GRgr: Sgr A*, the regional puppetmaster

[jporter]

>From this week's _Science Magazine_, official journal of the Amer. Assoc.
for the Advancement of Science (AAAS): a special section devoted to The
Milky Way, including a discussion of Sagittarius A (abbreviated- Sgr A*),
the Black Hole at the center of our galaxy.

The journal is available online only upon registration and/or for a fee,
but it is available in most public libraries.

It's not in front of me now, but on about p.63, Sgr A* is referred to as
"the puppetmaster." (no joke!) Naturally my imagination was pulled back to
you all, and the P-list, and coincidentally enough, the realization that
this GRGR is approaching the post-apogee scene with Erdmann, where the
narrator discusses *singularities,* including THE singularity, and its
prediction by the Russian mathematician Friedmann, way before Hubble's
observations proved the expansion of the universe.  Friedmann, unlike
Einstein, had the courage to believe what the equations of General
Relativity predicted, i.e., a non-static universe, and following that logic
backwards in time: an original singularity. Friedmann is to Schwarzschild
what the Original Singularity is to the great galactic Black Holes, like
SgrA*. Friedmann's work prefigured the Mother of all Gravitational
Singularities. The Large Rein.

At any rate, Erdmann could be a half-named substitution for Friedmann
(factor out the mann), and while I'm not a german speaker, even in my
english drenched mind, "Fried" conjures up cognates like "peace" or
"resting place," etc., and "Erd," well, I guess "earth" would be close
enough. Putting it all together, including Slothrop's descent- cape spread
wide- onto the pseudo-chained Erdmann....but I won't try to put it all
together yet.

Let's wait until we get there. Gravity has begun to call her children home.

jody