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24-12-2016, 05:00 PM
An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:
The biggest shocker on the world stage without a doubt came in the form of one Mr Donald J. Trump, who bulldozed over one very, very ambitious Hillary Rodham Clinton in the November United States Presidential Election by gobbling up the lion's share of electoral votes-this despite her securing nearly 3 million more in the popular vote territory. A final desperate attempt to sway majority of the electoral college into voting for the former Secretary of State obviously proved senselessly futile, as even more electors ran away from Clinton as compared to Trump on Monday, 19 December 2016. What lies in store for everyone as the Trump administration takes charge next January? Will he deliver on his isolationist threats in a bid to put the great back in America once more? Or will he take a step away from all the pompous election rhetoric and strike a more conciliatory stance with the rest of the world? What exactly will Time magazine's person of the year (anointed "President of the Divided States of America") do as the new incoming Commander-In-Chief? It's anyone's guess. But if anything is certain, it sure as hell will be that Mr Trump isn't always going to play by the rules.
While grandma Hillary is sobbing away loudly, at least she can take comfort in the fact the FBI have decided to close the investigation into the e-mail scandal without pressing any criminal charges. Understandably, her supporters are not taking things lying down, demanding for heads to roll (in particular FBI director James Comey's) on grounds her campaign was somewhat derailed no thanks to last minute baseless assertions raised by the Feds. Still, she is free to roam and ain't gotten her ass thrown into jail - isn't that cause for cheer? Maybe she should consider the much more unfortunate circumstance of Korea's President Park Geun-hye and count her blessings. President Park has fallen into a shithole so deep as a consequence of getting way too chummy and trusting with a Choi Soon Sil, to the extent numerous accusations have been volleyed at her for being tediously manipulated by Choi, both mind and soul. Her political career is now pretty much in tatters after majority of standing MPs voted to have her impeached. Hundreds of public apologies aside, her nightmares have only just begun. She will need a lot more than good luck and a steady stream of prayers to tide her over.
Clearly female leaders aren't having it easy in 2016. Another case in point: German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) faltered big time in the September elections, culminating in her losing governmental control of Berlin. Then only just very recently, the deadly truck attack at a Christmas market led Germany's far-right leaders to pin the blame squarely on her seemingly over liberal migrant policy.
On a lighter, completely irrelevant note, Darth Vader returns to the big screen in a Star Wars flick reasoned to have taken place between episodes III and IV. He didn't disappoint as James Earl Jones voiced him once more with the menace and cruelty expected of a longtime cult villain. And that one scene where he showed up to effortlessly slaughter them rebels sure makes it more than worth the ticket admission price. Beyond that, congratulations to martial arts superstar Donnie Yen for becoming the first Asian to have a Star Wars Hot Toys action figurine produced in his likeness. Step aside Jackie Chan and Jet Li.
Still on the topic of rock-stars and movie gods, Bob Dylan was quite literally rendered "speechless" after it was made known that he had won this year's Nobel Prize in Literature. For two whole weeks following the official announcement by the Swedish Academy, he kept completely mum and made no acknowledgement of his win whatsoever, leading many to chastise him as being rude and arrogant. In any case, he has also confirmed that he will be a no-show for the actual presentation ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden due to pre-existing commitments. Being a prick once more? You decide.
Now that we are sufficiently warmed up, I reckon it is an opportune moment to begin examining events that have taken place during the course of the year and impacted the scientific and educational communities significantly. Shall we?
For the very first time in the history of Physics, gravitational waves were actually detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in Louisiana and Washington, confirming longstanding rumours and opening up new exciting frontiers in the science of Black Holes amongst other stuff in the Astronomy realm. A definite candidate for next year's Nobel Prize? Fingers crossed for now.
Speaking of the Nobel Prize, Mathematics won in a big way given that Topology featured extensively in the research efforts of the three physicists who shared this year's top honours in Physics. Heartiest congratulations to David Thouless of the University of Washington in Seattle, J. Michael Kosterlitz of Brown University and Duncan Haldane of Princeton University.
Artifical Intelligence gave us humans a drubbing of sorts when Google DeepMind’s artificial-intelligence program, AlphaGo won 4 out of 5 rounds against the world's top GO player Lee Sedol at the Four Seasons Hotel earlier in March this year. Is Director James Cameron's scary Skynet hypothesis in the Terminator movies therefore becoming an accurate prediction of the future? Opponents of smart gadgets/devices will certainly imagine the worst and conjure up scenarios of mankind being completely outsmarted and eventually enslaved by technology.
Meanwhile, the Mechanical Engineering folks at Purdue University are seeking to empower non-technical folks with the ability to design and create stuff with the development of MakerPad, a system that allows for the scanning of 3 dimensional objects by means of depth sensing cameras and subsequent storage of data for a physical recreation/modification of the objects themselves. IMHO, super cool stuff.
More at Final Look at 2016: School, Science and Education (http://www.whitegroupmaths.com/2016/12/final-look-at-2016-school-science-and.html)
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://www.sammyboy.com/showthread.php?239351-Year-2016-In-Review&goto=newpost).
The biggest shocker on the world stage without a doubt came in the form of one Mr Donald J. Trump, who bulldozed over one very, very ambitious Hillary Rodham Clinton in the November United States Presidential Election by gobbling up the lion's share of electoral votes-this despite her securing nearly 3 million more in the popular vote territory. A final desperate attempt to sway majority of the electoral college into voting for the former Secretary of State obviously proved senselessly futile, as even more electors ran away from Clinton as compared to Trump on Monday, 19 December 2016. What lies in store for everyone as the Trump administration takes charge next January? Will he deliver on his isolationist threats in a bid to put the great back in America once more? Or will he take a step away from all the pompous election rhetoric and strike a more conciliatory stance with the rest of the world? What exactly will Time magazine's person of the year (anointed "President of the Divided States of America") do as the new incoming Commander-In-Chief? It's anyone's guess. But if anything is certain, it sure as hell will be that Mr Trump isn't always going to play by the rules.
While grandma Hillary is sobbing away loudly, at least she can take comfort in the fact the FBI have decided to close the investigation into the e-mail scandal without pressing any criminal charges. Understandably, her supporters are not taking things lying down, demanding for heads to roll (in particular FBI director James Comey's) on grounds her campaign was somewhat derailed no thanks to last minute baseless assertions raised by the Feds. Still, she is free to roam and ain't gotten her ass thrown into jail - isn't that cause for cheer? Maybe she should consider the much more unfortunate circumstance of Korea's President Park Geun-hye and count her blessings. President Park has fallen into a shithole so deep as a consequence of getting way too chummy and trusting with a Choi Soon Sil, to the extent numerous accusations have been volleyed at her for being tediously manipulated by Choi, both mind and soul. Her political career is now pretty much in tatters after majority of standing MPs voted to have her impeached. Hundreds of public apologies aside, her nightmares have only just begun. She will need a lot more than good luck and a steady stream of prayers to tide her over.
Clearly female leaders aren't having it easy in 2016. Another case in point: German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) faltered big time in the September elections, culminating in her losing governmental control of Berlin. Then only just very recently, the deadly truck attack at a Christmas market led Germany's far-right leaders to pin the blame squarely on her seemingly over liberal migrant policy.
On a lighter, completely irrelevant note, Darth Vader returns to the big screen in a Star Wars flick reasoned to have taken place between episodes III and IV. He didn't disappoint as James Earl Jones voiced him once more with the menace and cruelty expected of a longtime cult villain. And that one scene where he showed up to effortlessly slaughter them rebels sure makes it more than worth the ticket admission price. Beyond that, congratulations to martial arts superstar Donnie Yen for becoming the first Asian to have a Star Wars Hot Toys action figurine produced in his likeness. Step aside Jackie Chan and Jet Li.
Still on the topic of rock-stars and movie gods, Bob Dylan was quite literally rendered "speechless" after it was made known that he had won this year's Nobel Prize in Literature. For two whole weeks following the official announcement by the Swedish Academy, he kept completely mum and made no acknowledgement of his win whatsoever, leading many to chastise him as being rude and arrogant. In any case, he has also confirmed that he will be a no-show for the actual presentation ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden due to pre-existing commitments. Being a prick once more? You decide.
Now that we are sufficiently warmed up, I reckon it is an opportune moment to begin examining events that have taken place during the course of the year and impacted the scientific and educational communities significantly. Shall we?
For the very first time in the history of Physics, gravitational waves were actually detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in Louisiana and Washington, confirming longstanding rumours and opening up new exciting frontiers in the science of Black Holes amongst other stuff in the Astronomy realm. A definite candidate for next year's Nobel Prize? Fingers crossed for now.
Speaking of the Nobel Prize, Mathematics won in a big way given that Topology featured extensively in the research efforts of the three physicists who shared this year's top honours in Physics. Heartiest congratulations to David Thouless of the University of Washington in Seattle, J. Michael Kosterlitz of Brown University and Duncan Haldane of Princeton University.
Artifical Intelligence gave us humans a drubbing of sorts when Google DeepMind’s artificial-intelligence program, AlphaGo won 4 out of 5 rounds against the world's top GO player Lee Sedol at the Four Seasons Hotel earlier in March this year. Is Director James Cameron's scary Skynet hypothesis in the Terminator movies therefore becoming an accurate prediction of the future? Opponents of smart gadgets/devices will certainly imagine the worst and conjure up scenarios of mankind being completely outsmarted and eventually enslaved by technology.
Meanwhile, the Mechanical Engineering folks at Purdue University are seeking to empower non-technical folks with the ability to design and create stuff with the development of MakerPad, a system that allows for the scanning of 3 dimensional objects by means of depth sensing cameras and subsequent storage of data for a physical recreation/modification of the objects themselves. IMHO, super cool stuff.
More at Final Look at 2016: School, Science and Education (http://www.whitegroupmaths.com/2016/12/final-look-at-2016-school-science-and.html)
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://www.sammyboy.com/showthread.php?239351-Year-2016-In-Review&goto=newpost).