Electrons Are Near-Perfect Spheres

Tweet

By Wired UK

By Duncan Geere, Wired UK

A 10-year study has revealed that the electron is very spherical indeed.

To be precise, the electron differs from being perfectly round by less than 0.000000000000000000000000001 cm. To put that in context; if an electron was the size of the solar system, it would be out from being perfectly round by less than the width of a human hair.

The Imperial College team behind the research, which was conducted on molecules of ytterbium flouride, used a laser to make measurements of the motion of electrons, and in particular the wobble they exhibit when spinning. They observed no such wobble, implying that the electron is perfectly round at the levels of precision available, reflected in the figure above.



The co-author of the report describing the research, Jony Hudson, said: “We’re really pleased that we’ve been able to improve our knowledge of one of the basic building blocks of matter. It’s been a very difficult measurement to make, but this knowledge will let us improve our theories of fundamental physics. People are often surprised to hear that our theories of physics aren’t ‘finished’, but in truth they get constantly refined and improved by making ever more accurate measurements like this one.”

The next step is to up that precision level even further, using new methods to cool the molecules to extremely low temperatures and control their motion. The results are important in the study of antimatter, and particularly the positron — which should behave identically to the electron but with an opposite electrical charge. If more differences can be found, it could help to explain why far less antimatter has been discovered in the universe than predicted by theory.

Image: Lawrence Rayner/Flickr
Source: Wired.co.uk 

Newscribe : get free news in real time 

Emerging giants denounce Europe lock IMF leadership for France's Lagarde

Tweet



Emerging giants denounce Europe lock on top job of world’s key lender

PARIS / BEIJING - France's Christine Lagarde announced her candidacy for the presidency of the International Monetary Fund, amid calls from the five major emerging economies for an end to the tradition that a European chairs the IMF.

France's Finance Minister Christine Lagarde announces her candidacy to head the IMF during a press conference in Paris, May 25, 2011.[Photo/Agencies]

The French finance minister announced her intentions on Wednesday, the eve of a G8 summit, after securing the backing of the 27-nation European Union and support from the United States, diplomats said.

"It is an immense challenge which I approach with humility and in the hope of achieving the broadest possible consensus," Lagarde told a news briefing

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a French citizen, resigned last week after being charged with attempted rape.

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa on Tuesday criticized EU officials for suggesting that the next IMF head should be a European, a convention that dates back to the founding of the global lender at the end of World War II.

However, the countries, known as the BRICS, failed to unite behind a common alternative candidate.

Related readings:  France's Lagarde announces candidacy for IMF chief  Troubled IMF needs changes  PBOC adviser: US clout impedes reform of IMF    Tests link DNA to ex-IMF chief

In the first joint statement issued by their directors at the IMF in Washington, the BRICS said that the choice of who heads the IMF should be based on competence, not nationality. They called for "abandoning the obsolete, unwritten convention that requires that the head of the IMF be from Europe".

The statement was made one day after nominations for the job opened.

"The recent financial crisis which erupted in developed countries underscored the urgency of reforming international financial institutions so as to reflect the growing role of developing countries in the world economy," said the statement.

Chinese experts said the statement should be taken seriously.

"If developed countries don't respect the opinion of the BRICS, Lagarde is very likely to fail to win enough votes," said economist Guo Tianyong, director of the Research Center of the Chinese Banking Industry at the Central University of Finance and Economics.

BRICS account for about 11 percent of the voting rights, and Lagarde needs 85 percent of the votes to get the position.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at a news conference in Addis Ababa on Wednesday at the close of the India-Africa trade summit that emerging countries should take a united stand on this issue.

"The reform of the global institutions, and that includes the Bretton Woods institutions (the IMF and World Bank), has been high on the agenda of developing countries for a long time," AFP quoted him as saying.

"But we have also to recognize that international relations beyond a point are power relations and that those who wield power do not wish to yield ground very easily," he said.

Public statements made recently by high-ranking European officials contradict public announcements made in 2007, at the time of the selection of Strauss-Kahn.

Jean-Claude Junker, president of the Eurogroup (finance ministers of the eurozone), then declared that "the next managing director will certainly not be a European" and that "in the Eurogroup and among EU finance ministers, everyone is aware that Strauss-Kahn will probably be the last European to become director of the IMF in the foreseeable future".
He Weiwen, an expert at a research institute affiliated to the Ministry of Commerce, said whether the convention will end depends on the US, which holds 17.75 percent of IMF shares and 16.8 percent of the voting rights.

"It's still very difficult for emerging economies to challenge the tradition" because the US is very likely to favor a European candidate as it will get reciprocal support from Europe for an American to run the World Bank, he

Officials from the BRICS emphasized that the new managing director should be selected after broad consultations with the membership, and said that adequate representation of emerging markets and developing members in the IMF management is critical for its legitimacy and effectiveness.

Developing countries have spent years attempting to reform the key global economic institution, as emerging economies became the major drivers of world economic development.

China last week said that the new IMF leader should be chosen on "merit, transparency and fairness".

Li Daokui, an adviser to the Chinese central bank's monetary policy committee, said earlier that the chances of a European taking the position are slim, but supporting a Chinese candidate is not the best choice for the country.

"I think a talent from a neutral and small country would accord more with the interests of the world, including China, because big countries such as India and Brazil have too many national interests," he said.

Agencies-China Daily
Newscribe : get free news in real time

Jetting into the Malay psyche!

Tweet

COMMENT By BARADAN KUPPUSAMY

The DAP, which has seen little success in drawing Malays into its party, is banking on the newly-launched Roketkini.com, a news portal in Bahasa Malaysia, to change the mind of the community.

THE DAP has always claimed to be a multi-racial party but has always struggled to win over Malays in any large numbers to its Malaysian Malaysia banner.

In the 1980s, it had a prominent Malay in the late Ahmad Nor, the Cuepacs president who was a firm believer in the party's struggles.

In recent times, the DAP has recruited the prominent Tunku Abdul Aziz, a co-founder of the Malaysian chapter of Transparency International, as its vice-chairman.

The party had hoped that more Malays would follow him.

His recruitment five months after the March 8, 2008 general election was hailed as the way to go for the multi-racial but Chinese-dominated DAP as it seeks to replace the MCA and Gerakan as the main contender for the support of the Chinese.

In peninsular Malaysia, the Tamil support for the DAP has also grown in the wake of the 2008 polls with the rise of Dr P. Ramasamy as the titular head of the Indian wing.



His elevation as Deputy Chief Minister of Penang, a first for Indians, was greeted with awe by the community that thus far had to be content with MIC president Datuk S. Samy Vellu as the sole minister in the Barisan Nasional government.

In Perak after 2008, another Indian was elevated to state assembly Speaker but Tronoh assemblyman V. Sivakumar's tenure of service was cut short by the defections of three state assemblymen two from PKR and one from DAP in February 2009 and the fall of the Pakatan Rakyat government. (That Speaker post was taken over by another Indian from Barisan, also for the first time in history).

However, after trying for about three years, Tunku Abdul Aziz announced last week that he had failed to recruit Malays to the DAP and that his presence in the party had not helped to win over the Malay grassroots in any appreciable number.

It was an honest admission that the party had failed to recruit Malays despite trying very hard.

The primary reason is that the DAP is seen by the Malays as a Chinese party, fighting for Chinese rights in a country dominated by Malays and is therefore to be avoided.

While Malays do want to interact with the DAP, they would rather do so as distinct members of the PKR or PAS and not as individuals or as members of the DAP.

Post-2008, the DAP's experience with Malays has changed dramatically with many opportunities opening up to understand Malay problems closely.

No longer is the DAP shunned or avoided by the Malays as a Chinese party.

In the Tenang by-election, the over- zealous DAP turned PAS candidate Normala Sudirman into a “Chinese empress” all decked out in traditional Chinese clothes so the Chinese voters there could accept her.

Umno must make up its mind on DAP's 'racism'

But the rapport with the Malays from these encounters is just not enough for the party which has grand visions of leading the democratic movement in the country.

The recent Sarawak elections showed that the DAP is a clear winner among the Pakatan Rakyat parties.

It also pointed to DAP being able to win over the urban masses of all races, not just in Sarawak but also in the peninsula and most likely in Sabah as well.

The Sarawak victory, however, showed its weaknesses as well it is an urban force and its failure to have a say over the vast rural reaches, which it surrendered to PKR, has come back to haunt it.

That is why party adviser Lim Kit Siang proposed a merger with SNAP to get at SNAP's rural connections although the party lost nearly all of its deposits in the Sarawak polls.

Still, the question remains: Why won't the Malays join the DAP? Is not the DAP also fighting for the same things that the Malays want?”

These questions have forced the DAP into a brand new strategy to win over the community.

By forming Roketkini.com, helmed by editor Wan Hamidi Hamid, it hopes to reach out to the Malay grassroots. Its aim is to reach out to them by providing views that are distinct from PKR or PAS.

How well it does and how many Malays it can wean from Umno are all questions that only time will tell.


Related post:

For sure public advocacy is here to stay, jetting the Malay psyche!

China’s Super Rich Get All the Headlines

Tweet




 Ray Kwong

I think we can all agree that China has a lot of newly minted millionaires and billionaires, and that along with the only slightly less privileged they’ve made a significant impact on the global luxury market.
Without a doubt, they make great copy—expressing their collective capitalist thoughts by buying up expensive cars, yachts, private jets and even helicopters.

 

                All photos by M. Scott Brauer

But what about the common people on the street? What’s the average Zhou Blow thinking and what does he have to say?

Enter We Chinese, a photo project that doesn’t profess to be much more than that, but still provides a fascinating quick read on what Chinese people think about China and the part they see themselves playing in their homeland’s future. A few random excerpts:

• “I am a builder of China’s future, just like a component of an airplane, and with me China will soar even farther in the future,” said Cen Qi, 24, a student. “China includes Taiwan, where Chinese people reside, and it is the abbreviation of the People’s Republic of China.”
• “China is just the name of a country,” said Bo Wei Jun, 36, an engineer. “Occasionally the people bring up suggestions, but nobody listens.”
• [China means] “hope, power and culture,” said Ya Ming, 47, a reporter. [My role] is “to make a bigger contribution to world peace.”
• “A ‘voiceless’ person has no way of offering society even the smallest contribution,” said Rui Ling Yan, 21, a student. “China is my ancestral country mother. It’s what I hold most dear.”

Scott Brauer, a photojournalist and former China resident, started the We Chinese project as a way to respond to friends’, family’s, and strangers’ questions about the global direction of China and their stereotypes of the people.

“The project aims to give faces and voices to a small section of the Chinese people caught in the center of historic shifts in the country’s socioeconomic circumstances,” said Brauer.

While you can’t draw any conclusions about the entire population—the final project has just 100 portraits and short interviews—the sentiments are revealing. Brauer says: “the responses range from prosaic to poetic, from rote to inspired, and from unemotional to patriotic. The people photographed expressed a sincere love of country and optimism about the country’s future development and peaceful position in the world.”

We Chinese is definitely worth a look-see.

For a more in-depth look at China, as told by leading participants in or observers of China’s transformation over the past three decades, go to Asia Society’s China Boom website which I wrote about previously here.

Newscribe : get free news in real time 

Honouring Malaysian legacy of service to the nation

Tweet

 

Researching and writing Legacy of Honour was an inspiring journey for Zainah Anwar. – AHMAD IZZRAFIQ ALIAS / The Star

CERITALAH By KARIM RASLAN

The Malay community owes three generations of the illustrious Johor-based aristocratic Onn family a great debt of honour. They were leaders far, far ahead of the times.

HISTORY matters. We need to understand the forces that shaped our past in order to craft our future. Self-knowledge is critical. Ignorance will mean we end up repeating the mistakes of the past.

Zainah Anwar’s well-written and intimate personal history of three  generations of the illustrious Johor-based aristocratic Onn family — Legacy of Honour — is an important book for all Malays and all Malaysians.

As a Johorean herself whose father Cikgu Anwar served with Datuk Onn Jaafar, Zainah has woven together Malaysian contemporary history, economics, culture and politics.

Moreover, the book’s appearance is timely. We are living in an era when honour, principle and public service are often ignored and/or ridiculed.

With Legacy of Honour we are reminded of excellence, with three remarkable leaders — two Johor Mentris Besar, Datuk Jaafar Mohamed and Onn Jaafar, and one Prime Minister, Tun Hussein Onn.

Indeed, the men — all from the same family — were to shape public policy and governance for well over a century, from the 1850s right through to the early 1980s.

They were open-minded men: curious and equipped with bold ideas.

At the same time they had the courage of their convictions. In the case of Umno’s titanic founder, Onn Jaafar, this sense of principle was to lead to his premature departure from the party and his isolation in later years.

Nonetheless, they were also intensely driven men.

Once again, Onn Jaafar stands out. For example, he would always talk about wanting to “betulkan orang Melayu” (correct the Malays) by modernising and improving Malay living standards and conditions.



Jaafar Mohamed was born in 1838. Coming from a long line of palace advisers, he started his career as a clerk at his uncle’s office, who was a Minister to Temenggong Ibrahim and later went onto become Dato Bentara (State Secretary) at the age of 25.

In 1885, he was appointed the first Mentri Besar of modern Johor, a post he held until his death in 1919.
Jaafar was responsible for the creation of modern Johor.

Working alongside Sultan Abu Bakar, he was to build Johor from the ground up until it became the strongest and most prestigious of the Malay states.

He was an exacting but fair man who recognised the importance of the rule of law. As such he set out the “kangcu” system of land usage and taxation for Chinese settlers.

Both he and Sultan Abu Bakar achieved their ends without losing their highly cherished independence to the British. Educated in both English and Malay from an early age, Jaafar was unafraid of new ideas as long as they delivered results — prosperity, stability and sovereignty for his beloved state.

However, he also prized his Malay cultural roots very highly and in his spectacular residence, Bukit Senyum in Johor Baru, he created a distinguished environment where the cherished collection of Malay literature such as syairs, hikayats and novels were to be found.

And the children were all expected to learn how to perform ghazals — the Middle-Eastern inspired poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain.

At the same time, his many children and especially his daughters — flouting conservative sentiment — went to English language schools.

With Jaafar’s death, the family were to lose their beloved Bukit Senyum residence.

The family’s difficult relations with Sultan Ibrahim meant that Onn Jaafar moved to Singapore where he emerged as a fervent critic of royal injustice and misadministration.

Onn Jaafar was to become an indefatigable journalist and editor. His trenchant criticisms of Malay backwardness and failure were read across the peninsula, earning him enormous respect among the ordinary people.

This in turn laid the groundwork for his greatest task — the unification of a divided Malay community in the face of the British initiative, the Malayan Union, and the formation of Umno.

Onn Jaafar had an immense capacity for work. His energy was unequalled.

This level of diligence was apparent in the late Tun Hussein Onn, who was known for his unflinching dedication to detail — underlining the salient points in every report he read.

The Malay community owes all three men a great debt of honour. Suffice to say they were leaders far, far ahead of the times.

Indeed, Malaysia is in dire need of more leaders in a similar mould, men who have the confidence and polish to reach across race, class and religious boundaries.

Chinese Journalists Barred from Shuttle Launch!

Tweet

 

William Pentland

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Chinese journalists were not allowed into the Kennedy Space Center for the May 16th space-shuttle launch as the result of a little-noticed provision in the federal budget approved by Congress in April.

Ironically, Chinese scientists were responsible for building key parts of the Endeavor’s $2 billion payload, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.

A spokesperson for the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration told ScienceInsider that the agency was simply following instructions in last month’s spending bill, which prohibited NASA from using any resources to host Chinese officials at any NASA facility.



The Chinese journalists were considered government employees and thus subject to the ban because they worked for an official Chinese news agency, Xinhua.

An editorial on Wednesday in China Daily attacked the policy as insulting and counterproductive:

China’s scientists have played a crucial role in designing and manufacturing some core parts of the device. However, Chinese journalists who hoped to cover the launching of Endeavor were denied entry to the site by a ban initiated by Frank Wolf, chairman of the Committee of Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies in the House of Representatives.

The United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) revoked the media passes granted to journalists from China due to the ban, or the ‘Wolf Clause’, which was regarded as ‘discriminative’ by even Americans themselves.

The ban — also known as the ‘Wolf clause’ because it was sponsored by Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA) — also prohibits scientific collaboration between Chinese and U.S. scientists. For a more detailed history of the ban, please read a previous my previous post on the issue here.

Newscribe : get free news in real time 

Changes needed at IMF

Tweet

Global Trends By MARTIN KHOR

The International Monetary Fund is looking for a new leader after the downfall last week of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The way its chief is selected and its policies have to be changed.

LAST week’s arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn on charges of sexual assault was followed by his resignation as managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

This quickly sparked a race for his successor in the most important position in finance among international organisations.

European leaders were quick off the mark, arguing that the post should again be taken by a European, as according to the old but discredited tradition.

It has been increasingly recognised that the convention that the IMF chief must be a European while the World Bank president should be an American can no longer be justified.

The two leaders should be selected from persons from any country according to merit, and not on the basis of their being European or American, which is a colonial or neo-colonial principle.

Candidates from developing countries should have an equal chance, especially since these countries have increased their share of global GNP, and many of them (especially China and other Asian nations) have large foreign reserves.

But the European Commission president and the political leaders of Germany, France, Italy and other European countries are insisting on another European, giving various reasons such as Europeans are the biggest creditors, are having a serious crisis and have candidates of merit.

Ironically, the apparent “front runner” is another French citizen, the finance minister Christine Lagarde.
Why should a French national succeed another French national who had to resign in disgrace, and when the top IMF job has previously been held disproportionately by French nationals (who have had the job for 35 of the 64 years of the IMF)?

European leaders are arguing that the IMF chief needs to be European because much of the present IMF loans in value are going to European countries like Greece, Ireland and Portugal, and Europe is in a serious financial crisis.

They argue that a European IMF chief would be best for dealing with the European crisis as he or she would understand the region better. This is a strange argument fraught with double standards.



When East Asian countries suffered a debt crisis in 1997-99, and the IMF’s main clients became Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea, no one argued that the IMF should have been led by an Asian who could more deeply understand the region’s problems.

Similarly, there was no hope that an African or South American could occupy the upper posts of the IMF, even though many countries in those regions were in financial crisis and were the main borrowers in the 1980s and 1990s.

Veteran journalist and respected analyst of international organisations and affairs Chakravarthi Raghavan argues that the spreading economic crisis in Europe is indeed a valid reason for a non-European to head the IMF.

In the 1980s, when democratising international institutions was on the agenda, the United States and Europe argued that since the developing countries were borrowers, they could not be allowed to control the IMF or World Bank, said Raghavan in comments to the IPS press agency.

“This logic applies here. No European should be allowed to head the IMF,” he said, adding that the IMF’s rescue packages for Europe had become efforts to protect the interests of French and German banks who were major creditors and bond holders of Greece, Portugal and Spain.

European countries hold just over 30% of the votes, the United States 16.7%, Japan 6% and Canada 3%.
If developed countries unite under a single candidate, they will most likely get their way.

Many developing countries have recently called for an open and democratic selection process for the heads of the IMF and World Bank.

Developing and emerging countries have control collectively of 44.7% of the votes. The IMF chief must get 85% of the votes.

Ministers of the G24 (a group of developing countries that operate in the IMF and World Bank) meeting in April, repeated their call “for an open, transparent, merit-based process for the selection of the president of the World Bank and the managing director of the IMF, without regard to nationality”.

They also called for “concrete actions and proposals to be put forward to guarantee this change”.
Though the selection of a new chief is the present preoccupation, more important is the reform required for the IMF’s policies and operations.

A South Centre paper, authored by chief economist Yilmaz Akyuz, points to its failure in preventing financial crises, which is its main task.

In its emergency lending activity, the IMF has also performed badly.

It has advocated pro-cyclical policies to countries taking its loans, often deepening the countries’ crises.
It has also failed to distinguish between countries facing liquidity and solvency problems, and lent to countries to repay their loans, with unfair terms of burden-sharing between the debtor country and its creditors.

The changeover of the leadership of the IMF is a good opportunity to discuss the weaknesses of the IMF and to reform the policies.

Singapore PM Lee and new cabinet sworn in

Tweet



Singapore's new cabinet has been sworn into office, with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong pledging that the government will evolve in tandem with the aspirations of a new generation of Singaporeans.

Prime Minister Lee said: "The Government cannot stand still. It must evolve in tandem with our society and our people. That is the best way for our Government to serve and to govern, in accord with the spirit of the times and the aspirations of our people".

The new cabinet was sworn into office by President S R Nathan on Saturday.



The swearing-in ceremony for the 15 ministers and 10 ministers of state took place at the Istana, the official residence and office of the president of Singapore.

The new cabinet sees a fresh injection of new faces and the retirement of nine ministers including Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.

Lee has opted for a smaller cabinet, with only 15 ministers - down from the previous 21. The average age is 53, down from 59.

Source: Xinhua
Newscribe : get free news in real time