I love numbers—for various reasons. Most germane to this post is that I think that finding numerical patterns makes me feel like I have some control over things, although—to be sure!—such an approach is illusory at best, and misleading, at worst. Nonetheless, finding real or apparent numerical relationships in the Universe is interesting and comforting. So, finding this link that …
Is So! Is Not!
Too often, I find myself in situation where I argue something that I know to be the case, only to find out afterward—in the face of incontrovertible evidence— that the opposite was true. How did I ever end up thinking one way, and finding out that what I had reported—and, worse, acted upon—was contrary to fact? A recent item may …
More Signal, Less Noise
News this week included a report that planet-searchers have found a “super-Earth” orbiting a star just 42 light years from “regular “(but still impressive) Earth. [Given that distance, Bob Murphy, a colleague and friend, has suggested that we name the planet “Douglas Adams”, author of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, in which that number has keen significance as the “Answer …
Sometimes, It All Just Works
As of this writing, the successful landing of the Mars Science Laboratory (aka Curiosity) is old news, but the technology that allowed it to happen and also allowed me to partake of the excitement is what I wish to address today. The night of the landing, I was exhausted—so much so that I just couldn’t get my act together enough …
Unintended Consequences
It seems that The Machines are much in the news lately. I’ve seen several articles on increasing uses for drones and other UAVs in domestic “security” applications, not to mention the prospects of arming them for bona fide warfare. On a much less violent front, we have this item from the Wall Street Journal, which describes how a seemingly innocuous …
Go With the Flow
A recent report addresses what appears to be a long-observed phenomenon in some circles: That bubbles in stout often sink, rather than rise. No, this is not an effect enhanced by increased consumption of the imbibable under discussion; rather, it is a very real phenomenon, seen even by those who are not inclined to see what is not there. It …
Cleaning Up an Error
Back in September 2011 there was a report from the OPERA experiment at the Large Hadron Collider that neutrinos could travel faster than the currently universally accepted limit of the speed of light. I described my own reactions to this report here. As noted then (and to cite Carl Sagan’s popularization of the phrase and concept), “extraordinary claims require extraordinary …
Organic Connections
The Communications of the ACM (Vol. 54, No. 6, June 2011) had a fascinating article entitled, “Biology-Inspired Networking”, wherein the author described how a team at Carnegie Mellon University has developed a new networking algorithm. Their approach is based on the observation that developing neural cells in fruit flies organize not just themselves, but also the cells around them to …
Who Owns Your Information?
If you are a denizen of the various social networking sites, I hope you are aware of the battles that are raging with respect to “privacy” settings. Some locations, such as Facebook, have as an overarching philosophy that all information you post should be available to everyone by default, and that it is your responsibility as a user of the …
How Would You Bet?
Lots of news today about a finding that under some conditions neutrinos may (I emphasize may) travel faster than the speed of light, a clear contravention of a basic tenet of physics. In this light (yes, that’s a joke), I found this little item to be of interest: Source: https://xkcd.com/955/ Given all the pronouncements lately about changes to established paradigms—often …
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