The Theory of Funkativity

Greetings Odysseans, and welcome to this: your first glimpse into the strange world that is the inside of my melon.  This week and in the weeks to come I will be using this corner of the Internet to voice all the things going on in the world that I find interesting or exciting, in addition to sharing the unadulterated randomness that goes on in my mind.  The accepted metaphor is a "train of thought," but as will soon become apparent this does not necessarily apply to me.  I think a more appropriate phrase for me would be "wikipedia free-fall of thought," because my mental process jumps around more than a procrastinating undergrad burying himself under a mountain of irrelevant links.  It may be hard to follow, it may be nerdy, it may be straight up ridiculous, but in all cases it will be pure, unfiltered me, for better or worse.

One thing I want to discuss this week is one of the most exciting developments that has happened in the science world recently. That title is no joke; I am in fact a scientist who, if my friends are to be believed, is quite mad, and leaps of scientific innovation are to me what big titties are to others.... That's boner inducing for the slower witted amongst you.  The thing that got me all hot and bothered this week is something that fans of that hack Dan Brown may recognize as significant: scientists at Swiss science Mecca CERN isolated and trapped particles of antimatter for the first time.  Now CERN has received a lot of flak recently because, by the layman's reasoning, they're meddling with the destruction of the world (which, big surprise, hasn't happened... Please trust scientists people, we are neither lying nor trying to get you pissed), but I find it hard to believe that anyone could argue against this being a huge step in particle physics.  Antimatter holds far greater energy potential than regular matter alone: the interaction between matter and antimatter releases exponentially more energy than the fusion of matter particles (which we still have yet to achieve with any usefulness). As anyone who's ever seen star trek can tell you, once you have some antimatter, all you need is properly stabilized dilithium crystals and you've got yourself some warp drive... Who doesn't want warp drive!?

I'll wrap this post up with a bit of blatant speculation.  One of the hot topics in movie/general nerd news right now is Christopher Nolan's much anticipated sequel to The Dark Knight, entitled The Dark Knight Rises, more specifically which villain(s) will follow Heath Ledger's phenomenal portrayal of the Joker.  I have been dilligently reading up on this topic and there are some things I've learned that seem to make a lot of sense.  In Batman Begins, the first film, Nolan made veiled yet specific references to Two Face, who ended up as a supporting villain in Dark Knight, and an obvious reference to the Joker.  Knowing that, there are two apparent hints left in DK as to what we can expect in the forthcoming film.  First is that there are a few subtle references to cats, which should obviously indicate the appearance of Catwoman, and one or two passing references to Rhas Al'Ghul, the villain of the first film.  This seems to indicate Talia Al'Ghul, Rhas' lesser-known daughter, who falls in love with Bruce Wayne despite a burning desire to avenge her father who died as a result of Batman's do-gooding.  Add these points to the facts that Warner Bros. is currently searching for two female lead roles and that Bruce's former love interest Rachel Dawes is no longer with us (thank god) and the stage seems set for two femme fatales with a potential villain love triangle.  That's what I believe is going to happen in this next film and if it is true I think it will be phenomenal.  On the one hand you have Selena Kyle (Catwoman) who is intrigued and enamored with Bats, while all the while flaunting his moral code, and on the other you have Talia, who will play the part of fawning lover but with much darker intentions. Who knows what will end up happening but either way Nolan has delivered two phenomenal films that have redefined the superhero genre and I am confident he will follow up accordingly.

Thats been my $0.02 for the week. Until next time, keep it mathematical!