Clipmarks | BobbyDelray's 'inflation' clips

Faster than the Speed of Light? VSL Theory Says, "Yes"

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 10:14:12 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

A brilliant young physicist João Magueijo asks the heretical question: What if the speed of light—now accepted as one of the unchanging foundations of modern physics—were not constant?

Magueijo, a 40-year old native of Portugal, puts forth the heretical idea that in the very early days of the universe light traveled faster—an idea that if proven could dethrone Einstein and forever change our understanding of the universe. He is a pioneer of the varying speed of light (VSL) theory of cosmology -an alternative to the more mainstream theory of cosmic inflation- which proposes that the speed of light in the early universe was of 60 orders of magnitude faster than its present value.

Solving the most intractable problems of cosmology in one brilliant leap, Magueijo’s varying-speed-of-light theory (VSL) would have stunning implications for space travel, black holes, time dilation, and string theory—and could help uncover the grand unified theory that ultimately eluded Einstein.

Tags: light, speed, vsl

Stephen Hawking's explosive new theory

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:49:22 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Stephen Hawking's explosive new theory

Prof Stephen Hawking has come up with a new idea to explain why the Big Bang of creation led to the vast cosmos that we can see today.

Astronomers can deduce that the early universe expanded at a mind-boggling rate because regions separated by vast distances have similar background temperatures.

They have proposed a process of rapid expansion of neighbouring regions, with similar cosmic properties, to explain this growth spurt which they call inflation.

But that left a deeper mystery: why did inflation occur in the first place?

Now New Scientist reports that an answer has been proposed by Prof Stephen Hawking of Cambridge University, working with Prof Thomas Hertog of the Astroparticle and Cosmology Laboratory in Paris.

Tags: stephen hawking, science, cosmos, bing bang

How did the Universe Begin ?

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:00:06 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: The no-boundary wave function also states that space-time was not what we see today at the outset of universal expansion. “When the universe started out,” Hartle explains, “there wasn’t ordinary space-time. Instead of three space directions, as we have now, there were four space directions. At some point, a transition was made to ordinary space-time.”

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

One of the most interesting questions considered by astrophysicists deals with the start of our universe.

Indeed, there is a great deal of speculation on the subject, with different theories about how the universe began, and what may have existed before the universe came into being.

Several prominent astrophysicists around the world are interested in answering these questions.

“The no-boundary wave function is one theory about the origins of the universe.” The goal of this particular work with Hawking and Hertog, he continues, was to model the universe and see what kind of probabilities exist that the current universe could have originated in a certain way.

The no-boundary proposal predicts that expansion in the early universe would have proceeded smoothly from a moment in time. The idea is that inflation was a feature of our early universe. “It collapsed from a previous large phase, bounced at a small but not zero radius, and expanded again to the large phase we are living in,”

Tags: cosmology

Before the beginning of the universe

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 13:39:51 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Alan Guth of MIT, who first proposed the inflation theory nearly three decades ago, says he suspects “the reported lopsidedness will more likely turn out to be a fluke.” However, he adds, “the concept of inflation is really only the framework of a theory, and so far experiment has given us very little guidance in trying to fill in the details.

Clip Source: www.kurzweilai.net

Caltech scientists have developed new models of the universe that account for the recent finding that temperature variations in the cosmic microwave background radiation over half the sky appear to be about 10 percent greater than the variations in the other half.

Clip Source: www.sciencenews.org

In one scenario, the universe existed before inflation — the short-lived but enormous growth spurt associated with the Big Bang. In the other scenario, the universe is but a tiny part of a primordial structure now grown so big it exceeds the horizon of the observable universe.

Either way, the explanations suggest “that something outside our observable universe or before the period of inflation left a relic, left some imprint on what we can observe today,” says Carroll, of Caltech.

Tags: cosmology

We were warned

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 02:45:56 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: Despite these warnings, Woodrow Wilson signed the 1913 Federal Reserve Act. A few years later he wrote: I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men. -Woodrow Wilson

Clip Source: www.davidforalaska.com

If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks...will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.... The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.

... The modern theory of the perpetuation of debt has drenched the earth with blood, and crushed its inhabitants under burdens ever accumulating. -Thomas Jefferson

History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance. -James Madison

If congress has the right under the Constitution to issue paper money, it was given them to use themselves, not to be delegated to individuals or corporations. -Andrew Jackson

Iceland in Meltdown Disaster

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 08:47:47 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Man-made global economics change.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

The party's over for Iceland, the island that tried to buy the world

Almost overnight, its population became the wealthiest on Earth.

The bars and restaurants of Iceland's capital are packed, the Range Rovers and BMWs are parked nose to tail all along the streets of the central 101 district, and music is pumping from a black stretch Hummer limousine cruising by.

Iceland is on the brink of collapse. Inflation and interest rates are raging upwards. The krona, Iceland's currency, is in freefall and is rated just above those of Zimbabwe and Turkmenistan. One of the country's three independent banks has been nationalised, another is asking customers for money, and the discredited government and officials from the central bank have been huddled behind closed doors for three days with still no sign of a plan. International banks won't send any more money and supplies of foreign currency are running out.

Icelanders drink more Coca-Cola than anyone else in the world.

Tags: iceland, economics

Sci-Fi Costs

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:27:48 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

Gundam Mecha
Cost: $725M (Estimated parts total)

Moonbase
Cost: $105bn (Half of NASA's anticipated $14bn 2019 Exploration Missions budget every year for a decade)

Orbital Hotel

Cost: $1.2bn (Britain's Proposed ISS Astronaut's Lounge)

Transatlantic Tunnel

Cost: $1.6 trillion to $10 trillion, depending on how it's cut.

Supersonic Transport

Cost: $30m (Repair decaying BA Concorde) to $180m (Inflation-adjusted cost of a new one)

New York-L.A. Maglev Express

Cost: $70bn (Based on established construction costs)

A Floating City
Cost: $11bn For 18,000 Homes
International waters offer plenty of real estate, but getting foundations to stay put is another matter. Micronations like Sealand don't count: we want the gigantic floating pyramid cities (pictured here) that Future Cities promised us in 1979.

Android Armies

Cost: $1bn a battallion

Blasters and Railguns

Cost: $10m for a field-effective weapon

Interstellar Exploration

Cost: Unimaginable.

Tags: scifi

Palin's American Exception

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:25:58 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Sarah Palin loves the word “exceptional.”

But exceptionalism has taken an ugly twist of late. It’s become the angry refuge of the America that wants to deny the real state of the world.

Behind Palinism lies anger. It’s been growing as America’s relative decline has become more manifest in falling incomes, imploding markets, massive debt and rising new centers of wealth and power from Shanghai to Dubai.

Enough is enough.

If I were Obama, I’d put it this way: “Senator McCain, the world you claim to understand is the world of yesterday. A new century demands new thinking. Our country cannot be made fundamentally secure by a man who thought our economy was fundamentally sound.”

To persist with a philosophy grounded in America’s separateness, rather than its connectedness, would be devastating at a time when the country faces two wars, a financial collapse unseen since 1929, commodity inflation, a huge transfer of resources to the Middle East, and the imperative to develop new sources of energy.

90 Years Of Gasoline Prices Adjusted For Inflation

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 01:05:07 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Most interesting.

Clip Source: www.inflationdata.com

Welcome To Richistan, USA

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:03:50 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: observer.guardian.co.uk

America's super-rich have returned to the days of the Roaring Twenties. As the rest of the country struggles to get by, a huge bubble of multi-millionaires lives almost in a parallel world. The rich now live in their own world of private education, private health care and gated mansions. They have their own schools and their own banks.

The rich have now created their own economy for their needs, at a time when the average worker's wage rises will merely match inflation and where 36 million people live below the poverty line. In

Then there is the runaway feeder-industry of luxury consumer items. The new ultra rich turn up their noses at Rolexes; the sought-after brand is Franck Muller, which sells a high-end timepiece for $736,000. Or try a Mont Blanc pen, encrusted in jewels, for $700,000. Louis Vuitton's most exclusive handbag sells for $42,000. Only 24 were ever made and none ever touched a shelf as all were pre-sold to Richistani clients.

Tags: rich, poor, economic, divide

The Great Cosmic Roller-Coaster Ride

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:18:50 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: better than sci-fi

Clip Source: sciam.com

Could cosmic inflation be a sign that our universe is embedded in a far vaster realm

You might not think that cosmologists could feel claustrophobic in a universe that is 46 billion light-years in radius and filled with sextillions of stars. But one of the emerging themes of 21st-century cosmology is that the known universe, the sum of all we can see, may just be a tiny region in the full extent of space. Various types of parallel universes that make up a grand “multiverse” often arise as side effects of cosmological theories. We have little hope of ever directly observing those other universes, though, because they are either too far away or somehow detached from our own universe.

Some parallel universes, however, could be separate from but still able to interact with ours, in which case we could detect their direct effects. The possibility of these worlds came to cosmologists’ attention by way of string theory, the leading candidate for the foundational laws of nature

Tags: science, cosmos, cosmology, parallel universes, multiverse, string theory

Zimbabwe 'collapse in six months'

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 20:28:06 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Zimbabwe 'collapse in six months'

Many Zimbabweans now use firewood instead of electricity

Zimbabwe will collapse within six months, possibly leading to a state of emergency, says a leaked briefing report for aid workers in the country.

Rampant inflation will mean shops and services can no longer function and people would resort to barter, it said.

"The memorandum is talking about a situation where there is no functioning government or a total breakdown," an unnamed aid worker told the UK Times.

Zimbabwe's inflation is already 3,714% - the highest rate in the world.

Tags: zimbabwe, africa

Please Sign: Drill Here, Drill Now Petition

Fri, 23 May 2008 10:21:02 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Background Just the facts...

The average price for a gallon of gas is now $3.72, this is $.61 higher than a year ago.

The U.S. Congress has acted, but in the wrong direction. Last week, the Senate voted narrowly against reversing a moratorium on oil-shale development.

Federal officials and industry experts estimate that up to 1.8 trillion barrels of oil is trapped in the region's oil shale, or three times the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia.

Laws and policies that restrict access to America’s abundant energy drive up the price of fuel and electricity. They cause widespread layoffs and leave workers and families struggling to survive, as the cost of everything they eat, drive, wear and do spirals higher.

http://www.americansolutions.com/actioncenter/petitions/?Guid=54ec6e43-75a8-445b-aa7b-346a1e096659

Clip Source: www.americansolutions.com

Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less
A Real Change Campaign to Lower Your Gas Prices

We, therefore, the undersigned citizens of the United States, petition the U.S. Congress to act immediately to lower gasoline prices by authorizing the exploration of proven energy reserves to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries.

We currently have 9199 signatures.

As gas prices continue to increase, Congress continues to blame others while ignoring practical steps to stop the pain Americans are feeling at the pump. To reduce our dependence on foreign oil, we need real solutions to our energy challenges.

73% of the American people agree that with appropriate safeguards to protect the environment, we should drill for oil off America's coasts to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Tags: u.s.congress, oil exploration, gas prices, layoffs, inflation

Bush: Biggest Spender Ever !!! Worst EVER !!! Top WASTER

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:03:57 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: Defence
Under Bush it's grown on average by 5.7% a year. Under LBJ it rose by 4.9% a year. Both numbers are adjusted for inflation. "Including costs for fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, defence spending under Bush has gone up 86% since 2001" Chris Hellman of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. Current annual defense spending — not counting war costs — is 25% above the height of the Reagan-era buildup, he said

Homeland Insecurity
Spending also has soared, to about $31 billion last year, triple the pre-9/11 number.

Bush's super-spending is about far more than defence and homeland security. The 2002 farm bill, 2003 Medicare, 2005 highway bill and education.

Clip Source: www.mcclatchydc.com

Bush is the biggest spender since LBJ

By

Bush is biggest spender | View larger image

WASHINGTON

Bush, despite all his recent bravado about being an apostle of small government and budget-slashing, is the biggest spending president since Lyndon B. Johnson

he's arguably an even bigger spender than LBJ

“He’s a big government guy,”

Take almost any yardstick and Bush generally exceeds the spending of his predecessors

When adjusted for inflation, discretionary spending — or budget items that Congress and the president can control, including defense and domestic programs, but not entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare — shot up at an average annual rate of 5.3 percent during Bush’s first six years

That tops the 4.6 percent annual rate Johnson logged during his 1963-69 presidency. By these standards, Ronald Reagan was a tightwad; discretionary spending grew by only 1.9

Discretionary spending went up in Bush's first term by 48.5 percent, not adjusted for inflation

twice as much as Bill Clinto

Tags: bush, money

A Hug A Day...

Tue, 01 May 2007 12:46:57 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: One size fits all.

Clip Source: www.gagirl.com

"Hugging is healthy: it helps the body's immunity system, it keeps you healthier, it cures depression, it reduces stress, it induces sleep, it's invigorating, it's rejuvenating, it has no unpleasant side effects, and hugging is nothing less than a miracle drug.

Hugging is all natural: it is organic, naturally sweet, it has no pesticides, no preservatives, no artificial ingredients, and is 100% wholesome.

Hugging is practically perfect: there are no movable parts, no batteries to replace, no periodic check-ups, has low energy consumption, high energy yield, is inflation-proof, non-fattening, has no monthly payments, no insurance requirements, is theft-proof, non-taxable, non-polluting, and is, of course, fully refundable."

-- Sharon Lindsey --

I have found that people who receive nurturing maintain a better outlook on their situation -- and historically, positive attitude is an important factor in long-term survival.

"I recommend at least one hug a day.

*HUGS*

Tags: emotions, love, hugs, health