March 21, 2013 1:00 PM EDT
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/21/full-video-and-transcript-of-obama-s-speech-in-israel.print.html
Source: nymag.com Look at the world through their eyes.
Astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked by a reader of TIME magazine, "What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?" This is his answer.
http://youtu.be/9D05ej8u-gU
http://vimeo.com/38101676
Watch the documentaries at the end of this videoclip:
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Black holes are among the most extreme objects in the known universe and astronomers using the NASA-ESA XMM-Newton space telescope have now taken detailed observations of one that's a great example of just how extreme they can be.
This black hole whips a companion star around it so fast that the star completes one orbit in just 2.4 hours, that's around two million kilometres per hour.
"The companion star revolves around the common centre of mass at a dizzying rate, almost 20 times faster than Earth orbits the Sun. You really wouldn’t like to be on such a merry-go-round in this Galactic fair!" said Erik Kuulkers, who leads the X-ray binary group at the ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre in Spain.
This black hole, named MAXI J1659-152, is estimated to be around three times the size of our Sun. It is the leftover remnant of a massive star that burned through its stellar fuel very quickly and then collapsed under the crushing weight of its own gravity, setting off a cataclysmic supernova explosion that left only the black hole and its companion behind.
The black hole's companion is a small, cool red dwarf star, about 20 per cent the size of our Sun. It orbits at about 1 million kilometres away (a little over twice the distance from Earth to the Moon), which is close enough for the black hole's immense gravity to tear matter from the star's surface. It spirals in, creating an 'accretion disk' around the singularity. The video above is an animation that shows what the stellar pair looks like as the black hole whips its companion around.
Watch videos at end of this one:
http://youtu.be/UDTuu-UAhFs
Half of all light in the universe is in millimeter-wavelength light between the far infrared and radio waves. ALMA can detect this light, which is emitted by cool objects and distant objects. It's possible thanks to the telescope's location at 16,400 feet in the driest desert on Earth, and because of the incredible precision of its 66 antennas.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/03/14/worlds-largest-radio-telescope-hailed-as-humanitys-most-ambitious-astronomy-project-to-be-launched-in-chilean-desert/
http://www.popsci.com/science/gallery/2013-03/take-look-unveiling-worlds-largest-radio-telescope
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The Thirty-Meter Telescope to be constructed on Mauna Kea in Hawaii will surpass even theHubble Space Telescope in some ways, giving scientists a new view of some of the oldest stars and galaxies in the universe, as well as planets orbiting nearby stars. This instrument will be so powerful it will bring into view galaxies forming at the edge of the observable universe, near the beginning of time (i.e. near zero time)
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The James Webb Space Telescope
Replacement for Hubble Space Telescope
The project is working to a 2018 launch date.
The James Webb Space Telescope (sometimes called JWST) is a large, infrared-optimized space telescope.
Webb's instruments will be designed to work primarily in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, with some capability in the visible range.
Webb will have a large mirror, 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) in diameter and a sunshield the size of a tennis court.
Webb will find the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe,
http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) presents his take on the gap between rich and poor Americans in Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream. Gibney contends that America's richest citizens have "rigged the game in their favor," and created unprecedented inequality in the United States.
Nowhere, Gibney asserts, is this more evident than on Park Avenue in New York. 740 Park in Manhattan is currently home to the highest concentration of billionaires in the country. Across the river, less than five miles away, Park Avenue runs through the South Bronx, home to the poorest congressional district in the United States.
In Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream Gibney states that while income disparity has always existed in the U.S., it has accelerated sharply over the last 40 years. As of 2010, the 400 richest Americans controlled more wealth than the bottom 50 percent of the populace — 150 million people. In the film, Gibney explains why he believes upward mobility is increasingly out of reach for the poor.
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http://www.whypoverty.net/#en/video/29/?&_suid=136320082713507143843280715068
From: Hasan M Soedjono
Have you seen Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story"?
He goes through great lengths to drive home the point that the universally famous and admired US Bill of Rights (1776) has absolutely no reference whatsoever to Capitalism. Moore's research traces the specific terms Capitalism, Free Markets and Free Competition (as an American creed) to the mid 1930s. This is well over 150 years after the original US Constitution and Bill of Rights. President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to counter this shift with "The Second Bill of Rights," which fine tuned the first one. It strives to strike that elusive balance between creating opportunity and still provide security. It also builds on America being by far the strongest super power in the world by that time. FDR died before his presidential term was up, and his initiative which was rapidly picking popular and political momentum fell through. By WW II's end, and most notably after the Korean War, the term capitalism managed to become synonymous with democracy.
Here are excerpts from Wikipedia about the forgotten Second Bill of Rights, also known as "The Economic Bill of Rights." It reflects and reinforces the principle that Social Justice should be an important part of the American Dream -- two political terms that are almost in total contradiction today, especially given the way the term democracy is currently interpreted. One wonders what the world would look like today if he lived to push it through.
The Economic Bill of Rights
Excerpt from President Roosevelt's January 11, 1944 message to the Congress of the United States on the State of the Union[1]:
It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people ”whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth” is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.
This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.
As our nation has grown in size and stature, however as our industrial economy expanded these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.
We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. Necessitous men are not free men.
[2] People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
America's own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for all our citizens.
For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.
Perhaps the key issue isn't so much capitalism per se.
It is more how the fruits are distributed, to which government plays a key role. This includes who gets taxed how much, and how the proceeds get spent. In a historically ironic way, we can almost blame the hijacking of Democracy by Capitalism as a reaction to the hijacking of Socialism by Communism. Lenin and Stalin had presented the rest of the world with a worrisome picture of how things are done in a Communist state, than in the 1930s, 40s and 50s the general American public became very open to any economic concept that would counter totalitarian centrally planned economies. Capitalism seemed to fit that calling well. This explains how quickly the movement towards the Second Bill of Rights fizzled away. I am not a scholar of political science, let alone American modern history, so I am not saying that Capitalism is necessarily evil. But our learned minds in this distinguished mail list should feel comfortable with intellectual arguments that test our very basic assumptions on why things today are the way they are.
Wishing y'all a glorious Sunday,
-hms-
PS With thanks to mas Soegeng Prijono for the words below:
Bisikan seorang teman pada saya, yang akan saya bagi kepada anda jika berkenan:
Heavy rains remind us of challenges in life. Never ask for a lighter rain.
Just pray for a better umbrella.
That is attitude.
When flood comes, fish eat ants & when flood recedes, ants eat fish. Only time matters.
Just hold on, God gives opportunity to everyone!
Life is not about finding the right person, but creating the right relationship,
it's not how we care in the beginning, but how much we care till the very end.
Some people always throw stones in your path. It depends on you what you make with them.
A Wall or a Bridge? Remember you are the architect of your life.
Search for a beautiful heart, but don't search for a beautiful face' coz beautiful things are not always good, but good things are always beautiful.
It's not important to hold all the good cards in life.
but it's important how well you play with the cards you hold.
Often when we lose all hope & think this is the end, God smiles from above and says, `relax dear it's just a bend, not the end.
Have Faith and have a successful life.
One of the basic differences between God and humans is, God gives, gives and forgives.
but the human gets, gets, gets and forgets.
Be thankful in life....
Energy plan must be about more than just energy
October 11, 2012 11:011 AM
Feeding our energy appetite is top of mind for many people these days.
Some argue we should get coal, oil and gas out of the ground as quickly as possible, build more pipelines and make as much money as we can selling it here and abroad.
Their priorities are the economy and meeting short-term energy needs so we can live the lives to which we’ve become accustomed.
Many others question those priorities. Do we gain comfort and happiness by driving inefficient automobiles, buying and scrapping and then buying more stuff that we must work harder to pay for, and selling resources to enrich the fossil fuel industry and to allow other countries to follow our unsustainable path?
Some governments and industry favour the short-term view. But it’s a “false economy”—it will cost us more in the long run. What about our children and grandchildren and their children and grandchildren? Do we not want them to live healthy and happy lives?
If we pollute the air, water and soil that keep us alive and well, and destroy the biodiversity that allows natural systems to function, no amount of money will save us.
While rushing to exploit our valuable and diminishing fossil fuels, Canada’s government is simultaneously “streamlining” environmental regulations and review processes, cutting scientific staff and departments and limiting public debate on projects that could irreparably damage our rich natural heritage.
Some provinces are attempting to water down hard-won environmental laws, like endangered species legislation, that act as a critical hedge against environmental degradation.
The federal government is also neglecting its legal obligations to protect species at risk.
Ecojustice, on behalf of five conservation groups including the David Suzuki Foundation, recently launched a lawsuit to challenge the government’s multi-year delays in producing recovery strategies for species that would be affected by the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway project.
If we don’t slow down and try to look at ways out of the mess, energy issues will continue to increase, like the Hydra of Greek mythology.
With pipelines, the main issue is rapid tar sands expansion.
But other massive energy projects are also coming down the pipe – from huge dams, like the Site C in northern B.C., to proposed drilling for oil and gas in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Arctic. To what end?
Not only are fossil fuel companies making record profits, they’re being subsidized by Canadian taxpayers to the tune of $1.4 billion a year.
Instead of giving them money, shouldn’t we be compelling them to put at least a small portion of their enormous profits into reducing the massive greenhouse gas emissions they cause?
A large part of the problem is that we are increasing our fossil-fuelled ambitions at breakneck speed in the absence of a national energy strategy.
No one seems to know where we’re going, but the end of the road is looming, and it might lead to a steep drop.
We’re already harming precious ecosystems and are ready to put even more at risk without having an idea of the often irreplaceable value they represent. With climate change and its impacts, along with deforestation, pollution and increasing urbanization, we’re condemning millions of people to lives of poor health, desperation and even death.
Still, we’ve also created much that is good. We have political systems that encourage public debate and access to information.
There are politicians and industry leaders who have joined countless citizens, First Nations, and environmental, labour and social-justice organizations to question current policies and actions.
We have science, medicine and technology that have allowed many of us to live longer. We need to find ways to reconcile our existence with the limits of our finite planet.
What Canada really needs in the short term is a national energy strategy—one that goes beyond fracking and tar sands and pipelines to take into account these many other factors, including wiser use of fossil fuels.
It must help us make the transition from our wasteful addiction to polluting and ever-diminishing fossil fuels to conservation and renewable energy.
Globally, we need to shift from the outdated 20th century notion of measuring progress with gross domestic product to a development paradigm that takes into account well-being and happiness, and that accounts for nature’s valuable services.
Written with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation communications manager Ian Hanington.
www.davidsuzuki.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jqWrotmhEo&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Physically speaking, sound is transported by the collisions of molecules. The easier it is for molecules/atoms, to collide (higher density of the medium) the faster sound travels. Above 100 km altitude, the average distance between air molecules is so high, that these molecules don't collide on a regular base and spend most of the time flying in their own orbits, just like very small satellites. No collisions, no transport of sound.
Just as the velocity of sound depends on the density of the medium through wch it is being propogsted, the velocity of light also varies depending on the medium through wch it is propogating.
Thus the speed of light is not constant ,but changes according to the density of the medium (and temperature) it is traveling through.
Light has a constant speed of 3 x 10^5 km/second = 299,792,458 meters/second = (186,282 miles/second) =(9.5 trillion kilometers /year) through the medium of a vacuum or empty space(according to quantum physics even a perfect vacuum is not empty,but teeming with virtual particles that are popping in and out of existance over very short time frames.This suggests that so-called "empty space" is actually permeated with unobservable energy and invisible forces that are inaccessible to our senses.The energy density of empty space is immense and might account for the missing "dark energy" that is unobservable.If we could tap into this hidden store of energy we would have an unlimited source of fuel/energy.However no one has yet come up with an experimental method to weigh a cubic meter or more of "empty" space in order to measure the weight/mass-equivalence of the virtual particles contained therein).
How can massless energy(photon) materialize into a particle with mass and inertia?
If the speed of light diminishes with increasing density of the medium through wch it travels, at what density of matter would the velocity of light become zero?).
Perhaps the reason light cannot emerge from a Black Hole has something to do with the very high density of it's content/composition?
Light slows to about 225,000 km (140,000 miles) per second when it goes through water( speed of light in ice is 2.29x10^8 m/s) ,and about 206,000 km (128,000 miles) per second when it goes through quartz crystal and 124,000 miles per second through glass. A diamond, , will slow light to 125,000 km (78,000 miles) per second--this is less than half the speed through vacuum!).
Composite white light separates into its constituent frequencies upon passage through a transparent prism because each frequency is slowed down to a different degree according to its energy content.
But photons don't really slow down.rather each hits an atom,gets absorbed and another gets emitted. This process takes different amounts of time depending on the medium and the energy content (frequency) of the photon,hence the time delay.The photon that strikes the window is not the one that emerges on the other side.Is this a complete explanation of the mechanism by wch light slows down when it enters a denser medium?
Light moving through a Bose-Einstein Condensate ( a state of very condensed matter found at near absolute zero)travels at very slow speed. What determines this difference between how much light is slowed?Lene Hau was able to slow light to 17 metres per second by passing it through a transparent superfluid --Bose-Einstein Condensate--a state of matter that only exists at near absolute zero temperatures.Dr. Hau and her associates at Harvard University have successfully transformed light into matter and back into light (was able to momentarily stop/capture a beam of light)using Bose–Einstein condensates. Details of the experiment are discussed in the February 8, 2007 publication of the journal Nature (see entry in this journal titled "Light and Matter United")
Since most of space is within a few degrees of absolute zero (the temperature at wch Bose-Einstein Condensates occur)it is not outside the realm of possibility that light has traversed such a state of matter in reaching us .Such an occurrence would necessarily have slowed it's speed unpredictably and makes "distance to origin" calculations of questionable acracy!This means that light passing through a cloud of dust,gas , plasma,or a Bose-Einstein Condensate (i.e.,non-empty space) would have it's path refracted and/or slowed thereby giving an observor a false position for the emitting object.
Can we ever accurately know the exact (versus apparent ) position of light-emitting objects in the night sky?
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