The Standard Model survives

I still suspect it will be refined considerably, but it appears that for the present, it remains in play:

Scientists believe they have captured the elusive “God particle” that gives matter mass and holds the physical fabric of the universe together. The historic announcement came in a progress report from the Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator.

Professor John Womersley, chief executive of the Science and technology Facilities Council, told reporters at a briefing in London: “They have discovered a particle consistent with the Higgs boson.

“Discovery is the important word. That is confirmed. It’s a momentous day for science.”

Scientists say it is a 5 sigma result which means they are 99.999% sure they have found a new particle.

I’ll admit that I was hoping for an outright negative result, not because I have anything against physicists or physics, but because their Standard Model hasn’t permitted them to make any significant material advances in quite some time. Hence the philosophical diversions of string theory, multiverse theory, and so forth. But, one can only work with what is actually there, and as an armchair economist, I somewhat envy a model that actually works reasonably well as a predictive model.

However, given the possibility that the characteristics of the particle are still unknown – and what an astonishing surprise to learn that more study, (translation: money), is needed to determine those characteristics – we can still hope for something unusual in this new “Higgs-like” particle that will upset the consensus apple cart and pave the way for some new scientific breakthroughs.

Hultgreen-Curie strikes again

Yet another pioneer is struck down by the infamous Hultgreen-Curie syndrome:

Maria De Villota, 32, from Spain, was taking part in her first test for the F1 team at Duxford Airfield in Cambridgeshire this morning when she inexplicably crashed into a support truck for her team after completing her opening lap. After treatment by trackside paramedics, she was taken to the local Addenbrooke’s Hospital. One of only two females in test-drive roles at F1 level, she was running the rule over the Marussia car which will be raced by Timo Glock at the British Grand Prix in Silverstone this weekend.

Inexplicable… and yet somehow entirely predictable.

Another day, another whitewash

It doesn’t seem to matter how much the banks steal or how much fraud they commit, no one ever goes to jail:

Regulators delivered the first blow in a major investigation into whether big banks had improperly set key interest rates that affected how consumers and companies borrowed money around the world.

On Wednesday, Barclays agreed to pay $450 million to resolve accusations that it had tried to manipulate rates to benefit the bank’s own bottom line. At the height of the financial crisis, regulators say, the big British bank reported bogus figures that in some cases had influenced a benchmark for student loans, credit cards and mortgages.

The Barclays deal, struck with regulators in Washington and London and the Justice Department, caps a multiyear investigation that yielded one of the largest regulatory penalties tied to the financial crisis. The settlement is the first in a series of potential cases against other financial firms, including HSBC, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase….

Some of the most troubling actions, regulators say, occurred between 2007 and 2009. As bank financing costs rose to new highs after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, regulators worried that firms might have submitted low interest rate figures that underpin Libor, making their financial positions look stronger. Amid speculation that the bank was struggling to raise money, Barclays’ senior management asked employees to lower the rates submitted to the Libor committee, according to the regulatory filings. Management wanted the bank’s rates in line with rivals.

The way these things are reported is always in a manner suggesting that there were some complex financial details that are hard to understand or report accurately, but the LIBOR-fixing was pretty simple. Barclays and the other banks simply reported false prices, claiming to have loaned money at higher rates and borrowed money at lower rates than they did, depending upon what served their interest at the time. Since the interest rate is determined by this activity, that activity was fraudulent and affected anyone borrowing money at that time.

An assistant attorney general says: ““For this illegal conduct, Barclays is paying a significant price.” But once more, no criminal charges. So, the message is clear. Commit all the fraud you like. Commit all the crime you want. Steal without hesitation or remorse. If you’re caught, you’ll merely be fined pennies on the dollars you stole. So when you read about the corruption in Rome and other historical societies, don’t deceive yourself into thinking that Man has progressed in any way beyond the technological. It’s no different, and in fact, as Jean-Jacques Rousseau once pointed out, the Romans abided by their own laws better than any other historical society, and far more than Americans do.

Mailvox: SAVE US CAPTAIN UNDEROOS

RC has a different perspective on the national priority:

You behave as authentic Anti-America. NO ONE, can be as EVIL as OBAMA. Romney may not be your choice. Althought, compare Romney to the EVIL Obama, shows your bias against Mitt Romney and your lack of love for this country. Any one is better than the INCOMPETENT/LIAR/MARXIST MUSLIM/FALSE/PHONY/CORRUPT OBAMA, and all the thugs without any principles, that is destroying this country, very fast.

And so Charlie Brown charged bravely, bravely, for the football. Surely THIS time Lucy won’t pull it away, he assured himself.

Mailvox: by George, they’ve got it!

Nick comments: “It is expected that scientists will announce Wednesday that they have wholly relied on circumstantial evidence to “prove”, via inferences, beyond all resonable doubt (or, if you prefer, 5-sigma certainty) the existence of the “God Particle”.”

It will certainly be amusing if it turns out that the scientific media is reading the tea leaves wrong and CERN is summoning famous particle physicists to Switzerland in order to announce the failure of the Standard Model. But that won’t be half so hilarious as if their announcement of the proof of Higgs boson is eventuall followed by a reluctant admission that it doesn’t actually exist in spite of all their sigmas.

It seems scientists don’t pay much attention to finance, as it is remarkable how often the mathematically impossible black swan shows up to crash the party.

WND column

Conservatives and Forced Consumption

It is said that hope springs eternal in the human breast. This is certainly true when it comes to Republicans, as no sooner had Chief Justice Roberts exploded all of the expectations that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would be overturned due to the mandate that requires Americans to make certain purchases or face a financial penalty than various Republican commentators were attempting to manufacture a silver lining from the unadulterated equine ejectus of Roberts’ opinion.

Euro 2012: the greatest of all time

Spain 4 Italy 0

I thought Italy actually played fairly well and they were successful in keeping Spain from dominating the ball in the first thirty minutes, but their defense was just half a step too slow at just the wrong time and they couldn’t capitalize on the rare half-chances that they got. I thought Casillas was the player of the game when it was still in doubt, of course, once Thiago Motta pulled his hamstring not long after coming in as the third substitute, the game was over.

To me, the assist from Torres at the end said it all. Whereas most players on most teams, especially a substitute, would take that shot, he didn’t hesitate to make the perfect soccer play and give up a high percentage shot in order to allow his teammmate to make an even higher one. There may be some discussion about the Brazil 1970 team being better, but to only give up one goal in the entire tournament, then win by the biggest margin of victory in championship game history in clinching their third straight major title should be sufficient to cement this Spanish team’s claim on greatness.

As Ender said: “I’m not happy, but how could they beat THAT team?”

In which opinions are sought

Marcher Lord and I have been having some discussions about what the cover for the forthcoming first novel in the Arts of Dark and Light series should look like. On the one hand, it is a continuation of the story begun in Summa Elvetica, so there is a good reason to do it in the style of the SE cover. On the other hand, SE was a highly esoteric experimental novel with absolutely no pretensions of mass appeal whatsoever, so there is an equally good reason to go with a different approach. Below is an image with both possible cover styles shown side-by-side; click on it to see the high-res version.

Please note that all I’m looking for here is to get everyone’s opinion on which style they happen to prefer. I’m not looking for value judgments or long essays on the relative artistic merits. Obviously, the covers are not done and so it’s not at all necessary to point out that my name is misspelled or any other minor and easily corrected issues. So, please express your preference in the comments; I originally put up a poll, but some retard from 173.245.5x didn’t realize that ProProfs tracks IP addresses and kept voting repeatedly so we’ll have to do this manually. Needless to say, Anonymous votes won’t be counted.

Thanks, and in case you’re interested, I expect to have some additional book-related news early next week.

Kicking out the Paulites

Eric Golub recommends kicking Ron Paul’s supporters out of the Republican Convention:

The following words accurately describe the overwhelming majority of Ron Paul supporters.

“I will not vote for anybody other than Ron Paul. Mitt Romney is the same as Barack Obama. No to Obamney. Ron Paul or nobody. Maybe Gary Johnson, but not Mitt Romney under any circumstances.”

Ron Paul supporters have decided to hold a Libertarian lovefest in Tampa, Florida, on the days directly preceding the GOP Convention. They have every right to do this, and Republicans should have zero objections to them expressing themselves in the equivalent of the town square. This is what democracy is all about. If they have the permits in order, let them protest. If the GOP tries to shut this event down, well that would be morally wrong.

However, their event ends on August 26th. The GOP Convention begins on August 27th. The GOP Convention is a Republican Convention. It is a Mitt Romney Convention. It is not a Ron Paul or Libertarian Convention. Therefore, it is perfectly acceptable at this point to ban Ron Paul supporters from the GOP Convention.

That’s right. An outright ban on their presence is the only way to prevent the event from turning into a debacle. There is no legitimate reason at this point for them to be there.

That’s perfectly fine with me. Kick them out, by all means. I’ll just make one request. After putting on your magic underwear and getting down at your Mitt Romney convention, don’t come crying back to those Ron Paul supporters begging for their votes in late October because it is THE MOSTEST IMPORTANTEST ELECTION EVAHHHHH!!!!

I could not possibly care less if Obama wins or if Romney wins. Based on the last three years, I would guess that Obama would actually do less damage since the Republicans in Congress will at least put up the occasional show of resistance to his leftward moves, whereas they will support Romney’s. I have to seriously question the intelligence of any conservative who intends to vote for Romney, as the only argument that made even a remote amount of sense, the Supreme Court Appointment argument, has been permanently destroyed by Chief Justice Roberts.

By all means, the Republicans should kick out the libertarians, the constitutionalists, the nationalists, and the fiscally sane. I think it would be fantastic. It’s long past time they joined a party genuinely devoted to freedom, the principles of the Founding Fathers, and the American national interest anyhow.

But what is it with neocons and their obsession with playing ideological police and kicking people out of organizations, movements, and political parties? Buckley did it, Lowry did it, and here this Golub is calling for it. It is increasingly apparent that permitting people who have ideologically “seen the light” at some point in their lives to assume positions of influence in their new party is a tremendously bad idea. If you were ever a Democrat, or worse, a Trotskyite or Socialist, that’s great if you eventually came to your senses and moved rightward. But you should not be permitted any leadership position or provided a voice in the right-wing media. After all, why on Earth should anyone else on the Right, who was never dumb enough to fall for any left-wing nonsense in the first place, pay your belatedly sane opinion any attention whatsoever?

Mailvox: the wages of stupidity

The wages of sin are death. The wages of stupidity are bankruptcy. NW writes to remind me of my prediction of the fatal consequences that result when a church leader parts company with the Bible in favor of the current worldly consensus:

Grace Community United Church of Christ will close its doors this weekend, but the pastor who says his decision to publicly support gay-marriage rights unwittingly thrust it on a path toward financial ruin plans to find a new home for his small congregation….

White said his church’s financial problems started in 2005 after he voted to support same-sex marriage at the United Church of Christ’s national synod. Attendance in the pews immediately dropped off the next week, and soon, three-fourths of his sizable congregation was gone. The departures took a financial toll, so the church took out a $150,000 loan in April 2007 to pay its bills, using the church building as collateral. The ministry owned the structure and owed no debt on the building at the time.

The high-interest loan was trouble from the start, and it was quickly acquired by Shrader and MS Properties. The church fell behind on payments, and interest and penalties began piling on, increasing the debt far beyond the initial principal. A settlement agreement called for the church to pay back $175,000 in May or $200,000 by the end of June.

Far too many members of the organized churches believe that the institutions themselves are the Church. They are not, and the true Church cannot compromise with abomination. Christianity cannot condone homogamy any more than it can condone ritual gang rape or child sacrifice. And when it purports to do so, it ceases to be Christianity.

It is fascinating, is it not, that this wolf in sheep’s clothing has no regrets about destroying his church’s solvency and driving off most of the congregation.