Hadron Supercollider Update

The press releases from the Hadron experiment are cranking up as they increase the power. It will be fun to see whether the $10 billion research expense lives up to the hype. My blog several days ago expressed some of the concerns. As of this date, actual collisions have not yet been scheduled.

The potential outcomes are: Physicists discover the God particle and unlock the keys to the universe ... Or... The Experiment creates black holes and/or "strangelets" which eat the Earth... Or... Intriguing new results are produced which are inconclusive regarding the secrets of the universe and all we then need is a bigger/better collider that costs $30 billion. My wager is the latter.

My suggestion is that you should follow this Grand Experiment in the news, versus Tiger's or Jesse James's sex habits. It's like an atomic bomb test on steroids. Here are some links to current news items:

Large Hadron Collider: 6 theories what it might do The Week Magazine -
Northwestern physicist explains Large Hadron Collider
The Large Hadron Collider will confirm the Bible
World's Largest Particle Collider May Unlock Secrets of Universe U.S. News & World Report
Picturing the Proton PhysOrg.com

Copy and save the list if you'd like ... That will allow you to hold physics pundits accountable for their predictions :-)

Dogs, selective breeding, foxes, evolution, black holes and Darwin

Dog lovers and evolution theorists should find this interesting. We have a new dog on the farm that looks like a half sized fox He reminded me about a study I read several years back. It explained the evolutionary mechanism for dog domestication. In short, as Russian foxes being raised for fur were selectively bred to reduce aggressiveness in order to protect the handlers, successive generations began to get dog characteristics ... with spots and floppy ears. (Image: "Sonny", in an arctic setting before moving to Florida)

An ordinary language explanation of the study can be found here in a blog:
http://thoughtfulanimal.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/russian-fox-study/

A full-blown Cornell study is here for geneticist types:
http://cbsu.tc.cornell.edu/ccgr/behaviour/Links.htm

It turns out that the successful breeding for tame behavioral characteristics was reducing the adrenaline in the experimental fox population which affects both the behavior and physical characteristics. Isn't it nice to know that people in the Russian fur trade can call foxes versus having to catch them and risk being bitten... in order to kill and skin them?

Of course, we humans have learned to tweak dogs' adrenaline and breed it back in to suit our purposes. Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, Dobermans, etc. are examples. Rottweilers happen to be my favorite breed, but they are number two on that kill and maim list. If you're interested a PI lawyer's take, and some info on dog bite stats, see: http://www.dogbitelaw.com/PAGES/statistics.html

I used to walk by Charles Darwin's house daily on the way to classes at the University of London behind the British Museum. I have long admired what Charles Darwin did, but the jury is still out on a coherent theory of evolution regarding some essentials: Whether or not some acquired characteristics (experience) can be passed on genetically, (there are experimental studies which support this view) and ... Whether there is "intelligent design" in the universe or if things happen by random accident? I tend to believe that evolution is more complicated than the pro-Darwinian academic mafia claims... although Darwin's evolution theories are certainly part of the operational mix. For the controversy, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation%E2%80%93evolution_controversy

Theoretically, according to some physicists, the pre-Big Bang situation was that everything was so compressed there was only one type of elementary particle, and everything was exactly the same at one infinitely small point. An astronomical definition of singularity is:

Astronomy ... hypothetical point in space: a hypothetical region in space in which gravitational forces cause matter to be infinitely compressed and space and time to become infinitely distorted (MSN Encarta)

Somehow, it seems to me that inside the black hole singularity, before the Big Bang, there must have been information. Otherwise, how would the singularity "know" when to blow up? (If everything was the same type of elementary particle, there seems no place for a ticking clock with parts!)

And, after the Big Bang ... How would one type, (only) of elementary particle "know" how to turn into atoms and then into molecules? ... DNA is one of the more interesting molecules that follows fundamental, universal rules which certainly predate apes turning into people. It seems clear that the physicists have some common sense problems with their mathematical formulas that back-project our origins. There are some cool little animals composed of very few molecules which contradict life being put together by accidents of evolution ... but that's a later Blog. In the meantime, I'm happy with the hand of God, subject to some physicist's definitive proof to the contrary ;>)

The delightful question is where did all the information come from before the Big Bang that makes our Universe what it is? (or multiverse, as the case may be?)

See my previous blog on the Hadron supercollider for some of the curious issues regarding information inside black holes and singularities.

Perhaps the Hadron Supercollider will give us some answers to the riddles of the universe ;>)

Supercollider, Black Holes, Einstein, World's End

The "LHC" is the most expensive and powerful scientific experiment ever at $10 Billion and counting. It is a particle smasher that accelerates protons to 99.999999% of the speed of light and crashes them together like figure 8 car racing if you remember that. The experiments are underway now at half power, and will be cranked up to full power over the next several months.

"Physicists hope that the LHC will help answer many of the most fundamental questions in physics, questions concerning the basic laws governing the interactions and forces among the elementary objects, the deep structure of space and time, especially regarding the intersection of quantum mechanics and general relativity, where current theories and knowledge are unclear or break down altogether." (Wikipedia)

There are concerns, notwithstanding assurances from stakeholder scientists, that the LHC might generate doomsday phenomena by creating stable microscopic black holes or by the creation of hypothetical particles called strangelets that could eat the earth. While participating scientists project that small mini black holes will in fact be created, they predict that they will quickly "evaporate".

"If we knew what we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?" - Albert Einstein

Some speculation has been done on what will occur if a stable black hole is created and absorbs the earth. It would start with earthquakes that become progressively worse as the Earth implodes. The process would take some time (months, years?) and we would be aware that it was happening. At some point of course, we would get drowned or squished to death by rocks and dirt before getting to the black hole's event horizon ... the shell from which nothing escapes. We would never have the luxury of seeing the black hole itself.

Strangelets are a different matter:

"If the strange matter hypothesis is correct and a strangelet comes in contact with a lump of ordinary matter such as Earth, it could convert the ordinary matter to strange matter. This "ice-nine" disaster scenario is as follows: one strangelet hits a nucleus, catalyzing its immediate conversion to strange matter. This liberates energy, producing a larger, more stable strangelet, which in turn hits another nucleus, catalyzing its conversion to strange matter. In the end, all the nuclei of all the atoms of Earth are converted, and Earth is reduced to a hot, large lump of strange matter." (Wikipedia)

The potential catastrophic results from the Large Hadron Supercollider are not without precedent. Similar speculations about destroying the earth were made before the first detonation of an atomic bomb in the 1940s. That experiment "worked out" and LHC is a mere upgrade.

Pascal's Wager is used in arguments regarding belief in God ,,. In short: if you believe in God and he exists you win, but if you believe in God and he doesn't exist, you have lost nothing. Similarly, the scientists who predict that the supercollider is safe may, on the one hand, win by unlocking the riddles of the universe, resolving relativity and quantum theories. On the other hand, if the earth disappears into a black hole, they will be beyond reproach and certainly won't get sued. Genetic experimentation which is proceeding at breakneck speeds is another example of Pascal's Wager. If a geneticist wins the Nobel Prize for experimental work, he is a winner, and if one of his superbugs escapes the lab and wipes out life on the planet, he is equally judgment proof.

There is a debate about whether any information exists inside of, or can escape from a black hole. This is famously the "black hole information paradox" Ultimately of course, across the cosmic timescale it doesn't matter, but your personal question might be "Will there be anything left of me if I get eaten by a black hole or will everything I ever was get compressed into a singularity where everything is the same?"

Personally, I take the question seriously. Decades ago I had what I would best describe as a religious experience where I saw (experienced) a unity to the universe and I'm happy to report that while your form may change ... "you" are immortal in the sense that you are part of a much larger consciousness that pervades the universe. The odd black hole here and there won't change that.

“The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion” - Albert Einstein

The US is Heating Up!

Click to enlarge the image ... Explanation follows.

Google elected to make front page news from the Huffington Post, quoting an unnamed source:

Tea Party Protests: 'Ni**er,' 'Fa**ot' Shouted At Members Of Congress

A staffer for Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told reporters that Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) had been spat on by a protestor. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a hero of the civil rights movement, was called a 'ni--er.' And Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was called a "faggot," as protestors shouted at him with deliberately lisp-y screams.

The question is not why Huffington would publish such a thing... we all understand her ... but rather why Google should make it front page news? The answer is that Google is into the Obama administration up to their armpits. There are multiple executives from Google that have gone into the Obama administration, and Google is unquestionably a world power in the news business. The distressing thing is the way that Google is manipulating the news and juxtaposing headlines:

Obama Makes Arms Breakthrough
Financial Overhaul Next Dem Priority
AND
GOP Party Operative Transforms into tea party strategist (sic, lower case) All other headlines use capitals.
AND
An exclusive re: Jesse James's Mistress ... (the tattooed "Nazi") This headline is ALL caps.

The lowercase for "tea party" and the characterization of a GOP worker as an "operative" cannot be accidental. It is intentional trivialization and a cast aspersion. Adding Jesse's Nazi bimbo on the front page is a nice touch of ambiance.

The Points Here Are:

- Google does not make mistakes.They have a Market Cap of $177 billion. They have more data about you than everyone else in the world combined, including the US federal government and their partner, the NSA. (Use Google for terms Google and NSA):

- Scrutinize what you're getting from Google News. Don't just scan the pages that Google sends, analyze them.

My opinion is, although I don't track Google News pages regularly, there is a new change in media, with a new sense of urgency. The Healthcare Bill was barely passed despite majority US opposition. The global warming issue seems to have "melted", and The Carbon Tax effort to control all business worldwide is rapidly losing traction. Further, the trillion dollar bailout thieves have not gone to jail. Now, the headlines are that Obama will fix all the problems ...

An old adage is "When Democrats don't win, they don't eat."

The Kleptoctacy rolls on... BUT people are getting very pissed off!

Joe Stack, the guy who flew his plane into the IRS office is one example, but there are surely more to come from people who are losing their lives to the Kleptocracy. We listen to talk radio and have noticed a major trend ... from cautious veiled references to revolution to Angry people stating that armed insurrection is inevitable!

Google hosts this free blog. I have no doubt that it will never rank anywhere in their search engine. I am simply using this tool as a convenience versus sending e-mails to friends to express my concerns. It is easier to send a blog link than it is to write multiple e-mails to separate people. My advice to friends and relatives is:

- Pay close attention to the news and how it is written in the near term.

- Be ready to protect yourself and think about what it might mean to you and yours if the US gets unstable. The time may soon come when you have to pick sides.

We only have (perhaps) one election left before an absolute consolidation of power takes place.

The Boy Scout motto: Be Prepared!