Monday 2 July 2012

Waiting for God particle

http://tamilbrahmins.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/waiting-for-god-particle/

Waiting for God particle

Monday , July 2 , 2012
Wednesday wait for word on God particle
- Scientists sleepless as revelation day on family named after Bose draws near
OUR BUREAU
New Delhi, July 1: Physicist Vivek Sharma hasn’t had much sleep over the past week because of a mix of work and excitement as he and his colleagues prepared to announce the latest results of the world’s longest and most challenging search for a subatomic particle.
The scientists, working in a research centre near Geneva, Switzerland, will at 9am local time on Wednesday issue what is expected to be a historic “update” on their search for the Higgs boson, at times called the “God particle”.
The Higgs boson is the last missing ingredient of an elegant theory of physics called the Standard Model that explains all the subatomic particles and forces in nature except gravity.
It belongs to a family of particles named after the 20th-century Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose, and was predicted to exist by British physicist Peter Higgs 48 years ago, but it has not been observed in earlier search efforts.
Two Higgs search teams at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, or CERN, near Geneva had announced in December 2011 that they had observed some “tantalising hints” of the boson in the debris of proton-proton collisions in their laboratory.
Physicists consider the July 4 announcement far more significant because their data have since doubled. Over the past week, CERN scientists have been examining data in excruciating detail and preparing for presentations and public statements for the world.
“We’re cross-checking and digesting the results,” said Sharma, an India-born physicist at the University of California, San Diego, who is involved in the search for the Higgs boson at CMS, one of the two Higgs search experiments at CERN.
“We’re now discussing how to present what we’ve learned in an accurate way,” Sharma told The Telegraph tonight over the phone from Geneva.
In 2011, CERN teams had examined data corresponding to over 400 trillion proton-proton collisions in their giant subatomic particle accelerator, called the Large Hadron Collider. Since December, the reservoir of data analysed has doubled to more than 800 trillion collisions.
The doubled data allow scientists to examine the nature of the tantalising signals they had reported in 2011 with much better statistical precision. In December 2011, the scientists had reported signals suggesting a Higgs boson, about 125 times the mass of a proton.
“If the (signal) that we had observed in 2011 was because of the Higgs boson, then we now expect to be much more confident — the chance of making a mistake would be reduced to roughly 3 in 100,000,” Sharma said.
But Sharma and other senior team members say the world will need to wait until July 4 to learn about their findings — blogs, silent whispers in physics circles, and speculation about what will be announced that day notwithstanding.
“All I can say at this moment is that we have very good results — and very high quality data,” Aleandro Nisati, an Italian physicist involved in the search for the Higgs boson at CERN through a detector called Atlas, told this newspaper.
Physicists believe the July 4 report could contain one of three possibilities — stronger evidence for the Higgs boson, supporting the December results; dismissal of the signals reported in December as mere statistical fluctuations; or something else that is unexpected.
The Higgs boson is the key component of the Standard Model that helps explain how or why subatomic particles have mass. Physicists say that were it not for the Higgs boson, the universe could not have the structure and form it has today.
A Reuters report from Geneva today quoted a US physicist, Matt Strassler, as saying that without the Higgs boson, “nothing like human beings, or the earth we live on, could exist”.
“If this missing piece is not found, we’ll have to rewrite physics textbooks,” said Satyaki Bhattacharya, a physicist at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Calcutta. “But if it is found, there’s still lots of work ahead.”
The theory that predicts the Higgs boson also predicted two other subatomic particles — the W and Z bosons. “They were first observed in CERN in the 1980s but were studied to understand their properties and behaviour for years and years,” Bhattacharya said.
Whatever the CERN teams announce on Wednesday, physicists say the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider to spot the Higgs boson will continue. The Higgs boson has a fleetingly short lifespan and decays into various other subatomic particles.
“Each such decay mode will need to be observed and measured to confirm that it occurs in exactly the same manner as predicted by theory,” said Sudeshna Banerjee, a physicist at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, who is involved in studies at the Large Hadron Collider to look for new physics beyond the Standard Model.
A sense that “something” has been seen, the Reuters report said, has been bolstered not only by the announcement of the CERN seminar and a live video feed to the Melbourne congress but by other linked events scheduled around the globe.
New York’s Columbia University said it was holding an early-hours pyjama party in the hope of seeing “sub-atomic fireworks”.
In London, a concert hall across the Houses of Parliament has been booked for a similar daytime event.
Chinese, Japanese and Russian scientists will also be watching the seminar — as will scientists across several Indian laboratories, including the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics.
The US Fermilab, where scientists have spent three decades looking for the Higgs boson using a collider named the Tevatron — shut down since last December as Washington cut off funds — has announced a seminar tomorrow.
Fermilab scientists plan to deliver their final Higgs search results tomorrow. Physicists have often said that to claim a discovery of a new particle, they have to be sure that there is less than one in a million chance that it is a statistical fluctuation.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120702/jsp/frontpage/story_15680848.jsp

Cargo Cult and Democracy

http://www.deeshaa.org/2004/05/17/cargo-cult-and-democracy/

Cargo Cult and Democracy

17 May 2004
There is an interesting anthropological curiosity which arose amongst the islands in the South Pacific after the Second World War. It is known as the Cargo Cult. I first came across it in Marvin Harris’s book Cows, Pigs, Wars & Witches many years ago. (By the by, I highly recommend Harris’s book OUR KIND: Who we are, Where we came from & Where are we going — Evolution of Human Life & Culture.)
The islanders had noticed that Europeans had some sort of powerful magic which allowed them to receive stuff from the heavens. The islanders decided that they too must make arrangements to receive stuff. So they faithfully reproduced the artifacts that they saw the Europeans use in magically making cargo appear out of the skies. They cleared a large area in the forest, lit bonfires around this, built a hut close by in which they put a box with antennae sticking out of it, made ‘headphones’ out of coconut shells, and spoke earnestly into a ‘microphone’. Then they waited for cargo to drop out of the skies, just as they had seen the Europeans receive during the war.
It is a fascinating tale and has wide-ranging implications. The islanders were not stupid, merely ignorant. They figured out what we could call the ‘front end’ of the whole enterprise. They did not know that there was a very deep backend to the deal. In their ignorance, they expected a facsimile to work and when it didn’t, they attempted to modify the front end to more accurately reflect the bits they had observed the Europeans use.
The cargo cult is an amazingly important metaphor for our age. Technology is increasingly becoming more complex and the effective use of this complex technology confers immense advantage. However, the more complex the technology, the more its use is dependent on a complex ecology within which it is developed. Transplanting the technology without the supporting ecology is a waste because it does not work as advertised. The technology — whether it is hardware, software, all sorts of institutions — co-evolved with other bits that form an ecological whole which make the whole system function whereas any subsystem in isolation will not work.
Let’s take an institution such as capitalism, for example. Hernando DeSoto in his book The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else outlines the missing bits in the case of capitalism. Another example: why did the shift to a market economy spell disaster for the former Soviet Union. A market economy has a very deep backend. That backend includes institutions such as the legal system which enforces contracts, a flexible labor market, a number of banking and financial intermediation institutions, and so on. Without the supporting institutions, the market institution is a non-starter. It is merely a cargo cult market economy.
In the area of digital technology also, we see the cargo cult mentality. The modern computer evolved in advanced industrialized countries (AIC). AICs have other systems that support the use of computers and these systems also evolved to keep pace with the rapid evolution of computers. Transplanting computers to a place where these systems don’t exist is silly because the computers are then like the props used by the South Pacific islanders. It is no wonder that they don’t work as advertised.
My final example of the cargo cult metaphor is the institution called democracy. Voting every so often to elect representatives that sit in a great big hall to decide matters of national importance is the front end. The deep backend requires an informed public at a minimum. Even under the best of circumstances, aggregating individual preferences is a risky venture as students of public choice theory will appreciate. (See Ken Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem.)
In the case of India, we have a cargo cult democracy. It looks like one with electronic voting machines and election speeches and manifestos, with pollsters and pundits, with election commissioners and voting stations. Only the deep backend is missing. There is no understanding of issues of substance among the people who vote. Put up a name which is recognizable, and they would vote for or against that name. Promise enough freebies (free electricity, for instance) and they will vote for you, never mind that it may bankrupt the state and that eventually it will impoverish the same voting public. For democracy to work, you need accountability — both among those who vote and those who are elected. In an area where the government is seen as a source for endless handouts by the people, and the leaders look upon their stint in the driving seat as an excellent opportunity to steal from the public, democracy is not likely to work. All the talk about the smart voter is so much hogwash that the mind boggles.
The Indian stock market is crashing. People are voting with their pocketbooks and sending an important signal. The signal, as I see it, is that the Indian economy is spinning around in the bowl and will soon be down the tubes as soon as the flush cycle finishes.
It is all karma, neh?

Open letter to Pranab who wants to be President: "Your occupying the august position will be a disgrace to the Republic of India" - Ram Jethmalani



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See also: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/06/why-did-ms-paul-resign-will-pranabda.html Why did Ms. Paul resign? Will Pranabda withdraw his nomination papers for Presidency to face corruption charges?

See also:
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/06/pranabda-camp-follower-behind-cover-up.html 27.6.12 Pranabda, camp-follower, behind 'cover-up' of Netaji's air-crash

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/06/italian-vishakanya-destroys-yet-another_25.html 25.6.12 Italian vishakanya destroys yet another Indian institution - The Indian Presidency Part III - V. Sundaram
ETHICS & POWER MONDAY | JULY 02, 2012
RAM JETHMALANI
www.sunday-guardian.com/profile/ram-jethmalani

Ram Jethmalani is a senior politician and eminent lawyer.
Open letter to Pranab Mukherjee
The present campaign is intended to prevent Mr Mukherjee from injuring the august office of President.



Pranab Mukherjee

This letter is being signed by a few like-minded citizens who know something about your political history and what part you have played in Indian politics so far.

The signatories believe that what they write is the opinion of the overwhelming majority of the people of India. However in the ensuing elections for electing a President, the electors are few, the right to vote being confined only to Members of Parliament and the State Legislatures.

The people will effectively vote in 2014. The present campaign is intended, of course, to prevent you from injuring the august office of President, but also to educate the voters of 2014 about your lack of qualifications for the job and your positive disqualifications for venturing to become the occupant of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Limitations of space and time both necessarily compel only a truthful and accurate summary of the people's case against you. The present epistle is in the form of a charge sheet presented in the court of the Sovereign People of India, who will themselves speak after two years. Yet, we hope that the elected representative in the various legislatures will allow this duty to the nation to override and trump their loyalty to the political party to which they happen to belong or the leaders of those parties. People of India do hope that the Congress and some of its allies who have endorsed your candidature will pay heed to this document and gracefully withdraw you from the contest. We do realise this kind of good sense in the Congress is too much to hope for.

CHARGE NO. 1

During the scandalous Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in 1975 and the resulting suspension of human rights of all citizens and the virtual demise of democracy, you were a very loyal, though a small time supporter of the Emergency. You fully supported it and participated in its misdeeds. You cannot honestly claim that at least in some small measure you expressed your disapproval of its evil or that you prevented a single atrocity inflicted upon some honest citizen. Citizens possessed of the highest intellectual, moral and spiritual qualifications were the victims. You saved none. Throughout the Emergency, you acted like a loyal servant of the Gandhi family and what is worse, you were a complete collaborator with the main criminal of the Emergency i.e., the late Sanjay Gandhi. You treated him as your boss.

Recently, sometime in 2010, you wrote a book on the 125th anniversary of the Congress party. In this book you openly indicted Sanjay Gandhi for being solely responsible for all the excesses of the government during that disgraceful period of 1975-1977. This statement of yours is a true and voluntary confession. You have pleaded guilty to the charge that the Emergency was an unconstitutional aberration, but you suggest that the person responsible was Sanjay Gandhi. You are trying to find a posthumous defence for his mother. What kind of Prime Minister was she to have abdicated her duty to the nation and allowed an uneducated automobile repairing son to lodge innocent people in jail and lunatic wards, to suppress the freedom of the press and cover up all his crimes with the slogan "India is Indira and Indira is India"? You are the originator of this slogan and we believe that Devkant Barua learnt it from you and not the other way round. During this period you were a Minister of State for Revenue and Expenditure. You have not been able to claim, even till today, that you gave any good advice to Sanjay and he desisted because of your good advice.

CHARGE NO. 2

You were a party to the inhuman and wholly illegal incarceration of two of India's great women, the late Gayatri Devi and the Rajmata Vijaya Raje of Gwalior, both cultivated and socially evolved souls, in the cell of prisons, condemned to death in Tihar jail.

For one of them, you had even recorded a note that she should be released. But under pressure, you superimposed on it a new note with a wholly opposite opinion. The Shah Commission recorded a finding that you committed a forgery and destroyed evidence of your own opinion on that rare occasion.

Your services rendered to Sanjay and his mother were obviously appreciated by the two major criminals. After the ignominious fall of the Janata government, you were duly rewarded for your Emergency services with a promotion as the full fledged Minister of Finance. This reward was obviously also for another great service which you rendered to both of them before the fall of the Janata government. This consisted of your conduct before the Shah Commission. The following finding of the Shah Commission in para 7.49 is worth quoting, "7.49 Although Shri Pranab Mukherjee assisted the Commission at the preliminary stage of the fact finding inquiry, he did not file any statement in the case, as was required to be done under Rule 5 (2) (a) of the Commission of Inquiry (Central) Rules 1972. He had responded to the summons u/s. 8B of the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952. But he refused to take oath and tender evidence."

Your confession of 2010 shows your knowledge of excesses during Emergency. Why did you not speak of those excesses to the Shah Commission and help it to determine the truth? Of course you did show your loyalty to your erstwhile benefactors and conspirators, but you failed in your duty to truth and democracy. The Emergency was over and nobody had any fear from the new government. Even then, you did not summon courage to speak the truth.

CHARGE NO. 3

That thereafter you have been a member of every Cabinet in a Congress or Congress-led government. In the 1980s, as Commerce and Finance Minister, you were better known for tailoring policies to favour a particular corporate group to the extent that both in Parliament and press you were dubbed as a minister for that corporate group. Your ideological orientation towards crony capitalism has further been exposed in your present stint as Finance Minister by a former SEBI board member, K.M. Abraham, who has accused you and your powerful officer on special duty of being aligned with certain corporate groups, including your long time favourites. You have also been associated with the rice export scam. Nor did you distinguish yourself for integrity as Minister for Defence between 2004 and 2006, during which tenure both the Scorpene deal case and the Navy War Room Leak case surfaced.

CHARGE NO. 4

One of the signatories to this letter is Mr Ram Jethmalani. In an article published by him around the year 2000 on the "Role of the President under the Constitution of India" he writes: "Whatever be the President's legal powers, his real power rests son his moral stature and the public esteem he enjoys. With a nod of disapproval or a twinkle in his eye, a President can bring back to the straight track of probity and wisdom a derailed Council of Ministers. A threat from the President to resign, and take the people into confidence when he is advised to act against the law, Constitution or the Salus Populi, can make a Prime Minister retrace his steps. Unfortunately, at least one President disgraced the office by declaring a phoney Emergency. The President must act as the conscience of the nation and political parties should resist the temptation of looking for rubber stamps."

We don't think any sensible person will disagree about this supreme qualification of a President. We charge that you do not possess this qualification in any shape or form. You are totally bereft of it. Your occupying the august position will be a disgrace to the Republic of India.

Bengal has given us stalwarts like Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Swami Vivekananda, Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, Sri Aurobindo, Rash Behari Bose, Rabindranath Tagore and many others. You are a disgrace to each of them.

http://www.sunday-guardian.com/analysis/open-letter-to-pranab-mukherjee

Dr.Swamy’s letter to Abdul Kalam dated May 15 2004

Alternative Sethusamudram route not feasible: Centre

http://janamejayan.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/alternative-sethusamudram-route-not-feasible-centre/
Ram Naam Sathya Hai says Dr.Swamy!

http://zeenews.india.com/news/nation/alternative-sethusamudram-route-unfeasible-centre_784957.html
Alternative Sethusamudram route not feasible: CentreNew Delhi: The government Monday told the Supreme Court that a high-level committee in its report has suggested that alternative alignment other than mythological Ram Sethu for Sethusamudram project was not economically and ecologically feasible.
However, Solicitor General Rohinton Nariman submitted before a bench comprising justices H L Dattu and C K Prasad that the Union Cabinet was yet to consider and take a decision on the report prepared by the committee headed by eminent environmentalist R K Pachauri.
The bench gave the government eight weeks time to apprise it about the future development of the project.
Nariman said that the Pachauri committee considered the issue of alternative alignment but concluded that it was not “economically and ecologically feasible”.
In its report, the committee dealt with the issue of risk management and arrived at a finding that an oil spill would cause risk to the ecosystem.
The case relating to Ram Sethu came under judicial scrutiny due to a batch of petitions filed in the apex court against the ambitious Sethusamudram project, whose execution allegedly could damage the mythological bridge.
Sethusamudram project is aimed at constructing a shorter navigational route around India’s southern tip by breaching the mythological Ram Sethu, said to have been built by Lord Rama’s army of monkeys and bears to the demon king Ravana’s kingdom Lanka.
As per the Sethusamudram project, the shipping channel is proposed to be 30 metres wide, 12 metres deep and 167 kms long.
Earlier, on April 19, the Centre had refused to take any stand on the issue of declaring Ram Sethu a national monument and had asked the Supreme Court instead to decide it.
The government had said that it would stand by its earlier affidavit, filed in 2008 and cleared by the Cabinet Committee of Political Affairs (CCPA), in which it had said that it respects all religions but it was of view that it should not be called upon to respond to the issues of faith, except in recognising their existence.
The amended affidavit was filed after the Centre had withdrawn its two affidavits in which it had questioned the existence of Lord Ram and Ram Sethu.
Following an outcry led by the Sangh Parivar over the controversial submissions, the apex court on September 14, 2007 had allowed the Centre to re-examine entire material afresh to review the Rs 2,087 crore project

Prez elections 2012 in a quagmire

http://www.dailypioneer.com/home/online-channel/360-todays-newspaper/77657-statistical-error-in-pranabs-way.html

Mr.Subramanian Swamy would be laughing...............ISI is his home turf . Will he make another Mahalonobis out of Pranab ?? 

Statistical ‘error' in Pranab's way?
Opposition-backed Presidential candidate PA Sangma on Monday dragged his UPA rival Pranab Mukherjee into an office of profit row, questioning his competence to contest the election to the highest office.
The scrutiny of nomination papers, which was scheduled for Monday, had to be postponed by a day after Sangma wrote to Rajya Sabha Secretary General VK Agnihotri, returning officer for the Presidential election, that Mukherjee still held the office of the Chairman of Indian Statistical Institute (ISI).
Sangma’s lawyer Satpal Jain, a former BJP MP, said, “Mukherjee’s papers should be cancelled at the scrutiny stage as he holds an office of profit. He cannot contest the Presidential election under the Office of Profit rules.”
However, the ISI said that Pranab resigned as Chairman of its council on June 20, much before filing his nomination as the Presidential candidate, though his name was still on its website.
“Pranab babu has already submitted his resignation as ISI council Chairman on June 20. But by mistake, Mukherjee’s name continues to be on the ISI official website. It still consists of names of several veterans of ISI,” an ISI official said. In the evening, Pranab’s name was removed from the ISI website.
Stating that the ISI council Chairman’s post was not an office of profit, the official said, “Pranab babu’s post of Chairman was literally an honorary post. He never received any honorarium and there was no reimbursement on his travel expenses.”
The RS secretariat has asked Pranab to respond to the charge latest by 3 pm on Tuesday. Pranab has been asked to give a copy of it to Sangma an hour earlier so that the Opposition candidate could respond to the clarification.
Those privy to Sangma’s complaint claim the former Speaker has pointed out that even if Pranab resigned on June 20, his resignation had to be accepted and a notification had to be issued in this regard. “This was not done. Without a notification, his resignation means nothing,” they claimed.
BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “What the Congress is saying is factually not correct. We will await a proper reply from the representatives of Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday. This is the issue of the top office of country.”
The Opposition party has warned the Congress against any foulplay and requested the Election Commission to seize the relevant documents from the ISI to prevent any manipulation.
“Congress has a poor track record in such matters. We’d also appeal to the concerned officials to maintain transparency and uphold constitutional propriety,” Prasad said.
Following Sangma’s complaint, Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy demanded Mukherjee withdraw from the Presidential contest. “Mukherjee should withdraw from the contest because a cloud of suspicion is now hovering over his head. It is better therefore that Mukherjee withdraws from the contest,” he said
Meanwhile, the Congress and the Government strongly rejected Sangma’s allegations and continued to claim that Pranab had resigned as the Chairman of the ISI on June 20.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal termed the allegations against Pranab as “factually incorrect and legally ill-conceived and untenable.”
Bansal said that he along with Home Minister P Chidambaram met Mukherjee after Sangma’s claim and they were told by him of his resignation well in advance of filing the nomination. “Pranab Mukherjee would be filing a written reply to the Returning Officer by 3 pm tomorrow,” he said.
Congress General Secretary BK Hariprasad lashed out at Sangma for making such comments against Pranab for cheap publicity. He also said that Chairman of the ISI is not an office of profit.
ISI has also come to the defence of Pranab. An official of ISI said in Kolkata, “Pranab babu has already submitted his resignation as ISI council Chairman on June 20.
But by mistake, Mukherjee’s name continues to be on the ISI website. It still consists of names of several veterans of ISI.”
Pranab came in for attack from Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik as well. The Chief Minister questioned whether hefty funds doled out to certain states by Pranab
Mukherjee, when he was Finance Minister, was to influence the Samajwadi Party, JD(U) and the Trinamool Congress.
“Pranab Mukherjee as the Finance Minister had doled out huge sums of money amounting to lakhs of crores to Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh,” Patnaik said in Bhubaneswar.
“Could it be that this money is going because he wanted certain parties like Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh, Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal(U) and Trinamool Congress of Mamata Banerjee to support his candidature as the Rashtrapati of India?” Patnaik, the BJD president, questioned.
The Chief Minister, who had accompanied Sangma for filing of nomination in Delhi said, the people had the right to know why hefty financial packages were provided to these States. While Bihar was to get Rs 20,000 crore during the 12th plan period from 2012 to 2017, UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has gone public saying that his government was expecting a package of Rs 90,000 crore.

Friday 29 June 2012

Teesta Setalvad's statement after the Godhra train burning incident

Teesta Setalvad's statement after the Godhra train burning incident


"While I condemn today's gruesome attack, you cannot pick up an incident in isolation. Let us not forget the provocation. These people were not going for a benign assembly. They were indulging in blatant and unlawful mobilization to build a temple and deliberately provoke the Muslims in India."