MOAR Higgs boson evidence
The NY Times is reporting that a data bump “smells like the Higgs boson”. The odor is emanating not from CERN in Europe but from Fermilab near Chicago, where their Tevatron still flings some pretty fast particles.
“Based on the current Tevatron data and results compiled through December 2011 by other experiments, this is the strongest hint of the existence of a Higgs boson,” said the report, which will be presented on Wednesday by Wade Fisher of Michigan State University to a physics conference in La Thuile, Italy.
None of these results, either singly or collectively, are strong enough for scientists to claim victory. But the recent run of reports has encouraged them to think that the elusive particle, which is the key to mass and diversity in the universe, is within sight, perhaps as soon as this summer.
God Particle
The Higgs boson particle (a.k.a. the “God” particle) has been observed. Repeatedly. If I had a better understanding of science, I’d probably understand why this is a big deal. (Side note: I always giggle when I read “Large Hadron Collider.”)
(Source: poploser)
For the past several years, while the mainstream media was dutifully reporting on all things Kardashian or (more recently) a wholly manufactured debt-ceiling crisis, ordinary people were losing their health care, their homes, their jobs, and their savings. Those people have taken that narrative to Facebook and Twitter—just as citizens took to those alternative forms of media throughout the Middle East as part of the Arab Spring. And just to be clear: They aren’t holding up signs that say “I want Bill O’Reilly’s stuff.” They aren’t holding up signs that say “I am animated by toxic levels of envy and entitlement.” They are holding up signs that areperfectly and intrinsically clear: They want accountability for the banks that took their money, they want to end corporate control of government. They want their jobs back. They would like to feed their children. They want—wait, no, we want—to be heard by a media that has devoted four mind-numbing years to channeling and interpreting every word uttered by a member of the Palin family while ignoring the voices of everyone else.
And there’s this. The mainstream media thrives on simple solutions. It has no idea whatsoever of how to report on a story that isn’t about easy fixes so much as it is about anguished human frustration and fear. The media prides itself on its ability to tell you how to clear your clutter, regrout your shower, or purge your closet of anything that makes you look fat—in 24 minutes or less. It is bound to be flummoxed by a protest that offers up no happy endings. Luckily for us, #OWS doesn’t seem to care.
Dahlia Lithwick, my hero
34 notes (via ohheygreat)
I don’t know any right thinking capitalist who can look at the mess that Wall Street created … and say this is something to be proud of.
You want to be proud of capitalism? Go out to the West Coast…talk to the people who are really inventing great, amazing products that make people stand up in awe. You could not have an occupy Silicon Valley movement. You would not have people standing up in front of Apple Computers saying “Yeah, Steve Jobs needs to be punished.
When you focus on Wall Street, you’re focusing on a system that took advantage of the corruption of our government to build a gambling scene for themselves where they could get the upside and we would pay the downside … This is not anything any Capitalist should defend. And no self-respecting Capitalist whose paycheck doesn’t come from that system does defend it.
”Lawrence Lessig killing it on the Diane Rehm show this morning. (via Thomas) #ows
(via rocketships-jellyfish)
4 notes (via rocketships-jellyfish)
“To state this as clearly as possible: The four American companies that have come to define 21st-century information technology and entertainment are on the verge of war. Over the next two years, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google will increasingly collide in the markets for mobile phones and tablets, mobile apps, social networking, and more. This competition will be intense.”
