Decisions
In a break with several recent choices the Nobel committee has made a practical choice for this year’s physics prize, Invention of blue LEDs:
The 2014 Nobel Prize for physics has been awarded to a trio of scientists in Japan and the US for the invention of blue light emitting diodes (LEDs).
Professors Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura made the first blue LEDs in the early 1990s.
This enabled a new generation of bright, energy-efficient white lamps, as well as colour LED screens.
While I am personally annoyed by the prevalent use of blue LEDs on computers, I do appreciate their value in color screens and flashlights.
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OTOH, the decision of the Canadian Parliament by a vote of 157-134 to involve itself in bombing ISIS in the Middle East is a poor use of resources. The money would do more good spent on helping refugees fleeing the conflict than whatever effect it might have on ISIS.
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Seems the Nobel committee has been made aware of it’s many stupid decisions the past decade. 😉 😀 It seems it was the year of “3”!
Nobel prize for physiology or medicine went to 3 Neuroscientists for discovering brain’s ‘inner GPS’ – Mapping the brain’s GPS system has earned three neuroscientists the 2014 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. John O’Keefe of University College London shares the prize with husband-and-wife duo May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.
The chemistry prize went to Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell and William Moerner, for inventing ways to make microscopes better, by circumventing what is known as Abbe’s resolution limit. This is the fact, noted in 1873 by Ernst Abbe, that a microscope cannot properly see any object smaller than half the wavelength of the light it uses.
Heck, they even got the Peace prize right for a change! The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai “for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education”
The committee members must have remembered to take their med’s this year. LOL
You think Canada is bad? We are worse!
Prime Minister Tony Abbott rules out raising taxes to pay for $500 million a year Iraq deployment against Islamic State
So, he and his crew of morons won the election by promising to fix the massive multi-billion $ deficit. He’s been cutting every social/economic/medical/education program he can, but increased dramatically military spending, without having any way to pay for it (other than slashing necessary programs). Then there is $630 million in additional funding for security agencies. a big part of that is for ASIO!
“Abbott Limits scrutiny of ASIO, expands protections from prosecution for ASIO officers, and allows ASIO greater powers for surveillance with reduced requirements for warrants.
PARLIAMENT HAS APPROVED:
* Greater surveillance and search powers for ASIO including access to computers and inspection of postal and delivery service articles.
* Limited immunity from prosecution to intelligence officers engaged in special operations.
* New “whistleblower” offences for unauthorised dealings with an intelligence-related record, including copying, transcription, removal and retention.
* Maximum 10 year imprisonment for unauthorised communication and publication of intelligence-related information.
* Increased penalties for identifying intelligence officers.”
Part of the way they are planning to pay for this, is with things like this: “Cut spending on science and innovation to the lowest levels since the data was first published!”
Oh, and you can imagine what I think about this one!! “Signs a deal with Cambodia to accept Australia’s refugees for a payment of $40 million over 4 years.”
Australia and Cambodia sign refugee resettlement deal
Malala was an excellent choice, for a change, someone who actually supports human dignity and is willing to pay the price for opposing evil. She doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks the walk, unlike a certain President.
It isn’t it amazing how ‘conservatives’ demand that everything must have their own revenue streams except wars and ‘security’. Business must be free to do whatever it wants, but people have to be restricted. They really expect everyone to believe that individuals have more power to wreak havoc than multinational corporations with millions or billions of dollars available to them.
Their policies have already been proven to create deficits, not eliminate them. You have to invest in the future or be mired in the past.