What is a Higgs boson and did CERN find one or not?

For the past fifty years physicists have had an 'almost' complete theory that predicts how elementary particles interact that has become known as the 'standard model'. There was just one lousy little problem: Electrons have mass and the simple version of the standard model could not explain why this is so.

Over the years many people have proposed theories that attempted to explain how certain particles have mass. Most of which have fallen by the wayside as they have been disproved by experimental results. The Higgs boson is a particle whose existence is predicted by a particularly elegant theory which would explain most of the missing pieces in the standard model.

Contrary to the press version of the experiment, the Higgs boson does not give particles mass, nor does it explain why they have mass. Rather the existence of the Higgs boson is predicted by the Higgs mechanism which in turn explains why electrons and certain other particles can have mass.

Adding the Higgs mechanism to the 'standard model' of particle physics provides a complete theory of quantum mechanics that is consistent with (almost) all the experimental observations to date. That does not necessarily make the theory 'true' but it certainly makes it a useful theory.

So did CERN find one?

The short answer is that what CERN has observed is consistent with the existence of a Higgs boson but that the number of candidate 'Higgs events' falls short of the number required to announce the result with more than about 50% certainty.

A slightly longer answer is that experiments like ATLAS and CMS produce results that are ambiguous. The particle is highly unstable lasting only a fraction of a second before it decays. The experiments cannot see the particle directly, they can only see the debris left when the particle decays. A single event has multiple explanations. The decay of a Higgs particle might have given rise to a particular set of tracks but so might many other processes. The only way to be sure is to perform the experiment over and over again until there are enough events to distinguish statistically.

If you are interested in the real physics here, I found this pice by David Derbes to be a pretty useful primer on the subject [H/T Atrios.] Read the rest of this post...

The Hill: Dem lawmaker blasts Obama as "arrogant, alienating"

Here's Democratic House member Dennis Cardoza (CA) writing in The Hill:

After observing President Obama for the last three years, it has become obvious to me that the president might prefer to be a university professor rather than do the job he holds today. While he might not realize that he feels this way, the evidence is very clear to those who work with or watch him closely. ...

In the president’s first year in office, his administration suffered from what I call “idea disease.” Every week, and sometimes almost every day, the administration rolled out a new program for the country. There was no obvious prioritization and, after the rollout, very little effort to actually pass the latest idea/imperative/plan/edict. ... This lack of focus also made it easy for congressional Republicans to stall and foil many of President Obama’s best initiatives — which they did with relish!

Early in his administration, President/Professor Obama repeatedly referred to “teaching moments.” He would admonish staff, members of Congress and the public, in speeches and in private, about what they could learn from him. Rather than the ideological or corrupt “I’m above the law” attitudes of some past administrations, President Obama projected an arrogant “I’m right, you’re wrong” demeanor that alienated many potential allies. Furthermore, the president concentrated power within the White House, leaving Cabinet members with no other option but to dutifully carry out policies with which they had limited input in crafting and might very well disagree. From my experience, this was especially true in the environmental, resources, housing and employment areas. Not by coincidence, these areas have also been responsible for much of the president’s harshest critiques.

He adds that Obama's "'arms-length' attitude" has cost him much, both in wins and in empathy. For example, "A senior housing official recently told me ... [Obama] had personally never met with a homeowner who had been foreclosed on."

Read on; there are other examples.

While Rep. Cardoza still prefers to vote Democratic in 2012 (duh), he's concerned that Obama's virtual "student body" (us) may not.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Chick-fil-A: Homophobic and racist

We knew Chick-fil-A was ragingly homophobic, but now they're racist too.  I wonder where their employees learned that intolerance was an acceptable Chick-Fil-A value? Read the rest of this post...

Test vaccine shows success fighting breast cancer

This has the potential to be very big news if the success continues when they start testing humans.

Scientists in the United States said Monday they have developed a vaccine that attacks tumors in mice, a breakthrough they hope will help fight breast, colon, ovarian and pancreatic cancer in humans.

Although studies on mice often do not translate directly into remedies that work for human subjects, researchers are hopeful because of the strength of the vaccine and the particular approach it takes.

"This vaccine elicits a very strong immune response," said study co-senior author Geert-Jan Boons, a professor of chemistry and a researcher in the University of Georgia Cancer Center.

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Union workers in Seattle won’t be paid for lost shift due to Occupy protest

The Occupy Seattle team is claiming that the union employees at the port didn't lose their pay. In fact, according to the Stranger, they did.

Considering the scope of yesterday's west coast port protests, I'd have to call shutting down all or parts of four ports a bit of a success. But when they're impacting the livelihoods of fellow members of the 99 Percent, Occupiers need to honestly own up to the consequences of their actions, even if they're unintended.

So here's a free PR tip to the Occupy Seattle media team: It's more effective to spin the facts than to ignore them.

Some folks got upset when I wrote yesterday that this port action was giving me pause. It seems I had a point. Fancy that. Read the rest of this post...

Real estate flippers had larger role in crisis than previously thought

The article from MSNBC is interesting, but it's not accurate to say that flippers are "largely to blame for the recession." Clearly they were important and apparently more important than experts thought, but let's put the primary blame for this recession where it belongs, with the financial industry. That's the industry that lobbied Washington to scrap the rules that worked for decades. Liar loans weren't created by buyers. They were created by the financial industry so they could sell more trash and get commissions and fees.

Buyers, especially flippers, deserve their fair share of blame, but to ignore the structural changes in the system that happened due to specific policies is dishonest. Those structural changes did happen thanks to Washington with high approval by both parties. As much as the political class would like to ignore that reality, it's the way it is.

Researchers with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that investors who used low-down-payment, subprime credit to purchase multiple residential properties helped inflate home prices and are largely to blame for the recession. The researchers said their findings focused on an "undocumented" dimension of the housing market crisis that had been previously overlooked as officials focused on how to contain the financial crisis, not what caused it.

More than a third of all U.S. home mortgages granted in 2006 went to people who already owned at least one house, according to the report. In Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada, where average home prices more than doubled from 2000 to 2006, investors made up nearly half of all mortgage-backed purchases during the housing bubble. Buyers owning three or more properties represented the fastest-growing segment of homeowners during that time.

"This may have allowed the bubble to inflate further, which caused millions of owner-occupants to pay more if they wanted to buy a home for their family," the researchers noted.

Read the rest of this post...

Weaker jobs outlook ahead

The chaos in Europe and the continuing austerity related problems in the UK will certainly have an impact on jobs. Making matters worse are the reports of closing factories in China due to lesser demand for goods in the West. It's still a mystery how this won't have a negative impact on the US so let's see how that goes. Reuters:

The hiring outlook dipped from the fourth quarter in nearly every European economy Manpower polls, with a few exceptions including Italy and the Netherlands. In Spain and Greece, the net employment outlook is negative, meaning more employers expect to cut jobs than to add them.

Job prospects in France and Germany softened from the fourth quarter, but remain positive, Manpower's survey of 65,000 hiring managers found. The German finance and business services sectors report the strongest demand for staff in that economy.

India and Japan were the only Asian economies where hiring prospects are expected to improve next quarter. Japan's mining and construction sectors show the strongest outlook as the country recovers from a devastating March earthquake.

Read the rest of this post...

Hedges: "This is what revolution looks like"

I bring this Chris Hedges piece to your attention, not for its passion or exhortation, but for a few of its informative passages.

Frankly, the idea of living through revolution scares the bejesus out of me, and should frighten you as well. Revolution is the worst way to resolve social disputes, and only occurs when one side (in our case, the rentier creditor class) forces everyone else in the country to resort to it.

Here's Hedges on the necessary precursors to revolution (my emphasis & paragraphing, because I wanted the list to look like a list):

The historian Crane Brinton in his book “Anatomy of a Revolution” laid out the common route to revolution. The preconditions for successful revolution, Brinton argued, are

▪ discontent that affects nearly all social classes,
▪ widespread feelings of entrapment and despair,
▪ unfulfilled expectations,
▪ a unified solidarity in opposition to a tiny power elite,
▪ a refusal by scholars and thinkers to continue to defend the actions of the ruling class,
▪ an inability of government to respond to the basic needs of citizens,
▪ a steady loss of will within the power elite itself and defections from the inner circle,
▪ a crippling isolation that leaves the power elite without any allies or outside support and, finally,
▪ a financial crisis.

Our corporate elite, as far as Brinton was concerned, has amply fulfilled these preconditions. But it is Brinton’s next observation that is most worth remembering.

Revolutions always begin, he wrote, by making impossible demands that if the government met would mean the end of the old configurations of power. The second stage, the one we have entered now, is the unsuccessful attempt by the power elite to quell the unrest and discontent through physical acts of repression.

That whole quote is worth looking at twice.

First, check the list I bulleted. Then check the bolded quote immediately above — "making impossible demands that if the government met would mean the end of the old configurations of power" has a real meaning. It means, asking politely to fix the political order and end the war on the lower social orders.

It's important that requests for changes of this magnitude be escalated from ... well, requests. It's important that the offending power elite say No at each stage prior to escalation. (Why? One, you may just get lucky, and get a Yes. How good would that be? And two, you always want to make it their fault for refusing; mass support for revolution depends on legitimacy, both real and in appearance.)

Hedges adds this from his personal experience:

I have seen my share of revolts, insurgencies and revolutions, from the guerrilla conflicts in the 1980s in Central America to the civil wars in Algeria, the Sudan and Yemen, to the Palestinian uprising to the revolutions in East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania as well as the wars in the former Yugoslavia. George Orwell wrote that all tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but that once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force. We have now entered the era of naked force. The vast million-person bureaucracy of the internal security and surveillance state will not be used to stop terrorism but to try and stop us.

Despotic regimes in the end collapse internally. Once the foot soldiers who are ordered to carry out acts of repression, such as the clearing of parks or arresting or even shooting demonstrators, no longer obey orders, the old regime swiftly crumbles. When the aging East German dictator Erich Honecker was unable to get paratroopers to fire on protesting crowds in Leipzig, the regime was finished. The same refusal to employ violence doomed the communist governments in Prague and Bucharest. I watched in December 1989 as the army general that the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu had depended on to crush protests condemned him to death on Christmas Day.

He's saying what I've been saying (and not saying alone) — at some point, those militarized union police will face their own Tahrir Square moment. Will they fire?

One final point: The Occupy Movement must be and remain non-violent. Hedges agrees:

[D]efections [among the ruling class] are advanced through a rigid adherence to nonviolence, a refusal to respond to police provocation and a verbal respect for the blue-uniformed police, no matter how awful they can be while wading into a crowd and using batons as battering rams against human bodies.

Play to win, but keep it clean. Their hubris — and their violence — are the Movement's best friend.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Did Romney adopt KKK slogan: "Keep America American"?

UPDATE: After two days of refusing to respond to reporters' questions about this story, the Romney people are now claiming that the phrase he's been using is "Keep America America" instead of "Keep America American." (The latter was reported by the Los Angeles Times.) Note that the Romney campaign has offered no proof of their claim as to what Romney "really" said, and the media, oddly, and typically, is asking for none.  Putting aside the discussion of whether "Keep America America" is a nuance without a difference, it seems odd that Romney's people didn't simply tell the press this from the first phone call two days ago.  Instead, the Romney campaign has been stonewalling the media for two days, permitting the story to grow and grow, without comment.  It just seems odd, if in fact Romney is now claiming he never said it in the first place - why didn't they just admit that up front and end the speculation?  And why are they offering no proof of what he "really" said - none of the speeches were written out?  Really?

UPDATE: Mitt Romney appears to have flipped out on MSNBC.  They're now "apologizing" for mentioning this story and this blog.  Which is odd, because it's not entirely clear what they're apologizing for.  The story is true.  Romney used the phrase at least twice, and it is an old Ku Klux Klan slogan.  So what about the story is incorrect, or as Al Sharpton is now calling it (he works for MSNBC) "innuendo."  Innuendo?  It's a Klan slogan, he said it.

He's said it repeatedly for over a year now.  Here is Romney a year ago, using the Klan slogan in what appears to be an appearance at CPAC (I had earlier thought this was a campaign ad, it may not be - but the video is Romney using the phrase).



Romney said it again four days ago.

In an era in which it's apparently okay for Republicans to accuse President Obama of being a socialist, I guess we now need to ask if Mitt Romney is a Ku Klux Klansman.  Not whether Romney inadvertently is using the KKK's number one slogan from the 1920s on the stump, no, the Republicans would say, if this were a Democrat, that clearly the candidate was a closet member of the KKK.  So, is Mitt Romney a closet member of the KKK?  Keep in mind, that even Romney is now claiming, between the lines, that President Obama is a socialist.  So why shouldnt' America be asking if Mitt Romney is a Klansman?


(By the way, I'm waiting for the traditional media to poo-poo this and ignore it, or write it off as funny, while they freely quote the GOP candidates, and members of Congress, repeatedly calling the President a "socialist," and never write articles about how kooky or ridiculous (or un-American) that accusation is.)

Here's a Klan publication from the 1920s using Romney's slogan.

And from a book:

More from another book:

More video of Romney keeping America American. Read the rest of this post...

Gingrich proposed tax cuts would add at least $1.3 trillion to deficit

Sounds like Newt's fiscal conservatism is as sincere as his marriage vows. About the last thing the US needs now is another trillion dollars of spending on things that won't efficiently stimulate the economy (aka tax cuts) on top of what the Bush wars and policies left. All of this leads to the next step that conservatives love, which is then scream about the need to cut spending and strict austerity. Austerity in these times only delays recovery, but we already know that. Bloomberg:

The tax plan proposed by Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich would add $1.3 trillion to the U.S. budget deficit in 2015 alone, a new analysis shows, complicating his goal of balancing the government’s books.

The analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center compares the federal government’s take under Gingrich’s proposal with projected U.S. revenue if current tax law ran its course and existing income tax cuts expired as scheduled after 2012.

The study found that Gingrich’s plan to lower the top individual rate to 15 percent and eliminate taxes on capital gains and estates would push federal revenue for 2015 below the government’s fiscal 2011 collections as a share of the economy. Federal revenue is near postwar lows because of the economic downturn.

Read the rest of this post...

GOP shock jock Michael Savage offers Gingrich $1 million to withdraw - is that legal?

Offering a candidate money to stand down is one of the tools used to suppress opposition activity in banana republics. If the offer made by Michael Savage isn't against the law, it certainly should be. From the Savage Website (all caps in the original:

SAVAGE OFFERS GINGRICH $1 MILLION TO DROP OUT OF THE RACE -- WILL ANNOUNCE ON SHOW TODAY

(SUBJECT TO ALL THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS TO BE EXPRESSLY STATED BY DR. SAVAGE, INCLUDING GINGRICH DROPPING OUT WITHIN 72 HOURS OF TODAY)

Does this violate USC 18.I Ch 29 § 600?:

§ 600. PROMISE OF EMPLOYMENT OR OTHER BENEFIT FOR POLITICAL ACTIVITY

Whoever, directly or indirectly, promises any employment, position, compensation, contract, appointment, or other benefit, provided for or made possible in whole or in part by any Act of Congress, or any special consideration in obtaining any such benefit, to any person as consideration, favor, or reward for any political activity or for the support of or opposition to any candidate or any political party in connection with any general or special election to any political office, or in connection with any primary election or political convention or caucus held to select candidates for any political office, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

Read the rest of this post...

The White House Christmas Party

Me and the sis.

Following on the news that Republicans are now concerned that the President is "too" Christian (since the White House is decorated beautifully for Christmas, and apparently beauty (and Christmas) are off-limits during a Depression), it seemed like a good time to report back from the White House Holiday (read: Christmas) Party that Joe and I were invited to last Friday night.  Now I know some people are going to go all 99% on me, and that's fine.  But for the rest of you, I thought you might enjoy getting a sense of what it's like to attend the White House Christmas Party, so this post is for you.

First, there is more than just one White House Christmas Party.  In fact, from what I've been able to find, there are around a dozen, with some 12,000 guests overall (all, except the congressional party, I believe, were paid for by the DNC, so not taxpayer funds).  There are parties for White House staf, the Secret Service, members of Congress, and the media, among others (there's also a Hannukah party).  The one Joe and I were invited to was for the print media.  And it took place last Friday from 6pm to 9pm.

You arrive via the SE gate of the White House (south of the Treasury building), to a long line of people waiting to go through security (and you need to show an ID, and be checked off the guest list, just to get into that line).  I was standing with my sister Kathy (each invitee is permitted one guest, you submit your social security number and some other info in advance so they can check you out), right behind the Washington Post's Dana Milbank, who looked like he was avoiding being recognized in big black sunglasses (the sun set an hour before), but in fact had just had eye surgery.  I also had a nice chat with a London editor of the Economist, and Chris Johnson of the Washington Blade, all who were alongside me in line.

After about 15 minutes, we got to the check in, still outside, they check your ID, find you on the list, and you go next to the metal detector, which is surprisingly a lot faster, friendlier, and seemingly less intense than the airport.  After that you enter the East Wing of the White House, are greeted by members of the military in full dress uniforms, all very friendly, and you drop off your coat at the coat check.  You're then given a ticket with a time on it - ours was 7:15pm - that's when you come back to get your photo taken with the President and First Lady.

So, Kathy and I headed upstairs to go mingle and get a bite to eat before our photo.

Bill Clinton official portrait

At the top of the stairs is a large room with an official portrait of Bill Clinton on the far wall.  The Marine band orchestra is playing Christmas music. I've been to a few events at the White House and there's always been the Marine band playing, though this time it was quite a lot of them.  They were wonderful.  You're immediately greeted by a (I'm not sure what the correct terms are - waiter?) in black tie offering you wine or champagne (we opted for champagne), then you mingle.  (I posted a 4 second video, above, that I took of the Marine band orchestra - it wasn't entirely clear to me whether we could shoot video or not, the evening was "off the record" but you could take photos, so I thought it wise to keep the video short as it could have recorded off-the-record voices.)

The initial large room flows into a long hallway, below. This is the hallway you the President walking down when he holds a press conference.  At the west end of the hallway is the State Dining Room, where they hold the state dinners (it's surprisingly small), and at the other end of the hallway (the east end) is the East Room, where they hold the presidential press conferences, and other events.  Between these two rooms are the Red Room, the Blue Room, and the Green Room.

The hallways connecting the East Room and the State Dining Room.

Dinner (below) was served in the State Dining Room and the East Room, with a nice dessert spread as well (below).  I'll take you on a small tour...

East Room.  Dinner was some kind of roast (tasty), small potatoes, shrimp,
haricots verts (I believe), and I'm not sure what else - I was more interested in dessert.

Dessert which included a wonderful Cherry Pie, Apple Pie,
Tiramisu, small chocolates, Christmas cookies and more.
The cherry pie was to die for, and quite uniquely flavored.

One of the 37 Christmas trees, and a wonderful view of
the Washington Monument.

Jackie O

So, it's around 7:05pm, and Kathy and I decide to head downstairs to get in line for our photo with the First Family.  It's a long line.  And took, I don't know, maybe 20 minutes or longer to go through.  You just slowly move alone, and the White House staff was nice enough to put a table of food next to the line so guests could eat.

After a rather long wait, meandering through various rooms, you arrive in the room where the President and First Lady are.  The Marine asks you how you want to be introduced (should he use your middle name, etc) and he walks you up to the President, you say hello and shake his hand, you greet the First Lady, you all smile for the camera, and bam it's over, the Marine walks you away.  Kathy read that it's over in ten seconds.  I barely even remember the President, it goes so fast, and you're so caught up in the moment.  My recollection is much better of Mrs. Obama, who is not only really pretty in person (her photos do her a serious injustice), but she's also a lovely person.  Even in those few seconds you feel like you really want to get to know this woman, she's just so nice and chatty (and mind you, we were her 300th schmooz that hour).

Now, if the President speaks to you, you're not supposed to report the details, those are the rules.  The President and I had no conversation anyway, so there's nothing to not report.  Joe Sudbay, our deputy editor here on the blog, on the other hand, for the second year in a row did in fact have a brief but substantive conversation with the President, one the President himself initiated.  (Remember, Joe was invited to interview President Obama at the White House for AMERICAblog in October of 2010, where he asked the President about various gay-related topics, and elicited is the person who elicited the "evolving" answer from the President on the issue of gay marriage.)

Sorry, I can't report on Joe's conversations with the President at last year's and this year's Christmas parties, but let's just say that the President of the United States, more than a year after that interview, knew who Joe was (and lest you think the President's briefed on the guests beforehand, maybe he is, but there are 600 of them coming through for ten seconds a shot, over a two hour period with no break that I'm aware of - it would have to be one hell of a briefing to cover everyone.)

And then, woosh, you're out of the room, and you almost can't believe any of it happened.  Kathy told me later that she almost cried when she walked into the room with the President and the First Lady, the sense of history and pride in country was so overwhelming for her (and I have my suspicions about whether she even voted for him, so that's why I find that tidbit interesting).  I was thinking about it later, and realized the President had 300 flashbulb equivalents go off in his and the First Lady's eyes during those two hours.  Heck, it was more like 900 (I believe there were 3 flashes with our picture).  I'd be curious to ask an eye doctor if that's entirely safe for the eye.

Sitting down to eat in the Blue Room (the faces are a bit
warped from people moving while I was shooting
the panorama).

The Red Room, right next to the State Dining Room.

Panorama of the Red Room.

The Green Room.

Huge 400 pound gingerbread White House,
with Bo the dog sitting in front. There were
a lot of Bo-representations throughout the party.

Kathy really wanted to meet Arianna Huffington,
being fellow Greeks. I like Arianna, always have.
Smart as hell, and quite personable.

A view of a Christmas tree in the first room upstairs, with
the Marine band orchestra barely visible behind.

It was a very nice affair, but in all fairness, as the Republicans now - of course - are claiming that it was "too opulent" of an affair (but boy those GOP members of Congress didn't turn down the invite, did they), I've done "opulent" in Europe, long-tailed butlers and all. This Christmas Party was very nice.  It wasn't opulent.  But even if it were, it's the White House, not the local Denny's.  I want to be proud of the White House, and what it represents regardless of who's President.  I want it, expect it, to showcase our country to the world.  And last, but not least, I'd argue that during a Depression is exactly the time I want Christmas to come just as it did before, no more no less.  Life goes on.

Republicans really need to stop their war on Christmas :-)

Read the rest of this post...

Canada goes flat earth on climate change

While they have point that Kyoto without the US is bad, pulling out the day after Durban is nuts. But that's the new Canadian government. Nuts.

Canada had been expected to pull out and as a result faced international criticism at the Durban talks. Kent had said previously that signing Kyoto was one of the previous government's biggest blunders.

Kent said it would save Canada $14bn in penalties for not achieving its Kyoto targets. "To meet the targets under Kyoto for 2012 would be the equivalent of either removing every car, truck, ATV, tractor, ambulance, police car and vehicle of every kind from Canadian roads or closing down the entire farming and agriculture sector and cutting heat to every home, office, hospital, factory and building in Canada," Kent said.

Mike Hudema of Greenpeace Canada said in a statement it was a further signal that the Harper government is more concerned about protecting polluters than people.

Read the rest of this post...

UN: At least 5,000 have died in Syrian uprising

These numbers are highly likely to increase before it's over. Included in the 5,000 deaths are at least 300 children. The Guardian:

More than 5,000 people have died in the nine-month-long Syrian uprising, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said on Monday.

Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, told reporters on Monday that she told security council members of the dramatic increase in deaths during an afternoon briefing.

The death toll used by the UN in recent weeks has been around 4,000.

Pillay said she recommended that the council refer Syria to the International Criminal Court, the permanent war crimes tribunal, for investigation of possible crimes against humanity.

Read the rest of this post...

Holiday buying slows as consumers wait for bargains

The start was good this year in the US but the shopping spirit appears to have ended quickly. CNBC:

Forty percent of consumers are completely done with their holiday shopping at this point, up from just 28 percent who were finished at the same time last year, according to the America’s Research Group/UBS Christmas Forecast Survey.

What’s more, only half of consumers hit the malls this last weekend, meaning those that are left are sitting on their hands awaiting bigger mark-offs, the survey showed.

“You could push them over the edge at this point with a 60 to 70 percent discount,” said Britt Beemer, CEO of ARG, who has been conducting the phone survey and marketing research for 27 years. “But most would probably use a credit card, as their budgets are depleted.”

Read the rest of this post...

How to talk to a relative with cancer this Christmas

Love the topic.  Unsure whether I found the article particularly helpful - some of the points were obvious, others left me unclear.  See if you find it helpful. Read the rest of this post...