[LINK] On cosmic inflation, the Big Bang, and Andrei Linde

CBC's article

The new results were announced by a collaboration that includes researchers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the University of Minnesota, Stanford University, the California Institute of Technology and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The team plans to submit its results to a scientific journal this week, said its leader, John Kovac of Harvard.

For their research, astronomers scanned about 2 percent of the sky for three years with a telescope at the South Pole, chosen for its very dry air to aid in the observations.

They were looking for a specific pattern in light waves within the faint microwave glow left over from the Big Bang. The pattern has long been considered evidence of the rapid growth spurt, known as inflation. Kovac called it "the smoking gun signature of inflation."

The scientists say the light-wave pattern was caused by gravitational waves, which are ripples in the interweaving of space and time that sprawls through the universe. If confirmed, the new work would be the first detection of such waves from the birth of the universe, which have been called the first tremors of the Big Bang.

Arizona State's Krauss cautioned that it's possible that the light-wave pattern is not a sign of inflation, although he stressed that it's "extremely likely" that it is. It's "our best hope" for a direct test of whether the rapid growth spurt happened, he said.

The New Yorkergoes into more detail, here too.

What went viral about all this is the video of physicist Andrei Linde, the man who suggested the theory of cosmic inflation in the first place, being informed at his door of the news of his theory's confirmation.

"Stanford Professor Andrei Linde celebrates physics breakthrough" (Watch on YouTube)

This joyous video has just under 1.6 million views as of this posting.

[PHOTO] Looking down upon Rollo Bay

I took these six photos walking uphill from Rollo Bay towards Route 2, looking down past the empty field golden with grass towards the blue water.

(It really was a beautiful day.)

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• The Burgh Diaspora's Jim Russell observes the fine scale of globalization's movements, which connect nations not so much as they do neighbourhoods.


• The Dragon's Gaze revisits the Kepler-9 system and notes the disintegrating sub-Mercury planet that is KIC 12557548b.


• The Dragon's Tales notes that waves have been detected on Titan's Punga Mare.


• Eastern Approaches takes a look at Slovakian politics.


• Far Outliers revisits the massive volcanic eruption that hit the Melanesian island of New Britain circa 600 CE.


• The Numerati's Stephen Baker wonders if his new novel The Boost is anti-Chinese simply by describing a hegemonic China not acting differently from the United States. (I must read the book.)


• Strange Maps notes a Turkish exclave in Syria--a tomb of an ancient Turkish hero--that might bring Turkey into the Syrian civil war.


• Towleroad notes a study suggesting that crystal meth use accelerates the progress of HIV/AIDS in users.


• The Volokh Conspiracy's Eugene Volokh notes the death of a Ukrainian soldier on a base stormed by Russian soldiers in Crimea.


• Window on Eurasia notes the fears of many Crimean Tatars of Russian rule.


• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell shares his eclectic list of recommended blogs.

[LINK] "EOne & De Laurentiis Co. To Adapt Frederik Pohl’s Sci-Fi Classic ‘Gateway’ As TV Series"

Via io9 comes the news from Deadline that Frederik Pohl's Heechee universe might make it to television.

Frederik Pohl’s Gateway may finally get a screen adaptation. Entertainment One Television (Hell On Wheels) has teamed with De Laurentiis Co. (Hannibal) to develop and produce a drama series adaptation of Pohl’s sci-fi classic. The two companies landed the rights to the 1977 book in a competitive situation, with a number of producers pursuing. The project will be executive produced by De Laurentiis Co’s Martha De Laurentiis and Lorenzo De Maio along with eOne’s John Morayniss, CEO eOne TV; Michael Rosenberg, EVP U.S. Scripted TV; and Benedict Carver, SVP Filmed Entertainment. Search is underway for a writer to write the adaptation, with a number of established showrunners already interested because of Gateway‘s cult status. eOne TV will handle worldwide distribution. De Laurentiis Co., which has a history in screen adaptations of sci-fi classics — most notably the 1984 feature Dune – had been tracking Gateway for years as the book had gone through a number of incarnations, including being developed as a feature. When rights recently became available, De Laurentiis and De Maio went aggressively after it, partnering with eOne, a company they had been looking to collaborate with for the past three years. From the get go, the duo knew they wanted to do the adaptation as a series, not a feature. “Television gives us the opportunity of exploring the rich world of the novel and the complexity of its characters,” De Laurentiis said. Gateway actually started in a serialized format, running in sci-fi magazine Galaxy before its hardcover publication.

Gateway is set on a space station constructed by a long-vanished alien race that now is now inhabited by humans. It centers on Robinette “Rob” Broadhead, who, haunted by a dark love story, has traveled on a one-way ticket from Earth for the extremely dangerous mission of piloting one of thousands of abandoned alien spacecrafts on Gateway. The technology of these alien ships is not fully understood, with most trips resulting in death. The reward for a rare successful return, however, can be untold riches, so crews continue to sign up despite the desperate odds. “It is an absolute, complete, desperate gamble with very high stakes that attracts all those desperate people to a border town,” said De Maio, who noted how contemporary Gateway feels despite being written four decades ago as it tackles such concepts as mining asteroids.

[LINK] "Far-Right Forces are Influencing Russia's Actions in Crimea"

From Timothy Snyder at The New Republic:

What happened on Sunday in Crimea was an electoral farce. Referenda cannot be held under military occupation. Referenda cannot have two options that have essentially the same meaning. Referenda cannot be held when all of the propaganda is generated by the state. Referenda cannot be held when the local television stations are closed and journalists are beaten and intimidated. Even in these conditions, the claim that 75 percent of the population took part and more than 96 percent voted for annexation to Russia is untenable. We know from years of surveys that a majority of Crimeans did not favor incorporation by Russia. One large survey showed 33 percent support for this idea in 2011, down to 23 percent in 2013. The Crimean Tatars boycotted the "referendum," as did many Ukrainians, since it was declared illegal and unconstitutional by the Ukrainian government. The recorded electoral frequency in the city of Sevastopol was 123 percent.

Yet there were some people on hand to praise the "referendum." Moscow sent an invitation to parties of the European far right, and found politicians willing to serve as "observers." Enrique Ravello has belonged to the neo-Nazi CEDADE and now belongs to the extreme-right Plataforma per Catalunya. Luc Michel used to belong to the neo-Nazi Fédération d’action nationaliste et européenne and now supports a blend of fascism and Bolshevism that is also popular among Russia's Eurasianists. Béla Kovács is a member of the Hungarian extreme-right party Jobbik and the treasurer of the Alliance of European National Movements. That Alliance characterizes Russian intervention in Ukraine as a response to the global neoconservative conspiracy, portrayed as the latest attempt at Jewish world domination.

While invading and occupying Crimea, Russia has, according to eyewitness accounts, sent some of its own citizens to create unrest in east Ukrainian cities such as Kharkiv and Donetsk. In both places, in what was seemed like a planned scenario, someone took down the Ukrainian flag from a public building and replaced it with a Russian one. In Kharkiv the person who did this was a Russian citizen who allows himself to be photographed in Nazi uniforms. Perhaps this is simply a personal fashion choice. In Donetsk the flag-raiser was Pavel Gubarov, a Russian nationalist (and Ukrainian citizen) who declared himself to be the people’s governor. After he was arrested by Ukrainian authorities, he was presented as a hero and a martyr on Russian television. In Donetsk Gubarov was known as a neo-Nazi and as a member of the fascist organization Russian National Unity.

[LINK] "Netizens Compare Lost Chinese Territory to Crimea Crisis"

From Joe at the English-language blog China Smack:

In the light of the recent Crimean referendum deciding on the reunification with Russia, Chinese netizens drew parallels between the current Ukrainian crisis to the loss of former Chinese territory. Both Imperial Russia and later the Soviet Union, using the justification of defending Russian interests, sent troops into both Tannu Tuva and Mongolia, where referendums were held to declare independence from China.

Many online criticized the traditionally pro-Russian support in China and ask if Chinese people have forgotten their own history.

The commenters quoted make some interesting points. Revisionism destabilizes a lot of things.

[NEWS] Some Wednesday links

• Al Jazeerah observes the existence of regional tensions in Libya and warns that Canadian Inuit women are at risk of sex traficking.


• The Atlantic argues that Russia's annexation of Crimea is globally destabilizing and notes that an excess of angry young men also helps destabilize the world.


• The BBC notes the important role played by Crimea in the Russian imagination.


• BusinessWeek wonders if Malaysia can recover from the blows its image has taken with its mishandling of Malaysian Airlines MH370, and suggests ways to fix high teen unemployment in the United States.


• The Inter Press Service notes the devastating impact of imported lionfish on Caribbean ecologies, and the growth of fisheries to literally cull the problem.


• IWPR reports on the concern and caution felt in Central Asian countries reacting to the Crimean crisis.


• MacLean's reports that slow economic growth is the new normal, stated that so far the Arctic Council's affairs haven't been undermined by the Crimean crisis, and looks at social networking in Burma.


• Mother Jones notes that, in drought-stricken northern California, wildcat marijuana plantations actually bring devastating environmental consequences.


• National Geographic reports that new data from the Messenger probe to Mercury suggests that planet has shrunk by something like ten kilometres since its foundation.


• Reuters notes that Russia is now threatening Estonia.


• Universe Today reports on how very bright and massive stars--O-class stars--disrupt their forming planetary systems.

[URBAN NOTE] "Rob Ford: Gun photos found on laptop that is connected to crack video"

What commentary can I add to Kevin Donovan's Toronto Star article?

Mayor Rob Ford behaved in a manner “indicative” of drug trafficking last year and was a frequent visitor to an Etobicoke crackhouse where gang members hung out and where the infamous video was filmed just over a year ago, according to police documents released by a judge Wednesday.

Just after the video was made, Mohamed Siad, who is now facing drug trafficking charges, boasted in a “selfie” video that he had just captured the mayor of Toronto doing drugs. That is how you catch a person “slipping” or “catch a mayor smoking crack,” Siad explains in the short video, filmed in a car, which is described in the police documents.

The documents also reveal that while police have the crack video, they are missing a potentially key recording — Video # 13 on Siad’s phone — that may shed light on what else happened at the crackhouse, at 15 Windsor Rd., last February.

These details have emerged from portions of a recent search warrant document that police used on Jan. 14 to get telephone records for numerous people, including Ford; his former “logistics” man and occasional driver, David Price; former Ford assistant Thomas Beyer; Siad and several others connected to the case. Justice Ian Nordheimer ordered the release of these new documents, while certain portions remain subject to a publication ban until a hearing next week.

A more recent search warrant, approved and sealed on March 7, is the subject of a further application by the Toronto Star and other media to have its contents released. At least some of that document could be released next week. The Star believes that particular warrant was filed in an attempt to obtain video and audio recordings in the iCloud account controlled by Ford friend Alexander “Sandro” Lisi.

Detectives with the Project Brazen 2 investigation are continuing to probe allegations related to Ford, Lisi and others. Lisi has been charged with extortion in connection with attempts to retrieve the crack video from Siad and another man.

[. . .]

In the newly released document, detectives state that their surveillance of Ford and Lisi last year, including multiple meetings and phone calls, led them to believe that Ford and Lisi’s actions were “indicative to that of drug trafficking.” Lisi was charged with drug trafficking in the fall. Ford has not been charged.

There's much, much more.