Culture | Nerdlets

My Very First Strangelet

Sep 102008

I’ve decided to introduce a new segment to an already crowded blog: the strangelet. Strangelets are like Nerdlets, but weird, wild, and, well, strange. The term “strangelet” derives from the controversy surrounding the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which powered up today after a long and convoluted history (remember the Super Conductor Super Collider?)

In other words, it is appropriate that our first strangelet be about, well, the strangelet. Here is the definition from wikipedia:

A strangelet is a hypothetical object consisting of a bound state of roughly equal numbers of up, down, and strange quarks. The size would be a minimum of a few femtometers across (with the mass of a light nucleus). Once the size becomes macroscopic (on the order of meters across), such an object is usually called a quark star or “strange star” rather than a strangelet. An equivalent description is that a strangelet is a small fragment of strange matter. The term “strangelet” originates with E. Farhi and R. Jaffe. Strangelets have been suggested as a dark matter candidate.

So what’s the big deal? Well some believe that the strangelet, if it exists, could destroy the world. Don’t believe me? Well the BBC documentary End Day lists this as one of six possible doomsday scenarios.

For a more balanced perspective, and a history of the controversy, be sure to check out this story on NPR’s Talk of the Nation. And here is today’s news on the subject.

Assuming we are all still here tomorrow, I hope to have another wild and wacky post from the world of strange news. And, as luck would have it, it also deals with the end of the world…

Update: See the story by Ars Technica here.

Six Highlights from the Saddleback Forum

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Aug 182008

A to-the-point analysis from Politico.com.

McCain, Obama, and Rick Warren

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Aug 152008

The two candidates will make their first joint appearance this Saturday at Saddleback Church, hosted by Rick Warren. The website for the event can be found here. NPR reports:

Warren has said that the conversations will focus on issues such as
poverty, AIDS, climate change and human rights. The forum also gives
the politicians the chance to appeal to religious voters. The most recent poll
from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life shows that white
evangelicals are more undecided now than they were at this point during
the last two election cycles.

And also this, from a Q&A with the Pew Forum’s John Green:

Beyond what it may say about the role of religion and the campaign, the
event seems to serve the purposes of both the Obama and McCain
campaigns. As you know, there has been a lot of back-and-forth between
the campaigns about joint appearances. This is the first one that’s
happened. It could also be that some of the people who put this
together, including Rick Warren himself, were a particular draw.

In the course of further discussion, Green compares Rick Warren’s recent place in political discussion to Billy Graham:

One of the reasons Warren has the kind of attraction to Obama and
McCain is that he is not as political as some pastors are. He cares
very much about issues like AIDS in Africa. The better parallel is
between him and [Billy] Graham. Graham was friends with many presidents
and close to the Bush family. Graham did this in a very bipartisan way
but always managed to stay above the rough and tumble, because he
always talked about issues, and he based his appeal on personal
relationships.

Read more here. Mark Stricherz of getReligion.org offers some further thoughts about Rick Warren. It is also interesting that the abortion debate does not appear to be on the agenda, particularly given some statements by Obama, not to mention proposed changes in the Democratic platform on the issue.

The Letdown of Internet Obsession

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Aug 152008

Peter Sagal on All Things Considered:

Like a lot of people, I am constantly checking my e-mail accounts. I also check if anybody has commented on my blog, and I check my phone for text messages, and I await instant messages like a trembling young fawn. But I noticed recently that once I’ve received an e-mail, text message or comment, I feel a certain letdown. Before it arrives, it could be anything: a new opportunity, an old friend emerging from the past, a summons to the palace, because the king has decided that only I can save the kingdom. Once the messages arrive, they seem so mundane: friends I already have, requests that ask nothing of my special crime-fighting abilities, entreaties from Nigerians to whom I’ve already sent checks.

Should the President Twitter: An Update

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Aug 132008

I asked the question here. The answer, perhaps, is available here. An excerpt:

Up until last night, the person with the most followers on the micro-messaging service was Digg founder and Web celeb Kevin Rose, with 56,482 other people following his every public mind burp. It took none other than Barack Obama (or, rather, Obama’s campaign machine) to take the Twitter crown away from Rose. Obama can now finally stand tall knowing that 56,791 people subscribe to his campaign Tweets.

New Frontiers in Campaigning

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Aug 122008

The Bush era may have created a polarized political environment, but the differences between Obama and McCain are more than political. Increasingly voters are asked to consider the socio-cultural differences between the candidates, whether it be age, race, ideology, or some other factor.

Two recent stories illustrate this trend.

First, and close to my nerdy heart, here is an analysis of Obama’s recent announcement that SMS and Email would be the information medium of choice for his upcoming VP announcement. It’s a move that simultaneously galvanizes young voters, for whom SMS in particular is a primary method of communication, and functions as a kind of pot-shot at McCain’s less than sophisticated utilization of technology.

Second, NPR takes penetrating news analysis to a new level with this story about the candidates top music choices. This kind of thing also appeals to a younger crowd, for whom musical preferences are a way of creating personal identity. In this regard, I wonder how McCain’s choice of ABBA–twice–will resonate.

Garfield and Open Source

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Aug 072008

At first it may seem that the Garfield comic strip has nothing to do with my aforementioned open-source agenda. But check out this post, which not only tells us about the benefits of a culture of sharing, but also provides an interesting perspective on art, language, hermeneutics, and the contextual nature of meaning.

Should the President Twitter?

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Aug 032008

As a computer nerd who nevertheless has a strange love of LPs and dusty old books, I found this article interesting. Here are a couple of highlights:

While 73 percent of American adults use the Internet (only 35 percent 65 or older), according to a survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, it’s likely that many of them would rather have a president who can get Osama bin Laden than get online. And there is a common belief that says being president should be more a “vision” job than a “management” job, and that the clutter of a digital life can only distract from the Big Picture and Deep Thoughts a leader should be concerned with. In other words, would we really want a president “friending” from the Oval Office, scouring Wikipedia for information on Iran’s nuclear program or fielding e-mail from someone claiming to be “Nigerian general” seeking an American bank account for embezzled millions?

Computers have become something of a cultural marker — in politics and in the real world. Proficiency with them suggests a basic familiarity with the day-to-day experience of most Americans — just as ignorance to them can suggest someone is “out of touch,” or “old.”

“I do understand the importance of the computer,” Mr. McCain reassured in The San Francisco Chronicle last week. “I understand the importance of the blogs.” He said, “I am forcing myself — let me put it this way, I am using the computer more and more every day.” But keeping up with technology “doesn’t mean that I have to e-mail people,” he said. “Now, I read e-mails.” The staff is “constantly showing them to me as the news breaks during the day.”

Read the whole thing.