Hugo

What a movie. Martin Scorsese directing, Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, Chloe Grace Moretz acting.

In honor of Gustav Klimt's 150th birthday Google has put this image of The Kiss on its homepage. Klimt's Jurisprudence was posted here a little while ago.  Adele Bloch-Bauer I (below) is Klimt's finest work and is on display at the Neue Galerie museum in New York. At the time of its purchase for the museum by Ronald Lauder it was the most expensive painting ever sold.

You tell 'em, folks!  JoePa all the way!  On three:  WE ARE...GUIL-TY!

This is an excellent photograph of Penn State people. You can see the native intelligence in these faces. And the diversity!  There's white, pale, pale white, and one...I see one black person, is that another black person back there just above the "J?  It may be!  That would be two!  

Grief cancelled.

"I just don't think anyone could have dreamt this. It would be like finding out that Mother Theresa was a drug dealer."

-B. David Ridpath, a professor at Ohio University, on the Penn State scandal.

That is the quote of the day. Wish I had said that. Damn.

Penn State Scandal.

You know, when this first broke in November there were times I would have to go back to whichever article I was reading and re-read it. “Did it really say…”  I had just read it and I don’t have reading comprehension difficulty. I couldn’t believe it. Or sometimes the scandal would pop into my head when I was doing something else and I’d just get a sick feeling in my stomach.

Penn State people are to blame for this. Those who attended Penn State in the last 40 years went there because of the image Joe Paterno had given Penn State. No, no, they are to blame too. 

I’m devastated by this. 

Penn State people are to blame too but I feel so, so bad for them... heartsick. I am so, so sorry for them.

Did this really happen?


Image: "Grief," sculpture by Andrassy Kurta Janos. 

Search Keyword of the Day.

"tenement square 1989."

Heroes.

“We don’t need another hero.” 

That was the refrain in a song a long time ago. Yes we do, we need heroes. We need individual human beings who are better than we are because they can inspire us to be better. To a lot of people Joe Paterno was a hero. That evinces a character flaw in Penn State people, for a football coach should not be a hero of a university. And Paterno came to define the university. Outrageous.

People like to knock the heroes of others off pedestals. “See, they’re only human like the rest of us.” Paterno has been knocked off his pedestal by this scandal and there are more knocks to come against Penn State.  Paterno should never have been there, not because he was a flawed human being “like the rest of us,” because he was just a football coach. Penn State was, is, a cheap imitation of a university that was built on a foundation of sand.

But he was a hero to them. And so there is sorrow today too for Penn State people who grieve the loss of their heroes. Here’s to heroes and the people who have them.

Penn State Scandal.

Whoever she is, good for her. If she's a Penn State person, better. That's who Penn State should be.

Image: Sports Illustrated.

Penn State Scandal.

Yes, they are and last year they donated $208 million, the second most in the history of the Harvard of central Pennsylvania. This is what the "Freeh Report" (for former FBI director and federal judge Louis Freeh), released today, says about them. These are excerpts from CNN:


"Four of the most powerful people at The Pennsylvania State University -- President Graham B. Spanier, Senior Vice President-Finance and Business Gary C. Schultz, Athletic Director Timothy M. Curley and Head Football Coach Joseph V. Paterno -- failed to protect against a child sexual predator harming children for over a decade."

"These men concealed Sandusky's activities from the board of trustees, the university community and authorities. They exhibited a striking lack of empathy for Sandusky's victims by failing to inquire as to their safety and well-being, especially by not attempting to determine the identity of the child who Sandusky assaulted in the Lasch Building in 2001."

"... In order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity, the most powerful leaders at the University -- Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley -- repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky's child abuse from the authorities, the University's Board of Trustees, the Penn State community, and the public at large. The avoidance of the consequences of bad publicity is the most significant, but not the only, cause for this failure to protect child victims and report to authorities."

"These individuals, unchecked by the board of trustees that did not perform its oversight duties, empowered Sandusky to attract potential victims to the campus and football events by allowing him to have continued, unrestricted and unsupervised access to the University's facilities and affiliation with the university's prominent football program."

"Indeed, that continued access provided Sandusky with the very currency that enabled him to attract his victims. Some coaches, administrators and football program staff members ignored the red flags of Sandusky's behaviors and no one warned the public about him."

"The most saddening finding by the Special Investigative Counsel is the total and consistent disregard by the most senior leaders at Penn State for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims. As the grand jury similarly noted in its presentment, there was no 'attempt to investigate, to identify Victim 2, or to protect that child or any others from similar conduct except as related to preventing its re-occurrence on University property.'"

"The investigation also revealed:

-- A striking lack of empathy for child abuse victims by the most senior leaders of the University.

-- A failure by the Board to exercise its oversight functions in 1998 and 2001 by not having regular reporting procedures or committee structures in place to ensure disclosure to the Board of major risks to the University.

-- A failure by the Board to make reasonable inquiry in 2011 by not demanding details from Spanier and the General Counsel about the nature and direction of the grand jury investigation and the University's response to the investigation.

-- A President who discouraged discussion and dissent.

-- A lack of awareness of child abuse issues, the Clery Act, and whistleblower policies and protections."

Sandusky:

"A decision by Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley to allow Sandusky to retire in 1999, not as a suspected child predator, but as a valued member of the Penn State football legacy, with future 'visibility' at Penn State and ways 'to continue to work with young people through Penn State,' essentially granting him license to bring boys to campus facilities for "grooming" as targets for his assaults. Sandusky retained unlimited access to University facilities until November 2011."

"Before May 1998, several staff members and football coaches regularly observed Sandusky showering with young boys in the Lasch Building (now the East Area Locker Building or "Old Lasch"). None of the individuals interviewed notified their superiors of this behavior."

Paterno:

"Paterno told a reporter (regarding the 2001 allegations) that 'I didn't know exactly how to handle it and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what the university procedure was.. So I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I though would have a little more expertise than I did. It didn't work out that way.'"

Spanier:

"By not promptly and fully advising the Board of Trustees about the 1998 and 2001 child sexual abuse allegations against Sandusky and the subsequent Grand Jury investigation of him, Spanier failed in his duties as President. The Board also failed in its duties to oversee the President and senior University officials in 1998 and 2001 by not inquiring about important University matters and by not creating an environment where senior University officials felt accountable."

"Spanier said, in his interview with the Special Investigative Counsel, that he never heard a report from anyone that Sandusky was engaged in any sexual abuse of children. He also said that if he had known or suspected that Sandusky was abusing children, he would have been the first to intervene."

Penn State's Board of Trustees:

"Once the Board was made aware of the investigations of Sandusky and the fact that senior University officials had testified before the Grand Jury in the investigations, it should have recognized the potential risk to the University community and to the University's reputation. Instead, the Board, as a governing body, failed to inquire reasonably and to demand detailed information from Spanier."

"The Board's overconfidence in Spanier's abilities to deal with the crisis, and its complacent attitude left them unprepared to respond to the November 2011 criminal charges filed against two senior Penn State leaders and a former prominent coach. Finally, the Board's subsequent removal of Paterno as head football coach was poorly handled, as were the Board's communications with the public."

I feel more sadness now after writing that post than after anything else I've ever written.

China.

The handsome man above is Han Han (I'm going to go out on a limb and guess...I know this may be stereotyping of me...but I'm going to guess he's ethnic Han-Chinese), a Chinese blogger, if memory serves, the most popular blogger in Han-China. From this charming essay republished on China Digital Times it's easy to see why he's so popular:

During a race a few days ago, a friend who I had not seen for some time came to visit. He currently works as a celebrity agent. He spent the entire weekend with my team in our tent. As we parted on Sunday, he told me I hadn’t developed myself properly and that my image was mismanaged. If a professional agent were allowed to clean things up a bit, my career would look nothing like now. “How about this: I’ll go home and send you an email to sum up how you can improve things,” he said.

“Professional Celebrity Agent”

He called me by phone a few moments later and said my problems were too numerous to detail properly in an email. “For example, on the day of the race you were ‘double backwards’ the whole time. Did you even notice?” I blanked. I’d heard of double regulations and single lens reflex cameras, but “double backwards”? I had no idea. After a long while, I finally understood what he was talking about. As it turned out, “double backwards” means wearing your clothes not only backwards, but inside-out as well. I left the house in too much of a hurry, I explained. I really didn’t notice. No one pointed it out to me, either. No wonder my neck felt a bit tight all day.

“Double Backwards”

This wasn’t a big deal, my friend explained. “You’ve always been quite careless, and this makes it easy for others to laugh at you. But what’s really bad is that you fell asleep in the team tent and were tossing and turning. A total of twelve people came and took pictures of you sleeping. Five of them had press passes, four of them were your team members and three of them were other drivers. Two of those people purposefully took pictures from angles to make you look as ridiculous as possible. Five of them posted the pictures on Weibo: I checked. One of the pictures is really ugly. This is the kind of thing that affects your image. And you didn’t have anyone around making sure no one takes pictures of you. This would be absolutely unacceptable for us in the entertainment business.” But there was nothing I could do about that, I explained. I hadn’t been getting enough sleep lately, staying up late watching the Eurocup and all. How am I supposed to look like Sleeping Beauty?

“Sleeping Positions”

My friend continued to educate me. My facial expressions were a minor problem. The major problem was how I was sleeping: in the fetal position with my hands tucked between my legs. Such a pathetic posture would surely affect my image, he said. Had pictures been uploaded to the Internet, it would surely get negative attention. “It’s not like I stuck my hand in their crotches,” I said. “What do they care if I touch my own dick? I’m not dicking them around.” It’s not that simple, my friend explained. “You’re a public figure, and this is the age of Weibo. Anyone can take your photo at any time, and the more preposterous the image, the faster it will travel. You have to make sure not a single photo taken of you will affect your image. For example, the placement of your hands as you were sleeping was all wrong. Images like that get shared thousands of times, easily.” But there really was nothing I could do about this, I explained. The air-conditioner was set too low, and as soon as I get cold, I automatically shift into this position. I’ve been like this ever since I was small. And there’s no way I’m going to hire some guys to make sure no one takes my picture while I’m sleeping. What kind of poser would that make me?

“The Crotch Cover Position”

My friend continued to point out a whole heap of problems, like how I’m willing to take a picture with anyone who asks, or how I’ll  autograph anything that’s put in front of me. There’s hidden danger there, he said. But I disagreed. If someone gave me a hundred-kuai bill to sign, I would refuse. “Not bad,” my friend affirmed, “At least you know better than to do that. One of our celebrities signed his name on a banknote that was given to him, and people really tore into him online. Defacing currency is clearly a bad idea.” “Not like that,” I said. “It’s because I wouldn’t want my name associated with Old Mao.”

“Taking Random Pictures—Bare Feet Allowed”

“Random Autographs”

Exasperated, my friend replied, “See? You can’t say things like that. You’ll offend too many people. You spoke with your teammates the same way, saying all kinds of things and cussing all the time. You should know, all it takes is just one person in the room who doesn’t have your best interests at heart to record you and put it online. That would make for some pretty bad press. Do you know how many people were in the tent with us? There were eighteen. Did you know them all?” There were a few didn’t know. My friend nearly dropped the phone. “You didn’t know a few of them, and you were still talking like that? Had you thought about the consequences? You had a mean cowlick going on after you woke up, too, yet you still took pictures with people. You looked like a Teletubby. And they used flash! Just imagine what that looks like. Not to mention your mismatched clothing. You looked like a hick. But the sloppiest part of it all was that you forgot to zip your fly! You’re too nonchalant, and you don’t have a professional agent there to help you. Without systematically managing your public image, you won’t be able to maintain any feeling of mystery or air of celebrity. If you set a good image for yourself and have qualified personnel help you with your take care of things and regulate your social media presence, you could make so much more money than you do now. Let me ask you: How do you plan to manage yourself? What are you thinking?”

“Teletubby”

I hung up. It was the dead of the night. I thought about what my friend had said. He was right about some things. I put no breaks on what I said in the tent, no barriers between others and myself. If someone did secretly snap a photo, record me or stream video onto Weibo, it would definitely cause trouble. Whether or not you’re on guard with strangers is determined by your default factory settings. I like to assume people are good, and then sift out the bad people as I go along. Some do the opposite. But my method for sifting out the bad is simply to wait for a wrong to be done to me. I believe in treating others sincerely. I also believe in admitting misfortune when it hits you.

As for clothing, I bought ten white T-shirts this summer. In the winter I usually wear just two leather jackets and one or two pairs of shoes. After all, I’m a racer, not a beauty contestant. I care about driving safely, not how my clothing looks.

“Old Shoes, White T-Shirts”

Life as I see it is about creating all kinds of things, not just rumors. To me, good fortune is determined by the amount of culture I have created. Thirty years ago, I beat out 100 million other sperm. That I was born at all is pretty damn awesome. Having come into this world, I should at least leave my mark. Sure, fashion and elegance are a kind of creative enterprise, but I’m not very adept at them. Admittedly, there are many people in this society who believe that so long as you don’t swear, you can lie, talk idly, speak in clichés, start rumors—big rumors, crazy rumors—and your morals will still be intact. But I think the opposite. In fact, I would like to say one word to those stupid, self-righteous cunts out there: “fuck.” That’s right. This will surely get those sanctimonious assholes shaking with rage, ripping me to shreds, yelling and screaming, rolling on the floor. Then, suddenly, they’ll stand up straight and begin to judge—and the solution is to say “fuck” again. Just fuck it. I’m not fucking you, and I’m not fucking everyone in your family, I’m fucking this world, this world where it’s fine to frame someone as long as it’s done in a genteel manner, this world which allows people who don’t curse but who lack ethics to act as moral judges, this world which allows those whose words are clean but whose hearts and deeds are not to be in positions of power, this world where black is white and right is wrong, this world which believes that a public figure, or anyone else for that matter, should under no circumstances utter a single “fuck.” Let’s fuck this world upside-down.

Life as I see it is about doing what you like to do and taking care of yourself and your family. Living life isn’t about climbing tall mountains or diving into deep-sea trenches. Living life is as simple as sleeping your imprint into a standard-sized bed. I don’t think having regrets means having shortcomings. On the contrary, I think failure is beautiful. The things I enjoy are not limited to writing and racing. I do so many other things. Some of those things I don’t do well. Some I fail at miserably. I tell my friends directly: I really love to do this, I’ve done it before, but I’m not cut out for it, I embarrassed myself doing it. The most annoying thing in the world is to hear someone say, “If I were to do this, I’d definitely do it better than Blah Blah Blah.” Fuck off. You see me victorious on stage once, but I’ve failed at it ten other times. So what? I’m still alive. As long as you keep at it, you’re fine, and people will only remember that one time you succeeded.

Life as I see it is about being together with all the things you enjoy. One time at a fast food place I spotted a beautiful girl. I hesitated for five minutes and never mustered up enough courage to go talk to her. In the end she left, and to this day I regret it. In that moment, I was an idiot. What if I had talked to her? Worst-case scenario: her boyfriend walked out of the bathroom. If you were to die one day, it would be much better to brag and say you did something well or to jokingly recall your failures than to regret not doing this or that. I do plenty right now. I spend time with my family, my spouse and my child. I compete in around twenty races per year, and I’ve begun writing a novel and a travelogue. But besides the occasional photo shoot, I really don’t have energy to think about my style, let alone worry about my image. If I give a bad impression, I can only move forward. I’m only responsible for the writing, not the customer experience or after-sales service. I won’t change my writing based on other people’s preferences. If you like it, it’s a sunny day. If you hate it, it’s still a sunny day. I’d like to thank my friend for his earnest advice and meticulous planning. I know I’ll suffer immeasurable losses because of my character and lifestyle, I’ll swallow uncountable numbers of bitter pills. But at least, from my ideals to my passing thoughts, I haven’t let anything go. So even if my life is full of defeat, I still won’t feel sorry. My friend, I thank you for everything. There are hundreds of thousands of kinds of love and countless kinds of human hearts in this world. To win them over would be my good fortune. If not, I still have nothing to feel sorry about. But I do agree with one point: no matter how hurried I am leaving the house, I have to make sure my pants are zipped.

Translated by Little Bluegill.

One of my Chinese friends (who recommended me to others as an "honorable foreign devil." Ahh. I was touched) once wrote to me that the Chinese regime were "assholes" (his word, in English). Couldn't have put it better my own foreign devil self but I wrote here that I knew no Chinese assholes, knew of very few. Han Han is tremendous. Love that guy. Yet he and Chinese I know are not representative. There are assholes in China and they're not all in Zhongnanhai. The Chinese people support the asshole regime. I have written that repeatedly in the recent past. I think I wrote it so frequently to really convince myself. Then I read "Addressing U.S. China Strategic Distrust" and I don't have to write that anymore to convince myself. They, the Chinese people (as a whole) and especially the leadership, don't respect or like America and Americans. I think that was the last thing I wrote on China until today. I lost some interest in China after reading that. I've had ups and downs in my feelings toward China over the years. "Addressing" has been the low point, maybe...yes, the lowest point. I don't find China as interesting as I did and that monograph nudged my feelings about the Chinese people in a negative direction. I used to wonder why I never came to "love" Chinese the way I loved the Cuban people after I visited there for a couple of weeks. "There's something missing," that's what the voice inside me said. I could not get close to the individual Chinese I do know well, the way I did Pablo in Baracoa. "You're not a loveable guy," I would also say to myself (and it's true!) but then I would realize you can love and still not be loveable. In other words, I wanted to love my Chinese friends but I couldn't, whatever their feelings for me. After "Addressing" I haven't wanted to love the Chinese people. 

Libya 2.0

The Libyans were the most inspirational during “Arab Spring.”  They didn’t protest, they fought.  They toppled their dictator, as did others, but Libyans pulled the ancien regime out by the roots, unlike the Egyptians. Elections in Egypt produced a Muslim Brotherhood-dominated legislature—which the old regime-military voided—and a Muslim Brotherhood president with few powers the military was willing to grant him.

The Libyans held their own elections this weekend and international observers deemed them fair. To the surprise of all the Muslim Brotherhood was defeated. The New York Times headline was “Election Results in Libya Break an Islamist Wave;” In the Wall Street Journal, “Liberals Seem to Have Edge over Islamists.” 

Libya was not seen as fertile soil for democracy much less moderation when compared with Egypt. Why would that be?  Libya was too “tribal,” the experts said (And the experts may yet be proved right (they’re experts)). Was that code for too “African?”  Maybe. Partly also because Qaddafi was so crazy it was hard to take Libya seriously. On what evidence were hopes so high for Egypt?  My God, when Mubarak resigned Thomas L. Friedman exclaimed of the protesters “They Did It!” and wrote “postcards” from “Free Egypt.”  It was irrational exuberance and a couple of months after “they did it” Egypt was a “mess,” the word is that of Friedman’s colleague Nicholas D. Kristof. Why? Partly because American experts have had so much dealing with the Egyptians since brokering the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. Partly because of the past, the long past, “The Glory That Was Ancient Egypt.” Partly because Egypt has always been seen as the straw that stirs the drink in Arabia: The "United Arab Republic" (temporarily) united Egypt and Syria under Nasser.

I saw fight in the Libyans; Maybe when you take up arms against your own government you want democracy more? I wish I could say that I predicted this but I didn’t. Never gave much thought to Libya after the rebels captured "Fingers." I just admired the Libyan fighters.

The leader of the winning coalition in Libya’s election is that man at top, Mahmoud Jibril. Like Egypt’s Mohamed Morsi, Jibril is Western educated, masters and Ph.D from the University of Pittsburgh and taught political science at "Pitt" (If Jibril becomes head of state he will be the second in history with significant ties to Pennsylvania, the first being James Buchanan). Sayyid Qutb and Song Binbin were American educated too so that doesn’t mean much; Neither America nor the West has benefited much from such student-exchange. 
Jibril and his National Forces Alliance however did a very unusual thing the night of their victory: they didn’t claim victory. Jibril said “there are no winners, only Libya.”  When was the last time you heard anything like that from an election victor?  That is modesty. You need modesty in a democracy, your're not all-powerful, you're going to lose some, compromise is essential. Modesty is very becoming in a leader. 

Maybe I ought to go to Russia. I'd like to talk to Alexei and Ksenia. Support them.

Kseniya Sobchak.

Va-va-va-voomski. God, the Russian people can be beautiful. During the Cold War we thought they all looked like Brezhnev.

This is...oh yeah, I already have her name. She is a public occurrence today because she's profiled in the New York Times. The Times says the tabloids call her "the Paris Hilton of Russia. She is rich, connected (the daughter of Anotali Sobchak, a former top aide to Boris Yeltsin, who gave Putin his first political job), has her own TV show, fashion line, perfume, and has become a prominent vocal supporter of the Russian opposition like Alexei Navalny. This last is the reason she is profiled in the Times. 


God, she's beautiful.

"This Republican Economy."

The monthly jobs figures were released today. 80,000 jobs were added in June, the size of Mansfield speaking-of-Ohio. Not good. Until last month I had used these first Fridays of the month to question, less frequently to commend, President Obama's economic performance. Then the light went on. "The president proposes, Congress disposes," is the saying. President Obama has proposed. The Republican Congress has not been disposed to dispose. It was a light that only made darkness visible.

From the news reports today it is still the president who will get blamed for the tepid recovery from recession. "The buck stops here," Harry Truman put on his desk. So it does and it may cost Obama his job, the latest polls have him with a tepid three point lead over Governor Romney nationally. This election will be decided on the economy as most elections in America always have been. Romney proposes more of what the Republican Congress has disposed. I entirely agree with those like the New York Times and Paul Krugman, whose headline is above, that Obama needs to beat Romney like a rented mule over "this Republican economy." Before stopping at presidents desks, bucks start in Congress.


Image: Ohio Cancer Specialists facility, Mansfield, Ohio.

I will thank you to note that I did not use any illustrative accompaniment to that post.

Headline of the Day: "Ohio's Erectile Dysfunction Debate."

-CNN.

I'll be goddamned if I know what the debate's about.

Q: "What is a simple analogy that describes [the Higgs boson's] effect?


A: "Compare Higgs bosons to groupies mobbing a celebrity. The other particles are the celebrities, desperately trying to move but slowed by autograph-seekers. Higgs bosons don't have pens, but the attention they give to the other particles slows them, creating inertia."
                                                                           -USA Today, "Physicists Break Down Concept of "God Particle,"  "distilled explanations" from physicists, including Paul Padley of Rice University.



They need to distill that again. Maybe triple-distill it. They need to stop drinking what they distill.

"No Evidence of Mermaids, Says U.S. Government."

The Official Rules of Headline of the Day say that you cannot read the article. Headlines are supposed to be clear. At first reading this headline appears to conform to that Rule of Headlines which would rule it ineligible for H.o.t.D...under the rules.  But Public Occurrences pageviewers read more than once and upon re-read we experience perplexity worthy of H.o.t.D: Why did the U.S. government have to say that?  Is there a dispute among the states that the federal government had to resolve on this issue?  Why the U.S. government?  Isn't the Mermaid question international in scope?  Have other governments found evidence of Mermaids? Let us see the evidence!  Isn't the Mermaid Question out of the jurisdiction of the U.S. government entirely? Ought it not more appropriately be referred to the United Nations?

"No Evidence of Mermaids, Says U.S. Government."

From BBC News, that is the headline of the day.

Now, of course, today's discovery had no involvement of Chinese whatsoever since Chinese don't explore. And since it came from the West, it will not be acknowledged by Chinese until 50 years from now when they discover it themselves in the "Long March Collider" and then they will have done it "on their own." Or if the discovery is acknowledged by Chinese it will be seen as part of an American plot. And any "practical benefits" of the discovery will just be stolen by Chinese.

Now I'm leaving my office. 

"I think we have it."*

What brings me to my office where I have access to a computer to write this post on the 4th of July is a constellation of idiosyncratic personality quirks...He-he-he, no not really.

What brings me here to write this post is the discovery by physicists of a new boson...No, really.

This is the most important public occurrence in the world today and in many days. Why?  Because it may be the Higgs boson. Wait, wait,waitwaitwait. If it's the Higgs boson (and to a "five sigma" level of certainty it is!) then that explains why hot dogs, fireworks, computers, and people exist, like you and me "people." How?  Because the Higgs would explain how all those things have mass and without mass there'd just be electrons and stuff flying past each other at the speed of light. Something had to slow all that stuff down and get it to coalesce into hot dogs. Peter Higgs, a University of Edinburg scientist, first theorized this slowing, coalescing boson's existence in 1964.  


Scientists have been looking for the Higgs boson for decades (it's invisible so they couldn't find it, or maybe "looking" isn't the applicable verb). Scientists have been trying to detect the Higgs for decades. Over 1,000 are involved in the current project at CERN (Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire) in Geneva where today's discovery was announced. The way that they were trying to detect the Higgs was by running subatomic particles around a racetrack for subatomic particles (the "Large Hadron Collider") and crashing them into each other. In the debris produced by the collisions they found the Higgs (or something like it) today (image above). The LHC really is large: 17 miles in circumference. An even bigger subatomic racetrack which was to have been 54 miles around, called the Superconducting Super Collider, was being built in Texas ("Super:" Of course, it would be in Texas, "everything is bigger in Texas.") but the Republicans killed it in 1993. 


The search for the Higgs has cost zillions of dollars and euros and employed thousands of scientists over the years. To some, a better answer to the question "How do we even exist?" constitutes a "practical effect" of all that money and person-hours. To others like the Republicans who killed the SSC, it doesn't. Okay, the internet came about as a result of the communications needs of the collaborating scientists; Stephen Hawking lost a $100 bet;  Peter Higgs (84 years old) may now win the Nobel Prize. Nope, that won't get it done "on the bottom line." You can't justify the expense and manpower of "pure" science on immediate practical effects. Discovery, knowing, is the only justification. That's what brought me to the office today. 


*Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Director-General of CERN. 

July 4.

Happy Independence Day to Americans from an American.

July 3.

Dear Mum,

Tomorrow is my birthday as you know.  You going to call me?
Mum, I would like to apologize for that letter, the Dec of Ind, I was too young to know better.  You think I turned out okay, anyway?  I hope so. It's all due to you. Thank you for still loving me.

Affectionately,

Your Son.

And...Messerschmidt was p-a-r-a-n-o-i-d.

Image: "Constipation." 


...And constipated.  They're all constipated...So we have: global warming is myth, paranoia, constipation, hold breath. They're probably...I really think they may be...they probably are Chinese. In my opinion. Constipated "with Chinese characteristics." 

Exactly, just like that guy. 

Okay, how much do you want to bet that those guys think global warming is scientific myth too, huh?

They may be Chinese...It's possible. There are certain, how to say, attitudinal, characteristics, a certain "over-the-topness" to their attitudes, a certain spittle-flying, hold-my-breath-till-I-turn-red, kick-the-chair...flavor to their sentiments.

That's all I'm saying.

Image:  Messerschmidt: "Hypocrite and Slanderer."

I'm not saying those guys are definitely Chinese, I'm just saying.

Image: "The Incapable Bassoonist," sculpture by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736-1783).

"U.S. Supreme Court: Obama Health Care Law Constitutional."

Others have not adopted the "communications minimalist" style:

"Chief Justice Roberts Betrays Conservatives..." Forbes.

"The chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States is now run by the American media." Rush Limbaugh.

"I feel like I just lost two great friends: America and Justice Roberts." Congressman Jack Kingston.