2006.09.29
Bit of News:
A Fifth State of Matter.
"When the indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose wrote his
article ‘Planck's Law and the Hypothesis of Light
Quanta’ in 1924, he was unable to get it published
and ridiculed for what was simply considered an
embarrassing statistical error. In desperation over the
physics journals' continued rejections of his article,
Bose sent it directly to the physicist he admired the
most: none other than Albert Einstein. The german
scientist immediately realized the importance of Bose's
findings, translated the paper to german and got it
published in ‘Zeitschrift für Physik.’"
Gospel truth here --
News of the Weird:
The Classic Middle Name.
"It only occurred to me in the early 1990s that ‘Wayne’ was a popular middle name among a few of the most heinous murderers of our time..."
Freakonomics:
The next time your daughter brings home a new boyfriend, be sure to ask his middle name.
"After going through the package, I pulled my two oldest daughters aside (they are six) and told them they were not allowed to ever have a boyfriend with the middle name ‘Wayne.’ Olivia, who is obsessed with a boy named Thomas in her class, is going to check on his middle name tomorrow."
2006.09.25
Checking in on Voyager 1 --
PhysOrg.com:
Surprises from the Edge of the Solar System.
"The spacecraft left Earth in 1977 on a mission to visit
Jupiter and Saturn. Almost 30 years later, with the gas
giants long ago seen and done, Voyager 1 is still going
and encountering some strange things."
Science News:
Fossil puts youthful twist on Lucy's kind.
"The nearly complete skeleton, missing only the pelvis
and a few other bones, comes from a 3-year-old
Australopithecus afarensis female who died about 3.3
million years ago...."
"The shape of the Dikika girl's thighs and shins
indicate that she walked upright, even at age 3, the
researchers hold. However, several apelike lower-body
traits support the view ... that A. afarensis sometimes
climbed in trees...."
WSJ (subscription):
Judge Allows Class Action For 'Light' Cigarette Smokers.
"The lawsuit, filed in 2004, accuses tobacco companies
of defrauding smokers into thinking cigarette brands
labeled ‘light’ or ‘low tar’
were safer than regular cigarettes when they are not."
...
"In arguing last week for the class certification,
plaintiff attorney Michael D. Hausfeld said the
manufacturers hoped to ‘move markets’ with a
cynical marketing strategy promoting light cigarettes as
a lower-risk alternative to regular cigarettes, even
though their own internal documents showed they knew the
risks were about the same."
2006.09.17
Slate:
The Trouble With String Theory.
"But string theory works only if you assume the
existence of other dimensions -- nine, 11, or 25 of them,
depending on your flavor of string thinking -- and there's
not one shred of evidence other dimensions exist. This
may render string theory highfalutin nonsense that has
hijacked academic physics."
Jory Des Jardins:
The Conflicted Bride.
"I hadn't been planning my life to necessarily be a
married woman; now that I am becoming one, people and
society have dropped their pretenses about it not
mattering."
[via Scripting News]
