Dopplegangers-R-Us

Tales from the multiverse. AFP publishes a story about the theoretical possibilities of so-called parallel universes:

"The idea of multiple universes is more than a fantastic invention — it appears naturally within several scientific theories, and deserves to be taken seriously," said Aurelien Barrau, a French particle physicist at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), hardly a hotbed of flaky science.

"The multiverse is no longer a model, it is a consequence of our models," explained Barrau, who recently published an essay for CERN defending the concept.

There are several competing and overlapping theories about parallel universes, but the most basic is based on the simple, if mind-boggling, idea that if the universe is infinite then logically everything that could possible occur has happened or will happen.

Try this on for size: a copy of you living on a planet and in a solar system like ours is reading these words just as you are. Your lives have been carbon copies up to now, but maybe he or she will keep reading even if you don't, says Max Tegmark, a cosmologist at MIT in Boston, Massachusetts.

The existence of such a doppleganger "does not even assume speculative modern physics, merely that space is infinite and rather uniformly filled with matter as indicated by recent astronomical observations," Tegmark concluded in a study of parallel universes published by Cambridge University.

"Your alter ego is simply a prediction of the so-called concordance model of cosmology," he said.

They tie it in to The Golden Compass, but the concept has been around for years in science fiction and fantasy writing. Robert Heinlein wrote a lot of his later stuff about that exact concept. So have a lot of others. (I can't remember off the top of my head who wrote the science fiction short story about a man going for a walk in the fog and losing his place in the multiverse. The idea that a light shining through fog represented the multitude of possible universes has stuck with me even if the name of the author escapes me at the moment. Was it Larry Niven?) These articles pop up now and again in the media, by the way. Search "parallel universe" on Google. Here's one example from 2003.

Messing About In Cars

`Nice? It's the only thing,' said the Water Rat solemnly, as he leant forward for his stroke. `Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing — absolute nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing,' he went on dreamily: `messing — about — in — boats; messing — – … — about in boats — or with boats…'
(Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows)

The Wind in the Willows, it ain't. More like the rats in the wires. New York City, home to Nanny-In-Chief Michael Bloomberg is too busy regulating trans-fat to do anything about any real problems. Little things like the rats that move into parked cars.

New York - As if New York City car owners don't already endure enough indignities - $500-a-month garages, alternate-side-of-the-street parking - it turns out that rats, of which the city has an ample supply, love to cozy up inside car engines at this time of the year.

"They like to go into the engine's compartment to stay warm and they build a nest there," said Gus Kerkoulas, the owner of ZP Auto on Great Jones Street, in Greenwich Village. "They hang out, and during the night they must get bored, and they eat the wires."

The rats don't discriminate. A new Bentley is as much at risk as a '78 Buick; a car parked in an attended indoor garage is as susceptible as one that lives on the street, Kerkoulas said.

Kevin Centanni said that, after his BMW was parked in a private spot next to his house in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, for a couple of days this fall, it wouldn't start. "When I looked under the hood, there was a nest up in the engine" constructed of plastic bags and twigs, he said, as well as "rat droppings around, on top of the engine and near the battery."

Fixing a car after a rat attack can cost a couple of hundred dollars or more, depending on the diligence of the rats and the prices of the mechanic. And while city rats are more likely to set up their chop shops in the winter than in summer, it's a year-round problem.

Sally Schermerhorn said several of her neighbors on the Lower East Side in Manhattan have had overnight guests in their cars' engines, and she has had them twice in her own. The first time was a couple of summers back.

"It wouldn't run," she said. "I called the mechanic, and he said, 'Oh yeah, the rats ate the wires.' I said, 'Oh come on, you can come up with something better than that.' "

The media, as usual, misses the real intentions of the rats. The are not nesting, nor are they bored when they chew on the wires. They are teaching themselves to hotwire. When they finally master the technique, they will be mobile for the upcoming Year of the Rat.

The Cheerful Sound Of Popping ….. Blood Vessels

In an absolutely hysterical turn of events, the left, which was dancing in the streets when Bill Kristol left Time Magazine, is now suffering from popping blood vessels over Kristol's move to The New York Times.

The New York Times’ hiring of Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol to write for its op-ed page caused a frenzy in the liberal blogosphere Friday night, with threats of canceling subscriptions and claims that the Gray Lady had been hijacked by neo-cons

But Times editorial page editor Andy Rosenthal sees things differently.

Rosenthal told Politico shortly after the official announcement Saturday that he fails to understand “this weird fear of opposing views.”

“The idea that The New York Times is giving voice to a guy who is a serious, respected conservative intellectual — and somehow that’s a bad thing,” Rosenthal added. “How intolerant is that?”

Kristol, whose strident support of President Bush and the war in Iraq remains a source of consternation among liberals, took pride in the reaction on the Huffington Post, where the news first broke.

“I was flattered watching blogosphere heads explode,” Kristol told Politico. “It was kind of amusing.”

Unlike The Times’ stable of biweekly columnists — including Maureen Dowd and fellow Standard alum David Brooks — Kristol will write only once a week, with his first column set for Jan. 7.

Frankly, I was surprised when I heard the news, but the Times' editorial page editor Andy Rosenthal deserves quite a bit of credit for making the choice then standing by it as he has. It is amazing how badly the left wants all dissent shut down, isn't it? Those who continually shriek about being suppressed - on nationwide television - have no tolerance for opposing views. That the Times is actually presenting someone to balance the heavily left-leaning group of columnists they maintain is, at the very least, a smart business move. Because Kristol will generate traffic and readers. Which, of course, may be exactly what the left is so upset about.

The Antarctic Christmas Brawl

Amundsen-Scott South Pole station was the scene of the unofficial title fight for World's Southernmost Pugilist over Christmas, apparently. As a result, one person was medivaced to New Zealand with a broken jaw and the other contender was shipped back to the US.

The brawl happened at the US-operated Amundsen-Scott South Pole station, located at the heart of the frozen continent. The station, where staff carry out a range of scientific investigations from astrophysics to seismology, is currently being rebuilt in a £76m project.

After reports of the fight reached staff at McMurdo station, the headquarters of the US Antarctic Programme, which is located on Ross Island, a US Air Force Hercules was sent to pick up the injured man and the other worker.

They were flown back to McMurdo, but it was decided the man's injuries were too serious to be treated in Antarctica and he was taken on to Christchurch, New Zealand, accompanied by a nurse and a paramedic.

Many of the McMurdo staff had been expecting a day off for Christmas but support workers returned to work to deal with the rare emergency medical evacuation.

A spokeswoman at Christchurch Hospital said a man was admitted on Christmas Day and discharged the following day.

"There was an altercation between two people — there's no indication of the cause or of the background between the two folks," said Peter West, spokesman for the National Science Foundation which manages the US Antarctic programme.

The injured man is an employee of Raytheon Polar Services, one of America's largest defence contractors. A company spokeswoman, Val Carroll, said an investigation into the incident would be held. She said it was company policy not to release names of the two men.

I seem to remember that people sent down to research outposts in Antarctica undergo rigorous medical, dental and psychological testing to see if they can withstand the tensions of living in close quarters for the period of their posting there. (But this article indicates that the psych testing may only be required for those staying through the winter months.) But no matter how much people are tested, real life irritations can sometimes just explode. Pretty expensive fight, though. Flying them out wasn't cheap.

The Mad Magaizine School Of Journalism

Fausta hits the nail on the head when she invokes the old Mad Magazine spoof movie ads that used extremely edited versions of really bad reviews to produce a glowing ad. Hence a something like, "So stunningly bad that you'll want an airsick bag. Setting fire to the director would be entertaining and might be just the thing to make you laugh out loud after watching this stinker," would become: "…stunningly …entertaining …you'll …laugh out loud." What prompted her recall of these classics was the USA Today On Politics blog hatchet job on Fred Thompson.

When I was a kid I loved Mad Magazine. One of my favorite features was how they used to truncate really bad reviews of movies and books to make them sound glorious. Well, Fred's getting the same treatment from the MSM, only in reverse.

CNN and USA Today are taking a few select words from Fred:

"I'm not particularly interested in running for president," the former senator said at a campaign event in Burlington when challenged by a voter over his desire to be commander-in-chief.

"But I think I'd make a good president," Thompson continued. "I have the background, capability, and concern to do this and I'm doing it for the right reasons."

Fausta has the actual transcript - which bears absolutely no resemblance to the blog's interpretation of what was said. The Mad Magazine School of Journalism approach was so bad that even the Gannett News Service reporter being quoted objected - strenuously - to the characterization of his report.

Instant Fact-Check gonna get you, too, MSM. I was thinking of truncating some of what Jill Lawrence of USA Today has written in the past just for the amusement factor, but frankly, it just wasn't worth that much effort. But it would appear that Lawrence graduated summa cum Neuman from that journalism school mentioned in the title of this post.

Yech

This one will turn your stomach. A six-year old girl won a contest for tickets to a Hannah Montana concert by submitting an essay explaining that her father had died in Iraq. The problem?

None of it was true.

GARLAND, Texas (AP) — A 6-year-old girl who won four tickets to a Hannah Montana concert with an essay falsely claiming her father died in Iraq isn't going to the show after all.

The contest's sponsor, a store chain named Club Libby Lu, withdrew the prize Saturday and awarded it to another contestant. It didn't identify the new winner.

"With this decision, we hope to revive the intended spirit of the contest, which was designed to make a little girl's holidays extra special," Club Libby Lu chief executive Mary Drolet said in a statement Saturday.

The real problem is actually worse:

The girl's mother had told Club Libby Lu officials that the girl's father died April 17 in a roadside bombing in Iraq, company spokeswoman Robyn Caulfield said. But the mother, Priscilla Ceballos, admitted later Friday that the essay and the military information she provided about her daughter's father were untrue.

"We did the essay and that's what we did to win. We did whatever we could do to win," Ceballos said in an interview Friday with KDFW-TV of Dallas. "But when (Caulfield) asked me if this essay is true, I said 'No, this essay is not true.'" (Emphasis added.)

Fabulous parenting skills. Teach your child that lying and cheating is the way to get ahead in life. Just fabulous.

A Little Proof Would Be Nice

The New Hampshire Union-Leader is pretty blunt in an editorial today. They call Hillary Clinton out for trying to claim her vast experience as part of Bill Clinton's "White House Team" while simultaneously hiding the records that would prove or disprove all that experience. For all intents and purposes, they are calling Hillary a dissembler at best, a liar at worst.

"I was a member of the White House team that was involved with trying to make a lot of changes . . . I think that people who are running for President should lay out for Americans their record, their experiences, their qualifications, their vision, their plan, and their understanding of how to make it all happen, and that's what I'm doing," Clinton told Boston Globe columnist Joan Vennochi during a recent stop in Manchester.

A candidate with White House experience who really believes that would let voters examine the records from the period during which she claims she was such a vital part of "the White House team." But Mrs. Clinton's actions show that she does not believe what she says.

Her husband is keeping secret many of those records — 2,600 pages worth, a National Archives official told The New York Sun. The Clintons have claimed that the National Archives won't release the records, but the Archives official in charge says Bill Clinton has not authorized their release.

This is not a trivial issue. Among those records is Mrs. Clinton's schedule, which would help show just how involved she really was in her husband's administration.

Because she has made her "experience" her primary qualification for the presidency, the people deserve to see exactly what experience she really has. Which policies did she help shape? Which did she oppose? Did she serve as a de facto staff member or did her role primarily consist of whispering suggestions into her husband's ear? That history is blackened out, and she is keeping it that way. Why?

As they point out, if she cannot convince Bill Clinton - her own husband - to release those records, how in the world are we supposed to believe she will be able to influence Congress or foreign leaders? The answer is, of course, that we can't. This is pretty harsh stuff coming from a major news outlet in an influential early primary state.

The Clintons have been used to having it both ways for so long that they fail to see that this kind of thing grates on the public and more and more often these days on the media that used to provide cover for their antics. Some regulars here think Hillary is inevitable regardless, but the fact that the media is actually calling her on things like this make the sledding a bit rougher than it used to be for the Clintons. Is it enough? I have no idea. Ask me again after Iowa and New Hampshire have chosen. Those two states are actually more important this year than ever before.

How To Damage Your Cause In One Easy Step

The Washington Post reports that protesters will be present at the annual Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California this year. One group plans to protest a float that honors the 2008 Beijing Olympics, while Cindy "Whatever happened to my adoring media" Sheehan will be on hand to protest the war in Iraq and whatever other hobbyhorse she's riding this week. I expect that there will be a wave of revulsion afterward. Not in the direction the protesters want, however.

This won't be the first Rose parade touched by protest _ in 1992, American Indians complained about the naming of a descendant of Christopher Columbus as grand marshal _ but most problems have been mechanical.

"Honestly, in the past years, it's really been more about floats breaking down, delaying the parade, than other things, than protests," said Tournament of Roses President CL Keedy.

Yet some fear the protests could develop into an annual pattern that could tarnish the parade's shiny image.

"If controversy like this diminishes the positive impact of the Rose Parade, it would be of concern," Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard said.

Chinese Americans who claim they were victims of political or religious persecution in China are criticizing the $400,000 Beijing Olympics float.

Bogaard said the city cited security considerations in turning down the group's proposal for a demonstration along the parade route involving a large band and several vehicles…..

….Sheehan, the outspoken San Francisco Bay area activist whose son was killed in Iraq, is campaigning for Congress against Rep. Nancy Pelosi and calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. She will join other pro-impeachment and anti-war groups at the parade, according to her sister, Dede Miller.

As many as 1,000 supporters are expected to rally before and after the parade and distribute 20,000 pamphlets while flying 300 banners along the parade route, said Peter Thottam, executive director of the Los Angeles National Impeachment Center.

Police said they were prepared for the protesters and the hundreds of thousands of spectators. As usual, about 1,200 officers from a number of agencies are set to be on hand.

It is never pretty when narcissism trumps common sense. People do not tune in to watch demonstrations and will be revolted at the politicizing of what is a holiday tradition. This is going to backfire on both groups. The public has not been happy about other parades being turned into protest venues. The Rose Parade is an institution that people will be very unhappy to see targeted. (If the media even shows the protests - they may turn the cameras away rather than give Sheehan and company free media coverage.)

The Era Of Instant Fact-Checking

The Washington Post notes something that the candidates - from both parties - have failed to grasp. The age of the instant fact-checking mob has arrived. It has already caught a lot of people, again from both parties, this season. The do not appear to be learning very fast. But at least one analyst thinks they are being more cautious than they have in the past. Others think the lessons will eventually take hold.

When a candidate is caught making a clearly false statement, embarrassment or ridicule often ensues — and over time a reputation can form. But the electoral rewards derived from stretching the truth or distorting a rival's record just as frequently outweigh the fleeting political costs.

"I would not say that the level of honesty or deception is better or worse than in past campaigns," said Brooks Jackson, director of the Annenberg Political Fact Check, who has been truth-squadding political candidates since 1992. "It is a function of running for office that you want to say things that are pleasing to voters."

Some campaign operatives argue that candidates are becoming more cautious about their public pronouncements, for fear of being caught making a mistake. "I think candidates are being more careful," said Mike Gehrke, research director for the Democratic National Committee. He notes that the ease of retrieving information online has made it possible "to fact-check at a much more granular level than ever before." …..

…..The pressure of responding to attacks is unusually intense this election cycle because of the number of plausible contenders in both major political parties.

"It's become a multifront war," said David Bossie, president of the conservative advocacy group Citizens United. "Candidate A attacks candidate B, but then C and D pile on. You have to be on your toes at all times."

Campaign finance records show that the candidates have spent more than $110,000 on subscriptions to the LexisNexis family of databases over the past year. Most of the leading candidates employ half a dozen researchers, who comb the records of their competitors for the smallest mistake. All the campaigns are constantly shoveling out "fact checks" pointing out the errors of rivals.

Opposition research has been a staple of political campaigns for decades, but the Internet has made it easier to disseminate the information. Video of embarrassing moments collected by rival campaigns is routinely distributed on YouTube. When the Democratic National Committee in November unveiled FlipperTV, a Web site devoted to tracking video from Republican political events, it got 60,000 hits on the first day.

The Post shows a bit of bias here in dwelling more on Republican gaffes than on Democratic ones. But there may actually be a reason for that. The Republicans have tried to clarify what they said while the Post reports that Democrats caught out have, for the most part, refused to address errors. They have simply stonewalled.

The blogs play an important role in this new instant fact-checking process, of course. The old media, however, is still acting as the gatekeeper on this - as demonstrated in the Post story - by choosing which stories to play up nationally. But as the old media increasingly loses readership, that influence is inevitably going to wane. Look for bigger changes in future campaigns.