Einstein Has Left The Building

The age of Einstein is closed forever, and it is unlikely that anyone like him will ever return. The endeavor of physics is not what it used to be a century ago. The advent of Quantum Mechanics, Relativity, Electromagnetism and many other sub categories has transformed a modestly complex study into a mind bending sophisticated puzzle of cosmic proportion. The age of the Universalists, such as Einstein are nearly extinct. Today it is exceedingly difficult to study any more than one or two fields in detail, given the high specialization needed for competence in theory or experiment.

Despite the promises of many brave or foolish researchers, Superstring remains light-years away from solving or testing any of the outstanding unsolved physics mysteries. It remains years away from even an elementary test of one of its basic premises. Assuming that it can be accomplished after nearly forty years of study.

If anything deters the next great physicist, it will be the bureaucracy of the scientific community itself. The past decades saw unbounded freedom for new and uninitiated theories and conjectures to be published and examined. In this current decade it is virtually impossible for a scientist to get a paper published and read without a PhD and University job. This is not to say that another Einstein could come along someday, but it is not likely.

The above picture is a magnet floating above a superconductor in demonstration of the Meissner effect.

Oh, The Humanity

Conceptual Terrorists Encase Sears Tower In Jell-O

CHICAGO—The attackers made it clear America's outdated notion of terrorism has been challenged, and that true terror lies in the futility of human existence.

Oh, the Humanity. This is the worst disaster that I have ever seen. I don’t know how the United States will ever recover from this attack. The pain and suffering that will haunt America for generations to come.
The senseless attack on the Sears Tower today encased it in over 18 Million tons of Strawberry Gelatin and trapped 11 security workers inside the structure. Authorities are still waiting for the gelatin to melt. Chicago’s population remains dazed and confused over why anyone would hit them like this. The terrorist organization Prophet’s Collective has claimed responsibility for the attack. Authorities in Berlin are already busy questioning dozens of performance artists and the CIA is already working with the National Endowment For The Arts to cut of grants and funding for the organization that is believed to be hiding out in Berlin. Officials don’t yet know the purpose of the attack, but many theories exist, ranging from deregulation to man being incapable of finding reason where it does not exists.
This conceptual attack is fictional, much to your belief. Real terrorism is all about mass destruction and death, may it be exploding airliners or VX nerve gas poisoning. The concept remains the same. All terrorists need to do and maybe only want to is to make the public so afraid they will be paralyzed. The threat of a bomb strike can be just as terrorizing as a real one.

Entire Precinct Made Up Of Loose Cannons

LOS ANGELES—"McCluskey's a good man, but he needs to clean up his act," Chief William J. Bratton said. "Same goes for Conroy, Peterman, Tobias, and Black."

In this tragic time America needs to tough crowd willing to do whatever is needed to stop the next attack. This heroic crew from Los Angeles is a gang of loose cannons, but they get the job done. In 1992 they shot three-dozen school children with toy guns in a dark alley, but no one is perfect. They still prevented an attack on LA city hall.
Wait, isn’t the Bush Administration a crowd of loose cannons? They did bring America into a bloody and expensive misadventure in Iraq. The United States has lost numerous allies these past seven years, despite the international goodwill after 9/11. The federal deficit is as high as the moon. Unless you are wealthy, the Bush Crowd isn’t interested in you.

Reliable Replacement Madness

The nuclear madness of the Cold War will continue reliably for the foreseeable future. Sixteen years ago, the United States had thousands of nuclear weapons on hair trigger alert to vaporize the Soviet Union in a mushroom cloud with thirty-minutes notice. Today nothing has changed; the US is pursuing the construction of the Reliable Replacement Warhead with a maximum yield of 475 kilotons. Nobody is saying that this will be easy or sane, given that nobody is planning on detonating the weapon fully assembled at nuclear yield. It may fizzle, and become the unreliable replacement warhead.

Headline News

Lets see how far we’ve come. News began as spoken word, before transforming into the newspaper over four centuries ago. Over a century ago, radio became the new form of communications. Starting over seventy years ago, the television first emerged and with it broadcast news. Over a decade and a half ago, the Internet as we know it developed with the first ISPs and the news quickly followed.
Today the newspaper is dissolving into obscurity. Radio and television are losing viewers to the web, and anyone with a computer can publish and podcast. The mega corporations are controlling most of the outlets and making news more political and entertaining. It is no longer even relevant news, pundits are arguing over non-issues such as MoveOn’s Petraeus ad and Obama’s absent flag pin. Al Gore is getting smeared for winning a Nobel Prize. I believe the world is crumbling to the ground. Once we fall to a nation of fools, the rest of the country can’t be far behind.

Engage!

The United States is about to embark on a voyage that Captain James has already been on, and we have as a matter of fact. America is heading back to the moon in 2020, and with it much of our treasure and pride. It is a tragically misplaced once you consider it.
The frontier of space has long been a vastness of innovation, from the invention of GPS to the mastery of using solar cells for energy. Project Constellation is neither; at best it is a resurrection and modest upgrade of existing technology. It is a total betrayal of the American spirit, for a country that invented the transistor and modern electrical power. A project of this magnitude should include developing technologies, and not just for the benefit of the astronauts but the perfection of new technologies.
It is always wise to maximize efficiency, and the reuse of ancient technology will accomplish little towards that end. One of the reasons spaceflight is so expensive is that requires the expenditure of often large sophisticated rockets. The reuse of the shuttles already old boosters and tank in the new boosters will only continue the waste when newer more efficient rockets such as the Delta 4 could be upgraded for the mission.
In order to receive maximum returns from exploration, the scientific aspect should not be neglected. The journey back to the Moon and Mars should include more science than sample return and geologic exploration. It is the perfect opportunity to evaluate new instruments and propulsion systems such as the ion engine.
The Apollo Missions of 30 years ago are a magnificent accomplishment of the human species. Regrettably, it was also a political show that never produced equal scientific or technological return. The return back should produce better profits, then perhaps someday Captain James can order “Engage!”.