Cosmic coincidences: Bowen fluorescence and the Anthropic Principle

[bram]

I thought I'd go off on a ramble on the topic of "cosmic coincidences." In the data I just got, there is strong evidence for something called Bowen fluorescence. When I finally get the albatross paper and the 90% done paper out of the way, I'll spend some time figuring out what I can learn from this effect. But first I'll muse on the meaning of

Comments

[ex_fauxpas266]

Do you have a good hummus recipe? I am not too crazy about the one I have.

Mmm... Hummus...

I am a hummus being

[bram]

I'm not so satisfied by my hummus all the time either. I haven't been making it from a systematic recipe, usually just varying the ingredients until they taste right.

Have you tried hyssop on hummus? That is so good! I spent a couple of weeks in Israel in 1993, and the hummus there was a revelation. The Yemenite Jews in particular have their culinary act so together

Re: I am a hummus being

[ex_fauxpas266]

The "old family recipe" (my mom and I jokingly refer to it as such -- it's actually an old family recipe from my mom's friend's family) I have for hummus is as follows

Re: I am a hummus being

[bram]

No, I don't think hyssop is likely to be in a mainstream grocery, although the Pathmark in Fair Lawn, New Jersey sells pre-made hummus with za'tar that's delicious. I found a source of hyssop here in Wooster, in a natural foods co-op. If I can find it in small-town Ohio, you should be able to find it in Berkeley! It was among the bulk spices in jars that you scoop out and put in little plastic bags.

I assume that, being in Berkeley, you've discovered the Searchable Online Archive of Recipes.

My favorite vegetarian cookbook is by Goldbeck and Goldbeck, although I no longer have a copy. They must have a good hummus recipe. I first learned to make hummus from a vegetarian cooking class I took in '90 or '91, but over the years I have bit by bit forgotten the details of that exact recipe, though I think that's where I learned to put cayenne pepper in.

[evan]

I really enjoy reading stuff like this.
Thanks.

[bram]

Thanks! I consider that high praise from a livejournal founder/developer.

From now on, by popular demand, this is the Bram Boroson Bowen Fluorescence journal, the place to go 24/7 to find out what's happening in the world of Bowen Fluorescence. Check out the BowenCam, have a conversation with the BowenBot, download mp3s of all your favorite BowenBands, learn to program in BTML, become a Fluorescent Premium Bowen Member and get access to 1000s of rare emission lines from all your favorite astrophysical sources: X-ray binaries, planetary nebulae, even the Sun.

[solri]

Maybe I'm approaching the anthropic priniciple a bit naively, but why the assumption that observers have to be human, or even carbon-based?

[bram]

Hmm, I think there are a couple of points of view here:

* Well, we're here, and made of carbon so there had to be some way of making us

* We have no idea whether intelligent life is possible without carbon, but we do know it's possible with carbon

Then there are those who apply the principle not just as Hoyle did to ensuring that there was carbon to make us, but to other basic facts about the Universe. Why 3 dimensions? Well, maybe 3 dimensions are special for life--fewer and the possibilities are diminished and more, things don't come into contact enough (just off the top of my head.)

[kristian]

Is it possible that the entire universe was set up in order for a pen to leak in a front end loader that YOU were using?

[bram]

Sometimes it feels that way!