Green Land of Bhutan

Physicists Calculate the Proton's Mass

It's one thing to know a fact, but it's another to explain it, as a curious advance in particle physics shows. Ever since the proton was discovered 89 years ago, physicists have been able to measure the mass of the particle--which, along with another called the neutron, makes up the atomic nucleus. But even with the best computers, theorists had not been able to start with a description of the proton's constituent parts and calculate its mass from scratch. Now, a team of theorists has reached that goal, marking the arrival of precision calculations of the ultracomplex "strong force" that binds nuclear matter.

 
 In the 1970s, experimenters discovered that the proton and the neutron, known collectively as nucleons, consist of more-fundamental particles called quarks and gluons, which are the basic elements of a theory called quantum chromodynamics (QCD). In the simplest terms, a proton contains two "up" type quarks and one "down" type quark, with gluons zipping among them to bind them with the strong nuclear force. (The neutron contains two downs and an up.) In reality, a nucleon is much more complicated.

To simplify matters, the team took a tack pioneered in the late 1970s called lattice QCD. Within their computer programs, the researchers modeled space not as continuous but as a three-dimensional array of points. They also modeled time as passing in discrete ticks, as opposed to flowing smoothly. This turns space and time into a lattice of points. The researchers then confined the quarks to the points in the lattice and the gluons to the links between the points. The lattice sets a shortest distance and time for the interactions, greatly simplifying the problem.

Tags: Particle Physics, gluons, QCD

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Dubai is the center of Architecture in the World Today

"Dubai is Nuts" Gallery
WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OVER THERE? Dubai is said to currently have 15-25% of all the world's cranes.

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Corruption in China

President Hu Jintao's government, in an indication of concern about the unrest among suddenly landless farmers, has launched a campaign to preserve the fields and paddies that feed China's 1.3 billion people. In addition, it has allocated $42.5 billion to improving the lives of the 700 million Chinese still attached to the land and filled official propaganda with stories of Communist Party cadres out in the countryside solving problems for grateful farmers.

Despite the two-day riot here, the first signs have emerged that the campaign may be having an effect. Although party censorship makes information in China hard to assess, reports of violent protests in farming villages have declined sharply over the past six months. This marks a significant shift from 2004-05, when clashes between farmers and police escalated dramatically. The Public Security Ministry reported 84,000 violent protests in 2005, more than 200 a day.

The villagers said, they were promised an explanation of how the 200 private guards, many with buzz cuts and tattoos typical of Chinese gangsters, came to be in Sanzhou protecting a multistory apartment complex built on a prime piece of the confiscated farmland.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/27/AR2006062701648_pf.html

Corruption world wide is a major concern for the common citizen.  Russia and China both seem to be led by criminal groups.  The West is highly affected by similiar activities and our major conflict is with so-called terrorist groups.  All of this, shows the effectiveness of power going private and the in-effectiveness of public and open government. That could be a coming 'Dark Age'.

Tags: corruption, gangsters, criminal groups, China

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Snow Falls on Mars -- National Geographic

This interesting video speaks about the effects of water on Mars.  It shows examples.

Snow Falls on Mars -- National Geographic

Snow Falls on Mars -- National Geographic