Have scientists cracked the speed at which the universe is expanding? (The Week)
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New York – Yes — and you’ll be pleased to know the magic figure is 73.8 km/sec/megaparsec. So… what the heck does that mean?
Scientists discovered in 1998 that not only is the universe expanding, but it’s expanding at a rate that continues to accelerate. Now, using the brightness of a specific type of star and supernova as a guide, they’ve been able to work out exactly how much faster that expansion happens as the universe grows. Hint — it’s very, very fast indeed. Here, a quick guide:
So, how fast is the universe expanding?
The universe is expanding at 73.8 kilometers per second per 3.26 million light years, give or take 2.4 km, according to a study published in the Astrophysical Journal.
Uh, what?
The expansion of space means that galaxies are speeding away from us. The farther away they get, the faster they move. So, according to this equation, a galaxy 3.26 million light years away — or one megaparsec — is moving away from us at around 73.8 kilometers per second. A galaxy two megaparsecs away would be travelling twice as quickly, and so on.
Could the West’s anti-Gadhafi coalition fall apart? (The Week)
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New York – Tensions are flaring as the U.S. and its allies debate who should take charge of the military mission in Libya
Allied planes and warships continued to pummel Moammar Gadhafi’s forces with bombs and missiles on Thursday, but the coalition is showing signs of splintering. With President Obama under mounting pressure at home to hand off control of the military campaign, the U.S. and its European partners have stumbled over the question of who will take command. Germany withdrew its contribution, two frigates, out of fear that they could be dragged into a long conflict if NATO takes over. Arab support is faltering. Is the coalition unraveling?
Yes, the bickering could sink the coalition: “The unity of the first hours of the operation seems to have vanished,” says Financial Times Deutschland, as quoted in Der Spiegel. The cruise missiles continue to rain down on Gadhafi’s army, but allied leaders seem to have “nothing better to do than to argue publicly” about the ultimate goal and who should be in charge. “The political squabbles threaten to jeopardize the operation and undermine its legitimacy.”
“Gadhafi is facing a coalition of the unwilling”
No, NATO just needs to step up: “This is a time for the military coalition to come together, not to splinter,” says The New York Times in an editorial. It’s a shame that the command responsibilities weren’t better spelled out back when French President Nicolas Sarkozy was pushing for an intervention. But Sarkozy’s attempt to continue calling the shots after the shooting started has “needlessly strained relations with other participating countries.” It’s time for Sarkozy to devote his energies to getting NATO to “take the lead.”
“Discord among allies”
The U.S. should bail out: “Everybody’s going all wobbly over Libya,” says Thomas E. Ricks at Foreign Policy, but the U.S. should stick to its plan. “We should now say, OK, we have created the conditions, time for you all to have the courage of your convictions.” The French and Italians should “park the good ships Charles de Gaulle and Garibaldi off the Libyan coast” and enforce the no-fly zone. And maybe the Arab states could help keep peace in their own back yard. “Step right up, fellas.”
“Libya: You want clarity? Here it is”
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Newt Gingrich’s Libya ‘flip-flop’: What was he thinking? (The Week)
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New York – Gingrich hammered President Obama earlier this month for not intervening in Libya. Now he’s griping, “I would not have intervened.” Huh?
Former House speaker and current GOP presidential aspirant Newt Gingrich has done a “complete flip-flop” on his Libya position, says George Zornick at ThinkProgress. On March 7, he told Fox News that, were he president, he would unilaterally “exercise a no-fly zone this evening,” on the grounds that “we think that slaughtering your own citizens is unacceptable.” After President Obama did just that a couple weeks later, Gingrich slammed him, telling NBC, “I would not have intervened,” especially not using “American and European forces.” Gingrich has since tried to explain the discrepancy in a Facebook post. Is this cynical politics at its worst, or just a minor misstep?
He just has loose lips: Gingrich stuck his foot in his mouth, and it’s hardly the first time,
March Madness: By the numbers (The Week)
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New York – The annual NCAA men’s basketball tournament is down to 16 teams. Does anyone in America still have a perfect bracket?
The Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Division I basketball championships starts Thursday, and office workers and bookies nationwide are heavily invested in the outcome of the next round of games. But they aren’t the only ones with a big stake in March Madness. Here’s a look at college basketball’s biggest event (and perhaps the most lucrative of any sport), by the numbers:
$10.8 billion
Price for TV and internet rights to the men’s tournament over 14 years
2024
Year when that new broadcast deal, between CBS and Turner Broadcasting, ends
$620 million
TV ad revenue CBS earned from last year’s men’s tournament
$100 million
Amount that championship game host Houston is expected to garner in direct spending
$100 million
Amount of federal tax revenue lost in 2006 due to Division I colleges’ tax-exempt status
$256,000
What a men’s Division I team earns for each tournament win
$26.7 million
Basketball revenue earned last season by perennial tournament favorite (and reigning national champ) Duke
$75 million
Estimated amount of March Madness wagers placed in Las Vegas
$3 billion
Estimated amount of March Madness wagers placed in U.S. office pools
$1.3 billion
Estimated cost of lost worker productivity during the tournament
5.9 million
Number of brackets submitted to ESPN.com’s Tournament Challenge
0
Number that correctly picked all Sweet 16 men’s teams
1
Number that correctly picked all Sweet 16 women’s teams
7,549
President Obama’s ranking in the ESPN men’s bracket challenge (99.9th percentile)
37,812
Obama’s ranking in the ESPN women’s bracket challenge (81st percentile)
Sources: Yahoo/Investopedia, RealClearMarkets, TV By The Numbers, ESPN, L.A. Times, Forbes
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Did God have a wife? (The Week)
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New York – Yes, says a leading theologian. And she may have been edited out of the Bible
All the great religions of the world share the belief that there is but one solitary creator of the universe. But they could be mistaken, says British-based theologian Francesca Stavrakopoulou. “I have come to a colorful and what could seem, to some, uncomfortable conclusion that God had a wife,” she says. Who is God’s companion and where has she been hiding all these years? Here, an instant guide:
Who is God’s wife?
Our creator’s better half is a powerful fertility goddess named Asherah, says Stavrakopoulou. She was once worshipped as the companion of Yahweh, the name of God in the Hebrew bible.
What’s the evidence for this?
The existence of an ancient goddess named Asherah has been acknowledged for some time, but Stavrakopoulou has unearthed fragments of ancient pottery in Syria dating back to around 800 B.C. that refers to “Yahweh and his Asherah” — implying that the two were a “divine pair.” There are also lines in the Bible that refer to worship of the goddess in Yahweh’s temple in Jerusalem. “In the Book of Kings,” says the theologian, “we’re told that a statue of Asherah was housed in the temple and that female temple personnel wove ritual textiles for her.”
If she’s really God’s wife, why isn’t she in the Bible more?
It sounds a bit “Dan Brown-ish,” says The Huffington Post, but “the Bible’s editors may very well have wiped her almost clean from the document.” Several Old Testament experts say the ancient authors who collated the texts either cut out references to Asherah, or translated her name as “Sacred Tree.”
Why would she have been cut out of the Bible?
After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 B.C., Israelite leaders emphasized strict monotheism, in order to unite their different tribes. The idea, says theologian Aaron Brody, was that there’s “one god not only for Judah, but for all the nations.” Before that, polytheism — or the worship of a number of gods — was quite common. Several of the ancient Israelite gods, such as El, Baal, and Molek, were similarly cast aside in favor of Yahweh.
Should we be sceptical of Stavrakopoulou’s claims?
The devout may wish to know that the theologian is an atheist who says her research is a “branch of history like any other.” She has also said that Eve should not be blamed for the Fall of Man, as she had been “very unfairly maligned as the troublesome wife.”
Sources: Discovery, Huffington Post, TIME, Daily Mail
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Google Books: Shelved for good? (The Week)
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New York – A judge rejects Google’s settlement with authors and publishers. Is this the end of the search giant’s plan to digitize all the world’s books?
Google’s ambitious plan to digitize every book ever published was thrown into “legal limbo” this week, when a federal judge rejected a $125 million settlement the company had made with authors and publishers. Judge Denny Chin said the plan would give the company a “de facto monopoly” and allow it, in some cases, to profit from books without the permission of their authors. Is this the end of the road for what would have been the world’s largest digital library and bookstore? (Watch a report about the decision)
Yes, and good riddance: Chin’s message is “blunt” and “scathing,” says Nicholas Carr at Rough Type. Google’s “scanner-in-chief” — co-founder and soon-to-be CEO Larry Page — will not be allowed to “unilaterally rewrite copyright rules,” and steal the work of authors. Let’s hope Page learns something from this, and comes up with a plan that respects everyone’s intellectual property rights.
“A message to you, Larry”
Google can still revive the dream: Google Books is dead… but only for now, says David Post at The Volokh Conspiracy. “The project would be an incomprehensibly valuable boon to all of humankind,” so it’s worth reviving. Since most of the publishing industry sided with Google, it’s only books published in the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s, whose copyright holders can’t be found, that are a real sticking point. Congress could fix that, though, by changing the applicable laws to make these books available to Google, or anyone else willing to give them new life.
“Google books, dead for now”
And a virtual library is a good idea: Yes, no single company should be able to monopolize “access to our common cultural heritage,” says Robert Darnton in The New York Times. But “we should not abandon Google’s dream of making all the books in the world available to everyone.” There must be ways to surmount the “legal, financial, technological,” and political obstacles, and create a comprehensive digital library that truly is public.
“A digital library better than Google’s”
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Apple’s software guru departs: Is the tech giant going all mobile? (The Week)
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New York – Bertrand Serlet, who helped rebuild Apple in the late ’90s, is leaving, and the tech world buzzes over what it means for Steve Jobs and Co.
Apple announced on Wednesday that Bertrand Serlet, the software engineer instrumental in the development of Mac OS X, is leaving the company. Serlet, who said in his departure statement that he wants to “focus less on products and more on science,” has worked with Steve Jobs for 22 years, and was the driving force behind the software that helped launch the company back into prominence in 1997. In recent years, Apple has focused on mobile devices, even modeling its new operating system, the as-yet-unreleased Lion, on iPhone software. Is Serlet’s exit a clear sign that Apple is completely focused on handheld devices?
This looks like a new era: The diminishing role of Apple’s desktop OS probably “played a big part on this decision,” says Jesus Diaz at Gizmodo. It seems that Scott Forstall, a longtime employee who heads up Apple’s iPhone operating system team, has replaced Serlet as the new “rising star.” Even if Serlet is leaving simply becuase he’s “tired,” Apple is losing one of its “most brilliant minds” at a crucial moment in its history. “And that just doesn’t feel good to me.”
“The father of Mac OSX is leaving Apple”
Don’t count out the old OS just yet: Yes, Lion signals Apple’s unification of mobile and desktop operating systems, says Giles Turnbull at TIME. But the two platforms are “not one and the same, and quite possibly never will be.” Even if desktop devices have “sleek touch-sensitive surfaces like their handheld cousins,” they will still run on different operating systems. Serlet’s exit may mark “the end of an era,” but it doesn’t signify the “beginning of another centered on mobile computing.”
“Is this the start of an all-mobile Apple?”
This might not be about Apple at all: Maybe Serlet simply knew he had climbed as high as he could at Apple, says Darrell Etherington at GigaOM. He “could never become the company’s CEO, thanks to many other well-qualified candidates suitable for the job.” By leaving, he may get a shot at taking the reins at a smaller company.
“Apple’s Mac chief departs as big changes come to OSX”
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Can Republican Scott Brown save Planned Parenthood? (The Week)
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New York – The Massachusetts senator joins two GOP colleagues in opposing a House bid to strip federal funding from the family-planning group
House Republicans’ hopes of stripping all federal funding from Planned Parenthood hit a big obstacle Tuesday, and his name is Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass). The junior senator from Massachusetts (and one-time Tea Party favorite) said the measure simply “goes too far.” Two other GOP senators, Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), had already voiced their opposition to the House plan. But does having a male Republican vocally support “family planning and health services for women” effectively save Planned Parenthood’s $330 million from the chopping block?
Brown doomed the defunding bid: There is some “deliberate ambiguity” in Brown’s support for Planned Parenthood, says Allahpundit at Hot Air. But if he’s serious about not voting to defund the family-planning group, House Republicans are in a bind. If they attach the measure to the budget, and three Senate Republicans vote against it, Democrats will “crow about ‘bipartisan opposition’” to defunding. So they’ll have to “let the Senate shoot it down” by itself, and let Brown bear the blame.
“Scott Brown: I oppose defunding Planned Parenthood”
Brown is all talk: The Republican’s words of support of Planned Parenthood would carry more weight if he hadn’t just voted to defund it two weeks ago, says Matthew Yglesias at ThinkProgress. He’s not some House back-bencher, he’s a pivotal senator, with real power. He could have opposed this the first time around. Because “if he’s voting to defund Planned Parenthood, then all the statements in the world don’t mean a thing.”
“Supporters of funding Planned Parenthood shouldn’t vote for bills that defund it”
It’s actually Planned Parenthood that may save Brown: His stand for Planned Parenthood means the Republican “intends to vote in a way that more reflects his state’s electorate,” says Joe Gandelman at The Moderate Voice, “and less the way Tea Party movement Republicans demand him to vote.” The probably means a Tea Party challenger next year, and frequent attacks by Rush Limbaugh. It’s not easy being a Republican in the blue Bay State — just ask Mitt Romney — but taking a moderate stand could actually help Brown in his reelection bid next year.
“Scott Brown against cutting all Planned Parenthood funding”
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Will Michele Bachmann wreak havoc on the 2012 presidential race? (The Week)
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New York – The Tea Party favorite sends a strong signal Thursday that she’s serious about a White House bid. Cue the repercussions…
On Thursday, CNN reported that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), a Tea Party icon, will be forming a presidential exploratory committee — a key fundraising tool that indicates she’s serious about a 2012 White House bid. While sources close to the Republican say she will file the necessary papers by June, or even sooner to participate in early debates, her political director is saying he could have teams in place in the key primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina within a week. A presidential run would further boost Bachmann’s national profile and test her reputation as a prodigious fundraiser — but how would she actually affect the race? (Watch Bachmann discuss the move)
This could destroy Palin’s chances: Bachmann’s odds of actually winning are “slim-to-none,” says Noreen Malone at Double X, but, merely by running, she could be a “spoiler” for Sarah Palin. With both socially-conservative women gunning for the same hard-right, Tea Party electorate, there’s really only room for one in the race. Will Palin react to a Bachmann bid with some “aggression” of her own? Stay tuned.
“Bachmann will form a presidential exploratory committee”
Good for Romney, bad for Pawlenty: Mitt Romney is the clear beneficiary of a Bachmann bid, says Christian Heinze at The Hill. His chances of making a strong showing in Iowa improve if Bachmann, Palin, Mike Huckabee, and Rick Santorum all run, dividing Iowa evangelicals looking to consolidate behind an anti-Romney candidate. The news is not so good for Tim Pawlenty, however. Bachmann would be a second candidate from Minnesota, and her “charisma would showcase T-Paw’s own deficit.”
“GOP 12: CNN: Bachmann to form exploratory committee”
Obama and the Democrats have got to love this: Considering her polarizing persona and history of gaffes, “you have to imagine that Democrats are giddy at the prospect of a Bachmann 2012 candidacy,” says Andy Kroll at Mother Jones. Remember, this is the woman who “thought the Revolutionary-era battles of Lexington and Concord took place in New Hampshire, not Massachusetts,” and maintains that evolution is a questionable scientific theory. “Somewhere, probably Chicago, David Axelrod is smiling.”
“Bachmann in 2012: ‘I’m In,’ will soon form an exploratory committee”
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