ProcessBlue

Yeah, looks like someone high up has a food obsession...

Short answer no.

Long answer, the input you are thinking of (particle interactions) is already what partly defines the theory you are trying to uncover. So you have a serious chicken-egg situation.

You could think about inputting the data that comes out of particle detectors to look for patterns etc. and that sort of thing is being done already. However there is a difference between finding existing patterns and then figuring out the underlying theory which is the mathematical construct that lets you predict things.

Finally, even if you could have a "black box" predict stuff (correctly), the black box-ness is a serious problem for scientists from a meta-science or philosophy of science point of view, and people would be highly unsatisfied until they actually understood what was going on.

A very simple counter example is that we can "see" the bend in spacetime made by the sun from how the earth makes a circular path around it, as opposed to going in a straight line.

LIGO just looks at the path (or rather just the length of the path) of photons.

Yes (but also no). The initial form of this equation is

    (mc^2)^2 = E^2 - (pc^2)^2

The Pythagorean theorem tells you the length of a 2D vector when you know x and y lengths. Here mc^2 is the length of the 4-momentum vector [E, pc^2] (where p is a standard 3D vector). However since our 4D spacetime is not Euclidian but Minkowskian the sign in the generalised Pythagoras theorem is a minus and not a plus.

This is a good example for how far Google has drifted away from having "Don't be evil" as a core tenet. No PR or marketing person with those words in mind would go near a company like Nestle. Dealing with a company whose CEO views the human right to access to clean water as "extreme" is not something Sergei or Brin would have done ten years ago.

I wonder how many Google employees today would know the meaning of "Don't be evil".

The option to know (during the second ultrasound exam) is there, we for example did know. Some people choose not to know and many more keep the gender a secret from others until the baby is actually born.

The box is heavily subsidized and even Finns can't buy them directly. Some people re-sell theirs but mostly on finnish language baby websites.

Do you mean the private room? That wasn't a luxury option, I should have been more clear on that :-). All rooms are private, and though we got lucky and got one that was slightly larger than the others it didn't cost extra. I think the small fee they impose is simply meant to encourage people not to overstay.

True, true, I didn't want to go into that because that way lies a never ending comment chain on fiscal policy ;-).

Lovely article. However, I must say that the box is only the tip of the iceberg. It's been almost four years since we went through the gauntlet so my memory may be a bit fuzzy but if I remember correctly the FREE tier of forming babby in Finland includes:

- Initially monthly (increaing to weekly) pre-natal checkups that include bloodwork, metabolism tests, ultrasounds and any treatments necessary to ensure the baby's and mother's health.

- About 12 hours of parental training which I found surprisingly useful (containing none of the Lamaze class stereotypes I had been expecting). Also, our group of people contained an absolutely adorable teenage couple, everybody else was in their late twenties to mid thirties.

- The whole "actual business". Now this bit we did have to pay for, about $80 per day that we stayed in one of the maternity ward's private rooms with full room service.

- First weekly and later monthly post natal checkups (also for the mom) including vaccinations. At two years the schedule switches to annual checkups and starts including dental chaeckups. At some point during the first months a doctor actually visits your home to check up on how you are dealing with the whole situation. If there are clear indicators of problems (e.g. alcoholism) the doc can point you in the direction for help.

- You start getting about $150/month from the state for the baby (until it is 18 years old), this is about half of the cost of municpal daycare. In addition to this you get financial support during (m|p)aternity leave (the amount is actually scaled based on your salary). Maternity leave is about 100 days, paternity leave is about 50 days and on top of that you are entitled to 160 days of parental leave (either mom or dad can take this). Your place of employment can get state compensation if they decide to pay you a full salaray during your leave. Then there is a general child care leave than can extend to three years, it gets nitty gritty with the bureaucracy of compensations but effectively it is possible to take care of your kid for the first three years and still have your old job back when you're done. In our circle of friends there are at least a couple of "career women" who have checked out for ~5 years to have two kids and successfully gotten back into the game.

So yeah, the box is nice but it is only the icing on the fabulous cake that is having a baby in Finland :-).