CosmoCoffee

[Alessandro Melchiorri]

New poll !
Why the WMAP result is not out yet (after 1.5 years !) ? Have fun ! :-)

[Alessandro Melchiorri]

and, ehm... if you have any other idea let me know and I will add it !

cheers
Ale

[Garth Antony Barber]

Low-l modes completely absent and those present due to local contamination - or is that the 'Axis of Evil' option?

[Alessandro Melchiorri]

Yes, I think we could consider it in the axis of evil option.

Cheers
Alessandro

[Pier Stefano Corasaniti]

There is another possibility that has been not considered,
that WMAP map team has plugged the output of the power spectra to
a stereo-amplifier and heard an electronic voice saying: "Can you hear me?"

[Garth Antony Barber]

I thought that was "Message from the Creator found (see physics/0510102)"?

[Michael Doran]

Even better: The NSA subtracted the gaussian signal from the data and plugged the non-gaussian contribution into an amplifier which in turn connects to a private speaker system within the White House. That explains several things at once:

a) the delay of the data
b) Bush hearing voices from god
c) Several minor and major wars of recent years (most probably by misinterpretation of the messages, after all major religions believe that god is superior and "nice" in general)
d) the high oil price

Given the overwhelming experimental data (points a -d are all correct), I therefore conclude that I am right and so is Pier-Stefano. A. Zee, however, is wrong, in that good doesn't care at all about SO(10)'s and all that when he has the chance to do something much more fun with the CMB :-)

[Aurelien Fraisse]

Hey all,

The reason is pretty clearly given on the WMAP website, which was updated a few months ago:
http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_mm/ms_status.html

"While the first-year results were based mainly on temperature measurements, the continued mission operations are now primarily focused on the much weaker polarized signals - an invaluable "stretch" goal of the extended mission. Analyses of these weaker signals are more difficult and continue with steady progress. The data and results will be provided as soon as calibration and systematic error analyses have been completed, and the data files have been adequately documented for use by researchers."

However, Michael's theory is also seductive!

Cheers,
-Aurelien.

[Alessandro Melchiorri]

Everything makes sense now ! The message from the Creator is in the polarization maps ! (just kidding...but maybe Hsu and Zee will write a new paper on this!!!)

[Per B. Lilje]

What about one more option: Because WMAP has never existed, and the team is afraid that publishing one more simulation might reveal that (have any of you been to L2 and seen that WMAP is there?) the first year data were just a faulty simulation? Or even one more: WMAP has been abducted by aliens, and NASA wants to cover it up? Have a nice weekend!

[Boud Roukema]

Alessandro, there is a variation on the "message from the Creator" option which I think should be added as an independent option, as it is an alternative cosmology model which may soon be taught in schools in the state of Kansas in the USA, along with other "theories", like the Intelligent Design and FLRW+biological evolution models.

This is the FSM model. The Flying Spaghetti Monsterism metric is defined here:

http://www.venganza.org/

see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster

I think the way to write it in the list of options is something like

• the WMAP team was touched by His Noodly Appendage and confirmed the validity of the FSM metric
  

This may presumably soon be put on the curriculum in other theocratic democracies, like Iran and Poland.

[Alexia Schulz]

Douglas Scott and J.P. Zibin have proven that all of us who voted for "Message from the Creator" are, in fact, dorks (astro-ph/0511135). I particularly like the Cosmologist's Anthropic Principle.

[Tommy Anderberg]

A rumor: http://cosmicvariance.com/2005/12/05/duff-on-susskind/#comment-8652

[Alessandro Melchiorri]

Wow, if this is true then there may be a very small large scale polarization bump !