THE SIDEWINDERS Episode 28: More Law Than We Want
STONETOSS Episode 199: Immersive Experience
CHUCK DIXON PRESENTS: ADVENTURE Episode 81: The Brigand
BEN GARRISON Episode 110: Free Assange
Year: 2023
Those Pesky Mathematics
A physicist proves that black holes cannot exist:
Laura Mersini-Houghton, a physics professor at UNC-Chapel Hill in the College of Arts and Sciences, has proven, mathematically, that black holes can never come into being in the first place.
The work not only forces scientists to reimagine the fabric of space-time, but also rethink the origins of the universe.
“I’m still not over the shock,” said Mersini-Houghton. “We’ve been studying this problem for a more than 50 years and this solution gives us a lot to think about.”
For decades, black holes were thought to form when a massive star collapses under its own gravity to a single point in space – imagine the Earth being squished into a ball the size of a peanut – called a singularity. So the story went, an invisible membrane known as the event horizon surrounds the singularity and crossing this horizon means that you could never cross back. It’s the point where a black hole’s gravitational pull is so strong that nothing can escape it.
The reason black holes are so bizarre is that it pits two fundamental theories of the universe against each other. Einstein’s theory of gravity predicts the formation of black holes but a fundamental law of quantum theory states that no information from the universe can ever disappear.
Efforts to combine these two theories lead to mathematical nonsense, and became known as the information loss paradox.
In 1974, Stephen Hawking used quantum mechanics to show that black holes emit radiation. Since then, scientists have detected fingerprints in the cosmos that are consistent with this radiation, identifying an ever-increasing list of the universe’s black holes.
But now Mersini-Houghton describes an entirely new scenario. She and Hawking both agree that as a star collapses under its own gravity, it produces Hawking radiation. However, in her new work, Mersini-Houghton shows that by giving off this radiation, the star also sheds mass. So much so that as it shrinks it no longer has the density to become a black hole.
Before a black hole can form, the dying star swells one last time and then explodes. A singularity never forms and neither does an event horizon. The take home message of her work is clear: there is no such thing as a black hole.
Assuming that she got the numbers right, it will be interesting to see if astrophysicists accept the math that disproves the existence of black holes any more gracefully than biologists have accepted the math that disproves the existence of evolution by natural selection.
So Much for the Wunderwaffen
Ukrainian armored troops are less than keen about taking their Leopard tanks into battle:
Ukrainian tank crews have been faking malfunctions on their tanks to justify not going into combat against Russian forces, fellow soldiers operating German Leopards have told Der Spiegel magazine. The revelation was part of a frontline report published by the news outlet.
The magazine spoke to three German-trained Ukrainian troops who were among the crew of two Leopard 2A6 tanks provided to Kiev by the Bundeswehr.
The report cites a loader nicknamed Gutsik, who claimed that some crews fake technical malfunctions to avoid being sent to the frontline. He reportedly told the magazine that dodging an engagement altogether was better than entering combat only to pull out after the first shot.
Another said he didn’t blame those who are refusing.
“If they hit the turret, you’re a heap of ashes,” a man identified as Misha told Spiegel.
Remember, this is not a Russian report. It’s a German one directly quoting Ukrainian soldiers. So it’s not propaganda. I expect that NATO pilots, of every state including the USA, are even more determined to avoid flying in the teeth of Russia’s air defenses. What are F-16s supposed to do against air defense systems designed to shoot down planes two generations newer?
It would be like flying Sopwith Camels against Yakovlev Yak-9Us.
Wednesday Arktoons
ALT★HERO Episode 77: Battle Plan
THE LOST ERA TRANSCRIPTS Episode 2: First Story
FAIRY DOOR Episode 26: Vi’s Price
A MIND PROGRAMMED Episode 24: Medical Emergency
THE TUNNELS OF WOE Episode 1: Chapter 1: The Nameless Thing
CHATEAU GRIEF Episode 257: Details Are Sketchy
We’re pleased to welcome two new series, THE TUNNELS OF WOE and THE LOST ERA TRANSCRIPTS. The TRANSCRIPTS are not a comic, but rather, a graphic record of the world we have lost, as explained in the Introduction.
Pete Hampton was a wildly eccentric, some would say ‘mad’ genius. He was a painter, naturalist, and showman. His paintings and stories told of his adventures in the Puente Hills in Whittier, and La Habra Heights, California.
As a child, Pete displayed a passionate love of nature, and a tremendous talent for depicting the world around him. In his youth he saw this pastoral corner of Southern California give way to the post WWII housing boom. Miles of grove land, and the beautiful hillsides fell to housing tracts, and shopping malls. Pete’s life became a mission. He was determined to save the remaining hills from development.
To accomplish this mission he painted thousands of pictures of the life and countryside he grew up in. He created slide shows of his paintings in the hope that people would see his shows, and be inspired to join him in his crusade.
The Lost Era slide show was begun in 1961, but never completed. In the archives of Pete’s work I discovered the hand written note books and fragments of the narration for the show, along with hundreds of paintings that accompanied the narrative. I have re-created the slide show here in book form in The Lost Era Transcripts.
Through Pete Hampton’s art you will view one of the untouched pastoral corners still remaining in mid-century Southern California.
You’ll get an intimate look into the strange world of this most eccentric genius, a world of transcendent beauty, and breath taking terror.
https://www.arkhaven.com/comics/historical/the-lost-era-transcripts
Why “Posterity” Matters
Six years ago, I debated Col. Tom Kratman on the topic of what the word “posterity” means in the context of the U.S. Constitution, specifically, the preamble which declares to whom the Constitution and the Bill of Rights applies.
I was correct, of course, to point out that posterity meant only the American Revolutionaries and their descendants, which is why the rights protected by the U.S. Constitution do not apply to many U.S. residents and even citizens. If you are not a direct descendant of an American Revolutionary, then the Constitution does not apply to you, no matter what the U.S. Supreme Court might claim.
The importance of correct interpretation of historical legal terms can be seen in the recent protest by the Global Times against sovereign U.S. States passing laws against foreign entities buying up their land.
CNN reported on Monday that “a growing number of states are considering or have passed measures this legislative term to ban ‘foreign adversaries’ and foreign entities – specifically China – from buying farmland.” These bills could violate the US Constitution, and also fuel an atmosphere of racism and anti-China sentiment.
Against the backdrop of increasingly strong anti-China sentiment in the US, it seems the “land purchase ban” is an inevitable product. Regarding the “land purchase ban,” several US-China relations experts interviewed by CNN warned against knee-jerk responses and called for lawmakers to act on evidence, not suspicion. There are certainly some rational people in the US who can see that this approach violates the US Constitution. However, in the current political atmosphere in the US, all anti-China actions are politically correct domestically, those who are willing to come out and speak up are the minority and their voices are often ignored.
The Posterity for whom the Constitution is intended to defend the Blessings of Liberty consists solely of the genetic descendants of the People of the several and united States. Posterity does not include immigrants, descendants of immigrants, invaders, conquerors, tourists, students, Americans born in Portugal, or anyone else who happens to subsequently reside in the same geographic location, or share the same civic ideals, as the original We the People.
Nor does it include sovereign foreign governments.
But as you can see, once the definition of “posterity” is expanded past its true and proper meaning, there is no reason it cannot be further expanded into a universal principle. Which, of course, is complete nonsense, and thereby demonstrates the practical impossibility of every other interpretation.
Oxygen > Inspiration
In this soft and easy age, it is understandable if people forget that there are more important things than being “inspirational”. Competence, in particular, being one of them.
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who went missing aboard his Titan submersible vessel along with four other passengers on Sunday, told an interviewer he didn’t want to hire a bunch of “50-year-old white guys” like other submarine companies because he wanted his team to be “inspirational.”
“When I started the business, one of the things you’ll find, there are other sub-operators out there but they typically have gentleman who are ex-military submariners and you’ll see a whole bunch of 50-year-old white guys,” Rush told a representative with Teledyne Marine.
“I wanted our team to be younger, to be inspirational and I’m not going to inspire a 16-year-old to go pursue marine technology but a 25-year-old you know who’s a subpilot or a platform operator or one of our techs can be inspirational,” Rush continued. “So we’ve really tried to to get very intelligent, motivated, younger individuals involved because we’re doing things that are completely new.”
“We’re taking approaches that are used largely in the aerospace industry, is related to safety and some of the the preponderance of checklists things we do for risk assessments and things like that, that are more aviation related than ocean related and we can train people to do that. We can train someone to pilot the sub, we use a game controller so anybody can drive the sub.”
Setting aside the fact that game controllers use very, very inexpensive plastic parts that have been known to fail, Rush’s preference for youth, inspiration, and color appear to have proven fatal.
Former OceanGate director of marine operations David Lochridge — one of those “50-year-old white guys” Rush wanted to avoid hiring for not being “inspirational” enough — was fired by Rush in 2018 after he reportedly blew the whistle on OceanGate by raising safety concerns over their first-of-a-kind carbon fiber hull and other systems.
Personally, I’m finding the entire OceanGate debacle to be absolutely inspiring. But let’s not fail to address the obvious: hadn’t this guy ever heard of either Watergate, Heaven’s Gate, or Pizzagate?
Of All the Boomers Who Ever Boomed
These may have been the boomerest. From SocialGalactic:
Late 80s high school friend attended a state retreat for gifted kids. They chose a theme song at the end, Alphaville’s “Forever Young”.
The Boomers in charge overrode with “Imagine”.
I don’t know that anything summarizes the awfulness of the Wicked Generation better or more succinctly than that. It’s all right there, the generational solipsism, the entitlement, the inexplicable abuse of power, the Beatles, and most of all, the total lack of regard for their children and grandchildren.
It’s not just that the Boomers abused their power and privilege, as they observably did, but the weird and foolish ways they chose to do so.
It’s ironic from a musical perspective too, because Forever Young is a much better and much more epic song than Imagine. Based on the streaming statistics, the younger generations would even appear to agree.
Tuesday Comics
ARTS OF DARK AND LIGHT Episode 58: The Dubious Honor
FLIP CITY CIRCUS Episode 10: My Date With Leo
PHILLIP THE EVANGELIST Episode 3: The Deer and The Lion
PRIVATEER Episode 3: Obsolete Sky Machines Needed
REBEL DEAD REVENGE Episode 67: Short-Lived Victory
上嫁小鼠 Episode 9: 你在哪里
Nice to see Phillip the Evangelist back in action. The art is unique and pretty, and the story is the complete inverse of predictable.
A Confession
I suppose I might as well come clean about my fake chair and fake library now that the cat is out of the bag. It’s actually just a commercial green screen image that costs $2.99 sold by a streaming software company. My apologies to everyone who was taken in by this shameful deception. I was just trying to impress everyone.
I hope you will find the wherewithal to forgive me for this moral failure.
You Really Didn’t, Donald
President Trump still thinks he hired the best people for his administration:
During a portion of an interview with the Fox News Channel aired on Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” 2024 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump responded to questions on why he hired so many people who he has now criticized or have criticized him by stating the overwhelming majority of people he hired were good hires, he did hire the best people, and that he “didn’t know” Washington, but does now.
Trump said, [relevant remarks begin around 16:10] “When I came down to Washington, I was in Washington 17 times in my life in D.C., and I never stayed overnight. I was never there. I didn’t know the people. I didn’t know that world, other than I was involved in politics from the other side very much. And I had — I put great people in, but I put some people like Bill Barr and Bolton and a few of them that — actually, Bolton was good because everybody — every time I negotiated, people said, oh, they’ve got this maniac here. He’s going to go to war with us and they’d concede every point. It was actually pretty good in a certain way. But we put people in that were great and we put people in that weren’t. I now know Washington probably better than anybody. I know the good ones and the bad ones.”
Host Bret Baier then noted that Trump vowed to only hire the best people in 2016. Trump responded, “Well, I did do that.”
No. The best people absolutely were not hired. Mike Cernovich explained why: all the genuine experts were eliminated during the vetting process by the Swamp creatures performing it.
Does anyone truly believe that his economics advisors were better than Steve Keen or me? Does anyone seriously think that he wouldn’t have done better to consult with the likes of Lind and van Creveld on defense matters?
And let’s not even get started on Fauci….