Penultimate Links Dump (for a while)
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"There are few things more iconic of particle physics than Feynman diagrams. These little figures of squiggly show up prominently on particle physicists' chalkboards alongside scribbled equations.
The simplicity of these diagrams a a certain aesthetic appeal, though as one might imagine there are many layers of meaning behind them. The good news is that's it's really easy to understand the first few layers and today you will learn how to draw your own Feynman diagrams and interpret their physical meaning."
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"The paper, titled "The muon g-2 discrepancy: new physics or a relatively light Higgs ?" by Massimo Passera, W.Marciano, and A.Sirlin, discusses the current status of the discrepancy between the experimentally measured value of the muon magnetic moment and the state-of-the-art of theoretical predictions, and then moves to determine what the difference would imply for the mass of the Higgs boson in case one were to attribute it entirely to a mismeasurement of QCD corrections. "
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"This seems to be the depressingly predictable result of any invitation to, argument for or assertion of collective responsibility. "Responsibility" is heard as or translated into "guilt" and thus produces an instinctive, angry rejection of blame that, in turn, becomes an instinctive, angry embrace of irresponsibility.
Heschel sought to fend off that instinctive response: "Few are guilty -- although I'm sure, my good friend, that category does not include you -- all are responsible."
This cautious approach, this defending against defensiveness, may be necessary for anyone addressing a human audience who wants that audience to be able to hear -- let alone accept -- any consideration of collective responsibility."
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"If you take the nucleus of Uranium (Uranium 235), it has an atomic mass of 235 u. If you shoot some neutrons at this, you can get it to break into pieces. The cool part is that the mass of all these pieces does not add up to 235 u. This is the essence of nuclear fission where the missing mass becomes energy (E = mc2).
If college is like uranium, then the classes the student takes are like the pieces that uranium can break into. A college experience is more than the sum of the classes that make up that degree. And this is where online universities have a problem. I like to think of college and universities as a community of learners (and I am one of those learners). College is more of an experience and a time to learn to think about things in different ways. "
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"From what is known now, this case doesn't provide another example for some ideological battle. It's not about gun control, or campus security, or tenure, or any of that. It's about someone who came unhinged and committed a horrible crime, and about the losses of several innocent people.
I know the internet has its own habits of mind, but for anyone out there thinking of using this case as "yet another example of...," please don't. Let's not use a deranged shooter to make points. The crime is awful enough as it is."
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Lent starts tomorrow right...penultimate means next to last...so will there be another link dump forthcoming before your hiatus, the ultimate link dump as it were? Also if this is the penultimate link dump "for a while," when do you expect your next next-to-last entry will be?
"All are responsible" - yes. I think the total personal responsibility, create your life by your own choices etc. shtick of libertarians is literally a fallacy. Let's not even wrangle over free will (might tempt me into talking about QM!) Just pretend we have it for the sake of argument. Even so, consider that if you are free to "choose" from among available alternatives, you likely did not have a big hand in effect, writing the menu you're picking from. Just about anyone can pick from whatever "choices" available, big whoop. IOW, you didn't control what the choices and their associated consequences were going to be - you just get to pick from among them. (Think of the LOTE bane of elections.) That situation isn't real freedom.
The real "choice" is held by the "writers of the menus." They're the ones with power, that have more control over what is available and what the consequences of various choices are. They decide that you will have a set of lousy choices for credit card or cell phone service, or public officials, etc. Yes there's feedback, but it's usually unsatisfying. Real choice means, you have a powerful hand in deciding what you can pick from and what picking it will make happen. Libertarians etc. just don't appreciate that. The worst of them (i.e. not the well-meaning dreamers) and plutocratic allies want the rest to be fooled into an illusion of "control" by the mere banality of getting to pick from a menu, and not to challenge the menu itself.
(And just trying to rehabilitate myself as a reasonable thinker with many good ideas, when it isn't something that just makes people tear out their hair with perplexity. Well actually people fight wars over the above sorts of issues, but it isn't that certain "perplexity" if you know what I mean.)