![\"clip_image002\"](\"http:\/\/jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/clip_image00240.gif\" "\\"clip_image002\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nIt is that time of the year: KUSC is having its pledge drive. I time mine to coincide with theirs, so be prepared to be bombarded for a week with exhortations. I operate this place on the Public Radio Model \u2013 it is free, but if not enough donate, it will go away. So far it is healthy. It needs subscriptions and renewals to keep it that way. SUBSCRIBE NOW!<\/a> RENEW NOW<\/a>! Thanks!<\/p>\n I suppose this is one way to deal with the CERN neutrinos Boo! Hiss! Dutch Scientist Rains on Faster-Than-Light Neutrino Parade<\/a> but it\u2019s not the way I\u2019d do it. There seems to be a general buzz about that the CERN people didn\u2019t pay enough attention to General Relativity and the GPS system, and it was their appalling ignorance that led them to believe they saw faster than light transmission of neutrinos.<\/p>\n Whatever the final outcome here, it was not due to simple ignorance. The CERN people well understood the complexities of determining what is simultaneous in events happening close to the speed of light. GPS satellites move fast enough that determining what are simultaneous events on moving clocks significantly affects the answers you get. There are two ways to compensate for this, one involving relativity, which is the official calculation, and some speculations that apparently get the same results with simpler math.<\/p>\n It may be that the CERN people didn\u2019t do the math right; relativity calculations are notoriously complex and difficult, and that may well be the explanation. I will be astonished if it turns out that they made elementary errors by not thinking about how their GPS clocks are synchronized. That would be the first thing I\u2019d think of given the results. Are these events simultaneous? How do we know? I am sure the CERN boffins thought of that one before they went public. And it may just be they didn\u2019t think it through. http:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/1110.2685<\/a><\/p>\n Of course I really want the results to be real, but the universe doesn\u2019t seem to pay much attention to what I want. Maybe if enough of us want it? If enough Wu Li Masters dance fast enough?<\/p>\n <\/b><\/p>\n For one view of how SSX became DC\/X and what happened to reusable rocket technology, there is a semi-official NASA account http:\/\/www.hq.nasa.gov\/office\/pao\/History\/x-33\/nasm.htm<\/a>. It is incomplete, but then it would be. It\u2019s a reasonable account of much of what went on.<\/p>\n This would be a really great time to renew your subscription.<\/p>\n View 696 Saturday, October 15, 2011 The Occupy Wall Street movement grows and spreads. No wonder. Billions in taxes went to bail out Wall Street whose minions then rewarded themselves for their brilliant moves in creating this mess but fixing things with public money. That, at least, is how much \u2026 Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"