Some interesting news stories
This has been some day! There has been some interesting news stories out, in locations I can't exactly remember. However, these stories are news because they seem amazing, but they are true. Or at least you can take a look at these and see what you think:
1. (2004 April 1 - AP) Asteroid to hit the Earth in 2008
Astronomers at Mt. Palomar Telescope have discovered an asteroid that is apparently going to collide with Earth in 2008. It is Asteroid 2004 EB, an Amor object, with a diameter somewhat over 3 miles. Initial observations and calculations show this object has a high carbon and possibly hydrocarbon content and is headed for a 300,000 miss of Earth in 2008. However, one of the astronomers saw the tell-tale lines of hydrocarbons very much like coal and petroleum on it, leading him to predict that the asteroid will strike Earth instead. He said, "If that asteroid has oil in it, then with gasoline prices and crude oil prices as high as they are, you can bet that nuclear explosions soon will drive that asteroid straight into the Earth."
2. (2004 April 1 - Reuters) Largest Prime Number Discovered
Mathematicians at Berkeley and Stanford, along with mathematicians in India, have discovered the largest prime number. It is described by a complicated formula in 327 pages and is 282,421,906 digits long. By combining a theorem describing ideals in K-theory with a bifurcation of a 23-dimensional manifold with a Haar measure, they isolated five classes of prime numbers and found an upper bound for each. The largest of the numbers is the Berkeley-Stanford-India number. Therefore, no prime numbers larger than this number will ever be found, and hence there are only a finite number of prime numbers, forming a set called the BSI set.
Dr. Yousef Clidinat of Southeastern University has some serious doubts about the proof, however, and he has resolved to find a larger prime number. His plan is to multiply all the prime numbers in the BSI set, about 200 million of them, and add 1. He has already calculated the result, but has had difficulty finding prime factors of the resulting number. He is confident of finding such a number soon, however, and insists that when he finds it, it will not be in the BSI set.
3. (2004 April 1 - Arrow News Service) The Best Government is a Dictatorship
One of the landmark events in human history has been the development of democratically elected governments. The idea that everyone by right has a voice in the government of a nation is now well established, and has resulted in countries in which people are free to live fulfilling lives. So it came as a shock to the Outbox Group think tank when its members discovered that, given reasonable assumptions, the best government is a dictatorship, wherein one person determines all the rules. The group made four rather reasonable assumptions, namely:
a. Given preferences from the citizens, there shall always be a societal decision. Otherwise, the government is indecisive.
b. If society decides on one alternative over another, then it shall decide on that one over the other if nothing happens to the preferences of the civilians except things that favor that one alternative over the other.
c. If society decides on one alternative over another, then it shall make that same decision even if how the individuals decide on other, irrelevant options is changed to something completely different.
d. For any two alternatives, there shall be a set of individual preferences that decide the first of these over the second. Else for all sets of preferences, society favors the second one, which means that this preference is imposed upon society from the outside, something rather undesirable.
The group, headed by Prof. Knuth Javelin, showed that these reasonable assumptions imply that there exists an individual such that what that individual says goes for all of society. In other words, this guy is a dictator.
The group is busy trying to find a flaw in the proof before all the democracies in the world find out and the dictators say, "I told you so."
4. (2004 April 1 - Bingby celebrity service) Michael Jackson is an extraterrestrial
Biologists in California have performed research on Michael Jackson's DNA in preparation for his child molestation case, and they have decided, based on what they found, that Michael Jackson is an extraterrestrial. "The genes and alleles in his DNA resemble absolutely nothing that is normally in human DNA.", said one of the researchers. He declined to comment on how he arrived on Earth, however, and it is unclear what the implications are for his case.
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2004/04/01
2004/03/30
Bush and Kerry have cleared the starting line
The Presidential campaign has started. Bush and Kerry are off and running, and so is Ralph Nader and some others. So how has it gone so far? In my opinion, both have made mistakes.
Bush accuses Kerry of being a tax-raising liberal. He chose a good time to say that, just before Independence Day and by that I mean the real Independence Day, namely April 15. Most of us have hit tax conniptions, so that is going to give him votes. For example, I found out that I could not contribute all that I wanted to into an IRA.
Bush accuses Kerry of asking for a hefty increase in the gasoline tax. He even has a Kerry gasoline calculator on his web site. The Bush camp needs to straighten out that site. You have to scroll to find the calculator. Most visitors won't bother, and will get the image of a President who promises but doesn't give. But it does compute how much more it will cost you. Easy come, easy go, and when it's gone, it's gone. No, Bush. This is a mistake. People may complain about gasoline prices, but there is a good reason why we need them now, namely the end of cheap oil, which may be as soon as 2008. We need something to urge people to conserve, and so that the proceeds from ever higher and higher prices of gasoline go not to the oil companies or Saudi Arabia, but to the US government, who can fund alternative fuels or help for those who need it, or even a big income tax cut. Kerry is right on this one and he needs to call for both an income tax cut and a gasoline tax raise.
Kerry says that Bush is doing nothing about gasoline prices. Yes he is. Only he is going about it wrong. He is trying to lower gasoline prices by drilling Alaska and by sending myriads of soldiers into Iraq.
So both candidates are stumbling from the starting line.
By the way, polls are showing an improvement for Bush, and Bush is claiming credit. No. Recent weeks have seen a deterioration for the President instead, if one is following Allan Lichtman's Keys to the White House. Key 9 (Scandal) and Key 8 (social unrest) are both shaking a bit more than they had been, increasing the probability that Bush will lose the keys and the election. Bush is still favored to win, but he was even more favored earlier when Kerry had an 8-point lead in the polls. The polls are fun to watch, but the don't make sense now.
The Presidential campaign has started. Bush and Kerry are off and running, and so is Ralph Nader and some others. So how has it gone so far? In my opinion, both have made mistakes.
Bush accuses Kerry of being a tax-raising liberal. He chose a good time to say that, just before Independence Day and by that I mean the real Independence Day, namely April 15. Most of us have hit tax conniptions, so that is going to give him votes. For example, I found out that I could not contribute all that I wanted to into an IRA.
Bush accuses Kerry of asking for a hefty increase in the gasoline tax. He even has a Kerry gasoline calculator on his web site. The Bush camp needs to straighten out that site. You have to scroll to find the calculator. Most visitors won't bother, and will get the image of a President who promises but doesn't give. But it does compute how much more it will cost you. Easy come, easy go, and when it's gone, it's gone. No, Bush. This is a mistake. People may complain about gasoline prices, but there is a good reason why we need them now, namely the end of cheap oil, which may be as soon as 2008. We need something to urge people to conserve, and so that the proceeds from ever higher and higher prices of gasoline go not to the oil companies or Saudi Arabia, but to the US government, who can fund alternative fuels or help for those who need it, or even a big income tax cut. Kerry is right on this one and he needs to call for both an income tax cut and a gasoline tax raise.
Kerry says that Bush is doing nothing about gasoline prices. Yes he is. Only he is going about it wrong. He is trying to lower gasoline prices by drilling Alaska and by sending myriads of soldiers into Iraq.
So both candidates are stumbling from the starting line.
By the way, polls are showing an improvement for Bush, and Bush is claiming credit. No. Recent weeks have seen a deterioration for the President instead, if one is following Allan Lichtman's Keys to the White House. Key 9 (Scandal) and Key 8 (social unrest) are both shaking a bit more than they had been, increasing the probability that Bush will lose the keys and the election. Bush is still favored to win, but he was even more favored earlier when Kerry had an 8-point lead in the polls. The polls are fun to watch, but the don't make sense now.
Ridiculousness in the Sky
I heard recently that they grounded, then canceled a flight, because a local clairvoyant said that something might happen to it. These charlatans can ply their trade all the time, as long as they don't interfere with me. But if I were on that flight, I would sue the clairvoyant, or more likely, the airline. I would have been inconvenienced, even missed an important appointment, because someone with a crackpot theory makes a pronouncement. I do not want any of my flights interrupted or held up because of someone's unscientific pronouncements.
I heard recently that they grounded, then canceled a flight, because a local clairvoyant said that something might happen to it. These charlatans can ply their trade all the time, as long as they don't interfere with me. But if I were on that flight, I would sue the clairvoyant, or more likely, the airline. I would have been inconvenienced, even missed an important appointment, because someone with a crackpot theory makes a pronouncement. I do not want any of my flights interrupted or held up because of someone's unscientific pronouncements.
2004/03/29
AM/PM Trouble
Sometimes a defect in the way we make, do, or say things can have positive effects; in fact, it can save lives. One such defect is AM and PM. Whoever made up this way of telling time was not trying to be user-friendly. One normally thinks of a day as a complete entity. Therefore, one expects 5 o'clock to represent a definite time. It does not. It represents two times: 5 AM and 5 PM. And this can cause confusion. Several times I have overslept because I set my alarm clock for PM instead of AM. Further, the way we tell time at 12 o'clock is really loony. We say the hour after 11 AM is 12 PM, even though this means the PM hours run 12, 1, 2, .. ., 11 instead of 1, 2, .. ., 12. And when it is 12 o'clock, then is it noon or midnight? For that reason, never say 12 o'clock or 12 AM or PM. Say noon or midnight. It is just too confusing. The military has recognized this so they threw out the system long ago and replaced it with 24-hour time in which the time from midnight to midnight ranges from 0000 to 2359, as numerical sense dictates.
But sometimes errors caused by AM/PM trouble can help; recently it has even saved lives. According to ABC News tonight, apparently the bombs in Trainattack in Spain were constructed out of briefcases or duffel bags with explosives, wires, and a cellular phone which was used as an alarm clock and a GPS device which was designed to tell the time, so that all bombs would explode at the same time. But one bomb did not explode, because its creator had AM/PM trouble. He had set it for 7:45 PM instead of 7:45 AM. Later on, well within 12 hours, investigators found it and traced it to the owner - an excellent lead in the case. That bomb not going off probably saved 20 lives. This was lucky.
I still say we will all be better off with military time. We should start junking the AM/PM system. That is not happening; I had a hard time finding an alarm clock that told 24-hour time. But I do believe that we will be better off. More police vigilance and better relations between nations are the way to prevent terrorist attacks and save lives, not reliance on an error.
Sometimes a defect in the way we make, do, or say things can have positive effects; in fact, it can save lives. One such defect is AM and PM. Whoever made up this way of telling time was not trying to be user-friendly. One normally thinks of a day as a complete entity. Therefore, one expects 5 o'clock to represent a definite time. It does not. It represents two times: 5 AM and 5 PM. And this can cause confusion. Several times I have overslept because I set my alarm clock for PM instead of AM. Further, the way we tell time at 12 o'clock is really loony. We say the hour after 11 AM is 12 PM, even though this means the PM hours run 12, 1, 2, .. ., 11 instead of 1, 2, .. ., 12. And when it is 12 o'clock, then is it noon or midnight? For that reason, never say 12 o'clock or 12 AM or PM. Say noon or midnight. It is just too confusing. The military has recognized this so they threw out the system long ago and replaced it with 24-hour time in which the time from midnight to midnight ranges from 0000 to 2359, as numerical sense dictates.
But sometimes errors caused by AM/PM trouble can help; recently it has even saved lives. According to ABC News tonight, apparently the bombs in Trainattack in Spain were constructed out of briefcases or duffel bags with explosives, wires, and a cellular phone which was used as an alarm clock and a GPS device which was designed to tell the time, so that all bombs would explode at the same time. But one bomb did not explode, because its creator had AM/PM trouble. He had set it for 7:45 PM instead of 7:45 AM. Later on, well within 12 hours, investigators found it and traced it to the owner - an excellent lead in the case. That bomb not going off probably saved 20 lives. This was lucky.
I still say we will all be better off with military time. We should start junking the AM/PM system. That is not happening; I had a hard time finding an alarm clock that told 24-hour time. But I do believe that we will be better off. More police vigilance and better relations between nations are the way to prevent terrorist attacks and save lives, not reliance on an error.
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