NASA Makes New Discovery

From a press release dated yesterday, NASA Spacecraft Make New Discoveries about Northern Lights.

I read the release twice and I don't quite get it. From what I could gather, the scientists were becoming gasmic over just how fast the northern lights moved across the polar time zone and something to do with giant magnetic ropes. Kinkypotamus.

Hot Flow Anomalies (HFAs) seem cool:

The technical term for these explosions is "hot flow anomalies" or HFAs. HFAs boost the temperature of solar wind particles ten-fold (as high as 10 million degrees) and they can stop the solar wind dead its tracks. "This is no mean achievement considering the fact that the solar wind moves at supersonic speeds near a million miles per hour."

I absorb something like this and try to apply my 5th grade knowledge of energy. So the solar wind particle's kinetic energy becomes heat as the particles hit a magnetic force field. Potential energy and kinetic energy - that was an easy lesson back then.

Lately, I've noticed that my conversations after work typically involve science, the prison/immigration system, and food. Gather three opinionated people who don't know much about any of these topics and who are comfortable speaking in metaphors, and you'll have long protracted adamant conversations about the most ridiculous things.

The other night we were discussing Little Children, directed by Todd Field. The discussion touched on two of the three main topics - science and the prison system. The discussion centered around gov't sanctioned castration for sex offenders who wanted to be castrated. The key part was the fact that these people wanted to be castrated which allowed us to focus on the science rather than the ethics of forced castration.

My initial thought was that castration wouldn't diminish desire. Even if it was all hormonal, testosterone isn't solely produced in the gnuck-gnucks. (I wasn't sure about this.) And there are other ways to traumatize someone that doesn't involve a man's junk. (again, not sure about this)

J dropped the word, "pituitary gland." That was a good one. Someone asked where it is and what does it do? Empty blinks.

C was convinced that desire diminishes. She didn't offer much in the way of science. And then I secretly came around because dogs and cats become placcido domingo after getting spayed/neutered.

J brought up a good point that we didn't even know what castration really entails. What parts?

I thought of doing more research the next day. I began to type V...O...L...U...N...T...A...R...Y

C...A...S...T...

Then I changed my mind.