| Wednesday,
November 4, 2009 A speculation on
relativity:
The major evidence for the special theory of relativity
is the Michaelson-Morely experiment, which demonstrated that there was no
"ether wind" due to the movement of the earth through it. (For a
thorough discussion of the experiment including the precise results, not
just the conclusions, see Tom Bethel,
Questioning Einstein, which presents the alternative theory of Dr.
Petr Beckmann; note that this questions special, not necessarily general,
relativity which is another matter. The book also looks at data that may
not be consistent with special relativity (aberration in spectroscopic
binaries, synchronized clocks in the GPS system, gaining and losing time
when sending clocks around the Earth).
Einstein's special theory dismisses ether as not required to explain
the known data. That leaves us with the oddity that light is a wave but
there is no medium it waves in. Petr Beckmann postulated there is an
ether, but it is the gravitational field, which means it is entangled with
the earth; there are implications for the Michaelson-Morely experiment.
Clearly an entangled gravitation field has diminishing influence as you
get farther from Earth and into more dense fields such as the solar
gravitational field -- and beyond that one to interstellar space.
My speculation: we are beginning to postulate both dark energy and dark
matter to explain gravitational anomalies: there just isn't enough matter
in the universe to explain what we see.
Could dark matter be the "ether"? In which case it would certainly
react to gravitational fields, and in effect do what Beckmann's theory
predicts. It would also provide a medium in which light can wave. I
haven't the mathematical acuity to work out the details of this, and I
suspect it's obviously wrong, but it was a thought I had while on my walk
yesterday morning. I still don't understand waves without something to
wave in, and I've heard most of the explanations. A sound wave can be
described as a series of rarefactions and compressions in air, and it's
easy to understand. Waves through an ether are a bit more complex (there's
the polarization phenomena) but again they're comprehensible. Waves in an
utter void are a bit tougher to visualize, which is one reason why the
corpuscular theory of light hung on for so long. In any event, I think
that "dark matter" as "ether" would behave about the same as Petr
Beckmann's ether as the local gravitational field since the dark matter
would be as entangled as the gravity field. It would eliminate "spooky
action at a distance", and for that matter would explain gravity waves...
I put this as a "cocktail party" theory, one I will defend casually but
I can't claim to have investigated with any thoroughness. Another of my
cocktail party theories is that dogs were critical to human evolution:
they used their forebrains to develop a sense of smell, we used that part
to get smart; the symbiosis meant that villages with dogs had more
surviving children, etc., etc. As I said, a cocktail party theory
but one I've had for many years and I haven't seen any actual refutation.
Of course that implies an ethical obligation: long ago our ancestors made
a deal with dogs whereby we looked after each other's offspring. Leave
that: the interesting theory just now is "Dark Matter is Ether."
==================
Yesterday's by-election was encouraging. New Jersey, as blue
a state as you can get, now has a Republican governor. In Virginia the
Republicans had a landslide. In upstate New York the country club
republicans and rinos got an interesting message. Across the country the
results have been encouraging, to the point that the Senate Democrats are
now talking about further delays in the Health Care Bill That Was Demanded
Before September.
If you are concerned about the rush to nationalize health
care and carbon use, yesterday was a good day. Not as good as it might have
been, but a good day. We'll take what we can get in this year of grace...
==============
JOB NOTICE
(I don't post job offers very often, but this one comes from
someone I can hardly refuse)
(START OF POST)
Please feel free to forward this to anyone who might
be interested.
We have an immediate opening for an individual
familiar with the Infor Global Systems "Information Expert" application.
This is a full-time contract position, in the Los Angeles area, duration
1-2 years. The Infor Financial Systems were originally developed by
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will include:
* Maintain and support Infor Financial System. *
Maintain and support IE (Information Expert, not Internet Explorer)
programs. * Maintain and support COBOL programs. * Develop documentation
as appropriate.
Sincerely, Alexander Pournelle, acp at t-k.com
Director, Network and Desktop Systems Practice, Tech/Knowledge, Inc.
www.t-k.com <http://www.t-k.com/>
(END OF POST)
=======================
From the Club for Growth on the upstate New York
Congressional election:
Party labels aside,
conservatives lost nothing last night, as Scozzafava and Owens are both
avowed liberals in support of Nancy Pelosi's agenda in the House of
Representatives. Doug Hoffman was our only chance to bring real change to
Washington, and in little more than a month, we almost helped him pull it
off.
Recall that the reason the seat was vacant is that McHugh
(formerly the Republican incumbent in that seat) accepted a position in the
Obama administration. Winning the seat would have been encouraging, but the
loss is not critical to conservative principles. The lesson to Republican
Party officials is that the country remains center/right. When Clinton
pronounced that the era of Big Government was over, a majority of the nation
cheered. When Gingrich left Congress and the Republicans pulled the stake
out of Big Government's heart and resurrected it, they lost support. Obama
did not campaign as far left of Bill Clinton. He governs left but he didn't
run from the left. He'll have to consider his options now.
For those who favor limited government and federalism the
news from yesterday was good, perhaps not bracing, but certainly not
depressing.
Coming up: another assessment of Afghanistan. What would we
consider a victory in Afghanistan? Is that achievable? If so, is it
achievable at a cost we are willing to pay? If not, and we must abandon
Victory, then what must we do now?
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