Friday, December 22
Uniting Gravity, Spacetime, and Quantum Theory
In a groundbreaking announcement, physicists from University College London (UCL) have presented a radical theory that unifies the realms of gravity and quantum mechanics while preserving the classical concept of spacetime, as outlined by Einstein.
This innovative approach, detailed in two simultaneously published papers, challenges over a century of scientific consensus and proposes a revolutionary perspective on the fundamental nature of our universe.
Dichotomy in modern physics
Modern physics rests on two contradictory pillars: quantum theory, which rules the microscopic world, and Einstein’s theory of general relativity, explaining gravity through spacetime curvature. These theories, despite their individual successes, have remained irreconcilable, creating a significant rift in our understanding of the universe. READ MORE...
Thursday, December 21
WHY ASK WHY?
- Why are the Democrats gerrymandering?
Gerrymandering means to manipulate the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favor one party or class.
- Why are the Democrats allowing millions of illegal immigrants to enter the USA?
- Why are the Democrats wanting to end our dependance on fossil fuels when the rest of the world is doing the opposite?
- Why are the Democrats wanting to increase the national debt and put the burden on our children?
- Why are the Democrats wanting to censor the conservative viewpoints and voice?
- Why are the Democrats wanting to defund the police and our militaries?
- Why are the Democrats not acknowledging that China is our enemy?
- Why are the Democrats allowing anti-Israel sentiment to escalate?
- Why are the Democrats wanting to increase our taxes?
- Why are the Democrats moving towards a Communistic form of government?
I'm not saying that the Democrats are wrong... what I am wondering is why are they moving in this direction. To follow someone blindly is the HEIGHT OF IGNORANCE AND STUPIDITY...
Are you the type of person who just wants to blindly follow???
In The NEWS
Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthi rebels, who support Hamas, vowed yesterday to continue targeting commercial ships passing through the Red Sea, a key global trade route bookended by the Suez Canal in the north and the Bab el-Mandeb (Gate of Tears) Strait in the south (see map). The militant group's comments came hours after the US announced it would lead an international initiative to protect ships on the route.
The death toll from China's 6.2 magnitude earthquake has risen to more than 130 people with about 700 more injured, marking the country's deadliest earthquake since 2014. The quake struck China's mountainous northwestern region just before midnight local time Monday near the Gansu-Qinghai border at a depth of 6.2 miles. Despite being only a moderately strong seismic event—more than 100 earthquakes between 6.0 and 7.0 occur globally each year—shallow quakes tend to be more damaging than deeper ones.
Google will pay $700M to settle a 2021 lawsuit brought by a coalition of state attorneys general and millions of customers alleging its app store violates antitrust laws. More than 70 million customers are expected to be eligible for immediate payment under the settlement, pending final court approval (see eligibility). The penalty is 7% of the initial states' demand of $10.5B.
Singer Celine Dion has reportedly lost control over her muscles amid battle with stiff-person syndrome (More) | What is stiff-person syndrome? (More)
New York Jets superstar QB Aaron Rodgers, 40, won't return from injury this season, intends to play in 2024 and beyond (More) | Former Super Bowl champ Derrick Ward arrested for allegedly robbing at least five Los Angeles businesses (More)
Madonna, 65, reveals she was in an induced coma for 48 hours during June hospitalization stemming from a bacterial infection (More)
Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin launches first spacecraft since September 2022; both the first stage and uncrewed rockets landed successfully (More)
Great apes and chimpanzees can remember faces of friends and relatives for more than two decades, study finds; sets record for longest nonhuman memory (More)
Artifact analysis suggests ancient Scythian fighters used human skin to make leather; findings support contemporary accounts from the ancient Greek historian Herodotus (More) | Who were the Scythians? (More)
Colorado Supreme Court disqualifies former President Donald Trump from state’s GOP primary ballot, citing 14th Amendment clause barring those supporting government uprising; decision stayed until Jan. 4 to allow US Supreme Court appeal (More) | Read the ruling (More)
Lava flows from a Monday night eruption on Iceland's Reykjanes peninsula currently moving away from nearby town, smoke plumes unlikely to disrupt air traffic (More) | See photos (More)
Senate negotiators say package combining Ukraine aid with US-Mexico border security measures unlikely to pass before end of year (More) | See previous write-up (More) | Immigration groups, El Paso county sue Texas over new law allowing local police to arrest and deport migrants accused of entering the country illegally (More)
SOURCE: 1440 News
Water Floating in the Universe
Scientists dated an enormous body of water in space at a whopping 12 billion years old, making it the oldest in the known universe.
Space is undeniably scary, as are vast expanses of water. So when you combine them you get an extremely ominous body of water that is older than the dinosaurs and undoubtedly hiding countless secrets.
The floating water vapor is very old, and very far away
The body of water was discovered back in 2011 by two teams of scientists based at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. It’s the largest collection of water in the universe and is a staggering 30 billion trillion miles away. Only god knows how many football fields that is! READ MORE...
Why? Why Not? Because?
DISCLAMER: I wrote this article in 2016 and published it on LinkedIn. It has not been revised or edited since being published. I decided to share it again to give you, the reader, an opportunity to look at my earlier thoughts...
Everyday due to my health, I must walk as fast as I can around the neighborhood for an hour and to take my mind off the boredom of that task and off the pain of what walking up steep inclines does to my body, I think about the content of the articles I want to write. Today, was no exception and as I started my walk, I was focused on the first paragraph and as I ended my walk, I became focused on this second paragraph which leads to all the rest of this article.
So, let's continue with “we” being the problem. Let this roll around in your mind while I take a little detour.
Have you ever wondered why all these Caucasian and African American athletes that have become very wealthy do not contribute hardly any money at all (on average) to eliminating poverty or hunger or all the ghettos in our big cities?
I am not one of these athletes, so all I can do is speculate but I suspect it is because most of them considered themselves to be self-made through discipline and hard work and if they can do it so can everyone else. I have heard other successful people make this comment to me, so perhaps it is applicable here. And, maybe this is true, but...
...there has got to be more, doesn't it? I mean what about natural talent? What about parental guidance and influence? What about the culture in which one was born? What about one's personality or DNA structure where some switches are turned on while others are turned off?
Let's get back to “we” being the problem.
I would suspect on an annual basis that a million or more updates (some of which include images) are posted for the viewer on this forum. I would also suspect that most users on this forum belong to the global middle class within their respective countries and/or locations. Some of us are not doubt upper middle class whereas others of us are lower middle class, again respectively.
I would also suspect that many of us are religious to deeply religious while others of us are spiritual or philosophical but have complete respect for other people's beliefs.
I would also suspect that many of us are politically, socially, and emotionally conservative in our beliefs and values and expect all users and EXPECT those who are liberal in their thinking to acquiesce to the conservative points-of-view.
With that said, let me now explain why I think “we” are the problem.
More often than not, updates on this social media forum are upbeat and positive in nature with inspirational, timeless quotes and comments that leaders and famous people have previously stated. On any given day, I read hundreds of these “uplifting” messages... and, there is nothing wrong with any of these at all but... we are preaching to the choir, aren't we? It is not us who should be or need to be reinforced by these messages but those who are socio economically beneath us.
Once we post these positive messages, we pat ourselves on the back for posting them in the first place which seems rather silly in a way.
We do not tolerate images or thoughts on this forum that are obscene or vulgar and there is nothing wrong with wanting to have that banned but are we not overlooking the problem?
I would bet that 80% of the global population is not like us at all. They have no beliefs, no faith, no hope, no money, no future and no one seems to care about them... for all intents and purposes they are ignored... why?
Because, we are too busy reinforcing our own beliefs and all those others who think like us. It is exactly and precisely for this reason that I think “we” are the problem.
Since we all know the power of positive thinking, why are we not posting photos of the hungry or photos of those in poverty or dead bodies lying around due to some form of uncontrolled violence. Why are we not posting photos of drug addicts and those who are sick and dying of AIDS? Why are we not posting photos of ISIS and all of their atrocities like the beheading of journalists?
If we post enough of these distasteful photographs maybe our global middle class will actually care enough about these people and instead of posting inspirational photos will start posting solutions to these global problems.
I am sure that this post is going to offend some, readers and no doubt, emails will be sent to have my profile deleted, but I call it like it is and let the chips fall where they may. And, it may be a waste of time for me to say these things like spitting into the wind but again that is just who I am.
So, why not?
NOTE: The title for this posting came from a final exam I took in an upper lever Philosophy course in college. The only grade was the final exam and there was one question on the final exam which was why? In the 60's exams had to written in Blue Books and as I looked around the classroom, I saw everyone writing frantically. I thought for a moment and then wrote: Why Not and then because. I turned in my Blue Book and left the room. I got an “A” for the course.
Trillion Frames Per Second Camera
A new camera developed at MIT can photograph a trillion frames per second.
Compare that with a traditional movie camera which takes a mere 24. This new advancement in photographic technology has given scientists the ability to photograph the movement of the fastest thing in the Universe, light.
The actual event occurred in a nano second, but the camera has the ability to slow it down to twenty seconds.
For some perspective, according to New York Times writer, John Markoff, "If a bullet were tracked in the same fashion moving through the same fluid, the resulting movie would last three years." READ MORE...
Wednesday, December 20
In the NEWS
Breaking news: At least 111 people were killed and more than 200 injured after a magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck northwestern China midnight local time Monday; see updates here. Separately, a volcano eruption has begun in southwestern Iceland, near the town of Grindavik, which evacuated last month; see updates here.
An intense storm system battered the northeast coast of the US yesterday with high winds, heavy rain, and flooding, leaving 59 million people from Virginia to Maine under flood watches and knocking out power for more than 700,000 people. At least four people were killed in the storm.
US Steel Corp. agreed to be purchased by Nippon Steel yesterday in an all-cash $14.9B deal, marking a significant move for the Japanese steel giant in the US. The acquisition is set at $55 per share and will assume US Steel’s debt. The merger, if approved, would retain the US headquarters in Pittsburgh.
Jailed media magnate and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai began his long-delayed trial in Hong Kong yesterday for charges under China's 2020 National Security Law. The founder of the city's long-running "Apple Daily" newspaper—which shut down in 2021—has long criticized Chinese policies and faces a life sentence if found guilty.
Actor Jonathan Majors found guilty of assault and harassment, faces up to a year in prison at Feb. 6 sentencing (More) | Majors dropped by Marvel Studios in wake of guilty verdict (More)
UEFA Champions League round of 16 set; see complete schedule and matchups for the knockout stage (More) | Eric Montross, eight-year NBA veteran and former University of North Carolina star, dies of cancer at 52 (More)
Apple to halt sales of its Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 models in the US this week due to trade commission rule in a patent dispute over the devices' blood oxygen sensor technology (More)
Researchers discover new method Ebola uses to spread inside the body; the deadly virus creates tunnels between cells, evading treatments that may be outside the cell wall (More)
US defense secretary arrives in Israel for talks, including concerns over civilian death toll in Gaza (More) | BP suspends shipments of oil through the Red Sea amid attacks from Iran-backed Houthi rebels (More) | See updates on Israel-Hamas war (More)
Appeals court rejects former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows' bid to move his Georgia election interference case to federal court (More) | Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signs law allowing state law enforcement to arrest migrants who cross the border from Mexico illegally (More) | Judge temporarily halts removal of Confederate monument in Arlington National Cemetery (More)
SOURCE: 1440 News
Hybrid Batteries
A worry for many potential buyers of gasoline-stingy hybrid vehicles is how long the hybrid battery will last. In exchange for lower fuel costs than a comparable gas-only vehicle, the hybrid buyer is taking a risk on an expensive added component: the high-voltage battery pack that stores the hybrid system’s electric energy.
Like any other part of the car, the battery pack won’t last forever, and if it fails, the hybrid vehicle won’t operate. But nearly a quarter century of modern hybrids has shown that the risk of battery failure is very low for at least eight years and up to 100,000 miles. READ MORE...
Toyota Venza and Toyota Crown Insignia
Our Venza has been a wonderful car and a complete work horse when we recently downsized and moved. Our Venza made a dozen trips to the landfill, fully loaded with items we needed to throw away.
Our 2015 Venza now has 88,000 miles on the odometer... and we know it will last until 200,000 miles but we need a more modern vehicle with side mirror that warn you when a car is in your blind spot.
Newer Venzas are now hybrid and much smaller than our 2015 Venza which is not comfortable for me on long drives.
We don't want a hybrid because of the cost of battery replacement and the low resale value that hybrids now have, The good news on hybrids is that gas mileage is doubled.
Record Breaking Free Divers of Egypt
Dahab, Egypt – When the countdown began, Khaled Elgammal took one final, deep breath before descending without any breathing equipment into the ocean. One minute and 29 seconds later, still holding his breath, the Egyptian athlete had free-fallen to 102 metres (335 feet) – a national record.
But for it to count, he had to reach the surface again. He turned at the bottom of the line and began his ascent – focusing on deep relaxation and the feelings of the surrounding water. In all, he had held his breath for two minutes and 50 seconds.
Elgammal is Egypt’s deepest freediver, and his remarkable achievement set a new national record at the Sharm el-Sheikh competition in October 2023.
“When I came to the surface, it was bliss. It felt amazing,” Elgammal recalls. READ MORE...
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