Paul Dirac on religion

Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (1902-1984) is one of the founders of quantum physics, whose name we will encounter later in the series of posts on the Higgs. Due to his family’s low financial status, he initially studied engineering but fortunately for the world of physics, he could not get a job as an engineer and managed to scrape up the money to pursue graduate study in physics at Cambridge. He rapidly established himself in the emerging field of quantum mechanics, winning a Nobel Prize at the age of 31. [Read more…]

‘Supermarket gallon smashers’ being charged

Readers may recall that about a month or so ago I expressed my extreme annoyance with those who pretended to have a spectacular fall in supermarkets, breaking gallon jugs of milk and juice and other things, creating a mess, spattering people nearby, and making fools of the people who expressed concern that they might be hurt and tried to help them. They would have an accomplice who recorded the events and posted it on YouTube. [Read more…]

God as dog owner

Theodicy, the problem of how a benevolent and all-powerful god can allow suffering, is the fatal weakness of religion. There is simply no good answer that religious people can give even though theologians have grappled with this problem for millenia. That does not stop people from trying though, and I recently received the following email that offers one variant. I am posting it and my response because I think it may be of general interest. Here is the body of the email. [Read more…]

New documentary on whistleblowers

Given the absurd levels of secrecy of the US government that has accelerated under the current administration, whistleblowers are one of the few ways we get to learn about government abuses. But they pay a severe price for doing so, having the government’s massive prosecutorial apparatus thrown at them, part of the government’s strategy to discourage others from following their lead. [Read more…]

Pope fight?

The new pope Francis has been getting great press. This has been almost entirely due to style, not substance. As far as we know, his opposition to same sex marriage, abortion, contraception, priestly celibacy, and ordination of women as clergy are no less reactionary than those of his predecessor. But the fact that he seems more informal, self-effacing, and at ease with ordinary people when compared with his austere predecessor seems to have enthralled followers and the media alike. [Read more…]

The Higgs Story-Part 3: The basic elements of the Standard Model

All the stuff of everyday matter is composed of atoms that are made up of protons and neutrons and electrons. The three quarks in the protons and neutrons consist of just the up and down varieties and make up only about 1% of their masses, if we use the current quark mass values (see part 2 in this series). There are also gluons that hold the quarks within the proton and neutron so that they never become isolated free particles the way that (say) electrons do . [Read more…]

Why isn’t the minimum wage today $22?

I am sick of hearing people opposing a rise in the minimum wage because it would be an intolerable burden on business that would cause them to lay people off or prevent them hiring workers or that it would cause rampant inflation. Suring a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, senator Elizabeth Warren takes apart a restaurant owner David Rutigliano who tries to shiftily make this argument. [Read more…]