HerMan's New Writeups

Higgs Boson (thing)

2011-12-15T23:54:16Z

The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What is the Question?
-Leon M. Lederman and Dick Teresi-

There are a few types of elementary particles (i.e. not composed of other particles) which show off different behaviours. They behave in accordance with their characteristics (being massive vs massless, electrically charged vs non-charged, non-interacting vs weakly-interacting or strongly-interacting and so on.) Physics explains the interplay between behaviours and the aforementioned features through the concept of fields. A field consists of a perturbation in a region of space caused by the presence of certain particles. When we deal with particles of matter, in which the most basic building blocks are the so-called fermions, the field makes them be compelled to motion.

For example, nearby meteorites are prone to fall towards the Earth because its fermions determine a gravitational field that…

Global warming (idea)

2010-06-06T20:30:53Z

The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
-Albert Einstein-

Our beliefs and prejudices influence the interpretations of natural phenomena. In order to minimize those bias when developing a theory, it has been established the scientific method, by means of which we construct a reliable, consistent and non-arbitrary representation of the world. (1)

For instance, it has been observed an apparent rising rate of the earth's temperature in the last 100 years when compared with any else interval during the previous 10 centuries. Such pattern of warming -justified by both external forcing and human activity, over which allegedly rigorous statistical analyses have been applied- has issued a theory of climate change.

Having said that, the theory of 'recent' global warming is based on a widespread consensus among…

lethal injection (thing)

2006-02-25T21:35:51Z

The killing was the best part. It was the dying I couldn't take
-Craig Volk-

There has been a trend to 'medicalize' the capital punishment since the French Revolution according to Dr. Guillotin's proposal about decapitation should be carried out by a machine (the guillotine) as a more humane method of performing death penalty. Details concerning such a project were referred to a committee, conducted by the secretary to the Academy of Surgeons. Furthermore doctors got involved again in designing more state-of-the art methods like that of electrocution for the same reason in the United States: Harold P. Brown and his assistant Dr. Fred Peterson showed experimental results at Columbia University by administering a series of DC shocks to a dog. By 1,000 V DC, the dog agonized but not died. Eventually, Brown finished the dog off with an additional charge of 330 V AC. On…

The lost biomenace of Hussein (thing)

2004-04-30T01:04:17Z

It has been said the first known incident related to biological weaponry took place in the 14th century, when infected corpses were catapulted over the Kaffa walls (see the write-up Biological weapons by RubenAzarja.)

However recent discoveries challenge such a statement. They firmly suggest biological weapons root in a more remote past, which connects with the deposed Hussein's regime. The facts supporting this theory come from amazing news that can be summarized as follows.

The sadly infamous Chinese spy Yel-low Thi-ef stole a few days ago important documents hidden in an allegedly inaccessible drawer of the CIA Secret Papers Dpt. Since a widespread broadcasting of their contents could result, however, in improvement of the US President's popularity, the government resolved to clarify the worrying hearsay and reveal that a massive storehouse of spears and arrows of Iraqi origin had been found, buried deep on the slopes of…

What if my mother is a lesbian? (thing)

2004-04-16T21:54:22Z

Woman was God's second mistake
-Friedrich Nietzsche-

In spite of arguments opposing, gay marriage was declared a constitutional right by the Massachusetts Supreme Court. The debate is not ended though, as it is always possible to urge a constitutional amendment outlawing homosexual nuptials. For instance, the US Presidential contender John Kerry recently left open the possibility he could support a Massachusetts ban on gay marriage if it recognized civil unions and other protections as an alternative.

Irrespective the opponents' reasons are currently relevant or not, homosexual marriages are somewhere legal and can raise a baby: gays adopt in many states and lesbians give birth in all of them. Now the point is detecting potentially harmful effects of being raised by a homosexual parent (1).

…

The growth of Islamic terrorism (idea)

2004-04-05T01:49:04Z

The different religions are beautiful flowers from the same garden, or they are branches of the same majestic tree. Therefore, they are equally true, though being received and interpreted through human instruments equally imperfect.
--Mahatma Gandhi--

Probably 10 to 15% of the major terrorist organisations are Islamic in nature. On the other hand, it has been argued (see the above write-up by tusitala) that Islamic terrorists found their actions upon a relatively new interpretation of Islam, which is radically different from the interpretation which most Muslims grow up with.

If we accept the aforementioned statements, it results a link between Islam and terrorism, in which Islam could be a breeding ground for terrorism. However, this argument is not convincing. First, it is methodologically based on a small sample to verify a general hypothesis. Secondly, there are no new…