tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70926301054833482812024-03-05T16:36:57.657-08:00The Secret of NewtonScience, history, faith. It's the secret of Newton.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-71121914849079255542009-02-26T13:46:00.000-08:002009-02-26T14:39:27.820-08:00Geologists' 100 Must See List (Updated)<div><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="http://geotripper.blogspot.com/2008/12/100-things-youve-done-meme-geologists.html">Geotripper</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> has started a geology-oriented 100 things meme. Thing's I've done are in bold. Follow along and keep score for yourself.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br />1. See an erupting volcano.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br />2. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">See a glacier.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> [More glaciers in the North Cascades than you can shake a stick at. The Winthrop Glacier on the north side of Mt. Rainier is IMHO the most dramatic with a huge, yawning mouth at its base that belches out a massive sub-glacial river. Falling rocks echo across the valley. Geology in action that is just jaw dropping.]</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br />3. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">See an active geyser such as those in Yellowstone, New Zealand or the type locality of Iceland.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">4. Visit the Cretaceous/Tertiary (KT) Boundary. Possible locations include Gubbio, Italy, Stevns Klint, Denmark, the Red Deer River Valley near Drumheller, Alberta.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br />5. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Observe (from a safe distance) a river whose discharge is above bankful stage.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> [Nooksack River, WA]</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br />6. Explore a limestone cave. Try Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, Lehman Caves in Great Basin National Park, or the caves of Kentucky or TAG (Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia).<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">7. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Tour an open pit mine, such as those in Butte, Montana, Bingham Canyon, Utah, Summitville, Colorado, Globe or Morenci, Arizona, or Chuquicamata, Chile.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> [The Mesquite Gold Mine in southern California. A pit large enough to see from space. Also the biggest Tonka trucks I've ever seen.]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">8. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Explore a subsurface mine. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">[At a tourmaline mine in southern California I saw a gem pocket being cleaned out with gorgeous watermelon tourmalines. Drool soaked my shirt through.]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">9. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">See an ophiolite, such as the ophiolite complex in Oman or the Troodos complex on the Island Cyprus (if on a budget, try the Coast Ranges or Klamath Mountains of California)</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. [The ophiolites in the San Juan Islands of Washington are a great low budget alternative too if you can't cobble together the bus fare to Oman.]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">10. An anorthosite complex, such as those in Labrador, the Adirondacks, and Niger (there's some anorthosite in southern California too).<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">11. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A slot canyon. Many of these amazing canyons are less than 3 feet wide and over 100 feet deep. They reside on the Colorado Plateau. Among the best are Antelope Canyon, Brimstone Canyon, Spooky Gulch and the Round Valley Draw. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">[Box Canyon on the south side of Mt Rainier is spectacular.]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">12. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Varves, whether you see the type section in Sweden or examples elsewhere.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> [Some glaciolacustrine varves in Island County, WA].<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">13. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">An exfoliation dome, such as those in the Sierra Nevada</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> [I climbed the 5-pitch "Central Pillar of Frenzy" on Cathedral Spire across from El Cap.]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">14. A layered igneous intrusion, such as the Stillwater complex in Montana or the Skaergaard Complex in Eastern Greenland.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">15. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Coastlines along the leading and trailing edge of a tectonic plate (check out The Dynamic Earth - The Story of Plate Tectonics - an excellent website).</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> [I live on the leading edge of the North American Plate as it overrides the Juan de Fuca plate]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">16. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A gingko tree, which is the lone survivor of an ancient group of softwoods that covered much of the Northern Hemisphere in the Mesozoic.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> [The new Art and Children's Museum in Bellingham has a Gingko tree. Yeahh!]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">17. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Living and fossilized stromatolites (Glacier National Park is a great place to see fossil stromatolites, while Shark Bay in Australia is the place to see living ones)</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> [I've seen the fossilized variety, 1/2 credit.]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">18. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A field of glacial erratics. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">[Lots in the Sierra Nevada.]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">19. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A caldera</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> [Massive caldera in Mammoth California, and Yellowstone for the "super volcano"].<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">20. A sand dune more than 200 feet high.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">21. A fjord.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">22. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A recently formed fault scarp</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. [I worked on a survey crew as an undergrad, measuring displacements along active faults.]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">23. A megabreccia.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">24. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">An actively accreting river delta.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">25. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A natural bridge.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">26. A large sinkhole.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">27. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A glacial outwash plain</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">28. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A sea stack</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">29. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A house-sized glacial erratic</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. [Sierra Nevada]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">30. An underground lake or river.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">31. The continental divide.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">32. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Fluorescent and phosphorescent minerals</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. [Not "in the wild" but plenty in my petrology/mineralogy classes.]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">33. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Petrified trees</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">34. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Lava tubes</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">35. The Grand Canyon. [I'm ashamed I haven't been to the Grand Canyon. My good friend Gary has told me that I'm not worth my salt as a geologist until I see the GC. Sigh.]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">36. Meteor Crater, Arizona, also known as the Barringer Crater, to see an impact crater on a scale that is comprehensible.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">37. The Great Barrier Reef, northeastern Australia, to see the largest coral reef in the world.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">38. The Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada, to see the highest tides in the world (up to 16m).<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">39. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Waterpocket Fold, Utah, to see well exposed folds on a massive scale. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> [1/2 credit again on this one. I haven't seen Waterpocket, but the folds of Poleta in the White Mountain Range are terrific.]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">40. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Banded Iron Formation, Michigan, to better appreciate the air you breathe.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> [I haven't the BIF in place, but I have a terrific chunk sitting on my desk. It is a gorgeously laminated rock.]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">41. The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">42. Lake Baikal, Siberia, to see the deepest lake in the world (1,620 m) with 20 percent of the Earth's fresh water.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">43. Ayers Rock (known now by the Aboriginal name of Uluru), Australia. This inselberg of nearly vertical Precambrian strata is about 2.5 kilometers long and more than 350 meters high.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">44. Devil's Tower, northeastern Wyoming, to see a classic example of columnar jointing.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">45. The Alps.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">46. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Telescope Peak, in Death Valley National Park. From this spectacular summit you can look down onto the floor of Death Valley - 11,330 feet below.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">47. The Li River, China, to see the fantastic tower karst that appears in much Chinese art.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">48. The Dalmation Coast of Croatia, to see the original Karst.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">49. The Gorge of Bhagirathi, one of the sacred headwaters of the Ganges, in the Indian Himalayas, where the river flows from an ice tunnel beneath the Gangatori Glacier into a deep gorge.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">50. The Goosenecks of the San Juan River, Utah, an impressive series of entrenched meanders.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">51. Shiprock, New Mexico, to see a large volcanic neck.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">52. Land's End, Cornwall, Great Britain, for fractured granites that have feldspar crystals bigger than your fist.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">53. Tierra del Fuego, Chile and Argentina, to see the Straights of Magellan and the southernmost tip of South America.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">54. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Mount St. Helens, Washington, to see the results of recent explosive volcanism.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> [With a bonus vial of ash my Grandma sent me after it erupted. See my post on </span><a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2009/02/pl-persistence-of-life.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">"The Persistence of Life"</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> about the recovery of Mount St. Helens.]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">55. The Giant's Causeway and the Antrim Plateau, Northern Ireland, to see polygonally fractured basaltic flows.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">56. The Great Rift Valley in Africa.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">57. The Matterhorn, along the Swiss/Italian border, to see the classic "horn".<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">58. The Carolina Bays, along the Carolinian and Georgian coastal plain<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">59. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Mima Mounds near Olympia, Washington.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> [Kinda creepy when you see these. But I love the 'giant gopher' theory.]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">60. Siccar Point, Berwickshire, Scotland, where James Hutton (the "father" of modern geology) observed the classic unconformity. [I've visited the equivalent contact on the Isle of Arran.]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">61. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The moving rocks of Racetrack Playa in Death Valley.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">62. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Yosemite Valley</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">63. Landscape Arch (or Delicate Arch) in Utah<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">64. The Burgess Shale in British Columbia<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">65. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Channeled Scablands of central Washington</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. [The story of J. Harlen Bretz is a must read for the scablands. I highly recommend "Bretz's Flood" for laymen and geologists alike.]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">66. Bryce Canyon<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">67.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> Grand Prismatic Spring at Yellowstone</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">68. Monument Valley<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">69. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The San Andreas fault</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> [I would add the town of Parkfield as a must see for the SA fault]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">70. The dinosaur footprints in La Rioja, Spain<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">71. The volcanic landscapes of the Canary Islands<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">72. The Pyrennees Mountains<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">73. The Lime Caves at Karamea on the West Coast of New Zealand<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">74. Denali (an orogeny in progress)<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">75. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A catastrophic mass wasting event</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> [The Hope Slide in southern British Columbia was an enormous event]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">76. The giant crossbeds visible at Zion National Park<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">77. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The black sand beaches in Hawaii (or the green sand-olivine beaches).</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">78. Barton Springs in Texas<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">79. Hells Canyon in Idaho<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">80. The Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">81. The Tunguska Impact site in Siberia<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">82. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Feel an earthquake with a magnitude greater than 5.0</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. [I grew up in California. 'Nuff said.]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">83. Find dinosaur footprints in situ.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">84. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Find a trilobite</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> (or a dinosaur bone or any other fossil)<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">85. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Find gold, however small the flake.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">86. Find a meteorite fragment<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">87. Experience a volcanic ashfall<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">88. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Experience a sandstorm</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> [San Juaqin Valley, zero visibility on the freeway, dust filtering in the truck. Pretty scary.]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">89. See a tsunami.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">90. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Witness a total solar eclipse</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">91. Witness a tornado firsthand.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">92. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Witness a meteor storm, a term used to describe a particularly intense (1000+ per minute) meteor shower</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">93. View Saturn and its moons through a respectable telescope.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">94. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">See the Aurora borealis, otherwise known as the northern lights.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> [In a rare event I saw the Aurora from Washington state in the late 1990's. Unusual for them to be visible so far south.]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">95. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">View a great naked-eye comet, an opportunity which occurs only a few times per century.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> [Hale-Bopp in 1997]<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">96. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">See a lunar eclipse.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">97. View a distant galaxy through a large telescope<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">98. Experience a hurricane.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">99. See noctilucent clouds<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">100. See the green flash<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I score a 43, not too shabby. I don't travel internationally enough to see some of these other gems.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I'd like to know where you score for this list. As an incentive to show off, I'll give you 2 bonus point for every 10 items you've seen on the list. Go on, do some bragging!<br /><br />Also, I'm curious about what you think is missing. I'll add a few:<br /><br /></span><ol><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A kimberlite pipe, not necessarily diamond-bearing.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> [I collected a sample of kimberlite from Kentucky. Not the friendliest place to go rock hounding. 'Nuff said.]<br /></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Pegmatite insitu with "honkin' crystals"</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Turbidite sequences</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">.<br /></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Flint Ridge in Ohio, source of much of the Native American arrowheads east of the Mississippi</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">.<br /></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Soak in a natural hot spring</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">.<br /></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Sand boils from liquefied soils after an earthquake.<br /></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Glacially striated rock outcrops</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. <br /></span></li></ol><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br /></span><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-56446513174787393922009-02-16T13:52:00.001-08:002009-02-18T07:34:56.385-08:00The Fragility of Life: Remembering Kylie RogerA few weeks ago I wrote about the "<a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2009/02/pl-persistence-of-life.html">Persistence of Life</a>" and promised a companion piece about the fragility of life. Unfortunately I'm writing this today under very different auspices than what I had originally intended.<div><br /></div><div>Yesterday I attended the funeral of 8 year old <a href="http://www.kyleroger.blogspot.com/">Kylie Roger</a> who died from a brain tumor. Kylie was a friend of my son. He was also a hero and inspiration to our local community and to a larger national community of other people stricken with cancer.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaH2Yza3pVxtYolUM329gQ0MDPImHmDvPeCn3ixhE-68MdMEBSfIiyWCl89mpnrc1clzY0CeFjmnnKLdYjleSys8P8O7L5AToDk4Qf8sWNciq-H6b12NIFOAEentmQYTGeNW9SAKLkE-xi/s320/blog.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 256px; height: 320px; " /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Hundreds of people attended the memorial service. The presiding pastor spoke truly that everybody who knew Kylie had an image in their heads that captured what a spunky, sparkling kid he was. My image of Kylie is from a picnic where the kids were playing with a snake they had found. Three young boys playing with a snake does not bode well for the snake. Kylie, his brother, and my son chased this poor thing for hours, passed it from hand to hand, ooohhh'd and ahhhhh'd and ewwww'd. There was a huge enthusiasm about such a small garter. And my lasting image of Kylie is with a huge smile holding out his hand and a snake hanging limply from sheer exhaustion of being played with and loved too much (the snake did recover eventually and slithered away, regretting, I imagine, that some hawk didn't swoop down and rescue him earlier). But that is a great picture of the thrill of life that Kylie had. Absolute wonder and thrill. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I can't imagine the grief his parents and brother are enduring at this moment. And have endured over the past two years as their beloved battled his "brain bump". The memorial service had a great slide show. I'm struck by how much that little kid crammed into such a short life. Equally striking is the number of people that fell within his sphere of influence. Kylie made a big splash in the pond and the ripples travelled far. Very far.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">During the slide show they played two recent phone messages left by Kylie to his mom. Those words caught on tape are so valuable now. I'm tearing as I think about the tragedy of listening to the last recorded voice of your child. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This was the second funeral I attended in two weeks. The first was for a beloved man who lived to be 93 and was a grandfather to me. His life was too short also and he will also be greatly missed. Life in general is persistent. But individual lives of those we love are fragile, too transient, too short. For those who are cut short like Kylie. But even for those who live well into old age. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Shame on me when I assume the people I cherish will always be here for me, assuming they will persist in my lifetime. Shame on me when I forget the fragility of life and don't play with my son until he's exhausted, or I'm exhausted (which is more likely to happen first). Shame on me when I forget the fragility of life and make the small priorities big and the big priorities small.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Among the rich gifts Kylie gave to his family, friends and community, he's given me a reminder of the fragility of life, which leads me to cherish those whom I love.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">God's peace to you Kylie. And your family.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><a href="http://kyleroger.blogspot.com/2007/02/whats-up-with-ooo-um-gow-ah.html">Ooo-um-gow-ah.</a></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-29397919213496505962009-02-15T11:34:00.000-08:002009-02-16T00:16:29.534-08:00Toxic Nudibranchs and Parasitic Wasps: there is nothing so alien as life on earth[Warning: if you read this post it will be like taking the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redpill">Matrix red pill</a>. If you choose to swallow the red pill, you can't go back, you go down the rabbit hole and your life is forever changed. Swallow the blue pill and you can leave now, your comfortable life in tact. But if you choose the red pill... well... I warned you.]<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><img src="http://files.blog-city.com/files/aa/2370/p/f/matrix_morpheus_red_blue_pill.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>OK. Red pill it is.<div><br /></div><div>Here we go. Extra-terrestrial life forms have landed on earth. And they are not being kept at Area 51. Or any other government installation. Just look to the seafloor and you'll find proof positive that aliens live among us. Specifically nudibranchs. Take a peak at this National Geographic <a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/06/nudibranchs/doubilet-photography">gallery of toxic nudibranchs</a> and this <a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/06/nudibranchs/holland-text">article</a>, wipe the drool from your mouth, pull your jaw off the floor, then return. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><img src="http://s.ngm.com/2008/06/nudibranchs/img/nembrotha-kubaryana-615.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 307px; height: 199px; " /><br /></div><div>Nudibranchs are gastropods that have naked branches ("gills") hanging off their backs (hence the "nudi"), many with outlandish color schemes that appear to be a defense mechanism. But their alien characteristics are not just that they look stranger than anything that sci-fi has yet to produce. Some nudibranchs are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borg_(Star_Trek)">Borg-like</a>, assimilating weaponry and technology of other species into their own toxic arsenals. Many nudibranchs eat critters that have toxic weapons (stingers, nematocysts, poisons) then secrete the previously digested arsenal when attacked.</div><div><br /></div><div>The 3,000+ species of nudibranchs are not content just to visit earth. Their super-secret plan for world domination includes reproductive cycles where up to 2 million eggs are laid at a time. And the option for hermaphroditic reproduction in some species.</div><div><br /></div><div>OK, I'm being a tad over-dramatic with the Matrix allusion. And the course of your life probably isn't unalterably changed. But seriously, nudibranchs are some of the oddest creatures alive.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>If, however, you do want to be creeped out by a Red Pill/Blue Pill experience, do some investigating into parasitic wasps, and your life will forever be changed. <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2009/02/wasps_use_genes_stolen_from_ancient_viruses_to_make_biologic.php">Not Exactly Rocket Science</a> has some spine-tingling descriptions of these wasp species which must be alien. With the parasitic wasps, I'm exaggerating about the creepiness, but not much. Life is much nicer without the knowledge that, in the words of Ed Young:</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><blockquote>Parasitic wasps make a living by snatching the bodies of other insects and using them as living incubators for their grubs. Some species target caterpillars, and subdue them with a biological weapon. They inject the victim with "virus-like particles" called polydnaviruses (PDVs), which weaken its immune system and leave the wasp grub to develop unopposed.</blockquote></span></span><br /></div><div><div>There is nothing so alien as life on earth.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>10 Bonus Points if you tell me about other examples of alien life among us. I've taken the Red Pill already, so I have nothing more to loose. And so have you if you've read this far.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div><br /><script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-52451537105145684662009-02-13T09:41:00.000-08:002009-02-13T10:55:16.909-08:00The Sincerest Form of Flattery<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">SEE 2/13/09 UPDATE AT THE END OF THIS POST.</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>If you haven't seen the astronomy pictures at <a href="http://blackholesandastrostuff.blogspot.com/">Blackholes and Astrostuff</a> , you must. Now. Take a long look through his archives. Dig deep because there are amazing jewels in those mine tailings. I'll wait.....<div><br /></div><div>See? Did I tell you? Or did I tell you?</div><div><br /></div><div>As the sincerest form of flattery to Bob Johnson, I've decided to try some of my own astro-photography. In this shot I captured the moon wearing a sombrero.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9OFG5PDMYvCoStPypbhHcwq86vDUfV8Reb6ZOPaHA4RKR9oibPJtqsHEWfKRcOry3mTrig0f9pmzO9lqdrhQcFtuV5oAm30ooYESiWaskKexbYcws9jwBTLC_fhck_ylHDLL5pot0dLGk/s1600-h/Moon+Picture1.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9OFG5PDMYvCoStPypbhHcwq86vDUfV8Reb6ZOPaHA4RKR9oibPJtqsHEWfKRcOry3mTrig0f9pmzO9lqdrhQcFtuV5oAm30ooYESiWaskKexbYcws9jwBTLC_fhck_ylHDLL5pot0dLGk/s200/Moon+Picture1.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5301787011774640962" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Now having studied Bob's work and looking at mine, the discerning audience will notice a few slight differences, which I'll enumerate in this compare/contrast (in case you're not discerning).</div><div><br /></div><div><table class="MsoTableGrid" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse:collapse;border:none;mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-yfti-tbllook:480;mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid windowtext;mso-border-insidev:.5pt solid windowtext"> <tbody><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:0;mso-yfti-firstrow:yes;height:13.7pt"> <td width="135" valign="top" style="width:101.4pt;border:solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:13.7pt"> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><o:p> </o:p></b></p> </td> <td width="168" valign="top" style="width:1.75in;border:solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left:none;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:13.7pt"> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Standards of Excellence for Blackholes and Astrostuff<o:p></o:p></b></p> </td> <td width="185" valign="top" style="width:138.75pt;border:solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left:none;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:13.7pt"> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">The Secret of <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Newton: </st1:place></st1:city>First Attempt at Astro-Photography<o:p></o:p></b></p> </td> </tr> <tr style="mso-yfti-irow:1;height:13.7pt"> <td width="135" valign="top" style="width:101.4pt;border:solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:13.7pt"> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Planning<o:p></o:p></b></p> </td> <td width="168" valign="top" style="width:1.75in;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:13.7pt"> <p class="MsoNormal">Pictures often entail foresight that ranges from days to weeks, months or even years ahead.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Critical astronomical events are identified early and intense planning is made so that the shot is captured.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></p> </td> <td width="185" valign="top" style="width:138.75pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:13.7pt"> <p class="MsoNormal">I was planning on going to the store and happened to look up as I walked out of my house.<o:p></o:p></p> </td> </tr> <tr style="mso-yfti-irow:2;height:13.7pt"> <td width="135" valign="top" style="width:101.4pt;border:solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:13.7pt"> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Knowledge Base<o:p></o:p></b></p> </td> <td width="168" valign="top" style="width:1.75in;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:13.7pt"> <p class="MsoNormal">Pictures are described in great detail so that the reader of the blog gleans excellent information. Bob even has <a href="http://blackholesandastrostuff.blogspot.com/2008/06/bobaids-meteor-shower.html">his own meteor shower</a> named after him.<o:p></o:p></p> </td> <td width="185" valign="top" style="width:138.75pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:13.7pt"> <p class="MsoNormal">My astronomy knowledge base is just a few stars shy of stellar. “Looks like a sombrero” pretty much says it all.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></p> </td> </tr> <tr style="mso-yfti-irow:3;height:14.45pt"> <td width="135" valign="top" style="width:101.4pt;border:solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:14.45pt"> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Effort<o:p></o:p></b></p> </td> <td width="168" valign="top" style="width:1.75in;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:14.45pt"> <p class="MsoNormal">Pictures are taken in the very late night or early morning hours, after enduring hours of frigid temperatures, long-suffering patience required to wait for just the right conditions, travel far and wide, sleep deprivation is but a small price to pay.<o:p></o:p></p> </td> <td width="185" valign="top" style="width:138.75pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:14.45pt"> <p class="MsoNormal">Reached into pocket, pulled out camera, lifted camera up, walked briskly into truck and immediately turned on the heater because the extra 30 seconds in the cold made me sorta chilly.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Mind you, I did walk briskly.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Briskly, I say. <o:p></o:p></p> </td> </tr> <tr style="mso-yfti-irow:4;height:14.45pt"> <td width="135" valign="top" style="width:101.4pt;border:solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:14.45pt"> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Equipment<o:p></o:p></b></p> </td> <td width="168" valign="top" style="width:1.75in;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:14.45pt"> <p class="MsoNormal">A veritable store-house of telephoto lenses, tri-pods, fish-eye lenses, telescopes, filters, cameras. Even a mini observatory in his yard.<o:p></o:p></p> </td> <td width="185" valign="top" style="width:138.75pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:14.45pt"> <p class="MsoNormal">iPhone,<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> f</span>irst generation.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Hey! Don’t tease me that I don’t have 3G.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Stop it!<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>That’s not nice!<o:p></o:p></p> </td> </tr> <tr style="mso-yfti-irow:5;height:14.45pt"> <td width="135" valign="top" style="width:101.4pt;border:solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:14.45pt"> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Technical Expertise<o:p></o:p></b></p> </td> <td width="168" valign="top" style="width:1.75in;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:14.45pt"> <p class="MsoNormal">The equivalent of mechanical and electrical engineering degrees needed to use his gear to good effect.<o:p></o:p></p> </td> <td width="185" valign="top" style="width:138.75pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:14.45pt"> <p class="MsoNormal">I know that if you want to take a picture, you push the icon that looks like a little camera. Plus I tried really hard not to be all shaky when I took the picture. I was sorta chilly, remember?<o:p></o:p></p> </td> </tr> <tr style="mso-yfti-irow:6;mso-yfti-lastrow:yes;height:14.45pt"> <td width="135" valign="top" style="width:101.4pt;border:solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:14.45pt"> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Picture Quality<o:p></o:p></b></p> </td> <td width="168" valign="top" style="width:1.75in;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:14.45pt"> <p class="MsoNormal">High resolution pictures that are jaw-dropping gorgeous.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></p> </td> <td width="185" valign="top" style="width:138.75pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:14.45pt"> <p class="MsoNormal">Not just grainy.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>More grains than the beaches of <st1:place st="on">Bermuda</st1:place>. <o:p></o:p></p> </td> </tr></tbody></table></div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">UPDATED 2/13/09: </span>OK, forget all of the compare/contrast above. Now that I have fancy animation on my picture, we might conclude that there is no practical difference between Blackholes & Astrostuff and TSON. Yup, virtually indistinguishable. OK, there are still a few differences, but I'm certainly closing the gap. (Oh yeah, I suppose I should give 10 Bonus Points to Bob for showing me how to do the animation. I'm grateful for my sudden, meteoric rise to almost joining him in the ranks of the elite of astronomical photographers on the web. I'd also like to thank all of the behind-the-scenes people who made this over-night photographic near-success possible. I won't forget you. Of course, I won't be sending as many Christmas cards, and now we can't be seen together in public, and I'll ask that you contact my agent if you want to talk to me. And no, I won't give you an autograph. Sheesh, I'm a busy guy with tons of obligations now. But I won't forget you. Hang on... Angelina Jolie is calling. "Hey Ang, what's up girl? Sure, send me the Tomb Raider 5 script and I'll take a look. Yeah... Yeah... Hey I gotta go OK? My peeps will call yours. OK... Yeah... OK... Uh huh... Hey, look I really have to go... Yeah... OK.... Uh huh... OK Ang... Right...Bye.") </div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/6016/19384521163664292sn9.gif"><img src="http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/6016/19384521163664292sn9.gif" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 225px; height: 576px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-9997377655116200712009-02-05T14:57:00.000-08:002009-02-05T22:19:07.732-08:00pL: The Persistence of Life<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>Last week somebody who was important in my life passed away. Among the swirling emotions attendant to funerals I've been thinking of life: its persistence, its fragility. This is the first of two companion pieces that looks at these thought lines, both striking in their own right, and even more so in apposition. </div><div><br /></div><div>This post takes up the first theme: life is unbelievably persistent. I'd like to look at the persistence of life from an unusual perspective*: the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">partial pressure of life</span>. Since the readers of TSON have already established the <a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2009/01/science-may-enrich-faith-but-not-visa.html#comments">importance of semantics</a>, let me define my terms. The partial pressure of life can be thought of as the force that moves life from areas of high concentration to low concentration. Not "Life Force" as in a <a href="http://www.lifeforce.net/">nutritional drink</a>, nor a Star Wars type force that lets Luke be a hero even though he starts out as a whiny little punk**. Neither am I thinking about "life force" as a concept of spiritual energy. </div><div><br /></div><div>I'm using "partial pressure of life" in a similar manner that physicists talk about the partial pressure of dissolved gases in a liquid. Dissolved gases move from from areas of high partial pressures to low partial pressures. I argue that the persistence of life stems from an analogous function (not identical, but analogous). Life itself has a partial pressure and with often unrelenting, unstoppable force moves from areas of high concentration to low. I'll shamelessly borrow from physics and refer to the partial pressure of life as pL (similar to pH, which is the partial pressure or activity of hydrogen dissolved in a fluid). </div><div><br /></div><div>OK, terms better defined, let's look at the persistence of life. First, life has absolutely and completely blanketed the earth. From the highest mountain to the deepest cavern. Land, sea and air. After learning about extreme life forms such as thermophiles, acidophiles, alkaliphiles, halophiles (and a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremophile">whole other grocery isle of extreme "-ophiles"</a>) I'm more suprised to find a place where there isn't a form of life.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, life is much more concentrated near the equator according to a number of metrics (diversity of species, number of individuals) and decreases toward the polar regions. Using the digital equivalents of crayons, the partial pressure of life (pL) across the earth might be charted like this.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM1LJs1vCQI5241qRlZw-5MiaUzgUjNoS3P_JMZjlMV4YwD4IBocA1SJsEBVf3CH77DhdRuvKOP335ssEbSM7Jzb-mpNin3XckxS12pnwb6dREUXXBS77CHgHttiFfvk-pdWo8HybsEZmr/s1600-h/pL+vs+latitude.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM1LJs1vCQI5241qRlZw-5MiaUzgUjNoS3P_JMZjlMV4YwD4IBocA1SJsEBVf3CH77DhdRuvKOP335ssEbSM7Jzb-mpNin3XckxS12pnwb6dREUXXBS77CHgHttiFfvk-pdWo8HybsEZmr/s200/pL+vs+latitude.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299470793308336514" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 201px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>So the first thought for the persistence of life is from its geographic abundance. Along the equator, where the earth receives the most sunlight exposure, the partial pressure of life is highest. The number of species and variety is staggering (just in insects alone!). Yet even at the poles, which have extreme temperature fluctuations and low amounts of nutrients, micro and macro psychrophilic*** life is abundant, though with a lower pL than the equator. It would <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">seem</span> that the high pL gradient inexorably forces life from the equator to the poles.</div><div><br /></div><div>In some cases there is an actual push from the areas of higher pL to lower pL. Life is persistent because it fills voids. Mount St. Helens is an excellent example of this. On May 18th, 1980 the volcano erupted catastrophically, devastating over 200 square miles of wilderness. It was a massive loss of life (both human and non-human) and within minutes the pL plummeted to near zero within the blast, avalanche and pyroclastic flow zone. Yet because there was a drastic gradient in pL between the mountain and surrounding areas, life returned and persisted. From both animal and plant re-colonization, life has returned to Mount St. Helens. Life pushed from the high partial pressures surrounding the mountain into the void of the blast area. </div><div><br /></div><div>When describing the distribution of mountains and relief on the ground we use topographic lines and contours which are lines of equal elevation. When describing the distribution of weather phenomenon we use both isotherms (lines of equal temperature) and isobarics (lines of equal barometric pressure). When describing the devastation of Mount St. Helens, it is instructive (though not necessary) to use isobiotics**** (lines of equal pL). If you would bear with me an another simple diagram, an isobiotic map after the blast would look something like this.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8he4eLQtwTtw-nFrfuvSRtxTiU4pCM17E7f4ikLCKEQnX_8s2MVprjBLX-j9G6SY3hKZrEaBrU1dAJZkXoHNTdsIFhPxgCMAcmN-EcAtwAGpHMFBqsZH4J2bHqIVArQdVArsJM8t2MWYt/s1600-h/Isobiotic+map+of+Mount+Saint+Helens.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8he4eLQtwTtw-nFrfuvSRtxTiU4pCM17E7f4ikLCKEQnX_8s2MVprjBLX-j9G6SY3hKZrEaBrU1dAJZkXoHNTdsIFhPxgCMAcmN-EcAtwAGpHMFBqsZH4J2bHqIVArQdVArsJM8t2MWYt/s320/Isobiotic+map+of+Mount+Saint+Helens.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299512788222134322" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 244px; " /></a></span></span></div><div><br /></div><div>Even in a volcanic blast zone with, for all practical purposes, the annihilation of life, the steep gradient in the pL ultimately drove life in to fill the void at Mount St. Helens with both macro and micro-organism. The mountain hasn't fully recovered from the eruption. But it will. Just as it has in millenia past. Why? Because life is shockingly resilient.</div><div><br /></div><div>And Mount St. Helens is only a small volcano. If you've been to eastern California, you know the stunning beauty of the Owens Valley. If you haven't been, you must put it on your "List O' Amazing Places to Go". Mt. Whitney and the Sierra Nevada are on the west and the White Mountains are on the east side of the valley. Drop dead gorgeous. And yet, beginning about 30 million years ago, before the tallest mountains in the continental U.S. formed, everything did drop dead. In his outstanding book Basin and Range, John McPhee tells it best:</div><div><br /></div><div><blockquote>Up through perhaps a hundred fissures, dikes, chimneys, vents, fractures came a violently expanding, exploding mixture of steam and rhyolite glass, and, in enormous incandescent clouds, heavier than air, it scudded across the landscape like a dust storm. The volcanic ash that would someday settle down on Herculaneum and Pompeii was a light powder compared with this stuff, and as the great ground-covering clouds oozed into the contours of the existing landscape they sent streams hissing to extinction, and covered the stream beds and then the valleys, and--with wave after wave of additional cloud--obliterated entire drainages like plaster filling a mould. They filled every gully and gulch, cave, swale, and draw until almost nothing stuck above a blazing level plain. Needless to say, every living creature in the region died. Single outpourings settled upon areas the size of Massachusetts, and before the heavy ash stopped flowing it had covered twenty times that. Moreover, it was hot enough to weld...'When you bury a countryside in that much rock so hot it welds, that is the ultimate environmental catastrophe'.</blockquote></div><div><br /></div><div>Yet life now persists in the Basin Range--no, teems. In fact, what is among the world's oldest living organisms, the 5,000 year old "Methuselah" Bristle Cone Pine tree, sits atop White Mountain along the Owens Valley. Life not only prevailed, it's doing a funky chicken dance in the end zone. The partial pressure of life, applied over time can exert enormous force against even the most catastrophic conditions. Ever forcing it's way down-gradient from "life" to "non-life". Here's a picture of a Bristle Cone Pine on White Mountain.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/Bristlecone_CA.JPG/800px-Bristlecone_CA.JPG" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>I love to backpack, especially in alpine wilderness. I'm always stunned when I see a tree growing out of a hairline fracture of a rock like this. This tree and its heirs (life) will likely prevail over the rock (non-life). It's roots will dig deeper into the fissure and extend to depths of the rock where there is no life. The roots will grow and ultimately crush the rocks into fragments. Plants are an enormous and powerful erosional force, helping to reduce mountains to rubble (which is why JRR Tolkien had it exactly right in Lord of the Rings when the tree Ents attacked the fortress of Isengard and destroyed it's rocky reaches).</div><div><br /></div><div>Though replicated on a smaller scale than the Basin and Range volcanism, the persistence of life is also on display at the Bikini Atoll in the south Pacific where 23 nuclear bombs were tested between 1946 and 1958. While residual radiation still persists, sea life has returned in abundance (including scuba divers), moving down the pL gradient from surrounding areas unaffected by the nuclear blasts. It will continue to recover over time with life again trumping non-life. </div><div><br /></div><div>I'm also fascinated by the persistence of life throughout geologic time. <a href="http://newtonsocean.blogspot.com/">Newton's Ocean</a> has a great post about <a href="http://newtonsocean.blogspot.com/2009/01/immortality.html">telomerase and certain genes that appear to be immortal</a>. Also look at some cyanobacteria, such as stromatolites (pictured below), that are found both in the rock record dating back about 3 billion years ago and in modern day Australia.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/Stromatolites_in_Sharkbay.jpg/275px-Stromatolites_in_Sharkbay.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 275px; height: 205px; " /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Stromatolites (and other "living fossils") survived catastrophes that make the Bikini Atoll and even the Basin and Range volcanism seem like sand box playtime. Consider the Permian/Triassic extinction about 250 million years ago where estimates of specie extinction rates are estimated to be between 70-90% of all marine life. Likely tied to a planetary impact of sorts (asteroid, comet, etc..), the P/T event also wiped out a massive percentage of land-based species. Another massive extinction occurred at the close of the Cretaceous about 65 million years ago, also likely related to planetary impact.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It becomes evident that pL gradients aren't operable just geographically, because when you look at the geologic record, you see the partial pressure of life acting across temporal gradients. (I know that this is becoming a bit Rube Goldberg-ish, but it is my prerogative to make something simple more complex than it needs to.)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian%E2%80%93Triassic_extinction_event">Extinction charts</a> can be read as partial pressure of life charts (pL vs time). If there is one thing that is explicitly clear from my study of geology, it is that "life" extends into "non-life" across time. Conditions change (often radically and catastrophically), eliminating a large portion of life, creating a steep pL gradient, then life moves down gradient and fills the void.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Looking forward, I believe the persistence of life is displayed as humans pursue space travel. There's an enormous partial pressure of life on earth adjoining a very low partial pressure of life in the rest of the solar system. Life is bound to expand into the non-life of space. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'd like your thoughts on other examples of the persistence of life. I know I've just scratched the surface*****. Also 10 bonus points to the math whizz who comes up with a cool analysis for the partial pressure of life over time or space using calculus. It starts with dpL/dt or dpL/dx, now you do the rest if you want the BPs. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">For everybody clamouring that life is fragile (and I know you're out there... lurking!) that will covered in my forthcoming companion post. For now, just sit and ponder the persistence of life. Ahhh.....</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><blockquote><div></div></blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">The Fine Print</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">*It's unique to me either because I'm too lazy to look exhaustively elsewhere, or because this truly is an new perspective. Perhaps I'll have Bob of </span><a href="http://blackholesandastrostuff.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Blackholes and Astrostuff</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> do some digging. He did after all assure me that my "</span><a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2009/01/cool-or-creepy-stemcell-computing.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">nostril event horizon</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">" phrase is unique. And that's good enough for me.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">**The "whiny little punk" characterization of Luke is unassailable. Just watch the original movie (Episode 4 if you want to be technical). Listen to him say, "But I wanted to go to Tarshi Station for some power converters" and you'll agree. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">***Of course I didn't know this word all by myself. I found it like everybody else finds stuff. And no, not the World Book Encyclopedia on my bookshelf.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">****Bob, I'll need your help here also to confirm that nobody has coined this phrase. Yes, I know, I'm in a bit of a slothful mood. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">*****Hey! Look what I found beneath the surface... life!!!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><br /><script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-67917854912226538542009-01-30T17:04:00.000-08:002009-01-30T17:09:40.774-08:00Cool or Creepy? Self-Assembling Robot<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2007/12/Terminator_Robot.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 231px; height: 151px;" src="http://gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2007/12/Terminator_Robot.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div><br /></div><div face="sans-serif" style="overflow:auto;width:100%;margin: 0px 10px"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.5em">The next installment of "Cool or Creepy" comes from <a href="http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/mg19826531.200-shapeshifting-robots-take-form.html">NewScientist</a> via <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/" class="f">MAKE Magazine</a> .</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.5em">To get the full effect, think back to Arnold Schwartzenegger in The Terminator, then play the video clip below. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.5em">I <span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">guarantee </span>a shiver going up your spine either from the coolness or creepiness of it all.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.5em">Be sure to vote below.</div><br /></div><div face="sans-serif" style="overflow:auto;width:100%;margin: 0px 10px"><br /></div><div face="sans-serif" style="overflow:auto;width:100%;margin: 0px 10px"><br /></div><div face="sans-serif" style="overflow:auto;width:100%;margin: 0px 10px"><br /></div><div face="sans-serif" style="overflow:auto;width:100%;margin: 0px 10px"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uIn-sMq8-Ls&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&fmt=18" allowscriptaccess="never" allowfullscreen="true" width="450" height="364" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed><br /></div><div face="sans-serif" style="overflow:auto;width:100%;margin: 0px 10px"><br /></div><div face="sans-serif" style="overflow:auto;width:100%;margin: 0px 10px"><br /></div><div face="sans-serif" style="overflow:auto;width:100%;margin: 0px 10px"><br /><!-- Start Bravenet.com Service Code --><br /><!-- The following line of code must be on one line, it cannot wrap // --><br /><div align="center"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://pub39.bravenet.com/minipoll/show.php?usernum=3339732525&cpv=2"><br /></script></div><br /><!-- End Bravenet.com Service Code --><br /></div><div face="sans-serif" style="overflow:auto;width:100%;margin: 0px 10px"><br /></div><div face="sans-serif" style="overflow:auto;width:100%;margin: 0px 10px">Image Credit: <a href="http://gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2007/12/Terminator_Robot.jpg">Gizmodo</a></div><div face="sans-serif" style="overflow:auto;width:100%;margin: 0px 10px"><br /></div><div face="sans-serif" style="overflow:auto;width:100%;margin: 0px 10px"><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-16594868449176139772009-01-30T16:05:00.000-08:002009-01-30T16:36:58.089-08:00One Giant Leap: And the winner is...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:Z6Zva1OzEkNIPM:http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/62288main_aldrin_ladder_full.jpg"></a>The polls are closed and with 43% of the readers' vote, I'd like to congratulate "<a href="http://deepsoftime.wordpress.com/">The Deeps of Time</a>" for the winning submission to the inaugural "One Giant Leap". 20 bonus points! Plus honor, fame, glory and the respect of your peers! Sorry, wealth is not included in the prize package.<div><br /></div><div>I also want to thank the other One Giant Leap contributors:</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://rocketscientist.today.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Rocket Scientist</span></a></div><div><a href="http://newtonsocean.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Newton's Ocean</span></a></div><div><a href="http://etherwave.wordpress.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Etherwave Propaganda</span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); line-height: 19px; "><a href="http://www.leavethelightson.info/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Leave the Lights On</span></a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: normal; "><a href="http://www.nesteduniverse.net/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Nested Universe</span></a></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); line-height: 19px; "><a href="http://arashworld.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Arash's World</span></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span><div><br /></div><div>They all are an essential part of any healthy blog diet.</div><div><br /></div><div>And for the record, here are the contributions again to "One Giant Leap".</div><div><br /></div><div>--------------------------------<br /><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:Z6Zva1OzEkNIPM:http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/62288main_aldrin_ladder_full.jpg"><img src="http://tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:Z6Zva1OzEkNIPM:http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/62288main_aldrin_ladder_full.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 118px; height: 150px; " /></a><div>What advancement in thought, technology or discovery pushed science the furthest in one giant leap? This question was posed to some outstanding bloggers for whom I have great respect. And it is your job, dear reader, to vote for which of the following is the "One Giant Leap".<div>Unless you're from Illinois each person gets one vote, so I ask you to lobby your friends/family/garbage collectors to vote for which scientific advancement is the most important as a single step in history. The poll will be open for 1 week so organize your grass roots, and let the debate begin. When voting you'll need to decide which blogger is most convincing in their "Giant Leap" if there is overlap between submissions.<div><br /><div>The blogger who garners the most votes will not only win glory, honor, fame and the respect of their peers, but also 20 <a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2009/01/bonus-points-super-brand-new-completely.html">Bonus Points</a> and likely assure themselves a top spot on the <a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2008/01/bonus-point-leader-board.html">Bonus Point Leader Board</a> or be able to get fabulous stuff from the <a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2009/01/bonus-points-store-house-o-prizes.html">Store House O' Prizes</a>. And you, dear reader, will win because you'll be exposed to bloggers who are well worthy of your time to read and follow closely. <div><br /></div><div>So without further ado, I present to you the One Giant Leap candidates and their submissions. The poll follows these submissions.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://rocketscientist.today.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Rocket Scientist</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">: Information Technology Revolution</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); line-height: 19px; font-size:13px;"><blockquote>I'm going to have to go with the information technology revolution and all that entails. I can't think of anything that has changed the world we live in more than the way we communicate and get/send information. When I think back 100 years (speculatively of course) and the world as it was then and then think back 500 years before that, the difference between 600 and 100 years is not, in my opinion, as profound as the change in the past century. But, more than that, the world my father grew up in is a damn site closer to the world his father grew up in than to the world I grew up in. And mine is much more like his than my daughter's is to mine.<br /><br />I don't think it's any one thing but the serendipitous combinations of many things like computers and word processing/image processing, and the internet and telephones/instant paging and faxes and email and truly instant access around the world. <br /><br />You can't keep a secret any more like you used to. Someone with a cell phone camera will be there. You want to know what something is, google and know. You want an opinion by someone in another country. Find one instantly!<br /><br />Geography is less of a concern than it's ever been. Information can go anywhere, instantly. The world and entertainment for kids today is a completely different world than it was for me and light years from how it was for my grandfather. Good or ill (and I think much of it is good), it sure as heck is different.</blockquote></span><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://etherwave.wordpress.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Ether Wave Propaganda</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">: Sir Isaac Newton's Principia</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); line-height: 19px; font-size:13px;"><blockquote>If we're talking about a single contribution, and if we measure the "size" of that contribution as a leap that had a very quick effect rather than a cumulative one over all remaining history, I'd probably have to go with Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. To suggest that astronomical motions could be explained in terms of force acting over time was a massive shift in thinking, and to offer no philosophical explanation of this force (contra Descartes' version of mechanistic natural philosophy, itself a huge contribution) simply doubled down on an already massive contribution.<br /><br />The feat, one might say, was replicated in 1925 when Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, and Pascual Jordan published their "Three Man Work", which postulated the matrix mechanics version of quantum mechanics. This work suggested that at the universe at its most fundamentally microscopic level could not be mathematically described in any continuous way (as with Newtonian motion), but as a probabilistic and immediate succession between distinct states: the original "quantum leap". They then doubled down (really in 1927 with the so-called "Copenhagen Interpretation" of quantum mechanics) by asserting that there was no underlying but undetectable reality causing the transition from state to state. Only what could be observed could be considered real.</blockquote></span><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); line-height: 19px; "><a href="http://www.leavethelightson.info/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Leave the Lights On</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">: Heliocentrism</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><blockquote>I'm going to go with the shift that occurred around the time of the Scientific Revolution in which scientists stopped trying to pigeonhole the universe to their ideas and instead began to described it the way they observed it. I am specifically thinking of the shift from the ancient Aristotelian idea of heavenly bodies circling in shells of aether (which was never able to explain retrograde motion no matter how hard astronomers tried) to planets in elliptical orbits around the sun. This is not the discovery of any one scientist (Copernicus, for example, was the first heliocentrist, but he still believed in spheres of aether), but rather a larger-scale shift in thinking.<br /><br />At one time, philosophy came up with ideas of how the universe "should be" according to the current understanding of God, and science tried to show how the universe proved that understanding of God. After this shift, scientists observe how the universe <i>is</i>, leaving the philosophers and theologians to work out how it affects our understanding of God.</blockquote><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); line-height: 19px; "><a href="http://newtonsocean.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Newton's Ocean</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">: Mass Conservation in Chemical Reactions</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><blockquote>OK so the giant leap has to "advance a field of science" by the hugest amount. I'm going to interpret this quite literally. So I could go after the father of the field of evolutionary biology but that's too obvious. How about the father of chemistry, Antoine Lavoisier, who in 1789 came up with the principle that mass is conserved in a chemical reaction. This led to the whole idea of chemical constituents combining with each other without themselves changing. Not only did this transform (no pun intended) alchemy into the scientific field of chemistry, but it paved the way for Dalton to come up with his atomic theory, and the idea that chemistry involves atomic elements of different weights combining in simple proportions.<br /><br />Wikipedia seems to imply that Lavoisier really had to keep his unpopular job as a tax collector in order to fund his scientific research. As a result, he was guillotined during the French revolution. So it has always been hard to keep your head while trying to fund those giant leaps.</blockquote><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); line-height: 19px; "><a href="http://deepsoftime.wordpress.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">The Deeps of Time</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">: Greek Philosophical Rationality and the Christian Faith</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><blockquote>My first thought is to second the first suggestion, the computer revolution. The progress of scientific knowledge, at least in the total body of scientific facts known, in the last century has been exponential, based largely on the computer. Not only does computer technology allow a wider dissemination of knowledge (like the printing press), it also helps in the processing of that information. In everything from genetics to cosmology, sheer number-crunching and the ability to simulate complex systems has advanced science tremendously. <br /><br />I'll offer another suggestion, though, in the interests of provoking thought. Readers of my blog know that I place an emphasis on the interaction between philosophy and science. Science itself isn't even possible without a prior belief in the intelligibility of the universe and a trust in reason to be able to investigate it. Historians have noted that modern science is a distinctly Western venture, and Western civilization is at its heart based in two things: Greek philosophical rationality and the Christian faith. Those two facts are related, I believe. It is the Christian belief that God made a rational, purposeful universe and the tools of classical philosophy ("baptized" by Christan thinkers like Augustine and Aquinas) that have made science bloom in Christian culture in ways that it couldn't in other intellectual paradigms.</blockquote><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://www.nesteduniverse.net/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Nested Universe</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">: Heliocentrism</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); line-height: 19px; font-size:13px;"> <blockquote>I'll suggest that Copernicus' theory that the Sun is at the center of our Solar System is the greatest leap in the history of science.<br /><br />Not only did this theory redefine astronomy, his work is seen by many as the starting point of the Scientific Revolution itself, and led to significant advances in a number of the Sciences. Understanding that our world does not hold a special place in the universe was a truly revolutionary change, and one that sparked a radically new way of thinking about our world and ourselves.</blockquote></span><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); line-height: 19px; "><a href="http://arashworld.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Arash's World</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">: The Gutenberg Press</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"></span></div><blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;">If thinking about inventions, I would say that Gutenberg's invention of the printing press was a giant leap in pretty much all the areas one can think of.<br /><br />It caused a social and economic revolution as education became more accessible to laypeople and was not only the domain of the church. <br /><br />It was an information or communication revolution (and I think the Internet, with all due respect, is simply its follow-up, sequel or logical consequence). <br /><br />All this had enormous impact on religion, government and brought about a changing and more receptive mentality. It brought about more accurate geographical information through actualized maps. <br /><br />Various other academic disciplines evolved and spread rapidly through books. In other words, knowledge was finally, at least theoretically, available to all. Without the printing press I would venture to say that we would not be where we are today.<br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><br /></span></div><div></div></blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); line-height: 19px;font-size:13px;"><br /></span></div></div></div></div><br /><br /></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-49942369335050537452009-01-28T11:05:00.000-08:002009-01-28T11:59:06.422-08:00Thermodynamics Test for Financial Investments<img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 210px;" src="http://www.acf-fr.org/i/08-01-17_money8.jpg" border="0" alt="" /><br /><div>As a service to the readers of The Secret of Newton, I'd like to offer some financial advice, at no charge!* Call it the "Thermodynamics Test for Financial Investments". Let's say you come across what you consider to be an outstanding business or investment opportunity (such as the free offer in a Craig's List classified below). But you're just not sure if it is the right fit for you. Here's the ad, quoted verbatim: <br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; font-size:48px;">----------------------</span><br /></div><div><div><h4><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://bellingham.craigslist.org/zip/997997392.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Motivation and potential - free...</span></a></span><br /></h4><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'courier new';">We've all seen those overnight success money making schemes online. Well, I have a couple in mind that I truly believe in, but I need a partner to help me to get it off the ground. I am not opposed to spending a little money as long as I am relatively sure of a good return for us both. I want to learn, but don't want to have to slog through all the stuff necessary to learn how to build websites, set up search engine stuff, etc. Can you tell that I don't know what I'm doing? So, what do you say? Is there some kind of IT techie kind of guy or gal out there who wants to work with me to make some serious money online? Email me and let's get started asap.</span></div><div></div><div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; font-size:48px;">----------------------</span></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Now let's take a look and see if this offer passes the Thermodynamics Test of Financial Investments. </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeroth_law_of_thermodynamics">Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics:</a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:medium;"><blockquote>If two thermodynamic systems are each in thermal equilibrium with a third, then they are in thermal equilibrium with each other.</blockquote></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px;">OK, there are two systems presented in this financial opportunity. These systems are "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; ">overnight success money making schemes online"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "> that the ad author has "in mind". Unfortunately his statement "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; ">Can you tell that I don't know what I'm doing?" tells us that his mind is not in equilibrium (thermal or otherwise) with the third system which is "reality". </span></span></span></span></span></div><div><br /></div><div>Analysis: Fails the Zeroth Law.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_law_of_thermodynamics">First Law of Thermodynamics:</a></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></span></span></div><blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In any process, the total energy of the universe remains the same.</span></span> </span></div><div></div></blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">Or, more commonly, "energy cannot be created nor destroyed". When applied to financial investing, think of the first law as "no such thing as a free lunch" or: can't create sumpin' from nuthin'. In this case, the ad author claims to be offering free motivation and free potential. Turns out, however, that the motivation and potential really aren't free. He wants you to do some computer programming for him to help get the two "overnight success money making schemes" he "has in mind" off the ground. In this case, he is working within the bounds of the First Law of Thermodynamics and knows that nobody will be his IT Techie for nothing, so he's open to spending "a little money". </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">Analysis: Passes the First Law of Thermodynamics.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics">Second Law of Thermodynamics:</a></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">entropy</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> of an </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">isolated system</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> not in </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">equilibrium</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium.</span></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span>If we consider "entropy" to be the amount of disorder in a system, then we can be certain that our entrepreneur above will increase your entropy over time if you team up with him. Imagine: you've decided that you want to grab this golden ring and shoot for a "relatively good return" and make "serious money online". So with your IT Techie know-how you meet with him and get the scheme up and running. Then comes the late night phone call from your new business partner asking you to "shut it down immediately!!!!" and "shred everything now!!!". Followed soon after by the knock on the door from the SEC and the visit from the FBI men in black investigating interstate fraud. Oh yes, my friend, the amount of entropy in your life will certainly increase over time. You will also likely end up in an "isolated system" such as.... umm... a prison cell. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">Analysis: Passes the Second Law of Thermodynamics.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_law_of_thermodynamics">Third Law of Thermodynamics</a></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:medium;"></span><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:medium;">As temperature approaches </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: none;">absolute zero</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:medium;">, the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: none;">entropy</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:medium;"> of a system approaches a constant minimum.</span></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:medium;"></span></span> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">You are assured a "constant minimum" amount of entropy (disorder) if you put your eggs into this investment basket, most likely when the (legal) revenue from this scheme approaches absolute zero. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">Analysis: Passes the Third Law.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">Conclusion</span></span>: This investment opportunity is consistent with the First, Second, and Third Laws of Thermodynamics. Were it not for the violation of the Zeroth Law, I would say this is a terrific financial investment. However, the "Thermodynamic Test for Financial Investments" requires that you forgo any opportunity that isn't consistent with all laws. So, regretfully, I must advise you to pass on this "Free Motivation and Potential" offer.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-family:-webkit-sans-serif;font-size:12px;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div>Also filed under: Free Comedy Gold from Craig's List.</div><div><br /></div><div>Image credit: <a href="http://www.acf-fr.org/i/08-01-17_money8.jpg">A Cool Friday</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">The Fine Print</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">*Oops, I'm violating the First Law of Thermodynamics here. Corn!</span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-59530182398346888492009-01-27T07:48:00.000-08:002009-01-27T07:58:02.882-08:00This is the Internet.<div>The IT Crowd has finally done it! I'm guessing with a combination of <a href="http://biocomp.stanford.edu/">biocomputing</a> and <a href="http://www.quantiki.org/">quantum computing</a>, they've designed a desktop device that contains the entirety of the Internet. I'm astonished, frankly. </div><div><br /></div><div>Video <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRmxXp62O8g">here</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>5 <a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2009/01/bonus-points-super-brand-new-completely.html">BPs</a> to <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/01/this_is_the_internet_box.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890">Make</a> for the tip.<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-75858416488508079142009-01-26T21:56:00.001-08:002009-01-26T23:04:36.197-08:00aMap is the Best! No, aMap is the worst!A truckload of thanks to my friend Thom (who is now 10 <a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2008/01/bonus-point-leader-board.html">Bonus Points</a> richer!) for turning me on to <a href="http://www.amap.org.uk/">aMap</a>. This is an intriguing widget that provides mind-mapping structure to arguments. For kicks and giggles, I made an aMap of the recent post and comment thread of "<a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2009/01/science-may-enrich-faith-but-not-visa.html">Science can enrich faith, but not visa versa?</a>" which was my response to a statement by <a href="http://sciencereligionnews.blogspot.com/2009/01/video-lawrence-krauss-science-religion.html">Dr. Lawrence Krauss</a>. With wild swings of a very blunt axe, I chopped down the very rich discussion into some basic arguments and supporting statements. In the first aMap I've mapped the position that "Faith can Enrich Science", supported largely in the comments by myself and <a href="http://deepsoftime.wordpress.com/">The Deeps of Time, (Michael)</a>. <div><br /></div><div>In the second aMap, I tried (crudely) to present the contrary position made mostly by <a href="http://rocketscientist.today.com/">Rocket Scientist (Stephanie)</a> and <a href="http://borislegradic.blogspot.com/">Letters from Lausanne (Boris)</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>Apologies to all for hacking off some delicious fruit while doing this pruning. The purpose of this post is two-fold: 1) Introduce a widget that could be a constructive forum for arguments; 2) Use you as lab rats to assess the potential of this tool. Please build on either argument and help me put this tool to the test. If this is as snappy as it seems, I'll be happier than a pig in poop.<br /><div><br /></div>Do you like aMap, love it, hate it? Please put this through the paces and let me know. Let the kicking and giggling begin.</div><div><br /><embed pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" src="http://www.amap.org.uk/viewer.swf" flashvars="map_id=395&base_url=http://www.amap.org.uk/" width="400" height="300" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><embed pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" src="http://www.amap.org.uk/viewer.swf" flashvars="map_id=397&base_url=http://www.amap.org.uk/" width="400" height="300" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Update 1/26/09:</span> One drawback to aMap I just noticed is that the title can't be edited once the widget code is created. My apologies for mispelling "enrich" as "engich". Although, that might also make an interesting argument.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-12545833037580568262009-01-25T21:31:00.001-08:002009-01-25T21:39:58.792-08:00Forknife Loves Cupcakes: The Robot Controlled by a T-Mobile G1 PhoneFrom <a href="http://macpod.net/misc/android_robot/android_robot_media.php">Macpod</a> via <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/26/video-t-mobile-g1-powered-forknife-robot-goofs-off-eats-cupcak/">Engadget</a>. This needs no introduction, no commentary, no analysis*. Just enjoy. <div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PddThiIbGz4&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PddThiIbGz4&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">The Fine Print</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">*I won't even mention that this fits into Google's master plan to conquer the world. That is if </span><a href="http://www.bunkbots.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Bunk Bots</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> don't conquer it first.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;"><br /></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-23197043797910791302009-01-25T12:10:00.000-08:002009-01-25T19:11:20.365-08:00Shortwave Radio: One Step Up the Geek Ladder<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'Times New Roman';"><div style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 3px; padding-right: 3px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 3px; width: auto; font: normal normal normal 100%/normal Georgia, serif; text-align: left; "><img src="http://www.freewebs.com/stevesebastianb/qr-666%207.gif" border="0" alt="" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 188px; " /><div>I'm not climbing the corporate ladder. I am climbing the geek ladder. And yesterday I just got a promotion!!!</div><div><br /></div><div>My son and I went to one of our favorite spots in town today: <a href="http://www.mindport.org/">Mind Port</a>. Mind Port is worth visiting if you're anywhere within the northwest corner of Washington State. I wouldn't drive 200 miles to see it. But I'd drive 100 miles. There are truckloads of cool hands-on exhibits, many of which are science based. All of which are either engaging, fun, mentally challenging, odd or a combination of these. One exhibit was a shortwave radio. We spent about 30 minutes running through different frequencies to find signals. We had a blast! It reminded me of fossil digging: you have to sort through a bunch of garbage to find something of value*. After getting charged, we wanted to dive a bit deeper so we walked down the street to <a href="http://www.amre.us/">The American Museum of Radio and Electricity</a>. The AMRE is worth visiting if you're anywhere in the northwest corner of the United States. I'd drive 300-400 miles just to see this museum. There's a huge collection of antique radios and scientific instruments. Lots of hands-0n exhibits and demonstrations. See their website to check out all of the goodies.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>AMRE also just happens to sell shortwave radios. My son and I, filled with the radio equivalent of gold rush fever bought a 1970's Kenwood QR-666 shortwave radio. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdZHMidzaiqT6MxTzobuU2WhWDFj1UOEjKleC_PfDZoL81anEK4cCzjKX5Z4ZXaXiIbLVXJc9NogoQQZd1mZEE-rYdHQBUl6Unl4eWR2Z7k8-4j15sV4nfey6tQU-f4RC4Rtlte_els2os/s1600-h/Shortwave+with+Antenna.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdZHMidzaiqT6MxTzobuU2WhWDFj1UOEjKleC_PfDZoL81anEK4cCzjKX5Z4ZXaXiIbLVXJc9NogoQQZd1mZEE-rYdHQBUl6Unl4eWR2Z7k8-4j15sV4nfey6tQU-f4RC4Rtlte_els2os/s200/Shortwave+with+Antenna.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5295322328378055442" style="float: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px; " /></a><div>Before long, we had an antenna strung up in the kitchen and, I believe, that is when I ascended one rung on the geek ladder.</div><div><br /></div><div>My "About Me" blurb on the side bar of this blog used to read:</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); line-height: 15px; font-size:11px;"><h2 class="title" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(33, 17, 4); font: normal normal normal 150%/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', sans-serif; "><br /></h2><div class="widget-content"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">1) Proud father. </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">2) Geologist. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">3) Geek. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">4) Writer. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">5) Christian. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">6) Work in progress for numbers 1-5.</span></div></div></span></div><div><br /></div><div>But I'm changing that. It will now be:</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); line-height: 15px; font-size:11px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">1) Proud father. </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">2) Geek. <br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">3) Geologist. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">4) Writer. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">5) Christian. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">6) Work in progress for numbers 1-5.</span></div></span></div><div><br /></div><div>I'm novice in the shortwave gig so I'd love to hear your feedback, hints, tips, and tricks if you've dipped your toe into this pool. Or jumped into the deep end. I'm sure the antenna set up can be improved over stringing up a wire in the kitchen. I remembering hearing about some really strange signals on the shortwave frequency. Help me out here. Bring it on!</div><div><br /></div><div>As an aside, the radio didn't come with a manual. Fifteen or twenty years ago I'd either be out of luck or about to embark on a journey of weeks (or months?) to track down a manual. But as the curator of the museum was lamenting the lack of the manual, I told him (without pause) that I'd be able to "geddidonline". Sure enough, within 3 minutes at home I had a PDF version of the <a href="http://www.timroberts-vk4yeh.id.au/downloads/QR-666.pdf">Kenwood QR-666 manual</a>. If you're looking for out of print electronic equipment manuals, why not start at <a href="http://www.timroberts-vk4yeh.id.au/downloadable%20files.htm">Tim Roberts</a>? His site worked wonderfully for me. And the price was right. But the astonishing part to me was that I didn't even hesitate to think that I could immediately retrieve this obscure document. I mean, really. C'mon. What is more obscure than QR-666?** </div><div><br /></div><div>I'm amazed that "Geddidonline" has become reflexive for us. We know with certainty that if there's something we need to learn or find out or buy, we can "geddidonline". I'm more baffled now if something <span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">can't</span> be acquired from the Internet than if it can. 5 Bonus Points for your story about something you search for in vain online.***</div><div><br /></div><div>As another aside, I'm thoroughly disillusioned by "RadioShack". I put the name in quotes because I figured that "RadioShack" could help me out with an antenna for my new "radio". How wrong I was. Sure I could get a bluetooth headset there, or an Xbox controller, or a Sprint phone plan. But the actual percentage of "radio" gear occupying the shelves was 1% of the store. That might be on the generous side. And, to make matters worse, that percentage was greater than the "radio" expertise of the staff. He suggested I try another "RadioShack" store, thinking that another "RadioShack" would have more "radio" equipment than this branch. No thanks. I think I'll just geddidonline.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline; ">The Fine Print</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">*I'm stretching the analogy, because I find the host rocks to fossils of value too and not garbage.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">**I'm sure there's plenty, and I'd love to hear your stories fishing the ponds of obscurity. 5 Bonus Points for a great tale in this line.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">***Subtract 5 points if you come up with something like "my car keys". You know what I mean. Don't be a wiseacre!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:10px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Image Credit for Radio: </span><a href="http://www.freewebs.com/stevesebastianb/qr-666%207.gif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">FreeWebs.com</span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:10px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:10px;"><br /></span></div></div></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-26293650494380500372009-01-24T09:44:00.000-08:002009-01-24T09:54:39.534-08:00BOTLOS Boxing Ring<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://files.turbosquid.com/Preview/Content_on_3_15_2006_13_59_32/Untex%20-%2001.jpgabe21f7b-c1a3-4a2f-8452-956115b94ac0Large.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="http://files.turbosquid.com/Preview/Content_on_3_15_2006_13_59_32/Untex%20-%2001.jpgabe21f7b-c1a3-4a2f-8452-956115b94ac0Large.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />This is the place to spar with others about significant events in science history for the <a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2008/01/project-botlos.html">Big Ol' Time Line of Science</a>. Duke it out over people, places, events and times. The BOTLOS will be updated based on discussions here.<div><br /></div><div>Contestants take your corners. I want a clean fight. No hitting below the belt. No sucker punches. When the bell rings, come out swinging. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;">DING!</span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Image from <a href="http://files.turbosquid.com/Preview/Content_on_3_15_2006_13_59_32/Untex%20-%2001.jpgabe21f7b-c1a3-4a2f-8452-956115b94ac0Large.jpg">Turbo Squid</a>.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-8100999406778023732009-01-23T16:52:00.000-08:002009-01-24T10:00:09.507-08:00Annoucing Project BOTLOS!!!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/media/060915/060915_CMB_Timeline300.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 207px; height: 149px;" src="http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/media/060915/060915_CMB_Timeline300.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'Times New Roman';"><div style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 3px; padding-right: 3px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 3px; width: auto; font: normal normal normal 100%/normal Georgia, serif; text-align: left; "><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">Big Ol' Time Line O' Science </span></span></span><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>In order to get a sense for the arc of history for writing my novel, I decided to make a timeline of significant people and events (mostly scientific, but not exclusively). I'm sure there are existing time lines available that are far more complete (and accurate?!) but it was a wonderful exercise for me to build my own. My goal was to appreciate the historic back drop of Cambridge University of the late 1800s. But as I continued to read and research, the timeline project grew.</div><div><br /></div><div>And now I'd like to enlist your help to put some meat on these bones. The timeline is very heavy in European science, especially around the late 19th century. It also has more holes than Swiss cheese. I invite you to submit items of that have <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">significant scientific implications</span> and corrections too. I won't even mention the tremendous <a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2009/01/bonus-points-super-brand-new-completely.html">Bonus Point</a> potential here (oops, I just mentioned it!). Discussions around historical figures and events are more than welcome. Consider this a <a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2009/01/botlos-boxing-ring.html">boxing ring</a> and great place to spar over the history of science. Some items on this timeline are fictional and specific to my novel. I'm including them here to help me keep things straight. </div><div><br /></div><div>The timeline is too long to put on the front page of the blog. This is the actual <a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2008/01/project-botlos.html">BOTLOS </a>timeline. Check it out!</div><div><br /></div><div>Image from: <a href="http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/media/060915/060915_CMB_Timeline300.jpg">NASA/WMAP Science Team</a></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">1/24/09 UPATED: </span>I've just added an actual <a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2009/01/botlos-boxing-ring.html">BOTLOS Boxing Ring</a>. Because the timeline is long, I wanted to have a place that has faster load times for all of the commenting. So this is where you see the <a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2008/01/project-botlos.html">BOTLOS</a> and this is the <a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2009/01/botlos-boxing-ring.html">boxing ring</a> where the battle takes place over items within the time line. </div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10pt;color:black;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-11677146554927130682009-01-22T21:16:00.000-08:002009-01-23T01:08:48.259-08:00You're Out of Your Mind. No, really.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.freshdirect.com/media/images/product/frozen_8/fro_ben_je_chubby_h_01_p.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 150px;" src="http://www.freshdirect.com/media/images/product/frozen_8/fro_ben_je_chubby_h_01_p.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.leavethelightson.info/">Leave the Lights On</a> reminded me of the tenuous wonder of the beginning of life in the post <a href="http://www.leavethelightson.info/2009/01/how-human-fertilization-takes-place.html">How Human Fertilization Takes Place</a>. And then the post hearkened back to my high school biology class where I originally learned what "haploid" and "diploid" meant. Then forgot. But it also hearkened back to a book called "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fearfully-Wonderfully-Made-Philip-Yancey/dp/031035451X">Fearfully and Wonderfully Made</a>" by Dr. Paul Brand and Phillip Yancy. And when I hearkened back to that book, I hearkened back to the chapter on neurons*. <div><br /></div><div>The authors discuss a very strange, yet amazing aspect of our nervous system. And that is the hierarchy and delegation of tasks in our body's nervous system. Your brain controls many aspects of movement. But not all. There are other "wills" or "minds" located throughout your body. </div><div><br /></div><div>You can consciously tell yourself, "Hey! Chump! Pick up that spoon and pack down that entire pint of Ben and Jerry's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chubby_Hubby_(Ben_&_Jerry's_flavor)">Chubby Hubby</a> ice cream." So, at your brain's direction, you stroll to the freezer and enjoy the peanut buttery-chocolatey-pretzely-malty bliss. That is one level of the hierarchy of your nervous system: direct commands from your brain to your body. </div><div><br /></div><div>Midway through the pint, your stomach might say, "Hey! Buddy! I'm a bit crammed down here. Why don't you step away from the ice cream, just put the spoon down. That's it. Slowly now." But then your mind says, "Nuh uh! Deal with it pal! Because I want more and I'm making this spoon dig out that huge chocolate chunk and shove it down your maw!" And then shoulder, arm, and hand and fingers obey the brain. Much to your stomach's dismay.**</div><div><br /></div><div>But your body has other control centers, apart from your brain. Let's say that on the way to the freezer, there's a rusty nail poking up through the floor board. And let's say you step on the rusty nail. Your foot, by it's own control and volition, apart from your brain, instantly registers the pain and immediately withdraws. Completely on its own accord. The pain signal was not sent to your brain, processed, then a signal sent from the brain to the foot instructing it to withdraw. That would take way too long. And this happens with not only your foot. In a sense, there's a "mind" or "will" in your hand too. Because as you were hopping up and down, hollering in agony from stepping on the nail, you tried to steady yourself by placing your hand on the stove. Which was still on. So now what happens? A pain signal sent from your hand up to the brain, processed, then a signal sent back to the hand to withdraw? Nope. The hand controls itself (!) and withdraws immediately. Soon after, the brain might signal your hand to punch the counter in anger and for how stupid you feel. But the initial reflex occurred independently.</div><div><br /></div><div>Yet both the foot and the hand have their own "minds" or "will" located in just a few nerves attached to a few muscles. To a significant degree, you are not controlled by your brain. You are out of your mind. But, as Dr. Brand shows, the will of one "mind" can over-ride the will of another. If you're trying to escape a burning airplane, your head can tell you to run across broken glass, jagged metal, burning shards in order to save your life; overriding the will of your feet that would otherwise recoil in a normal situation to such stimuli.</div><div><br /></div><div>You could argue that each cell within the body is autonomous and has a mind of its own. It receives instructions and participates in various feedback loops, cooperates with other cells, but at any time could decide to act on its own, depending on the stimuli that it receives.</div><div><br /></div><div>I consider "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made" to be essential reading if you're fascinated by the workings of the human body. Do yourself a favor, grab a pint of Chubby Hubby and read the book cover to cover. You'll not be disappointed (in either the book or the ice cream). </div><div><br /></div><div>And if you're not fascinated by the workings of the human body, well... you're out of your mind!!!</div><div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">The Fine Print</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">*I realize that by this time you're probably hearkening back your hand ready to slap me upside the head if I use the word "hearken" just one more time. I know. It's just that some words are so delightful, and under-used that I just have to give them some love from time to time. I promise I won't use the word "hearken" any more in this blog. Nay, more than promise. I </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">vow</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> to not say "hearken" again. Yup. You can count on me that "hearken" might as well not even exist, because my keyboard will not type the letters H E A R K E N in that order anymore. Five Bonus Points if you come up with other delightful but neglected words.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:10px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:10px;">**Later, the stomach might get it's revenge with it's own will and revolt. But in the meantime, the brain is totally in control. Oh yeah! Now dig out that big ol' pretzel. Oh yeah! So much crunchy malty goodness in that bite!!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:10px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:10px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:10px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">1/23/08 Update</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">: I'm giving "</span><a href="http://www.leavethelightson.info/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Leave the Lights On</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">" 10 bonus points for some </span><a href="http://www.leavethelightson.info/2009/01/how-human-fertilization-takes-place.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Paint graphics</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. Not because the graphics are spectacular, but because they are exactly what I would've done and I'm glad the bar wasn't set too high. ;)</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">1/23/08 Update</span>: Boris corrected me in the comments that the withdrawl reflex originates in the spine. Much thanks! 10 bonus points to him. Now if only Chubby Hubby could be purchased with BPs...</div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-80986831129376356952009-01-21T12:15:00.000-08:002009-01-21T13:31:39.699-08:00The New "Old School"<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Thank you, thank you, thank you <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/01/impresive_retrotech_project_site.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890">Make</a> for turning my attention to the <a href="http://spk.if.uj.edu.pl/ConsciousFlesh/index_en.html">CF Useless Projects</a> site! This is the ideal solution to a major dilemma for me. On the one hand, I'm a gadget geek and technofile. On the other hand I pine for the artistry and craftmanship of historic scientific instruments such as <a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2009/01/epicycles-glorious-error.html">astrolabes</a> and <a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2008/12/compendia-vs-cern.html">compendia</a>. Here are just two Useless Projects to make your mouth water.<div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Wooden Computer Case:</div><div><br /></div><div><img src="http://spk.if.uj.edu.pl/ConsciousFlesh/komp/images/komp2_4.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /><br /><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">USB Thumb Drive:</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><img src="http://spk.if.uj.edu.pl/ConsciousFlesh/small/images/pen_1.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>And while we're at it, I should also thank <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/01/impresive_retrotech_project_site.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890">Make</a> for showing me the <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/01/wooden_vespa_rebuild.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890">Wooden Vespa</a>. Definitely new "old school".</div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://blog.makezine.com/upload/2009/01/wooden_vespa_rebuild/vespa12.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 175px; " /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">5 Bonus Points if you can show me other new techno-gadgety things that have some old school craftmanship. And I'm putting <a href="http://www.makezine.com/">MAKE</a> on the <a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2008/01/bonus-point-leader-board.html">Leader Board</a> with 10 BPs for their must see website that produces a steady stream of wonders.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-41921065761283268042009-01-21T11:42:00.001-08:002009-01-21T11:53:43.323-08:00Get those "One Giant Leap" votes in!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:v2ApqieJbC_cbM:http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/corn-4.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 124px; height: 108px;" src="http://tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:v2ApqieJbC_cbM:http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/corn-4.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Perhaps you've already voted for the scientific advancement that you consider to be the "<a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2009/01/one-giant-leap.html">One Giant Leap</a>". But if not, get over <a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2009/01/one-giant-leap.html">there </a>and vote, join the discussion. We're looking for which single advancement pushed science the farthest in one increment. Or, perhaps you're thinking, "Those ideas suggested are corn*, and I have a way better one!" If that's you, then we'd love to hear from you in the comments to the post. I think there are some very thought-provoking candidates for the One Giant Leap, but we might be missing something. Bring it. Vote! <div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">The Fine Print</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">*If you're tired of all the old, worn out, traditional swear words, I'd like to suggest "corn" as an outstanding subsitution. Try it for a week. I think you'll be delighted. The term can be used across multiple cursing disciplines with a wide variety of applications. </span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-66148459990285055732009-01-20T22:00:00.000-08:002009-01-20T23:52:24.939-08:00Free Comedy Gold from Craig's List: Banned from Ebay<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial;font-size:13px;"><h2 class="entry-title" style="max-width: 580px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size:140%;"><blockquote></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">The second gem in a new serial feature at TSON from the free classifieds of Craig's List. Verbatim. </span></span></span></h2><h2 class="entry-title" style="max-width: 580px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size:140%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">------------------------------------</span></span></h2><h2 class="entry-title" style="max-width: 580px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size:140%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a class="entry-title-link" target="_blank" href="http://bellingham.craigslist.org/zip/980251822.html" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(34, 68, 187); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Free - HUNDREDS of bubble envelopes / mailers (used) </span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "></span></span></span></h2><h2 class="entry-title" style="max-width: 580px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size:140%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Literally HUNDREDS of USED bubble mailer envelopes. </span></span></span></h2><h2 class="entry-title" style="max-width: 580px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size:140%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">All used, but still re-usable and in excellent condition. Nice variety of sizes: mostl #2's (approx 8.5" x 11") but many smaller and larger ones too. There's a 33 gal. bag FULL of them, so there's easily 100-200+ of these mailers in there. I don't want to landfill these, so please help me be GREEN and put them to good use! </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Ebay note: If you plan to use these to ship items sold by ebay, you MUST remove or black-out my name/address on these mailers. I have been permanently banned from using ebay. If one of your buyers sees my 'handle' and reports you, ebay will permanently ban you as well! No questions asked. And you can't appeal their decision. Don't risk it, just grab a sharpie and black-out my name.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> I had this curbside, but weather has forced me to bring it in. If you're interested, please email me and we can set up a time for you to pick it up. THANK YOU</span></span></span></h2><h2 class="entry-title" size="140%" style="max-width: 580px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">----------------------------------</span></span></span></h2><div class="entry-body" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; max-width: 580px; padding-top: 0.5em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div class="item-body" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I'm offering, for a limited time, 5 bonus points for other items you think is comedy gold from Craig's list. Act now while supplies last! And, as the big prize, I'm offering 10 bonus points to the person who invents the best background story to this poor soul banned from Ebay. </span></span></div></div></div></div></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-90191415436709482942009-01-19T23:22:00.000-08:002009-01-19T23:30:35.071-08:00Must Read...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ujO8oRob-lXn3M:http://www.woodworkingbypaul.com/images/Book_Holder_a.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 113px;" src="http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ujO8oRob-lXn3M:http://www.woodworkingbypaul.com/images/Book_Holder_a.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />I'd like to get your recommendations for "Must Read" books and/or blogs in the areas of science, history and faith. It's not that I'm short of reading material, or have excess time on my hands, but I'm always scouring for treasures.<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>One <a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2009/01/bonus-points-super-brand-new-completely.html">bonus point</a> for each quality* suggestion you make as a show of my appreciation.</div><div><br /></div><div>Thanks!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">The Fine Print</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">*You know what I mean by this. Do I even need any fine print?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:10px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:10px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:10px;"><br /></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-36969138827609769622009-01-19T21:15:00.000-08:002009-01-21T16:37:10.985-08:00"Science may enrich faith, but not visa versa"?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://firstrung.co.uk/dbimgs/iStock_can%20of%20worms.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 281px; height: 462px;" src="http://firstrung.co.uk/dbimgs/iStock_can%20of%20worms.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 20px; font-size:13px;"><div><a href="http://sciencereligionnews.blogspot.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Recently </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Science and Religion News</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> posted a video link of a lecture by Dr. Lawrence </span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Krauss</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> entitled </span><a href="http://sciencereligionnews.blogspot.com/2009/01/video-lawrence-krauss-science-religion.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Science and Religion: Two Ships in the Night.</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> This is the money line from an abstract that sent the hamster on my mental wheel running like a banshee: </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">At best , science and religion have very little to do with one another. At worst, they are completely incompatible. And what little connection between the two even in the best of cases involves a one-way street. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Science may enrich faith, but not vice </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">versa</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. [emphasis mine].</span></blockquote></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Being both a Christian and a scientist, this quote not only gave me pause, it wrapped up "pause" in a nice gift bag with a pretty bow and a little note that said, "To: Brian, Love: Quote".</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Let me leave aside the extensive contributions of people of faith to science because I don't believe that is the speaker's intention (though it does play a role in the issue). To me, faith makes this chief contribution to science: from faith springs freedom. And from freedom springs freedom of thought. And from freedom of thought springs the riches of science.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">To bolster my claim I offer these words from the Declaration of Independence:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 21px; font-family:times;"><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness... </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.</span></span></blockquote></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 21px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I argue that the faith of the founders of the United States planted the unalienable right of liberty into the soil of this country. And from that fertile ground grew scientific contributions too many to number. This goes far beyond a "little connection" or two ships passing in the night. I think that faith has served as a tug which pulled science out of the harbor into the deep waters. Yes science started before the foundation of America, but the connection of faith and science has a rich history. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Your thoughts on the connection of faith and science are more than welcome. I'd also like to pick your brain on the Dr. </span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Krauss</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> lecture in general and in particular his quote, "Science may enrich faith, but not visa </span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">versa</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">." </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">There's also some interesting overlap with the "</span><a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2009/01/one-giant-leap.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">One Giant Leap</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">" contributions, which you should see if you haven't already. (Oh yeah, don't forget to vote there too!)</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 21px;font-size:16px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 21px;font-size:16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Updated 1/20/09: </span><a href="http://rocketscientist.today.com/">Rocket Scientist</a> is "<a href="http://rocketscientist.today.com/2009/01/20/joining-in-the-worm-toss/">Joining in the Worm Toss</a>" of this conversation. Be sure to pick up the thread there too because is has some excellent discourse that merits your time regardless of where you stand on this issue. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Update 1/21/09: </span>Picture updated.</span></div></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-32355578406464250732009-01-17T23:19:00.000-08:002009-01-20T23:06:59.150-08:00Bonus Points Store House O' Prizes<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:s-COsBhbsh-WFM:http://meehansalliedunitedltd.com/images/warehouse.jpg"></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">New Items Just Arrived in the S.H.O.P.!!!</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:s-COsBhbsh-WFM:http://meehansalliedunitedltd.com/images/warehouse.jpg"><img src="http://tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:s-COsBhbsh-WFM:http://meehansalliedunitedltd.com/images/warehouse.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 141px; height: 106px; " /></a><p>Now you can get fabulous stuff with the Bonus Points you've earned from contributions to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">TSON</span>. Fortunately I have connections in places and have been able to secure stuff for you to buy with Bonus Points.</p><p>Just post a comment on this SHOP page indicating what you'd like buy, then the minions of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">TSON</span> will deduct the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">BPs</span> from your account and change in the Leader Board. Satisfaction is practically <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">guaranteed</span>.</p><p>Now you face a dilemma: Do you try to be atop the <a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2008/01/bonus-point-leader-board.html">Bonus Point Leader Board</a> and get the respect of your peers? Or do you cash in some <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">BPs</span> to get terrific stuff? An age old problem (just back off <a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2009/01/crayon-physics-paradox-v1000001.html">Zeno!!!</a> This one is not for you!!! Back off!!!)</p><p>Here's what's hot off the gridle!</p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Store House O' Prizes*</span></span></span><br />2 Bonus Points = Recommendation for an <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">outstanding </span>mountain bike trail system. <br /></p><p>2 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">BPs</span> = Recommendation of my top 5 blogs.</p><p>2 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">BPs</span> = A step by step guide for how to make a backpacking stove out of a pepsi can.</p><p>4 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">BPs</span> = You decide the next post on The Secret of Newton (choose one from the topics of science, history, faith, Free Comedy Gold from Craig's List, Cool or Creepy)</p><p>5 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">BPs</span> = Interesting geology factoid not likely to be commonly known to the general population.</p><p>10 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">BPs</span> = I will share my tightly guarded source of outstanding coffee which donates a portion of the sales to the charity of your choice. This is killing two birds with one stone: caffiene and charity!</p><p>1,000* <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">BPs</span> = Learn the actual secret of Newton.<br /></p><p>20,000* <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0); ">BPs</span> = Posting of my infamous "mullet" picture.<br /></p><p><br /></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">More fabulous stuff will be added to the Store House O' Prizes so check back regularly! </span></span><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">Fine Print</span><br /></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">*Prices subject to change.</span></p><p><br /></p></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-26956585180790891932009-01-17T16:27:00.000-08:002009-01-17T17:58:47.236-08:00Bonus Points: The Super Brand New, Completely Unique Feature on The Secret of NewtonWe* here at The Secret of Newton are always striving to improve your blog reading experience and give you a little somthn' that you just can't get at any other blog anywhere else on the world wide web of information.<div><br /></div><div>So today we* roll out......... Bonus Points!!!!</div><div><br /></div><div>That's right, here at TSON and only at TSON can you earn Bonus Points. </div><div><br /></div><div>And to stem the flood of questions that will poor in from across the world wide web of information about these Bonus Points I've prepared a little thing that I've called a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions). Which is yet another thing that nobody else has on the world wide web of information. Soon everybody will be offering bonus points and FAQs on their sites. But remember, you saw it here first.</div><div><br /></div><div>Bonus Point Question #1: How can I get bonus points?</div><div>Bonus Point Answer #1: In a myriad of ways.</div><div><br /></div><div>BPQ #2: Such as?</div><div>BPQ #2: Well you might send me a great suggestion for the "Cool or Creepy" feature.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>BPQ #3: And?</div><div>BPA #4: Or you might leave an outstanding comment to a post that furthers the discussion or deepens the topic as all great comments should.</div><div><br /></div><div>BPQ #4: Is that it? Doesn't sound like a "myriad" to me.</div><div>BPA #4: No, that's not it. You could also get Bonus Points by answering questions posed within the posts. Or by showing me outstanding blogs that you thing are relevant to science, history or faith. Or by referring TSON to other folks. Or BPs shall be handed out on a whim by the admin of TSON for outstanding contributions and participation to this blog. If you want to jump out to a head start on the leader board click the "Bonus Point" label link in the side bar to to look for Bonus Point offers on previous points that have yet to be capitalized on. Some real opportunities are lurking out there! Plus I've given a few people some good will bonus points for being early visitors to TSON and getting the blog off the ground. </div><div><br /></div><div>BPQ #5: Hold on, this is starting to sound a little MLM'ish to me.</div><div>BPA #5: Not even close, I can't stand multi-level marketing schemes. Bonus points won't get shady in any way. </div><div><br /></div><div>BPQ #6: So what can I do with Bonus Points anyway? </div><div>BPA #6: Good question.</div><div><br /></div><div>BPQ #7: Well?</div><div>BPA #7: Well what?</div><div><br /></div><div>BPQ #8: What good are Bonus Points for? What can I do with them?</div><div>BPA #8: Terrific questions!</div><div><br /></div><div>BPQ #9: Look, I'm getting a bit ticked off now. Can I do any thing with these &%#! points or not?</div><div>BPA #9: Hey! You just lost 5 Bonus Points for being snarky and using punctuation symbols to swear. Just call down. The answer is that Bonus Points are useful for a myriad of things. But mostly they're great just to have. I imagine in time there will become a black market for Bonus Points and you'll see them being sold on Ebay for real money. Until them, just hang on to them and try to get more than other people. That's usually the fiducial for the value of stuff. Just compare your Bonus Points to other people's. But I'm sure they'll be worth something some day.</div><div><br /></div><div>BPQ #9a: Won't this just cheapen the discourse? I mean, shouldn't people want to discuss science, history and faith for it's intrinsic value, not for some artificial point system that doesn't really mean anything in the grand scheme of things.</div><div>BPA #9a: Yeah, I see what you mean. But I look at it like this. The primary motivation for any effort should be for it's intrinsic value or for the contribution it adds to the community. But if you can add another extrinsic reward on top of that it's... well... Bonus Points!!!! Besides, even most things that are done for intrinsic value don't matter in the grand scheme of things. So why not get a few BPs along the way?</div><div><br /></div><div>BPQ #9b: But bonus points have nothing to do with science, history or faith. So why add them to your blog?</div><div>BPA #9b: Actually, I had a physics teacher in high school who used a bonus point system. And I credit him for instilling a life-long passion for science within me. Besides, the value of any given item is established by he community itself. Look at the huge value we place on money, which is just paper. But we've agreed that it's worth something. The theory of money is interesting. Perhaps, since we're off the gold standard, we should go on the Bonus Points standard.</div><div><br /></div><div>BPQ #10: How will I know how many Bonus Points I have?</div><div>BPA #10: We* here at TSON will keep a "Bonus Point Leader Board" which will be available at just a convenient click of the mouse button from your world wide web of information browser. Look at the side bar where it says "Bonus Point Leader Board".</div><div><br /></div><div>BPQ #11: This is terrific. Thanks for setting it up. I'm really glad TSON is doing this because nobody else on the world wide web of information has any system even close to being as cool as this.</div><div>BPA #11: Thank you very much. That is very kind. I'm giving you 10 bonus points for the flattery. But, I'm afraid, I'll have to subtract 10 bonus points for not asking a question. BPQ#11 were just statements.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">The Fine Print</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">*Me, here at TSON</span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-41533604742547185402009-01-17T16:15:00.000-08:002009-01-17T16:27:05.888-08:00Mental WebEx of "Imagining the Tenth Dimension" Video<div class="gmail_quote">Fifteen bonus points to the son of my friend Mary who showed me this outstanding video on understanding the tenth dimension. Thanks <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Dallin</span>!!</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/HvgwR9ERCBo&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/HvgwR9ERCBo&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">And now, exclusively on The Secret of Newton, I'd like to <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">announce</span> the world premier of the first ever mental <a href="http://www.google.com/aclk?sa=l&ai=C369l7h9ySeLNLYOWtQPus5TECeyuk44BruXZ3gik8vUHCAAQASDHmPgFUNeGne8GYMmOxo30pNAZoAGn2a7_A8gBAaoEGU_Qlb-frShQRz6PGLzyFOkIClONjoDmbFQ&ggladgrp=12613365314996441344&gglcreat=13128998928868872607&sig=AGiWqtyOWmNYdytUfC4r7JGfzvyxv34vmA&q=http://www.webex.com/go/WebexUS_1011874%3Fsemid%3DG14.011.005.webex"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">WebEx</span></a> (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">mWebEx</span>), where your computer isn't seeing what is happening on another computer screen, but <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN2939892820080530?sp=true">your mind</a>*. What follows is a transcript of my thoughts as I watch this Tenth Dimension video.</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">OK, I'm turning on the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">mWebEx</span> device now.</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[Insert sound of static, resolving slowly into a clear beep indicating that the connection is secured]</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[Begin Thought Transcription]</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote>Chicken pot pie! Chocolate covered raisins! Glazed ham!** What? Oh! The m<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">WebEx</span> has started!!! Oops. OK, I'm going to start watching the video.</blockquote></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[Video starts with a point on a piece of paper]</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote>First dimension. Piece of cake (weird I'm thinking about food a bunch. Darn, can they hear that?) OK, that's easy. 1D here we go, just a point, infinitely small. Like that plate of ravioli I had for dinner tonight. Man that was good, but the serving sizes <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">could've</span> been bigger than a spec. Shoot! Back on track, man! You have the world wide web of information listening to you ramble. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">C'mon</span>! Right. Take that point and connect it to another by a straight line, to make the first dimension. Easy <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">squeezy</span>.</blockquote></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[Video draws intersecting line]<br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"></div><blockquote><div class="gmail_quote">No problem. Second dimension. Blah, blah, blah. I <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">should've</span> been an <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">astrophysicist</span>. This stuff is so simple. <br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"></div></blockquote><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[Video shows <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">flatlander</span> being <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">dissected</span> by his digestive track.]</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"></div><blockquote><div class="gmail_quote">That's gotta hurt. How does the pour sap drink his coffee? Man, I'd get a raging headache if I was a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">flatlander</span> and couldn't drink coffee. </div><div class="gmail_quote"></div></blockquote><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[Video shows 3D human.]</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"></div><blockquote><div class="gmail_quote">Length, width, height. 3D. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Sheesh</span>, is this Sesame Street or what? I thought I was going to learn something from this video. And man! they're skimping on the computer animation. No color even? Cheapskates... There had better be a car chase scene. Or that this is like a Sixth Sense deal where you learn that the guys is a ghost.</div><div class="gmail_quote"></div></blockquote><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[Video: "You fold one dimension to get to the next higher dimension"]</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Umm</span>, alright.... I get that mostly. Gears are turning just a little bit. OK, this is getting interest. Fold the second dimension to move through the third dimension. </blockquote></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[Video: "Duration" is the word that describes the 4<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">th</span> dimension]</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote>Yeah... folding....When am I going to fold that huge pile of laundry on my couch? Maybe I could fold it through the fourth dimension and it will be done in the future and I won't have to worry about folding it now. That would be <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">sweeeet</span>! Maybe I will learn something after all from this video.</blockquote><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[Video: "If you were to see yourself in the fourth dimension it would be a long undulating snake"]</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote>Alright, that looks nothing like a snake. More like a slug. So he's saying the 4<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">th</span> dimension is a slug? What???? This guy has no clue what he's talking about. Snakes look like snakes. Not slugs. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">C'mon</span> buddy, get your analogies in line.</blockquote></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[Video: "You're unaware of motions in dimensions above and below you."]</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote>Yeah, like that mullet I had in high school. I'm completely unaware of why the "me" in the past EVER thought that was a good idea. With my yearbook picture alone that "old me" chump completely shot down the political career of the "future me". Thanks buddy! Get a hair cut, why don't you!!!!</blockquote></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[Video: "Quantum physics tells us that subatomic particles are collapsed from the waves of probability simply by the act of observation."]</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Ummm</span>.... OK, that was an abrupt transition. We just went from Sesame Street to Stephen Hawking's <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Lucasian</span> Chair lecture at Trinity College. Alright, hang in there Brian. You know what subatomic particles are, you know what probability is, you know what observation is.... <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Umm</span>...I think I just reached <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">that point </span>when you are walking deeper into a very, very cold pool of water. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Eeep</span>!</blockquote></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[Video: "<span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Intermittent</span> wave of probable futures"]</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote>Hang in there Brian.... take deep breaths. He's just saying that the 5<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">th</span> dimension gets collapsed down into the fourth dimension by actions and choices... Right? I think I understand. So if I choose not to grow a mullet today, then I'm eliminating years of humiliation and shame tomorrow as a path in my future. Right? Right? Hello? Echo echo echo echo.... I've got to concentrate... concentrate... concentrate***....</blockquote></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[Video: "What if you wanted to go back in time and visit yourself as a child."]</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote>Yeah! With some scissors!</blockquote></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[Video: Fold the 5<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">th</span> dimension through the 6<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">th</span> dimension.]</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote>OK, so what is that genius invention that kid has in the video? Looks like a possum trap! Not sure if that would make that kid wildly rich, but it would sure take care of some critters in my basement!</blockquote></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[Video: To imagine the 7<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">th</span> dimension, treat all of the possible outcomes of the universe as a single point that includes all possible <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">time lines</span>]</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">Owwww</span>! <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">Owww</span>! My head is starting to ache!!</blockquote></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[Video: Infinity is a point in the 7<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">th</span> dimension.]<br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33">Grrrrrr</span>!! <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34">Owwwww</span>!! I think my head is splitting apart!!!</blockquote></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[Video: Different universes set up with different initial conditions than are represented <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_35">by</span>other points of infinity.]<br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[Puddle of drool and glazed look in my eyes, which are going slightly crossed. To retreat I start singing the Barney song.]</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote>I love you. You love me. We're all part of a family. With a great big hug**** ....</blockquote></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[Video: Enter the eight dimension by drawing a line that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_36">branches</span> off the line connecting two points of infinity within the 7<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_37">th</span> dimension.]</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[Smoke now coming from my nostrils. Train of thought is now purely random images from my life.]</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote>Huffy Thunder Road bicycle... penny loafer shoes... tank Atari game... </blockquote></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[Video: As we enter the 10<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_38">th</span> dimension imagine all of the possible time lines from all possible universes as a single point within the 10<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_39">th</span> dimension.]</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote>Beef <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_40">stroganoff</span>... <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_41">Volkswagen</span> bug... pinewood derby car.</blockquote></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[Video: In String Theory, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_42">physicists</span> tell us that that vibration of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_43">superstrings</span> in the 10<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_44">th</span> dimension are what <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_45">create</span> the subatomic particles which make up our universe.]</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">[No thoughts. Just large puddle of drool. End <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_46">mWebEx</span> transmission.]</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">The Fine Print</span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">*This will make a fine Cool or Creepy post some day.</span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">**Ten bonus points to the first person to identify the source of this quote.</span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">*** Three bonus points to you for naming the movie where this came from.</span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:10px;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:10px;">****Subtract 10 bonus points if you know any more of this song.</span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:10px;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:10px;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-4132584878444901282009-01-15T22:19:00.000-08:002009-01-15T23:39:46.594-08:00Epicycles: A glorious error<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><blockquote>Then burn thy Epicycles foolish man;<div>Break all thy spheres and save thy head.</div><div>Faith needs no staffe of flesh, but stoutly can</div><div>To heav'n alone both go and leade.</div><div><br /></div><div>Excerpt from "The Temple", George Herbet, 1638</div></blockquote><div></div><div><br /></div><div>Epicycles are an example to me of a glorious error. Most errors in life are typically embarassing, ugly or cringe-worthy (dropping the ice cream off the cone, stepping in a dog pile, calling an old friend by the wrong name). But the constructs of epicycles (the geocentric attempt at explaining retrograde planetary motion) are gorgious and stunning. Wrong, yes, but beautiful. Even poem worthy! Thank you very much Mr. Herbet.</div><div><br /></div><div>Prior to a heliocentric model of the cosmos, astronomers had a very difficult time explaining the wandering (retrograde) motion of the planets in the sky with respect to other stars. The wriggle and wobbly path that planets took did not neatly conform to the perfect, spherical ideals of geocentrism. Enter epicycles. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><img src="http://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/movies/epicycle-move.gif" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 325px; height: 200px; " /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div>In order to fit the wandering retrograde motion of a planet into the concept that the heavens are perfect and, therefore, in perfectly circular orbits, Ptolemy assigned planetary motions to smaller circles attached to a larger circle. As shown in the animation above from the <a href="http://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/lectures/ptolemy.htm">Natural Sciences 102</a> course at the University of Arizona, this epicycle motion does, in fact, yield circular motions with a wiggle to an observer on earth. The problem is that epicyle-calculated planet motions do not precisly match accurate observations. </div><div><br /></div><div>But it is such a beautiful error. This 15th century astrolabe makes me practically wish for epicycles to be true, just so these instruments could be in common use and production today.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><img src="http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/astrolabe/exhibition/images/49847_closeup.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 465px; height: 700px; " /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">15th Century Astrolabe, from the </span><a href="http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/astrolabe/exhibition/planets.htm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Museum of the History of Science, Oxford.</span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>When a simple epicycle did not accurately describe retrograde motion then epicycles were placed into epicycles. And the erroneous system became complicated. Wonderfully so. Ptolemy's <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.univie.ac.at/hwastro/rare/1515_ptolemae.htm">Almagest</a> </span>in which he outlines his concept of epicycles is fantastically detailed, highly analytical and gorgeously wrong.</div><div><br /></div><div>I hold a weepy nostalgia for <a href="http://thesecretofnewton.blogspot.com/2008/12/compendia-vs-cern.html">compendia. </a> And certainly I do for the epicycles and this astrolabe. Not for the error of the system, but for the beauty of the error.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092630105483348281.post-24377145048511200272009-01-15T07:29:00.000-08:002009-01-15T21:38:51.495-08:00New Feature Starting at TSON: Free Comedy Gold From Craig's List<img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 200px;" src="http://images.craigslist.org/3n63k33ma1f31g213091e228ff19787711a8a.jpg" border="0" alt="" />This is <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">waaaaaay</span> off topic, but I just can't resist. <div><br />Most of the stuff advertised on Craig's List "Free Stuff Classifieds" is just stuff. But some of it is comedy gold! From time to time I'll post an item that will leave your morning coffee spewed all over your computer screen. All of these are real classifieds on Craig's List quoted verbatim, but I can't guarantee that any of the free stuff actually exists. Nor will I vouch for their ability to hold your tanker in place on the high seas. Which brings me to our inaugural post.<div><br /></div><blockquote><div><a href="http://bellingham.craigslist.org/zip/993532438.html">Tanker Anchor with Chain</a></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';">The anchor & chain are in good condition. There are some minor corrosion spots on the surface though. It weighs 14100 kg plus a couple of chain-links each ~350 kg. I cant guaranty the Anchor actually works cause I did not have the chance trying it out, but it is quality work out of Japan and is now sitting in the back of my house. Come and get it out of my yard. <br /><br />Self pickup only! <br /><br />Please contact me via cl if you are interested.</span></div></blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';"></span><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">He's not going to guarantee that your tanker will, in fact, be kept in place by this anchor. But hey, it's free! Right now a tight-wad captain of some oil tanker is thinking, "Sure there's a chance it won't work. But, gall dang it, I really need an anchor and I hate spending money on this rust bucket. I'm getting it!!!!"</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Even more funny: Self pick up only! </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Fifteen bonus points to you if you come up with the best back story for how this anchor got from Japan to this guy's backyard. </span></span></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5863807425587125";
/* 468x60, created 1/7/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2918192789";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3