The Hadron supercollider has broken a record for accelerating protons. The collider won't be up to full power until 2011, but they are searching, among other things, for the Higgs boson, the "God particle" that is thought to give other particles mass.
I just think it's funny that physicists, most of whom are male, spend billions of dollars to smash stuff together. The writer of the above article also seems to enjoy it, describing the process as a collision, crashing, and banging particles together.
Particle physicists at CERN (the group responsible for the Hadron Collider) apparently invented the interwebs. Things like PET scans and MRI machines also arose from physics. The idea is that even if the God particle isn't found, other advances will be made and, likely, the origin of those advances will quickly be forgotten.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Interview with a would-be suicide bomber
An interview with an arrested suicide bomber. The interviewer asks logical questions & the bomber responds with propaganda. Kind of like talking to Sarah Palin, except she doesn't kill people.
Abuse in schools
Republican Cathy Rodgers & Democrat George Miller -- both US Representatives -- are teaming up to propose federal legislation that would regulate the use of restraints at schools, which are currently regulated by states. Federal regulations were put in place in 2000 for restraints used in medical settings, but none exist for school settings thus far.
The opinion piece about this also recounts a terrible incidence when a child died from the physical restraint used by a teacher.
The opinion piece about this also recounts a terrible incidence when a child died from the physical restraint used by a teacher.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Brain Damage & Pedophilia
A case for Law & Order, if I've ever seen one.
A man with severe epilepsy had part of his brain (part of the temporal lobe) removed. After the surgery, his appetite for food & sex increased substantially. Eventually, he was compulsively visiting pornography sites, some of which led him to child porn. He was arrested and plead guilty. At sentencing, the defense argued that his behaviors were out of his control--similar hypersexual behaviors are seen in monkeys with this damage. The prosecution noted that his urges may have increased, but he still had the ability to control them, as evidenced by his controlled behavior in public and the fact that he downloaded porn at home, but not at work. The judge sentenced him to the minimum sentence allowed by law: 26 months in prison; 25 months home arrest; 5 years probation.
A man with severe epilepsy had part of his brain (part of the temporal lobe) removed. After the surgery, his appetite for food & sex increased substantially. Eventually, he was compulsively visiting pornography sites, some of which led him to child porn. He was arrested and plead guilty. At sentencing, the defense argued that his behaviors were out of his control--similar hypersexual behaviors are seen in monkeys with this damage. The prosecution noted that his urges may have increased, but he still had the ability to control them, as evidenced by his controlled behavior in public and the fact that he downloaded porn at home, but not at work. The judge sentenced him to the minimum sentence allowed by law: 26 months in prison; 25 months home arrest; 5 years probation.
Climate Change Scandal
A nice defense of climate change theory & scientific skepticism.
In fact, most scientists are skeptics, to one extent or another, about climate science and almost everything else. Of course, there are a few who actually believe with complete certainty that they are right, and that anyone who disagrees with them is wrong. These folks can't conceive of the possibility that they could be mistaken; they really are like religious zealots. However, the genuine scientific skeptics greatly outnumber the true believers, and in most scientific debates the skeptics prevail ... after a while.
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