September 27 [Hot Jupiters]
September 27
When I woke up, Aric was still asleep and had his back to me, so I nuzzled him between his shoulders but that didn't wake him up. I thought maybe he doesn't like being woken up early in the morning, but I didn't want to stay in bed forever waiting for him to wake up.
So I got out of bed and went to the window and watched the birds and smelled the sky. It was another clear day out and the birds were all crowded at the feeder except for the sparrows who were smart enough to not wait in line. They were down on the lawn, picking up all the seeds that the other birds had dropped.
I thought about going downstairs and seeing what he had for breakfast, and maybe I could make him something. But Aric might want to cook with me like Meghan did. So I watched the birds a little while longer and then when I heard him moving around I climbed back into bed and nuzzled him in the back, then brushed my wing down his side.
Aric rolled onto his back and I tickled his chest until he put his hand on my wing to stop me, and he must have noticed my broken primary for the first time 'cause he wanted to know what had happened, so I told him about getting it caught in the door.
He said he was sorry for touching it because it must hurt, and I said that it only hurt when it got tugged on, 'cause the feather itself wasn't alive. If it got pulled out, that hurt a lot, but if it just got broken it only hurt for a moment, and then it was over.
It wouldn't be any good to have feathers that hurt when they got broken, or else we'd never be able to fly anywhere. I didn't know anypony who had all their feathers intact when they moulted. Maybe some really prissy pegasus who never flew might, but some of them always seemed to get bent or broken somehow.
He didn't believe me, so I reached up on one of my wings and bit half of a covert off and spit it out on the bed. I was gonna moult soon anyway and that was always one of the first ones to fall out. It already felt a little bit loose.
He picked up the half-feather and ran his fingers along it, then looked at the edge where I'd nipped it off. And then he said that maybe I'd better keep my head above the waist because he was feeling a little bit intimidated.
I promised not to bite him, and then kissed his neck, and he ran his finger along my leg and pretty soon I had him pinned down to the bed and even though he probably could have pushed me off, he let me be on top.
He didn't have a lot of food in the kitchen but there was some oatmeal, so he heated up some water and while we were waiting for it to boil Angela came upstairs and she said that she hadn't seen me for a while so she crouched down and hugged me and then asked Aric why he was up so early, and he said that it was my fault. Then he asked her if the weiner-dog boxers she was wearing were David's, and she said that they were.
I wanted to stay around longer, but after we'd eaten I had to leave so that I could get dressed for my lab class. So I kissed Aric, and then I went out the side door and trotted over to his birdfeeder and stood on my hind legs so I could shake some seeds out of it, then I took off for school.
I probably should have taken a shower but I didn't have time, so I emptied out my saddlebags and put my physics things in them and my science gear, too. I was hoping that Lisa would button it for me when I got to the lab, 'cause Peggy wasn't in the room and I couldn't wait much longer or else I would be late.
I was lucky, 'cause Lisa did help me, not only with my lab coat but she also put my mane back for me, and then I got out my notebook and clicky pens and waited for Professor Brown to arrive.
We got to play with alchemical hot packs and cold packs in class and we had to take lots of measurements and then we could figure out what was in them from tables if we got our measurements correct, and then after we'd done that we also got to make our own little reaction in a test tube which was really neat. It was a lot like potions, 'cause you mixed the ingredients together the right way and then they would do something which in this case was just get hot.
And then after we'd all done our reactions he said that he was going to show us another one that was fun but that we weren't allowed to do. So he took a plastic eyedropper and dipped it in a small bottle of yellow liquid and squirted it out on some paper, and when the liquid evaporated it left a white crust on the paper and all of a sudden it burst into flames on its own.
Before we left, Lisa offered to take off my lab coat, so I didn't have to fight with the buttons, and then we went to the lounge and went over our notes for a little bit just to make sure that we both agreed on what our data was and what it meant and what formulas we'd need to use on it. And then I went back to our room and got my astronomy things, and just as I was about to go to lunch, I remembered that today was Tuesday so I was gonna sit with Cedric and Leon and Trevor, so I looked through my poetry books until I found The Rain in the Trees. And I put that on top and went to lunch.
Leon thought it was really funny that I still had my mane in a ponytail, which is what it's called when you have your mane pulled back. And I said I could let it down but I hadn't brushed it yet today so it was kind of messy.
They wanted to know if I'd seen the game on Friday, and I said I hadn't, 'cause I'd had a birthday party instead. And then Cedric said that he didn't know it had been my birthday and then he asked if I knew when Aquamarine's was and I didn't but I thought it was probably in March or April. He wanted to know why I was so sure, and so I explained how most foals are born in the springtime.
Both Leon and Cedric got kinda quiet and thought about that, and then Cedric said that it didn't seem right, although I didn't know what wasn't right about it. It was just the way things worked, and there were lots of other animals that didn't have babies all year round.
Then Trevor asked how many astrological signs we had, and I didn't know what those were so he had to explain. And he said that I was a Libra but didn't know for sure what that meant, so he looked it up on his pocket telephone and said that it was also called the Air sign. And Leon said that he was making that up, so he showed Leon, and then Cedric because Cedric didn't believe either of them.
He said that human astrology probably wouldn't really apply to a pony anyway because it was based on what constellations were in the sky and he was sure that we had different ones, which we did. And I didn't think that it was considered a good omen to be born under one or another, just to be the first foal born in a year.
I got out my book and Leon laughed and said that it was funny that I missed poetry, and Cedric crossed his arms and told me to hug Leon, so I got up and he kind of backed off a little bit and said that it wasn't fair, but he couldn't go anywhere without getting up and running away, so I hugged him kind of off to the side, which wasn't all that comfortable, and Cedric said that it was good to lose a hug war.
Then he slid my book across the table and started looking through it while Leon tried to push me off and then gave up and hugged me back. And he read a poem called The Superstition which was about cars, and it was kind of sad.
Trevor read one called The Lost Originals, and he got kinda thoughtful at the end of it, and said that it was kind of sobering to think that he didn't even know where he'd come from and there was probably no way to ever find out. And then it would have been Leon's turn but he said that he was going to be late to class and Cedric looked at his watch and we realized that we'd been talking longer than we thought and we were all going to be late for class.
So I galloped across the quad and flew over Academy Street so I didn't have to look for traffic, and then when I found a clear spot on the sidewalk I landed at a trot.
There were more people in the hall than I would have liked because everybody was hurrying to class and it was rude to fly over them but I had to be careful in the hallway because I could trip somebody by mistake.
I made it to my class in time, and I sat down next to Anna and she was happy because I think she'd been lonely, too.
Professor Miller started by telling us more about the inner planets, 'cause she said that now that we'd learned about the solar system in general we'd start to take a closer look at how people thought they'd come about. And she said that it started out as a disc of little things around the sun and then they all started sticking to each other in regions, which would turn out to be the orbits.
And she said that the inner planets were close to the sun, so they didn't have much ice and gas, because the heat from the sun drove it off; the outer planets got more gas and ice, and therefore were bigger, and that probably other solar systems would be the same.
Then a bunch of people raised their hands and I raised my hoof and she said that she would get to the problems with that idea, but people had thought of it before they had found any other planets.
She told us about wavelengths and how they got squished together when things moved towards you and stretched out when they moved away, and why that was really important was because distant stars moved towards us and away from us as the planets went around them.
And then she gave us all the calculations for the first planet that humans found, which orbited a sun called Pegasus 51 (and a lot of people thought that was funny), and it was all wrong because it was big like Jupiter and really really close to the sun. And astronomers thought that maybe their measurements there had been wrong, but then they found more just like it around other planets and they called them hot Jupiters, and she ended the lesson before she told us why, which was kind of disappointing, but she promised she'd tell us more about them in the next class.
I went back to our room and worked on the physics lab so that me and Lisa could meet tomorrow after class, and I got done a little bit before dinner so I started to read Matthew, which is the first book of the New Testament. It started out talking about Jesus's lineage, because a lot of people also care about that, and then it said that Mary got pregnant before she was married to Joseph and he was going to divorce her, but the Holy Spirit told him not to.
Then after the baby was born, mages went looking for him to give him presents, and Herod found out and was scared, so he ordered that all the young boys in Judah be killed, but and angel had warned them and so they went to Egypt, and then after Herod died they came back to Nazareth.
And then Jesus went to get baptized by John the Baptist, and I couldn't read anything past that because it was time for dinner.
I kind of knew how Jesus's story ended, because of the Easter service, but now I wondered why God had let people do that. Maybe Matthew would say.
I just picked at my dinner 'cause I was a little worried about how things were going to go with Meghan. She was a little bit more skittish than Aric, and I hadn't had a chance to talk to her after our talk at Waldo's, and I know I was being kind of foalish. And everyone noticed, and Peggy hugged me and said it would be okay, and Sean was really confused, but Christine said it was girl stuff and then he stopped being curious.
I should have had dinner with her. We could have even gone out to dinner together; that would have been fun.
I should have taken a shower, too, but I hadn't, and then I thought that maybe I could use her bathtub or we might be able to get an Uber-car and go over to her uncle's house and use his hot tub and that would be nice and relaxing.
I knew I wasn't going to finish my dinner so I asked if anybody else wanted to eat it because I hated to waste food, but nobody did. And Peggy asked if I was going back to our room and I said I was, so she said that she was done with dinner, too, and she'd come with me and we could talk on the way.
And so while we walked back to the dorm I told her how I was nervous even though I shouldn't be and Peggy said that she thought Meghan would be happy to see me and she was really proud that we'd had our conversation together, and then she said that if I wanted to use our room tonight she'd go sleep at Christine's.
I didn't want her to have to give up her bed, 'cause that wasn't fair, but she said that was something that roommates did for each other. So I hugged her and helped her put her sleeping clothes and homework in her backpack and then I hugged her again and I was feeling in a lot better mood when I went to Meghan's room.
So when I told Meghan she was really happy, and when Amy came out of the bathroom Meghan told her that she was going to my room to watch movies and Amy told her to have fun, and I didn't think that we were really going to watch movies.
It was still light out, so we decided to go walking around a little bit before it got dark, and we wound up at a little playground, which had swings and a strange little play-structure that had a slide and some balconies that you could look over and it was a little bit too small for Meghan but she climbed up it anyway and we sat together on it and watched the sun go behind the trees, then we both swung on the swings.
We walked back to campus together and I thought I should take a shower before we went to bed, because I hadn't had one all day, and she said that she wished she'd brought her shower supplies or at least a towel, and I said that I had extras.
There wasn't anybody who wanted the shower at night, so we had it all to ourselves, and when we were done we dried each other off and she said that she'd preen me back in my room.
Since we were just going back to my room she just put on her outer clothes and left her underwear off, but she had to wrap them up in her towel so that nobody would know she wasn't wearing them which I thought was kind of silly. And I pranced back to the room with my tail high just to tease her.
Then when we were safely back in my room she hung up our towels in my closet so that they could dry and she got undressed again and sat on the bed with her legs crossed and I sat next to her and stretched a wing out on her lap so that she could preen it, and she found my broken primary right away and she said that I was getting really beaten up this quarter.
When she was done with my wings I got out my brush and brushed her hair, and then she brushed my mane and tail and groomed my coat too and I was kind of sad that she didn't have a coat that I could groom.
It was also sad that none of my friends could fly, 'cause it would be a lot of fun to go flying with someone else.
I asked her if she was looking forward to going to Indianapolis, and she said that she was, and I told her some about all the ponies who were gonna be there, and she remembered most of their names from the movie of us fighting the tornado, 'cause I'd told her who they were then.
She said that I should see if the weather people wanted to make a movie of me flying in a storm, and I thought that was a good idea. I bet they'd like it, and so I said that I hadn't, but I would try to remember to do it before the next time there was a storm.
We snuggled up under the covers, and then after a little while she asked me if we could use my toy, so I got out of bed and got it out of my dresser.
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“There's a physics joke that you convert all velocities to furlongs per fortnight just to be annoying.”
--Professor Baiylin
You know, there's an old time Sci-fi story "Omnilingual" by H Beam Piper where he makes the point that scientific constants are universal & they use a periodic table (among other things) to translate an alien language. You look it up on the internet & there's a LOT of different ones.
Plus, as I mentioned on a post in Onto the Pony Planet, if the Ponies don't have particle accelerators, then they don't have #43, Technetium, the 1st artificial element. Plus, all the Helium on earth comes from a few oil wells. Ponies might know of it from spectrographs of their sun and still not have any. Niobium & Hafnium are the 2 closest elements & weren't separated until the 1920s IRL.
In short, Ponies probably have some kind of periodic table of elements but it might not look ANYTHING like what they've got in the class room or her textbook.
Don't worry, Leon. It's perfectly normal and manly to give hugs to ponies.
And this is also perfectly normal and manly.
http://m.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19445.mobile
Omnilingual by H Beam Piper
I find his work well worth reading
7758089
#herdshippingdiscount
7759222 Ah. Work. The eternally painful necessity, eh?
7759228
Unfortunately. And with my single co-worker leaving 2-3 hours early every single day for three months (Football), and an unexpected (but fun) vacation in October, I got behind and haven't caught up yet.
7758885
The TauManifesto
7759279 Ouch. Explains a lot.
7759145
lol, you gotta love what comes out of some peoples mouth. It's engineering, not aesthetics. As a shape, pyramids are stable and durable. I'm sure that egyptians (along with other cultures, pyramids aren't exactly unique) built other more aesthetically pleasing structures, but they just didn't last. I took History of Architecture, which was actually fairly interesting (for some parts at least).
well all I know is what was taught in my class. I have no idea what the MIT prerequisites are, but i'm guessing that the MIT class requires less linear algebra based on what she's doing (although I am kind of far behind). I can see where I think they're going to start merging though (but again, i'm behind).
Nope. There's a lot of stuff that prevents that from happening.
well, I doubt that they're particularly strong so it probably isn't a problem for those magnets. I found a video on packing strong magnets
I wonder what Meghan would have done if she would have known that not only is Silver Glow unwashed but has the semen of Aric in her.
7759237
Well you could go to the trouble of creating a ponyism to describe the situation, but Dad probably covers it for most purposes particularly if he's been around for most of her life.
Is the unnamed step father Silver's sisters father or was she the result of another quick hook up somewhere?
Considering that Silver just finished reading about God doing horrible things over and over, you'd think she'd be a bit more jaded about what happened to Jesus.
7759126
Heh! This is true!
Now, if only Lyra had wings....hmmm, maybe some Red Bull might help...?
Which material was the igniter? The white powder threw me off as Im used to Permanganate being used but thats purple, or the metals?
Maybe the reason we found rare big planets first is because theres so many rolls of the dice up there and theyre far easier to spot than far more common and very difficult to spot smaller things. Be intresting as the detections come in and the probability spread can be created.
As for Meghan playing a round. Silver got the best club for her bunker.
ARG. I was thinking of something before I read this chapter to propose as an idea for Silver and Ive totally forgotton what it is. Ill be lucky if I remember it later. I think it might have been a doozy.
7759266
I wouldn't bet against the squirrels developing a taste for it, though. I once had a pet rat who would eat anything with Tabasco on it.
And given Silver Glow's addition to Taco Bell, I wouldn't be so sure that booby-trapping the sunflower seeds with hot sauce would work on her either...
The main reason the Equestrians have sheep - just in case somebody asks you, Silver.
img06.deviantart.net/2850/i/2016/334/6/0/cumulus_and_thunder_by_alltelleringet-daq3g66.jpg
7759777 We found big planets first because the first means we had of detecting them required measurement of a star's wobbling due to the gravitational effect of an orbiting body. That method of detection meant hot-Jupiters, with high mass and very short orbital periods, were always going to be top of the list.
I'm really hopping that the Tornado team aren't the only ponies at the air show. Would be cool if the Wonderbolts were there as well (and would give Silver a chance to interact with one of the Main 6).
next lab coat should have magnets instead of buttons
Silver is going to see it in a total new light when news papers write about celestias cake eating escapades in equestria ...
and then when she shouts in the tavern "SHE'S NOT EATING CAKE !" everyone would give her an odd look.
7759420
Well, we did found some pretty damm impressive temples at Abu Simbel, no?
The astronomy class is interesting, but will an examination of Equestria's solar system be included as well?
Thought this was relevant, and it's also interesting like most of these vids are...
[youtube=QfC9kifJyWI]
That poem about the cars seems like it sounds like it is being told about their eventual demise after their service life has been exceeded.
No one there showers at night? That's interesting because I simply can not go to bed without showering. It's a regional thing, I think. Where I live it's hot enough most of the year where if you don't shower at night then it's as if you're going to sleep in a bunch of sweat. Even in the winter where it's colder I shower at night, habit I guess.
7759056
I've also seen math used (in Arrow 18, among others), because while the symbols might not be constant, 1+1=2 is pretty universal, and you can demonstrate simple math with objects and then move on from there.
According to Lauren Faust, pegasi fart helium, so they've got all of that that they could even want.
But you're right; there's a good chance that their periodic table is a few elements short . . . or else the unicorns have discovered elements that humans have never even imagined. You could go either way on that.
Yeah, regardless of what they've discovered, there's no reason to assume that they'd arrange their periodic table in the same manner as ours.
7759076
I would give a pony a hug in a heartbeat.
Also very wise. Sean has succeeded on his wisdom check.
7759164
I'm going to have to check that out! As you can imagine, at the moment I'm a little pressed for free time, but I'll get to it.
7759203
I own that book now! First poetry book I've bought in 20 years, in fact.
7759207
7759420
Yeah, from what I know of architecture, a lot of stuff was basically built using back-of-napkin sketches based on what they knew had worked before, and they tried to tweak it when they could (making cathedrals taller and narrower, etc.). There wasn't any formal engineering, so everything was usually overbuilt, and there were a number of building collapses when an architect pushed things too far for the material he was working with. We did a lot of that in the theatre--it was an interesting contrast, actually. Some stuff was way overbuilt, because we didn't want to have to worry about it collapsing during a show, and none of us were structural engineers. And we didn't always get it right; someone cracked a platform during a stunt show once, because it wasn't strong enough to handle how we were using it, and before we did the next performance we had to get under it and reinforce it. Other stuff is absurdly underbuilt; a lot of flats are just canvas on a frame, since they only have to look good from the audience's point of view.
Quite frankly, I have no idea. I suppose I could look up the course syllabus, but I don't know that the descriptions would do me much good. Why, just today I learned about degenerate critical points, and I'm still not entirely sure what those are.
Well, that's boring. I was just working out plans for a magnet-powered FTL space ship.
Huh, that's interesting. I'd never even thought of how they ship the 'take-off-your-hand' magnets.
I've just always imagined a pallet of magnets sticking to the forklift fork, or someone trying to set one down that's got the poles the wrong way, and they all launch off and make a mess.
7759424
Well, given that she knows that Silver Glow spent the night with Aric before, and given that she probably isn't an idiot, she would make the correct assumption that Silver Glow and Aric had fun times.
And given horse anatomy, Silver Glow is washed; feel free to do some googling on that.
7759575
That was kind of what I was thinking. Unless someone comes up with a better term, 'Dad' is probably the closest translation Silver Glow knows.
Nope, Silver's sister also has a different father.
7759628
Yeah, although the whole 'died and then rose from his tomb' part does give the story a happy ending of sorts.
7759714
(I was unable to find a picture of a pegasus playing a harp. This makes me sad.)
I watched the Twilight-becomes-an-alicorn episode with a friend and brought over a big can of Red Bull. When she got her wings, I cracked it open and started drinking it . . . I was driving home when he called me and said 'I just now figured out why you brought Red Bull.'
Also:
vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/9/9b/Skyra_ID_S1E16.png
(fan named Skyra, of course)
7759777
It was white phosphorus in solution, so the air was the igniter.
That was basically it--the bigger the planet, the bigger the wobbles in its star, so the easier to find. And the shorter orbital periods mean that those wobbles happen over days, not years.
Well, if you do remember let me know. I'm always open to suggestions!
7759921
Yeah, that's true. Probably most squirrels wouldn't like it, though.
Good point. It might increase the frequency of her raids. "Hey, these new sunflower seeds taste even better than the old ones!"
Or else he'd suddenly have Cayenne raiding his feeder.
7760119
(I bet the pegasi look down at flocks of sheep and try to figure out what kind of cloud they look like.)
7760180
I don't remember if it got mentioned in the chapter, but an American university would have been the first to discover an exoplanet except that they never looked at their data for hot Jupiters, because at the time nobody knew they could exist.
In retrospect, it's obvious that they would be the first types of planet discovered, since they'd be the easiest to 'see' by far.
7760744
Ask and it shall be done.
7760940
Agreed. Like that as-seen-on-TV screen that uses magnets to snap it closed when you walk through it.
Actually, magnetic fasteners would make a lot of pony clothes suddenly much more practical.
Princess euphemisms . . . .
7761400
The ones that really impress me are the ones--and I don't remember where they are--that were carved down, into solid rock. But there was a lot of impressive architecture back in the old days, and we did it all without the help of ancient aliens. The pyramids might be the biggest, but in my opinion, stacking boulders is more a feat of infrastructure than art.
7761558
Probably not, because humans are likely still trying to figure it out. But maybe; I'm not a hundred percent sure yet.
Which is code for 'it's really hard to think of a way that their solar system could actually work.'
7761640
I love Numberpile so much, because they explain complicated things in a way that a math-idiot like me can understand, and they're not boring. Also that old guy totally has the mad scientist vibe about him. Who else has a basement full of Klein bottles, and a little homemade robot to fetch them?
EDIT: wrong mad scientist. The white hair and slightly crazed look confused me.
IIRC, wasn't the mad scientist in your video the same one who did the video about the greedy cup?
7765214
That's exactly what it's about, and it is an interesting thing to think about. I actually wrote a short story around that premise (inspired by a junk car in my backyard, although the one I've got isn't as cool as the one in my story).
7768178
I'm also a night showerer, because I get plenty dirty at work so there's no point in going to work clean. And there probably are night showereres that Silver Glow doesn't know, since they don't interfere with her morning schedule.
7774017
That's Abu SImbel
7774017
I'm impressed that we moved Abu Simbel so it wouldn't be submerged when the Aswan dam went up. Imagine that being rediscovered in six thousand years.
"Sir, we were exploring upriver from the ancient dam excavation and we found something - two some things, actually."
"Yes? More ancient technology sites?"
"No. Identical carved facades and building layouts bracketed by statuary, in the case of one, and places for them, in the case of the other. The weird thing is, one site - the one without the statues - dates to about 12000 years ago, and the other to about six. The statues at the younger site measure at 12000."
"They moved them after six thousand years?"
"Apparently."
"Religious iconography?"
"Yes."
"Now that's devotion."
7888138
Probably in six thousand years, ponies will be talking about how ancient humans moved it, and nobody will believe them. "They used human cranes, which are more powerful than any unicorn TK."
pinkie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw3408_medium.jpg
Could be worse. Vulcans only get a few weeks every 7 years
The thing about hot Jupiters is that Mesklin (from Mission of Gravity (Hal Clement)) is scientifically impossible
8850399
That seems like it wouldn't be good for population growth (although of course it would depend on how long they live--I'm not really up on my Star Trek). And honestly, only being able to give birth when there's a good chance that your offspring is gonna have food to eat is probably a smart thing.
Well, given the era that those books appear to have been written, it's not surprising that there are mistakes. One of the main plot points in one of Asimov's short stories was that Mercury was tidally locked with the sun and it turns out that it isn't.
The Vulcans are literally just elves that they couldn't call that because they were writing sci-fi and not fantasy, so suffice to say that they probably live a long time.
11172223
Does that mean they’re also really good at archery?
11172223
11177332
Yeah, if you want magic in your Sci-fi you have to call it "psionics"
Darkover calls it "laran" & The Witches Of Kares calls it "klatha" for instance.
11306501
I always considered 'psionics' to specifically be about direct mind control, since IIRC that's how D&D used the term.