Island Passage

"Next time someone says "Data Driven" you will be unable to think of anything but this." - @davidjbland pic.twitter.com/E8fZjZxKdv — Shit Academics Say (@AcademicsSay) May 31, 2016

It has been a while since I have written about the "Multiverse" concept. So I better write about it now, because it may soon be as fashionable and writing about the errors of Phlogiston Theory . As the logical conclusion of prevailing assumptions, the multiverse hypothesis has surged in begrudging popularity in recent years. But the argument feels like a cop-out to many, or at least a huge letdown. A universe shaped by chance cancellations eludes understanding, and the existence of unreachable, alien universes may be impossible to prove. “And it’s pretty unsatisfactory to use the multiverse hypothesis to explain only things we don’t understand,” said Graham Ross, an emeritus professor of theoretical physics at the University of Oxford.  The multiverse ennui can’t last forever. After all the hype surrounding the search for evidence of the Higgs Boson, the search for additional particles appears to have come a cropper : When the Large Hadron Collider at CERN Laboratory i...

The book, " When Worlds Collide " was one of my favorites as a kid. It wasn't until much later in life that I saw the George Pal movie adapted from the book. The idea of a rogue planet seemed frightening as a child, but as I grew older is seemed more and more implausible. What mechanism would cause a planet to break free of it's stellar system? Sure, in the vastness of our universe there must be some rogue planets, but surely there couldn't be many? Well it turns out that not only have astronomers sighted a rogue planet , but that many models of our universe predict that there are twice as many rogue planets than there are main-sequence stars.  Urk. Astronomers have discovered a potential "rogue" alien planet wandering alone just 100 light-years from Earth, suggesting that such starless worlds may be extremely common across the galaxy. The free-floating object, called CFBDSIR2149, is likely a gas giant planet four to seven times more massive ...

So I know that the election is over. I have followed the advice of several conservative bloggers and taken deep, cleansing breaths.  I have walked the dogs outside in sunny fall weather and hugged my wife. But here's my problem: I woke up this morning and nothing is settled. Source: MorgueFile Everything that was a pressing problem the day before the election is still a pressing problem. The economy sucks, unemployment remains persistently high, the fiscal cliff is coming in January, and this Administration has no plan to address any of these problems other than "Rinse and repeat." Sure enough, all the bad news that was withheld before the election is coming out in a rush: Boeing Telegraphs Layoffs in Defense, Space & Security Unit Why US Economy May Be Headed for Another Recession Loved ones tell me in relief that in electing Barack Obama they have "saved Social Security for their kids and grand-kids." No, they h...

Almost everyone who was born after the Ford Administration knows what "cheat codes" are. But for my fellow boomers I'll explain that cheat codes are (generally undocumented) special inputs to video games that allow the player to gain an advantage. They usually consist of pressing controller keys in a very exact sequence. They reward the game player with a variety of goodies: special powers and strength for their game avatar, or in "shooter" games, new and more powerful weapons or unlimited amunition. You can search the internet for game walkthroughs and cheat codes. Whenever a new game comes out, dedicated players try out different obscure combinations of a game controllers keys, trying to find the combination that will give them an advantage in the game. Game creators are aware of this interest and will make sure that cheat codes are "accidentally" leaked to their most loyal fans. These loyal fans then pass this along to their friends. There is ev...

The word is out on the digital street that I was in the E.R. last night, standing in for George Clooney. That's not entirely accurate. Last Tuesday I felt a tingling sensation in my right leg, as though my leg were asleep. After a couple of hours the feeling passed. Thursday the sensation returned and covered the entire right side of my body. Friday night I checked my blood pressure and it was high. So Mrs. Islander drove me down to the Island Emergency Room. Checking into the ER when you don't have a broken limb or gaping wound seems a bit false, as though you are malingering. At those prices, though, it's no joke. I could feel the money flying out of my wallet. Because the issues involved are your own health and life, yet you spend so much time alone in a strange room, time spent in the ER swings from boring to fascinating. Lying in a bed, connected to different monitors, I couldn't get up and walk around, so I had to devise my own entertainment. The monitors to which...