Researchers working with the Fermilab holometer think they can test that idea by comparing two incredibly sensitive laser yardsticks called interferometers and looking for an ineluctable jitter between their measurements.
Paul Kedrosky, the venture capitalist, wrote in his blog on Sunday that the industry needs a new yardstick — he calls it "the TPG," with one TPG equaling $14 billion.
Using such a yardstick will call into question the very approach of sequence analyses.
As a side-effect, their estimates cluster too closely around the yardstick measure a phenomenon called "anchoring".
Longer rulers, which are 3 feet long (or 36 inches long) are called yardsticks.
I spoke of using child nutritional status as a "human yardstick" to measure success and called on G8 leaders to stand up for nutrition and invest in the critical first 1,000 days - from conception to a child's second birthday - as a human development strategy that will lead to a stronger, more sustainable global economy.
And a reader who prefers to remain anonymous because he is job-hunting wrote that while he is a fan and reader of The Huffington Post, the participants in events like the Third Metric "are rich, successful, powerful, all the things they now say should no longer be the yardsticks for success — it's called closing the door behind you once you're in the club".
Why should competing against men — "pushing the envelope," as Griner called it — be a yardstick for her when the question people should be asking is: how will she fare next summer in the W.N.B.A. against the likes of Tina Charles and Sylvia Fowles?
To spot which of your securities may be called early, a good yardstick is whether the security you hold has a coupon rate 1% or more above debt of equal credit quality.
One of them is called the exposure index, and by this yardstick, black and white students are still rarely learning together, though it's been over six decades since Brown v. Board of Education made segregated schools illegal.
