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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"God bless thee, my son; I will give thee the greatest jewel I have ...
"The end of our foundation is the knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible."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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"God bless thee, my son; I will give thee the greatest jewel I have ...
"The end of our foundation is the knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible."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