"I will be happy when... "

Some great advice in this article.  From the Huffington Post:

"How to Get Flat Abs, Have Amazing Sex and Rule the World in 8 Easy Steps"

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3956114

Be happy now.
Let people in.

Song of the Day: Tim McGraw - Highway Don't Care

Continuing my country music kick, from two days ago.  This is the second of two songs that jumped out at me from the recent Country Music Awards list of best song nominees.

Tim McGraw (and friends) - "Highway Don't Care"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmxaY_OVvWA

For some reason I want to just point my VFR north and ride.  Or east.  Maybe west.  Who cares, really?  (Not the highway!)  Not a short ride, let it run for hundreds of miles.  Okay, maybe I'll wait for summer...    :)

Song of the Day: A Capella Science - Bohemian Gravity

Okay, you have to love the creativity of this next song.  I sure did!  Listen and try to learn something!

"A Capella Science - Bohemian Gravity!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rjbtsX7twc


A Capella Science - Bohemian Gravity!
---------------
Is string theory right?
Is it just fantasy?
Caught in the landscape,
Out of touch with reality
Compactified
On S5 or T*S3

Space is a pure void
Why should it be stringy?
Because it's quantum not classical
Nonrenormalizable
Any way you quantize
You'll encounter infinity
You see

Quanta
Must interact
Via paths we understand
Using Feynman diagrams
Often, they will just rebound
But now and then they go another way
A quantum
Loooooop
Infinities will make you cry
Unless you can renormalize your model
Of baryons, fermions
And all other states of matter

Curved space:
The graviton
Can be thought of as a field
But these infinities are real
In a many-body
Loop diagram
Our results diverge no matter what we do...
A Quantum Soup (any way you quantize)
Kiss your fields goodbye
Guess Einstein's theory wasn't complete at all!

I see extended 1-D objects with no mass
What's their use? What's their use? Can they give us quark plasma?
What to minimize?
What functional describes this
String?
Nambu-Goto! (Nambu-Goto)
Nambu-Goto! (Nambu-Goto)
How to quantize I don't know
Polyakov!
I'm just a worldsheet, please minimize me
He's just a worldsheet from a string theory
Reperametrized by a Weyl symmetry!

Fermi, Bose, open, closed, orientable?
Vibrations
Modes! They become particles (particles!)
Vibrations
They become particles (particles!)
Vibrations
They become particles (particles!)
Become particles (particles!)
Become particles (many many many many particle...)
Modes modes modes modes modes modes modes!
Oh mamma mia mamma mia,
Such a sea of particles!
A tachyon, with a dilaton and gravity-vity-VITY

(rock out!)

Now we need ten dimensions and I'll tell you why
(anomaly cancellation!)
So to get down to 4D we compactify!
Oh, Kahler!
(Kahler manifold)
Manifolds must be Kahler!
(Complex Reimannian symplectic form)
If we wanna preserve
Any of our super-symmetry

(Superstrings of type I, IIa and IIb)
(Heterotic O and Heterotic E)
(All are one through S and T duality)
(Thank you Ed Witten for that superstring revolution and your new M-theory!)

(Maldecena!)
(Super-Yang-Mills!)
(Type IIB String!)
Dual! Dual!
(In the AdS/CFT)
(Holography!)

Molecules and atoms
Light and energy
Time and space and matter
All from one united
Theory

Any way you quantize...

Lyrics and arrangement by Tim Blais and A Capella Science
Original music by Queen

Song of the Day: Kacey Musgraves - Merry Go 'Round

I've said it before ... maybe I've lived down south for too long.  I don't listen to country music often, but sometimes I really like it.

Here is the first of two songs that caught my ear when I first heard of them after the recent Country Music Awards show (no, I didn't watch the show, just listened to some of the songs nominated). Apparently these songs were pretty big in country music lately.

Kacey Musgraves - Merry Go 'Round

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZfj2Ir3GgQ

Don't talk to the police!

This talk should be mandatory, we should all listen to it.  Ever been in court and have a cop lie to your face?  I have.  It's not fun.  Don't talk to them.

"Dont Talk to Police"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc

Song of the Day: U2 - Running to Stand Still

I was reminded of this song while watching an episode of "Long Way Round" the other day.  I recognized the song immediately, even from the short clip in the show.  Just a great song by a great band.  Three versions, I just couldn't decide which to post--so I posted them all.

"U2 - Running To Stand Still - RATTLE AND HUM - Live"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eCv0bXFppc

"U2- Running to Stand Still (Official-Unofficial) Music Video"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvUI-s4Azw4

"U2 - Running To Stand Still (Chicago Live)"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qumfrmsGzvY

Speaking of Long Way Round, here is the clip of Ewan MacGregor singing "Running to Stand Still":
"U2's Running to Stand Still- Ewan McGregor"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h3DzOijV_w

Mitt Romney Was, And Still Is, A Loser

I just happened to watch some political shows yesterday morning.  I saw Mitt Romney being interviewed on Meet The Press.  I was reminded once again about what a loser he was, and still is.  He is a poster child for why people like me don't trust the Republican establishment.

From NBC "News":
"Romney: Obama's 'dishonesty' on health care puts second term in peril"
http://presspass.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/03/21295983-romney-obamas-dishonesty-on-health-care-puts-second-term-in-peril

Listen to this line, which didn't even make the written summary of the interview.  Watch the video, then click "Return to this video" to get the longer (16:40) version of the interview.  Skip to 9:13 of the video to hear Romney's response to the question about what he would have done with respect to health care if he had been elected president.
"...my own plan was to say to each state you've got a requirement to move to a point where all your people are insured, and where you cover pre-existing conditions.  We're going to give you flexibility from the federal government level to help you be able to do so."

Is that a real alternative to the Democrats?  No, it is NOT.

Remember, even if you agree with Romney on this, you have to realize that this grows the power of the Federal Government.  Any such actions only set a precedent that the Federal Government can dictate behavior to the States.  Which is simply not a power our founders gave to the Federal Government.  That power can, and will, be used by people with very different political beliefs.  If you agree with Romney on this point you do not believe in the limited government our founders gave us, and you have given the left all the tools they need to turn this into a socialist country.  Thanks.  Thanks a lot.


I was also amused to hear the latest Democrat talking points regarding Obama's oft-repeated lie: "If you like your current plan, you can keep it."  Of course they knew at the time that many (most?) plans would be illegal once Obamacare kicked in.  If, that is, the employers didn't figure out that the incentives of Obamacare would push them to eliminate their plans.

Anyway, the latest talking points regarding Obama's lies on this subject were as follows: Obama's lies were not lies.  If you bought a car in the past you'd be allowed to keep it, but if you bought a new car that car would have to meet new safety regulations.

What an ignorant comparison.  Healthcare is not a physical asset, something that you can keep once you buy it.  Rather, the car is more analogous to your human body.  Healthcare is a service, and is more analogous to the gas or maintenance you need to keep your car running.  You bought a car, and were promised that if you liked the gas (or oil or maintenance) you liked would still be available--right before they outlawed it.

Weak, very weak.  But I'm sure the left-wing media will eat it up and repeat the lies.

In Romney's defense, he did point out that if Obama had been honest about this, that people would lose their plans, Obamacare would have been much less likely to pass.