catdynamics | July 11, 2008Artsy fartsy family friday becoming scienceless saturday!
Yikes.
So, since we've gone all week without science, let us finish in style...
Oh, mighty iPod One, modulo the vagaries of fickle men, who will win the Presidency this autumn?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering:Tom the Peeper - Act.1
>
The Crossing: Kings of the Wild Frontier - Adam and the Ants
The Crown: Ræningjasögur - Ævar Kvaran
The Root: Reason to Believe - Aimee Mann & Michael Penn
The Past: Christmas in Dixie - Alabama
The Future: Sur Le Pont d'Avignon
The Questioner: Animal Alphabet Song
The House:…
catdynamics | July 10, 2008"Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."
[President Bush at the G8 summit] ended a private meeting with the words: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."
He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.
(archive image)
Uncouth.
Independent has more
Josh at Thoughts from Kansas also on it
PS: Interesting additional summit report from the IHT - "...For four exceedingly enlightening minutes, the world was treated to an unvarnished view of the American president as he expounded on everything…
catdynamics | July 10, 2008Apparently Karl Rove just told a Congressional subcommittee that he would not bother to show up to an oversight hearing, despite a subpoena.
In justification his lawyer cited a letter allegedly sent by the President's lawyer, to Karl Rove, telling him not to appear, claiming Executive Privilege.
Chairwoman Linda Sanchez issued a six page ruling (pdf)
It is a thing of beauty, rather nice crisp point by point refutation of the assertion by Rove and his lawyer.
Stern letter, well written, are nice.
Now what?
...
Personally I'm pondering whether Congress will keep surrendering power to the…
catdynamics | July 8, 2008so, this week is, yet again, decision time on the mystifying FISA Amendments Act
this is an abominable piece of legislation which simultaneously manages to gut parts of the US Constitution, set historically bad precedents and violate centuries of hard fought legal principles
It is not science, and not something I like to harp on, but I keep getting these flashbacks to the Late Roman Republic...
One aspect of the amendments is to provide retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that co-operated with government requests for surveillance without warrants under the current FISA act.…
catdynamics | July 4, 2008My iPod Won't Let Me Be President
Huh! You can do that?
Woosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Fortunate Son - Creedance Clearwater Revival
The Crossing: I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got - Sinead O'Connor
The Crown: Santa Claus is Coming To Town
The Root:Life During Wartime - Talking Heads
The Past: Dodo - Henri Des
The Future: Between the Wars - Billy Bragg
The Questioner: Prayer - Yellowman
The House: Paradise Lost (You're the Reason Why) - Half Man Half Biscuit
The Inside: I Went to a Wedding... - Half Man Half Biscuit
The Outcome: Desecration Smile - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Yes…
catdynamics | July 3, 2008Science fiction is one step closer to reality as an engineer works on a LED display integrated into a contact lens
Your life flashed before your eyes - from the Grauniad
Press release from Jan '08
Babak Parviz, asst prof of EE at U Washington, is working on integrating microLEDs plus processor integrated onto a contact lens - a bionic contact lens - next step is providing power.
also in Wired earlier this year
catdynamics | July 2, 2008Has Senator Obama actually read the text of FISA Amendments Act of 2008? aka H.R. 6304 (new pdf link)
Not one of his staffers, he himself?
I mean all of it.
Specifically Title II Section 802?
Specifically a) 4) B) ii)?
I would like a lawyer to explain to me how "determined to be lawful" is consistent with US law and precedent?
As far as I understand it, a deputy head of an element of the intelligence community indicating that the action was "determined to be lawful" is meaningless.
Determined by who? A court? A judge? Their dog?
I understand the pragmatism, the political traps and the…
catdynamics | July 2, 2008Christopher Hitchens does some field investigation for Vanity Fair, and experiences waterboarding for himself
video link here
it is not very dramatic, which is probably the most interesting thing about it, all over very quickly
h/t Ackerman on Firedoglake
catdynamics | July 2, 20081 47 48
22 1 58
3 0 842
I have remembered these numbers for 35 years.
They are phone numbers. Those I would need to call if I needed my family to get me, or if I was in trouble. (Yeah, Iceland is small, and five digits were enough back then - I didn't list the other numbers that are still good... with the extra digits that when the number space was expanded a few years ago).
In the last ten years, I have had occasion to memorize precisely three phone numbers - not, I think, because my brain is ossified, but because I don't need to memorize phone numbers.
My phone remembers them.
So does my…
catdynamics | June 30, 2008What would it take to capture our life, in full fidelity?
It may be less than you think.
I think.
The body has about 1028 or so atoms, but to reproduce our existence it is not necessary to record the 1029 or so bits, per dynamical time, necessary to keep track of them.
We lose, add and move a lot of atoms around without it really affecting our existence.
Our primary sense of existence is the input to our senses - this is totally dominated by the optic nerve, which consists of about a million fibres, linking a hundred million sensors to the brain, with a firing rate of order 10 Hz. It is not…
catdynamics | June 27, 2008Stormy friday, and we idly ask the iPod: what about the weather?
Will the Mississippi flood down river? Will the droughts continue elsewhere?
We gots to know.
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Donna Non Vidi Mai - Pavarotti
The Crossing: Dies Bildnis is bezaubernd schön - Mozart
The Crown: Carnival of the Animals: The Elephant
The Root: The Unknown Soldier - Doors
The Past: La Primavera - Vivaldi
The Future: My Only Love - Roxy Music
The Questioner: On Passing Lilac Urine - Half Man Half Biscuit
The House: Like The Way I Do - Melissa Etheridge
The Inside: Grafir og Bein -…
catdynamics | June 26, 2008Early tantalizing Phoenix lander results from Mars.
Phoenix wet lab results
Soil is alkaline and loaded with (probably) water soluble salts - Mg/Na/K and chloride.
Suggestive of liquid water processing at some point.
Ph is 8-9 - not bad, certainly survivable.
No carbon, yet.
catdynamics | June 25, 2008Who is Obama's Science Adviser?
Obama seems to have number of technology advisers:
Julius Genachowski, former FCC, on communications;
Alec Ross showed up at the science debate by proxy, but he is really a computing and networks guy,
Larry Lessig at Stanford and Daniel Weitzner at MIT are also apparently Obama tech advisers, but they're both, again computing/tech oriented.
So, who is giving Obama advise on climate change, stem cells, NIH funding, America Competes, NASA science and exploration, DoE funding, NSF baseline?
Should be someone getting into the campaign for actual science, as…
catdynamics | June 25, 2008Neil deGrasse Tyson, Colbert BFF, is back on The Report...
Man, he's good.
Best Friend Fyzzicist indeed.
Neil is doing a Nova Science Now series over the summer.
Dark Matter in 12 minutes, tonight.
Stephen, of course, does not see the colour of matter.
With free Phoenix Lander blurb for Mars thrown in.
catdynamics | June 25, 2008Hardly seen any of the footie to date, just caught the second half of the Spain-Italy quarter final, and now the last 30 mins of Turkey vs Germany (replay).
ESPN, for some strange reason, feels obliged to tell us, to three significant figures, how many kilometers they estimate various players have run at different times of the game.
Which is an absolutely bizarely irrelevant statistic, unless maybe I were a german assistant coach looking for a rationale to get rid of a beloved but aging midfielder.
Which I guess is why Germany strangely reminds me of the English teams of the 80s or 90s - flat…
catdynamics | June 20, 2008Frantic, frazzled frændfólks friday.
So, oh mighty iPod - will any good come of all this, and you know of which I speak...?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: It's Going to Happen - Undertones
The Crossing: Housefly Blues - Wee Hairy Beasties
The Crown: Lullaby
The Root: Uffington Wassail - Half Man Half Biscuit
The Past: Gaudeamus Igitur
The Future: Frímann Flugkappi - Stuðmenn
The Questioner: To Be With You - Mavericks
The House: I Don't Even Know Your Name - Mavericks
The Inside: Here Comes the Summer - Undertones
The Outcome: Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day
"Oh…
catdynamics | June 19, 2008Phoenix has been digging shallow trenches on Mars, and hitting hard stuff, which is bright white - like maybe ice.
Now bits of the stuff are vanishing before our eyes...
The scoop had dislodged some ~ 1cm chunks of the white stuff which were displaced to the end of the trench.
These have now vanished.
Like sublimated.
So, probably not salt deposits, we think...
Given the ambient temperature, exposed water ice looks like a good bet.
For real. - Might worry it is dry ice, but it seems too warm for there to be dry ice there, and also it is not so hard - I'm assuming Phoenix has quantitative…
catdynamics | June 19, 2008What is your take on the philosophical, or theological, tone in some recent popular treatments of modern physics?
Mark Vernon is a journalist and author of After Atheism and other books.
Mark is looking for feedback from readers of popular books on modern physics or cosmology which touch on the philosophical issues, including theological implications, of some aspects of modern physics.
To whit:
"Mark Vernon would love to hear from any fans of popular science books written by physicists. Particularly the books of those who draw philosophical, even theological, implications in their writing…