And Pat Benatar Thought I Had Forgotten…

Well, in truth, I’ve had a couple of major distractions. But fortunately I’m on a 5 week regurgitation cycle so it doesn’t last long.

Another performance of Hit Me With Your Best Shot, from the department of Keep Rubbing Silly Leftists’ Noses In How Silly They Are, c/o The Q Tree.

Justice Must Be Done

The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.

Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is hopeless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud is not part of the plan, you have no plan.

Lawyer Appeasement Section

OK now for the fine print.

This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines,  here, with an addendum on 20191110.

We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.

And remember Wheatie’s Rules:

1. No food fights
2. No running with scissors.
3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns.
5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded.
5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty.
6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy.
7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire.
8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.

(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)

Spot (i.e., paper) Prices

Last week:

Gold $1,748.60
Silver $19.16
Platinum $906.00
Palladium $2,210.00
Rhodium $14,900.00

This week, 3PM Mountain Time, markets have closed for the weekend.

Gold $1,740.10
Silver $19.01
Platinum $871.00 [on sale]
Palladium $2,194.00
Rhodium $14,600.00

Things actually seem to be fairly stable, not much movement in a week. Platinum probably moved the most, percentage wise. And down, too.

On Recent Controversy

Claims that the Big Bang theory was in deep trouble erupted earlier this week, and people were wondering what I’d have to say about it.

Unfortunately, I can’t find anything out about this, beyond what was posted. So I have to answer “I don’t know.”

(Now before someone accuses me of copping out…the real cop out would be for me to make something up, like some charlatan would. The real character weakness is refusing to acknowledge you just don’t know, fearing that people will think less of you for not knowing the answer.)

One key claim was that there wasn’t enough helium in the universe, but I continue to find the numbers that fit the model.

I am not myself a cosmologist. That means I have to rely on actual cosmologists and physicists, and ones I know of that wouldn’t shy away from controversy are silent on the issue.

Which means either, that there’s nothing there, or they’re trying to figure something out. I can’t tell which.

But lets assume there’s Something There…and the Big Bang Model is actually in trouble. It will likely take years for this to play out. And if anyone reading this is rooting for it to be wrong, because you somehow imagine it will show that Genesis 1 was right all along, you’re probably in for a nasty surprise. The “opposition” model is that the universe had no beginning at all, which would be even more in contradiction to Genesis. (Of course there’s no guarantee that that model is the one that would prevail when the dust clears; it could be something no one has even thought of yet, as unexpected as…well, as unexpected as the Big Bang was, originally.)

Science is a body of knowledge…and it’s also a process. As I wrote those physics posts, all thirty of them, I tried to not just outline what is currently believed to be the case, but also why. I had to simplify it a lot, not just for your benefit but for my own. The bits I know best are all classical (pre 1894) physics, and my deepest delve was into “classical” electromagnetism…as you might have suspected given how deeply I tried to go into the math.

None of that would be affected by the current controversy.

It’s true that science is full of humans who have their own psychological failings, hanging onto a a pet theory long after it’s dead, for instance; and sometimes those people simply have to die and get out of the way before further progress is made.

But progress is made, and quite a lot of it.

I maintain that science is by far the most effective method for learning about the world around us. The process is such that the truth will eventually come out. And indeed since the scientific method was founded, largely by Galileo…well, look at all of the technology we have compared to 1600–where most people’s lives were essentially the same as they were under the Roman Empire. That technology depends on the body of knowledge science has assembled. And if that body of knowledge weren’t largely correct…the tech wouldn’t work.

I love getting online and reading a denunciation of quantum mechanics from someone who clearly doesn’t realize that the semiconductors in their computer could not function if quantum mechanics were as wrong as they claim.

Is there a lot we don’t understand yet? Certainly! Absolutely!!! But I can think of no other way to gain that understanding.

It’s basically in areas that haven’t found practical applications yet, where there is still some fuzziness to the picture, and I will include cosmology, including such things as dark matter and dark energy, and inflation. That stuff is bleeding edge science, which involves a lot of speculation which many YouTube channels and the like will report without bothering to explain how speculative it is. Inflation is generally treated as proven fact, when in reality it’s simply a speculation that matches what we see today better than anything else. I doubt any cosmologist would claim it’s proved, just that it’s very likely to be true because nothing else fits. I talked about it some for that reason…but left more speculative stuff out. (I didn’t cover string theory, I didn’t cover supersymmetry, I didn’t cover…)

I have to admit I often wondered if inflation were just a kludged-on “thing” to make the theory work when the theory was in trouble. They certainly have no idea what could have caused it, they just figure it “must have” happened. Likewise dark matter. I was reassured, though, when I realized there were two distinct trails of evidence that it must exist. On the other hand, we still haven’t detected it in the laboratory. Dark energy is even more enigmatic.

I am strongly reminded of the situation from 1894…where we thought we had the broad picture and there were just a few little loose ends to tie up. And then those loose ends ended up showing us a whole ‘nother layer to the puzzle–in fact two of them, quantum mechanics and relativity.

Are we about to go through something like those tumultuous years again?

That would be really cool, and I mean that.

Maybe someday I’ll tackle earth history. But there was a revolution in that field in the 1960s. Everything was upended. Now, nothing makes sense in geology and geophysics without plate tectonics…but in 1960 no one believed it. Alfred Wegener, who said it must have happened but couldn’t explain how, was considered, let’s just say, a minority viewpoint, if not a crank. I’ve seen talks by geologists who were in college at that time, and it was truly exciting. Their whole specialty was being remade before their eyes…and what came out at the end made sense. They talk about that whole process with joy. They’re glad they were alive to see it!

As a kid in the early 1970s, I had an out-of-date book originally published around 1960 that talked about how we don’t know why volcanoes appear where they do. Geology didn’t make sense; it was just a bunch of unconnected facts with some weird details that made no sense at all (e.g., fossils of some species appearing in South America and Africa, but nowhere else…how did it spread to just those two areas?) Now, of course, we know. Geology makes sense because of the revolution of the 1960s, because of plate tectonics. Just like biology only makes sense because of evolution, and chemistry only makes sense because of the periodic table, and electromagnetism only makes sense because of Maxwell’s equations.

Right now the Big Bang still makes sense…but there are nagging issues, apparently. I’ve found videos from over a year ago that allude to some (in other words, stuff that came up before JWST). I need to watch them still. Will the issues be resolved consistent with the Big Bang, will their resolution modify it in subtle ways, or will they kick it over like an applecart? And if the latter, what replaces it? Who knows?

[Just remember that the replacement theory must 1) explain everything the current theory explains, preferably better and more simply, plus 2) things we know about that it does not (in other words it must tie up what I’ve been calling loose ends), and 3) it must also be able to predict things the old theory couldn’t, and those predictions must come true. Remember General Relativity: It was basically 1) like Newtonian gravity most of the time (so it explained the things Newtonian gravity did), 2) it explained that extra precession of Mercury’s line of apsides, and 3) it predicted the bending of light as shown during the 1919 solar eclipse by Eddington. It’s not enough to just throw cherry-picked rocks at the current theory and say your new idea explains the stuff the rocks hit.]

The answer, one way or another, will be interesting. We’ll learn a lot!

Fuck Joe B*d*n

Due to complaints about foul language, I’ve censored the most objectionable word in the title of this section.

B*d*n, you don’t even get ONE scoop of ice cream today.

(Please post this somewhere permanent, as it will continue to be true; the SOB will never deserve a scoop.)

Obligatory PSAs and Reminders

China is Lower than Whale Shit

Remember Hong Kong!!!

中国是个混蛋 !!!
Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!!
China is asshoe !!!

China is in the White House

Since Wednesday, January 20 at Noon EST, the bought-and-paid for His Fraudulency Joseph Biden has been in the White House. It’s as good as having China in the Oval Office.

Joe Biden is Asshoe

China is in the White House, because Joe Biden is in the White House, and Joe Biden is identically equal to China. China is Asshoe. Therefore, Joe Biden is Asshoe.

But of course the much more important thing to realize:

Joe Biden Didn’t Win

乔*拜登没赢 !!!
Qiáo Bài dēng méi yíng !!!
Joe Biden didn’t win !!!