By: Josiah Houck

Ever heard of Sagittarius A*? It’s kind of a big deal. It weighs as much as 4.5 million of our suns put together, and it has a diameter of 44 million kilometers. It is, as some would say, supermassive. And it’s relatively close to earth. So how come you’ve never heard of it? (or, if you have heard of it, how come you don’t think about it more often?)

Sgr A* (as it is lovingly known by astronomers and astrophysicists) is the name of the Milky Way Galaxy’s hub. It is the gravitational center around which the spiral arms of our galaxy spin, and without it our solar system would be either flying through space, confused and directionless, without a place to call home, or, we’d be stuck in some other galaxy knowing there was something better out there.

Our relationship with Sgr A* is a complex one. Albert Einstein was one of the first to discover just how intertwined our lives are with this gravitationally immense neighbor.  He showed in his theory of relativity that gravity actually impacts the “flow” of time, and that areas of the universe like Sgr A* actually warp time with their attractive forces.

Theoretical physicists (like Einstein, Stephen Hawking, and Sheldon from Big Bang Theory) have surmised that in order to satisfy their extensive calculations, areas such as this must exist. The term that has become popular to describe them is “black hole.” Essentially, a black hole is an area through which material can only flow one way. “Material” in this case refers to “spacetime,” which is a convenient way of grouping time and space together in equations, making them a singular unit composed of four dimensions (the fourth being time).

General relativity predicts that black holes exist because gravity arises from the curvature of space. Without getting into the intricacies of the mathematics involved in the claim, suffice it to say these black holes are the cause of these spatial curvatures, bending spacetime with their gravitational pulls.

There are two main groupings of black holes: stellar-mass, and supermassive. The first is created from the remnants of a massive star that has collapsed. A star more than eight times as large as our sun (or much larger) collapses in on itself and creates a supernova explosion or gamma ray burst.

It is not known exactly how or when supermassive black holes form, though there are several theories, but it is known that they are massive in the literal sense, ranging from hundreds of thousands to billions of solar masses large. Interestingly though, all black holes are hyper-condensed, so even one that had a solar mass of one billion would fit within the orbit of Neptune (Broderick and Abraham, Scientific American, 2009).

Sgr A* is nowhere near that big, but it still qualifies as supermassive, as well as super relevant. It is only 24,000 light years away, which seems like an insane distance to preface with “only.” BUT, when you consider that the entire Milky Way Galaxy is 100,000 light years across, that means that we are relatively close compared to the rest of our galaxy. To further put it into perspective, the next-closest supermassive black hole that astrophysicists have found suitable for study is 55 million light years away. So, I maintain that it is a close neighbor.

If you think of the galaxy as a community, the Milky Way Manor, or something along those lines, Sagittarius A* is the rich, powerful resident with a lot of sway about town. All the stars revolve around it, and are subject to its daily whims. Luckily, it is consistent and non-volaitaile. For now, it seems content to keep the arms of the Milky Way spinning, while occasionally devouring an unlucky photon or gaseous particle that goes to close to its event horizon. Let’s hope it stays that way, lest it become an annoying (or deadly) neighbor. For now, this is the only neighborhood we can afford to live in.

Alright, so here it is. I have compiled my list of the best music videos of the year. I really did take a lot of time to make this list. The tough part was deciding what distinguishes a GOOD music video. There are some big name stars whos videos have 10 billion views on youtube, then there are the artistic ones that because of their creativity are amazing even if you have never heard of the artist. So i tried to do some of each, and the music itself was the biggest decision as to wether I thought the video was good, so I tried to pick artsy videos that have cool music. I didnt wanna rank em . They are all good.

Dirty Projectors – Stillness Is The Move - Llamas, mountains, weird choreography, and a sick song. One of the best songs of the year in my opinion…the girl can sing.

Kid Cudi, Kanye, Common- Make Her Say – Best editing/cinematography. The balloons, the bleachers, real creative, cool video

Coldplay – Life In Technicolor II – Not my type of music, but original video, had to be on the list.

Lady Gaga – Bad Romance – No Doubt. she was HUGE. Mtv’s Woman of the year….how bout artist of the year? Lots of creepy lady gaga plus some throw back 80’s dance moves makes this one of my top videos of the year. p.s. the weird hand thing she does makes it look likes shes got a strong hand

Grizzly Bear – Two Weeks – Weird Video…but I have a great appreciation for weird and unique. If you do too, watch this. U gotta watch until the end tho. p.s. Shout out to Grizz

Mims – Move (if you wanna) – I like when rappers actually try to make a music video. One of my most played songs of the year.

Yeasayer – Ambling Alp – Award: Weirdest Video of the year. – Really weird but very artistic, every scene could stand alone as a pretty crazy photograph. I really like this video.

Kid Cudi – Day ‘N’ Nite – Award: Rap music video of the year. – So sick. influenced a huge eXplosion of rotoscoping in music videos. Kanye did his whole video redrawn, Cudi combined em. Now everyone is lovin it. F the Crookers remiX.

Animal Collective – My Girls – Award: Artistic Video of the year This is one of my favorite videos of all time. its got some of the sickest effects and u cant help but get sucked into this song. It gets you so pumped. Thanks Brewer

Beyonce – Single Ladies – Award: Video of the Year – I dont even think any one can argue this. BEYONCE HAD ONE OF THE BEST VIDEOS OF ALL TIME!! Bet seriously she did. Super simple, super seXy. Everyone and their mother was talking about this video. Sorry but Taylor Swift didnt quite make my cut… (note: ive seen this on different charts counting it as a 2008 video…but others as 2009. It was the biggest video of 2009 wether it came out late 2008 or not)

Honorable Mention: Carl Sagan – A Glorius Dawn’ ft. Stephen Hawking – Who ever can use Stephen Hawkings voice to make a song gets an award in my book.

]]> http://sugg.wordpress.com/2009/12/21/sugs-1st-annual-world-famous-top-music-videos-of-the-year/ Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:24:45 +0000 sugg http://sugg.wordpress.com/2009/12/21/sugs-1st-annual-world-famous-top-music-videos-of-the-year/

Alright, so here it is.  I have compiled my list of the best music videos of the year.  I really did take a lot of time to make this list.  The tough part was deciding what distinguishes a GOOD music video.  There are some big name stars whos videos have 10 billion views on youtube, then there are the artistic ones that because of their creativity are amazing even if you have never heard of the artist.  So i tried to do some of each, and the music itself was the biggest decision as to wether I thought the video was good, so I tried to pick artsy videos that have cool music.  I didnt wanna rank em .  They are all good.

Dirty Projectors – Stillness Is The Move - Llamas, mountains, weird choreography, and a sick song.  One of the best songs of the year in my opinion…the girl can sing.

Kid Cudi, Kanye, Common- Make Her Say – Best editing/cinematography.  The balloons, the bleachers, real creative, cool video

Coldplay – Life In Technicolor II – Not my type of music, but original video, had to be on the list.

Lady Gaga – Bad Romance – No Doubt. she was HUGE.  Mtv’s Woman of the year….how bout artist of the year?  Lots of creepy lady gaga plus some throw back 80’s dance moves makes this one of my top videos of the year.   p.s. the weird hand thing she does makes it look likes shes got a  strong hand

Grizzly Bear – Two Weeks – Weird Video…but I have a great appreciation for weird and unique.  If you do too, watch this.  Making this video is way trickier than you may think…notice how everything is in slow motion…but he is still singing in normal time.  Which is an idea I have been talking about doing for months now…assholes stole my idea.  U gotta watch until the end tho.  p.s. Shout out to Grizz

Mims – Move (if you wanna) – I like when rappers actually try to make a music video.  One of my most played songs of the year.

Yeasayer – Ambling Alp – Award:  Weirdest Video of the year. – Really weird but very artistic, every scene could stand alone as a pretty crazy photograph.  I really like this video.

Kid Cudi – Day ‘N’ Nite  - Award: Rap music video of the year.  -  So sick.  influenced a huge eXplosion of rotoscoping in music videos.  Kanye did his whole video redrawn, Cudi combined em.  Now everyone is lovin it.  F the Crookers remiX.

Animal Collective – My Girls – Award: Artistic Video of the year This is one of my favorite videos of all time.  its got some of the sickest effects and u cant help but get sucked into this song.  It gets you so pumped.  Thanks Brewer

Beyonce – Single Ladies  -  Award: Video of the Year –  I dont even think any one can argue this.  BEYONCE HAD ONE OF THE BEST VIDEOS OF ALL TIME!!  Bet seriously she did.  Super simple, super seXy.  Everyone and their mother was talking about this video.  Sorry but Taylor Swift didnt quite make my cut… (note: ive seen this on different charts counting it as a 2008 video…but others as 2009.  It was the biggest video of 2009 wether it came out late 2008 or not)

Honorable Mention:  Carl Sagan – A Glorius Dawn’ ft. Stephen Hawking – Who ever can use Stephen Hawkings voice to make a song gets an award in my book.

]]> http://relativegravity.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/essay-on-relatve-gravity-by-orion-karl-daley/ Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:12:11 +0000 relativegravity http://relativegravity.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/essay-on-relatve-gravity-by-orion-karl-daley/

Summary Click to down load the essay Relative Gravity is explained as the potential energy of bodies that is purported as amplitude in kinetic energy; and is expressed in the form of a resonant frequency between them. This consists of a shared fundamental that is related through superposition. It is subject to the disposition of the bodies uniquely. The question could be posed – ‘what actually does not work this way?’. As a principle, described, it could be considered essential for life itself.

It ’s view is considered to apply to relative weights of planets, but should not be understood as limited in scope.

It is also intended to apply in range to the relationship of black holes to particles where both can be seen as a uniform relative force.

Relative Gravity here is a paradigm with four laws consisting of observations that describe a relative force that is common to all the four known forces.

Its four laws are meant to be based on observations of truth. But not considered absolute truths themselves. For that matter, all scientific law referenced in this essay is regarded in this manner.

The theory of Relative Gravity originates from another manuscript by the author. Its theory is intended to remain symmetrical with the views of Kepler, Newton, Einstein and Faraday. It is mostly based on interpreting, or in fact interpolating their work and described as abstract properties.

Considered observed as abstract properties that are referred to as a relative force,they are exhibited in practical application in their own way for the four known forces.

There are many direct and indirect references to Kepler, Newton, Einstein and Faraday. This is with out specific footnoting of sources. They even could be considered by the reader to be misinterpreted by this author. The essay assumes that the reader is familiar with these scientists and their works; and can discern differences in how thought about here.

Astronomers tracking stars in the center of the galaxy have found the best proof to date that black holes exist. Now, they are shooting for the first direct image of a black hole.

By: Kaitlyn Fung, Grade 9  

Dedicated to Nickel; a toast to our thoughts.  

For me, the beginning of second term marks the end of those chaotic weeks of taking tests and completing projects. I can allow myself to relax for a while. Things will be easier for the next couple of weeks as I get back to my normal pace. This also allows me a bit of time to rest and prepare for the next term. Unfortunately, this is also the period of time when I start getting lazy. Several times in the past, my procrastination has cost me dearly, but I usually wake up and get to work in the nick of time.

I wonder why I become so lazy during these periods of time. Why do I work harder when the term is about to end versus the start of a term? I figure it’s because working extra hard toward the end will give a little boost to my percentage. It’s true: working hard does give you better results. Though if I’m concerned about getting a certain grade, why don’t I do my best regardless of where we stand in the term? In my case and perhaps in other’s as well, it’s a lack of motivation. Without the encroaching ‘last day to hand in work’, there seems to be no reason for the extra stress.

A while ago, during an interesting conversation with a friend, I suddenly brought up Stephen Hawking. Hawking is a genius, renowned for his theories in black holes, cosmology (study of the universe), and more. He is also virtually unable to move and speak. The scientist wasn’t always like that, but because of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (a disease that causes the nerves in the muscles to die), Hawking’s wheelchair became his legs and his voice can only be heard through a voice synthesizer. Nearly his entire body is paralyzed and he is just barely able to talk.  However, none of his physical ailments seem to be of any importance to Hawking as he continues to work just as hard. He does all this, despite the challenges he must face with the daily tasks of life. Simple communication might be impossible should his voice synthesizer ever develop even the simplest mechanical problem. Knowing this, here I am fussing over work at the metaphorical fork in the road; one being the path of diligence, the other being that of sluggishness.  

 In the end, I choose diligence. I have realized that there are others who cannot work as hard or as fast as I can. If they could, they would go well above and beyond what I have been achieving so far. This is my newly found motivation, not only for school work, but for everything else I do. I now appreciate what I have more, which is one of the important first steps in working to the best of my ability. Unfortunately for some people, their abilities become limited by twists of life. What about the rest of us who are lucky enough to be able to decide what to do with our ability? I myself only use scissors for arts and crafts, because the ‘scissors of laziness’ aren’t going to cut down on my maximum potential anymore. I’m not going to cut myself short, either.

As I was finishing “When God is Gone, Everything is Holy” today, I realized how influential certain books have been to me in the course of my life.   So, I decided that listing some of these books might be a good way of charting how my beliefs and thought have changed over time.

SIX TO 12 YEARS-OLD

Margie Asks Why:
This Adventist book for children lays out the Adventist version of Genesis 3 and what Adventists call “the great controversy” (the story of the fall of Satan and Adam and Eve). This book embodies the cosmogeny I was raised to believe.

Pilgrim’s Progress (a children’s version):
This classic by John Bunyan greatly affected my view of the life of a Christian. It inspired me to try and walk on the “straight and narrow” and avoid the temptations modern life has to offer. Yes, I know it’s a bit cliche, but this book is where such cliches originate.

Project Sunlight:
This is another Adventist book that shaped my beliefs about the apocalyptic events that would forshadow Christ’s second-coming (the second “Advent”).  Taking the perspective of an woman’s guardian angel, it describes how eventually the worldwide government will force people to worship God on Sunday (instead of Saturday as commanded in the Bible).

AROUND 16 YEARS-OLD

A Brief History of Time:

This first taste of modern physics enraptured me for about half a year when I was 16 years old. After reading it cover to cover, I would often open it to random places and just read it, not unlike a holy book. Not only did it spark in me a desire to learn more about modern physics, it challenged my assumption that life and the universe were less than 10,000 years old.

The Book of Hebrews in the Bible:
This book brought home to me what the sacrifice of Jesus Christ meant. Its representation of his sacrifice as a substitutionary atonement for my sins was extremely moving to me. Absorbing this book marked an important change in my life in which I went from being a somewhat mediocre Christian (specifically Adventist) to being a committed evangelical.

This Present Darkness:
My view of the daily events in my life and the world was radically changed after reading this Christian thriller about how angels, demons, and prayer affect our lives. The story reveals that behind all events in the world are demons (helped by new age cults) and angels (helped by the intercessory prayer of Christians).  Reading this book marked the beginning of a charismatic/pentacostal Christian phase of my life.

AROUND 18 YEARS-OLD

Demian:
This is a classic bildungsroman or coming of age story in which the protagonist, while in the search for truth, sheds the Christianity he was raised in. Reading this book coincided with my own crisis of faith so I resonated strongly with the protagonist. This story’s beautiful rendering of the protagonist’s heroic search for himself and the truth somehow enabled me to recognize that beauty existed outside of the Christian faith.

Continental Thought:

I began to read a smattering of what could roughly be described as continental philosophy.  At first the relativistic thinking I found in these books was very appealing to me. I was tired of the self-reinforcing orthodoxy of Christianity, and the way continental philosophy subverted or deconstructed such beliefs was compelling.  On the other hand, I soon discovered that I couldn’t get away from the performative contradiction inherent in this philosophy.

DURING COLLEGE TO PRESENT DAY

I don’t have any particular books to describe how my world view changed in college. However, learning more about science changed me radically by pushing me in the direction of materialism. One of the many things that moved me towards this philosophy was physics’ successful predictions about the very existence of certain particles.

However, after meeting and subsequently marrying someone with a different perspective on things (and, to a degree, a continental philosophical belief system) my hard materialism metamorphosed into something else. I’m not sure what to call it–maybe soft-materialism, agnostic materialism, or religious naturalism.

When God is Gone, Everything is Holy: The Making of a Religious Naturalist by Chet Raymo:
After embracing materialism I found that its redeeming feature is a Carl Sagan-esque awe of the universe.  Raymo not only captures this awe but goes beyond it.  Yes, Raymo is a materialist, but somehow he’s more. He has managed to appropriate the language of Catholic mystics and writers to explain his experience of nature. Raymo is a scientific materialist while experiencing the world as a mystic–a feat I would like to accomplish.

How long will the Universe as we know it survive? Take a 10 and add 100 zeroes, if Stephen Hawking’s theory checks out. SpaceRip TV in collaboration with Space.com.

No estaba acostumbrado a correr bajo la nieve. Es una sensación agradable, más que bajo la lluvia. No deja de ser gracioso cómo la nieve se va adhiriendo a la ropa, volviéndola blanca poco a poco. Mientras tanto mi club de fans, Lucera, Florinda, Cafetera, Clarisa y Vacamú, observan impávidas mi paso, con una mezcla de admiración, compasión (¿dónde irá este pobre hombre a estas horas?) e indiferencia que sólo puede encontrarse en las vacas. La misma indiferencia que si miraran hacia la carretera y vieran a Stephen Hawking presidiendo un desfile de un circo lleno de enanos y seres deformes.

Número de familiares en el extranjero: 1. Abandonadito te tengo.

Good evening all,

Well, the kid in me just has to say… one more sleep.
That’s right… tomorrow evening, the wife and I will be flying to South Africa for a whistle-stop tour of the coastal cities. Not really, but hell… I think that it really is going to feel that way after a few days. On our list of places to go is Johannesburg (admittedly, only the customs queue, but if they are having a strike… as they have had the last FIVE times we have flown through… it FEELS like forever.), East London (where the bulk of the visit takes place) and a family road trip that will take in Knysna and some other places in the Eastern Cape. Lastly, we get to fly to Cape Town to hook up with our old roommate, his girlfriend (soon to be wife) and their sprog.

(You know we’re looking forward to seeing all the new additions to the Bear Family Squire.)

So, things have been a little busy, what with the list of jobs and niggles that need to be squared away before our trip. There is some rule that even though we won’t physically be here, we still need to pay rent on the place. (Which sucks.) And the bills need to be paid whilst we’re away. All of our classes at school need to be prepared for while we are not here and some substitute teacher takes them. (Of course, this rule doesn’t apply to everyone, and I actually was left with a class for THREE days by a colleague.. and the bastard didn’t even leave me a fucking book. Thanks “bru”. Assbag.) Still, the wife and I are getting things set up so that there is a minimum of fuss for when we return.

Let’s see. In other news, I have now received the money for the sale of my bike, and all the paperwork has cleared too. As a result of selling my bike, I have been going about on Shank’s Pony for the last week. This isn’t all that bad, as it is a 4 block walk to the MRT (Subway) station from my place, and then just a one-stop ride to my destination station, and then literally door-to-door service from the MRT to my school by bus. The trick of course is simply to work your way through a bus timetable. In Chinese.
(Is it just me, or are bus timetables the world over deliberately obtuse? When I lived in Ireland, the bus timetables there would regularly confuse the crap out of me. And there is little worse than bouncing around in sub-zero temperatures waiting for a bus that is ALREADY late, and you’re not sure will be coming anyway.)
Of course, all of this public transport has given me the chance to get re-acquainted with my iPod. Yes yes, I am one of those “anti-social” people who ignore everyone else when they travel. I’d get defensive, but more than likely, I simply don’t want to talk to you.

I am most likely NOT going to be online very much while I am in South Africa. Let’s face it, the South African concept of “broadband” in the household is that black rubber band that holds the braai wood together.
Yeah yeah, all my South African friends are going to have something to say about that, but I am going to miss the 10Mb line I have here at home. (For which I am paying a princely R180 a month for. Uncapped.)
This means that you will be without these regular blog updates for a while. As a make-up for the desertion, I will upload some semi-decent holiday shots on the next blog back.

One last bit of personal news – Bunny and JebbX have made it to the three year mark. Congrats guys.

********

This week’s musical contribution comes from Carl Sagan and Steven Hawking.
Enjoy.

1. A computer error gave two women in America called Patricia the same social security number. When the two women were brought together in an office to rectify the blunder they discovered that they had both been born with the names Patricia Ann Campbell. Both of their fathers were called Robert Campbell. Their birthdays were on 13th March 1941. They had both married military men in the year 1959 (within eleven days of each other). They each had two children aged 19 and 21. They both had an interest in oil painting. Both had studied cosmetics. Both had worked as book-keepers.

10. Businessman Danie de Toit made a speech to an audience in South Africa – the topic of his speech was – watch out because death can strike you down at any time. At the end of his speech, he put a peppermint in his mouth, and choked to death on it!

This week’s PURE AWESOME video is this.

And now? PEEKCHUZZ!!

Thank you symphonyofscience.com

All’inizio di novembre, Stephen Hawking, si ritirerà dalla prestigiosa posizione di titolare della cattedra lucasiana di matematica presso la rinomata Università di Cambridge, ruolo ricoperto per trent’anni, visto che venne insediato nel ruolo nel lontano 1979. La cattedra, che venne occupata anche da Sir Isaac Newton, andrà ora a Micheal Green, scienziato e fisico, fino ad oggi professore di fisica teoretica presso la stessa Università.

Green, che ha lavorato nello stesso dipartimento di Hawking, è uno dei massimi esperti al mondo della “string theory” che descrive le diverse tipologie di particelle esistenti nell’universo e di come queste interagiscano le une con le altre e che “predice” il numero di dimensioni che l’Universo dovrebbe avere.

Continua a leggere “Ecco a voi Michael Green, erede di Stephen Hawking”

This guy. This -unbeeelievable- guy. THIS guy. What moxie!

Carl Sagan has worn many shoes over the decades of his life, and I think most of us are aware of at least some of them: Author, screenwriter, actor, scientist (to put it mildly and to some extent inaccurately), all of these things, and more.

What amazes – and amuses – the hell out of me is the fact that this guy just won’t quit…

More than a decade after his death, Carl Sagan has become what I’m pretty sure is the world’s only posthumous rock star. Check out the link. I’d recommend looking at glorious dawn first.

Oh, and give credit where credit is due, I first found out about this from my friend (and blogging mentor) Badger. His blog, here.

The follow music video is a composition of sampling from Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, Richard Feynman’s interviews, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, and many others, with excellent visuals from various documentaries. According to the video’s creator, John Boswell (of symphonyofscience.com), “It is a tribute to great minds of science, intended to spread scientific knowledge and philosophy through the medium of music.” Bravo!

(get the MP3 of this song here).

Here’s another musical tribute by John Boswell to Sagan and Hawking, also very inspiring:

(get the MP3 of this song here).

Georg bor sammen med foreldrene – som er miljøvernere. Det gjør sitt til at Georg ikke får lov til å gjøre alle ting som de andre barna får lov til. De har en gris i hagen, og en dag stikker den av – gjennom gjerdet og til naboen. Det har akkurat flyttet inn noen nye mennesker her; Annie og faren hennes Erik. Annie og Georg blir venner. Erik har ”verdens kraftigste datamaskin” som heter Kosmos. En dag forteller Annie at hun og faren har vært på turer i verdensrommet, men Georg tror ikke på det. Så en dag tar Annie han med på en tur. Kosmos åpner en dør inn i universet, og et par sekunder etter ”rir” de på en komet. Georg lover dypt og hellig at han ikke skal avsløre til noen om Kosmos, men røper seg ovenfor læreren Jåen – populært kalt mannen med ljåen… Han blir veldig interessert i det Georg har å fortelle.
Boka er en blanding av fiksjon og fakta. Den har stadig vekk faktabokser om universet, planeter, stjerner osv. samt noen fargebilder av disse. Historien er spennende; og en lærer masse om universet. Anbefales.

• Y-system and Quasi-Classical Strings. (arXiv:0910.3608v1 [hep-th]) — mais um passinho na direção de se demonstrar a dualidade AdS/CFT
• Matter from Space. (arXiv:0910.2574v1 [physics.hist-ph])
• Higher-dimensional numerical relativity: Formulation and code tests (PhysRevD)
• Grothendieck’s definition of a group (alguém disse Langlands Duality? )

• Destino: Animação Surrealista de Salvador Dali e Walt Disney
• O início de uma moderna revolução: Colunista associa período modernista ao surgimento de modelos que romperam com a física clássica — esse artigo vem em contrapartida a um que eu já citei anteriormente (semana passada), mas cito de novo, Abstract Science?
• Higgs, Dark Matter and Supersymmetry: what the LHC will tell us — o interessante mesmo é a citação do Weinberg, sobre o futuro da Teoria de Cordas —, mais comentários podem ser lidos no seguinte link: comentários do Weinberg sobre o LHC, o “Higgs” e Supercordas
• Brazil is the 21st-century power to watch — é um artigo bem escrito, no sentido de que o autor, sutilmente, aponta praquilo que o Brasil realmente tem de potencial; mas, esse não foi um artigo escrito pra ser balanceado e equilibrado em suas visões, então as descrições da violência, etc, são bem superficiais (não necessariamente incorretas, mas enviesadas…)
• My Life as a Quant: Reflections on Physics and Finance: pra quem está pensando em ingressar no Mercado Financeiro, essa é uma boa dica de livro, principalmente pra quem é mais quantitativo

E, pra quem ainda não sabe, o Michael Green (um dos autores dos volumes Superstring theory: Introduction e Superstring theory: Loop Amplitudes, Anomalies and Phenomenology — ainda um dos melhores livros sobre o assunto) foi o escolhido pra substituir o Hawking na Cátedra Lucasiana: Michael Green elected to Hawking’s Cambridge post — entre outros, o Witten e o Maldacena declinaram a oferta.

This is amazing:

A still more glorious dawn awaits, my friends.

Hoy me topé con este video que toma algunas de las escenas de los documentales de Carl Sagan y de Stephen Hawking; dos de los más grandes genios de nuestro tiempo.

Esta mezcla se posible gracias a los avances de la tecnología que permiten dar voz y tiempo a dos grandes hombres, uno que ya no está con nosotros y otro que esta confinado a una silla de ruedas, sin embargo estos hombres han influenciado de una u otra manera el mundo como lo conocemos y seguramente seguirán influenciando a las generaciones por venir.

Al pensar en esto hay una pregunta que me viene a la mente:

¿Cuántos hombres con el potencial que ellos tuvieron están allá afuera siendo desperdiciados en algún lugar del mundo, en nuestro país o en nuestra ciudad; ya sea por falta de recursos, discriminación o ignorancia?

Vinculos:

• Portal Carl Sagan
• Frases de Carl Sagan
• Stephen Hawking (Sitio oficial)
• Stephen Hawking en google

Na última parte estudamos a Mecânica Quântica. Porém, ao longo dos anos, os físicos acharam algumas contradições com essa Teoria. Veremos agora algumas “correções” para essas contradições.

A TEORIA QUÂNTICA E O CAMPO DE MAXWELL

Ao tentar estender a Mecânica Quântica ao campo de Maxwell(Conjunto de leis eletromagnéticas), acharam alguns problemas. Vamos analisar isso. O campo de Maxwell pode ser descrito como constituído por ondas de diferentes comprimentos, nas quais o campo oscilará de um valor para outro. Porém, segundo a teoria Quântica, seria impossível esse campo estar em repouso, pois violaria o Princípio da Incerteza. Então o campo deveria estar em uma posição e velocidade incerta, e esses princípios também valem para as ondas desse campo, que mesmo no estado fundamental também não poderiam ter sua posição  e velocidade exatamente medida. Cálculos dessas flutuações no Campo de Maxwell tornavam a massa e carga dos elétrons infinitas, criando uma contradição. Foram elaboradas várias “correções” para isso, incluindo até uma Constante Cosmológica Quântica! As Teorias que mais se destacaram após esse momento foram a Super Gravidade com 11 dimensões e a Teoria das Supercordas, que veremos a seguir.

A SUPERSIMETRIA E A SUPERGRAVIDADE

A Supersimetria pode ser descrita com um modelo matemático que acrescenta mais dimensões ao espaço-tempo além das em que vivemos. Essas dimensões extra são chamadas de Dimensões de Grassman, porque são medidas com os números de Grassman, números em que a ordem dos fatores altera o produto em uma multiplicação. Essa Supersimetria é um mecanismo físico natural para cancelamento de infinitos, e é a base da Super Gravidade com 11 dimensões. A SupeSimetria, porém, possui uma consequência: cada partícula precisa de um SuperParceiro com spin metade maior ou menor do que o seu. O spin de uma partícula é simplesmente a sua aparência em diferentes direções. Por exemplo, a partícula abaixo com spin 1 deve ser rodada 360 graus para voltar a ter a aparência inicial, e a outra com spin 2 deve ser rodada 180 graus para voltar e ter a aparência original. Existem também partículas com spin 1/2, que devem ser rodadas 720 graus para voltar a ter a aparência original.

Portanto, como a Supersimetria é a base da Super Gravidade era de se esperar encontrarmos algum tipo de partículas ocm Super Parceiros. Segundo a Teoria da Super Gravidade tudo que vemos é formado por férmions ou bósons. Férmions possuem spins semi-inteiros(1/2) e constituem a matéria, e bósons spins inteiros(1, 2…) e constituem forças entre os férmions, como a gravidade. Férmions são negativos basicamente e bósons positivos. Todo férmion ou bóson possui um Super Parceiro com spin metade maior ou menor do que o seu próprio. Essa teoria cancelariam os infinitos apresentados no Campo de Maxwell porque os férmions que são negativos cancelariam as forças positivas dos bósons, eliminando infinitos.

A TEORIA DAS CORDAS

Segundo a Teoria das Cordas, não são partículas que formam tudo o que existe, mas sim Cordas! Essas cordas vibrariam e suas diferentes vibrações seriam interpretadas como partículas, e se as cordas possuíssem dimensões de Grassman, poderiam vibrar de um modo que as vibrações fossem interpretadas como bósons e férmions, o que deixaria a Teoria livre dos infinitos. Mas de repente, físicos constataram que haviam cinco diferentes Teorias das Cordas e não era o suficiente para representar a curvatura do espaço-tempo. Os físicos então descobriram que a Teoria das Cordas era apenas uma parte de uma teoria maior. Essa Teoria maior foi intitulada de Teoria M, por ser misteriosa, a mãe de todas as teorias e até mágica e mística! Essa teoria abrangeria as cinco teorias das SuperCordas mais a Super Gravidade com 11 dimensões, porém, muitas das propriedades dessa teoria são desconhecidas. E aqui estamos. Hoje estamos montando o quebra-cabeça da Teoria M, e parece  que dessa vez estamos certos! Abaixo a Teoria-M abrangendo as Teorias das Cordas e Super Gravidade:

CONCLUSÃO

Achar uma Teoria do Tudo é muito difícil. Diversas Teorias foram destruídas ou modificadas por minúsculas contradições, e é extremamente difícil achar uma Teoria que não apresente contradições ou erros. Porém, os físicos nunca deixaram de questionar, o que é o mais importante segundo Einstein, e conseguiram chegar a promissora Teoria-M, e dessa vez devemos achar uma resposta! A informação para estes artigos foi tirada do livro de Stephen Hawking: O Universo numa Casca de Noz.

A word from the Editor: Albert Einstein once said: “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the universe.” In a day and age where the American Institute of Medicine estimates people 98,000 are killed per year in Medical accidents, making it the 6th biggest killer and costing the U.S more than $29 billion. Can we really trust scientists to be conducting experiments with the capacity to create a black hole under the surface or our planet?

Steak:

Now I don’t know about all you but men (or women) in lab coats scare the crap outta me, It’s not only that their numerous years of class room education leave them with little to no people skills, but also since on infallibility that often has fatal and often unknown repercussions.

The famous biologist, Stephen Jay Gould, has argued that “scientists can delude themselves” and even the great Einstein was known to get it wrong, he was even heard to have said “There is not the slightest indication that energy will ever be obtainable from the atom,” Take Scientist John Darsee for example who in 1981 faked over 100 research papers on heart disease or the Chernobyl Debacle which killed 4,300 people and wounded or disabled 70,000 more, and whose effects are still being seen in parts of the north, like Canada and Siberia. All you have to do is look at numbers. Doctors today are over prescribing antibiotics, and pharmaceutical companies are compelling doctors to push there latest “miracle drug” like common street pushers, and we all know what consequences that can have, just look at Fen-Phen and Thalidomide. And the Grand Puba Y2K, everyone remembers the panic everyone was in around December 1999. Well it cost about $100 billion, to “fix” the problem. And when the clocks rolled over, what’s happened, a big NUTHING. Another example of fear posturing and how we sheep fell right in line. Do we need another challenger before we realize that a lab coat doesn’t give you the mandate to play puppeteer with real people?

Now Approximately a year ago the European Organization for Nuclear Research (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN ) or CERN, built a giant particle accelerator, with the purpose of smashing particles together at close to light speed velocities in order to observe a particle called a Higgs boson a key to understanding the “Big Bang” or whatever mysteries origin our universe has. Sounds fun enough right?, well the only drawback it that it may create black holes that scientists HOPE will dissolve into what they call Hawking Radiation and say that something going wrong is “nearly impossible”. When the consequences of your actions are the destruction of our planet, as far as I’m concerned, nearly is not good enough.

On the 19th of September 2008, the operations were halted due to a serious fault with the LHC. Well at least they were able to catch it before it killed us all, and they plan to kick it back into gear mid-November 2009, I know this scares the crap outta me. Everyone understands that certain sacrifices need to be made in the name of progress, and as the old saying goes, you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, but if you break the whole carton of eggs, that’s all she wrote, no do over’s. GAME OVER.

Eggs:

History is littered with people who have laid down their lives in the name of science, brave souls who understand that’s without sacrifice nothing can be achieved, and mankind may have nothing to aspire to. One example that comes to mind is the Challenger Accident. Those seven men and women lost their lives not in vain, but so that future generations would understand the dangers or space travel, and so that no one else would suffer the same fate, unfortunately seven others were killed in the Columbia disaster. But the sacrifices that they made have moved the progress of mankind a head leaps and bounds.

Take for example Alexander Aleksandrovich Bogdanov. He was a Russian “Renaissance Man” who pioneered the blood transfusion procedure, and preformed it successfully more than 11 times on himself and once on V.I Lenin’s sister, and died in 1928 after complication arose from a transfusion (took blood from a person with TB). How many people have been saved by a blood transfusion? Or William Bullock who invented the rotary printing press among other things. He kicked a drive belt in order to get it working and got his leg stuck in the machine, later died from complications during the amputation. But one of the most significant and little known people claimed by there own inventions was Otto Lilienthal known as the “Glider King”. He was the first person to make successful gliding flights more than once. After years of successful flights, I guess fate caught up with him and on n August 9, 1896, he fell from a height of 56 feet and broke his spine. He died the next day, but said “Kleine Opfer müssen gebracht werden!” (”Small sacrifices must be made!”). The Wright Brothers credited him with as their inspiration for pursuing flight. “Of all the men who attacked the flying problem in the 19th century,” Wilbur Wright said, “Otto Lilienthal was easily the most important.”

Without people willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for the advancement of our species, we’d still be stuck in the dark ages, drilling holes in peoples skulls to release demons and letting blood for everything from head aches to the common cold. I believe it was the great Mr. Spock who put it best saying, “Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” We should never take for granted the sacrifices these people have made, nor should we forget them.

Before drawing up coverages, fronts, and blitzes, it is imperative that defensive coordinators develop a philosophy that not only they believe in, but can get their assistants and players to believe in. Getting coaches and players to “buy-in” to a philosophy has nothing to do with X’s and O’s, but has more to do with establishing a belief system that players and coaches can lean on throughout a season. It is proven every year that systems and schemes don’t win championships. Instead it’s how you coach those systems and schemes, and whether or not you can get your coaches and players to believe in what you’re doing, that win championships.

1. Swarm and make sure tackles. We practice pursuit and tackling everyday. Pursuit requires taking proper angles and great effort. But if you can’t tackle when you get there, pursuit drill is useless, so we run a “tackle circuit” every Tuesday. We also do more position specific tackling during Individual sessions everyday throughout the week. We feel that a tackling circuit allows all defensive players, regardless of position, to execute a variety of different tackles throughout the week.

2. Force turnovers and turn those TOs in to TDs. We will always look to make the big, momentum changing plays and our players show it in practice and in games. Everyday, we make time to work on creating turnovers and what to do when that turnover is forced. This is called our “hawking” session. Pursue and rip the ball out of the ball carrier’s hands or intercept a pass and we’re off to the races. In 3 weeks thus far, we have scored two TDs on 8 turnovers. Just like on offense, you have to practice scoring on defense if you want to score in a game.

3. At Heritage, we believe in stopping the run. Despite the number of high school teams running the spread offense to throw the ball, many offensive coordinators still look to establish the running game early to set-up playaction and the down field passing game. We want to make teams one-dimensional.

4. Eliminate big, explosive plays. In our second game of the season, we gave up less than 250 yards of total offense, surrendered 7 first downs, but gave up 27 points in an excruciating loss. Our opponent’s running back rushed for around 125 yards, and 101 of those were on 2 plays. We played with a lot of effort and desire, but breakdowns in our run fits and coverage resulted in big plays and scores. Eliminate explosive plays and you increase your chance of winning. No running plays over 15 yards and no passes over 20.

5. Win first down and you will own 3rd down. This allows us as coaches and players to put our opposing offense into “known” situations. This is where a defensive coordinator can put film study to great use. Do they take shots downfield on 2nd and short or look to just get the 1st down? What does your opponent do on 3rd and short, 3rd and long? We will always strive to win 1st down, so that our players know what to expect on 3rd down. Practicing situations throughout the week will only give your players more confidence on Friday night.

We may tweak our goals week-to-week, but this is our philosophy on defense. We feel that if we can do these 5 things on defense, we will be successful in the long run, regardless of what scheme we employ.