Isaac Newton is, as most will agree, the greatest physicist of all time. At the very least, he is the undisputed father of modern optics, or so we are told at school where our textbooks abound with his famous experiments with lenses and prisms, his study of the nature of light and its reflection, and the refraction and decomposition of light into the colours of the rainbow. Yet, the truth is rather greyer; and I feel it important to point out that, certainly in the field of optics, Newton himself stood on the shoulders of a giant who lived 700 years earlier. For, without doubt, another great physicist, who is worthy of ranking up alongside Newton, is an Iraqi scientist born in AD 965 who went by the name of al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham. Most people in the West will never have even heard of him. As a physicist myself, I am quite in awe of this man’s contribution to my field, but I was fortunate enough to have recently been given the opportunity to dig a little into his life and work through my recent filming of a three-part BBC Four series on medieval Islamic […]
TEHRAN — An Iranian military commander called on Islamic countries to cut oil exports to Israel’s supporters in response to the Jewish state’s offensive in Gaza, the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday. IRNA said commander Bagherzadeh described oil as ‘one of the powerful elements of pressure’ on the Jewish state’s Western backers in the ‘unequal war’ faced by Palestinians in the coastal strip. ‘Pointing at Westerners’ dependence on the Islamic countries’ oil and energy resources, he (Bagherzadeh) called for cutting the export of crude oil to the Zionist regime’s supporters the world over,’ IRNA said, referring to Israel. IRNA gave only the commander’s last name but it may have been referring to Mirfeysal Bagherzadeh, a brigadier-general of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards. There was no immediate comment from other Iranian officials. Iran, which often rails against the United States and Israel, is the world’s fourth-largest oil producer and a leading member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Top exporter Saudi Arabia is a U.S. ally. Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants battled in Gaza on Sunday after Israeli troops and tanks invaded the coastal enclave in the most serious fighting in […]
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Ben Zimmer, executive producer of a Web site and software package called the Visual Thesaurus, was seeking the earliest use of the phrase ‘you’re not the boss of me. Using a newspaper database, he had found a reference from 1953. But while using Google’s book search recently, he found the phrase in a short story contained in ‘The Church, a periodical published in 1883 and scanned from the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Ever since Google began scanning printed books four years ago, scholars and others with specialized interests have been able to tap a trove of information that had been locked away on the dusty shelves of libraries and in antiquarian bookstores. According to Dan Clancy, the engineering director for Google book search, every month users view at least 10 pages of more than half of the one million out-of-copyright books that Google has scanned into its servers. Google’s book search ‘allows you to look for things that would be very difficult to search for otherwise, said Mr. Zimmer, whose site is visualthesaurus.com. A settlement in October with authors and publishers who had brought two copyright lawsuits against Google will make […]
As chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Barney Frank had a busy 2008 – working with Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and others in an often desperate attempt to prevent a financial-system collapse. But there’ll probably be little respite in 2009 for Frank. The Newton Democrat is already setting ambitious goals for 2009: pushing for new regulations of the financial-services industry, bolstering affordable housing programs and passing consumer-protection laws. Frank – who became a national figure this past fall during dramatic negotiations over what turned out to be an historic $700 billion bailout of the banking system – also plans to help the incoming Obama administration pass a giant economic stimulus package and distribute the remaining $350 billion from the bailout bill. In an interview last week, Frank sounded somewhat optimistic that ‘improvements may be seen in the economy by around this summer. ‘Obama is doing the right thing with his $500 billion-plus economic stimulus package, said Frank. ‘I think the American people are ready for better news. The usually gruff Frank, who became so well-known last year that he was parodied on Saturday Night Live, acknowledged that […]
I was at a friend’s house this evening and, for the third time over the holidays found myself in a crowded room, pressed against a gaily lighted Christmas tree, listening to a conversation about Barack Obama’s choice of Rev. Rick Warren to lead the invocation at his inauguration. On all three occasions the feelings expressed have been outrage, and unhappiness because it did not respect … fill in the blank. This response it seems to me is very short sighted. Here’s my take: The choice of Rick Warren was an act of political genius. The legalistic Christian Republican base puts great store by symbolic gestures, and is very touchy about getting what it believes is its due of respect. In one gesture Obama has both given the Religious Right increased dignity and arranged to have one of the new generation of leaders of this large fundamentalist minority basically say grace over him and his administration. And I believe that is how it will be seen by the Christian Right. Witness the criticism Warren has received from even more conservative quarters. In another gesture largely overlooked, Obama ends the public celebration of […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
