John Hobbs
Shared publicly  -  Dec 5, 2013

Columbus discovers Hispaniola (12-5-1492)
Arawak men and women, naked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island's beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts.....
....The Indians had been given an impossible task. The only gold around was bits of dust garnered from the streams. So they fled, were hunted down with dogs, and were killed.
...From his base on Haiti, Columbus sent expedition after expedition into the interior. They found no gold fields, but had to fill up the ships returning to Spain with some kind of dividend. In the year 1495, they went on a great slave raid, rounded up fifteen hundred Arawak men, women, and children, put them in pens guarded by Spaniards and dogs, then picked the five hundred best specimens to load onto ships. Of those five hundred, two hundred died en route. The rest arrived alive in Spain and were put up for sale by the archdeacon of the town, who reported that, although the slaves were "naked as the day they were born," they showed "no more embarrassment than animals." Columbus later wrote: "Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold."
What Columbus did to the Arawaks of the Bahamas, Cortes did to the Aztecs of Mexico, Pizarro to the Incas of Peru, and the English settlers of Virginia and Massachusetts to the Powhatans and the Pequots.
* A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

A “Buddy Bench” Makes Recess More Inclusive

Posted by Rohmteen Mokhtari, December 06, 2013

 

For many elementary students, recess can be a highlight of the school day. A chance to run and play after hours of sitting still behind a desk.
But it can also be an isolating experience for students who feel left out.
At Roundtown Elementary School in York, PA one 2nd grader is doing his part to make sure all students are included in the fun.
With his family considering a temporary move to Germany, Christian began researching German schools. That’s when he noticed that one German school had a “buddy bench” for students who felt lonely or excluded during recess.
With this idea in mind he took action to support the students at his school who he noticed were being left out recess. He went to his principal and got a “buddy bench” at his school.
Now when students feel alone or excluded they can go to the bench where they’ll be invited by other students to talk or play.
This “buddy bench” allows more students to share in the joys of recess.
But just as importantly, it helps create a school culture of caring and inclusion. It challenges students to support their fellow classmates and empowers them to be a part of the solution.
As Christian puts it, “we show we care about others when we ask others to play.”
Christian and the “buddy bench” teach us a lot about what it takes to make schools more safe and welcoming for all students.
Christian exemplifies the power of upstanders willing to take action when they see students being excluded or teased.
In order to become upstanders, students need to know there are many ways to constructively support a classmate who is being bullied or teased. Options include talking to an adult when they see a student being teased, speaking up in the moment, supporting a student who has been bullied and causing a distraction in the moment that takes the attention away from a student who is being targeted.
Welcoming School’s new film, What Can We Do? Bias, Bullying and Bystanders shows how two schools are using Welcoming Schools materials to help students be upstanders. Learn more about the film and find many more resources to stop name-calling and bullying.

The Problem of Antimatter

    When in contact, matter and antimatter can annihilate one another to produce pure energy―that’s why there is extremely little naturally occurring antimatter in the world around us. — Brian Greene (1999) Mass is made of certain kinds of particles. The Standard Model lists them all. In its scheme each particle is paired up with an antiparticle. One way to think about an antiparticle is that it is the particle but travels back in time. Another is its charge is opposite. When a particle meets its antiparticle they annihilate immediately. They make two photons whose energies are equal to the masses in accordance with: E = mc2. So the Problem of Antimatter’s not: Why is so little of it left? It’s: Why is there any matter left? Which is to say: It seems that the original proportion wasn’t half and half. How come? Physics has a symmetry it calls CP. It says exactly 50-50 is the way it has to be. Physical cosmology contrives an answer to the Problem. It says CP Symmetry was violated when particles were born in the Big Bang. There are some suggestions as to how this happened but they look like little more than stirring up the same old Problem, like the beat cop saying to the beach bum: Move along. More recently it turns out that the weak force doesn’t follow CP Symmetry. At last, there is a way to have more particles than antis. The celebration is a short one. CP violation, as it’s called, covers just a trillionth of the matter that we see. Back to square one: Why were there more particles than antiparticles? - See more at: http://www.timeone.ca/clues/the-problem-of-antimatter/#sthash.RXq5zA1z.qQ7nzyX8.dpuf

Fossils Yield Oldest Known Human DNA

By Gemma Tarlach | December 4, 2013 12:00 pm

Researchers have successfully sequenced the oldest known human DNA, and it points to unexpected relationships between hominid populations scattered across the length of Eurasia.
The genetic material came from a 400,000-year-old femur of Homo heidelbergensis, an early hominid considered to be the ancestor of both Neanderthals and modern humans. The achievement pushes back the age of the oldest hominid DNA sequencing by 200,000 years.
The site of the fossil’s discovery, Sima de los Huesos (“pit of bones”) in northern Spain, has yielded remains of more than two dozen individuals dated to older than 300,000 years. The skeletons found at Sima de los Huesos exhibit Neanderthal-derived traits, leading researchers to anticipate a strong relation to Homo neanderthalensis.

Denisovan Connection

But after sequencing an almost complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genome from the femur, researchers discovered the individual was more closely related to Denisovans, eastern Eurasian hominids known only from a few fragments found at sites in Siberia. Although related to Neanderthals, Denisovans are considered genetically distinct, and are thought to have dispersed from Siberia to southeast Asia. By way of comparison, Neanderthals and modern humans are more closely related in their mitochondrial makeup than are Neanderthals and Denisovans.
Ancient DNA that can still be sequenced is usually found only in permafrost conditions; it typically degrades much faster in temperate and tropical zones, where early hominids lived. But the Sima de los Huesos cave site’s humidity and naturally controlled temperature created an environment conducive to mtDNA preservation of both early hominids and their contemporaries, including a cave bear, which researchers successfully sequenced earlier this year.

Mixing Populations

The team obtained about two grams of bone samples — less than a tenth of an ounce — from the femur and performed a number of tests to rule out contamination with modern genetic material. They then sequenced the mitochondrial DNA, because retrieving usable mtDNA is easier than collecting nuclear DNA from such an old specimen because several hundred copies of mtDNA exist in each cell. This makes it possible to piece together the mitochondrial genome even if many of the copies are degraded. Mitchondrial DNA is passed down from the individual’s mother, however, and does not provide as complete an evolutionary picture as nuclear DNA.
In light of the individual’s unexpected relatedness to Denisovans, the team proposed a number of possible scenarios for how the genes from a population known only in Siberia ended up in Spain. One of the most plausible, researchers suggested, was gene flow from another, as-yet-unknown but Denisovan-like hominid into the Sima de los Huesos group.
To support this theory, the team noted in their paper published today in Nature that a number of early hominid fossils found from the same time period across Asia, Europe and Africa have been classified as H. heidelbergensis, in many ways a catch-all lacking precise definition. It’s possible that some or all of these individuals may be an early hominid population as yet unclassified by science.

CLIMATE CHANGE WEEKLY #112

Southern Hemisphere polar ice extent set new records this week, combining with fairly average Northern Hemisphere polar ice extent to set the final stages of a year marked by above-average global polar ice extent. Polar ice caps, apparently, are global warming deniers, attacking the science of alarmist global warming predictions.
Average Southern Hemisphere polar sea ice extent during November 2013 was nearly 1 million square kilometers above the long-term average.
When polar ice happens to be below average in a given year, global warming alarmists cite the annual departure from the long-term mean as proof of a human-induced global warming crisis. During years like 2013, when polar ice extent is above the long-term average, global warming alarmists are largely silent on the topic.
Importantly, even if the years with below-average polar ice extent began to form a meaningful trend, this in itself would not constitute a global warming crisis. Polar ice retreat would merely reflect warming temperatures, even if the warming is modest and benign. During recent years when global polar ice extent has been below normal, it has been Northern Hemisphere polar ice – floating in the Arctic Ocean – driving the global trend. When floating sea ice melts, it does nothing to raise global sea levels.
Southern Hemisphere polar ice, resting primarily on the Antarctic continent, has been consistently expanding during the 30-plus years since NASA/NOAA satellites first began precisely measuring polar ice extent.

If you really care about the environment you should love fracking. Here's why

by Guy Bentley

December 6, 2013, 2:33pm

A report released on Friday by the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) has found that increasing use of shale gas can massively reduce some of the world's deadliest air pollution.
As well as slashing carbon emissions and providing enticing economic prospects the findings of the report should present a compelling case for those who value the environment to embrace fracking.
Reduce deadly PM2.5
PM2.5 are microscopic dust particles created from burning fuel. These tiny particles can penetrate the lungs where they are absorbed into the blood and lead to cardiorespiratory disease and are one of the major contributors to air pollution.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that PM2.5 is responsible for about 75,000 premature deaths per year in the US. The use of coal for energy is a major source of rising levels of PM.25.
In the US, shale gas production has grown by a factor of 17 over the past 13 years. Shale now supplies 35 per cent of US natural gas. Compared to coal, shale gas results in a 400-fold reduction of PM2.5, a 4,000-fold reduction in sulphur dioxide, a 70-fold reduction in nitrous oxides, and more than a 30-fold reduction in mercury. Air pollution is still major killer globally with the Health Effects Institute estimating that air pollution led to 3.2m deaths in the year 2010.
Slash CO2 emissions
While shale gas is a fossil fuel, most of the increases in CO2 are coming from increasing coal use in developing countries. The CPS report estimates if their increased energy needs could be met from natural gas instead of coal, global warming could be slowed by a factor of two to three.
This would mean that instead of having 30 to 50 years before the world reaches twice the preindustrial carbon dioxide levels the we may have 60 to 100 years. If developing countries continue to use coal their PM2.5 and greenhouse emissions will also continue to grow.
The authors also highlight the need for energy conservation, especially in China. However, they emphasise that this will be far from sufficient to tackle the enormous environmental challenges facing the planet.
Affordable
Europe and China both pay a high price for imported natural gas, typically paying $10m (£6m) British Thermal Unit. With such high prices Europe and China are in a strong position to exploit vast deposits of shale gas at greatly reduced cost compared to natural gas imports.
The report suggests that Europe could be the testing and proving ground where innovative technology can be trialled and improved while still profitable. If the same technology and expertise is brought to developing countries they can also enjoy a more environmentally friendly energy mix.
The report also addresses many of the objections to fracking such as the increased frequency of earthquakes and the dangers to water supply. It documents how these concerns have been wildly exaggerated and in some cases are wholly spurious.
The report was written by Richard Muller, professor of physics at the University of California Berkeley since 1980 and Elizabeth Muller, co-founder of Berkeley Earth a non-profit working on environmental issues. 

- See more at: http://www.cityam.com/blog/1386342437/if-you-really-care-about-environment-you-should-love-fracking-heres-why#sthash.zkvHYfuD.dpuf

Time warp: Researchers show possibility of

 

 

 



(Phys.org) —Popular television shows such as "Doctor Who" have brought the idea of time travel

into the vernacular of popular culture. But problem of time travel is even more complicated than one

might think. LSU's Mark Wilde has shown that it would theoretically be possible for time travelers to

copy quantum data from the past.

It all started when David Deutsch, a pioneer of quantum computing and a physicist at Oxford, came up with

a simplified model of time travel to deal with the paradoxes that would occur if one could travel back in

time. For example, would it be possible to travel back in time to kill one's grandfather? In the Grandfather

paradox, a time traveler faces the problem that if he kills his grandfather back in time, then he himself is

never born, and consequently is unable to travel through time to kill his grandfather, and so on. Some

theorists have used this paradox to argue that it is actually impossible to change the past.

"The question is, how would you have existed in the first place to go back in time and kill your

grandfather?" said Mark Wilde, an LSU assistant professor with a joint appointment in the Department of

Physics and Astronomy and with the Center for Computation and Technology, or CCT.

Deutsch solved the Grandfather paradox originally using a slight change to quantum theory, proposing that

you could change the past as long as you did so in a self-consistent manner.

"Meaning that, if you kill your grandfather, you do it with only probability one-half," Wilde said. "Then,

he's dead with probability one-half, and you are not born with probability one-half, but the opposite is a fair

chance. You could have existed with probability one-half to go back and kill your grandfather."

But the Grandfather paradox is not the only complication with time travel. Another problem is the

no-cloning theorem, or the no "subatomic Xerox-machine" theorem, known since 1982. This theorem,

which is related to the fact that one cannot copy quantum data at will, is a consequence of Heisenberg's

famous Uncertainty Principle, by which one can measure either the position of a particle or its momentum,

but not both with unlimited accuracy. According to the Uncertainty Principle, it is thus impossible to have a

subatomic Xerox-machine that would take one particle and spit out two particles with the same position and

momentum – because then you would know too much about both particles at once.

"We can always look at a paper, and then copy the words on it. That's what we call copying classical data,"

Wilde said. "But you can't arbitrarily copy quantum data, unless it takes the special form of classical data.

This no-cloning theorem is a fundamental part of quantum mechanics – it helps us reason how to process

quantum data. If you can't copy data, then you have to think of everything in a very different way."

But what if a Deutschian closed timelike curve did allow for copying of quantum data to many different

points in space? According to Wilde, Deutsch suggested in his late 20th century paper that it should be

possible to violate the fundamental no-cloning theorem of quantum mechanics. Now, Wilde and

collaborators at the University of Southern California and the Autonomous University of Barcelona have

advanced Deutsch's 1991 work with a recent paper in Physical Review Letters. The new approach allows

for a particle, or a time traveler, to make multiple loops back in time – something like Bruce Willis' travels

in the Hollywood film "Looper."

"That is, at certain locations in spacetime, there are wormholes such that, if you jump in, you'll emerge at

some point in the past," Wilde said. "To the best of our knowledge, these time loops are not ruled out by the

laws of physics. But there are strange consequences for quantum information processing if their behavior is

"Time warp: Researchers show possibility of cloning quantum information from the past." Phys.org. 6 Dec 2013.

http://phys.org/news/2013-12-warp-possibility-cloning-quantum.html

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dictated by Deutsch's model."

A single looping path back in time, a time spiral of sorts, behaving according to Deutsch's model, for

example, would have to allow for a particle entering the loop to remain the same each time it passed

through a particular point in time. In other words, the particle would need to maintain self-consistency as it

looped back in time.

"In some sense, this already allows for copying of the particle's data at many different points in space,"

Wilde said, "because you are sending the particle back many times. It's like you have multiple versions of

the particle available at the same time. You can then attempt to read out more copies of the particle, but the

thing is, if you try to do so as the particle loops back in time, then you change the past."

To be consistent with Deutsch's model, which holds that you can only change the past as long as you can do

it in a self-consistent manner, Wilde and colleagues had to come up with a solution that would allow for a

looping curve back in time, and copying of quantum data based on a time traveling particle, without

disturbing the past.

"That was the major breakthrough, to figure out what could happen at the beginning of this time loop to

enable us to effectively read out many copies of the data without disturbing the past," Wilde said. "It just

worked."

However, there is still some controversy over interpretations of the new approach, Wilde said. In one

instance, the new approach may actually point to problems in Deutsch's original closed timelike curve

model.

"If quantum mechanics gets modified in such a way that we've never observed should happen, it may be

evidence that we should question Deutsch's model," Wilde said. "We really believe that quantum mechanics

is true, at this point. And most people believe in a principle called Unitarity in quantum mechanics. But

with our new model, we've shown that you can essentially violate something that is a direct consequence of

Unitarity. To me, this is an indication that something weird is going on with Deutsch's model. However,

there might be some way of modifying the model in such a way that we don't violate the no-cloning

theorem."

Other researchers argue that Wilde's approach wouldn't actually allow for copying quantum data from an

unknown particle state entering the time loop because nature would already "know" what the particle

looked like, as it had traveled back in time many times before.

But whether or not the no-cloning theorem can truly be violated as Wilde's new approach suggests, the

consequences of being able to copy quantum data from the past are significant. Systems for secure Internet

communications, for example, will likely soon rely on quantum security protocols that could be broken or

"hacked" if Wilde's looping time travel methods were correct.

"If an adversary, if a malicious person, were to have access to these time loops, then they could break the

security of quantum key distribution," Wilde said. "That's one way of interpreting it. But it's a very strong

practical implication because the big push of quantum communication is this secure way of communicating.

We believe that this is the strongest form of encryption that is out there because it's based on physical

principles."

Today, when you log into your Gmail or Facebook, your password and information encryption is not based

on physical principles of quantum mechanical security, but rather on the computational assumption that it is

very difficult for "hackers" to factor mathematical products of prime numbers, for example. But physicists

and computer scientists are working on securing critical and sensitive communications using the principles

"Time warp: Researchers show possibility of cloning quantum information from the past." Phys.org. 6 Dec 2013.

http://phys.org/news/2013-12-warp-possibility-cloning-quantum.html

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of quantum mechanics. Such encryption is believed to be unbreakable – that is, as long as hackers don't

have access to Wilde's looping closed timelike curves.

"This ability to copy quantum information freely would turn quantum theory into an effectively classical

theory in which, for example, classical data thought to be secured by quantum cryptography would no

longer be safe," Wilde said. "It seems like there should be a revision to Deutsch's model which would

simultaneously resolve the various time travel paradoxes but not lead to such striking consequences for

quantum information processing. However, no one yet has offered a model that meets these two

requirements. This is the subject of open research."

More information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.190401

Provided by Louisiana State University