Stephan: Yet more research speaking to us about the nature of reality. The simple Bronze Age myths that seem to satisfy many Americans, including politicians, are almost quaint when compared with what is really known.
The bizarre nature of reality as laid out by quantum theory has survived another test, with scientists performing a famous experiment and proving that reality does not exist until it is measured.
Physicists at The Australian National University (ANU) have conducted John Wheeler’s delayed-choice thought experiment, which involves a moving object that is given the choice to act like a particle or a wave. Wheeler’s experiment then asks — at which point does the object decide?
Common sense says the object is either wave-like or particle-like, independent of how we measure it. But quantum physics predicts that whether you observe wave like behavior (interference) or particle behavior (no interference) depends only on how it is actually measured at the end of its journey. This is exactly what the ANU team found.
“It proves that measurement is everything. At the quantum level, reality does not exist […]
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Walter Einenkel, - Daily Kos
Stephan: While Red value states are trying to impeded the development of solar in the interests of the politicians' corporate master, other countries are taking a rather different road.
Here is an example of what I mean.
A “green roof” of the type mandated for commercial buildings in France.
Two months ago, France passed a law that requires the rooftops of new commercial buildings to be partially (at least) covered by solar panels or plants. The law, passed back in March, was a compromise with French environmentalists and more conservative* members of society.
The law approved by parliament was more limited in scope than initial calls by French environmental activists to make green roofs that cover the entire surface mandatory on all new buildings.The Socialist government convinced activists to limit the scope of the law to commercial buildings.
This isn’t a first. Places like Australia and Germany already have green roofs as a part of their urban landscape. Toronto has had by-laws since 1998 mandating green rooftops.
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Benjamin Bidder, Russian Correspondent - Der Spiegel (Germany)
Stephan: Here is the latest on the trend of using the internet to achieve national government goals; this time it is about the nefarious actions going on Russia.
Activist Lyudmila Savchuk: “An atmosphere of utmost secrecy”
Credit: Ludmila Sawtschuk
Lyudmila Savchuk speaks quickly. She also uses two phones at the same time — they’ve been ringing nonstop since a news agency ran a feature about Savchuk and her experiences working as a professional Kremlin Internet troll. Savchuk, who hails from St. Petersburg, says she wants to set the record straight: She isn’t simply a former employee at a St. Petersburg “troll factory,” she is a journalist who deliberately infiltrated it to expose the business of paying people to post pro-Kremlin online comments.
To do so, Savchuk says she joined forces with other activists in a group called InfoPeace. Savchuk now wants to take her former employer to court so that the truth about the Kremlin’s troll houses and the people behind them will come to light.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: You worked in a so-called “Troll Factory” in St. Petersburg, where you were paid to post comments supporting the Kremlin line. How did you […]
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Samantha Page, - Think Progress
Stephan: This is what the U.S. looks like to the rest of the world -- a hulking ignorant bully. I just hate these stories and what my country has become. And it is all due to the Corporate Theocratic Right and their paid for doxy the U.S. Congress.
France’s foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, is at the helm of climate talks expected to culminate in Paris in December.
Credit: Fabrizio Bensch/ AP
On Day 1 of the newest round of the United Nations’ climate change negotiations, the French foreign minister warned delegates that any agreement to lower emissions would have to avoid needing approval from the United States Congress.
“We know the politics in the U.S.,” Laurent Fabius told African delegates, the AP reported. “Whether we like it or not, if it comes to the Congress, they will refuse.”
The United Nations is seeking to develop an agreement that will keep global warming to below the scientifically recognized two-degree limit to avoid cataclysmic climate change. Two weeks of negotiations began Monday, and the final agreement is scheduled for a December meeting in Paris.
The threat — almost guaranteed — of congressional refusal to ratify the United States’ participation in an international climate agreement […]
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