JJG Journal

Have a look at this recent John McCain clip. What black lady did the McCain campaign convince to serve as the backdrop here? Any ideas?

That’s a preview of the headlines around the world if Mr McCain is elected. Considering that the U.S is (still) a global technological leader, this is just the kind of headline that is sure to inspire confidence and let pesky upstart nations know who is in charge, right? Here’s John McCain in a recent interview for Yahoo, responding to the question of whether he prefers a PC or MAC with the following answer:

“Neither. I’m an illiterate that has to rely on my wife for all of the assistance I can get.” (John McCain on whether he prefers a PC or MAC computer.)

...Continue Reading »

As expected, the government bailout (i.e., your bailout; the bailout financed with taxpayer money) of the financial sector will reach costs as high a one trillion dollars. Fun, fun. Best explanation I could find for this mess is contained in this interview with Robert Scheer. Mr. Scheer lays out...Continue Reading »

I’ve recently spend some time in Europe (Germany, Luxembourg, France) on a short vacation trip and noticed that the number of American tourists has decreased markedly, surely due to the expensive Euro. Another thing I’ve noticed when talking to my European friends and acquaintances is that almost all of them look forward to change in U.S. leadership. Most Americans that do not travel overseas have no idea how much America’s image abroad has suffered under Bush/Cheney. Electing a person of mixed racial background would re-assure many European that America still is  a maverick...Continue Reading »

Remember this little rule from High School physics or chemistry class? Usually taught as: No two electrons can occupy the same quantum states at the same time. Or, more generally, for those of us who went to school beyond the High School level: No two identical Fermions may occupy the same quantum state simultaneously.

Have you ever asked WHY this is so? Do you have an intuitive way of explaining the underlying cause for the above rule to your 12 year old kid, say? Not to worry. At the time of this writing  no one has such an intuitive and fundamental explanation. I recall reading...Continue Reading »

I’m no expert of financial markets (way too boring), BUT it seems to me that the current crisis was triggered by the bursting mortgage industry bubble. I personally know several individuals who heavily invested in real estate a couple of years back, in the hope that “this market never goes down”. Some of these people used “novel” financial instruments such as zero-down, adjustable-rate interest-only mortgages to finance their purchases. Other...Continue Reading »

If you take a step back and look at what we know about the Universe you’ll quickly realize that ALL our knowledge about distant space comes from measuring light that is emitted by far-away astronomical objects.Thus any experimental technique that promise to dramatically increase the accuracy and stability of measuring light is a big deal for observational astronomers. In a recent issue of Science such a big deal was published. It’s called a Laser Frequency Comb and works...Continue Reading »

For all those bass players that like an old but groovy tune…enjoy.

Physics Today e-mailed me this link to John McCain’s views on the veracity of Evolution and its compatibility with Christian mythology…

John McCain on teaching evolution

From his 2005 book “Character is Destiny”:

“Darwin helped explain nature’s laws. He did not speculate, in his published theories at least, on the origin of life. He did not exclude God, for Whom the immensity of time is but a moment, from our presence. The only undeniable...Continue Reading »

that you as a taxpayer will prop up to the tune of 85 billion dollars in terms of a Government loan whose return you may never see. That’s ok because the U.S. government’s debt is currently only around 9.6 Trillion Dollars and next year’s deficit projected to be only about 500 Billion Dollars. Your Socialist Government is hard at work to protect...Continue Reading »