On 12 July 2008 Michael Sylvester wrote: >Some people are upset with the term Black Hole. >They think that it has racist implications...
I couldn't resist following this up, thinking it was probably a molehill being blown up into a mountain. I still think it is, but unfortunately one of the principals involved in the original incident, Texas Commissioner John Wiley Price, has chosen to expand on the subject in terms that do little to enhance his reputation -- at least in regard to his knowledge of physics! On the westward side of the pond you presumably are familiar with the following that I came up with: The original incident, at a Dallas County meeting discussing parking tickets: http://tinyurl.com/6yy37g In a later interview John Wiley Price says of black holes: "It's just a scientific phenomenon. White scientist - could just as easily have called it a white hole. Why didn't they?" [...] "Why does it get lost in a black hole? All because a scientist says it... I mean I wonder what color was the scientist." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-akk3gog34&feature=related It goes without saying that the term black hole is entirely appropriate, and calling the astonomical phenomenon a "white hole" would make no sense at all. However there is a solution. Following Stephen Hawking, we could get used to saying that an issue lost in a bureacracy has disappeared into a singularity: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,380143,00.html Somehow I don't think it will catch on. Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London http://www.esterson.org --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
