Take that, woowoos! As reported in a leading German newspaper:

World egg balancing record!

"The figure legend says: "14 September 2005" (sic!!!!): Standing on End - At the Center for Contemporary Art in Melbourne, American Brian Spotts presents 439 eggs he has balanced to stand on their ends - world record!"

This year's autumn equinox, by the way, is on 22 September 22:23 UST

Case closed, innit?

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Non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem.

Man, I wonder how long that took. He must have a very gentle touch.

- Maha "eggstrordinary" Vailo

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When you get down to it, Science answers how. Religion answers why. - hippietrekx

[woowoo mode]
You're not fooling me! If he tried that ON the equinox, he would have doubled that number!
[/woowoo mode]

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Hanlon's Razor - "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."
Asimov's addition - "Or ignorance."

"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
-- Charles Babbage

Ah, but can he balance an egg on an egg?

Four minutes and two seconds, as per what this story says. =)

http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/st...001022,00.html

That was the record time he got for balancing a dozen eggs, not for the whole lot.

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And the "driving on the freeway on a scooter" analogy still holds true because the pilots are sitting in 7 to 30 ton aircraft o' doom and you are running around them in your very own Meatbody, Mark I. Beep, beep.
Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

Doh! That's what I get for scanning the story.

I still think the best part of the article is this quote:
Ie. he started because of the myth, then found out it IS a myth and kept going anyway.

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And the "driving on the freeway on a scooter" analogy still holds true because the pilots are sitting in 7 to 30 ton aircraft o' doom and you are running around them in your very own Meatbody, Mark I. Beep, beep.
Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

Yeah, I guess I started balancing eggs on the equinox, then eventually discovered that the day of the year was inconsequential. For awhile, I thought it was still kind of fun to perpetuate the myth, but lately I have taken to trying to dispell it. And as far as it being the Spring vs. Fall equinox, I've broken egg-balancing records in the northern and southern hemispheres, on non-equinoxical (is that a word) days, so I think it's busted.

The entire feat took me about 14 hours, averaging about two minutes per egg. But I balanced a dozen at the end in just over four minutes. And I tried to balance an egg on an already-balanced egg, but was unsuccessful. I think that is my new goal. I am done with the goals that require me laying on my stomach for hours on end. Ouch.

Brian, The Egg Balancer

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You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Congratulations, Brian, The Egg Balancer!

Brian, I got your email, but I've been swamped lately. I've been meaning to update my page with your stuff!

And I will add, a little mischievously, that folks should watch the second episode of "Alias" which I think airs October 6th. A little bird tells me this topic is mentioned...

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Phil Plait
The Bad Astronomer
http://www.badastronomy.com
badastro@badastronomy.com