Slashdot Mirror
The Big Bang Vs. the Big Rumble
WBUR radio in Boston hosts a talk with two physicists, Alan Guth and Neil Turok, who represent, respectively, the consensus theory of the inflationary Big Bang and an upstart theory of the initiation of the universe in the collision of two three-dimensional "branes." Turok and Paul Steinhardt developed their "Ekpyrotic proposal" out of the mathematics behind string theory. In the audio the two physicists are perhaps more respectful of one another's views than the host wishes them to be. If you ignore the "let's you and him fight" framing of the debate, you will hear some interesting physics elucidated.
if u listen to this show regularly, as I do, living in boston, u know that the host has this irritating and moronic habit of lowering his voice and trying to invest everything with big, earthshaking importance.
he is also a right wingnut conservative. Like other NPR (national peurile rightwing radio) hosts, his right wing bias is clearly seen when a liberal caller makes some perfectly reasoanble , if not correct, suggestion, like american attacks in the mid east prior to 9/11 irritated people, or that the failure of the american auto industry is not due to workers, but due to the astonishing incompetance of ceos. when somenone makes one of these comments, he has this incredibly arrogant way of dismissing them, by ignoring the comment, and directing a question to one of his guests that implicitly dismisses the liberal callers question as idiotic. perhpahs the effort by boston university to turn its station into a profit center is driving his views.
basically the 90s version of some middlebrow magazine like readers digest or american heritage.
yeah, i really do dislike him: he has this incredible forum, and does so little with it