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n2doc's JournalElusive Higgs decay channel spotted; particle looks ever more standard
by John Timmer - Nov 27 2013, 2:50pm EST
The Standard Model in physics seems to have split personalities. It's very obviously incomplete since it has no mechanism to give neutrinos mass, and it has no particles that correspond to dark matter. But it handles the phenomena it does include with a precision that seems to frustrate some physicists, who are anxious for signs of a new physics.
This was clearly demonstrated by the discovery of the Higgs boson, which showed up pretty much exactly as predicted. There were a couple of potential discrepancies between prediction and reality, but the researchers behind the ATLAS detector have now slammed the door shut on one of those.
The Higgs is a massive, unstable particle that decays almost as soon as it pops into existence. But it can decay down a number of different pathways, referred to as "channels" by the physicists who were searching them. When its discovery was announced, researchers had spotted the Higgs in two channels: decay into two high-energy gamma rays and decay into pairs of W or Z bosons, which would then decay into a total of four leptons.
What seemed to be missing was a decay into pairs of particles called taus (sometimes tauons). These particles are members of a group that includes the familiar electron and its heavier relative, the muon. Muons are also negatively charged, weigh nearly as much as a proton, and decay in about 10^-6 seconds. Taus weigh over 10 times more and decay in about 10^-13 seconds. Typically, these heavier particles decay down to the next-lighter version, releasing some energy in the process.
more
http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/11/elusive-higgs-decay-channel-spotted-particle-looks-ever-more-standard/
Baby dinosaur skeleton found intact in Alberta
An extremely well-preserved baby dinosaur skeleton has been discovered in Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta.
The fossil is extremely rare, as it’s the smallest intact skeleton ever found from a group of horned plant-eating dinosaurs known as ceratopsids — a group that includes the iconic triceratops.
"There's nothing else like it that I know of," said Don Brinkman from the Royal Tyrrell Museum.
It’s believed the creature, measuring 1.5-metres long, was about three years old. They determined it was a Chasmosaurus belli, which was common in the area.
more
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/baby-dinosaur-skeleton-found-intact-in-alberta-1.2442768
A Ghost Town With a Quad
Is that the future of the American university?
By Rebecca Schuman
f you’re planning to attend either Minnesota State University Moorhead or the University of the District of Columbia, best get in your Romeo and Juliet now—and while you’re at it, you should probably learn the formulas for velocity and momentum, and study up on the Spanish-American War. Because soon, these regional public universities may have no departments of English, physics, or history—nor a host of other programs often associated with “college,” including political science (MSUM), philosophy (MSUM), computer science (MSUM), and even economics (UDC).
What is confounding about these universities’ plans to possibly obliterate nearly half of their departments is why both institutions, faced with budget crises, went straight for the academic jugular. And not just by cutting highfalutin artsy disciplines, but with an eye toward fields of study that are actually valued in today’s cruel and fickle market. Nobody seems to notice that the structure of today’s higher-ed “business” model is backwards: It’s far easier to cut academics than it is to cut anything else, so that’s what universities are doing. The irony that the very raison d’être of a university—education!—is also its most disposable aspect seems lost on everyone (perhaps because nobody studies English, philosophy, or French anymore, so nobody recognizes irony or knows what a raison d’être is).
UDC’s case is especially infuriating, given the trustees’ decision to gut departments in favor of a decidedly lackluster athletics program. However, MSUM’s situation is actually far more likely to be replicated around the country, and thus deserving of greater scrutiny. If MSUM could have made up the $5 million chasm in its budget by cutting its modest sports, it might well have gone the way of Texas’s Paul Quinn College, which turned its football field into an organic farm and now seems pretty pleased with the decision. But at MSUM, head coaches are paid about $70,000 a year and have teaching responsibilities; cutting athletics wouldn’t have come close to stanching MSUM’s gaping cash hole.
Faculty members at MSUM make up 72 of its 100 highest paid employees (filter by “Moorhead” for accurate results), so the elbow patches on their blazers make them an easy target indeed. The issue, however, is that they are all pesky tenured, full professors who can’t be fired—or so most people think. But in fact you can fire a tenured professor—it’s just not easy. It’s one of the many misconceptions about tenure that one has a job for life no matter what. Tenured professors can be dismissed for cause (sexual harassment, ethics violations, acting alarmingly toward students, or just talking too much). But it would cost MSUM more than the university’s budget shortfall in legal fees to try to dismiss four dozen faculty members with cause. Another way to let go of tenured professors is to disband their departments. So, yes, MSUM can make up its shortfall by canning a few dozen of its best-paid professors, via axing their whole departments—call the collateral damage “additional savings.”
more
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2013/11/minnesota_state_moorhead_could_cut_18_academic_programs_why_do_colleges.html
Sriracha plant must cease operations that cause odors, judge rules
Source: LA Times
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge Tuesday ordered a Sriracha hot sauce plant in Irwindale to partially shut down in response to smell complaints from nearby residents.
Judge Robert H. O'Brien ruled in favor of the city and ordered sauce maker Huy Fong Foods to cease any kind of operations that could be causing the odors and make immediate changes that would help mitigate them.
The injunction does not order the company to stop operating entirely, or specify the types of actions that are required.
The city of Irwindale sued Huy Fong Foods on Oct. 21 after nearby residents complained of heartburn, inflamed asthma and even nosebleeds that they said were caused by the spicy odor coming from the hot sauce plant.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-judge-rules-no-sriracha-20131126,0,7404487.story
The Treasury Department’s New Crackdown on Dark Money Groups
By Patricia Murphy
Six months after news broke that IRS staffers had spent more than two years reviewing Tea Party groups’ efforts to register with the government as tax-exempt organizations, the Treasury Department announced Tuesday that it is planning to change the rules governing nonprofits’ political activities altogether.
The department said it plans to create a new definition of “candidate-related political activity” to clarify which activities do and do not count toward a group’s work on social welfare, the key measurement for determining an organization’s tax-exempt status. Treasury also will open the process up for the public to comment on how much political activity a group can be engaged in and still be considered a social welfare organization, and thus tax-exempt.
Included in the department’s new definition of what would not count as social welfare work would be things like voter registration drives, communications, and events that identify a specific candidate and occur within 30 to 60 days of an election; and grants to outside groups that participate in campaigns and elections.
Treasury’s announcement came after blistering criticism from Republicans, who complained that the IRS has been singling out conservative and Tea Party groups for unreasonable scrutiny, as well as Democrats, who wondered aloud why Tea Party groups or any other political groups should be deemed “social welfare” organizations by the IRS, and thus freed from tax liabilities, in the first place.
more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/27/the-treasury-department-s-new-crackdown-on-dark-money-groups.html
DNC Wants To Help You Talk With 'Your Republican Uncle' On Thanksgiving
http://a5.img.talkingpointsmemo.com/image/upload/c_fill,fl_keep_iptc,g_faces,h_365,w_652/cdta1agevjs7xkp88wg2.jpgHUNTER WALKER – NOVEMBER 27, 2013, 10:22 AM EST
The Democratic National Committee is launched a Thanksgiving-themed website Wednesday called YourRepublicanUncle.com that purports to help people deal with "lively discussions with Republican relatives about politics" that occur during the holiday season.
YourRepublicanUncle.com features talking points Democrats can use during hypothetical political conversations with their family memmbers.
"This time of year, the only thing more annoying than holiday traffic is an awkward conversation with family about politics," DNC Digital Director Matt Compton wrote in an email announcing the site. "We designed YourRepublicanUncle.com so that it look greats and loads quickly on your phone -- no getting ambushed when you go back for seconds on stuffing."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/the-dnc-wants-to-help-you-talk-with-your-republican-uncle-on-thanksgiving
Taking from the Poor and Giving to the Pentagon: This is the GOP
The GOP is targeting Medicaid in its next attack on health care reform. House Republicans want to take away $20 billion budgeted for the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion and use it to cover defense cuts. This is who they are.
Politico reported that a small group of House Republicans, led by Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R, Kan.), are doubling down on efforts to defund health care reform through budget negotiations. If there’s another continuing resolution in January, Rep. Huelskamp and other House Republicans want to insert a provision that would eliminate $21 billion budgeted for the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion.
The funds would be used to cover $20 billion in defense cuts that will take effect in January, as part of the sequester. Republicans want take out part of health care reform that is working, and give it to one of the most wasteful, fraud-ridden government departments — the Pentagon.
It’s tempting to dismiss this as more tea-party-driven madness, and on some level it is madness. Yet, it’s also a calculated attack that reveals the dark, cold heart of conservatism.
- See more at: http://thecontributor.com/economy/taking-poor-and-giving-pentagon-gop
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