Featured Articles

Beall's list and what we need to replace it.

Beall's list and what we need to replace it.

Jan 23 2017 | comment(s)

Jeffery Beall was keeper of a controversial list of predatory publishers that has been shut down. A big problem with this list is it was academically classist and biased towards journals in non-English speaking countries.  Rather than trash the idea of a list of predatory journals, I propose the idea of a non-comprehensive white list of journals combined with a list of questions one can ask for "is this journal predatory?". 
School Comparisons Tell Us Little About School Performance

School Comparisons Tell Us Little About School Performance

Jan 23 2017 | comment(s)

The latest performance tables for secondary and primary schools in England have been released – with parents and educators alike looking to the tables to understand and compare schools in their area.

Schools will also be keen to see if they have met a new set of national standards set by the government. These new standards now include “progress” measures, which are a type of “value-added measure”. These compare pupils’ results with other pupils who got the same exam scores as them at the end of primary school.

Scientists And Philosophers For Donald Trump: Let Master Feng Explain The New Reality To You

Scientists And Philosophers For Donald Trump: Let Master Feng Explain The New Reality To You

Jan 23 2017 | comment(s)

Ah the beauty, from victory to victory for over a year now – is it not wonderful to be alive today? For those few of us who have for years predicted the current affairs, 2016 was so refreshing also because it ensured that 2017 goes on giving. The Donald pulled all the ‘right’ moves to win against the lefties, who still do not understand a thing, but more important, he pulled equally ‘right’ moves against the cucked right, and against the this-is-my-career-niche right, which made it clear to some for four months in advance that Trump would win.
An American Decision and the Future of Forensic Science

An American Decision and the Future of Forensic Science

Jan 23 2017 | comment(s)

Our nation once again celebrates its unique capacity to transfer leadership with grace and dignity.  The joyousness of the occasion, however, quickly fades into solemnity as citizens and institutions alike assume their vigil, standing guard to keep watchful eyes on those in positions of power. 

How To Stomach A Black Hole

How To Stomach A Black Hole

Jan 22 2017 | comment(s)

--- repost due to previous version not surviving server maintenance ---

Black holes are hot. Well, thermodynamically these suckers are freaking cold, but they do attract more attention than hot supernovae. And with attention comes recognition. As announced last month, as much as 97% of the $ 6.3 mln 2016 Breakthrough Prize money for physics went to black hole research.
Future Train Wreck: Mine or Modern Physics talk Next Thursday, Jan. 26

Future Train Wreck: Mine or Modern Physics talk Next Thursday, Jan. 26

Jan 20 2017 | comment(s)

If you are in Cambridge, MA on Thursday, Jan. 26, you can see me live at MIT in room 3-270 from 3 to 5pm. If you are anywhere else and have Internet access, you can see me YouTube live in the same time slot.
Here is the poster I put up 53 times on the MIT campus and 4 times at Harvard:




For those interested, here are the other four links to click on:
Quaternion Gravity intro, http://bit.ly/vp-qg
Quaternion Gravity videos, http://bit.ly/vp-qg-videos
iPython notebooks, http://bit.ly/vp-billiards
Anomaly! Book Of The Week At Times Higher Education

Anomaly! Book Of The Week At Times Higher Education

Jan 19 2017 | comment(s)

I am pleased to report that the book I wrote on the CDF experiment and on collider physics at the Tevatron, "Anomaly!", has been declared this week's "book of the week" by the Times Higher Education site. There, you will be able to read Tara Shears' very nice review of my book, along with some additional considerations and biographical notes on yours truly by Karen Shook.
How Wind Turbines Work - A Legal Perspective

How Wind Turbines Work - A Legal Perspective

Jan 19 2017 | comment(s)

How Wind Turbines Work - A Legal Perspective

If you want to know how a wind turbine works you may visit Wikipedia or the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. 


You would not normally look for scientific information on a case law web site, but there is now an excellent scientific description of wind turbine basics in a judgement on patent law as applied to a wind turbine design.
It's Been Another Record Year For Agriculture - When Do Climate Change Forecasts Come True?

It's Been Another Record Year For Agriculture - When Do Climate Change Forecasts Come True?

Jan 19 2017 | comment(s)

In 2006, former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore predicted that we only had 10 years to stave off our carbon dioxide doom, with plummeting yields in Africa, the Himalayas melting and other doomsday scenarios happening by 2016. 
Climate Change Made The Sahara Green - Then Took It Away Again

Climate Change Made The Sahara Green - Then Took It Away Again

Jan 19 2017 | comment(s)

From 5,000 to 11,000 years ago, what is now the Sahara Desert had 10X the rainfall it does today and was home to hunter-gatherers who lived in the region's savannahs and wooded grasslands. By analyzing marine sediments, rainfall patterns in the Sahara during that 'Green Sahara' period have been pinpointed.
Sitting Linked To Premature Aging - And Hopefully Skepticism

Sitting Linked To Premature Aging - And Hopefully Skepticism

Jan 19 2017 | comment(s)

Elderly women who sit more than 10 hours a day have accelerated biological aging, according to an epidemiology paper. They have older cells? 

It's the increasingly popular shorter telomeres hypothesis. Telomeres are tiny caps found on the ends of DNA strands, like the plastic tips of shoelaces, that protect chromosomes from deterioration. It has been found that they progressively shorten with age, just one of the reasons why we are considered to be biologically programmed to die. 
Random Thoughts Of A Physicist In Honeymoon

Random Thoughts Of A Physicist In Honeymoon

Jan 19 2017 | comment(s)

How Viruses Leave Messages For Descendants On How To 'Infect'

How Viruses Leave Messages For Descendants On How To 'Infect'

Jan 18 2017 | comment(s)

Many viruses face a choice after they have infected their hosts: to replicate quickly, killing the cell in the process, or to become dormant and lie in wait. HIV, herpes, and a number of other human viruses behave this way and, in fact, even the viruses that attack bacteria – phages – face similar decisions when invading a cell.

What causes a virus to choose dormancy over immediate gratification? Prof. Rotem Sorek and his group in the Weizmann Institute’s Department of Molecular Genetics have now discovered that, during infection, viruses secrete small molecules into their environment that other viruses can pick up and “read.” In this way, they can actually coordinate their attack, turning simple messages into a fairly sophisticated strategy.
Eugene Cernan, Hometown Astronaut of Bellwood Illinois dead at 82.

Eugene Cernan, Hometown Astronaut of Bellwood Illinois dead at 82.

Jan 16 2017 | comment(s)

You will read in many places of Gene Cernan as the last man on the moon. He certainly was that. To me and to all of us in the Village of Bellwood Illinois he was a home town hero. Bellwood is a bedroom community, mostly homes and small manufacturing located 7 miles due west of Chicago. This suburb was much smaller when Cernan would have lived here. Never the less we were all proud of our astronaut. 
 He was joined in that distinction by Lee J Archambault who flew on several space shuttle missions to help construct the ISS. Together they gave this tiny town with hard water a bonified spacefaring tradition. 
Lisa Long Leg: Vongehr’s Rational Free Speech Trump Cross For The Alt Right Revolution Of Love

Lisa Long Leg: Vongehr’s Rational Free Speech Trump Cross For The Alt Right Revolution Of Love

Jan 14 2017 | comment(s)

Lovely Lisa Long Leg and Heil Hitler Screaming Nazi once again visit the Stupid Donald Trump Follower’s office in the mathematics department:

Lovely Liberal Lisa: Heil Trump!

Stupid Donald Trump Follower: Well, that’s better than what we had before, but I am still not convinced such does anybody any favors.

What If... No Oil?

What If... No Oil?

Jan 13 2017 | comment(s)

How would one detail in the past affect how technology and science evolved?  This question comes up at many scales- sometimes personal introspection on what might have been or larger scale concerning world historical events.  It offers a way to do a thought experiment concerning the important aspects and how they are connected. However, the results might only be insightful but not definitive  because any  real experiment  can never be done.

Sorry Guardian - You Get An F minus for linguistics

Sorry Guardian - You Get An F minus for linguistics

Jan 13 2017 | comment(s)

The Guardian, or as it is more affectionately known to its readers, The Grauniad, seems to think that it takes a native Russian speaker to write 'f' as 'ph'.

Almost certainly, a native Russian speaker wrote the original material, correctly transliterating the Russian “f” as “ph”.

Er, no!
Debunked: World To End After Two Snowy Days In Salento, Puglia, Southern Italy, Tears On Macedonia Icon

Debunked: World To End After Two Snowy Days In Salento, Puglia, Southern Italy, Tears On Macedonia Icon

Jan 12 2017 | comment(s)

As some of you may know, I've become deeply concerned, and indeed appalled by the large numbers of fake doomsday news stories, because I am so often contacted by people who get very scared and sometimes suicidal as a result of reading these stories. Fourteen tabloids and other papers have published this story so far, and none of them mention that it originates from a site known to publish fake news. The story is that the world is going to end because of two snowy days in Salento in Southern Italy, which they say is a prophetic sign of an imminent massive supervolcano eruption. I think it is a particularly striking case of doomsday news based on chinese whispers starting off from a fake story.

Moon Hoax Reloaded, The True Exploitation Of Blacks By Whites, Obama And Trump Again

Moon Hoax Reloaded, The True Exploitation Of Blacks By Whites, Obama And Trump Again

Jan 12 2017 | comment(s)

If you are against the exploitation of Blacks, stop mislabeling, or do not stuff humans into dual categories at all. Look at each individual in her own right.
Psst! Wanna Buy Some Truth?

Psst! Wanna Buy Some Truth?

Jan 11 2017 | comment(s)

Psst!  Wanna Buy Some Truth?

In case anyone has missed my many articles on the topic of global warming-induced climate change: I am totally convinced that humans have been causing global warming to an ever-increasing extent since we discovered the use of fire1.  I am also totally convinced that global warming has caused the global climate to change from the average conditions prevailing over thousands of years.  A change from the average is bad because it is making seasonal weather conditions less predictable for farming, fishing and food production generally.