Apparently the White House has a beef with The Onion, a news parody previously mentioned on this blog. Seems they are not happy when The Onion uses the Presidential seal in its satirical spoofs. They claim it is a violation of regulations. Looks like lawyers are getting invovled.

Excuse me, but doesn’t The White House have more important things to think about?

Breaking news, very serious, hot off the email. A technician was killed in the ATLAS pit at CERN today. Apparently a crane dropped a load on him. It happened at 17:30 local time. All underground areas were closed immediately. There will be an investigation.

ATLAS (technical home page, public home page) is one of the two very large high energy physics detectors being built for the Large Hadron Collider. It is being built in a large cavernous collider hall far underground where collisions at the LHC will take place. This hall is located just outside of the main gate at CERN.

This is a tragedy for everyone involved. My deepest sympathies for the technician’s family.

You have probably heard by now about the terrible earthquake devastation and the resulting death toll (approaching 20,000 so far). In case you’re looking for news coverage of the story, I just thought I’d mention that the BBC has a special website where they are putting all their reporting about this in one place. It is here.

The very best wishes to all out there who are affected.

-cvj

Well, it is that time of year. Lots of people are pretending not to wait anxiously by the phone: This whole week sees the announcement of the Prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace, along with the Sveriges Riksbank (Bank of Sweden) in Economic Sciences, all in memory of Alfred Nobel.

The physics one has just been announced. This year’s goes to Roy J. Glauber (1/2), John L. Hall (1/4), and Theodor W. Hänsch (1/4). Some of the press release:

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2005 with one half to

Roy J. Glauber
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

“for his contribution to the quantum theory of optical coherence”

and one half jointly to

John L. Hall
JILA, University of Colorado and National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO, USA and

Theodor W. Hänsch
Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany

“for their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique”.

Here’s a pdf link to a longer, more detailed description of the quantum optics this year’s physics prize is about.

The Physiology/Medicine prize was announced yesterday, and it went to Barry J. Marshall and J. Robin Warren. Here is the press release:

The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2005
jointly to Barry J. Marshall and J. Robin Warren,
for their discovery of

“the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease”

Marshall is from the University of Western Australia Nedlands, Australia, and Warren is from Perth, Australia.

A link to the summary is here.

(How come there’s no nice layman’s summary for the physics one at nobelprize.org? Sigh. [Update: Mark tells me that it comes a day or so later.])

Tomorrow: Chemistry!
Friday: Peace!
Monday: Economics!
Sometime Later: Literature!

-cvj

Both the title of this post and some of the terminology in the USA Today/AP article entitled Static electricity in man’s jacket leads to burns, are not chosen for their scientific accuracy, but never mind, I’ll not lament about that issue today. The effect seems to have been pretty dramatic…..I heard it on NPR, and then Googled.

You know, the above paragraph was going to be the whole post, and then I looked at another article, this one from the Sidney Morning Herald.

There, we see that the voltage has now gone from 30,000 to 40,000 (I guess the editors needed 33.3% more drama), and whereas the USA Today article said

Fire officials took Clewer’s jacket and said it continued to give off voltage.

…the Sidney Morning Herald article said

The firefighters took Mr Clewer’s jacket to the fire station, where it continued to give off a strong electrical current.

Ooooh, the ol’ current-voltage confusion in the media staple. So of course, rather than cycle off for the busstop, I had to check to see what the ABC Online (Australia) article said

The CFA has Mr Clewer’s jacket and says it is continuing to give off voltage.

Hmmm, but I note that they were happy with the less dramatic voltage measurement.

Reuters UK’ artitcle opts for the higher voltage, and reports that

Firefighters took possession of Clewer’s jacket and stored it in the courtyard of the fire station, where it continued to give off a strong electrical current.

So there you have it. Flipping back and forth between current and voltage, depending upon who knows what whim? You see, this is what I’m talking about when I rant on about having somebody in the editorial office know at least a little kindergarten science. It’s no wonder the general public are confused. Sigh. I did end up ranting about this issue after all.

Anyway, Webindia123, in the first line of their article, ticks off the poor guy for wearing polyester, but makes no comment on measurements at the after-party at the firestation.

Finally, the Warrnambool Standard (I get it delivered every day you know) reports that “officers were baffled” (of course), and one of them sought advice from a technician, who said

Mr Clewer’s clothes were at no stage dangerous because they were low in amps which could be deadly.

So watch out for those deadly amps, folks.

-cvj

From the New York Times: Director of FEMA Stripped of Role as Relief Leader

Mr. Brown, who was hailed by President Bush last week for doing “a heck of a job” in responding to the disaster, was stripped of his duties after days in which the White House was pressed by lawmakers in both parties to dismiss him for poor performance.

From the BBC: US emergency aid chief sidelined

Mr Brown is being replaced by Coast Guard Vice-Admiral Thad W Allen who has been overseeing New Orleans relief and rescue efforts.

“I have directed Mike Brown to return to administering Fema nationally,” Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff said announcing the move.

Mr Chertoff said he appreciated the work done by the Fema director - amid allegations that Mr Brown had exaggerated his previous experience in emergency management.

The BBC’s Washington correspondent, Justin Webb, says that questions over Mr Brown’s eligibility for his post have intensified political pressure on the White House.

A clever distraction from the real problems and culprits, I wonder? Let’s keep watching.

-cvj

Not me — I’m blogging from the Denver airport, on my way from Boston to California. Why someone who lives in Chicago would be flying from Boston to California is too complicated to explain.

Despite the weak coffee here, I’m sure I’m in much more comfortable surroundings than Lindsay Beyerstein from Majikthise, Bob Brigham from Swing State Project (and now Operation Flashlight), and Kyle Shank from Americablog. (It’s not perfectly clear who all is going along, so there may be others for all I know.) They have made the trip down to New Orleans, both to report what they see and to help out where possible. (For example, working to extend the Voting Rights Act to prevent evacuees from become involuntarily disenfranchised.)

The reports are chilling. Lindsay:

The Convention Center was truly horrifying: A sea of filthy orange-upolstered institutional chairs. Blocks and blocks of chairs set out on the sidewalk. Mountains of trash. Abandoned supplies rotting in the sun — cases of muffins, an entire crate of coffee creamers upended, dirty needles, unopened bottles of sparkling cider that looked like champagne, rhinestone earings still in their packages, a tiny Spiderman flip-flop, water bottles full of urine, strollers, several barbeques… The 82nd Airborne was on the scene in their red berets. Black Hawk helicopters were taking off and landing across the parking lot. It’s really something to see a Black Hawk skimming the horizon of a devastated American city.

Kyle:

Unreal.

That’s the only word I can think of to describe what I’ve experienced today. The moment you step in it’s as if you’ve entered another reality. Helicopters dart overhead and pound a rhythm into the horrific scene. The stench of death and suffering overwhelm the senses. It’s a smell that doesn’t make sense until you’ve seen the filth the victims had to cope with. Try to think about all the worst possible scents combined; I guarantee it’s worse. Chairs, clothing, and drinks remain in the same position as if those people just vanished into the air you’re breathing in. Your mind goes numb during that brief inhale and you can only try to imagine what these abandoned citizens went through. Being in New Orleans is like soaking yourself in unthinkable despair.

And Bob:

We are in Jefferson Parish, just outside of New Orleans. At the National Guard checkpoint, they are under orders to turn away all media. All of the reporters are turning they’re TV trucks around.

Things are so bad, Bush is now censoring all reporting from NOLA. The First Amendment sank with the city.

Fortunately they managed to make it in, with the 82nd airborne. Keep checking back at each blog as updates appear.

Keith Olberman discusses whether there are multiverses right here in the USA.

Remarkable, a real live news anchor actually comparing official’s words with their actions. I don’t think I’ve ever seen clip juxtaposition like that except on the “fake news” daily show.

For more of what happened when, see the timelines at Think Progress and Talking Points Memo.

Hi, my name is JoAnne, I am female, and I’m a shoe-a-holic. I love to shop for shoes. Shoe sales can stop me dead in my tracks. Whenever I travel, the joke in my family is “how many pairs of shoes did you bring?” This seems to be a common affliction with women. However, some of us seem to be more addicted than others. Just look at the reports of Condi Rice from the 2nd Sept edition of the Gawker: shopping for shoes (apparently costing thousands of dollars) at Ferragamo’s last week during her NYC vacation. Not that she had anything more pressing to attend to….

I sincerely hope the shoes were at least on sale.

Folks, here’s a link to the Katrina timeline. Just in case anyone actually doubted whether the state of Lousiana asked for Federal help - you can read the documents for yourself.