- Physics freaks, prepare to have your world rocked. The reigning
theory of particle physics may be flawed, literally altering the universe as we
know it. Up to now, the Standard Model has been the best handbook scientists
have to describe the tiny bits of matter that make up the universe, but that
theory has long been a point of criticism for scientists who argue that it has
numerous holes in it. New evidence from a study called the BaBar experiment at
the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, Calif., has pointed out
where those holes may life. Inside the accelerator, researchers observe
collisions between electrons and their antimatter partners, positrons
(scientists think all matter particles have antimatter counterparts with equal
mass but opposite charge). What the BaBar researchers found was new evidence
that a subatomic particle decays in a certain way more often than it should.
When these collisions occur, the particles explode into energy that converts
into new particles. These often include so-called B-bar mesons, which are made
of both matter and antimatter, including a bottom quark and an antiquark. As
confusing as all of that is, the process also has the bulky label "B to
D-star-tau-nu." In their work, the BaBar researchers were looking for a
particular decay process where B-bar mesons decay into three other particles: a
D meson (a quark and an antiquark, one of which is "charm" flavored),
an antineutrino (the antimatter partner of the neutrino) and a tau lepton (a
cousin of an electron). In their experiments, this result occurred more often
than the Standard Model predicts it will. "The excess over the Standard
Model prediction is exciting," BaBar spokesperson Michael Roney of the
University of Victoria in Canada said in a statement. "But before we can
claim an actual discovery, other experiments have to replicate it and rule out
the possibility this isn't just an unlikely statistical fluctuation."
Confirming a clear break from the Standard Model will take more research, but
debunking knowledge people based their world view on is always worth the effort…………
- Iceland has given plenty to the world (which goes without
saying, of course) and now, the Icelandic people have done something that
neither Michael Bay nor Steven Spielberg have been able to accomplish, namely
making Shia LeBouf’s on-screen presence anything other than uninteresting and
unremarkable. LeBouf, who failed to add anything to the “Transformers”
franchise that any C-level actor could not have contributed to the mix and
starred in the movie that officially but a burning slug into the back of the
head of the “Indiana Jones” franchise, is receiving plenty of attention after
his appearance in a new music v Sigur Ros
ideo for Icelandic rockers. More specifically, one member of LeBouf’s anatomy
is receiving a wealth of attention and it’s definitely not his nose. LeBouf
goes fully nude in the artsy video and the video features a few side profile
shots of his crank. In Iceland, nudity of that sort isn’t anything remarkable,
but the video is the subject of a lot of talk in other parts of the globe. Georg Holm, the bassist for the band,
admitted that initially, he found the video a bit perplexing but he has now
come to embrace it. "At first I didn't know what to make of the video,
because it is so full of ideas and confusion," Holm said. "Now I love
it. It seems to have no beginning and no end, and just makes you think
about what might and might not be going on." The video quickly went viral
right after it was released on the Internet Monday morning and LeBouf is
credited with collaborating on the video concept. According to the band, the
concept is an artistic interpretation about the struggles of various
addictions. Its success, however extensive that may be, could open up a world
of success for LeBouf in all manner of projects wherein he doesn’t actually
have to execute any dialogue………..
- Never let it be said that the fashion world or the
residents of sunny Southern California are out of touch with the world around
them. Just because kooky Beverly Hills designer Jeremy Scott designed a custom shoe for adidas
that critics say evokes slavery because it features a plastic set of shackles
is no reason to paint Scott and his fellow fashion-eers as clueless about how
the average person with a social conscience thinks. Reaction to the shoe has
ranged from shock to anger and on Twitter, many users took to labeling the
shoes "Adidas slave shackle kicks." The idea for a boycott was
bandied about, but the company pre-empted those threats Monday night by
announcing it is pulling the shoe design even though it believes the kicks are the
handiwork of a whimsical designer. "The design of the JS Roundhouse Mid is
nothing more than the designer Jeremy Scott's outrageous and unique take on
fashion and has nothing to do with slavery. Since the shoe debuted on our
Facebook page ahead of its market release in August, Adidas has received both
favorable and critical feedback. We apologize if people are offended by the
design and we are withdrawing our plans to make them available in the
marketplace," an official company statement explained. Some media outlets
have decried the reaction as manufactured hysteria and scoffed at any racist
implications, but adidas clearly did not portray the shoes as anything other
than the cutting edge in overpriced athletic shoe fashion. A picture of the
shoes, with their yellow “shackle” rising upward, appeared early Monday on the
company’s Facebook page with the message: "Got a sneaker game so hot you
lock your kicks to your ankles?" Angry African-Americans posted responses
invoking slavery and the injustices perpetrated on their ancestors and
threatened to boycott all adidas products if the shoes went on sale. However,
the controversy has been averted and these suddenly socially conscious shoe
consumers can turn their rage elsewhere………..
- The wealthiest athletes in the world are not necessarily
the healthiest or the freest at the moment. In fact, being on Forbes magazine’s list of the 100 highest paid athletes seems to be synonymous with
failure, injury and in at least one case, incarceration, at the moment. The No.
1 entry on the list is also a current inmate at the Clark County detention
center in Las Vegas, living in seclusion from the prison’s general population
because of his celebrity status and spending 23 hours a day in his cell. Floyd
Mayweather Jr. is currently serving a three-month jail sentence for domestic
battery but was sports’ top earner last year, making $85 million for two fights
and his other sources of income. The man against whom Mayweather could have had
the biggest fight in boxing in years until that man suffered a highly
suspicious loss to Timothy Bradley earlier this month was second on the list,
as Manny Pacquiao made $62 million from earnings and endorsements. Pacquiao
lost his WBO welterweight title to Bradley in an indefensible split decision
two weekends ago that left most observers crying that the fix was in. The wave
of anti-success continued for the third man on the list: golfer Tiger Woods.
Woods, who had been No. 1 on the list since 2001, made $59.4 million to place
third and after coming unglued at the U.S. Open over the weekend and finishing
15 shots off the pace at the Masters in April, he’s hardly on an upward
trajectory. The first man on the list to be both free from incarceration and
not suffering one disappointing defeat after another is LeBron James of the
Miami Heat, who ranked fourth with $53 million. Quickly fading former tennis
great Roger Federer is fifth at $52.7 million and the top football player is
the recovering Peyton Manning at No. 10 as he tries to come back from multiple
neck surgeries. Only two women made the list, as French Open champion Maria
Sharapova ($27.9 million) comes in at No. 26 and the 2011 French Open champion
Li Na further behind with $18.4 million………
- Put Mogadishu back on the list of potential vacation destinations, world. The
Somali capital has finally shed a label it never wanted in the first place: The
World's Most Dangerous City. The seaside city is enjoying a peace that has
lasted for the better part of a year to the point that Somalis who fled decades
of war are coming back, along with United Nations relief workers long forced to
operate out of Nairobi, the capital of neighboring Kenya. Many nations are
reopening their embassies in the city and Somalis who fled for safer pastures
are stunned as they return to a city much different than the one they left. The
U.N. and embassies pulled out in the 1990s and the last fully functioning
government collapsed in 1991, and the city fell under the control of Al-Qaida-linked
militants from 2007 until last August, a four-year span when full-fledged war
raged with African Union troops. Last month, the African force took control of
Afmadow, an al-Shabab stronghold on Mogadishu's outskirts, and have brought
security to the city. "This is the longest period of sustained peace
Mogadishu has seen in 20 years," said Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda, spokesman
for the African Union force known as AMISOM. Britain announced in February that
it was naming an ambassador to Somalia and Johnnie Carson, the U.S. assistant
secretary of state for African affairs, visited Mogadishu on Sunday. The Somali
government is focused on transforming troops in Mogadishu into a professional
force that provides security instead of being a threat. Soldiers are receiving
training in Uganda, but many go months without pay and some remain a danger to
Somalia's civilians. Signs of progress can be seen in Mogadishu's port, where
ginormous quantities of construction materials are being shipped in. Land
prices are on the rise and the world is taking notice of all the positive
developments. "I keep saying Mogadishu is open for business.
Reconstruction is at an incredible level," said Killian Kleinschmidt, the
U.N.'s deputy humanitarian coordinator for Mogadishu. Reminders of war, like
damaged buildings and bullet-riddled walls, can still be seen, but Somali
government spokesman Abdirahman Omar Osman believes Mogadishu is now safer than
Baghdad or Kabul. The city may even appoint a tourism minister soon to attract
tourists to the city………
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