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Showing posts from December 30, 2004

The Elegant Universe

"Eleven dimensions, parallel universes, and a world made of strings. It's not science fiction. It's string theory." Probably the most significant thing about string theory is that it hammers the last nail in the coffin of methodological naturalism. It essentially says that matter is energy, that vibrating strings are the smallest bits of existence and are almost infinitely malleable, and make up the entire universe. And this is all within nature, though it may be outside of common experience. "Nature" no longer refers to what we sense directly. String theory predicts 11 dimensions, 7 of which exist in the subatomic realm, outside our common experience. It says that our universe may not be the only one. More than that, our universe may be inside a super-dimensional space wherein reside many universes. Where is the boundary between this kind of thinking and belief in a "spiritual world" outside our common experience? If a person could have

Yushchenko sets agenda

"Reinforcing his image as a Western-leaning politician who hopes to expand Ukraine's ties to Europe, Yushchenko also said he planned to create a new government agency, the Ministry of European Integration... Moreover, in a sign of the degree to which Yushchenko appears prepared to wrest power from the remnants of Kuchma's government, Yushchenko said he would replace all of the 10 regional governors in eastern Ukraine who had threatened last month to form an autonomous region. Under the Ukrainian Constitution, the president appoints all regional leaders... Yushchenko also suggested that he was willing to prosecute Kuchma, who has been accused of election-rigging, corruption and abuse of state power... And Yushchenko restated his intention to investigate privatization deals he says were rigged by Kuchma's administration to sell state assets at absurdly low prices, particularly that of a metallurgical plant earlier this year to Viktor Pinchuk, the president