated that a flag could appear to wave in a vacuum, as the Apollo flag did.

They used a VACUUM CHAMBER!! A place where there was ALMOST nothing! Danger Will Robbinson! DANGER! The Mythbusters who are well known for blowing things up, causing damage and mayhem were foolishly allowed to get dangerously close to deploying NOTHING! - and I have it on video! Check it out:

Am I being unreasonable? Well, I don't think so! In May 2008, no one questioned handing such power to the unruly Mythbusters, but by September of that same year people were much more concerned about some scientists. The headlines every where read like this "Boffins set to cause Big Bang!"

In 2003 the USA used the MOAB to scare Saddam out of Iraq and it looked like this:

In 2008 people were all freaked out because some scientists wanted to smash some really tiny particles together at really high speed... a black hole or even another Big Bang was expected. 

However, what we should have been worried about, if we are to believe Stephen Hawking, is that the Mythbusters almost caused another Big Bang! 

With people playing with vacuums (Yikes! I just realized that we put vacuum cleaners in the hands of disgruntled house wives every day!!!) perhaps we should heed Homer Simpson's dire warning to us from the beginning of this article! THE END BEGINNING IS NIGH!!!