Brookhaven National Labs has been very carefully measuring
the magnetic moment of the muon. The measured values are
4
parts per billion heavier than predicted by the Standard
Model. According to researcher Vernon Hughes,
Technology and ideology alike are exercises in applied imagination.
--Phil Agre
Brookhaven National Labs has been very carefully measuring
the magnetic moment of the muon. The measured values are
4
parts per billion heavier than predicted by the Standard
Model. According to researcher Vernon Hughes,
"There are three possibilities for the interpretation of this result...., Firstly, new physics beyond the Standard Model, such as supersymmetry, is being seen. Secondly, there is a small statistical probability that the experimental and theoretical values are consistent. Thirdly, although unlikely, the history of science in general has taught us that there is always the possibility of mistakes in experiments and theories."Million-to-one chances happen nine times out of ten, and the tenth time doesn't make the papers.
What time is it
on Mars? The
Martian Ministry of Culture offers
many answers, and even more
Martian
calendars, to enhance your uncertainty. I'd have liked more
discussion of the Martian time-slip, though.
Some comments on truth, and facts, from the insightful
Graydon Saunders. This was originally posted to
rec.arts.sf.fandom, and is reprinted by permission of the
author.
Truth is a statement about the inside of people's heads.Patrick, being from a culture that has embraced scientific rationality _as a way to settle arguments_, naturally conflates 'true' and 'factual', where factual means 'measured; agreed on by means independent of any specific person'.
Cliff, and other people who argue like that, are not. They are calling true what their heart desires; what they would have be true, and if the iron bones of the earth or the light in the width of the sky say different, they will not permit these things to be knowledge within them, nor grant regard to any who do.
That knowledge breeds power. We can fling our voices round the round world, and measure with fractions of the width of a wavelength of light, and fling cities into memory; human nature is become a plastic thing, and the province of choice above chance.
Even those whose truth may not be more than a social truth, or a private truth, shut inside the bone vault of their skill, acknowledge that power; in fire and metal and information, it can no more be ignored than the absence of air.
The question is not, who is right; there is no question of 'right' between those two measures of the world.
The question is what shall be done with that power; between profit, and peace, as pre-eminent virtues; between change, and choice, and beauty, for as many as will, and hierarchy, subjugation, and constraint for all those left living.
By their starships shall ye know them.
Or not.
The above is copyright 2001 Graydon Saunders. [Deja is being recalcitrant about the message itself, but was happy to give me this ramiring response, including Graydon's post.]
Using human nerve cells in an animal model of
multiple sclerosis, scientists have
restored
nerve conductivity. The next step is to culture
a patient's own nerve cells, inject them in the donor, and
hope it works. Remyelination would be a cure, or something close
to it: a restoration of nerve function. Current treatments for MS either
slow disease progression or treat the effects of nerve damage, but
don't repair the nerves.
Can we get an editor for the White House press office? They
have cheerfully posted to the Web a press briefing
transcript that actually
includes the phrase "John Bridgeland you can identify as
a White House official; he will be on background" before
crediting his remarks to "White House Official."
[Thanks to Q Daily News for
the pointer; the link is to a local copy of the file, on the
theory that they'll probably edit their version now that
it's being blogged, but for the moment
it's
on the official site.]
Relax. Penguins
do not fall over
when helicopters fly overhead. They become quiet until the
copter goes away, and some of
them walk away from the noise. The research involved flights at
an altitude of 1000 feet; very low altitude flights might cause
a problem, as they might for a breeding colony of any bird species.
The NEAR-Shoemaker spacecraft has achieved its original
goals, and then some. On February 12, NASA scientists are
going to try to
land
it on asteroid 433 Eros. They'll take plenty of photos on the
way down: the most they expect after touchdown is a signal saying
that the spacecraft is still functioning.
The primary goal of the controlled descent is to get the closest images yet of Eros, particularly its "saddle" area, a 6-mile (10-kilometer) wide depression that has intrigued scientists with its boulder patches, relatively craterless surface and patterns of grooves and ridges. The secondary aim is to practice the maneuvers that would lead to a landing, creating a flight plan for future missions to land on a small body.
Can any paper live up to this title?
The Generalized
Universal Law of Generalization applies mathematics to
human psychology and the possibility of confusing one thing
with another.
What all that
romantic
talk about the South and the Confederacy is really about, and
how it has made genuine reconciliation so difficult.
[via Metafilter]
A proposed new bill, H.R. 19, talks about "swift, sure, and
precise action"--in other words, it would
explicitly
permit assassination of foreign leaders, overturning executive
orders first signed by Gerald Ford, and renewed by that
noted bleeding-heart liberal, Ronald Reagan.
This comes from Bob Barr, who was last seen trying to hound
President Clinton out of office.
The solution to California's energy problems is not obvious, and will not be found by blaming the usual suspects. Anyone's usual suspects.
In Zimbabwe, the independent
Daily
News continues to
publish,
a day after its printing press was destroyed by a powerful bomb.
The current printers wish to remain anonymous.
Archaea, one of the three basic groups of life on Earth,
were discovered until 1970. Until now, all the
archaea known lived in extreme environments like volcanic
vents and extremely salty water. It
turns
out that they are "a large
percentage of the biomass of the open ocean," based on repeated
samplings of the waters of the North Pacific.
Once again, the world is more complex and wonderful than we'd known.
News from the
Test
Resistance movement, by a teacher who was threatened
by police because she might have been the person who leaked
one of these standardized tests to the media.
Few people are aware that
Teachers in New Jersey are forbidden to look at the tests while they are administering them to the children in their care.Even fewer would want to take the SAT9 test designed for sixth-graders:
The SAT 9 asks sixth-graders to identify the requirements for a police search of one's home; the climate of Moscow, Seattle, Cairo, and Paris; the Northwest Ordinance of 1787; the outcome of the Industrial Revolution; reasons that English colonists came to Massachusetts; and results of the Louisiana Purchase. Sixth-graders must also know about Eli Whitney, the Holocaust, and treaties between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s; the reason for the growth of urban areas in the 19th century; why the Republican Party was formed in 1854; the relationship of Henry Ford's assembly line to the price of cars; whether the person for whom Constantinople was named was a pope, scholar, emperor, or poet; what the law says about handicap access; what archeologists study; the differences between a will, a license, a deed, and a lien; and the significance of California's being granted statehood before Wyoming. Whew!
The politicians who advocate these tests have repeatedly declined requests to take them, and see how their knowledge compares to that expected of 12-year-olds. [via Red Rock Eaters]
How blatant can you get? The Republicans not only
gave Katherine Harris
credit
for Dubya's presidency but compared her to Joan of Arc and
Rosa Parks.
Whose civil rights is she working for, again?
[via Medley]
Janet Lafler explains how
being
a cyborg makes her more human.
If you're into nifty gadgets, no matter what they're used for, then you probably won't mind if I proudly demo my new insulin pump to you. If you're grossed out, then I get to feel smug about my blasé attitude toward needles and cannulae and the permeability of my body.Not everybody carries around a major organ in a pocket, after all.
Molly Ivins attempts to
look
on the bright side of the new Bush administration:
Although restoration of the glory days of the Nixon years was not what most of us had in mind, it should be interesting.
Copyright 2001 Vicki Rosenzweig. Comments welcome at vr@redbird.org.
If you like this, you might also like my home page.