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[elainegrey]

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1007.1750: Cosmological Models with No Big Bang
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Big Bang Abandoned in New Model of the Universe
A new cosmology successfully explains the accelerating expansion of the universe without dark energy; but only if the universe has no beginning and no end.

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Aptocracy from http://www.googlizationofeverything.com/2010/08/google_and_aptocracy.php

... one of the paradigmatic modern American values: merit conceived as technical competence. America, Walter Kirn writes, is run by "Aptocrats." These are people who excel at regimented procedures such as standardized tests and other forms of numerically quantifiable achievement. They conform to regimented expectations of excellence and clearly see every rung they must ascend on the ladder of success. "As defined by the institutions responsible for spotting and training America's brightest youth, this 'aptitude' is a curious quality," Kirn writes. "It doesn't reflect the knowledge in your head, let alone the wisdom in your soul, but some quotient of promise and raw mental agility thought to be crucial to academic success and, by extension, success in general. All of this makes for a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more aptitude that a young person displays, the more likely it is that she or he will have a chance to win the golden tickets--fine diplomas, elite appointments and so on--that permit you to lead the Aptocratic establishment and set the terms by which it operates."44 Aptocracy, on which Kirn elaborates in his funny memoir, Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever, rewards a large measure of gumption in addition to its strata of otherwise "fair" technologies of assessment (test scores, diplomas, and certifications)

Google may be the perfect realization of Aptocracy. Google hires the best of the best from America's top university technological programs. Even those who work in marketing and sales must demonstrate aptitude via tests and gamelike interview questions.45 This focus on standardized, predictable tasks as the measure of achievement is ostensibly fair. Success in America no longer depends so heavily on social status, ethnicity, or gender. Those things still matter, and once in a while a stunningly incompetent exception circumvents the Aptocracy and rises to power , as George W. Bush did. But the Aptocracy has transformed America largely for the better over the past forty years. It has also created the environment in which Google could gestate, grow, thrive, and dominate.46