The world has been busy
I've been mostly having migraines, and while I did that Don't Ask Don't Tell ended and there is this discovery about neutrinos. Clearly, I need to have more migraines.
As to DADT, I am, of course, quite pleased. I agree with the comments I have seen elsewhere that our work is not done. Transsexuals still cannot serve openly in the military. But while there are still many issues to be worked on to improve equality, this is still a big step and one I am quite pleased to celebrate.
As to the neutrinos, I am waiting for more science. That seems to be the popular response from people who understand the issue better than I do. We have a fascinating finding, but people within the field want to see it replicated and better understood. There is definitely something to investigate, but it's a bit premature to say definitively what it means and to draw conclusions.
However, I still stand by my original assessment of the significance of this finding, which is that it's going to cause neutrinos to pop up in all sorts of technobabble explanations throughout science fiction stories for a bit. If the finding holds or turns out to be something else that is different but also really weird, then neutrinos will continue to be a staple of lots of science fiction stories.
I find the idea of a universe without causality quite amusing though, and I really don't have much of a problem with it. This is probably partly because I stopped believing in causality a long time ago anyway when I stopped believing in free will. Although obviously things on the macrolevel are as they are - we've observed things on our scale for a very long time and we know pretty much how such things behave. This finding is not going to change any of that. So, from a day to day perspective, life continues fairly normally.
However, I feel quite safe in asserting that the universe is weird. Regardless of what way this finding works out, the universe is weird. But we already knew that.
As to DADT, I am, of course, quite pleased. I agree with the comments I have seen elsewhere that our work is not done. Transsexuals still cannot serve openly in the military. But while there are still many issues to be worked on to improve equality, this is still a big step and one I am quite pleased to celebrate.
As to the neutrinos, I am waiting for more science. That seems to be the popular response from people who understand the issue better than I do. We have a fascinating finding, but people within the field want to see it replicated and better understood. There is definitely something to investigate, but it's a bit premature to say definitively what it means and to draw conclusions.
However, I still stand by my original assessment of the significance of this finding, which is that it's going to cause neutrinos to pop up in all sorts of technobabble explanations throughout science fiction stories for a bit. If the finding holds or turns out to be something else that is different but also really weird, then neutrinos will continue to be a staple of lots of science fiction stories.
I find the idea of a universe without causality quite amusing though, and I really don't have much of a problem with it. This is probably partly because I stopped believing in causality a long time ago anyway when I stopped believing in free will. Although obviously things on the macrolevel are as they are - we've observed things on our scale for a very long time and we know pretty much how such things behave. This finding is not going to change any of that. So, from a day to day perspective, life continues fairly normally.
However, I feel quite safe in asserting that the universe is weird. Regardless of what way this finding works out, the universe is weird. But we already knew that.