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August 8, 2013

The sky in the microwave field, as photographed by the European Space Agency's Planck Space Telescope. These speckled structures of the cosmic background radiation, the oldest light in the universe, are visible at high latitudes on the map. The strip in the center is the plane of our galaxy - the Milky Way. Photo: European Space Agency.

Is a large concentration of dark energy at the beginning of the universe responsible for accelerating the expansion of the universe that began 7 billion years ago and is felt today?

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network of molecules. Illustration: shutterstock

Facebook of molecules

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2 Dzhokhar Tsarnaev - self-photograph, image processing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev - self-photograph, image processing Share 0 In the article "A Beautiful Object" from last week, Yaki Manschenfreund justified the criticism of the photo of the Boston-based danger Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the cover of "Rolling" Stone", and concluded that presenting it as a "beautiful object" insults the victims and their families, and basically any person with moral sensitivity. I liked Munchenfreund's analysis, but I do not agree with his conclusion. I tried to understand why the editors of "Rolling Stone" chose this particular photo, and in my humble opinion the explanation is quite simple and obvious: Tsarnaev looks like the cute neighbor's boy in the photo, a sensitive poet or a gigolo after a night of pleasure - but the editors of the magazine tell us: he is not what he is seen. He is a murderer. monster. The inscription on the cover leaves no room for doubt: "The terrorist. How a popular and promising student was failed by his family, degenerated into radical Islam and became a monster." The caption confronts the reader with the meaning of the image, balances it and attaches the proper interpretation to it. This is a message whose effect is much stronger precisely because of the controversial use of the photo, but the very claim that this photo of Tsarnaev humiliates the victims of the murder and belittles their relatives is demagogic and manipulative. And since when can the physical characteristics of a murderer "despise" or "respect" his victims? In addition, it is an approach that expresses a flat, binary view, according to which beautiful = good, ugly = bad, from the outside and from the inside. When "Rolling Stone" publishes a beautiful representation of a bad man, it breaks down the equation and builds a complex and even deceptive picture of reality. Perhaps he wants to convey a message to his readers: you will be able to understand this complex reality without us having to illustrate it for you with simplistic representations. By the way, the same photo of Tsarnaev was published in May prominently on the front page of the "New York Times", and even then received barrages of criticism. The presentation of Tsarnaev as a "beautiful object" raises another issue: this is not a press photo, but a self-portrait. At a certain point in time, Tsarnaev chose to present himself this way (as do all his peers). This self-photograph is seen as serving Tsarnaev's personal-subjective agenda, rather than as legitimate objective journalistic documentation. From this point of view, the criticism is about the privilege that was allegedly granted to Tsarnaev - to make use of this biased image representation of him, and to burn himself in the collective consciousness in a way that contradicts, or at least does not coincide, with his identification as a murderer. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the cover of "Rolling Stone", August 2013 The Boston Marathon victim Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the cover of "Rolling Stone", August 2013

The voice of the skeptic - the crime scene, science

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Minister of Science, Technology and Space Jacob Perry met in his office with Chinese Ambassador Gao Yanping, 7/8/2013. Photo: Ministry of Science

China Cluster: The Chinese Embassy met with Minister Perry; Israel's ambassador to China will visit a delegation that is building a solar house there

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