Top Diaries

Independent: Harry Potter plagiarism claims 'unfounded'

Harry Potter publishers Bloomsbury hit back at plagiarism claims today, branding the allegations "unfounded, unsubstantiated and untrue".
The estate of the late Adrian Jacobs has launched High Court proceedings against the company, claiming copyright infringement.
It is alleged that author JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has similarities to Jacobs' The Adventures of Willy the Wizard No 1 Livid Land.

by Sassafras on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 12:29:59 PM EST
[ Parent ]

It does seem rather unlikely.

by paving on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 02:14:12 AM EST
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Trial balloon. A shot at a slice of Rowling's £400m has to be worth any lawyer's time.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 05:51:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Telegraph: Phoenix crop circle may predict end of the world

The 400-foot design was discovered in a barley field in Yatesbury near Devizes and depicts the mythical phoenix reborn as it rises from the ashes.
Investigators claim more formations are referencing the possibility of a cataclysmic event occurring on December 21, 2012, which coincides with the end of the ancient Mayan calendar.

The Mayans believed civilisation exists within a series of earth cycles of 144,000 days each with the 13th expiring in December 2012, resulting in Armageddon.

by Sassafras on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 12:39:51 PM EST
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Party at mine on 22nd December 2012?

by Sassafras on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 12:40:24 PM EST
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I'll bring the lead shielding and the dehydrated rations.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 03:48:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]

You do realize that lead shielding is pervious to Cosmic Rays?

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 03:56:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Tinfoil hats will have to do then.

Ad astra per aspera

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 02:32:23 AM EST
[ Parent ]

"NOTHING stops the Cosmic Rays" ;-)

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 08:10:50 AM EST
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Nonsense.

The brainless should not be in banking. — Willem Buiter

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 08:26:24 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Oh, get into the spirit, Migu ;-)

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 09:21:45 AM EST
[ Parent ]

What are cosmic rays, by the way?

The brainless should not be in banking. — Willem Buiter

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 09:31:00 AM EST
[ Parent ]

You sucked me in:

In general, almost 90% of all the incoming cosmic rays are protons, about 9% are helium nuclei (alpha particles) and about 1% are electrons. The ratio of hydrogen to helium (28% by mass He) is about the same as the primordial elemental abundance ratio of these elements (24% by mass He) in the universe.

The proton is a subatomic particle with an electric charge of +1 elementary charge. It is found in the nucleus of each atom but is also stable by itself and has a second identity as the hydrogen ion, 1H+. It is composed of 3 even more fundamental particles comprising two up quarks and one down quark.

usual source...

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 09:58:35 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Ultra-high-energy cosmic ray - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The first observation of a cosmic ray with an energy exceeding 10²⁰ electronvolts was made by John Linsley at the Volcanic Ranch experiment in New Mexico in 1962.^[1]^[2]
Cosmic rays with even higher energies have since been observed. Among them was the Oh-My-God particle (a play on the nickname "God particle" for the Higgs boson) observed on the evening of 15 October 1991 over Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah. Its observation was a shock to astrophysicists, who estimated its energy to be approximately 3 × 10²⁰ electronvolts (50 joules)-- in other words, a subatomic particle with macroscopic kinetic energy equal to that of a baseball (142 g or 5 ounces) at 96 km/h (60 mph).
It was most probably a proton with a velocity only very slightly below the speed of light. To a static observer, such a proton, traveling at [1 − (5×10⁻²⁴)] times c, would travel only 47 nanometers (5×10⁻²⁴ light-years) less than a light-year in one year.^[3] (the proton would only be 47 nm behind a photon traveling the same path from the same point over the past year).

The brainless should not be in banking. — Willem Buiter

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 10:03:13 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin limit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Now here's where it gets interesting:

This limit was computed in 1966 by Kenneth Greisen^[1] and Vadim Kuzmin and Georgiy Zatsepin^[2] independently; based on interactions predicted between the cosmic ray and the photons of the cosmic microwave background radiation. They predicted that cosmic rays with energies over the threshold energy of 5×10¹⁹ eV would interact with cosmic microwave background photons to produce pions. This would continue until their energy fell below the pion production threshold.
...
Because of the mean path associated with the interaction, extragalactic cosmic rays with distances more than 50 Mpc (163 Mly) from the Earth with energies greater than this threshold energy should never be observed on Earth, and there are no known sources within this distance that could produce them.
A number of observations have been made by the AGASA experiment that appeared to show cosmic rays from distant sources with energies above this limit (called ultra-high-energy cosmic rays, or UHECRs). The observed existence of these particles was the so-called GZK paradox or cosmic ray paradox.

This was thought to be the first experimental evidence of quantum gravity!

A number of exotic theories have been advanced to explain the AGASA observations.
The most notable is the theory of doubly-special relativity. However, it is now established that standard doubly special relativity does not predict any suppression of the GZK cutoff, contrary to the pattern explored since 1997 by Luis Gonzalez-Mestres where an absolute local rest frame (the "vacuum rest frame") exists.^{[citation needed]}
Other possible theories involve a relation with dark matter.

ZOMG! A preferred reference frame? Was Einstein wrong?

Apparently not...

In July 2007, during the 30^th International Cosmic Ray Conference in Mérida, Yucatán, México, the High Resolution Fly's Eye Experiment (HiRes) and the Auger International Collaboration presented their results on ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. HiRes has observed a suppression in the UHECR spectrum at just the right energy, observing only 13 events with an energy above the threshold, while expecting 43 with no suppression. This result has been published in the Physical Review Letters in 2008 and as such is the first observation of the GZK Suppression.^[3] The Auger Observatory has confirmed this result: instead of the 30 events necessary to confirm the AGASA results, Auger saw only two, which are believed to be heavy nuclei events. According to Alan Watson, spokesperson for the Auger Collaboration, AGASA results have been shown to be incorrect.

But there is hope...

According to the analysis made by the AUGER collaboration the existence of the GZK cutoff seems to be confirmed, but it has been pointed out that the consequences of this result for models of Lorentz symmetry violation may depend crucially on the composition of the UHECR spectrum,^[7] and that a delayed suppression of the GZK cutoff cannot yet be excluded.

I say "hope" because, without experimental evidence of phenomena beyond the Standard [Cosmological] Model high-energy physics is dying a slow "death by success".

The brainless should not be in banking. — Willem Buiter

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 10:10:34 AM EST
[ Parent ]

And tin foil stops all of them dead.

Amazing, isn't it?

More seriously - LHC => a bit less than 10^15eV, more or less.

The most energetic, but very rare, cosmic rays => 10^21eV.

How dangerous can a single particle be? You'll get the usual spray of products, but I'm not sure how much damage they'd do on their way through.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 10:16:32 AM EST
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Sievert - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ThatBritGuy:

How dangerous can a single particle be? You'll get the usual spray of products, but I'm not sure how much damage they'd do on their way through.

They don't have more energy than a baseball...

More seriously,

In terms of SI base units:
1 Sv = 1 Jkg = 1 m²s² = 1 m²·s^-2
...
For acute full body equivalent dose, 1 Sv causes nausea, 2-5 Sv causes epilation or hair loss, hemorrhage and will cause death in many cases. More than 3 Sv will lead to LD 50/30 or death in 50% of cases within 30 days, and over 6 Sv survival is unlikely. (For more details, see radiation poisoning.)

Given that protons have a Relative biological effectiveness of maybe 10, and that the Oh My God particle has an energy of about 50 joules, a single ultra-high-energy cosmic ray could cause radiation poisoning, but only a handful of them have ever been observed and, what is more important, what reaches ground level is the shower of low-energy particles produced by the single original proton, which is scattered over a very large area.

The brainless should not be in banking. — Willem Buiter

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 10:26:28 AM EST
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I was thinking the RBE value would be bulk irradiation over the total body area.

If you had one particle the result would be more random.

But since you'd have to be naked and in space, it's probably not easy to test empirically.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 11:40:06 AM EST
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ThatBritGuy:

If you had one particle the result would be more random.

If you had one particle it would probably go past you. How does the "cosmic ray depth" of the entire Earth atmosphere compare to the interaction cross-section of a human body?

The brainless should not be in banking. — Willem Buiter

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 11:43:06 AM EST
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Les Olivières (none / 0)

The guys who trimmed our olive trees near Grasse said the best way to know how when to stop pruning was to be able to throw your flat hat through the canopy.

I think this has some connection to cosmic particles passing through atomic lattices - but I am not sure ;-)

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 10:32:10 AM EST
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Re: Les Olivières (none / 1)

Sven Triloqvist:

I think this has some connection to cosmic particles passing through atomic lattices - but I am not sure ;-)

Cosmic rays are charged particles... (click image for wikipedia article)

The brainless should not be in banking. — Willem Buiter

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 10:46:23 AM EST
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Thanks for that. So it's basically a lattice with knobs on?

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 11:04:20 AM EST
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What is?

The brainless should not be in banking. — Willem Buiter

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 11:05:08 AM EST
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Lots of atoms together. So called 'reality'

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 11:06:19 AM EST
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Gah, I am really going to write that diary about quantum mechanics and ontology.

The brainless should not be in banking. — Willem Buiter

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 11:07:17 AM EST
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And I presume that 'cosmic rays' or particles will not pass through great swathes of density (like Planet Earth) because the statistical chances of hitting one of those 'knobs' ("I saw that it was impossible to get anything of that order of magnitude unless you took a system in which the greater part of the mass of the atom was concentrated in a minute nucleus. It was then that I had the idea of an atom with a minute massive centre, carrying a charge".), increase with distance through a 'solid'.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 11:11:06 AM EST
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Cosmic ray - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cosmit rays are not able to pass through the atmosphere - you don't need a "solid" to stop them because they are charged particles.

When cosmic ray particles enter the Earth's atmosphere they collide with molecules, mainly oxygen and nitrogen, to produce a cascade of lighter particles, a so-called air shower. The general idea is shown in the figure which shows a cosmic ray shower produced by a high energy proton of cosmic ray origin striking an atmospheric molecule.

And ultra-high-energy cosmic rays are even stopped by the low-energy photons in the microwave background radiation (so you don't need "matter" to stop them).

The brainless should not be in banking. — Willem Buiter

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 11:20:01 AM EST
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Sven Triloqvist:

You do realize that lead shielding is pervious to Cosmic Rays?

The brainless should not be in banking. — Willem Buiter

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 11:21:29 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Citation needed (none / 0)

I hereby award you the Finnish Academy Citation for your contribution to the Arts.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 12:04:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Make that an ET meetup preparation diary series :P

The brainless should not be in banking. — Willem Buiter

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 11:22:44 AM EST
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If the Mayans were that clever, their civilisation wouldn't have died out way before the next Armageddon surely?

Ad astra per aspera

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 12:46:27 PM EST
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The 2012 apocolypse (sic) is part of a bizzaro complex of beliefs which includes ZOMG alien-infested planets careening around the solar system like billiard balls, ancient Sumerian fish people, wacky old Terrance McKenna and his drug-induced insect-like hyperdimensional entities, crop circles, NASA coverups, Mars landings, lizard people, CIA mind control, and the fact that quantum physics proves all of this.

I think the Olympics are happening around then too.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 03:54:36 PM EST
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Apparently last week was "Only six galactic spins till solstice 2012" according to an email from a friend. According to him the Mayans migrated North, and then it's something about Lunar calendars and Omaha indians, but I'm not entirely sure how these things link together (The more I read it im afraid the less I know).

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 04:13:47 PM EST
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Re: People and Klatsch (4.00 / 6)

Someone just told me that no one knows how microprocessors work because there's an equation inside them (sic) in which x+infinity is divided by y+infinity, and this isn't mathematically possible.

So - er - just thought you ought to know.

Or not know. I forget now.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 05:33:02 PM EST
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thy do tend to get upset when i laugh at them, apparently i shouldn't dis the wisdom of native cultures, and western knowledge is destroying the planet

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 05:37:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: People and Klatsch (4.00 / 6)

Someone just told me that no one knows how microprocessors work because there's an equation inside them (sic) in which x+infinity is divided by y+infinity, and this isn't mathematically possible.

Where do these people come from & why don't they go back there?

Ever since I learnt about confirmation bias I've started seeing it everywhere

by ATinNM on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 06:27:43 PM EST
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...the Mayans migrated North, and then it's something about Lunar calendars and Omaha indians

Oh why not.

And I'm sure they had lead acid battery powered astronomical computer as well.

And pyramids.

And an advanced non-industrial civilization taught to them by the Space Beings.

(It's all covered-up by the government, you know.)

Ever since I learnt about confirmation bias I've started seeing it everywhere

by ATinNM on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 06:24:58 PM EST
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Is a spin the time for the galaxy to complete one turn?

In that case we will only have to wait some 1 500 million years for six more galactic spins.

A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!

by A swedish kind of death on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 05:04:04 AM EST
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And don't forget the Jews blowing up WTC (4.00 / 2)

But I espeically like the stuff about Eizabeth II being a lizard.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 12:31:04 AM EST
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You forgot the sunspots.

(Although, the predicted solar maximum for 2012 might do a number on our communications, and that would certainly leave its mark globally.)

by lychee on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 01:11:57 AM EST
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Wait a minute, could an intense aurora be the spectacle we're supposed to see then?

Sheesh. People need to relax.

by lychee on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 01:19:54 AM EST
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<Sigh> Hit post instead of preview.

"People need to relax if that's what the whole thing's about."

Having satellites knocked out by solar storms wouldn't be fun (and I refuse to watch Knowing-- no solar flares for me, thank you). But now I wonder if the galactic things we're supposed to see are really just intense auroras!

by lychee on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 01:25:49 AM EST
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It wasn't about preservation.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 03:56:59 PM EST
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It wasn't about anything. I think the original is due to one of those wacky 'Everything is connected to everything else, so buy my sequel!' books by Jose Arguelles, which tied the Mayan Calendar to the I Ching, etc, etc.

Only he got it completely wrong, and the Mayan cycle really ended a few years ago.

I'll admit I'm fascinated by this constant need to try to prefigure apocalypse. If it's not the imminent end of the world, it's the antichrist. Or maybe some variation of ascension into paradise by way of the return of Jesus, the Rapture, the arrival of the space people, or a technological singularity.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 05:38:22 PM EST
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oh I could so do with a the world ended several years ago and you numptys have it all wrong link.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 05:41:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]

There's this for people with a reasonable attention span.

Also available on video.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 06:46:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]

As a child, I worried myself ill over some (presumably tongue-in-cheek) article I saw on the national news about Nostradamus and Mother Shipton (I think) agreeing that the world was going to end in 1981.

Astonishingly, the date of Mother Shipton's predicted end of the world appears to have been shifted to 2012.

Still, it all came in useful when some blithering child of sick fundamentalist parents started scaring my daughter by telling her she wasn't going to live to get to high school because God Was Coming.

My own experience and ten minutes on the internet proving how many people had made themselves look really stupid with these predictions soon cheered her up.

And if she had any residual worries, I should think three years of high school has pretty much wiped them out.

by Sassafras on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 07:01:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]

and there's always this

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 07:26:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Has anyone noticed that the world didn't end the last time a long count ended, about 3114 BCE? Or are people claiming there's a first time for everything?

There is actually a whole other 2012 contingent that doesn't think it wil be the end of the world, just an ending or change in how we view something. I think they mean other than 2012 prophecies. ;-) Kind of like how the Internet/Web changed communication and commerce, only on more of a psychological/spiritual scale.

by lychee on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 01:07:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]

According to the Mayans (or possibly only an interpretation of what they thought), the next 52000 year Baktun is the Age of Light, and we all get to go one step up the evolutionary ladder ;-)

The beginning of the last Baktun saw, possibly, the emergence of modern humans. The oldest dated remains found at Crô Magnon are around 35.000 years old.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 06:59:00 AM EST
[ Parent ]

My tongue, of course, is firmly placed in the cheek.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 08:12:50 AM EST
[ Parent ]

It was about the thrill of maths - or string theory ;-)

Or a culture looking for patterns over any many generations. I don't think we, today, have any idea what it feels like to be part of an ongoing effort to find patterns in the celestial or terrrestrial - over hundreds, if not thousands of years.

The only thing that was important to the Mayans (for example), imo, was that there HAD to be a Tellurian pattern. It was beyond preservation.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 06:08:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Mexico, Central America and the United States are literally CRAWLING with Mayans. They are very civilized.

by paving on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 02:27:10 AM EST
[ Parent ]

I grew up with Escher's drawings around - my Dad loved his work.

Ad astra per aspera

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 12:52:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Reuters 16 June 2009

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Belgian teenager has told police how she emerged from a tattoo parlor with 56 stars over one side of her face, rather than the three she had asked for, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
"I said this part, the top, is ok, but not the rest," Kimberley Vlaeminck from the city of Kortrijk, 90 km (56 miles) northwest of Brussels, told Belgian broadcaster VRT.
The 18-year-old said she fell asleep during the procedure, and woke up in pain when her nose was being tattooed.

How the hell anyone falls asleep having their face tattooed I don't know. She must have taken some strong painkillers before they started.

Ad astra per aspera

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 01:06:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]