ThoughtVectors2014

Order of magnitude[edit] Rømer starts with an order of magnitude demonstration that the speed of light must be so great that it takes much less than one second to travel a distance equal to Earth's diameter. The point L on the diagram represents the second quadrature of Jupiter, when the angle between Jupiter and the Sun (as seen from Earth) is 90°.[note 6] Rømer assumes that an observer could see an emergence of Io at the second quadrature (L), and also the emergence which occurs after one orbit of Io around Jupiter (when the Earth is taken to be at point K, the diagram not being to scale), that is 42½ hours later. During those 42½ hours, the Earth has moved further away from Jupiter by the distance LK: this, according to Rømer, is 210 times the Earth's diameter.[note 7] If light travelled at a speed of one Earth-diameter per second, it would take 3½ minutes to travel the distance LK. And if the period of Io's orbit around Jupiter were taken as the time difference between the emergence at L and the emergence at K, the value would be 3½ minutes longer than the true value. Rømer then applies the same logic to observations around the first quadrature (point G), when Earth is moving towards Jupiter. The time difference between an immersion seen from point F and the next immersion seen from point G should be 3½ minutes shorter than the true orbital period of Io. Hence, there should be a difference of about 7 minutes between the periods of Io measured at the first quadrature and those measured at the second quadrature. In practice, no difference is observed at all, from which Rømer concludes that the speed of light must be very much greater than one Earth-diameter per second.[5]

However Rømer also realised that any effect of the finite speed of light would add up over a long series of observations, and it is this cumulative effect that he announced to the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris. The effect can be illustrated with Rømer's observations from spring 1672. Jupiter was in opposition on 2 March 1672: the first observations of emergences were on 7 March (at 07:58:25) and 14 March (at 09:52:30). Between the two observations, Io had completed four orbits of Jupiter, giving an orbital period of 42 hours 28 minutes 31¼ seconds. The last emergence observed in the series was on 29 April (at 10:30:06). By this time, Io had completed thirty orbits around Jupiter since 7 March: the apparent orbital period is 42 hours 29 minutes 3 seconds. The difference seems minute – 32 seconds – but it meant that the emergence on 29 April was occurring a quarter-hour after it would have been predicted. The only alternative explanation was that the observations on 7 and 14 March were wrong by two minutes.

Every year, millions of men, women and children in Asia venture to new places in search of a better life.

Human trafficking is on the rise in Asia as people flee poverty and conflict

Women and children are the most vulnerable. They are used for commercial sex, domestic labor and construction work.

Asia has the largest sex trafficking rate in the whole world. Over the past three decade alone, there have been more than a thirty million people traded

These people can be of all ages, as young as five even, but the usual age and gender is a female from eighteen to twenty four years of age. Ninety eight percent are females though, which is the more popular gender, but fifty two percent of the recruiters are men, forty two percent are woman, and the remaining percent is both male and female.

the victim is first sold to someone for a price as high as one thousand dollars or kept for their own profit. Once they are in the brothel or other place, if they are a virgin or only have had sex a couple of times, they are rapes numerous times until they can no longer pass as one. After wards you are put to work, told to make at least five hundred dollars a day or get beaten

The bailout of Greece is not a gift or grant but a loan bearing high interest.

According to IMF estimates, Greece will pay €131bn in refinancing and interest payments between 2009 and 2014, far more than the initial bailout loan of €110bn.

The European governments now propose to offer a second loan, if Greece accepts an even more odious set of measures and sells off the family silver.

Of the five traits, it was a person’s openness to experience that was best communicated by their top 10 list of songs, followed by extraversion and emotional stability

For patients and their families, embryonic stem cell research offers the hope of cures for chronic and debilitating conditions, such as juvenile diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries and blindness. For scientists, it represents a revolutionary path to discovering the causes and cures for many more human maladies. Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, that is, they have the unique ability to develop into any of the 220 cell types in the human body. In addition to their versatility, embryonic stem cells are easier to grow in the laboratory than adult stem cells.

But many opponents, including some religious leaders, believe that stem cell research raises the same moral issues as abortion. Furthermore, opponents maintain that scientists have other promising ways of reaching the same goals, including non-controversial adult stem cell research.

But many opponents, including some religious leaders, believe that stem cell research raises the same moral issues as abortion. Furthermore, opponents maintain that scientists have other promising ways of reaching the same goals, including non-controversial adult stem cell research.