Hawking redefines black holes

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Thanks to my brother, Alan, for pointing me at this BBC report about Stephen Hawking recanting on his 30 year belief that information cannot escape from black holes at the 17th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation.



New Scientist reports "I want to report that I think I have solved a major problem in theoretical physics," announced Hawking as he described his solution to the black hole information paradox.



His abstract reads "The Euclidean path integral over all topologically trivial metrics can be done by time slicing and so is unitary when analytically continued to the Lorentzian. On the other hand, the path integral over all topologically non-trivial metrics is asymptotically independent of the initial state. Thus the total path integral is unitary and information is not lost in the formation and evaporation of black holes. The way the information gets out seems to be that a true event horizon never forms, just an apparent horizon.". I’m glad we’ve got that straight.. 🙂


Other reports




If you want more see the Google News results for a huge selection of reports from around the world.

Has the speed of light changed ?

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OK, this may sound like a typical psuedo-science kook headline, but this actually comes from the website of New Scientist magazine and it’s not April 1st either!



They report that there is evidence that the fine structure constant "alpha" may have changed in the past by re-analysing data from the natural Oklo nuclear reactor in Gabon, West Africa.



As the speed of light "c" is inversely proportional to alpha then it follows if alpha has been different in the past then the speed of light has also changed over time!



I think my brain hurts…

Chris now an Aussie driver!

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Well as I’ve had my Permanent Residency for almost 3 months today was the day to take the plunge and try and convert my UK license to an Australian one.

As the UK is one of a number of “Recognised Countries” all that was needed was an eyesight test and the “Road Law Knowledge Test”, which is the same test that people who want to learn to drive here must do. It’s a computer based test with just over 30 questions and I managed to pass first time with a perfect score!

They then endorsed my UK license (i.e. punched a hole in my UK photo license and stamped the paper counterpart) to show I had an Australian license instead and make it invalid to use anywhere.

Conferences, more conferences and some arty stuff..

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What a few weeks! Asides from all the usual work we’ve been out and about as Donna did a talk in Ballarat the Friday after we came back from the US/UK and then the weekend after she did a keynote and two workshops at the inaugural ABIQ conference in Brisbane in Queensland (with a special thanks to Michael Chan for being a wonderful host).

This weekend we allowed outselves a more restful time, including some arty stuff by going to see Whitehorse Musical Theatre’s production of "Les Misérables" which was excellent! You’d be forgiven for thinking that you weren’t seeing a professional cast, they got a standing ovation at the end.

Today (Sunday) we headed over to Toorak in Melbourne to see the Toorak Village Festival of Sculpture where they exhibit various sculptures in shop windows and arcades. There were supposed to be 90 in total but we only managed to find about 80 odd, probably because it was a Sunday and the rest were in dark, locked up shops..

Disney trying to block US distribution of new Michael Moore film.

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The New York Times is reporting that the Walt Disney Company is trying to prevent Miramax Film Corporation from distributing Michael Moore’s new film
Fahrenheit 9/11.



Apparently (according to the NYT) "Disney, which bought Miramax more than a decade ago, has a contractual agreement with the Miramax principals, Bob and Harvey Weinstein, allowing it to prevent the company from distributing films under certain circumstances, like an excessive budget or an NC-17 rating.". They also say
"Mr. Moore’s agent, Ari Emanuel, said Michael D. Eisner, Disney’s chief executive, asked him last spring to pull out of the deal with Miramax. Mr. Emanuel said Mr. Eisner expressed particular concern that it would endanger tax breaks Disney receives for its theme park, hotels and other ventures in Florida, where Mr. Bush’s brother, Jeb, is governor."



Michael Moore himself has written on his website about this in his own inimitable style. Ironically whilst Disney is trying to block the film in the US it appears that it will be distributed to other countries, they (fortunately) do not appear to be able to prevent that. Unfortunately this isn’t a case where the US’s famous "First Amendment" applies as this isn’t the US Government trying to supress expression, it is a corporation and so it doesn’t apply here.



Update: The BBC is carrying an article about the fact that the film will be distributed in the UK.