Could the Big Bang have Been a Quick Conversion of Antimatter into Matter?

Suppose at some point the universe ceases to expand, and instead begins collapsing in on itself (as in the “Big Crunch” scenario), and eventually becomes a supermassive black hole. The black hole’s extreme mass produces an extremely strong gravitational field. Through a gravitational version of the so-called Schwinger mechanism, this gravitational field converts virtual particle-antiparticle pairs from the surrounding quantum vacuum into real particle-antiparticle pairs. If the black hole is made from matter (antimatter), it could violently repel billions and billions of antiparticles (particles) out into space in a fraction of a second, creating an ejection event that would look quite similar to a Big Bang.

The idea of a cyclic universe is not new. As Hajdukovic notes in his paper, in 1922 cosmologist Alexander Friedmann noticed that Einstein’s theory of general relativity is compatible with the framework of a cyclical universe. More recently, cyclic models have included loop quantum gravity, braneworld theories, and other “Big Bounce” models. However, unlike Hajdukovic’s scenario, in all of these models, all cycles are dominated by matter. As Hajdukovic explains, he is not offering a new cyclic model of the universe, but simply a mechanism that could, in principle, have allowed the transition from a matter-dominated universe to an antimatter-dominated universe, and vice versa.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-07-big-quick-conversion-antimatter.html

NASA Spacecraft is Orbiting Massive Asteroid

NASA's Dawn spacecraft was captured into orbit around the massive asteroid Vesta after a 1.7 billion-mile journey and is preparing to begin a study of a surface that may date to the earliest era of the solar system, the space agency said Monday.

The entry into orbit occurred while the spacecraft's antenna was pointed away from Earth, so mission controllers had to wait for Dawn to re-establish contact to confirm its success.

The capture was estimated to have occurred at 10 p.m. PDT Friday, when Dawn was 9,900 miles from Vesta and 117 million miles from Earth in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, according to a statement from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"We are beginning the study of arguably the oldest extant primordial surface in the solar system," the mission's principal investigator, Christopher Russell from the University of California, Los Angeles, said in the statement.

NASA said that after the orbital capture, Dawn sent an initial close-up image taken for navigation purposes. Before the Dawn mission, images of Vesta were obtained by ground- and space-based telescopes but did not show much surface detail.

Vesta, 330 miles in diameter, is the second-most massive object in the asteroid belt and is believed to be the source of many meteorites that fall to Earth.

Dawn will continue to approach Vesta over the next three weeks, search for possible moons and make more navigation images. It begins gathering science data in August. Vesta's gravitational pull on Dawn will be measured to more accurately determine the asteroid's mass.

The spacecraft will eventually get as close as 110 miles from the surface.

 

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_18501552

Not Vaccinated? Not Acceptable

What does society do when one person's behavior puts the greater community at risk? We make them stop. We pass laws, or impose economic rules or find some other way to discourage individual behaviors that threaten the greater common good. You don't get to drive drunk. You don't get to smoke in public places. You don't even get to leave your house if you catch some particularly infectious disease.

Then what should we do about people who decline vaccination for themselves or their children and put the public at risk by fueling the resurgence of nearly eradicated diseases? Isn't this the same thing: one person's perception of risk producing behaviors that put others at risk? Of course it is. Isn't it time for society to say we need to regulate the risk created by the fear of vaccines? Yes, it is.

The evidence is overwhelming that declining vaccination rates are contributing to outbreaks of disease. Take just one example, measles. The World Health Organization reports outbreaks in countries where vaccination rates have gone down, including France (7,000 cases so far this year, more than in all of 2010), Belgium, Germany, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Macedonia and Turkey. There have already been 334 measles cases in England and Wales this year, compared with 33 all of last year. The U.S. has seen 118 cases as of mid-May, compared with 56 cases a year from 2001 to 2008.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ropeik-vaccines-20110718,0,4240440.story

Israel Navy takes Over Gaza-Bound French Ship 'Dignity' -

The Israel Navy commandeered and intercepted the Gaza-bound French ship Dignity - Al-Karama after negotiations to persuade 15 pro-Palestinian activists aboard to divert their course away from the Strip's closed naval blockade failed.

Navy soldiers did not encounter any resistance during the interception which resulted after the ship's captain refused to cooperate with the IDF's demand to divert its course to the Ashdod Port, the IDF Spokesperson said in a statement.

An IDF doctor inspected the passengers and they were transferred to one of the navy ships where they received food and water. The bridge of the Dignity was taken over by navy officers and then began sailing towards the Ashdod Port. The 15 passengers will be transferred to Interior Ministry officials and immigration authorities in Ashdod. They will likely be deported from Israel.

Shortly before the take-over, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz ordered the navy to take control of the yacht as he was overseeing the operation from an underground command center at the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv (kirya). Gantz gave the command to Navy Vice Admiral Eliezer Maron who was at sea with the forces.

http://www.jpost.com/VideoArticles/Video/Article.aspx?id=230024

Tea Party Rhetoric: Literal Slavery Not So Bad

 

The comparison between anything tea partiers don't like and slavery is evolving from downright offensive to annoyingly trite (but still offensive).

This weekend's Sunday morning news shows switched from last week's focus on Michele Bachmann's husband’s work in "reparative therapy" to her own anti-gay history, with recently circulating audio of her labeling homosexuality as bondage and enslavement. (The original video in which she said this has been removed from YouTube but a lesser-quality recording of the broadcast of it on CNN is available here.)

As Kyle over at Right Wing Watch has noted, Rick Perry believes the federal government has enslaved us over debt and taxes. (By the way, he also believes, like Gary North, that the current economic crisis will bring us back to biblical principles.) And of course there's last year's controversial campaign ad featuring Alabama congressional candidate Rick Barber and . . . Abe Lincoln (I challenge you to try to watch the whole thing). These are but some examples; there are many more.

This view, one that overstates the burden of taxes and government mandates (even if you don't like them) and minimizes the experience of African-Americans in slavery, comes to the tea party through Rushdoony by way of David Barton (and Glenn Beck).

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/julieingersoll/4882/tea_party_rhetoric%3A_literal_slavery_not_so_bad

Why You Should Hope NewsCorp Implodes

The steadily expanding "phone hacking" scandal in Great Britain is a good reminder that understanding politics requires a healthy appreciation of the role of arrogance and stupidity.  What began is a seemingly straightforward example of sleazy journalistic practice has grown into a full-blown scandal, and the circle of guilt keeps widening.

Just look at the repercussions so far: 1) the NewsCorp's bid to take over all of British Sky Broadcasting has been scuppered, 2) NewsCorp CEO Rebekah Brooks has resigned and is now under arrest, 3) long-time Murdoch associate and Wall Street Journal publisher Les HInton has also resigned his post, 4) Prime Minister David Cameron has been badly tarnished, and oh yes, 5) the head of Scotland Yard has resigned in the wake of revelations that it had bungled the investigation (which is a charitable way of putting it). The WSJ and FoxNews have been exposed as shills for their boss (Murdoch), which is hardly surprising but is hardly going to help their reputations.   

http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/07/18/what_the_newscorp_scandal_really_means

Why Cats Go Next Door

It can be an explosive cause of conflict between cat owners and their neighbours.

But when your moggy uses the next-door garden as a personal litter tray, your argument that it was purely down to chance may no longer hold water.

Researchers have discovered that cats foul neighbouring gardens intentionally to mark the edge of what they consider to be their territory – typically less than 300 yards from home.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2015820/Why-cats-door-The-reason-pet-chooses-neighbours-garden-convenience.html

Can a President Be Reelected With 9 Percent Unemployment?

No American president has been reelected when unemployment has been higher than 7.2 percent in more than 50 years. It's a refrain that's been thrown around in the pages of The New York Times and in nearly every conversation when Barack Obama's chances for reelection are discussed, both inside the Beltway and beyond.

With Election Day more than 15 months away, Barack Obama has many reasons, including the capture of Osama bin Laden, to be confident in his chances for winning a second term. But any early prognostication in Obama's favor must be balanced by a consideration of the challenges he faces on the economic front. In the more than two years he has been in office, Obama has not presided over an unemployment figure below 8 percent, apart from during the month he took office. The most recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, for the month of June, even saw the rate raise by 0.1 percent from the month before, leaving the current national tally at 9.2 percent.

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2011/07/15/can-a-president-be-reelected-with-9-unemployment

US Warns of Bombs at Mexico Crossings

Following the recent arrests of drug cartel suspects, the United States on Friday warned Americans traveling to or from Chihuahua, Mexico, that U.S. border crossings and the local consulate could become the targets of attacks.

"Information has come to light that suggests a cartel may be targeting the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juarez or U.S. Ports of Entry," the consulate said in a statement Friday. "In the past, cartels have been willing to utilize car bombs in attacks. We ask American citizens to remain vigilant."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43774558/ns/world_news-americas/t/us-warns-bombs-mexico-border-crossings

The Real Reason Big Macs Are Cheaper Than More Nutritious Alternatives

Lawmakers whose campaigns are underwritten by agribusinesses have used billions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize those agribusinesses' specific commodities (corn, soybeans, wheat, etc.) that are the key ingredients of unhealthy food. Not surprisingly, the subsidies have manufactured a price inequality that helps junk food undersell nutritious-but-unsubsidized foodstuffs like fruits and vegetables. The end result is that recession-battered consumers are increasingly forced by economic circumstance to "choose" the lower-priced junk food that their taxes support.

http://www.alternet.org/food/151660/the_real_reason_big_macs_are_cheaper_than_more_nutritious_alternatives

Genetic Research Confirms that Non-Africans are Part Neanderthal

Some of the human X chromosome originates from Neanderthals and is found exclusively in people outside Africa, according to an international team of researchers led by Damian Labuda of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Montreal and the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center. The research was published in the July issue of Molecular Biology and Evolution.

"This confirms recent findings suggesting that the two populations interbred," says Dr. Labuda. His team places the timing of such intimate contacts and/or family ties early on, probably at the crossroads of the Middle East.

Neanderthals, whose ancestors left Africa about 400,000 to 800,000 years ago, evolved in what is now mainly France, Spain, Germany and Russia, and are thought to have lived until about 30,000 years ago. Meanwhile, early modern humans left Africa about 80,000 to 50,000 years ago. The question on everyone's mind has always been whether the physically stronger Neanderthals, who possessed the gene for language and may have played the flute, were a separate species or could have interbred with modern humans. The answer is yes, the two lived in close association.

"In addition, because our methods were totally independent of Neanderthal material, we can also conclude that previous results were not influenced by contaminating artifacts," adds Dr. Labuda.

Dr. Labuda and his team almost a decade ago had identified a piece of DNA (called a haplotype) in the human X chromosome that seemed different and whose origins they questioned. When the Neanderthal genome was sequenced in 2010, they quickly compared 6000 chromosomes from all parts of the world to the Neanderthal haplotype. The Neanderthal sequence was present in peoples across all continents, except for sub-Saharan Africa, and including Australia.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-07/uom-grc071411.php

Crossing the Red Sea: Egypt Approves Massive Bridge to Saudi Arabia

Egypt and Saudi Arabia hope to construct a giant bridge spanning the Gulf of Aqaba for road and rail traffic. Officials at Egypt's Ministry of Transportation have confirmed to SPIEGEL that the project, under discussion since 1988, has finally been approved. Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf has reportedly put General Abdul Aziz, the chairman of the Arab Road Association, in charge of overseeing the project's implementation.

 

 

The Gulf of Aqaba runs along the eastern edge of the Sinai Peninsula. Plans call for the 32-kilometer (20-mile) bridge to cross the narrow Strait of Tiran from Ras Nasrani, near the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, to Ras Hamid in northwestern Saudi Arabia. Parts of the bridge would be suspended.

For the Arabs, the massive construction project would be a triumph. For the first time since 1948, when the modern state of Israel was founded, Arab states in North Africa would have a direct road link with fellow Arab states in the Middle East without having to cross Israeli territory. It would also reduce dependence on sometimes perilous ferry crossings over the Red Sea and Arab ports on the Mediterranean.

Planners believe that tolls paid by millions of Muslim pilgrims on their way to holy sites in Saudi Arabia could make up for the roughly $5 billion (€3.6) the bridge is expected to cost. They also believe the bridge will significantly increase the number of pilgrims.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,775020,00.html

Fox & Friends' Jaw-Dropping Whitewash of News of the World Scandal

Fox Emails Show Attempts to Slant News Against Obama and His Policies

While participating in a panel discussion about new emails purportedly showing "White House Bias" against Fox News, Washington Post editorial writer Charles Lane commented that he'd "like to see the internal emails here at Fox about the Obama administration" as a contrast. Lane is in luck. Internal emails obtained by Media Matters have shown attempts by Fox News executive Bill Sammon to slant news coverage against President Obama and his policies.

Sammon Email Stresses "References To Socialism, Liberalism, Marxism And Marxists" In Obama's Memoir. From a 2008 email sent by Bill Sammon, then Fox News' deputy Washington managing editor and now its Washington managing editor, and obtained by Media Matters:

From: Sammon, Bill
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 1:02 PM
To: 069 -Politics; 169 -SPECIAL REPORT; 030 -Root (FoxNews.Com)
Subject: fyi: Obama's references to socialism, liberalism, Marxism and Marxists in his autobiography, "Dreams from My Father." Plus a couple of his many self-described "racial obsessions"...

* "To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists." (Obama writing about his time at Occidental College in "Dreams.")

* After his sophomore year, Obama transferred to Columbia University. He lived on Manhattan's Upper East Side, venturing to the East Village for "thesocialist conferences I sometimes attended at Cooper Union," he recalled, adding: "Much of what I absorbed from the sixties was filtered through my mother, who to the end of her life would proudly proclaim herself an unreconstructed liberal."

* After graduating from Columbia in 1983, Obama spent a year working for a consulting firm and then went to work for "a Ralph Nader offshoot" in Harlem. "In search of some inspiration, I went to hear Kwame Toure, formerly Stokely Carmichael of SNCC and Black Panther fame, speak at Columbia. At the entrance to the auditorium, two women, one black, one Asian, were selling Marxist literature."

During this period, according to Obama, he began a serious romantic relationship.

* "There was a woman in New York that I loved. She was white," Obama wrote in "Dreams." "We saw each other for almost a year. On the weekends, mostly. Sometimes in her apartment, sometimes in mine. You know how you can fall into your own private world? Just two people, hidden and warm. Your own language. Your own customs." But Obama said their relationship was doomed by the racial difference. "I pushed her away," he recalled."The emotion between the races could never be pure; even love was tarnished by the desire to find in the other some element that was missing from ourselves. Whether we sought out our demons or salvation, the other race would always remain just that: menacing, alien, and apart."

* In June 1985, Obama was interviewed in New York by Marty Kaufman, a community organizer from Chicago. Obama recalled: "There was something about him that made me wary. A little too sure of himself, maybe. And white."

Mike Luckovich, Copyright 2011 Creators Syndicate

Study Says Internet Use Affects Our Memory

Reading about the cognitive effects of internet use is always highly ironic for me, because I am invariably reading the story online.  A new piece from the New York Times was no exception: it highlighted new research from a team of psychology professors at Columbia, who found that people are using the internet as their personal memory bank.  Because information is so easy to access, we remember how to find it, not what the information actually is.

Participants in the study were “significantly more likely” to remember information if they thought they would not be able to retrieve it later.  In another test, participants were asked to remember a piece of trivia as well as the computer folder it was stored in.  Surprisingly, they were far more likely to remember the folder than the information itself.

This, according to the NYT, is due to a phenomenon called “transactive memory” – where we rely on friends and family as well as reference material to store information for us, so we don’t have to remember it.  The internet, with its endless reservoir of information, seems to be drastically changing the way we store and process memories.

The researchers explained it well in the study’s abstract: “No longer do we have to make costly efforts to find the things we want. We can ‘Google’ the old classmate, find articles online, or look up the actor who was on the tip of our tongue.”

http://www.care2.com/causes/study-says-internet-use-affects-our-memory.html

Death Toll Climbs to 19 in Mumbai Triple Bombings

The death toll from this week's bombings in India's financial capital rose to 19 as Mumbai police continued Saturday to systematically sift through the evidence gathered from the site of the three blasts.

A police official said teams of investigators had fanned out to at least three different cities in the country to probe the existence of terrorist outfits that may have links to the bombings.

The death toll in the blasts climbed to 19 when two injured men succumbed to their wounds, another police official said Saturday.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

More than 100 people were still in hospitals in Mumbai being treated for wounds sustained when the bombs went off Wednesday evening.

No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings, and investigators have not named any suspects.

http://news.yahoo.com/death-toll-climbs-19-mumbai-triple-bombings-064844296.html