catdynamics | December 6, 2006Earlier I argued that religion is axiomatic, rational and wrong, and that science methodology pushes religion either into allegorical distinct domains through heterodoxy, or it faces direct conflict with orthodox religions.
I want to argue that any particular religion really is axiomatic and that the axioms are "arbitary" in the same sense that the axioms of geometry are arbitary, there is freedom to choose different, incompatible axiom sets that lead to different inferences.
We can consider religion as a social structure, that communicates its precepts among both its adherents and to…
catdynamics | December 6, 2006As I suspected today's announcement from NASA is on evidence for
current liquid water flowing on Mars
Nice result, hopefully to be confirmed soon.
Increases imperative to get more wheel on the ground at Mars, and hopefully some boots in the finite future, if properly funded.
Click for high-res image
Here is the full press release and images
There are a lot of other images showing surface transformations and localised patches of something volatile and flowing appearing within the mission lifetime; very suggestive of subsurface ice becoming fluid and bursting onto the surface (where it has…
catdynamics | December 5, 2006I had a conversation about war
"...IF this was representative, the army has 18 months, in my estimation, to get out of Iraq, or they will be done for for a decade"
Not actually all that prophetic, go read Steve Gilliard he's on a roll.
catdynamics | December 5, 2006NASA HQ has a press conference wednesday at 1 pm on news on Mars discoveries from the now defunct Mars Global Surveyor.
Not coincidentally, perchance, NASAwatch has a pointer to Aviation Week news snippet on MGS having seen evidence for current flowing liquid water on Mars
This would be very very interesting, if that is the news and if confirmed by current generation of orbiters.
More tomorrow. News is embargoed (and AW&ST is in deep shit if they broke embargo on this).
PS more on Cumbrian Sky
and astronote
Here is a picture that might have started some of the speculation
From Malin…
catdynamics | December 1, 2006Religion is ubiquitous, rational, adaptive and wrong.
It is not inherently in opposition to science in general, but it often is.
Science needs to figure out how to deal with this, because most religions will not.
Most all human societies are religious, in the sense that there is a general semi-coherent consensus view on some creation myth, the existence of deities with supernatural powers, and ability and motive to intervene in human affairs.
One can infer that religion is adaptive - the details do not matter, the ubiquity of religion suggests strongly that it provides significant fitness to…
catdynamics | December 1, 2006Wet and windy friday, and we ask the Mighty One a sexy topical question: is XTE J1739-285 really spinning at 1122 Hz?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Long Time Gone - Dixie Chick
The Crossing: We Do What We Can - Sheryl Crowe
The Crown: Catch - The Cure
The Root: Litirnir - Edda Backman
The Past: Knights of the Round Table - Monty Python
The Future: Everyday I Write the Book - Elvis Costello
The Questioner: Add It Up - Violent Femmes
The House: Stína Og Brúðan Hennar - Helga Möller
The Inside: Ghost Town - Specials
The Outcome: Highway Patrolman - Dar Williams
So that's…
catdynamics | November 29, 2006Aaaaarrrrrgghhhh!
Powder Day declared with 24 inches of fresh powder!
Aspen
One of the most wonderful places to do science is the Aspen Center for Physics, it runs a series of summer multi-week meetings and winter one week workshops which are amazingly productive and fun.
Sounds like this season will be really good, and what topics do they pick... clusters of galaxies in cosmological context, and 20th anniversary of SN 1987a. Come on! No fair!
Can someone please make an important discovery requiring a snap workshop called at short notice, somewhere central, please...
Ah well, we'll hold…
catdynamics | November 29, 2006Acephalous is trying to measure meme speeds, but we are theorists, dammit, a model prediction is needed!
So what is the asymptotic speed of a free small meme in the wild web?
1, of course.
In natural units.
The derivation is left as a trivial exercise for the reader.
catdynamics | November 29, 2006Astrobiology journal is making available for free the recently compiled Student Primer for Astrobiology
Aimed at graduate students or advanced undergrads.
It is good.
Full text (79 pages) PDF link
catdynamics | November 29, 2006The Astrophysics Enabled By the Return to the Moon Workshop is on right now at the Space Telescope Science Institute.
It is webcast (link above).
The program looks reasonably interesting, meetings like this have been held before, and the issues look to tbe much the same.
You can do astronomy from the Moon. Some of it would be sensible, if expensive, to do from the Moon.
Some might even be uniquely doable on the Moon. Some should be done from the Moon if it so happens that there is activity taking place there. Might as well give folks something interesting to do.
I ran a mission concept by…
catdynamics | November 29, 2006Archeologists think they have found the ruins of the Great Hall of King Harald I Fairhair (Haraldr Hárfagri) at Avaldsnes in west Norway.
It was the site of the halls of local chieftans and then the Kings of Norway for almost 3000 years until the settlement was burned by the Hansa Merchant League in 1398.
catdynamics | November 29, 2006What's the funniest lab accident you've ever had?...
What is this "lab" thing of which you speak?
Does a spilled diet pepsi on a brand new keyboard count?
I got a papercut once... nah, Not Funny!
Hey, once when we were walking our neighbour's lab, the leash wrapped itself around the Big Kid's ankles, and then this squirrel came bounding along, you see...
There was this unscheduled power outage once...
catdynamics | November 28, 2006For some strange reason the book I grabbed for the latest travel is a paperback of "Who Dares Wins", Geraghty's anecdotal account of Special Air Service (UK) history from 1950 (Malaya) to 1982 (Falklands) and the regiment's involvement in some select actions, as well as their selection and training.
It is interesting history but two things struck me: one is the account of UK involvement in South Yemen and Oman respectively - one an object lesson in how not to handle an insurgency, the other an success; the other was the account of the interrogation/survival training in selection of…
catdynamics | November 28, 2006The US consumes about 385 million gallons of motor gasoline per day
That is about a gallon and a bit per day per person.
Or 140 billion gallons per year.
Coincidentally, the off-budget cost of the war in Iraq is roughly $70 billion per year. Approximately.
Or $0.50 per gallon.
We should probably pay for this war, cash. I think the credit is about maxed out any month now.
Trick is how to do that...
Now, 50 cents per gallon won't really pay for the cost of the war, only the marginal cost.
Probably need $1 per gallon in the long run to pay the cumulative additional cost.
If it is not done…
catdynamics | November 28, 2006Interesting IHE article on NCAA problems and how it is, apparently, all the faculties' fault
Of course.
An interesting point in the comments is that anything goes, as long as the football team wins (or basketball or whatevah).
But, in the nature of the game, precisely half the teams lose each time. Which seems to be a guaranteed recipe for frustration of collegieate athletics.
Now this is partly circumvented by, for example, in football having 3 games against lower division teams for "warm-up", with near 100% certainty of victory. In which case the average football team playing 12 games would…
catdynamics | November 28, 2006Chad spreads contagious concepts.
if this were a real meme you would now be getting ideas
Acephalus wants data on meme propagation speeds through blogs for the MLA.
Read, link and accelerate. Don't want to be a deadender, now do we.
catdynamics | November 27, 2006The Litvinenko murder brought to mind an old sophomoric debate that floated among my acquaintances for some time.
The physical sciences enable killing. That is their core realism, that scientific knowledge is real in so far as it can be applied to kill.
The philosophy of science has an interesting history and an infuriatingly inconclusive current status.
Operationally, a lot of scientists go through their daily tasks under naive realism assumptions, yet when pressed the case for realism is no better than it ever was, or at least it still has the old flaws that undermined it.
Many years ago,…
catdynamics | November 25, 2006As widely reported, Polonium 210 was used to murder former russian spy Litvinenko
A pure alpha emitter, Po-210 is a curiously elegant and vicious assassination method.
It has to be handled with extreme care, but as a pure alpha emitter with short half-life (138 days) it can easily be shielded, and thus avoid detection. It is a final isotope in the decay chain, next stop is lead-206 which is stable.
The dose required is only about 0.1 micrograms.
It is soluble in acids and relatively easily volatilised. Sounds like Litvinenko ingested it.
Newspaper reports suggest it is hard to come by and…
catdynamics | November 24, 2006Yikes, thank Thor it is friday!
We stay on topic, and ask the mighty iPod: oh Mighty iPod, will the LHC find anything interesting beyond the Standard Model, like a nice Higgs particle or two?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Funky Days Are Back Again - Cornershop
The Crossing: Spanish Stroll - Mink de Ville
The Crown: Occasionally - Melissa Etheridge
The Root: A13 Trunk Road to the Sea - Billy Bragg
The Past: The Duck is Caught - Peter and the Wolf
The Future: Cool Water - Talking Heads
The Questioner: Avalon - Roxy Music
The House:A Child is Born in Bethlehem - King's…
catdynamics | November 23, 2006Something to be thankful for this thanksgiving...
It started last night when a friend of ours, 9 months pregnant, called. She was picking up the kids from the sitter, she was in labour, her husband was at work, could she come to our house?
Ok.
We already had a play date, and another heading over (called off), so that made 5 rambunctious stressed kids. No prob. Installing an infant carrier in the dark, a prob (don't ask, it could have been done the next day, but something you just do).
She can't drive, but she won't go to the hospital, yet, so we take her home, which leaves us with 4 hungry…