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Evidence, Layer by Layer

Evidence that life on Earth is very old (and of humble origin) continues to accrue, but some beliefs are insurmountable. On EvolutionBlog, Jason Rosenhouse refutes the argument that the evolution of complex molecules and organisms is highly improbable. He notes that if we "imagine evolution proceeding by selecting genotypes entirely at random, then the probability is vanishingly small that we shall ever find one that produces a functional, complex organism." But since natural selection only builds upon what works, it's a smaller wonder that we're here to argue about it. On Dispatches…

Monster House

A couple of days ago I took my son to see "Monster House". The way the movie was not pushed hard by the marketers (compared to some other animated stuff), my expectations were low. However, I really liked the movie a lot! It is not a non-stop slapstick comedy like Shrek, it is not as cerebral and political as Antz, but it is just as good as Nemo, or Robots, or Monsters, Inc. or Ice Age I, and better than Incredibles IMHO. The action is mostly happening in the second half, while the first half manages to really flesh out the characters well. I also like the fact that there are no…

The intersection of public policy, economics, & evolution

Next Monday at NESCent: When: Monday November 16, 2009, 10-11:30am Where: NESCent, 2024 W. Main St., Durham, NC 27705, Erwin Mill Bldg, Suite A103 Directions: http://www.nescent.org/about/directions.php What do public policy and economics have to do with evolutionary theory? A lot, say participants in an upcoming meeting at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) in Durham, NC. Nearly 30 scholars, policymakers, and entrepreneurs from both the academic and the business worlds will gather at the NESCent headquarters November 13-16, 2009. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss how…

The First Annual Blogger Bioblitz

During the National Wildlife Week (April 21th - 29th), if you can, please participate in the First Annual Blogger Bioblitz: Pick a neat little area that you are relatively familiar with and is small enough that you or the group can handle - a small thicket, a pond, a section of stream, or even your backyard - and bring along some taxonomic keys or an Audubon guide, or if you're lucky enough, an expert in local flora and fauna. Set a time limit. Try to identify the different species of organisms that you find as well as the number of each species that you find. Take pictures if you have a…

Atheist Books and the Overton Window

I have read "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins and "Breaking The Spell" by Daniel Dennett a couple of months ago, could not bear to slog all the way through "The End of Faith" by Sam Harris, and am still waiting to get my copies of "God: the Failed Hypothesis" by Victor Stenger and "Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion" by Barbara J. King. I was going to write a big meta-review of all of them together, perhaps adding in "Darwin's Cathedral" by David Sloan Wilson as an anti-toxin to the Dawkins/Dennet naive understanding of evolution (and just plain old nastiness…

On Maximizing the Productivity of Your Graduate Students

Or, how may hours should graduate students work? Well, depends... However Many You Like As Many As They Can As Many As Are Needed All Of Them The answer may sometimes lie in the above range, sometimes may be somewhat less, and occasionally even more. We've all been there, and all suffer from survivor bias, confirmation bias and not a little survivor's guilt. The occasion of course, is The Letter very helpfully sent to all the astronomy graduate students at a distinguished research university by a well intentioned distinguished faculty member. It is causing quite the buzz in astro social…

Rewriting Genesis…accurately

The introductory schtick to my talk at the Seattle Skeptics meeting last night was to take a Bible and read a bit of Genesis, making the point that it was vague, wrong, and useless (I also ripped out the page and waved the pathetic thing around a bit, which had several people asking if they could have the bible defaced by PZ Myers afterwards). Then, of course, I summarized some small bits of the story of eye evolution to demonstrate that science has a much deeper and more powerful origins story than that little scrap of piss-poor poetry that half this country wants to make the backbone of our…

Atheists Advertise!

I never thought I'd see this. But here it is in all its glory. When I used to live in Georgia and drive past huge billboards that read "I heard that! -- God," or "You're Welcome --God," I imagined the day when atheist billboards would appear. I always wanted to buy a billboard that simply read, "God is Dead." in part, to see whether Clear Channel would put it up, and in part, to hear the standard rejoinder said in Georgia--"Nietzsche is dead!" How profound! Today's Journal covers atheists' efforts in reaching out, and concludes with this astute observation: Still, leading activists say…

While I'm out...

One of the things that faculty get to do is go to lots and lots and lots of meetings. Today I'm at a 6-hour retreat focused on distance learning, PubMed, and data repositories. (I know, you're all seething with jealousy). I hope to have another post up later this afternoon if I can get to it; in the meanwhile, here are a few notable posts from elsewhere: Revere at Effect Measure has an overview of H5N1 over the last 6 months, and discusses why SARS and West Nile aren't "false alarms." Coturnix brings you a potpourri of science news. He also has a DonorsChoose update--check out how…

Hell yeah

Evil monkey's pissed off about how scientists are viewed and treated. To hell with the nerdy sterotypes, the unrealistic portrayals in the movies and TV. Who are we really? So who am I? I'm tenacious. I can be ground down but never stopped. Repeated setbacks fuel my desire to overcome an obstacle and solve the problem. I am calculating; after dusting myself off, I plan a new approach before trying again. I show up to work every day because ultimately my job gives me a chance to improve lives. It isn't about money but the excitement of discovering something completely new and the prospect…

DonorsChoose - Classroom Science Around The Clock

As regular readers of Scienceblogs.com already know, October is the month when a bunch of us raises challenges to fund science, math and technology projects in schools. Several of my Sciblings have already set up their challenges and a few more will add theirs soon, I know. There will be a healthy competition with some other blogging networks, of course ;-) You can find my challenges at Classroom Science Around The Clock, look at the projects - all coming from 'High Poverty' schools in North Carolina - and donate whatever you can. If many people pitch in a little bit each, these projects will…

Voters' Brains and Framing Politics

First, a video of Jonathan Haidt - Morality: 2012 (Hat-tip to Kevin): The social and cultural psychologist Jonathan Haidt talks with Henry Finder about the five foundations of morality, and why liberals often fail to get their message across. From "2012: Stories from the Near Future," the 2007 New Yorker Conference. Second, a post by Drew Westen - Winning Hearts and Minds: Why Rational Appeals Are Irrational If Your Goal is Winning Elections: The difference between the Clinton ad and the Kerry ad -- like the difference between the Clinton campaign and virtually every other Democratic…

My Picks from ScienceDaily

Testosterone Turns Male Junco Birds Into Blustery Hunks -- And Bad Dads: The ability to ramp up testosterone production appears to drive male dark-eyed juncos to find and win mates, but it comes with an evolutionary cost. Big fluctuations in testosterone may also cause males to lose interest in parenting their own young, scientists have learned. Blind To Beauty: How And Where Do We Process Attractiveness?: Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but according to research conducted by a UBC medical student, eye candy fails to find a sweet tooth in patients with a rare disorder. After Drought…

Coyne gets interviewed

Jerry Coyne says lots of basic (but well-stated) things about evolution, creationism, and education in an interview with American Scientist. Here's a taste: Some creationists seem to feel that it's the scientists who are being dogmatic here--that you're somehow invested in this idea or want it to be true, or that your training has blinded you to other possibilities. How do you respond to that? I think they're the ones who are dogmatic, because the difference between religion and science, which is the difference between religion and evolution, is that we question things. Nobody worships Darwin…

Crypsis

Unknown moth species. Houston Heights, Texas. 27 October 2006, The photographer writes; This green moth visits my breezeway at night in response to the lights. To get this flash shot I had to stand back and use the macro-zoom feature on the Fuji Finepix 5200. Presumably the green wing color allows the moth to safely roost on green tree leaves in the daytime with the white markings likely helping to blend with leaf veination. The moth is about 3/4 inch wide along the rear wing margins. This species shows up with some frequency. I think it is beautiful and mysterious. Image: Biosparite. Can…

Mollusca Fossils

These Lower Pleistocene shells date to around 1-1.6 Myr ( Bermont formation). I collected them on a Florida Paleontological Society field trip nearly two years ago. If you were a Florida-Gulf-Coast sheller, you would recognize many of the shells as having modern representatives despite their age. There has been essentially a "freeze" on molluscan evolution in the Atlantic shell fauna since the inception of the 20 or so ice ages that have occurred in the Pleistocene. You said you were not averse to having fossils shells, so take a look. Notice the cone snails (Conus) in the strew. Nature ran…

Unacceptable Losses, Part 2

Speaking of unacceptable losses, this cited story (below the fold) describes how Bush and his squadron of flying monkeys blatantly betrayed our nation and our military by not sending enough troops to Iraq to do the job properly. Further, this cited story continues on to reveal that there was little chance that a replacement government could be successful in Iraq, especially if it is perceived by the Iraqi peoples as weak, a puppet, or out-of-step with prevailing regional governments. The U.S. government conducted a series of secret war games in 1999 that anticipated an invasion of Iraq…

Dimming the Sun

What is global dimming? It is a cooling effect that appears to have partially masked the effects of global warming. Global dimming is caused by a reduction in the amount of sunlight hitting the earth due to the presence of aerosolized particulate pollution, such as jet contrails. These airborne particles reflect sunlight back into space before it hits the surface of the earth, reducing warming and thereby masking the effects of global warming. This streaming video (below the fold) by Nova shows how the average temperature range in the United States jumped by more than one degree celsius (two…

Autism and Sandy Hook

How about we honor two wonderful, autistic children who died by NOT speculating that Adam Lanza had autism (which has never been confirmed, so maybe we should wait and see whether it is actually true or not) and NOT assuming that people with autism are dangerous?  The only people with KNOWN autism in that school were the victims. Joey was autistic and severely apraxic. She could not speak, yet she touched the lives of so many around her: teachers, therapists, friends, neighbors, all loved and cherished her. Joey was social and affectionate; she smiled, she loved hugs, and she even had a…

iPod iChing: Kötlugos?

It is a damp friday with ominous rumbles on the horizon. So we go and tremulously ask the Mighty iPod One: will she burst? Woosh goes the randomizer. Whoosh. The Covering: Sally MacLennane- Pogues The Crossing: The Band Played Waltzing Matilda - Pogues The Crown: Kick Out the Jams - MC5 The Root: Something is Squeezing my Skull - Morrissey The Past: Marines Hymn (instrumental) The Future: Teenage Kicks - Undertones The Questioner: Happy Birthday - Altered Images The House: How Soon is Now? - Smiths The Inside: Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops - Cocteau Twins The Outcome: Sidewalking - Jesus &…

What is Investment Banking most like?

Is it like standing unarmed in front of a column of tanks? Or is it more like following someone blindly off a cliff into a pool whose depth you do not know? Iceland knows. Kaupþing was the largest of the Icelandic Investment Banks. It grew by 500% in years, on paper at least. They were inspired. By the Spruce Goose, apparently. Though I have to admit, the use of The Agent from the Matrix as a metaphor has some accuracy, despite the apparent lack of irony. The Space Science/Cure Cancer metaphors are cute. Inaccurate, but cute. Hoocoodanode it'd all come to a bad end. I don't think the…

inadvertent generosity

there is an interesting side effect of the dollar's recent pronounced decline a lot of countries, especially smaller, poorer countries, finance their public debt in dollar bonds - the loan is in dollars, and so is the repayment, but the funds to make the payment ultimately come out of local revenue so, in driving down the US dollar, a lot of countries have an opportunity to write off a significant fraction of their public debt, eg by converting to euro bonds - if the central banks can pull it off, get refinancing, and if they time it right (incorrect timing just reinflates the debt in local…

Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship, Summer 2010

The latest issue of ISTL has just been released and, as usual, it's filled with very interesting-looking articles. The table of contents is below: Metrics and Science Monograph Collections at the Marston Science Library, University of Florida by Michelle F. Leonard, Stephanie C. Haas, and Vernon N. Kisling, Ph.D, University of Florida Zoo and Wildlife Libraries: An International Survey by Linda L. Coates and Kaitlyn Rose Tierney, San Diego Zoo How Much Space Does a Library Need? Justifying Collections Space in an Electronic Age by Nancy J. Butkovich, The Pennsylvania State Universitty…

Thank you, My Fate

tags: Thank you, My Fate, Anna Swir, poetry, National Poetry Month April is National Poetry Month, and I plan to post one poem per day every day this month (If you have a favorite poem that you'd like me to share, feel free to email it to me). My poetry suggestions are starting to run dry, which means I can start posting my own favorites (but you've seen many of those already) or you can send me your favorite poems, which I probably haven't read before! Today's poem was suggested by a reader, Suzanne; Thank you, My Fate Great humility fills me, great purity fills me, I make love with my…

This is Why We Call It 'SnailMail'

Did you hear about the christmas card that was delivered -- 93 years late? A christmas card that was mailed on 23 December 1914 in Alma, Nebraska, was just delivered to its destination in Oberlin, Kansas. It was mailed by cousins to Ethel Martin. However, the intended recipient had already died, so the card was given to Bernice Martin, Ethel's sister-in-law. Bernice Martin was impressed with the pristine condition of the card, despite its age and mystery. "We don't know much about it," she said. "But wherever they kept it, it was in perfect shape." The postcard features a colored drawing of…

Department of "Duh!"

This is what health departments are reduced to in the face of lunacy. Health officials in the Philippines have issued a warning to people taking part in Easter crucifixion rituals. The health department has strongly advised penitents to check the condition of the whips they plan to use to lash their backs, the Manila Times newspaper reports. Real nails are used in the re-enactments They want people to have what they call "well-maintained" whips. In the hot and dusty atmosphere, officials warn, using unhygienic whips to make deep cuts in the body could lead to tetanus and other infections. And…

Me and My New Book

Rundkvist, Martin. 2011. Mead-halls of the Eastern Geats. Elite Settlements and Political Geography AD 375-1000 in OÌstergoÌtland, Sweden. Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien (KVHAA), Handlingar, Antikvariska serien 49. Stockholm 2011. 165 pp. ISBN 978-91-7402-405-0. Abstract The Swedish province of OÌstergoÌtland has long been recognised as one of the 1st millennium's political hot spots. Splendid single finds, though never before surveyed comprehensively, offer a rough idea of where elite settlements might be sought. But not one of the ostentatious manorial buildings…

One last post on Sarah Palin

I wasn't going to talk about McCain's VP pick, Sarah Palin again, but I felt compelled to share this one unique video and make a couple of last observations.... The video is a very rear glimpse of a republican operative speaking honestly about Palin (well about anything I suppose), a revealing look inside their thinking: Not that it was not obvious, but here is a little hard evidence that Palin's pick has nothing to do with competence or experience. Forget what this says about her, what does it say about McCain? This is his first serious decision as would-be president. I guess he choses…

Dawkins Week at EvolutionBlog!

The reviews of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion are coming in, and they are mostly negative. That was predictable. Everyone knows, after all, that Dawkins is just one of those fanatical, frothing at the mouth atheists, who doesn't understand that religion is a beautiful and complex thing, despite the excesses of many of its practitioners. He's one of those silly people who believe logic and reason should be brought to bear on “The God Question,” despite the fact that sophisticated theologians gave up that approach long ago. So I'm not surprised that the main reaction to Dawkins' book has…

Hyperactive Dogs and Fancy Motorcycles

I'm still in the late stages of an awful cold, but shook it off a bit to write a new conversation with Emmy, the Queen of Niskayuna over at Forbes: “HEY! YOU POODLES! STAY OFFA MY LAWN!” “Emmy! Stop barking!” I sit up. She’s at the gap between the fences, where she can see into the front yard. “But, those poodles..” “We’ve had this conversation. It’s a public street, other dogs are allowed to walk on it. No barking.” She comes over, sheepishly. “Why can’t you just lie down and enjoy the nice day, hmm?” “Well, I would. But, you know… Quantum.” “What?” “I would love to just lie in the sun, but…

NASA’s Budget ‘Victory’ is Anything But (Synopsis)

“There is just one thing I can promise you about the outer-space program — your tax-dollar will go further.” -Wernher von Braun Over the past 100 years, we've gone from looking out at a Universe whose very nature -- the stars, nebulae, and even the planets -- were virtually unknown to us. And because of the investment we've made as an entire world in the endeavor of science, it's almost breathtaking to realize how far we've come. Image credit: ESA/C. Carreau, edits by me, via http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2013/03/Planck_history_of_Unive…. But the big question -- the one no one…

The secret of the galaxy's most famous nebula (Synopsis)

“The self-same atoms which, chaotically dispersed, made the nebula, now, jammed and temporarily caught in peculiar positions, form our brains; and the ‘evolution’ of brains, if understood, would be simply the account of how the atoms came to be so caught and jammed.” -William James Summer is coming. No, not to Westeros, but to your night skies, and with it, views of the galactic plane and even the galactic center, which holds more than a few surprises inside. In particular, it contains the most famous nebula in the entire night sky: the Eagle Nebula. Image credit: T.A.Rector (NRAO/AUI/NSF…

Messier Monday: The farthest Messier object (for now), M58 (Synopsis)

“When we are sure that we are on the right road there is no need to plan our journey too far ahead. No need to burden ourselves with doubts and fears as to the obstacles that may bar our progress. We cannot take more than one step at a time.” -Orison Swett Marden Every Messier Monday, we've taken a look at one of the 110 remarkable and unique deep-sky objects that make up the Messier catalogue. Of all these objects, the galaxies are the largest, most distant and also the most numerous. But only one of these galaxies can be the farthest of them all! Image credit: Steve Mandel / Adam Block /…

Science and Science Communication: Self Correcting

Climate change has had a big impact in Africa. We can certainly talk about that some time. But when a David Attenborough BBC special mentioned one aspect of climate change impact they got the facts wrong. Leo Hickman of The Environment Blog at The Guardian noticed the error and wrote a very interesting blog post tracking down how this happened. The BBC, in response, has removed the specific reference from the special. This is important because it is important to get it right, but it is also important because it demonstrates that those whom climate science denialists incorrectly call "…

Snapshots from Mars

A whole bunch of photographs rom Mars have bee posted by NASA, here. I thought the following one was pretty cool because it shows how accommodating the Martians are, cleaning the dust off the lens and all. This image comparison shows a view through a Hazard-Avoidance camera on NASA's Curiosity rover before and after the clear dust cover was removed. Both images were taken by a camera at the front of the rover. Mount Sharp, the mission's ultimate destination, looms ahead. The view on the left, with the dust cover on, is one quarter of full resolution, while the view on the right is full…

Why does Google hate Linux?

Picasa sucked. Make no mistake about it. Whether on Linux or Windows, Picassa took the worst of all the different photo management software and combined it into a single app that I would never recommend anyone install. Except one thing; Picasa was good at enhancing photos. It had a couple of automatic buttons that would take iffy photos and spruce them up pretty automatically, and it had a killer red-eye reduction function. But these are things that can be done on other software. If you know how to use The Gimp, you can get the same results there. If you use a Mac, you can get better…

The stuff of legend

This is turning up all over the place — at Brad DeLong's, Crooked Timber, and this pair is from Cosmic Variance — it's the most sublimely, awesomely, wickedly stupid example of fudging a curve ever. The two graphs below have exactly the same data points, and the only difference is the curve that was 'fit' to the distribution. Which one looks plausible to you? The one on the left looks sensible and simple, and looks like it was actually drawn with some consideration of the data. The one on the right … not so much. I have no idea how anyone could think that particular curve belongs in there.…

Weekend Diversion: I’m Going To Be AXE COP! (Synopsis)

“I have signs in my kitchen to remind me not to eat breakfast and that my job is always. Most cops work only at night or at day. I am a lucky cop because I work both. Tomorrow we do it all again, because my job is not day shift or night shift. It’s always shift.” -Axe Cop One day, at the scene of the fire, the cop found the perfect axe. That was the day he became AXE COP! Axe Cop began as a comic, expanded into an "Ask Axe Cop" series... Image credit: Ethan & Malachai Nicolle, Ask Axe Cop #54. ...and most prominently, became a TV show on Fox, having just finished its second season. One…

Cosmic Inflation’s Five Great Predictions (Synopsis)

“Scientific ideas should be simple, explanatory, predictive. The inflationary multiverse as currently understood appears to have none of those properties.” -Paul Steinhardt, 2014 Cosmic inflation is alternately talked about by serious scientists as either the definitive beginning to our Universe, the thing that happened before and set up the Big Bang with absolute certainty, or a speculative fiction that can never be falsified, leading to nothing but untestable predictions and things that only mattered after-the-fact of their discovery. Image credit: Bock et al. (2006, astro-ph/0604101);…

Throwback Thursday: The Most Energetic Particles (Synopsis)

“Energy is liberated matter, matter is energy waiting to happen.” -Bill Bryson When it comes to the Universe, you might think that energy really is only limited by rarity: get enough particles accelerated by enough supermassive, super-energetic sources, and it's only a matter of time (and flux) before you get one that reaches any arbitrary energy threshold. After all, we've got no shortage of, say, supermassive black holes at the hearts of active galaxies. Image credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA). And yes, we do find cosmic rays hundreds, thousands or even millions of times…

Throwback Thursday: Past the Fingers of God (Synopsis)

“On a cosmic scale, our life is insignificant, yet this brief period when we appear in the world is the time in which all meaningful questions arise.” -Paul Ricoeur What you see is what you get, except when it isn't. We're all familiar with Hubble's law, or the notion that the Universe is expanding, and that the farther away you look, the faster you'll see that distant galaxy moving away from you. This relation would be exact, if only the rest of the objects in the Universe didn't exert gravitational forces on one another. Image credit: Cosmic Flows Project/University of Hawaii, via http://…

The Stars Beyond (Synopsis)

When you look out at the Universe, it comes as no surprise that it's full of galaxies, each one with a dense, central collection of brilliant stars and an intricate structure all their own. They come in all sorts of structural varieties, with some in isolation, others in small groups, and still others in huge, massive clusters. An SDSS image of elliptical galaxy NGC474 (center) and spiral galaxy NGC470 (right). The bright galaxies we see are huge collections of billions of stars, with large intrinsic surface brightnesses. But surely there are components to these entities -- less dense…

The Science Of How A Hurricane Works (Synopsis)

“She didn’t even know what she’d do when she got back to New Orleans, but inside she felt a yearning to shove her hands in the dirt, to cling to the ground there, forever.” -Sarah Rae Hurricanes are among the most destructive natural disasters to occur on Earth, with extensive flooding, property damage and loss of life commonly accompanying them. But they’re also inevitable consequences -- at least on our world -- of two simple factors: warm ocean waters and winds. The formation of a hurricane relies on warm, humid air, winds, and pressure changes. Image credit: NASA's SciJinks, via http://…

Can The Universe Expand Faster Than The Speed Of Light? (Synopsis)

“If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough.” -Mario Andretti One of the toughest things to wrap your mind around in the natural world is the idea of special relativity: the faster you move, the closer you get to the speed of light, the more difficult it becomes to increase your speed at all. While you might approach the speed of light arbitrarily and asymptotically, you’ll never reach it. Public domain timelapse photo by flickr user comedynose (Pete), illustrating fast, relativistic motion. Image retrieved via https://www.flickr.com/photos/comedynose/23696582553. And…

What Is The Strongest Force In The Universe? (Synopsis)

"The world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong." -Swami Vivekananda But what does it truly mean to be strong? We have four fundamental forces in the Universe: the strong, electromagnetic, weak and gravitational forces. You might think that, by virtue of its name, the strong force is the strongest one. And you'd be right, from a particular point of view: at the smallest distance scales, 10^-16 meters and below, no other force can overpower it. Image credit: Sloan Digital Sky Survey, of IC 1101, the largest known individual galaxy in the Universe. But under the…

Social Networks: What Are They Good For?

So, in a fit of procrastinatory behavior, I've spent a bunch of time over the last few days playing with Facebook. I have to say, I can understand how this would get to be addictive-- I'm inordinately amused by the fact that I can go to a web page and get a little message telling me that a division chief at NIST has removed a commercial jingle from his list of favorite music. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with that information, but it amuses me. I'm still sort of wondering whether there's a point to this stuff beyond more efficient procrastination, though. I've got access to this...…

Cold Fusion and Congress

The case of Purdue's Rusi Taleyarkhan, cleared by the university of charges of misconduct in a murky process, has taken another turn. Congress is getting involved, with the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee requesting more details from the university. On the one hand, I'm not enthusiastic about Congress getting into this (aren't there some drug-using professional athletes that they could investigate?), but then again, Purdue brought it on themselves with their ridiculously cryptic statements about the case. If they hadn't acted like they…

Unitary Evolution in Tight Shorts

Terence Tao explains quantum theory as a game of Tomb Raider: Imagine first that Lara is about to navigate a tricky rolling boulder puzzle, when she hears a distant rumbling sound - the sound of her player saving her game to disk. From the perspective of the player, what happens next is the following: Lara navigates the boulder puzzle but fails, being killed in the process; then the player restores the game from the save point and then Lara successfully makes it through the boulder puzzle. Now, how does the situation look from Lara's point of view? At the save point, Lara's reality diverges…

Coming Soon to a Presidential Address Near You

Two American physicists are reporting the discovery of nearly perfect quasicrystal patterns in the decorative tiles of a certain type of Islamic art: Penrose tiling is very reminiscent of "girih" - the elaborate patterns used in Islamic architecture. While travelling in Uzbekistan, [Harvard physicist Peter] Lu noticed motifs with 10-fold rotational symmetry, which is a hallmark of some Penrose tiling. This inspired him to search through thousands of photographs of Islamic patterns to try to find a quasi-crystalline pattern - and this led him to a wall of the Darb-i Imam shrine in Iran. It's…

Hateful Talk Radio Update

I generally listen to ESPN radio in my office in the morning, because I like the Mike & Mike show. Unfortunately, they're followed by Colin Cowherd, who is a world-class pinhead. He's currently holding forth on the death of Sean Taylor, with his basic position being that Taylor had it coming because he had a checkered past. If you were reading back in April, you can probably guess how happy I am to be hearing this line of argument. In support of this brilliant insight, he's just touted his track record in correctly assessing high-profile public legal cases by noting that he didn't believe…