Michael Flynn's Blog, page 65

This Wonderful Modern Age

Science Marches On

Headline
$918,856 Federal Study:
Bar Fights Tend to Happen in Darker, Dirtier Bars Frequented by Heavy Drinking, Less Agreeable People

That clattering sound you hear is that of jaws dropping in astonishment!  Isn't science wonderful that it can winkle out such subtle and unexpected secrets of the world? 


+ + +
More Irony Than Even the Old Bethlehem Steel Could Process

American Postal Workers Union ballots lost in the mail. 

Hail, Victory

The Tin Ear of the Self-Righteous

Okay.  Remember this one from last Super Bowl?


Now we have this one.  ((Warning: disturbing scenes))

It got pulled the day it went up and was replaced with a note saying Gosh, it was supposed to be funny.  But does anyone detect the faint whiff of armbands and jackboots in this trend?  Not only the Green Police, but the way that after watching children and other people murdered not even because they opposed, but because they were indifferent, to end the video with "no pressure" sounded a bit like a thuggish threat.  Even so, some voices have spoken out in support of the 1010 video!  Lighten up (they say).  And don't be a traitor to your planet.  (Or else.) 

m_francis @ 2010-10-05T11:56:00

Quote of the Day

"There will always be a niche for incredibly bad schools. I just don't think the state has an obligation to supply them." -- David Warren 
"If you cannot be an inspiring example to your children, then you should be a terrible warning to them."-- Anne Muggeridge 

The Fifth Element

Putting on my Top Hat

I ran across an intriguing abstract the other day that ties into Thom's topological catastrophe surfaces.  But alas I cannot get hold of the whole article. 

First Things First
Rene Thom developed catastrophe theory in algebraic topology many years ago.  Like so-called "chaos" theory, it is somewhat mis-named.  In French, apparently, "catastrophe" means only a sudden, discontinuous change, as when a stretched rubber band stops growing longer and snaps; or when a waterfall changes from laminar flow to turbulent flow.  
The catastrophe surface is a manifold in response (or "state") space that consists of all the equilibrium points of the response variables over all values of the parameter variables.  The are the "attractors" toward which a system will move in systems governed by a potential function; and thus they function as a type of Aristotelian "final cause."  
By Thom's theory, there are only seven canonical "shapes" that the surface of equilibrium points can take on.  (All others consist of a combination of these.)  For example: when there are two phase variables [parameters] and one state variable [response] in a system governed by a potential function, the set of all equilibria of Y over all values of X1 and X2 forms a surface called a "cusp" as pictured to the left. 

For certain parameter values (X1,X2) there are two distinct equilibrium points.  The set of such parameters is called the "bifurcation set."  In the picture, this is the funnel shape on the "floor" of the space.  This is "parameter space" or the "control surface." 

When the system is outside the bifurcation set, it has only one possible value and will proceed rapidly toward that value.  Hence, the term "attractor."  Suppose the system state is on the upper sheet forward-left, about where the differential sign is written. 

Now suppose that the parameters change so that the system state moves to the left along the surface.  The parameters enter the bifurcation set and the system suddenly acquires a second equilibrium state.  It stays however on the upper sheet where the "twist" or "pleat" is. 

Then, when the parameters continue to move left, the system leaves the bifurcation set and suddenly there is only one equilibrium point -- and it's on the lower fold of the sheet!  The system rapidly snaps to the lower sheet like dropping off a cliff.  (All the points between are unstable, so the system does not linger.)  Thus, there is a "quantum" leap in the system state. 

Higher level catastrophes, like three Xs and two Ys, too highly dimensioned to draw.  But this model has been used to model flight-or-fight reactions, economic crashes, Pournelle's two-dimensional political scale, corrosion of metal, and a variety of different things. 

Which brings us to....

The Fifth Element. 
Here is the Abstract I ran across recently: 

Using Arnold's Classification Theorem applied to a four-dimensional manifold, it is shown that there is only a finite number of ways in which energy can discontinuously change state. It is demonstrated that each of these energy flow pathways can be associated with a distinct elementary particle. The theory not only shows how the formation of particles from the stress-energy present in the space-time manifold can be predicted from first principles, but also that there must exist five fundamental forces in a universe in which discontinuous energy transitions are possible. Finally, the existence of a new, as yet undiscovered particle is predicted, which is associated with this new fifth force. "Use of catastrophe theory to obtain a fundamental understanding of elementary particle stability,"
International Journal of Theoretical Physics, Volume 25, Number 7, 711-715

The "four-dimensional manifold" in question is the space-time manifold and "a universe in which discontinuous energy transitions are possible" is one in which quantum mechanics works.  That would seem to mean our own. 

The prediction is that there is another force that goes along with the nicely symmetric group:

.............................Weak......................Strong
Long Distance:  Gravity....................Electromagnetism
Short Distance:  Weak force............Nuclear [Strong force]
  One wonders how a fifth force fits in?  There is grave skepticism regarding the existence of "dark energy," and it may or may not be the one predicted by the topology of the universe.  Don't know without the full article -- and probably not even then! 

The Last Man on Earth

Apparently These Things Are Important

In no particular order. 

1. A group proposes to build a religious establishment on their own property near a site associated with great pain and significance for some people.  These people, rightly or wrongly, associate that religion with the many deaths that were caused and so raise a great ruckus in protest against the said establishment.  For their part, the religious establishment pleas that they intend to pray for all who died there, including their own co-religionists.  But this plea is dismissed. 

I pause while you assume the proper attitude. 

I write, of course, of the Polish sisters who wanted to establish a convent near Auschwitz, which created a great outcry that it was insensitive to Jewish concerns.  The Pope intervened and told the sisters to place their convent elsewhere, since if they remained intransigent they would do more harm than good.  That they had a right to do what they planned did not mean it was right to do it. 

Now, of course, there is a similar contretemps in Manhattan regarding a proposed Islamic center.  It would be curious to compare the stated opinions of people in both matters.  Curiously, in a survey by Elaph, an electronic daily in the Arab world, 58% say the "Ground Zero Mosque" is a project of folly.

2. A pastor of a sect of 50 people announces that he will burn copies of the Qur'an, sending the entire world into a tizzy.  The POTUS intervenes personally to beg him not to do so as such a burning will deeply offend many people.  (Unlike, say, the burning of a US flag.)  Curiously, in a TV shot, all the copied stacked up appear to be in English and thus not legitimately Qur'ans.  (The true Qur'an is written only in Arabic.) 

3. OTOH, Charles Merrill, cousin to Merrill Lynch co-founder, burned a Qur'an valued at $60,000 (in the apparenly magick belief that it would "eliminate homophobic hate."  This book was not only a genuine Qur'an (in Arabic) but was a rare manuscript given to his late wife, Evangeline Johnson Merrill of Johnson & Johnson, by the late king of Jordan during a UN mission in the 1950s.  So not only was it a real Qur'an, but a precious antique, and a diplomatic gift by the King of Jordan, and he actually did burn it.  Not a peep. 

So why the tizzy over #2 but not over #3?  Was it because #2 fits the media paradigm of backwoods Bible-thumping bigoted yahoos while #3 involves a rich artist guy who is gay and atheist?  And so he cannot be a yahoo bigot, or even a vandal destroying a significant a work of art?  There are no templates or paradigms for him? 

Fouad Ajami tells us: Elaph was at it again in the aftermath of Pastor Terry Jones's threat to burn copies of the Quran: It queried its readers as to whether America was a "tolerant" or a "bigoted" society. The split was 63% to 37% in favor of those who accepted the good faith and pluralism of this country.

4. And how does #3 compare to the Taliban blowing up Buddhist statues, vandalism-of-artwork-wise?  Why is one denounced on artistic heritage grounds (forget about offending Buddhist religious sensibilities) and the other is not? 

5. The POTUS comes out and defends (in a wishy-washy way) the 1st Amendment right of the people wanting to build the Islamic Center in Manhattan; but regarding Molly Norris, erstwhile cartoonist for the alternative paper Seattle Weekly, who has had to go into hiding not a peep in her defense. 

Odds, Ends, and the Like

Quote of the Day:

"Isn't it great to live in a society where the penalty for lying to a congressman can be up to 30 years in jail, but the penalty for a congressman lying to you is another two years in office."-- Peter Schmuck, Baltimore Sun sports writer, concerning the indictment of Roger Clemens

Bonus Quote of the Day:

“Any entity – no matter how many tentacles it has – has a soul.” — Guy Consolmagno, one of the Vatican’s astronomers, on whether he would baptize an alien.
 
It's a Good...

Epiphany of a Physicist

The Hermeneutics of Stephen Hawking

This is the true quill, because I got it neu from Hermen himself. 

Physicists, when they are off the reservation, say the cutest things.  Many of them hold philosophy in contempt because "there are never any final answers" in philosophy.  Unlike physics, where the phlogiston...  I mean, the impetus....  Well, you know what I mean.  But as Mary Midgley said, "People who refuse to have anything to do with philosophy have become enslaved to outdated forms of it...

The Skeptics Weigh In

Horatio Strikes Back

Skepticism about the variation in the fine structure inconstant (h/t John Farrell).  Pretty much correlates with which telescope was used.  Hence, with which folks made the observations.  This makes my little pointy quality engineer ears perk up.  Scientists are notoriously careless about issues of measurement system reliability.  (cf. surface station temperature measurements.) 

Scientists take all the fun out of science, double-checking and questioning results...

Keep watching the skies!

Stranger Things, Horatio.  Stranger Things. 

A team of astrophysicists based in Australia and England has uncovered evidence that the laws of physics are different in different parts of the universe. 

The report describes how one of the supposed fundamental constants of Nature appears not to be constant after all. Instead, this 'magic number' known as the fine-structure constant -- 'alpha' for short -- appears to vary throughout the universe.

"After measuring alpha in around 300 distant ...

m_francis @ 2010-09-13T18:37:00

Stranger Things, Horatio.  Stranger Things. 

A team of astrophysicists based in Australia and England has uncovered evidence that the laws of physics are different in different parts of the universe. 

The report describes how one of the supposed fundamental constants of Nature appears not to be constant after all. Instead, this 'magic number' known as the fine-structure constant -- 'alpha' for short -- appears to vary throughout the universe.

"After measuring alpha in around 300 distant ...