Random Thoughts

Two weeks ago I got a call inviting me to attend one of the inauguration balls for President Obama. But it wasn't to be held in Washington, D.C. it was in Texas. Texas? you might think, but aren't Democrats irrelevant in Texas, almost as irrelevant as Republicans are in California? Well, no one is as irrelevant as Republicans in California after redistricting, and Dallas already bans cigars in restaurants, which feels like California.  A Democrat from Houston (naturally) wants cultural mullahs to ban smoking in bars and restaurants in the entire state rather than doing something common…

I am changing my nickname on a few sites I visit - ones where a nickname is useful - to "allhadronic". The name makes reference to the hadronic final state of certain particle decays. Hadron comes from ancient greek and means "strong", and indeed the strong force is the one responsible for the binding of quarks and gluons inside protons, neutrons, and other unstable particles, collectively also called hadrons. So "all hadronic" means a final state which is entirely made up of hadrons. Such is the case of the most frequent decays of top-antitop quark pairs: 45% of the events where a top pair…

Much has been made of recent efforts to address the gun control issue, in the wake of the shootings of school children in Newtown, Ct.  While the media plays up the controversy, and various pundits go through the motions of bringing various pro/anti gun advocates on their programs, we find that the entire process is an elaborate illusion designed to make people believe that something serious is afoot. Of course, that's the beauty of illusions.  You can imagine that people are actually serious, while you miss the sleight of hand that ensures that nothing actually gets done. Pro-gun…

Any time the subject of taxes comes up with respect to economics we are invariably treated to examples such as the following, to illustrate how government revenue has an effect on the economy.  Of course, this is all smoke and mirrors nonsense, but nevertheless it seems plausible enough so that many people don't consider the absurdity of these examples. In the first instance, we are treated to the supposition of what society would be like without taxation. First suppose that we lived in a society without taxation. We'll worry about how the government finances its programs later on, but…

While one can't reasonably assume all corporations are corrupt, it is little wonder why so many people are adopting a much more cynical attitude.   HSBC got their hand slapped.  Of course, none of those responsible were charged with anything.http://www.salon.com/2012/12/11/hsbc_to_pay_1_9bn_to_settle_money_laundering_scandal/ AIG ex-CEO manages to reflect its disdain for tax payers (1).http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/washingtons-jaw-drops-at-possibility-of-aig-lawsuit-85924.html As I said, one can't simply reflect results like this on all corporations, but one thing is…

I'm digging around for posts people have written on what to say/what not to say to autistic people and their family members for an episode Kathleen and I are working on for The Blogger Ladies (on The Autism Channel available on Roku) and I ran across a question by the mother of two autistic children who finds parenting them challenging and often disappointing  She remarks in her question, "I once heard somewhere that the Kaballah considers children who are autistic to be on a higher spiritual level, almost like angels." I can understand the need to find something to…

Dr. Vandana Shiva, eco-feminist - whatever that means - philosopher and environmental activist does not like that Mark Lynas has changed from being an anti-GMO crackpot, like her, to accepting science. On her Twitterfeed, which is chock full of lunatic rantings for the 17X as many followers of her nonsense as I have, she provided an extra-special treat for her acolytes: she said that allowing farmers to use GMOs was the same as telling rapists it is okay to rape. No GMOs are safe, she has declared with her awesome knowledge of philosophy. But she is on a committee with Jeremy Rifkin, who…

Successful solo rock/pop stars are around twice as likely to die early as those in equally famous bands, indicates fascinating research you can read before you over-indulge on New Year's Eve. Though you could have read this same paper on New Year's Eve in 2007, in a different journal, just covering a slightly shorter period. Maybe researchers had a 2012 publish or perish deadline.  This retrospective cohort study of rock and pop star mortality covered the early days of rock and roll (1956) to 2009 and included 1,489 rock and pop stars who reached fame in that period, everyone from Elvis…

I recently watched the full two hours of this presentation [Evacuate Earth] and was disappointed in the fact that speculation rapidly degenerated into silliness, and ultimately pseudoscientific nonsense. In virtually all the elements, the problem was simplistically framed within the context of physics, as if energy and travel in space were the only problems.  There were certainly token references to genetic screening [despite the fact that it was largely incorrect and based on some fantasy assumptions].  Surprisingly there was mention of bacteria and then it simply got stupid.…

Science 2.0 is not like most other science sites. Aside from not being a part of a billion-dollar conglomerate, our audience is also a little off kilter. By off kilter, I mean ahead of everyone else. While other sites jumped on the Higgs bandwagon due to a formal conference in July, Science 2.0 readers were well ahead, and the Higgs discovery was instead among our most popular topics of 2011 (along with taking down faster than light neutrinos) because we don't have to wait for press releases. By the time the Higgs announcement arrived, everyone here already knew about it and  a 2.5 sigma…