First a couple of items from the scientific cognitive dissonance file. It is itself amazing that breakthroughs in science are now coming so fast and with such great significance and yet escape public view. While people are discussing a sink-hole somewhere ad-nauseum the physics of Star Trek, and Star Gate, and even Dr. Who are becoming reality, at least in theoretical physics and maybe someday soon in day to day applications.
1. Quantum black hole study opens bridge to another universe
Researchers in Uruguay and Louisiana have just published a description of a quantum black hole using loop quantum gravity in which the predictions of physics-ending singularities vanish, and are replaced by bridges to another universe.
2. It’s bigger on the inside: Tardis regions in spacetime and the expanding universe
A team of cosmologists in Finland and Poland propose that the observed acceleration of the expansion of the universe, usually explained by dark energy or modified laws of gravity, may actually be the result of regions of spacetime that are larger on the inside than they appear from the outside. The researchers have dubbed these “Tardis regions.”
Back to the matter at hand:
3. Saudi preacher jailed 8 years for raping, killing daughter
(At 1:30 in this video the Saudi daughter raper-killer dances with a knife for us)
4. Greater Manchester Police appeals for respect during festivities
(Wait, respect from whom and for what?)
Police in Manchester are appealing for respect from visitors to the city during the Muslim religious holiday of Eid-ul-Adha.
During this time there will be an influx of visitors to Rusholme’s famous ‘Curry Mile’ and officers will patrol the area to offer reassurance.
Parking in the area will be suspended between 9pm and 6am on Tuesday 15 and Wednesday 16 October.
5. Libya summons U.S. ambassador over al Libi capture
China arrests 110 in Xinjiang for spreading online rumours (BBC, Oct 8, 2013)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-24444505
“Nearly 400 people in China’s north-western Xinjiang region have been investigated for spreading online rumours, state media report. From 26 June to 31 August 110 people were detained and 164 received a warning, the Xinjiang Daily reports. The suspects disseminated religious extremism and material that threatened stability, it said. Xinjiang is home to mostly Muslim Uighurs who are a minority in China….”
Kashmir: Indian army makes ‘large haul’ of arms and ammunition (BBC, Oct 8, 2013)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-24425378
“The Indian army says it has found a large haul of weapons in Indian-administered Kashmir where troops have been fighting “30 to 40 Pakistan-backed militants” for the past 14 days.
The weapons were recovered in the Keran area, an army spokesman said.
Correspondents say the fortnight-long clashes in Kashmir are the longest in more than a decade.
Pakistan has dismissed as “baseless” reports of infiltration into Keran by militants from its soil…”
Eeyore have you read Travis Taylor’s first two sf books? They read like comic books (his later ones have better writing) he has so much cutting edge physics in them that he had to put afterwords on to tell us that he hadn’t made up the science. In the second book he talked about Tardis physics and kept having his characters refer to Golden Age SF authors and stories talking about what the new physics meant.
He is Travis on Rocket City Rednecks and I know he has two Doctorates in by this time probably 3.
Oh my, oh my… Is this for real? Do they just want to keep the access? Nothing else (e.g. more sensible) can be done about this? A double blow for the common man/woman in any case.
MI5 chief Andrew Parker warns of threat to UK public (BBC, Oct 8, 2013)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24454596
“Thousands of Islamist extremists in the UK see the British public as a legitimate target for attacks, the director general of MI5 has warned.
Andrew Parker was making his first public speech since taking over as head of the UK Security Service in April.
Al-Qaeda and its affiliates in Pakistan and Yemen present “the most direct and immediate threats to the UK,” he said.
He added that the security services must have access to the many means of communication which terrorists now use…”