ALİNDA’LI İNEK
Author: timursumer
TRUMP IS OBAMA SQUARED
Trump Is Obama Squared
Two epic narcissists who see themselves as singularly suited to redeem America.
Donald Trump is Barack Obama squared. Not as a matter of rhetorical style, where the president is glib and grammatical, while the developer is rambling and coarse. Not as a matter of economic instincts, where Mr. Obama is a social democrat while Mr. Trump is a mercantilist.
And not as a matter of temperament. Mr. Obama is aloof and calculated. Mr. Trump loves to get in your face.
ENLARGEPHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGE
But leave smaller differences aside. The president and The Donald are two epic narcissists who see themselves as singularly suited to redeem an America that is not only imperfect but fundamentally broken. Both men revel in their disdain for the political system and the rules governing it. Both men see themselves not as politicians but as movement leaders. Both are prone to telling fairy tales about their lives and careers.
And both believe they are better than everyone else.
“I think I’m a better speech writer than my speech writers,” Mr. Obama told an aide in 2008. “I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m . . . a better political director than my director.” Compare that to Mr. Trump earlier this month, when asked on MSNBC who he turns to for foreign policy advice. “My primary consultant is myself.”
Historians may mark the early 21st century as the moment when Americans stopped seeking probity or at least predictability in their leaders and started shopping for ecstasy and transformation; a politics beyond words. Republicans mocked the grandiosity of Mr. Obama’s first run for the presidency—the Doric columns; the pledge to make the seas recede—but is that so different from the pompous iconography of the Trump jet or his manifestly absurd promises to get foreign countries to pay for his political boondoggles?
More to the point, Mr. Obama was a cult-of-personality candidate. His admirers projected on him whatever they wanted to see: passionate liberal; post-ideological pragmatist; philosopher king; cool cat. Politically, he was the equivalent of a non-falsifiable hypothesis. No evidence could disprove his rightness.
Mr. Trump inspires similar fancies among his supporters. Either he’s the Great Negotiator who will know how to bargain with Congress and cut better trade and security deals with the Saudis, Chinese, Europeans and so on. Or he’s the immovable man of principle who will remain unbowed when, for instance, troubles mount with his mass deportation of los ilegales.
Both interpretations can’t be true. But it’s in the nature of cult personalities that followers rarely ask hard questions because they are seeking leaders who square circles.
Non-American readers might also note the ways in which, on foreign policy, Mr. Trump is a magnification of Mr. Obama, rather than his opposite number. The president caused some consternation overseas when he complained, in a recent lengthy interview with the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, that too many U.S. allies are “free riders” mooching off American security guarantees. “We don’t always have to be the ones who are up front,” the president explained. Leading from behind “was part of the anti-free rider campaign.”
Now take Mr. Trump. NATO, he told the New York Times last week, is “unfair” to the U.S., which pays “a disproportionate share” of the defense burden. The U.S.-Japan defense treaty is “not a fair deal.” Across the world, the U.S. is being “systematically ripped off.” On Ukraine, “I would agree with” the president that the country belongs in Russia’s sphere of influence. If Europeans won’t take the lead, Mr. Trump wonders, why should the U.S.?
Both men also share the conviction that the U.S. can’t afford much of a foreign policy anymore. Mr. Obama often faults the high cost of the war in Iraq for “constraining our ability to nation-build here at home.” Mr. Trump complains that “we’re defending the world” despite a national debt nearing $21 trillion.
One man wants to shrink America’s role in the world for the sake of a bigger state; the other man for the sake of shrinking the debt. In either case, the prescription is to put America in retreat. In neither case do they want to address the real driver of the U.S.’s long-term fiscal problems, which are entitlements and welfare (59% of the federal budget), not defense and international security (16%).
Which brings us to the most important way in which Mr. Trump is another version of the president: They both bend reality to suit their conveniences, and their conceits.
In Mr. Obama’s universe, terrorism is a nuisance, climate change is an apocalypse, and economic growth is an inequality problem. In Mr. Trump’s, immigrants are invaders, trade is theft and allies are millstones. For each species of rubbish there’s a sizable political constituency. Maybe it will be large enough to launch Mr. Trump to the White House.
There’s a tendency among pundits to offer high-toned explanations for why Mr. Trump has risen this far, despite political expectations and ordinary good sense. Many of those pundits performed similarly opportunistic services when Mr. Obama’s star was rising. We repeat our mistakes when we think we’re doing the opposite.
Write bstephens@wsj.com.
EYÜP NAPA’DA
YÜCEL YUNAN ADASINDA
CLIMATE NAZIS
Plenty of Political Climate Change
Sen. Whitehouse used to pretend he opposed jailing dissenters.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse in March 2015. PHOTO: MARK WILSON/GETTY
Sheldon Whitehouse took to the Senate floor last fall to assail our coverage of his climate agenda. We had criticized his plan to use the RICO law, created to prosecute mobsters, against people who disagree with him about global warming. We also criticized George Mason University’s Jagadish Shukla, who wrote to Attorney General Loretta Lynch and other federal officials urging them to follow the Senator’s advice. New developments aren’t helping the credibility of Messrs. Shukla and Whitehouse.
In October Mr. Whitehouse denied that the RICO litigation threat—with its potential for treble damages—was intended to shut down scientific debate. The Rhode Island Democrat claimed he wants civil rather than criminal prosecutions of climate dissenters. As if bringing financial ruin on defendants accused of independent thought isn’t bad enough.
But now it looks like the campaign to silence climate dissidents could move beyond a potential civil case—and we’re not hearing a peep from Mr. Whitehouse. Attorney General Lynch told the Senate last week that her department had referred a request to prosecute climate dissent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Specifically, it was referred to the FBI’s criminal investigative division. A Justice official says on background that this is “not an indication or recommendation of whether a matter merits investigation, but is simply a referral to an appropriate investigative authority at the Department.”
Even as Sen. Whitehouse questioned Ms. Lynch on this very matter at the hearing, he uttered no criticism. His spokesman says the Senator still doesn’t favor criminal investigations and that Mr. Whitehouse thought the FBI referral “appeared unusual for the pursuit of a civil investigation.” But if Justice does throw people in jail for scientific skepticism, the message seems to be: Don’t count on Mr. Whitehouse to defend your liberty.
While the FBI ponders whether to slap the cuffs on people who don’t believe in U.N. climate models, scientists who agree with Mr. Whitehouse are thriving beyond the dreams of most academic researchers.
Check out Mr. Shukla, who egged on Ms. Lynch in the pursuit of climate skeptics. We noted recently the House Science Committee report that the George Mason professor had appeared to violate university policy in raking in more than $511,000 in combined compensation in 2014 from the school and his tax-exempt outfit, the Institute of Global Environment and Society. His wife collected another $166,000 that year to serve as the IGES business manager, and their daughter has been listed as an employee.
We’ve reviewed a 2012 memo from Mr. Shukla’s lawyer to IGES trustees saying that in some cases he would be entitled to fly business class and to bring his wife on trips, and also to have a leased car with a monthly payment not to exceed $600. IGES has been funded almost entirely by taxpayers. Many young scientists would be thrilled to win a federal grant even a fraction of the Shukla family haul. Mr. Shukla did not respond to requests for comment.
We understand why Messrs. Whitehouse and Shukla want to use the power of government to stifle their scientific and political opponents. But it’s harder to understand why George Mason wants to be associated with this sort of taxpayer fleecing and the silencing of academic dissent.
DONALD AND BARACK
Obama is Trump’s more sophisticated, articulate liberal antecedent.
President Barack Obama in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC on March 10.PHOTO: ZUMA PRESS
March 11, 2016 6:39 p.m. ET
President Obama is said to be a reflective man, and often he is the one saying so, but you wouldn’t know it from his Thursday press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Asked about political polarization and the Donald Trump phenomenon, Mr. Obama denied all responsibility. He doesn’t seem to appreciate the kind of country he will leave behind.
“What I’m not going to do is to validate some notion that the Republican crack-up that’s been taking place is a consequence of actions that I’ve taken,” Mr. Obama said. He explained Mr. Trump’s ascent as the result of “the nasty tone of our politics, which I certainly have not contributed to.” He blamed Republicans for this tone, as ever.
“Objectively,” Mr. Obama said, “it’s fair to say that the Republican political elites and many of the information outlets—social media, news outlets, talk radio, television stations—have been feeding the Republican base for the last seven years a notion that everything I do is to be opposed; that cooperation or compromise somehow is a betrayal.” He listed a few more GOP shortcomings, but you’ve got to hand it to him for that “objectively.”
As Mr. Obama tells it, all of this reflexive Obama bashing created “an environment where somebody like a Donald Trump can thrive. He’s just doing more of what has been done for the last seven and a half years.” In other words, Republicans didn’t clean up the standing water in their own backyard and now they’re complaining about mosquitoes.
One irony is that even as Mr. Obama denied any liability for Mr. Trump, he lapsed into the same rhetorical habit that helped fuel the businessman’s ascent. For Mr. Obama, principled opposition to his policies is always illegitimate or motivated by bad faith.
Like the President’s nonstop moral lectures about “our values” and “who we are as Americans,” by which he means liberal values and who we are as Democrats, he reads his critics out of politics. No wonder so many Americans feel disenfranchised and powerless.
And if we’re being objective, maybe Mr. Obama could account for the populist uprising among disaffected Democratic primary voters for a 74-year-old Vermont socialist vowing an economic revolution. Bernie Sanders is Mr. Trump’s leftward duplicate. The difference is that the Democratic establishment is doing a better job keeping their outsider away from a delegate majority.
The source of this public frustration is no great mystery. For the 10th straight year, the U.S. economy is growing by less than 3%. Such a long stretch of underperformance hasn’t happened since the 1930s. Slow growth for a decade means middle-class incomes are stagnant, which in turn increases economic anxiety, which in turn creates political unrest.
As for tone, the 1980s and 1990s featured bitter partisan conflicts—and for that matter so did the 1880s and 1790s. But the late 20th century had popular two-term Presidencies almost back to back, and the era didn’t produce backlash candidates promising to burn Washington to the ground and salt the earth. The reason is that the economy was booming.
Mr. Obama’s apologists claim 2%-2.5% growth is the best we can do, but the truth is that the natural dynamism of the U.S. economy has been swamped by waves of Mr. Obama’s bad policy. Instead of a second term that is bereft of domestic achievements, in an alternate universe he might have worked with the duly elected Republican majority and started to repair the economy from the center out.
Instead, Mr. Obama has shown contempt for institutions that he doesn’t run, and, notably, most of his growth-subtracting policies have been imposed through unilateral executive action. He doesn’t do persuasion and compromise. Some policies were intended to sow division, like his lawless immigration order that inflamed the restrictionist right, divided Republican elites and was only stopped by the courts.
The nature of Mr. Trump’s appeal can be explained by Mr. Obama’s own rule-by-regulation governing methods and polarizing political style. You might even call him The Barack, the more articulate and sophisticated liberal antecedent to The Donald.
The stability of the American political system depends on deeply rooted norms. What this primary season has revealed is that when a President violates these unwritten rules, the damage to self-government leads into uncharted territory.
AMAZING WORLD
Proof That The World Is Nuts!
In Bahrain, a male doctor may legally examine a woman’s genitals, but is prohibited from looking directly at them during the examination. He may only see their reflection in a mirror.
(Do they look different in reverse?)
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Muslims are banned from looking at the genitals of a corpse. This also applies to undertakers. The sex organs of the deceased must be covered with a brick or piece of wood at all times.
(A brick?)
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The penalty for masturbation in Indonesia is decapitation.
(Much worse than “going blind!”)
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There are men in Guam whose full-time job is to travel the countryside and deflower young virgins,who pay them for the privilege of having sex for the first time.
Reason: under Guam law, it is expressly forbidden for virgins to marry.
(Let’s just think for a minute; is there any job anywhere else in the world that even comes close to this?)
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In Hong Kong, a betrayed wife is legally allowed to kill her adulterous husband, but may only do so with her bare hands.
No golf clubs….I hear a 3 iron works well.
The husband’s illicit lover, on the other hand, may be killed in any manner desired.
(Ah! Justice!)
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Topless saleswomen are legal in Liverpool, England – but only in tropical fish stores.
(But of course!)
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In Cali, Colombia, a woman may only have sex with her husband, and the first time this happens, her mother must be in the room to witness the act.
(Makes one shudder at the thought!)
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In Santa Cruz, Bolivia, it is illegal for a man to have sex with a woman and her daughter at the same time.
(I presume this was a big enough problem that they had to pass this law?)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
In Maryland, it is illegal to sell condoms from vending machines with one exception: Prophylactics may be dispensed from a vending machine only in places where alcoholic beverages are sold for consumption on the premises.
(Is this a great country or what?)
(Well, not as great as Guam!)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
(Who volunteers for these tests?)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, can pull 30 times its own weight and always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.
(From drinking little bottles of ???)
(Did our government pay for this research??)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Butterflies taste with their feet.
(Ah, geez.)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.
(I know some people like that.)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Starfish don’t have brains.
(I know some people like that, too.)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
And, the best for last?
Turtles can breathe through their butts.
(And I thought I had bad breath in the morning!)
Thank you all for reading this.
If you need to reach me in the future, I will be in Guam!!
KEMİK SUYU (KÖTÜ TIP)
KÖTÜ TIP
Kemik suyunun yararları ve yapılışı :
Kemik suyu biz Türklerin kültüründe her zaman yeri olan, ‘ölüyü bile diriltir’ şeklinde bir atasözüne dahi konu olmuş bir içecek… Bazı gıdaları zamanla unuttuğumuz bir gerçek, kemik suyu da eskiden belki de her evde kaynayan, çorbaya, pilava hep eklenen ama bulyonlar çıkınca, evde yemek yapma azalınca unutulan lezzetlerden biri olmuş durumda… Ancak dünyada kemik suyu hakettiği önemini geri kazanmaya çoktan başladı. Paleo beslenmenin doğduğu Amerika’da aynı Starbucks’in kahve sattığı gibi kemik suyu satan kafeler var, marketler hazır paketlenmiş kemik suyu dolu, evlere kemik suyu servisi yapan firmalar, kemik suyunu beslenmenin baş köşesine oturtan beslenme uzmanları, botox uygulaması sonrasında kemik suyu takviyesi tavsiye eden plastik cerrahlar, ellerinde kemik suyu ile fotoğrafı çekilen Hollywood yıldızları… Kısaca kemik suyu modasını da diğer herşeyi olduğu gibi geç takip ediyoruz (dünyada 1990larda, bizde ise 2000li yıllarda moda olan UGG’lar gibi)… Ancak bu moda geçmeyecek gibi görünüyor çünkü kemik suyu çoook eskiden beri sağlığın anahtarı…
Peki kemik suyunun yararları kısaca neler?
Öncelikle bir besin size yararlıysa hücre bazında sizi iyileştirdiği içindir, bu sebeple birşey bir yerinize iyi geliyorsa her yerinize de iyi geliyor demek… Fakat bazı besinler vücudunuzda bazı yerlerinize daha spesifik olarak yarıyor, kefirin bağırsak sağlığında öne çıkması gibi, ancak bağırsağınızın en büyük ve beyinle beraber en önemli organınız olduğunu, bütün organ ve sistemlerinizin bağırsağınızla birebir bağlantılı olduğunu düşünürsez her yeriniz kefirden faydalanıyor. Kemik suyunu da aynı mantıkla düşünün, aşağıda sayılı yararı var, keşfedilmemiş ya da bahsedilmeyen neler olduğunu düşünmek heyecan verici…
1. İlginizi çekmek için hemen belki de diğer yararları yanında en anlamsız ama kadınlar için çok önemli bir yararı kemik suyunun kolajen yapısının selülitlere çok iyi gelmesi!
2. Geçirgen bağırsak sendromunuzu iyileştirmek için çok yararlı. Bağırsak duvarınızdaki delikleri kemik suyu içeriğindeki kolajen ile onarabilir, böylece onlarca otoımmun rahatsızlık, depresyon, kanser, diyabet gibi sayısız hastalığı hem tedavi edip hem de kendinizi bu hastalıklardan koruyabilirsiniz.
3. İçeriğindeki glycine, proline, and arginine isimli aminoasitler antienflamatuar özelliktedir ki enflamasyon neredeyse bütün hastalıkların ana sebeplerinden kabul ediliyor. Özellikle argının’ın sepsis tedavisinde yararlı olduğu kanıtlandı.
4. Cildi gençleştirmeyi vadeden bütün kremlerin içerisinde bulunan kolajen kemik suyunun etken maddelerinden. Yani yüzünüze sürdüğünüz yüzlerce liralık kremin faydasınının daha fazlasını içeriden cildinize, tırnaklarınıza, saçlarınıza gönderebilirsiniz, geçliğinizi içeriden besleyebilirsiniz.
5. İçeriğindeki mineraller sayesinde bağışıklığınızı güçlendirebilirsiniz. Hasta olduğunuzda akla ilk kemik ya da tavuk suyuna çorba gelmesi boşuna değil, kemik suyu hastalıkları iyileştirme ve önlemede birebir. Harvard üniversitesi’nde yapılan bir çalışma kemik suyu içen otoımmun rahatsızlığa sahip kişilerin semptomlarında rahatlama yaşadığı, bazılarının hastalıklarının tamamen gerilediğini gösteriyor.
6. İçeriğindeki arginine bağışıklığı ve yara iyileşmesini, büyüme hormonu salgılanmasını, karaciğer hücre yenilenmesini ve erkeklerde sperm oluşumunu destekliyor.
7. İçeriğindeki glycine kaş yıkımını engelliyor, safra tuzu ve glutatyon üretimini destekliyor, detoksifikasyona katı sağlayan bir antioksidan görevi görüyor ve uykuyu iyileştiren bir nörotransmitter olarak çalışıyor, hafızayı güçlendiriyor.
8. İçeriğindeki proline cildi dolduruyor, selülitleri azaltıyor, bağırsak deliklerini kapatıyor.
9. İçeriğindeki glutamın bağırsağı koruyor, ince bağırsak hücrelerine metabolik yakıt sağlıyor, metabolizma ve kaş yapımına yarıyor.
10. İçeriğindeki gelatın bağırsaklardaki probiyotik sağlığını destekliyor.
11. Midedeki asit refluyu tedavi ediyor.
12. Vücudun asit tamponlamasında kullandığı kalsıyum ve magnezyumu bol miktarda içeriyor.
13. Kemik suyu içerisindeki glucoşamine eklem sağlığınız için son derece faydalıdır. Ayrıca içeriğindeki chondroitin sülfate maddesinin osteoartrit’i engellediği kanıtlandı.
14. Kaynattığınız kemiklerden suya sızan fosfor, kalsıyum ve magnezyum sizin kemiklerinizi güçlendirmek için en gerekli mineraller arasnda yer alıyor…
15. Kemik suyunu düzenli içen herkesin hemfikir olduğu iki şey enerji verdiği ve uzun süre tok tuttuğu ki kilo vermek ya da enerji seviyesini yükseltmek isteyen herkesin kullanması için mükemmel bir içecek…
Defalarca sorulduğu için kemik suyunu nasıl yaptığımı birkez de burada anlatmak istedim:
Öncelikle kasaptan köyün ve danadan ilikli kemik ve eklem uçları satın alıyorum. Eve gelip kemikleri yıkayıp yavaş pişiriciye (isteyen büyük bir çelik tencere kullanabilir) koyuyorum. İçine istediğim kadar soğan, sarımsak, havuç ve zencefil dilimliyor ve toz karabiber ve zerdecal ekliyorum, acı istersem kurutulmuş biber koyuyorum. Kemiklerdeki minerallerin suya geçmesini sağlamak için iki kaşık sirke ekliyorum. En son içme suyu ekleyip tencerenin ağzını kapatıp makinenin altını yüksek ayarda açıyorum (tencere kullananlar için yüksek ısı) şu işinip da kaynamaya başlayacakken (ancak kaynamasına izin vermiyorum) kısık ayara düşürüyorum (tencere kullananlar için en kısık ateş) ve bu şekilde 10-12 saat arası pişiriyorum. Önemli nokta kemik suyundaki kolajen yapının bozulmaması için asla fokur fokur kaynama olmamalı, sadece kenarlardan minik baloncuklar çıkması yeterli… Ayrıca ne kadar uzun pişerse o kadar yararlı bir kemik suyunuz olur, asla erkenden pisti sanıp altını kapatmayın. Pistikten sonra suzup, soğutup cam kapta buzdolabına kaldırıyorum. Ertesi gün dolaptan çıkarıp üzerinde oluşmuş yağı alıp atıyorum (ya da omlet gibi çok yüksek ateşte pişmeyen şeylerde kullanmak için ayırıyorum) ve altta kalan jelleşmiş kemik suyu sıfasını sunmaya hazır. Buzdolabında 4 gün, buzlukta 3 ay bekliyor (ben hiç görmüyorum o kadar zaman geçtiğini tabi, bizde çok tüketiliyor)… Ben hergün sabahları ısıtıp 200-250 ml bardakta içiyorum, yararlı olması için sık tüketilmesi lazım. İsteyen çorba ya da pilav da yapabilir ama ben kıyamam, direkt içmeye bayılıyorum.
SALİH’İN ŞEYİ
CONDUCTORS : ARE THEY NECESSARY ?
HIDDEN BRAIN
Do Orchestras Really Need Conductors?
Does This Guy Matter? Conductor Leonard Bernstein during rehearsal with the Cincinnati Symphony at Carnegie Hall in 1977.
James Garrett/New York Daily News via Getty Images
Have you ever wondered whether music conductors actually influence their orchestras?
They seem important. After all, they’re standing in the middle of the stage and waving their hands. But the musicians all have scores before them that tell them what to play. If you took the conductor away, could the orchestra manage on its own?
A new study aims to answer this question. Yiannis Aloimonos, of the University of Maryland, and several colleagues recruited the help of orchestral players from Ferrara, Italy.
They installed a tiny infrared light at the tip of an (unnamed) conductor’s baton. They also placed similar lights on the bows of the violinists in the orchestra. The scientists then surrounded the orchestra with infrared cameras.
When the conductor waved the baton, and the violinists moved their bows, the moving lights created patterns in space, which the cameras captured. Computers analyzed the infrared patterns as signals: Using mathematical techniques originally designed by Nobel Prize-winning economist Clive Granger, Aloimonos and his colleagues analyzed whether the movements of the conductor were linked to those of the violinists.
The scientists hypothesized that if the movement of the conductor could predict the movements of the violinists, then the conductor was clearly leading the players. But if the conductor’s movements could not predict the movement of the violinists, then it was really the players who were in charge.
“You have a signal that is originating from the conductor, because he is moving his hands and his body,” Aloimonos explained. “And then the players, they perceive that signal, and they create another signal by moving the bows of the violin appropriately. So you have some sort of sensorimotor conversation.”
(The research study is part of a larger project where Aloimonos is trying to figure out if human movements share something in common with human language; he suspects both are not only governed by a grammar, but that both may be based on similar processes in the brain.)
Aloimonos said the study found that conductors were leading the violinists — the movement of the conductors predicted the movement of the violinists, not the other way around.
But the study found more: The scientists had two conductors lead the same orchestra. One was a veteran who exercised an iron grip over the violinists. The other was an amateur.
“What we found is the more the influence of the conductor to the players, the more aesthetic — aesthetically pleasing the music was overall,” Aloimonos said.
Music experts who listened to the performance of the orchestra under the control of the two conductors found the version produced by the authoritarian conductor superior. Remember, these experts didn’t know which version was being led by the veteran conductor and which by the amateur. All they heard was the music.
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES CARTOON
İnanılmaz güzel bir açıklama.
Herkes de Bilal’e çalışıyor birader..
Timur
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Gravitational Waves Explained
Link to Piled Higher and Deeper
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Preview by Yahoo
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GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
Riding Gravity Waves to the Big Bang and Beyond
Once again, Einstein’s theory of relativity is confirmed by scientists. Next stop: Creation.
ENLARGEThe Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory near Livingston, La. PHOTO: REUTERS
Champagne bottles were uncorked in physics labs around the world this week when a team of scientists announced they had finally achieved a long cherished dream, detecting the elusive gravity waves predicted by Albert Einstein 100 years ago. This remarkable discovery, which confirmed the last major prediction of Einstein’s theory of general relativity and opens up a whole new way to explore the universe, will almost certainly merit a Nobel Prize in Physics.
In 1916 Einstein himself didn’t believe these faint gravity waves could be detected in his lifetime. A century later, the devices that finally detected them are so enormous that they can be seen from outer space. The two Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatories, or LIGO detectors, one in Washington state and the other in Louisiana, operate like massive horizontal antennas allowing scientists to detect the gravitational waves.
On Thursday, in an article in Physical Review Letters with more than 1,000 authors, the LIGO scientists revealed that on Sept. 14 they had detected the collision of two black holes in deep space more than a billion light years away but it then took five months to analyze and confirm the results. The black holes were about 36 and 29 times the mass of the sun, and the colossal shock wave caused by their merging into an even larger black hole sent violent ripples of gravity hurling throughout the universe.
Each LIGO detector consists of two pipes, each 2.5 miles long, creating the shape of an L. Each pipe contains a laser beam of light bouncing between perfectly positioned mirrors. If a gravity wave from outer space hits the L, it causes a tiny disturbance, which is then measured by analyzing how the two laser beams interact. As an added treat, the LIGO scientists have converted the gravity waves they detected to sound waves so one can hear the ripples in space-time that Einstein predicted.
All this has once again confirmed Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which he developed almost entirely on his own between 1907 and 1915. Einstein’s great insight was to realize that space-time is not empty, but more like a fabric that can bend and stretch and cause the path of objects to bend, giving us the illusion of gravitational force. But if the fabric of space-time can stretch, thought Einstein, why can’t it also create ripples?
Think of throwing a rock in a pond. Ripples will gradually radiate away from the splash and fill the surface of the pond. This is similar to what the LIGO scientists detected for the first time: Gravity waves rippling outward from the collision of two black holes a billion light years away.
The LIGO discovery also answers a question commonly asked about the sun. Many people have asked a deceptively simple question: If the sun were to suddenly disappear at this instant, how long would it take for us to notice? Newton thought gravity acted instantaneously, so the earth would instantly be hurled into space.
Einstein thought otherwise. If space is a fabric, then shock waves traveling along this fabric should take eight minutes to reach the earth, traveling at the speed of light. The LIGO breakthrough confirms Einstein’s hypothesis, and has profound cosmological implications. The next generation of gravity-wave detectors might be put into space, and might eventually be sensitive enough to detect the most revealing radiation of all, the radiation from the instant of Genesis. One can calculate that the next generation of space-based gravity wave detectors might eventually be sufficiently sensitive to detect gravity shock waves from the big bang.
If true this, in turn, would open up an entirely new chapter in astronomy. Each time a new wave was discovered, it changed human history. When Galileo used light waves to create his telescope four centuries ago, it profoundly altered our view of the universe and even shook the Catholic Church. Then, around the time of World War II, radio waves were harnessed to create radio telescopes capable of detecting quasars, colliding galaxies and even black holes.
Now we are witnessing the third great revolution in telescopes, the use of gravity waves to open a new chapter in astronomy. For the first time, waves from the very instant of creation might be observed, giving us “baby pictures” of the universe as it was born. High-school textbooks may have to be rewritten to incorporate the new discoveries coming from this third generation of telescopes.
This may also have philosophical implications. Right now the big-bang theory doesn’t tell us what banged, why it banged, and what caused it to bang. It only tells us that there was a bang. But if space-based gravity-wave detectors similar to LIGO’s detectors can measure the radiation emitted an instant after the big bang, then, using mathematics, one can run the equations backward to determine what set off the big bang in the first place, in effect answering the biggest question of all: What banged and why?
When Einstein postulated gravity waves a century ago, he not only opened up an entirely new chapter in astronomy, he also opened the door to answering the most important philosophical questions of all time, including the creation of the universe.
Mr. Kaku is a professor of theoretical physics at the City College of New York and the author of “The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind” (Doubleday, 2014).
Timur Sümer 
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