Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Scientists who discovered the "God particle" receive Nobel prize.
The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics has gone to Britain's Peter W. Higgs and Belgium's Francois Englert, the Nobel Committee announced in Stockholm on Tuesday.
They were jointly awarded the prize for their work on a theory that offers an explanation for how the fundamental particles of the Universe acquire mass.
Last year, the pair's work was confirmed after the discovery of the so-called Higgs particle — known also as the Higgs boson and the God particle — at a laboratory in Geneva.
I almost feel bad for referring to the Higgs boson as the "God particle' but since that is the way that it is universally known I thought it would make more sense to my visitors.
The person who gave it that misnomer has explained why:
This boson is so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our final understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive, that I have given it a nickname: the God Particle. Why God Particle? Two reasons. One, the publisher wouldn’t let us call it the Goddamn Particle, though that might be a more appropriate title, given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing. And two, there is a connection, of sorts, to another book, a much older one…
So now that we have discovered it, despite some early exclamations from the scientifically ignorant religious nuts, we have moved further away from a divine explanation for the universe rather than closer to one.
Perhaps, using religious logic (Does that even exist?), it would have been more appropriate to call it "Satan's Particle."
Personally I am just happy to be writing about something other than the government shutdown.
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This may have seemed like a controversial episode of the Newsroom last year, but I imagine that the majority of Americans would now agree with it 100%.
I imagine that most of us here at IM were cheering when the Jeff Daniels character, Will McAvoy, made those statements, however there was still an angry and energized minority of Americans who thought the comparison to the Taliban seemed unfair.
Somehow I have to imagine that that minority is even smaller in light of what is happening right now in Washington.
Eric Zuesse. an investigative historian has written a long and incredibly detailed explanation for how this American Taliban was able to take control over our government, as well as who funded them over at HuffPo.
Here is a portion I thought you might find interesting:
Sarah Palin had resigned her Governorship of Alaska, in order to become rich quickly via speaking tours and book deals; and on August 7th at her Facebook page she issued her "Statement on the Current Health Care Debate," and said that if Obama's health plan were to pass, people "will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil." (The phrases 'death panel' and 'level of productivity in society,' weren't in any proposed legislation, but came from Palin's own imagination.) The extremely conservative audience at aol.com was online-polled about this, "Do you agree with Palin's characterization of Obama's health plan as 'evil'?" and within a few days 200,000 respondents entered their opinions, 59% saying "Yes," and 41% "No." When asked "In general, what's your impression of Palin?" 50% said "Mostly positive," and 42% said "Mostly negative." Newt Gingrich on ABC TV's "This Week," on August 9th, was asked his opinion of Palin's Facebook statement, and Gingrich said he agreed with it, because Obama and the Democrats were planning "euthanasia" for old people. Despite ABC's strong Republican tilt, their George Stephanopoulos pointed out that there was nothing of that kind in any proposed legislation, but Gingrich went right on charging that this was the Democrats' intent. The thrust of Republicans and of the healthcare lobbyists and their "grass-roots" fronts was unmistakable: Obama's plan was to euthanize old people, and it was evil. Sometimes, major media were even compelled to correct misrepresentations of their own news reporting that was spread by Koch-allies.
The article of course is much more detailed, and I think everybody needs to read it. However I want to remind all of you that during the time mentioned above Sarah Palin was NOT the bedraggled used up skeletal harpy that we see today, Back then she was the Queen of the Tea Party and had tons of media attention paid to her every ridiculous utterance.
It was citizen journalists who eventually turned her into a laughingstock and rendered her all but impotent. And it is that same kind of grass roots reporting, and dissemination of information, that will ultimately prove to be the downfall of the Tea Party.
We can do this, but we have to be diligent, aggressive, and tireless.
Don't forget the other side, Breitbart, The Blaze, The Daily Caller, and others, all have the backing of big business to pay their bills and to help them push their agenda.
All I have is you.
(Oh, and coffee. I have coffee too.)
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With only a month or so before her Christmas book hits the dollar bin at bookstores and Wal-Marts around the country, Sarah Palin tries to get people riled up over the insidious, and imaginary, "War on Christmas."
A Silent Night in Wausau on Monday? Bet not. Can't wait for parents to take this on.... http://t.co/dKrcCfbNZcHer tweet links to this Fox News article:
— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) October 8, 2013
The Wausau, Wis. School District says it’s okay to jingle bells and don gay apparel but lay off the Baby Jesus stuff – and that has parents and students ready to deck somebody’s halls.
The community became enraged after the elementary schools canceled their upcoming Christmas concerts and the school district issued guidelines that curtailed the number of sacred holiday songs the high school choir could perform.
Phil Buch, the director of the Wausau West High School choir programs since 1981, told the Wausau Daily Herald that he was given three choices after meeting with school officials about the upcoming yuletide season.
He was told the choirs could perform one sacred song for every five secular songs performed; eliminate all Christmas music or postpone December concerts.
He was also reportedly told that the district had to approve every musical selection. Instead, Buch announced that he was temporarily disbanding the school’s elite choir.
School Board member Pat McKee told me it’s nothing short of a war on Christmas.
“When you look at it on the surface, it’s hard to argue against that train of thought,” he said.
“People are justifiably making that correlation – that it’s a war on Christmas.”
OMGAWD! A War on Christmas you say?
Well fortunately there is a book coming soon that will set the record straight about the TRUE meaning of Christmas, and how important it is to protect it from the heathen scum who want to strip Christ out of the holiday that does not really fall on his birthday, but we pretend it does, and return it to its pagan roots where virtually all of its traditions were taken.
Speaking of history it might be informative if somebody explained to little miss "I slept through history class" that for almost the first hundred years of this nation's history it was not even considered a federal holiday.
Courtesy of The History of Christmas:
After the American Revolution, English customs fell out of favor, including Christmas. In fact, Congress was in session on December 25, 1789, the first Christmas under America’s new constitution. Christmas wasn’t declared a federal holiday until June 26, 1870.
It wasn’t until the 19th century that Americans began to embrace Christmas. Americans re-invented Christmas, and changed it from a raucous carnival holiday into a family-centered day of peace and nostalgia. But what about the 1800s peaked American interest in the holiday?
The early 19th century was a period of class conflict and turmoil. During this time, unemployment was high and gang rioting by the disenchanted classes often occurred during the Christmas season. In 1828, the New York city council instituted the city’s first police force in response to a Christmas riot. This catalyzed certain members of the upper classes to begin to change the way Christmas was celebrated in America.
In 1819, best-selling author Washington Irving wrote The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, gent., a series of stories about the celebration of Christmas in an English manor house. The sketches feature a squire who invited the peasants into his home for the holiday. In contrast to the problems faced in American society, the two groups mingled effortlessly. In Irving’s mind, Christmas should be a peaceful, warm-hearted holiday bringing groups together across lines of wealth or social status.
Irving’s fictitious celebrants enjoyed “ancient customs,” including the crowning of a Lord of Misrule. Irving’s book, however, was not based on any holiday celebration he had attended—in fact, many historians say that Irving’s account actually “invented” tradition by implying that it described the true customs of the season.
I bet that historical information will not make it into a certain poorly written book attempting to make a buck off of the most overly commercialized holiday in history. What do you think?
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Bernie Sanders takes to the Senate floor and tells the American people who is REALLY behind the defund Obamacare drive, and what's next on their agenda.
You go Bernie!
This is EXACTLY how the liberals need to publicize what is going on in this country.
Citizens United opened the floodgates for wealthy businessmen to take over out political system, and the Koch brothers and other conservative donors did not waste a moment taking advantage of it.
I love that he submitted the entire New York Times article into he record.
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