Hi Viking, Most of the string stuff is out of this world for the simple reason none of it can be tested with current experiments. I hate all of these extra dimensions and in string theory you get the normal four (three space and one time—or four space-time as it should be called) plus at least five more. These extra dimensions are very small and hence the reason why we never notice their effect. These days the High Energy Physics (HEP) experimentalists especially those at CDF Chicago Fermi Lab are trying to measure the effect of these extra dimensions since their centre of mass energy is in the region 2 TeV (or 2 billion electron Volt of energy). What they are doing at CDF is look for events with large missing energy and so far, they have not found any excess. However, they have set limits with 95% confidence level, in the other words excluded certain sizes. Let me go back and start the story from the beginning! In modern particle physics we have a model known as the Standard Model (SM) and this model explains almost all of the stuff that has been observed so far. Having said that we know the SM cannot be the end of physics for the simple reason it has too many free parameters, which we don’t understand. Even more weirder we have 12 fundamental particles split into two families known as quarks and leptons (each family has six particles plus their anti-particle). Why six, we don’t know. Are there more particles, we don’t know! To confuse matters even further, in the late 90s people starting observing high energy isolated leptons (leptons consist of electrons, muons and tuas, plus their neutrino partners—hence six leptons). For the muons, so far, seven events of this type have been observed and our beloved SM only predicts less than two of these events. When one works out the probability of seeing seven events when you only expected two at most you get an answer of roughly 8X10^-4 . We cannot be claimed discovery yet for technical reasons but an explanation is needed for this bizarre observation. In the electron channel, we only have small excess, which could be explained away. For the Tau channel, well we are not very good at measuring them due to high backgrounds involved. Thus because of the incompleteness of our SM, we are imaging all these far-fetched theories—string theory, BSM (Beyond Standard Model), Super-Symmetry and their likes. Everyday you hear new theory even theorists are losing tracks let alone us the experimentalists who are meant to verify these theories. Just today during lunch someone was saying they met this famous theorist and he told them he is leaving physics for Biology cause the world of physics is gone crazy! To conclude, I cant decide whether string theory is the answer to our problems. For the simple reason it cant be verified at the moment, in the next five years however we will know whether there is any physics beyond the standard model or not (The biggest experiment ever will be ready). The other major problem I have with string theory is it needs a lot of complicated maths just to explain stuff we could get away with couple of lines of Algebra! Have you heard of the saying, if there are two theories that explain exactly the same thing take the one that is simple and therefore I will stick with SM! On the question of unification, I will post more tomorrow if you want me to continue ranting. For now it will suffice to say we are not anywhere near the end of the end road and maybe the mystery never ends! Tired of ranting, Just Cause P.S. What do you do Viking? You said EM in your post, do you mean electromagnetic? Does that then mean you are an electrical engineer?

Hello Viking, nice to see you mate and welcome aboard the most ‘sophisticated forum’! Well sophist, Somalinet allows all of its users to express their opinions without the fear of their posts being deleted. That is called freedom of speech my dear sophist in my book. It’s unfortunate and regrettable some of the members were abusing the freedom and the privilege that was extending to them. Furthermore, I don’t think in my humble opinion that God or the prophet needs defending from such ignorant people, thus is pointless deleting the posts of such people. By deleting their posts, you are assuring them, that they are important and deserve your attention. By the way, who gave the moderators the right to judge what is acceptable and what is not? I don’t know how well you think you know me from the forums. But I assure you I try not offend others (as I don’t like to be offended) and I respect other people’s beliefs without necessarily believing in them. What is more, I have been around the Somalinet forum since August 2001, I have contributed less than 100 posts, and that is because I only contribute to posts that I find interesting and do this when I have the time. On the question of, is Farah and Sophist the same person? Well I will let my mind indulge in it. But I warn you though I have a weird mind which goes into over drive; so you could save this poor soul the hassle and just give him major hints (since he is also known to be slow at best of times). To illustrate by what I mean by overdrive, I shall give you an example here. During my undergrad at university, the lectures who taught us particle physics would come in and wave their hands around and I was lost in thought imaging what the particles looked like. From there I developed a mental picture of the subatomic world, when someone today says, a ‘pomeron’ or ‘j/psi’ I have a mental picture of these particles but this picture is completely wrong. The purpose of it though is to stop my mind from over drive! Therefore, mate my mind is in your hands! By the way, have you read ‘Being and Nothingness’? I have tried but quit half way through since I could not understand what Sartre was on about half the time! Just Cause

Hi Yasmine, I am glad to hear you are wearing Hijab for reasons other than being political symbol. Before we go any further let me just say I am not a female, thus you don’t have to address me as sis! No nation is secular in every sense of the word for the simple reason; the secularism of every society is derived from their religious heritage and in the case of France, this happens to be Christianity. Hence, why they will celebrate and continue to celebrate these holidays even though majority of its citizens are not even practising Christians. I am not in favour of governments of big brother type or live in a nanny state. However, we have to acknowledge most of the times democratically elected governments introduce legislations that are popular with their citizens and in France; the majority of the population (even half of the Muslim population) favour this legislation. Therefore, this is what gives the government the right to illegalize the Hijab and other religious symbols. On the other hand, in Turkey the majority of the people are not in favour of the ban and therefore, I say we should focus our energies there. Just Cause

Hi Sophist, Thanks for the very cautious welcome and as you can tell I am already a member but the big question is do I want to hang around this place or not? Let me tell you something about me Sophist, I hate sophistication because is just another form of pretence. Are you pissed cause I pointed out the title of your story is browed from Jean-Paul Sartre’s book Being and Nothingness; or are you pissed on the fact that I have a genuine question, is Farah and Sophist the same person! I would suggest that you answer these issues rather than saying do I have what it takes to post here or not. That my dear sophist is an issue, which only time will—given a choice though, I would rather post at the place you called ‘wretched’. Tell me, who regards this place highly and on who is rating it you or some other independent body? Forever a working class hero, Just Cause P.S. If you happen to be Farah, I am still waiting for your piece on why you think experiment is not a good indicator of the truth. If you are not Farah, accept my sincere apologies.

Bashi, “What a lady! You have just earn my respect Wallaahi. Good for u Yasmine.” Are you telling me you respect Yasmine now just because she wears Hijab? If I were to extrapolate your logic here, will it be fair to say you do not respect Muslim women who do not wear Hijab for whatever reason? That is bullocks mate; you should respect people for who they are and not what they are wearing. Yasmine you are right, for a Muslim woman Hijab is a compulsory, having said that she still has the right whether to wear it or not. Just like, she has the right to believe or not to believe. If you are wearing Hijab as a political symbol then do not bother, because I do not think from Islamic point of view that was/is the intention of wearing Hijab. But hey you are free to wear whatever pleases you and express yourself in any form or shape—provided you are not harming anyone or breaking any laws of the country where you live. I don’t agree with France for simple reason they wont be able to achieve what this law aims for; treating its entire citizens equal in the eyes of the law and speed up the process of integration. The reason for this is, different faith groups would set up their own schools and thus, integration would never take place. Hence, the opposite of what the law was intended will take place! But still they have every right to protect their secular system and let us remember is what the majority of the French people want! Furthermore, in a democracy the majority rule. How come nobody cried or demonstrated when Turkey an Islamic nation implemented this ban over two decades ago or even today nobody is saying anything about Turkey, enlighten me people? In other words, what is the difference between Turkey and France? Just Cause

"...the auther himself has benifited from the west, and many of us are int the west benifiting from them, we better be partial not Zealous religious fanatics who because of their hate of AMeriacan invasion in Iraq and dominaton of the midddle east unleash all of forms of prejudices to ther west and the thinking pattern in the west." Hi Zaylici, I try to stay from politics based on religion or ethnicity for the simple reason, they classify people like insects and thus a whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labelled "good" or "bad"! Having said that, I could not help myself from adding my two cents to this post and they are; you are one 100% right in what you said above. However, let me point out one fact, I am different to you since I lean towards the left of the political spectrum and that makes a liberal-- which you said you are not! Just Cause

Hi All, I am new here and in the processes of whether I should move here from Somalinet or not. As some of you might be aware, at Somalinet forums, we are having flooding problems and our so-called moderators are not doing anything about it. Therefore, for the time being I will hang around both forums and see how it goes. Some of the characters here as far as I can tell are members of Somalinet too. I am confused though, is Sophist and Farah the same person??? Any theories?? Sophists, could not you have come up within an original title for you short story other than using Jean-Paul Sartre title from his book, Being and Nothingness?? Just Cause