The Only Story That Matters

by publius

The new Google mobile iPhone app is out. I can now do voice-enabled Google searches. Please cue the big drums from 2001: A Space Odyssey. I predict we'll soon solve the dark matter mystery, and possibly reconcile the theories of gravity by Thursday.

Comments

[aa]

that boy is adorable.

[Gary Farber]

"I can now do voice-enabled Google searches."

You've been able to do that since April, 2007. I remember blogging it around then, but amn't finding the post immediately.

[liberal japonicus]

I predict we'll soon solve the dark matter mystery, and possibly reconcile the theories of gravity by Thursday.

What's this "we", kemosabe? ;)

[Jesurgislac]

Wouldn't work for me (or at least, I'd have to re-educate myself into doing it) for much the same reason as "phone posts" don't work for me: I think differently with words written down versus spoken words.

[antrumf]

"...reconcile the theories of gravity..."

You mean reconcile our theory of gravity with quantum mechanics? I wasn't aware we had two conflicting theories of gravity.

[Jesurgislac]

There's the theory about the giant magnets, and the one about the glue...

[Ginger Yellow]

"...reconcile the theories of gravity..."

You mean reconcile our theory of gravity with quantum mechanics? I wasn't aware we had two conflicting theories of gravity.

I'm not a physicist, but I'm pretty sure there's at least two: loop quantum gravity and string/M theory gravity.

[Gary Farber]

There's also Wile E. Coyote gravity:

[Gary Farber]

[antrumf]

Ginger Yellow: neither am I a physicist, so take this with the grain of salt needed. But string theory and loop quantum theory are both trying to link together general relativity and quantum mechanics. The theory of gravity is general relativity. That's all, I believe.
String theory is an attempt at a theory of everything. Loop quantum, similar idea but less ambitious.

Again I'm not expert but this is what I've read.

[Slartibartfast]

There's the theory about the giant magnets, and the one about the glue...

And then there's the theory that says, well, the Earth sucks.

[cleek]

I remember blogging it around then, but amn't finding the post immediately.

have you tried a voice-enabled search ?

[xanax]

farber "amn't"

Bitchen neolocution. (Oh, wait... it's Gary. OK, OK... show me with a dozen cites how it's been used since the Carpathian era...)

[hilzoy]

How do you put pictures into comments?

[cleek]

How do you put pictures into comments?

with a standard IMG tag

[cleek]

with a standard IMG tag

... which i tried to demonstrate. but my example was apparently stripped away by the comment filter.

IMG tag

[hilzoy]

Testing (I love this image; it's from a piece on a possible Ecuador default, here):

[hilzoy]

Pouts...

[A.J.]

There is a fairly reasonable sense in which we have two theories of gravity which need to be reconciled. I'm not sure if it's what Publius meant, but it might be worth explaining anyways.

The first of these theories of gravity is general relativity. GR seems to be self-consistent at all distance scales, but it's clearly wrong, because it doesn't include any quantum mechanical effects.

The second is what might be called the "effective quantum field theory of gravity". You don't hear about this very much -- and it doesn't get a nifty acronym -- because it's not self-consistent at all distance scales. You have to choose a "minimum scale" to define the theory, and beyond that scale the theory will give nonsensical answers. But this theory is at least quantum mechanical, and it seems to work OK for everything we can get our hands on. Specifically, it predicts that the quantum effects in gravity will be too small to see at the distance scales we have access to, which is apparently correct.

The basic challenge in quantum gravity is finding a quantum theory which works at all distance scales and reduces to GR when we ignore the quantum effects. It's apparently quite a hard problem.

[JanieM]

I wanted to post a picture in a comment on Veterans Day but didn't think it was possible. I'll probably end up pouting too, but.....

[JanieM]

Oh, cool....there's really a can of worms open now. ;)

[cleek]

Pouts...

that's weird. your IMG tag looks fine to me (when i do a "View Source" on the page's HTML).

let me try...

[cleek]

let me try...

fail.

hmm. maybe it has something to do with that particular picture.

[hilzoy]

Trying a different route...

[ThatLeftTurnInABQ]

There's the theory about the giant magnets, and the one about the glue...

I'm outraged that none of you heathens have seen fit to mention Intelligent Falling, also.

[hilzoy]

Yay!

[mightygodking]

And thus begins ObWi's transformation into Fark 2.0...

[crimelord]

JanieM, Where was that picture taken?

[JanieM]

crimelord --

Short answer:

In the parking lot of the Hannaford grocery store on Whitten Road in Augusta, Maine.

Long answer:

I finally broke down and bought myself a little digital camera last winter, in response to a very specific one-time obsession with getting a particular picture onto my computer and then online. Picture-taking had never been a particular interest of mine, except for the usual family stuff.

After a few months with the new camera, and some trips where I was able to put pictures online so my far-flung family could see them, and greatly enjoying my son's albums of China pictures ... I discovered I loved taking pictures but didn't know a thing about taking good ones.

So I set myself the task of taking and uploading at least one picture a day, which means I now always take the camera when I go out. On 11/11 I was pulling in kind of a rush into the back parking area of the grocery store and there was the flag, with a shaft of sunlight coming through to light it, and the clouds all dark behind it, and as I was parking the car I was saying to the universe at large ... please let the sun stay that way til I can get the picture....

[JanieM]

Verging on TMI but just for the record, the picture was cropped by the comment engine; in the original, the flag was more centered, in balance with the pole that holds the light that illuminates the flag at night. If I were ever to want to post a picture again, I would try shrinking it a bit first.

[xanax]

Always cool... when the universe says yes.

[JanieM]

And finally....it was in fact Veterans Day when I took the picture.