Among today's top stories, if there seems to be a little shaking going on, it's not necessarily an earthquake, but a muon. Hold on to your physics notebook.
Everything we do is governed by the laws of physics, which we've long assumed can be summed up by four categories: gravity, electromagnetism, the strong force and the weak force. But now some preliminary results of experiments at a lab near Chicago suggest a fifth force of nature, involving muons, sub-atomic particles that are over 200 times heavier than electrons.
Describing what the experiment indicates is well above my pay grade but it boils down to muons wobbling faster than expected. That may mean there is some unnamed hyperforce yet undiscovered. Maybe I'll leave it at that, but the Times, BBC, National Geographic and various science sites are all aflutter, if you want to check this out further.
***
You know, I never really bought that germaphobe business about using hand sanitizer every time you touch a surface or handle a package. I know it was a thing for a while but now the CDC has confirmed that you can't get Covid in those ways so it was all an over-reaction to the fear of infection.
For years, I've noticed that the people who insist on such measures can start acting strangely when they take what is clearly a fetish to excess. And I'm pretty sure at least one Singapore Airlines attendant I flew with, and one former colleague grew addicted to the sanitizers in the process. I watched this one guy literally sanitize his hands every fifteen minutes as he retouched his keyboard all day long.
I guess he was obsessed with protecting himself against himself. Alas, that is not among life's viable options...
***
My roommate on this coastal vacation is twelve, and I thought I should probably dispense some useful life advice during our time together, given I've been at this game six times as long as he has, so to speak. It still seems a little early to talk about cigars, whiskey or Anya, who inexplicably followed me home from Russia one time, so I turned to more appropriate matters.
Some of my advice may have gotten lost in translation, however. I was explaining to him that if you find yourself in the slammer, it's good to have a communist friend you can call to bail you out, when he interrupted:
"Grandpa. what is the slammer?"
After I explained, he said he had been thinking it might be a TV show or a sinking ship.
That led to a digression about rescinding money bail, currently a hot political issue in San Francisco and other progressive venues. So he brought us back to the main point.
"Grandpa, why were you in the slammer?"
"Well one of the times it was because I and a few hundred other people occupied a building. It was part of the civil rights movement."
"Yeah that will land you in the slammer for sure," he nodded. "But why call a communist?"
Seeing where this was headed I decided to turn to the more mutually relevant topic of how to meet girls. At this point he perked up noticeably.
"First," I started, "always leave the door to your room open, so they can see you are friendly. Then put some cool music on." (Soon we were rocking to "Save Your Tears.")
"Now this is the important part, when the girls show up, tell them they are looking groovy, no matter what they are wearing..."
"Grandpa, 'groovy'?"
"Whatever. But when they ask 'What do you think of my hairstyle?" never EVER answer with anything but 'GREAT!' and smile broadly."
He seemed to be taking this all under due consideration when the girls started showing up. I returned to my normal activity, headphones on, eyes glued to my computer screen, rifling through the daily news. I figured the whole girl-boy thing would sort itself out; it usually does.
But during a break in the news, when I let my headphones slip, I overheard fragments of a conversation from the other side of our king-sized motel room.
"...and if you do find yourself in the slammer, tell the cops that the communists made you dye your hair purple, which looks groovy, by the way..."
"Hey what's on your screen? That looks GREAT! Look, here's what's on mine..."
It was at this point I realized he might fare better without my advice, which is about 50 years out of date.
***
I'll show you my news if you'll show me yours:
* Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic Is Sought in Old Blood Samples (WSJ)
* Nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated. Many countries may not hit that target this year. (WaPo)
* Biden’s Tax Plan Aims to Raise $2.5 Trillion and End Profit-Shifting -- The plan detailed by the Treasury Department would make it harder for companies to avoid paying taxes on both U.S. income and profits stashed abroad. (NYT)
* U.S. population growth is the lowest it's been since 1918. (Business Insider)
* Biden calls U.S. gun violence an ‘international embarrassment’ as he outlines executive actions (WaPo)
* Black women died from COVID-19 at much higher rates than white men in Georgia and Michigan, according to a Harvard study. While other studies previously found that men overall are dying of the virus at higher rates than women, this study looked at how both race and gender intersect to create further disparities.[HuffPost]
* Biden said he is open to compromise on how much to pay for his infrastructure plan, but inaction is unacceptable. In a fiery speech, the president challenged the idea that low tax rates would do more for growth than investing in care workers, roads, bridges, clean water and other items. [AP]
* Covid-19 Is Most Significant Global Disruption Since WWII, Intelligence Report Says (WSJ)
* ‘No More Parties’: Mexico’s Piñata Makers Badly Bruised by Pandemic -- The piñata industry, dependent on social gatherings, has seen sales plummet. Some artisans, in a creative bid to survive, have added coronavirus figures to their lineups of superheros and princesses. (NYT)
* Biden seems ready to extend US troop presence in Afghanistan (AP)
* ISIS chief was an avid informant for U.S. years before rising to lead group (WaPo)
* Just as Ku Klux Klan members assaulted Black Americans and their white allies in the South, vigilantes in California attacked Chinese immigrants in the 1860s. [The Atlantic]
* More than 500,000 Americans signed up for coverage on HealthCare.gov between mid-February and the end of March. Promoting enrollment in the federal online marketplace that the Affordable Care Act created seems to be paying off. (HuffPost)
* Pandemic Wilderness Explorers Are Straining Search and Rescue -- Inexperienced adventurers have flooded remote areas like Wyoming’s Sublette County during the pandemic. When they call for help, the task is left to an overwhelmed network of volunteers. (NYT)
* U.S. Senate moves ahead with sweeping effort to counter China (Reuters)
* Air Force hypersonic missile fails to detach from plane during test (WaPo)
* CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin has called out gender disparities at the network’s highest echelons ahead of her departure this month. “I’ve been anchoring for 10-plus years, the majority of that time two hours in the afternoon. And in that time, you know, the most influential anchors on our network, the highest-paid, are men.” (HuffPost)
* Former Secretary of State Pompeo to join Fox News Media (Reuters)
* Ex-NFL player Phillip Adams killed 5, then himself (AP)
* In his new book, John Boehner, the Republican former House speaker, sharply rebukes the former president for his role in the “mob violence” at the Capitol on Jan. 6. (NYT)
* When digital memories that were meant to be nostalgic suddenly turn painful, how do we extricate ourselves from the so-called matrix? [Wired]
* After Working at Google, I’ll Never Let Myself Love a Job Again -- I learned the hard way that no publicly traded company is a family. (Emi Nietfeld/NYT)
* A 3,000-year-old ‘lost golden city’ has been unearthed in Egypt (WaPo)
* 4 dead whales now found around San Francisco Bay in 9 days. (SFGate)
* A Tiny Particle’s Wobble Could Upend the Known Laws of Physics -- Experiments with particles known as muons suggest that there are forms of matter and energy vital to the nature and evolution of the cosmos that are not yet known to science. (NYT)
* The CDC confirmed this week what epidemiologists have been saying for at least eight months, which is you don't need to keep disinfecting surfaces and decontaminating your groceries. You can't really get COVID like that. Just wash your hands. (SFist)
* Arkansas Legislator Warns Loophole In New Law Could Still Allow Trans Youth To Exist (The Onion)
***
Well, come on over baby
Whole lot of shakin' goin' onaa
I said come on over baby
Baby, you can't go wrong
We ain't fakin'
Whole lotta shakin' goin' on
-- Jerry Lee Lewis
-30-
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