While looking at some websites listing gardening products, as I do from time to time, I was surprised and rather pleased to learn that the community of researchers to which I belong, which spends some of its time trying to understand the properties of black holes -especially small ones-, may be contributing to society in unexpectedly direct ways.
It seems that black holes are being used as traps for gophers, rats and moles! Link to instructions here. No manufacturing details given, but I imagine they’re made of D-branes, at least in some description.
The picture on the right is the trap out of the box. [update: stock photo! I have no interest in using such a trap!] Now I imagine that stuff we can see is some sort of clever containment device that somehow keeps the thing stable (the things probably evaporate rapidly at this size, so they’ll have to have figured out how to get around that).
Impressive.
-cvj
(This reminds me of a post I did a while ago.)
October 15th, 2005 at 9:51 pm
Having worked at a sporting goods store, I happen to know that black holes are also being used for target practice.
http://www.blackholetarget.com/
I suppose they are ideal in terms of safety, but not so useful in terms of target practice.
October 15th, 2005 at 9:56 pm
Let’s not forget our alcoholic beverages, though I am not sure what is the idea there:
http://www.weyerbacher.com/cwo/Our_Beers/Black_Hole/
October 15th, 2005 at 11:08 pm
My very smart herding dog, Arielle du Mas de l’Escarene (http://www.masdelescarene.com/Vos_photos.htm), has recently been busy writing a paper (in addition to ghost authoring my latest math paper), and section five, being worked on now, is addressing this very important issue of uses for black holes:
(1) Brownian Theory Applied to Bounded Sheep Assemblages
(2) Fluid Mechanics and Sheep Herd Movement Through Tight Ravines
(3) Transport of Sheep Via Wormholes: Theory or Reality?
(4) On the Problem of Herd Containment Within a Klein Bottle Enclosure Pen
(5) The Cat Problem: Black Holes as the Final Answer?
October 16th, 2005 at 12:24 am
Awww, Arielle is smart AND adorable!
October 16th, 2005 at 12:28 am
Microstate Blackhole Popping Corn (MBPC)for your coloring pleasure.:)
A bubble snapping Calabi Yau idea?
October 16th, 2005 at 1:27 am
Not so much products but one liners with implications tied to them?
October 16th, 2005 at 1:29 am
ahem!…one liners
October 16th, 2005 at 2:45 am
There you go Clifford; energy problem solved. Just feed a mouse to your black hole now and then and harvest the radiation.
October 16th, 2005 at 5:52 am
It may not have the quite same popular appeal, but back when the Bose-Einstein condensation experimental results were first announced I remember a speaker putting up an advert for a sound system with from the manufacturer Bose with the tag line “control your Bose wave”.
October 16th, 2005 at 9:50 am
Is this thing humane?
October 16th, 2005 at 10:36 am
Fzplus…. I don’t know. I was not in the market for a trap for anything….(although that may change if the skunk wars I’m involved in right now in the garden take a turn for the worst), so I did not check. Maybe it’s the mouth of a traversible wormhole and they end up somewhere else…..like another house or garden…..
cheers,
-cvj
October 16th, 2005 at 12:11 pm
Verizon is also using black holes and string theory for practical purposes:
http://motls.blogspot.com/2005/08/verizon.html
October 16th, 2005 at 12:35 pm
Here is an old history of a black hole:
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mblackhole.html
October 16th, 2005 at 3:08 pm
Clifford, it is not humane as far as I can tell. The spring-loaded steel cord strangles it and it will struggle in pain and fear for a few seconds before dying. Finding the body of a baby gopher in this thing will upset you.
I won’t impose my values on other people but I feel strongly as scientists studying the universe and nature we should have the greatest humility and respect before nature and respect life in all its various forms. This might be the only planet that actually has it (life). How we treat other creatures is also a reflection on us as a species. These are just small animals trying to survive, which is their absolute right in the scheme of things. They are not “pests”. Many hundreds of prairie dogs were recently gassed in Texas. I consider that a crime against nature. Pretty sickening. We are too quick to totally destroy anything that suddenly gets in the way of our plans.
If you have a problem in your garden or home then you could get traps that capture them alive, put the traps in the boot of your car and just release them somewhere.You will feel better for it. In my garden we once had two young rabbits come in from the countryside and help themselves to some vegetables. I could sometimes see the ears of the rascals from my kitchen window as they helped themselves but it just made me laugh at their mischief. What was I going to do? Murder them for a few dumb vegetables I don’t really need? Why should the survival of a mere vegetable be more important than that of a rabbit? I am also happy to say that a squirrel has set up home there and I may set up another nest box nest spring. Thats my gardening philosophy though–a place where nature can just be.
Again, if it becomes a problem, I think you should trap things humanely and just release them elsewhere. Personally, it is the only way I could do it.
October 16th, 2005 at 4:06 pm
SteveM,
As I said in the comment #11, I’m not trapping anything. I just thought the name of the trap was funny and shared it with the readers of the blog. That’s it. I am aware of the existence of live traps, and in fact helped purchase one last year for the capture of an escaped rat in a colleague’s lab! It worked.
On garden visitors. If they damage what I am trying to grow, I can call them pests if I want to. Skunks are pests, no matter how cute. (Let one dig a hole and take up residence under your house and you’ll think differently about their “rights”). Squirrels are pests too, and they’re alo cute. And several other things, cute or otherwise are pests when they damage stuff I’m growing. Calling these animals pests does not mean I’m going to kill them. I simply work harder to encourage them to go elsewhere, and leave my stuff alone. They have a right to find food, and I have a right to grow food. They do not have the right to dig up the roots of everything I’m growing while looking for their food.
They can call me a pest too, for all I care, since I’m getting in the way of their foraging. However, I do not agree that these animals -no matter how cute or wonderful (and I think that they are)- have any more or less right to be on the planet that I have. We’re just all fellow animals on the planet. Nothing more, nothing less. You start being over-precious about the animals and you put the first step on the road to ending up with innocent people being murdered by overzealous animal rights people in the UK.
Cheers,
-cvj
October 16th, 2005 at 5:35 pm
Clifford:
Some of the animal rights people here in the UK are way way out of order, totally fanatical, and simply undermine any sympathy to their cause.
We had a mouse problem actually at one point but we dealt with it. A few squirrels or rabbits I have no problem with and I agree being overun would be a different matter. Seems I misunderstood and thought you had this trap already set up. But I am glad you agree that there are more intelligent and humane ways of dealing with it. For example, there is a device that you plunge into the soil and it emits sound pulses into the ground that scares away gophers and moles (can’t remember its name). Might work on skunks too. Having a pet dog or cat around now also tends to keep most things away, at least in my case.
But we are’nt all just “fellow animals on this planet”. One species continues to multiply at a considerable rate and simply has very considerable power to dominate and destroy anything in the natural world that does not fit into its plans. Jungles are vanishing and great apes and many other species are nearing extinction for example.Environments are being destroyed to make way for ever more people. This is not a good reflection on our stewardship of this (very unique) planet. So I do feel it is very much our responsibility. In general, I feel we all need a basic respect and appreciation for nature and life though, whether it is the Amazon or your back yard. It’s not a case of being over precious as you put it.
Sorry to get so serious with an environmentalist rant and veer so much from the original thread!:)
Best
Steve
October 16th, 2005 at 5:51 pm
SteveM: We are just “fellow animals on this planet”. The fact that we might be misbehaving a lot with respect to the other animals does not change that fact, and we should not lose perspective. We should of course change our bad behaviour, but it does not mean that we need to pretend that we have no kinship with the animals. If you don’t agree with that initial statement of fact, then you are claiming that we are either:
(a) not animals,
(b) not on this planet, or
(c) invading from a different planet.
All three of those are interesting perspectives, but I don’t want to go into a debate about those now…
Cheers,
-cvj
P.S. I guess there’s another option:
(d) We were here first and then all the other animals invaded from another planet.
October 16th, 2005 at 6:02 pm
OK, you got me there:) We are just fellow animals even if we are misbehaving, and I also believe in evolution. “Not animals” is an interesting debate but I will leave it:)
Best
Steve
October 16th, 2005 at 6:20 pm
SteveM: Lest I get beaten up (or worse) by either animal rights people or a crack team of ninja gophers, rats and moles, I’ve updated the post to make it clear (I hope) that I’m not actually photograping a trap I’ve purchased or installed.
-cvj
October 16th, 2005 at 7:12 pm
I will admit I had thought the stock photo was an actual photo you took of the trap already set up in your garden since you have put up a lot of garden pics. You certainly did’nt seem like the kind of guy who would use that. It would be your business even if you did though, but if you mentioned it on the blog, inviting comments, then I would give my opinion. But that’s it.
The thing is though on a blog like this you have no idea who might be reading and some animal rights activists really are seriously deranged. In the UK this year there was some guy who was breeding mice or rats for medical research and the animal rights people dug up his mother’s grave and sent him body parts through the mail! I kid you not! Totally sick. Made national news of course. Will still be on the bbc web page somewhere.
I believe some of Lubos M’s opinions resulted in him getting hate email earlier this year and so on. It is something bloggers do have to be aware of.
Best
Steve
October 16th, 2005 at 7:28 pm
What’s REALLY irritating about this thing is that they have adopted that #^#$^#$#ing custom of spelling “black hole” as if it were ONE #$#&%ing WORD! God that’s irritating!
October 16th, 2005 at 7:32 pm
Thanks SteveM. The animal rights people will be pleased to read that I love animals, as should be evident from my tiresome tendency to put up pictures of birds, bunny rabbits, beetles, etc. (Currently trying to capture on film that wonderful hummingbird I menioned earlier.) I’m constantly carrying spiders out of the house (it being spider season) rather than crushing them, and
I don’t eat slaughtered farm animals, only tender young human fleshwhile I don’t condone any violent acts they get up to, I have sympathy with their goal of more humane treatment of animals.-cvj
October 16th, 2005 at 10:58 pm
Lubos, Verizon isn’t using black holes, they’re buying one with their purchase of MCI. MCI/Worldcom still hold the record for sucking in investors into their event horizion to the tune of 100 Billion U. S.
And through the magic of Bankruptcy re-emerged from a wormhole on the other side….
October 17th, 2005 at 1:40 am
[...] Just got back from taking my mum to the movies. The new Wallace and Gromit film! It’s wonderful. It hit several of my buttons: As you know (perhaps) our heroes are inventors and have wonderful homemade gadgets, and solve their problems by thinking, and often employing a little exaggerated physics when in a tight spot. The physical humour is just wonderful in everything they’de done, and there’s more of that in this film. Also there’s a bonus for me this time: Gromit, my favourite, is (of course) a keen gardener! And it’s all about the humane trapping of garden pests, which fits nicely with part of the comment thread of my last post! [...]
October 17th, 2005 at 8:47 am
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October 17th, 2005 at 12:03 pm
Is it true that coffee is a black hole solution? An experiment to test that I guess would be to evaporate the water in coffee and see if a mouse trap remains…
October 17th, 2005 at 8:04 pm
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