Our Universe: Flat As A Pancake

giant-structures-in-the-universeAnother way one could argue that the universe has no beginning is if it is shaped in a funny, non-Euclidian way so that the matter and energy loops back on itself due to the curvature of space. Not all non-Euclidian shapes for space would allow it to do this, but some might.

Fortunately, scientists now have evidence that the universe is not curved. It is Euclidian or “flat” in the argot of astronomy. This was shown a few years ago by examining gigantic structures in the night sky that are too faint for the human eye to see.

That’s what the picture on the left is. It’s a section of the southern sky (think: Australia, not Dixie) showing enormous structures that we could see if our eyes were sensitive to the right frequency. To give a sense of how big these structures are, the dot that is inset in the picture is the relative size of the moon. Since the structures themselves are ultra-far away, though, they’re FREAKING HUGE.

They also contain clues about the geometry of the universe, and they reveal it to be Euclidian. So all that stuff Carl Sagan told you in Cosmos about the universe maybe being a weird shape appears to be simply wrong.

This also means that you couldn’t stand up on a high hill, use a pair of superpowerful binoculars, look out across the universe, and see the back of your own head. They may have done that in a way cool Land of the Lost episode, but that was their universe, not ours.

How Big Is The Universe?

universeIt’s 156 billion light years across. That’s the current estimate. “How can that be,” you ask, “if the universe is only supposed to be about 13.7 billion years old? How could it grow to such a size in so short a time?”

The answer that is proposed is that the universe didn’t simply start flying out from the Big Bang. It did that–the theory goes–but there is supposed to be more to it. The universe also is inflating like a balloon, so the space that the energy from the Big Bang rushed into has inflated and continues to inflate, allowing the universe to grow larger than mere expansion at the speed of light would allow.

If it helps, think of an ant walking on the surface of a balloon. The ant himself can only go so fast, but if the balloon he’s standing on is expanding, he can cover much more distance than he could under his own power. The same way, a light particle can only fly through space so fast (186,000 miles per second), but if the space it is travelling through is itself is expanding, the light particle (or wave–whatever) will cover more distance.

At least that’s the theory.

If it’s true, it’s one more reason why the universe is moving apart too rapidly for its gravity to overcome its outward momentum and pull it back in on itself. That means that the universe can’t be an eternally oscillating thing with no beginning that undergoes an endless cycle of expansions and collapses.

In other words, the new finding is supportive of the idea that the universe had a beginning and thus was created.

Judge's Ruling Out Of Touch With Reality

A Boston judge recently ruled that calling someone a homosexual when he is not does not violate slander or libel laws.

In her ruling she stated:

“In fact, a finding that such a statement is defamatory requires this court to legitimize the prejudice and bigotry that for too long have plagued the homosexual community.”

That’s nuts.

In the interest of furthering the homosexual agenda the judge has relied upon an idiotic theory of jurisprudence that would place judges in the position of philosophers. For her argument to work one would have to assume that judges should decide whether saying something about a person is objectively good or bad. This is not the job of a judge. In a slander or libel case it does not matter what the objective status of an accusation is as long as it is false and would hurt the person it is made against.

Suppose I live in a community that believes being a Martian is a bad thing. Someone then accuses me of being a Martian, when I am not. People in the community then begin to react negatively toward me, refuse me service, deny me jobs, reject doing business with my firm, etc., all because I have been falsely accused of being a Martian. In such circumstances, I should be able to sue the person who falsely accused me of being a Martian in order to get compensation for the harm that the false accusation has done to me and my reputation. It does not matter whether being a Martian is a good, neutral, or bad. The point is that someone falsely accused me of something that has negative effects on me and my reputation due to the way people react to it.

The fact is that in our society people frequently react negatively to calling someone a homosexual. Whether one approves of that or not, it happens, and judges should not prevent people from seeking legal redress of the wrong when they are falsely accused of being homosexual.

This idiot judge’s ruling would put judges in the position of adjudicating cases not based on whether a person suffers due to the making of a false charge but on whether the false charge refers to a thing that is objectively bad.

I’m sorry, but determining the objective moral status of something is a job for philosophers and theologians, not Massachusetts judges, regardless of the divine prerogatives they seem to believe they possess.

Judge’s Ruling Out Of Touch With Reality

A Boston judge recently ruled that calling someone a homosexual when he is not does not violate slander or libel laws.

In her ruling she stated:

“In fact, a finding that such a statement is defamatory requires this court to legitimize the prejudice and bigotry that for too long have plagued the homosexual community.”

That’s nuts.

In the interest of furthering the homosexual agenda the judge has relied upon an idiotic theory of jurisprudence that would place judges in the position of philosophers. For her argument to work one would have to assume that judges should decide whether saying something about a person is objectively good or bad. This is not the job of a judge. In a slander or libel case it does not matter what the objective status of an accusation is as long as it is false and would hurt the person it is made against.

Suppose I live in a community that believes being a Martian is a bad thing. Someone then accuses me of being a Martian, when I am not. People in the community then begin to react negatively toward me, refuse me service, deny me jobs, reject doing business with my firm, etc., all because I have been falsely accused of being a Martian. In such circumstances, I should be able to sue the person who falsely accused me of being a Martian in order to get compensation for the harm that the false accusation has done to me and my reputation. It does not matter whether being a Martian is a good, neutral, or bad. The point is that someone falsely accused me of something that has negative effects on me and my reputation due to the way people react to it.

The fact is that in our society people frequently react negatively to calling someone a homosexual. Whether one approves of that or not, it happens, and judges should not prevent people from seeking legal redress of the wrong when they are falsely accused of being homosexual.

This idiot judge’s ruling would put judges in the position of adjudicating cases not based on whether a person suffers due to the making of a false charge but on whether the false charge refers to a thing that is objectively bad.

I’m sorry, but determining the objective moral status of something is a job for philosophers and theologians, not Massachusetts judges, regardless of the divine prerogatives they seem to believe they possess.

California Mountain Lion Follies

Another excellent piece from the great Thomas Sowell. This time he focuses on Californians’ obsession with protecting wildlife, specifically: the mountain lion. Excerpt:

Fearing that the mountain lion might find one of the local school children a tempting target, the police shot and killed the animal. Outrage against the police erupted up and down the San Francisco peninsula and as far away as Marin County, on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge, more than 30 miles away.

Sowell’s commentary on the situation is excellent. He particularly goes after local academics, and I’m right with him. I’m from an academic family, so I grew up around PhDs. In fact, I think I was in my early teens before I realized that it was not normal for a man to have a PhD. As a result, I’ve seen academics up close, and I can tell you for a fact that having a doctorate doesn’t mean that you have the sense to come in out of the rain.

I also have special resonance for the nuttiness over the mountain lion in California. As I discovered taking a hunting class, hunting mountain lions is illegal in California. Know why? Well, a number of years ago the envionmentalists out here convinced the people of the state that the animal was endangered (it wasn’t) and so got the previously legal practice of hunting it made illegal. No more mountain lion licenses were issued.

The result? The mountain lion population exploded, outstripped its main habitat, and started encroaching on populated areas. Hungry mountain lions started preying on livestock and even humans.

Now, because ordinary hunters still aren’t allowed to purchases licenses to hunt mountain lion, the state has to pay professionals to come in and cull the mountain lion population. That’s right: Previously the state made money from volunteers who paid to serve as agents of the state’s wildlife management program (which only issued the number of licenses each year needed to keep the wildcat population in check). Now the state must pay other hunters to do the job that it used to make money on.

Who says California isn’t crazy?

FLASH! Scientists Prove Sun Is Larger Than Venus!

venus-sunToday’s rare transit of the sun by Venus gave scientists the world over the chance to directly observe the size of the two bodies in relation to each other.

“Sometimes Venus looks larger than it does at other times,” said Whit Labcoat, director of research into the planetary sizes at Mt. Wilson Observatory, “but that’s because it’s a lot closer to the earth than the sun is–at least some of the time. Other times Venus seems very tiny. That phenomenon occurs when it is on the other side of the sun from us.”

“Studies have found that objects appear larger when they are nearer and smaller when they are farther away,” he added.

By contrast, the sun never chances its apparent size in the sky. “Scientists believe that is because the earth is in orbit around the sun,” Labcoat explained. “So it never much changes its distance from the sun. At least, that’s the theory.”

“What this event does is let us directly compare the size of Venus to the size of the sun, because right now Venus is in front of the sun. It’s still closer to earth than the sun is, but even so we can see that th sun is much, much larger than Venus.”

Others took a less scientific approach to the rare astronomical phenomenon.

“How come the sun had a black dot in it?” Dorcas Tam, 7, asked in Hong Kong.

Public School Follies

An interesting collection of horror stories from American public schools. The lead horror story focuses on history. Excerpts:

American students learn how World War II affected Japanese-Americans, blacks and women, but not much about the actual war, writes Jay Mathews in the Washington Post. Students tend to learn social history but not military history.

Tiffany Charles got a B in history last year at her Montgomery County high school, but she is not sure what year World War II ended. She cannot name a single general or battle, or the man who was president during the most dramatic hours of the 20th century.

Yet the 16-year-old does remember in some detail that many Japanese American families on the West Coast were sent to internment camps. “We talked a lot about those concentration camps,” she said.

The Post interviewed 76 teenagers. Two-thirds knew Japanese Americans had been interned during World War II. Only one-third could name a single World War II general; half could name a World War II battle.

On her blog, one teacher is frank about why history gets taught as it does:

I have much more time pressure and concern about teaching the curriculum since my kids have to take a standardized test. For my Advanced Placement kids, we do almost zilch on military history for any war we study. That is not part of the AP curriculum. . . . But the social history….that’s another story. They better know how every single war impacted women and families, blacks and other minorities, civil rights, the economy, the role of the federal government, and politics. Every single AP test will probably have a social history question. And, as I tell my kids, when you see “social” on an AP test, think women and blacks, and you’ll be able to come up with a good answer. And for World War II, throw in Japanese internment and the Zoot Suit riots, and you’re doing great. But for military history, they’ll need to take my elective on the Revolution and the Civil War to get some real military history other than a brief skimming of the surface.

Just more reason to homeschool.

Clash of the Atlantises

atlantisA German scientist named Dr. Rainer Kuehne believes satellite images have located the fabled sunken city of Atlantis–ironically, above ground in Spain.

An American researcher named Robert Sarmast believes maps of underwater geography have revealed the location of Atlantis–underwater off the coast of Cyprus.

Meanwhile, representatives of Stargate Command downplayed rumors that another American scientist–Dr. Daniel Jackson–had found an ancient, extraterrestrial tablet that located the lost city of Atlantis–in the distant Pegasus Galaxy.