Cowlix Wearing my mind on my sleeve

Saturday, March 23, 2002 Permanent link to this day
Military commissions

The rules under which the military commissions will operate have been released.

News Flash!

U.S. not center of the world, radicals claim

There were unconfirmed reports yesterday that the United States is not the center of the world.

The White House had no immediate comment on the reports, which set off a firestorm of controversy in the nation's capital.

[via The War in Context]

Speedy dwarfs

Astronomers working with the VLT and the TNG have discovered a binary star system made up of two white dwarfs which revolve around each other every 5 minutes, the fastest yet known. It's thought that these may be causing gravity waves which can be detected when LISA comes online in 10 years.

[via bottomquark]

Costly time

How much does a year in prison cost? $21,601 [via Cryptome]

A paradox's origin

The Present Situation In Quantum Mechanics: a translation of Erwin Schröedinger's 16 page paper, of which one paragraph was devoted to what became the Schröedinger's Cat Paradox.

One can even set up quite ridiculous cases. A cat is penned up in a steel chamber, along with the following device (which must be secured against direct interference by the cat): in a Geiger counter there is a tiny bit of radioactive substance, so small, that perhaps in the course of the hour one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none; if it happens, the counter tube discharges and through a relay releases a hammer which shatters a small flask of hydrocyanic acid. If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. The psi-function of the entire system would express this by having in it the living and dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts.

Palestinian terror

Killers revel in kudos of a US terrorism designation

For three months the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades pursued a relentless and efficient campaign of violence, shooting down soldiers at Israeli army roadblocks and dispatching suicide bombers to the Jewish heartland. At long last, they gloated yesterday, they were recognised: the US state department branded the Palestinian militant group a terrorist organisation.

"We are really grateful and thankful. It is a great honour for us to be called a terrorist organisation by the greatest sponsor of terrorism in the world," its joint-founder, Nasser Badawi, said.

Monterrey conference

Globalization Proves Disappointing: a report from the U.N. International Conference on Financing for Development held in Monterrey earlier this week.

Rather than an unstoppable force for development, globalization now seems more like an economic temptress, promising riches but often not delivering, in the view of many of the leaders at the United Nations conference in this Mexican city, an industrial center.

The draft consensus report, which was made available prior to the conference, as well as round table summaries are being made available. [via dangerousmeta]

TDRS trouble

The second in a new series of TDRS communication satellites, which NASA uses to link its operations in orbit, including the shuttle, ISS, the Hubble, and other satellites, has failed to reach the correct orbit. Boeing is still working on the problem, but a shuttle mission to rescue or repair it is apparently being considered.


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Copyright © 2001-2002 by Wes Cowley
wcowley@cowlix.com