At very high energy levels, the electromagnetic and weak forces were one and the same

 "There are four known forces in the universe: gravity; electromagnetism; the strong force, which binds the nuclei of atoms together; and the weak force, which causes radioactive decay. The first two forces have been known for centuries, but the other two were discovered only in the first two decades of the 20th century.
Over the next decades, physicists struggled to find a theory that would account for all the forces, or what Einstein called a theory of everything. Though there were significant discoveries, particularly of new particles with exotic names like quarks (the components of protons and neutrons in the nucleus) and leptons (which include electrons but also more esoteric particles called muons and taus), a unified theory or model remained elusive.

In 1967, Dr. Weinberg began using something called gauge theory to study the interactions in weak forces, which had not been successfully explained up to that point.
Gauge theory had been developed in the 19th century by James Clerk Maxwell, a British physicist, in his seminal work to explain electromagnetism. In the 1950s, it was used by Robert Mills and Chen Ning Yang, a Chinese American physicist, who later won the Nobel Prize, to understand strong-force interactions.
But Dr. Weinberg’s application of gauge theory to the weak force soon ran into a problem.
Electromagnetism is a force that acts at large distances, but the weak force acts only at very short distances — smaller than the nucleus of an atom. In electromagnetism, when two particles — say, electrons — collide, they exchange a massless neutral particle called a photon, which is also known as a gauge boson. If two particles collide because of the weak force, gauge theory requires — because of the short distances of the interaction — that the gauge bosons that are exchanged be massive and possibly electrically charged.
Fortunately, several years earlier, physicists had come up with a way to generate mass for gauge bosons called the Higgs Mechanism. It was named for Peter Higgs, a British physicist, and it predicted the existence of a previously unknown particle that is responsible for giving other particles their mass. The particle was given the name the Higgs boson, and its discovery, in 2012, brought Dr. Higgs and his colleague François Englert the 2013 Nobel Prize.

Using this new idea, Dr. Weinberg was able to create a model in which weak interactions produced massive, at least by atomic standards, gauge boson particles. He called them W and Z bosons.
His theory also predicted that in some collisions — for example, between two electrically neutral particles like a neutron and a neutrino — a neutral current, as opposed to a charged one, would be created, indicating that there had been an exchange of a Z boson.
Dr. Weinberg theorized that there was a link between the photon and the W and Z bosons, suggesting that they were created by the same force. The conclusion was that, at very high energy levels, the electromagnetic and weak forces were one and the same. It was a step on the path to the unified theory that physicists had been searching for."

Vaidas Saldžiūnas: For Migrant Crisis Troubled Lithuania - Another Test: Russia is Starting to Concentrate Its Military

 The worst thing is that only Vaidas Saldžiūnas sees it. He is particularly nervous about one Russian missile loaded with a heavy nuclear weapon. It only flashes with small lights and is aimed directly at Vaidas Saldžiūnas' bed. Oh, what will happen now?

Vaidas Saldžiūnas: Migrantų krizės įaudrintai Lietuvai – dar vienas išbandymas: Rusija jau pradeda telkti pajėgas

 Blogiausia, kad tai mato tik Vaidas Saldžiūnas. Ypač jį nervuoja viena rusų raketa, pakrauta sunkiu branduoliniu ginklu. Ji tik mirksi lemputėmis ir yra nutaikyta tiesiai į Vaido Saldžiūno lovą. Oi, kas dabar bus?

Kinijos įmonėms naudinga žinoti Pekino prioritetus.

 O Lietuvoje buvę komunistai, tapę verslininkais, garsiai juokiasi, išgirdę žodžius: gerovės valstybė. Lietuvos verslininkams užtenka rūpintis tik jų, verslininkų gerove. Kinijos komunistams to mažai:

„Kinijos viduje prioritetas yra sumažinti nelygybę ir skatinti tai, ką partija vadina „kolektyvine gerove“. Tarptautiniu mastu - valdyti geopolitinę įtampą su JAV. Kinijos ekonomikos augimui lėtėjant ir galimybėms mažėjant, didėjanti šalies nelygybė tampa laiko bomba partijos akyse, kuri yra paranojinė dėl socialinių neramumų ir bet kokio skepticizmo dėl jos teisėtumo. Technologijų įmonės vis dažniau kaltinamos dėl turto spragos, o jų steigėjai kritikuojami, kaip piktadariai, kurie naudojasi vartotojais ir verčia savo darbuotojus dirbti ilgas valandas. 

Pekinas nebuvo patenkintas praėjusiais metais, kai kai kurios didelės interneto kompanijos daug investavo į programas, kurios parduoda daržoves vietos gyventojams. Taip yra todėl, kad programėlės galėtų pakeisti „mamos ir tėvelio“ daržovių stendus, iš kurių pragyvena daug mažesnes pajamas gaunančių žmonių. 

Pekinas taip pat sekė milijardieriaus Džeko Ma kontroliuojamą finansinių technologijų milžinę „Ant Group“ iš dalies dėl to, kad manė, jog „Ant“ jaunimui per lengvai duosa asmenines paskolas, sukurdama socialinį nepasitenkinimą. Vyriausybė kovojo ir su internetine švietimo industrija, kuri, pareigūnų manymu, pelnosi iš tėvų nerimo. Tai savo ruožtu padidino vaikų auginimo išlaidas ir taip pakenkė naujajai Pekino politikai, skatinančiai poras turėti daugiau, nei vieną vaiką. 

Balandžio mėnesį vienas vyriausybės pareigūnas praleido 12 valandų, kaip patiekalų tiekėjas, tik uždirbdamas apie 6 dolerius. Tai sukėlė plačias diskusijas apie tai, kaip blogai internetinės platformos elgėsi su savo darbuotojais. 

Tencentas, „Didi“ ir elektroninės prekybos milžinė „Alibaba“, vadinamos „platformos“ kompanijomis, dabar vyriausybės akimis yra antrarūšiai piliečiai, man sakė Pekine įsikūręs rizikos kapitalo specialistas. (Pirmos klasės įmonės kuria „tikras“ technologijas, tokias, kaip puslaidininkiai ir dirbtinis intelektas, kurios gali padėti Kinijai tapti technologiškai savarankiškesne, sakė jis.) 

Vyriausybei platformos turi per daug vartotojų, per daug duomenų, per daug kapitalo ir per daug daug galios, sakė jis. Per pastaruosius šešis mėnesius technologijų gigantai ir kai kurie žvaigždždės - verslininkai pažadėjo savo lojalumą ir gestais, dalydami pinigus ir atsistatydinę. „Tencent“ balandžio mėnesį paskelbė išleisianti 7,8 mlrd. dolerių ekologiškai energijai, švietimui ir kaimų atgaivinimui. Balandžio mėnesį, praėjus keturioms dienoms po to, kai ponas Xi aplankė savo alma mater, Tsinghua universitetą, Pekine, Wang Xing, patiekalų pristatymo bendrovės „Meituan“ įkūrėjas ir Tsinghua absolventas, įkūrė fondą universitete. Birželį ponas Wangas savo fondui paaukojo daugiau nei 2 mlrd. dolerių vertės akcijų. 

Praėjusį mėnesį „Tencent“ verslo padalinys pranešė, kad dabar jo darbuotojai turi išeiti iš biuro iki 18 val. trečiadieniais ir 21 val. kitomis darbo dienomis. Šį mėnesį „ByteDance“ paskelbė, kad panaikins reikalavimą dirbti kas antrą savaitę šeštadieniais - tai įprasta praktika daugelyje Kinijos kompanijų“.

For the Chinese companies, it’s helpful to know Beijing’s priorities.

 

 And the former Communists in Lithuania, who became entrepreneurs, are laughing out loud when they hear the words: the welfare state. It is enough for Lithuanian entrepreneurs to take care only of their own welfare. For Chinese Communists that is too little:

 "Domestically, in China priority is to reduce inequality and promote what the party calls “collective prosperity.” Internationally, it is managing the geopolitical tension with the United States.
As China’s economic growth slows and opportunities dwindle, the country’s rising inequality is becoming a time bomb in the eyes of the party, which is paranoid about social unrest and any skepticism about its legitimacy. And the tech companies are increasingly being blamed for the wealth gap, with their founders criticized as villains who take advantage of consumers and force their employees to work long hours.
Beijing was not happy last year when some big internet companies invested heavily in apps that sell vegetables to local residents. That’s because the apps could replace the mom-and-pop vegetable stands where many lower-income people make a living.

Beijing also went after Ant Group, the financial technology giant controlled by the billionaire Jack Ma, partly because it believed that Ant made it too easy for young people to take out personal loans, building up social discontent.
The government cracked down on the online education industry, too, which officials believe profits from playing on the anxieties of parents. That, in turn, has increased the cost of raising children, thus jeopardizing Beijing’s new policy of encouraging couples to have more than one child.
In April, one government official spent 12 hours as a meal delivery worker, only to make about $6. That set off widespread discussions about how badly online platforms treated their workers.
Tencent, Didi and the e-commerce giant Alibaba — known as “platform” companies — are now second-class citizens in the eyes of the government, a Beijing-based venture capitalist told me. (First-class companies develop “real” technologies like semiconductors and artificial intelligence that can help China become more self-reliant technologically, he said.) For the government, the platforms have too many users, too much data, too much capital and too much power, he said.

In the past six months, the tech giants and some star entrepreneurs have pledged their loyalty and made gestures with money and resignations. Tencent announced in April that it would spend $7.8 billion on green energy, education and village revitalization.
In April, four days after Mr. Xi visited his alma mater, Tsinghua University, in Beijing, Wang Xing, founder of the meal-delivery company Meituan and also a Tsinghua graduate, set up a foundation at the university. In June, Mr. Wang donated shares that were worth more than $2 billion to his own foundation.

A business unit of Tencent said last month that its employees were now required to leave the office by 6 p.m. on Wednesdays and 9 p.m. on other weekdays. ByteDance announced this month that it would abolish the requirement of working on Saturdays every other week, a common practice at many Chinese companies."

„Lyft“ kartu su „Ford“ ir savaeigio automobilio startuoliu siūlys pasivažinėti Majamyje

  „Ford Motor“ ir jo dukterinė įmonė „Argo AI“ užmezgė aljansą su „Lyft“, siekdami pradėti siūlyti važiavimą savaeigiais automobiliais. 

„Ford“ tikisi, kad šiemet Majamyje pradės eksploatuoti savaeigius automobilius per „Lyft“ užsakymo tarnybą. Transporto priemonės bus aprūpintos „Argo“ savaiminio vairavimo technologija, tačiau vis tiek atsarginis vairuotojas bus prie vairo. 

„Pereiti nuo bandymo etapo į komercinę paslaugą, nors ir toliau prie vairo naudojate saugos operatorius, yra didelis žingsnis“, - tinklaraščio įraše apie partnerystę rašė „Argo“ vadovas Bryanas Salesky. „Bet eiti iš ten pasiūlyti be vairuotojo transporto priemonių yra dar didesnis žingsnis. Tai reikalauja patvirtinti, kad ši technologija pasiekia savarankiško vairavimo lygį, kuris laikomas saugesniu, nei šiandien matome gatvėse “. 

Trys bendrovės tikisi, kad kitais metais Teksase, Ostine, galės veikti savaeigiai automobiliai. Jos siekia, kad Majamyje ir Ostine važinėtų kelios dešimtys automobilių ir tikisi, kad per penkerius metus keliuose miestuose bus apie 1000. 

Pagal partnerystę „Lyft“ užims 2,5 proc. „Argo“ akcijų. Savo ruožtu „Lyft“ sutiko dalytis surinktais duomenimis apie pasidalijimo važiavimu operacijas su „Ford“ ir „Argo“. „Ford“ ir „Volkswagen“ priklauso maždaug 40 procentų „Argo“. 

„Waymo“, autonominio vairavimo įmonė, priklausanti „Google“ patronuojančiai bendrovei „Alphabet“, keletą metų testavo ribotą vairavimo be vairuotojų paslaugą Finikse. „Argo“ išbandė apie 150 autonominių transporto priemonių šešiuose Amerikos miestuose, taip pat Vokietijoje“. 

Lyft will team up with Ford and a self-driving car start-up to offer rides in Miami

"Ford Motor and its autonomous-driving affiliate, Argo AI, have formed an alliance with Lyft in an effort to begin offering rides in self-driving cars.
Ford expects to begin operating self-driving cars in Miami through Lyft’s ride-hailing service this year. The vehicles will be outfitted with Argo’s self-driving technology but will still have someone at the steering wheel for safety.
“Going from the testing phase to a commercial service, while still using safety operators behind the wheel, is a big step,” Argo’s chief executive, Bryan Salesky, wrote in a blog post about the partnership. “But to go from there to offering driverless vehicles is an even bigger step. It requires validating that the technology is achieving a level of self-driving performance deemed safer than what we see on the streets today.”
The three companies hope to have self-driving cars operating in Austin, Texas, next year. They aim to have a few dozen cars operating in Miami and Austin and hope to have about 1,000 on the road across multiple cities within five years.

Under the partnership, Lyft will take a 2.5 percent equity stake in Argo. In return, Lyft has agreed to share data it has collected about ride-sharing operations with Ford and Argo. Ford and Volkswagen each own about 40 percent of Argo.
Waymo, the autonomous-driving company owned by Google’s parent, Alphabet, has been testing a limited driverless ride-hailing service in Phoenix for several years. Argo has been testing about 150 autonomous vehicles in six American cities as well as in Germany."