Free Thought
milhayser | September 23, 2011
It seems like every time we turn around, there's another new smartphone or robotic butler pouring coffee in our laps. On Uncertain Principles, the engineering breakthroughs du jour are "technical advances in ion trap quantum computing." Chad Orzel explains, "previous experiments have used optical frequencies to manipulate the states of the ions, using light from very complicated laser systems." Such lasers (though effective) are unwieldy, and researchers are now using simple microwaves to perform the same functions. This promises quantum computers on a chip—eventually. Meanwhile, on the…
drorzel | September 8, 20111 And the LORD looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
2 And the LORD said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
3 Make thee an ark, and this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred qubits, the breadth of it fifty qubits, and the height of it thirty qubits.
4 And Noah asked the LORD, What is a qubit?
5 And the LORD replied unto Noah, A qubit is a two-level quantum…
drorzel | September 6, 2011It's been a while since I did any ResearchBlogging, first because I was trying to get some papers of my own written, and then because I was frantically preparing for my classes this term (which start Wednesday). I've piled up a number of articles worth writing up in that time, including two papers from an early-August issue of Nature, on advances in experimental quantum computation (the first is available as a free pdf because it was done at NIST, and thus is not copyrightable). These were also written up in Physics World, but they're worth digging into in more detail, in the usual Q&A…
gregladen | August 22, 2011The deadline is approaching for you to submit your preferences for the Linux Journal Readers' Choice Awards. For purposes of discussion, here are (most of my) choices:
Best Linux Distro: I'm sticking with Ubuntu, even though I'm increasingly annoyed at several aspects of it. I chose Unbuntu because it was the distribution that allowed me to transform from someone who kept trying to make Linux work but never could to someone who uses Linux almost exclusively. The few times I've tried to use a distro other than Ubuntu, I've not had much success, and thus it remains as my choice, though I hope…
jdupuis | August 18, 2011The New York Review of Books has a great group review of some recentish books on everyone's favourite Internet behemoth: Google.
And they all look pretty interesting! (And I may have featured a couple of these before.)
In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives by Steven Levy (ISBN-13: 978-1416596585)
In barely a decade Google has made itself a global brand bigger than Coca-Cola or GE; it has created more wealth faster than any company in history; it dominates the information economy. How did that happen? It happened more or less in plain sight. Google has many secrets but…
catdynamics | August 12, 2011Not infrequently, I get asked what it is I do, anyway, as a scientisty sort of person.
I blogged it, of course, but that was a "typical day" - during term time and filled with paperwork and class prep and general rushing about.
This morning I woke up and found the Sb Overlords had frontpaged this quote:
"I think I need to go back and think about adaptive load balancing block solving of sparse, nasty almost diagonal matrices; that and whether kinetic energy turbulence really affects sound wave propagation (duh, of course it does, but how much...)?"
Huh?
Ah, Particle Physics snark...
So, how…
mikethemadbiologist | August 10, 2011I've blogged before about some of the technical issues surrounding how we can handle the massive increase in the size of genomics datasets. There's also a need to grapple with the analytical aspects of all of these data:
So, from a bacterial perspective, genome sequencing is really cheap and fast--in about a year, I conservatively estimate (very conservatively) that the cost of sequencing a bacterial genome could drop to about $1,500 (currently, commercial companies will do a high-quality draft for around $5,000- $6,000). We are entering an era where the time and money costs won't be…
drorzel | August 9, 2011It's that time of year again, when I start thinking about my fall term classes. I would really prefer to put it off for another couple of weeks, and I will put off spending much time on class prep in favor of finishing up some paper-writing and other things, but when the calendar turns to August, I inevitably start thinking about what I'm going to be doing in September, no matter how much I'd like to be thinking about other things instead. This year is worse than most, because I'm planning to really shake things up with regard to the way I teach the intro mechanics course.
I've been doing…
gregladen | July 20, 2011For now.
When it comes down to it, benevolent dictatorship resting on a perfectly anarchistic base is the only way to go. Democracy is too easily bought. Free Market Forces do not make everything all nice and efficient and stuff. Wherever information can be OpenSource and OpenAccess it should be; No institution should be allowed to exist for more than a few years; Somehow the infrastructure needs to be efficient, effective, and free (OpenInfrastructure) and then, everything else, we'll let Google take care of.
Or at least that's the plan for now. And when Google goes evil? Revolution…
sciencepunk | July 20, 2011I miss the 80s, when computing manuals were illustrated with things far removed from home computing. I found this amongst my pop's old computing books.
Nowadays off-the-shelf programming software tends to be designed for a specific purpose, and I like to think that the artist here was trying to capture the infinite possibilties that lay ahead at the dawn of home computing, but perhaps I'm just being sentimental.
Wait, there's more!
jdupuis | July 20, 2011Come work for me!
We have an 11 month opening here at my library for a reference assistant. The position doesn't require the library degree but a science background will be necessary.
The posting is here.
Posting Number: YUSA-7393Position Title: Reference AssistantDepartment: Steacie Science LibraryAffiliation: YUSABand: 10Salary: Annual salary of $51,439 will be prorated based on the number of weeks worked.Duration: Temporary Full-TimeHours: Fall/Winter (Sept to April): Mon. to Fri.; 9:00 am - 5:00 pm. Require to work a 12:00 noon to 8:00 p.m. shift one day per week. May be required to work…
krandall | July 19, 2011By Dr. Cynthia Phillips
Planetary geologist at the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute
The final mission of Space Shuttle Atlantis has spawned a whole series of perspective pieces on the history, state, and future of space exploration. Some, like the YouTube video "NASA's increase of awesome to continue," are unabashedly exuberant celebrations of the future in store for us in space; others, like this thoughtful piece in Technology Review entitled "Was the Space Shuttle a Mistake?," are depressingly and effectively critical of the cost both in dollars (more…
jdupuis | July 19, 2011Trust me, I really tried to come up with a cool, funny title for this post.
Anyways...
We have a new reference assistant starting here next week. As somewhat typical for such a position, the new staff member has a science subject background rather than a library background. In this case, Maps/GIS.
So I thought it might be a good idea to gather together some resources for helping our new hire get acclimatised to reference work in an academic science & engineering library. After all, we're not born with the ability to do good reference interviews!
With the help of the fine folk in…
pharyngula | July 19, 2011The Atheists, Skeptics, & Humanists Team on Folding@Home, the distributed computing effort to calculate protein folding properties, is looking for your spare CPU cycles. Join them! It's a much more productive use of your computer than that silly SETI@Home project.
aardvarchaeology | July 17, 2011Neal Stephenson is an unusually inventive writer of historical and futuristic fiction. I have previously reviewed his 2008 novel Anathem here. And somehow I have now come to think of one of his weirdest ideas: the subterranean orgy computer in The Diamond Age.
This 1995 book bursts with far-out motifs and ideas, to the extent that I can't say I really understood everything very well when reading it back then. I found the ending confusing and dissatisfying, possibly because I wasn't entirely clued in to what happened or what it meant. But I did get this about the subterranean Drummer…
drorzel | July 13, 2011
Counting Crows' Recovering The Satellites | Music | We're No. 1 | The A.V. Club
"Recovering The Satellites is easily my favorite Counting Crows album, precisely because it's the record where Duritz went from wanting to be a big star (or so he sang in "Mr. Jones") to equating his celebrity with slow-motion drowning. This was not an uncommon sentiment for '90s rock bands, though by 1996 the music press was no longer sympathetic to guys like Duritz being so angsty all the time. While August was generally warmly received by critics, the backlash kicked in hard with Satellites, and this had a lot…
mikethemadbiologist | July 5, 2011Links for you. Science:
Why is Anthropogenic Global Warming Denialism Important? Evolution machine: Genetic engineering on fast forward100 Years of IBM in PicturesThe Intelligence of Beasts: Cognition researchers move past 'chimpocentric' theories, raising new questions about human uniqueness
Other:
Earth to Democrats: It's Not Just the Tea-GOP Trying to Tank the Economy. Obama Believes Their Argument.How the meat industry turned abuse into a business modelThe Jews Aren't Going AnywhereIronic License, PleaseThey Want My Scalp. But They're Not Going to Get It.Drug Company Profiteering, Pill…
drorzel | July 1, 2011
Confessions of a Community College Dean: Spiked Cities
"Having followed [Richard] Florida on twitter for a while, I've noticed that his position goes beyond noting creative clusters. There's a general pro-urban, anti-suburban flavor to his thought. Add a few bike paths and a vibrant gay community, and you've pretty much found his recipe for growth.
Florida's work strikes me as a really elegant way to contrast New York or Boston with, say, Detroit or Pittsburgh. It also reasserts, correctly, the importance of geography in the digital age. There's a distinct -- and acknowledged -- echo of Jane…
drorzel | June 29, 2011
Chuck Klosterman on Led Zeppelin's last stand - Grantland
"4:52 to 5:24: brrrrrrringgggggg ... brrrrrrrrrringggggggg
"Hello?"
"Hi. Is this John Paul Jones?"
"Yes. Yes it is. Why are you calling me in the middle of this song?"
"I just noticed you had a telephone on your keyboard, so I thought I'd give you a buzz. Why do you need a telephone on stage?"
"No reason. Sometimes I like to phone Peter Grant and inquire about our tax status before playing 'Trampled Under Foot.' Who is calling me, incidentally?"
"My name is Gibson. I'm 22 years old, and I live in Texas. Many years from now, you will…
drorzel | June 22, 2011
About SETIstars.org | SetiStars Blog
"SETIstars is an initiative by the SETI Institute to recognize and rally support from the community to help fund the SETI Institute's operations and that of the Allen Telescope Array. It serves as a place to galvanize community action with clearly defined fundraising goals as well as a place to engage with and recognize supporters and contributors to the SETI Institute -- both financial and non financial. We are starting with a simple site with a clear mandate: raise funds from the community to help bring the ATA back on line. But this is just the…