LHC Rap

Amy showed me this the other day. Funny, educational, and... groovy.

LHC Homepage

Large Hadron Collider (Wikipedia)

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson

We had a chance to go see Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and TV host of NOVA scienceNOW on PBS, at the Palladium Theater in St. Petersburg, FL last week. Below is a video of Dr. Tyson answering a question about dark matter and the speed of light.

Scans From The Tech

As part of my trip to San Jose, CA, I had the pleasure of visiting The Tech Museum there. Arriving at the museum, you are given a "TechTag" which you can then use at the various exhibits inside. Some of the exhibits provide some sort of output or digital souvenir about your experience with the exhibit. The TechTag is just a piece of paper with a scannable code on it which can be used at the museum's website where you can view your digital souvenirs.

Two of the exhibits that had especially interesting souvenirs were the 3D Head Scan and a Thermal Image Scan. The 3D Head Scan exhibit scans your head with a laser and gives you a pretty good, well at least interesting, 3D rendering of your own head, kind of like Max Headroom. The Thermal Scan takes a thermal image of your body.

After visiting the museum I got online with my TechTag, looked up my digital souvenirs and created a web photo album from some of the images from these exhibits. The album contains several images for the 3D Head Scan one one image from the thermal scan. I got the 3D Head Scan images from screen shots of the 3D rendering client you have to use to see your 3D head. The 3D client software allows you to pan, scan, turn and zoom your 3D head around to view it. Doing this was actually pretty freaky, given the imperfections in the scan. Take a look at the some of the screen shots to see for yourself.

Why US students are 29th in the world...

The "crazy Christians" are after us!!!

Re: Origin Theories Clash: Pinellas School Board would teach Intelligent Design...

The reason the US is 29th in the world in science instead of 1st is because our leaders and educators are being duped by the "Wedge Document" campaigns. These school board leaders need to go back to school, as they have not had a proper science education: These leaders are apparently easily duped by a PR campaign promoting an idea that in no way reflects critical thinking skills, the scientific method, or qualifies as a scientific theory. This ignorance would be laughable if it weren't so pathetically damaging to America's future.

The Wedge Document represents the strategy of the Discovery Institute, a think tank that advocates intelligent design and its "Teach the Controversy" campaign, which aims to teach creationist beliefs in public high school science courses. The Discovery Institute put forth its planned public relations, public opinion, media, and political lobbying campaigns in the Wedge Document, which states that the aim of this creationist campaign is to drive a "wedge" into popular discussions about the origin of life by manufacturing a false controversy that does not actually exist within the scientific community. The Wedge Document states the Institute's manifesto is to "defeat evolution" and "replace it with Christian and theistic convictions" to "affirm the reality of God."

In a public school, to have any patience at all with creationist/intelligent design notions is to do a severe disservice to your students. Those ideas in no way qualify as a theory, in any science, by any scientist anywhere. I hope various leaders on the School Board will thank the private company, the Discovery Institute, for doing such a good job in their advertising campaign! Their duping campaign has worked on them!

Hope for US Science

Recently, I read an argument supporting the superiority of United States' science education over that of Western European countries; specifically it was argued that there is more "hope" for science in the US than in some other Western European countries, such as France. The argument went on to suggest that if we use statistics and not "emotional impressions" we will see that by looking at the number of Nobel Prize winners in science from the US as compared to that of France that the truth will be apparent in the numbers. The argument went on to list the 76 Nobel Prize winners from the US and the mere 33 Nobel Prize winners in science from France. This information can be found on Wikipedia here and I assume it to be true.

However, since they got me thinking about statistics, I thought...

I find these numbers interesting considering France's population (61+ million) is roughly one-fifth that of the United States (300+ million). Given this, if France were merely on par with the US, and not below it scientifically, using the Nobel prize winner measurement, I would expect France to have approximately 15 Nobel Prize winners in science over the same number of years. Instead, they have more than double this. So, in a way, these statistics used to show that the US is better than France scientifically actually show just the opposite. By these stats, France is twice as good at churning out Nobel Laureates in science than the US.

I am actually surprised by these stats. My emotional impression would suggest that the US kicks most countries' butts in this Nobel Prize measurement. I guess I should use statistics and not my emotional impression. Hmmmm.

However, by these other statistics which show Nobel prizes by country, per capita, the US still beats France by 2 rankings (Yea America!). The link above shows that the US ranks #11 behind these 10 Western European countries:

1. Iceland
2. Sweden
3. Switzerland
4. Denmark
5. Norway
6. United Kingdom
7. Austria
8. Ireland
9. Germany
10. Netherlands

Maybe it's something in the water over there.

Still looking for Hope,
Harry

Duped By War and Profit

As the reasons for the Iraq War crumble one after another upon closer inspection, the real reason for why and how we fight reveals it's true, revolting nature: profit. Many pillaging capitalists have made a whole lot of money off the blood spilled by young, naive, underprivileged recruits.

Since the war, Blackwater has made $1 trillion. Halliburton's profits have gone up 284%. ExxonMobil's profits rise almost 50% a year. Defense contractor CEO pay has gone up 200 to 688%. The CEO's at General Dynamics, Halliburton, and Lockheed Martin, the top three profiteers, have made between $65 million and $98 million in four years.

The truly sick twist in this bloody game is that we, the taxpayers, are the ones paying these goons. The Executive Director of Oil Change International states, "While ExxonMobil is posting $10 billion profits in just the last three months, it is gouging each of us at the pump and taking billions more in taxpayer handouts."

How can this racket on the backs of the working poor continue? Who sold our young people out to die in a desert? Why are we suckers? There are many questions and still more answers.

It's not that we didn't need any strikes against Islamist extremists, it may just be that we didn't need to overthrow a country. However, science has shown that people are very susceptible to fear appeals. People are very emotional creatures. We can be swayed by plays to our emotions. If all that is needed are air strikes on military targets and the government instead has a secret agenda to build a democracy, the president will stand on an aircraft carrier in full flight gear or at ground-zero as the largest flag obtainable ripples in the background. These staged photo-ops are designed to manipulate our emotions. As the flag waves and the music swells and the call to action is plainly voiced, very basic feelings make us want to stand up to be who we are: brave, loyal, and free, bound to something higher than ourselves.

Sadly, the puppetmasters know exactly how to make us feel and act. The profiteers do not share the basic moral values of the populace. To them, "the greater good" was sold long ago to the highest bidder: Their souls are black: To them, there is nothing higher than the dollar. These super-capitalists know that Keynesian economics predicts that war is good for the economy, just as our president knew he always wanted to be a "war president" to use the power of consensus generated by war to get things done.

Will we stay duped? Will we allow world leaders to rationalize the death they have wrought because it is good for the economy? When will we take back our country?

Science and Religion

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson talks about on intelligent design, religion and their effect on progress.

All We Are Is Information in the Quantum Soup

In answer to "What is mass," Einstein said mass is energy.

This energy potentiality (mass) is not sitting on top of the fabric of space-time, it is embedded within the fabric, one with the fabric. Interestingly, this energy is one with every point of the universe at the same time and all the points are one with it (non-locality/Bell's Theorem).

What does all this mean for a quantum information transmission view of the universe? Maybe it means that energy (mass) is to transmit some information to it's surrounding quantum soup. Maybe this energy's information changes the quantum soup/fabric.

I'm very taken with the notion that we don't "move" through space. Our energy potentiality exists such that the universe transmits our information in the quantum soup and that seems to us like movement through time.

The 4th dimension expands relative to our 3...

"Why does time's arrow point in the direction it points in? The fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions.

Hence every photon naturally expands in a spherically symmetric manner. Hence every electron, or piece of matter that interacts with photons, is naturally carried outward from a central point in a spherically symmetric manner. Hence the particles in a drop of dye in a swimming pool dissipate in a spherically symmetric manner, and are never reunited. Hence time's arrow and entropy."

Hi! I've been into "Moving Dimensions Theory" lately and this snippet on time is from someone in another physics forum. I think this theory explains more things better than most b/c the underlying physical reality does bear out that the 4th dimension expands relative to (our) 3 spatial dimensions. I haven't heard Dr. Kaku talk about this theory, but I wish he would.

Cheers!

The 10 Commandments (of the Ethical Atheist)

We thought this was pretty good...

The Ten Commandments (of the Ethical Atheist): http://www.ethicalatheist.com/docs/ten_commandments.html

Fundamentalist Ignorance and Hypocrisy

Although the purpose of the religious right gathering in Brandon is to reverse the moral decline in America, ironically the religious right itself does a lot to contribute to America's decline, moral and otherwise. Christian fundamentalists are ignorant of scientific facts and are hypocritically judgmental.

Christian fundamentalists of the religious right are so literal in their interpretation of the bible that they want huge catastrophic events to happen, like the world to blow up, so that Jesus will come and bodily transport them to paradise while the rest of us burn in hell. Religious right fundamentalists believe that dinosaurs and Adam and Eve walked the earth at the same time when God made it about 6,000 years ago (...). Religious right fundamentalists don’t accept the most successful scientific theory of all time…evolution.

Religious right fundamentalists judge and condemn homosexuals, equal rights for women, and people who have had abortions. These religious people claim that the bible condemns them. However, in the bible, Lot is the angel’s hero for offering his daughters over to be gang-raped by an angry mob. Lot later impregnates his own daughters. Therefore, by their own fundamentalist logic (if you can call it that), good religious right fundamentalists should offer their daughters up to be raped and support incest. Also, if you are a real Christian fundamentalist, you will stone your rebellious children until they die because the bible tells you so. Perhaps these Christians should be less hypocritically judgmental and more like the actual Christ.

America may very well be in decline. Most Americans, as opposed to other industrialized nations, do not believe in evolution. 70% of American adults do not understand the scientific method. Americans are at a disadvantage for completing in a global economy: Since Bush’s preemptive, and some consider immoral, war, the majority of people in a majority of countries around the world view the U.S. unfavorably.

If regular people don’t speak up and say that religious right fundamentalists do not use basic rational thought, then our country will surely be lost in another dark age of superstition. These people stop at nothing to push their literal interpretation of the bible onto the rest of us. They do not even stop at the Constitution, which clearly stands upon a foundation of the separation of church and state and the separation of powers. It is time to stop being polite about religious fanatics and start teaching the scientific method. It is the only way for America to remain a viable player on the world field.

Global Dimming

Global dimming mediates (dampens) the relationship between CO2 and global warming...

Hi. I was watching PBS and thought you’d like to know some of these thoughts…

This is very inconvenient. We like warring for oil and paying Islamic Princes. These activities drive our economic engine on the blood of our young poor. Sure, give another no-bid contract to Halliburton, its good for the economy, after all! Conservatives like to create a “wedge” or a “controversy” in issues where there is no controversy. They tried to do create a false controversy about evolution and they try to create a false controversy about global warming. Watch out: germ theory is next! After all, it’s just a “theory.”

Yet, many people will die due to global warming. All of Florida will be underwater in the next century. Our poor great grand-children!

However, global dimming mediates (dampens) the relationship between CO2 and global warming. So if we put tons of sulfur into the upper atmosphere, we’ll save Florida and the last of the ice caps, but we’ll create more draught over Africa due to global dimming’s effect on evaporation (much less evaporation).

It is the photons that due the evaporating, so if we dim out a lot of photons, it will get very humid but not rain. Icky-stick. Global dimming has increased pretty dramatically since the 50’s.
Now if you don’t think a degree or three rise in temps in 100 years is bad, you should see what effect that really has on land, people, drought, fires, and famine. Scientists predict that continued global warming on the order of 2.5°-10.4°F over the next 100 years (as projected in the IPCC's Third Assessment Report) is likely to result in a rise in sea level between 3.5 and 34.6 in. (9-88 cm), leading to more coastal erosion and flooding; severe stress on forests, alpine regions, and natural ecosystems; greater threats to human health as mosquitoes and other disease-carrying insects and rodents spread diseases over larger geographical regions; and the disruption of agriculture resulting in famine.

See PBS.org on global dimming.

Anyone for wind, solar, and ethanol at pump (made from Florida sugarcane, of course)?

On the Necessity of War

Philosopher Alan Watts once wrote, "the friendly enemy (is) the necessary adversary who is part of life" (Watts, A., 1966). Watts advised that a smart ruler would choose their enemies wisely. Because of the necessity of an adversary, what is optimal is a weak, stable, long-term enemy. We depend on enemies and outsiders to define ourselves and unite our community.

Because humans have evolved in the context of their social groups, humans may have inherited an "Us vs. Them" mentality that is locked in the structure of our brains. My theory is that over the course of human evolution, there was a survival advantage for those who were vigilant warriors; venturing out to find and vanquish hiding invaders, coordinating the strongest for raids, and trying to return victorious. For thousands of years these in-group/out-group violent social patterns were likely to grant a survival advantage over more laid-back early humans.

The "good-us/evil-them" mentality was etched into our brain structure and is still determining our thinking patterns today. Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam (2007) found that the greater the diversity in a community, the less trust they feel towards their neighbors. We are left with the legacy of the paradigm for hatred towards outsiders.

Funny Fabric!

Funny Fabric! All Matter Is Part of the Fabric of Space-Time

I think a lot of our lack of understanding of the universe comes from our brains having a hard time with the fact that all of everything, all matter both quantum and macro, are part of the fabric of space-time. Here's one example: Anytime you walk across the room, you are actually changing the fabric of space-time itself.

See, it’s hard to grasp, isn't it? The fact that we instinctively think we are separate is why we still can't get our minds around how traveling at close to the speed of light would make us almost infinitely massive and draw time to a stop.

If we really could see ourselves as OF the fabric of space-time, we would see that going so fast would do funny things to the fabric. (Good thing the space-time fabric doesn't rip as easily as my sewing fabric.) So everything that's moving, from the smallest electron to the largest star is pulling the fabric around, as it IS the fabric. These fabric tugs are maybe why matter is so interconnected.

So you are not traveling through space in your rocket. There is no such thing as traveling Through space. You are one with the space-time fabic and the fabric is letting you fall into a little groove b/c your rocket has that much energy to make one (a groove in the fabric).

Cheers!

Lofty ideas: stats on kids

Some thoughts…

4 out of 10 babies are born to unwed mothers. 20% of American children live in poverty.

Our children sure are lucky!

We need to plan on ways to neutralize the effects of these grim stats. Also, we need to change our society so these stats go down drastically. Women need to draw a line in the sand and say, “We’re not gonna take it anymore.” If it weren’t for women, nobody would be born. We have the power to make these changes.

Love,
A.

Co-Parenting Research

I heard this this morning thought it was interesting. Its about parenting and how important it is to communicate and share each others expectations when it comes to the kids. I wonder how many marriages involving parents could be saved if only they would learn to communicate effectively and to manage each other's expectations about parenting.

-Harry

University Beat: http://www.wusf.usf.edu/wusf-fm/programming/Highlights/FM_UniversityBeat_TVLk.cfm

Topic: Co-Parenting Research Update
August 19, 2007

Add thousands of hours of interviews and observations accumulated over eight years, a pair of grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Development, and a dedicated USF alum, and you get "Charting the Bumpy Road of Coparenting." The new book, written by Dr. James McHale, the director of the USF Saint Petersburg Family Study Center, collects his ground-breaking research into coparenting—the support that parents provide one another in raising their children—and what happens in both good and bad coparenting situations.

Listen now (2.5 minutes)

mms://www.wusf.usf.edu/University_Beat/August_07/UB%20Co-Parenting%20Update%208-19-07%20.wma

What's New in Philosophy of Science?

RE: What's New in Philosophy of Science? by Bora Dogan 2002

The first part is good. But the theory of evolution helps scientists "predict or EXPLAIN" all the time.

Evolution is one of the most prolific theories ever discovered. Evolution explains, for example, why our brains are wrapped in 3 layers with the most primitive in the deepest inside and the most advanced in pre-frontal. If you have a tumor in your "reptilian" brain, I'm especially sorry for you, b/c it can press on your murderous rage button, as it did to the Texas tower
shooter.

Scientists use evolution to predict/explain the behavior of deviants: There is a whole new literature on certain types of criminals that we now have a good understanding about b/c of the theory of evolution. Evolution also shows that humans not only share chimp traits, but also bonobo traits -- which is why humans have evolved for affiliation to such a great degree.

The super-Christian anti-evolutionists say that evolution theorizes that we are a product of randomness. An evolutionist would never say any such thing. This is a complete falsehood.

Evolution is the farthest thing from randomness b/c God (or the universe or the flying spaghetti monster) created the evolution mechanism such that every living organism would be perfectly suited to his environment and all these perfect-for-their-environment creations have to achieve balance with every other one as a unified whole. Fills you with wonder, doesn't it?

So thank God for humans evolving with oxytocin. Put the stuff in the water supply.

Quantum Physics of Creation

Math represents our picture. Love, A

Nuclear power needed

I find it ironic that merely days after Japan’s nuclear power plant radiation leak and subsequent cover-up, some are considering nuclear power as an option in Florida. Not only is the industry riddled with human error and cover-ups, but also nuclear plants are vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

Furthermore, the nuclear waste is also vulnerable to terrorist attacks which must be hauled out on trains to Yucca Mountain (where it pollutes that environment for eternity). Wind, solar, and sugarcane-to-ethanol fuel are more rational energy alternatives that can be Florida’s future economic engines.

Company W Dupes

I forget: Are we at war with Oceania, Eurasia, or Eastasia?

“Guard against the influence of the military industrial complex” as the main threat to democracy. -Ike

An earlier draft of Ike’s read “military-industrial-congressional complex.” When Congress saw it, they requested that “congressional” be removed and Eisenhower did.

…What is supposed to be our defense and our “peace-keepers” are our war-makers so that politicians and their friends’ companies can make millions in corporate contracts making more war. It’s bloody when babies’ arms are blown off and grown men cry for their mama’s as they die alone in a desert, but that’s how the old white guys make a buck nowadays. Besides, these men and their children never intended to fight, never had to fight, and never will have to fight. But one thing is certain, they did get richer. Gotta lay that pipeline, tricky Dick. Troops secured the Iraq oilfields for American companies before “liberating” the Iraqis.

Camu: Respect gained by fear is despicable. What about invoking the Lord for votes? Scare ‘em and yell, “Halleluiah!” You’ll win the Presidency. (Social science has proven the fear variable to be an extremely large causation factor in persuasion. This is well-known by us social scientists.)

The recently released NIE (...) coalesced from 16 secret intelligence agencies proclaims that the Iraq War has indeed become not only a distraction from defeating al Qaeda, but has also created more terrorists and terrorism in the world and that an attack on US soil is more likely than ever b/c of Iraq. Wooly-Bully-America is a joke on the world’s stage if it didn’t point its guns at everybody who might laugh (and they are most definitely laughing at us).

Obama ’08: Finally a President who’s IQ has 3 digits!

And, instead of raising the cigarette tax to give more children health insurance, let’s sell Marlboro’s to poor children in 2nd and 3rd world countries. RJ Reynolds’ profits are going up, up, up! We can scare and evangelize poor children into being life-long smokers. Then we’ll finally be rich.

-a.