We Mock What We Do Not Understand

Charles Krauthammer never fails to disappoint me when it comes to spouting nonsense. But today's column in the Review is especially puzzling.

Writing about the news that neutrinos may travel faster than light, he notes:

The implications of such a discovery are so mind-boggling, however, that these same scientists immediately requested that other labs around the world try to replicate the experiment. Something must have been wrong to account for a result that, if we know anything about the universe, is impossible.

Actually, scientists making new discoveries always have their work double checked. Being able to find any errors and/or reproduce the results is a hugely important part of science.

He blathers on as to the implications of this discovery.

It means that the “standard model” of subatomic particles that stands at the center of all modern physics is wrong.

Nor does it stop there. This will not just overthrow physics. Astronomy and cosmology measure time and distance in the universe on the assumption of light speed as the cosmic limit. Their foundations will shake as well.

It cannot be. Yet, this is not a couple of guys in a garage peddling cold fusion. This is no crank wheeling a perpetual motion machine into the patent office. These are the best researchers in the world using the finest measuring instruments, having subjected their data to the highest levels of scrutiny, including six months of cross-checking by 160 scientists from 11 countries.

But there must be some error. Because otherwise everything changes. We shall need a new physics. A new cosmology. New understandings of past and future, of cause and effect. Then shortly and surely, new theologies.

I'm not getting this. Does he have a point?

Now You Know How The System Works

The Colbert Report

A hat tip to my Aunt Judith for sending me this.

Little Miss OCD

You can always tell when Steph puts the dishes and silverware away.

Of course, looking at her room (no embarrassing photo provided) you'd think it was a totally different person living there.

What We've Become

Prospective Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry says he is open to sending the U.S. military to Mexico to help fight the drug cartels.

“It may require our military in Mexico working in concert with them to kill these drug cartels and to keep them off of our border and to destroy their network,” Mr. Perry said during a campaign appearance here.

“I don’t know all the different scenarios that would be out there,” he said. “But I think it is very important for us to work with them to keep that country from failing.”

This is the same type of thinking that pushed us over the moral edge when we decided to declare a Global War on Terrorism and use the military to fight it. The war was not against a state, but against a small organization whose members were out in the global hinterlands. The enemy in this war became so conflated and the definition of a terrorist so expansive that Congress has to pass a bill that declared Nelson Mandela wasn't a terrorist so he could travel to the United States.

Our military has been involved in Afghanistan for ten years. We helped overthrow the Taliban and installed a government that cannot exist without our continued presence. We used to drop bombs and shoot cruise missiles. Technological advances have given us the ability to use remote controlled aircraft to stay over a target for a long time and then hit it with a missile.

That target, as we witnessed recently, can even be an American citizen, a decision cleared by U.S. government lawyers. And how hard can that be these days? During the Bush Administration John Yoo said the President's constitutional authority was broad enough to order the massacre of a village. He also helped provide legal justification for "enhanced interrogation techniques", better known in other circles as torture. So clearing the extrajudicial killing of Anwar Awlaki via a remote controlled aircraft launching a missile shouldn't be hard to do. And as you can see from many of the comments on any articles about this, most people don't consider the violation of his constitutional rights to be an issue. And many that do think that killing a terrorist is worth trumping the law. Instead, celebrate that we killed another terrorist.

Photos From Yesterday's Races

Cyclocross Racing - Riverside State Park

John was kind enough to take photos with my camera while I was racing and I snapped a few before and after. It's great to see all ages and skill levels out there giving it all.

Race Season Has Begun

I woke up this morning, looked outside and saw that it had rained. Whoo-hoo! The first cyclocross race of the season was today and I was looking forward to splashing through puddles and getting muddy. I got to Riverside State Park and it was bone dry. The rain missed it. Bummer, but not the end of the world.

Scouting out the course I found it was not completely without hazards.
I signed up for two races, the Men's Masters 50+ and the Men's Cat 4. They were scheduled back to back so I figured (quite correctly) I'd be very tired at the end of the day. The Master's race did not go well for me. I was obviously rusty. I felt like I couldn't do anything right. My turns were too wide. I wasn't raising off the saddle on the dips and bumps. I could dismount just fine on the approach to the barrier and run-up, but I couldn't get the bike off the ground in time. One time I slammed it into the board hard enough to knock the chain off. That cost me some time putting it back on once I got to the top.

With the track being so dry, the sandy turns could be tricky as this young lady learned. I did the same thing on another turn.
The race leaders caught me about halfway through my fifth lap. So I got to complete five and I was beginning to regret signing up for a second race. I drank some sport drink and chilled for a few minutes. At least I was warmed up for the race. Since my front tire was slipping in the sandy turns I thought I'd bleed some air to see if that improved the traction. Besides, everybody knows you look more like a pro at the start line if you lean down, spritz a little air from your tire and then give it a squeeze, right?

The second race went much better. I focused on technique during the turns, over the bumpy terrain, and picking up the bike for the run-up.

Doing much better this time around.
(All photos of me by John Speare.)
On the fifth lap I assumed that, like the first race, the race leaders would catch me and I'd be done. But the cyclocross gods had other plans. My race goal is to complete as much of the course I can before I get caught by the leaders. As luck would have it, the leaders caught everyone behind me--was anyone behind me? But I arrived at the finish line where the race official informed me I had one more lap to go. Yeah--one of those "be careful what you wish for" scenarios.

Really wishing this was over.
(No, I am not track standing.)
I continued on the course feeling all alone. Anyone ahead of me was well ahead. Any riders behind me were now finished. My eleventh run-up went without a hitch, but took a little longer.

The spring in my step was now a trudge.
Kudos to Emde Sports for putting on a first rate race. It was a lot of fun.