Because the Universe is Confusing
Archive for October, 2009
Has Fermi Seen New Evidence for Dark Matter? | Cosmic Variance | Discover Magazine
Oct 31st
See Cosmic Variance for an explanation of what this means in regular English 
The Fermi Haze: A Gamma-Ray Counterpart to the Microwave Haze
Authors: Gregory Dobler, Douglas P. Finkbeiner, Ilias Cholis, Tracy R. Slatyer, Neal WeinerAbstract: The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope reveals a diffuse inverse Compton signal in the inner Galaxy with the same spatial morphology as the microwave haze observed by WMAP, confirming the synchrotron origin of the microwaves. Using spatial templates, we regress out pi0 gammas, as well as ICS and bremsstrahlung components associated with known soft-synchrotron counterparts. We find a significant gamma-ray excess towards the Galactic center with a spectrum that is significantly harder than other sky components and is most consistent with ICS from a hard population of electrons. The morphology and spectrum are consistent with it being the ICS counterpart to the electrons which generate the microwave haze seen at WMAP frequencies. In addition to confirming that the microwave haze is indeed synchrotron, the distinct spatial morphology and very hard spectrum of the ICS are evidence that the electrons responsible for the microwave and gamma-ray haze originate from a harder source than supernova shocks. We describe the full sky Fermi maps used in this analysis and make them available for download.
Has Fermi Seen New Evidence for Dark Matter? | Cosmic Variance | Discover Magazine.
Women at Arms – A Combat Role, and Anguish, Too – Series – NYTimes.com
Oct 31st
Never before has this country seen so many women paralyzed by the psychological scars of combat. As of June 2008, 19,084 female veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan had received diagnoses of mental disorders from the Department of Veterans Affairs, including 8,454 women with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress — and this number does not include troops still enlisted, or those who have never used the V.A. system.
via Women at Arms – A Combat Role, and Anguish, Too – Series – NYTimes.com.
Can Our Shameful Prisons Be Reformed? – The New York Review of Books
Oct 31st
African-Americans are 13 percent of the general population, but over 50 percent of the prison population. Blacks are incarcerated at a rate eight times higher than that of whites—a disparity that dwarfs other racial disparities. (Black–white disparities in unemployment, for example, are 2–1; in nonmarital childbirth, 3–1; in infant mortality, 2–1; and in net worth, 1–5[1]).
via Can Our Shameful Prisons Be Reformed? – The New York Review of Books.
Jon Stewart Needs Your Help! : The Primate Diaries
Oct 31st
Jon Stewart hosted the Israel/Palestine peace activists Anna Baltzer and Dr. Mustafa Barghouti. The angry response from the Pro-Israel crowd resulted in a backlash against the show for even having the discussion (including the show’s first heckler in eleven years).
Baltzer, an American-Jewish author, has put out a public letter asking that people contact The Daily Show thanking them for hosting the discussion as a way to counter the angry response they’ve received so far.
VA: More post-war suicides than battle casualties
Oct 31st
I’m a pacifist, but I’m wearing a red poppy to support Canadian Veterans this month. When a nation sends it’s young adults to war, it has a moral obligation to take care of them if they return alive. That means physical AND psychological care. On any given night in the United STates, 131,000 veterans are sleeping on the streets. 1 in 3 homeless men in the US is a veteran. It’s time to end the cycle of physical and psychological violence, beginning in Afghanistan and Iraq and ending in our front yards.
It’s also time to account for the real casualty statistics of these unjust wars. There are those who fall to battle and friendly fire. And then there are those who fall to negligence:
The debilitating effects of psychological trauma can lead troops and veterans into a downward spiral of drug and alcohol abuse, homelessness, anger issues, failed marriages and eventually suicide, he explained, noting that more veterans have committed suicide since 2001 than the number of servicemembers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan over that period.
via DefenseLink News Article: Shinseki Cites Collaboration in Mental Health Care.
Historically Black and Highly Successful | MIT Inventing Our Future
Oct 30th
Ed Bertschinger, resident “Diversity Hawk” at MIT, posted this article today about what majority white institutions have to learn from Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
“We have a lot to learn from HBCUs about promoting diversity and fostering career development. Thurgood Marshall was a graduate of Howard University Law School. Ronald McNair was a graduate of North Carolina A&T before coming to MIT for his PhD in physics; Jesse Jackson also graduated from NCA&T. Do your own web search and you’ll find a great many outstanding alumni of HBCUs.”
Historically Black and Highly Successful | MIT Inventing Our Future.
MUST READ: They Pledged Your Tuition to Wall Street
Oct 26th
“You may think that the tuition you pay is primarily or exclusively used for instruction, but this is not its only use. UC recently sold more than $1.6B in highly rated bonds one month after declaring an “extreme financial emergency.” Why is its bond rating excellent, even after UC says that without cutting employee pay it will have difficulty paying its bills? The single most important reason that UC has an excellent bond rating, much better than the state’s, is that it can now raise your tuition at will. Your tuition is UC’s #1 source of revenue to pay back bonds, ahead of new earnings from bond-funded projects, which do not even come second. The bond interest UC now pays will be $300M this year, and is projected to go way up as UC greatly increases the private capital it raises through tuition-backed bonds over the next decade. UC should disclose its plans to issue new tuition-backed bonds before you are asked to accept this year’s 32% tuition increase, which will automatically become part of the collateral for those bonds.”
Keep California’s Promise » They Pledged Your Tuition to Wall Street.
