I just learned this today about quarks. From Death by black hole:

You’ll never catch a quark all by itself; it will always be clutching onto other quarks nearby. In fact, the force that keeps two (or more) of them together actually grows stronger the more you separate them – as if they were attached by some sort of subnuclear rubber band. Separate the quarks enough, the rubber band snaps and the stored energy summons E=mc² to create a new quark at each end, leaving you back where you started.

Note to the world: If you have something to say which can easily be summed up in a short paragraph with little additional value coming from image or video, do not, under any circumstances, put that text to sound and create a slow playing youtube video. Why is it that you feel there is so much value added simply by adding something to youtube (rather than, say, a simple email), that all emails have started to become nothing more than youtube links? Please rediscover the long lost art of typing and stop making me sit through your stupid youtube videos.

I learned something yesterday from Neil deGrasse Tyson’s “Death by Black Hole“, (an otherwise so-so book). The mysterious “Canals on Mars” that many people actually thought for a time were real were initially “discovered” by Percival Lowell – one of the preeminent astronomers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Lowell was the founder of the Lowell Observatory, which at the time boasted the best telescope in the world. Other astronomers of the time could not duplicate Lowell’s observations, but they all simply assumed it was because they did not have access to the equipment Lowell did. However as telescopes got better, Lowell’s observations were still not duplicated, and after Lowell died in 1916 the source of the canals remained a mystery. Until recently that is. A retired Optometrist from Minnesota noticed that Lowell’s setup was similar to what is commonly used when examining patients for cataracts. Combine this with the fact that Lowell was known to have high blood pressure, and Lowell was actually seeing the blood vessels in his eye! (The blood vessels cast a shadow directly on his retina). A comparison of the maps Lowell drew with the arrangement of blood vessels in the eye yield a remarkable correlation.

kosher bakery surveillance

Originally uploaded by bachrach44

I spotted this sign last week at the Acme on Montgomery avenue in Lower Merion. There’s a kosher bakery in the store, which is under the supervision of the OU and the Philadelphia vaad. I’m curious if the surveillance is there for halakhic reasons (and if so, does this substitute for a mashgiach?) or is it there for security reasons? If it is the later, then it’s interesting to note that grocery stores are actually almost entirely under surveillance for market research reasons. (For example, they know which way people will turn their heads when trying to do comparison shopping – very useful for shelf placement folks). If the former reason, then is it monitored on shabbat?

The moment I’ve been waiting for my whole life (okay, not really), is here. Kosher beef jerky under the brand name…. (wait for it)… Holy cow! Kosher.

Gilad Shalit was 20 year old soldier when he was captured by Hamas, and has now been held in captivity for a little over 3 years. Recently a video was released (in exchange for several prisoners) that proved that Shalit was in fact alive. However a video showing that he is alive is a far step from “free”. Hamas still has him under lock and key, and is still making obscenely high demands. France is now also working to try and mediate, but Shalit is still in limbo. Until then, while there is certainly intelligence information about the situation in the hands of various international intelligence agencies, they aren’t going to risk the situation by tipping their hands. The details of what hapenned, how he has been treated, and his day to day activities probably won’t come out until (if?) he is released and allowed to tell the story. Until then, this is what you’d call an “incomplete story”. For some reason though, this hasn’t stopped one Israeli reporter from trying to make a buck by publishing the Gilad Shalit story. (Bad translation from google here). Isn’t it a little premature still? While I’m sure the reporter did the best research he could, the story is not yet done being written, and those that really know the facts aren’t speaking (yet). How can you in good conscience publish this?

This morning the Nobel committee awarded the Nobel prize in physics to Willard S. Boyle and George Smith for the invention of  the CCD (charge couple device), and also to Charles Kao whose research led to the creation of fiber-optics. The former two gentlemen did their research while working for Bell Labs, the now defunct research arm of the now-broken up AT&T. What didn’t make the news is that researchers at Bell Labs have now won SEVEN Nobel Prizes in Physics. Bell Labs has also been responsible for the invention, discovery of, or significant contributions to: the laser, Unix, C, C++, electron diffraction, one time pads, 5ESS switches, cell phone technology, solar cells, and the first transatlantic telephone cables. Next to the Xerox PARC, Bell Labs has probably contributed more to our current information age than any other single entity, whether government or private, ever.

Who I wonder, is the next Bell Labs or PARC? Is there any corporate entity right now that engages in the sort of research (and funds it with enough money) to generate this level of research data? The only ones that come to mind are Google and DuPont. DuPont however is slowly fading, and while Google does encourage its employees to do research and non-assigned projects, the results usually take the form of inventions and not discoveries. (Google isn’t that much different from a pharmaceutical company in this respect).

There would seem to be a benefit to not confining research to the government and the universities, capable though they might be. Sometimes a profit motive can help to produce something usable from pure research, and direct the research in practical ways. A corporation will usually make different decisions and hire different employees, ultimately doing different work than their not-for-profit counterparts. Corporations’ relatively higher pay can also attract a higher caliber of researcher, as well as ones who do not want to have to deal with tenure-related bureaucracy.

So you don’t think I’m too radical, I don’t want research to be solely the domain of the for-profit world, and that extreme is probably far less desirable than our current situation. A prudent example is the work of Karl Jansky. In 1931 Jansky was working for Bell labs, and was told to try and find ways to reduce the background noise on transatlantic telephone calls. He set up a large radio telescope in an open field to try and find the source of his background radiation. He discovered, to his great surprise, that there was radiation coming from the center of the milky way galaxy. This discovery was the beginning of the field of radio astronomy. Some have even theorized that Janksy would have also won a Nobel prize for his work had he not passed away before he could be awarded one. (The Nobel committee only awards the prize to living people). Jansky applied for further funding from Bell Labs, but they rejected his proposal as it had no practical bearing on the telephone system, and assigned him to other projects. (Time of course proved Jansky’s discoveries to be of incredible significance).

So where does society stand now? Is research for the purpose of research to be confined largely to the universities and the government, while corporations with deep pockets dabble in it, or am I just the victim of not being able to judge progress without hindsight? Can corporations continue to promote research, or are we better off with non-profits ensuring that new discoveries are not restricted by corporate profit motives?

Next time you’re running from the cops, hide in a corn maze.

We all know that cheesy flash games are way more addictive and fun than anything on a PlayStation of Xbox. My newest flash game addiction is crush the castle. It combines everything you want in a game – strategy, bloodshed, the not sparing of women and children, with explosion and wrecking balls. What else could you want?