thescian | August 20, 2010A seemingly simple question. It's what a hot or cold body--any body, for that matter--has. And, the perfectly valid answer. But, Nature, as we have learnt over the course of humanity's scientific discoveries, is like an onion without a core, it's layers all the way. So, after we peel the question what-is-heat another layer reveals itself. Now, things get a little interesting and a little misty. Macroscopic properties. That's the new layer. Shape is an macroscopic property. Sound is another. These are things we perceive which are caused by a collection of stuff. Shape is caused by a lot of…
thescian | August 18, 2010Plug Computer
Every hackers dream (certainly my dream, in any case) is a dozen of these chugging away quietly in the basement, in the living room, in the bathroom, in the car, in the bike... providing all the services that make living a thrill. What services, you ask. Let's see. Here's a few I can think of right away for my home use:-
-check the electrical devices not in use and switch them off
-optimize water use by throttling inlet at appropriate times (that means collect usage statistics and run an optimizing algorithm), and water the plants
-cache all data to reduce bandwidth use
-run…
thescian | August 18, 2010are acute especially when those carrying it are active in sports like running. Some recent updates at NY Times.
thescian | August 13, 2010The story so far: We really don't know much. This being from a very very smart person (she's the most cited physicist?), I look forward to an exciting future in physics.
thescian | August 12, 2010This is inspiring stuff. From Economist:
SANTOSH OSTWAL, husband and father of two, lost his apartment in 2001 after quitting his job in Pune to solve an engineering problem he'd been thinking about for twenty years. Today his solution - a mobile-phone adaptation that triggers irrigation pumps remotely - is saving water in India and helping more than 10,000 farmers avoid several taxing, dangerous long walks a day.
thescian | August 12, 2010Am sure many of you are following the latest developments [Geomblog , Lipton] with interest. P vs NP is one of The Millennium Problems. Here's a neat explanation of the problem with the use of Minesweeper game.
thescian | August 11, 2010
Recently saw Laura Barrett (Canadian Indie musician) playing the Kalimba. Great sound and so compact.
Tenori-on. On the other side of Kalimba in simplicity. But, very cool.
And, Vuvuzela. :-)
thescian | August 10, 2010Al Jazeera coverage.
BBC reports on how when the government is inept, militant groups fill the gap.
thescian | August 10, 2010 Alfred Russel Wallace was a great traveller, observer, collector and naturalist who lived at the same time as Darwin. He sent Darwin his thoughts on evolution of species after extensive observations around the world, especially in and around Borneo. This accelarated Darwin to publish his conclusions on origin of species along with Wallace's. What struck me was the exceptional insight with which he talks about the so-called Wallace line. This is the imaginary line that divides the Asian coast from Australian. Wallace observed a dramatic change in plant and animal lives when one goes from the…
thescian | August 8, 2010The final paragraphs.
My habits are methodical, and this has been of not a little use for my particular line of work. Lastly, I have had ample leisure from not having to earn my own bread. Even ill-health, though it has annihilated several years of my life, has saved me from the distractions of society and amusement.
Therefore, my success as a man of science, whatever this may have amounted to, has been determined, as far as I can judge, by complex and diversified mental qualities and conditions. Of these the most important have been--the love of science--unbounded patience in long reflecting…
thescian | August 7, 2010Darwin at his best--always questioning the very foundations.
With respect to immortality,1 nothing shows me how strong and almost instinctive a belief it is, as the consideration of the view now held by most physicists, namely that the sun with all the planets will in time grow too cold for life, unless indeed some great body dashes into the sun and thus gives it fresh life.--Believing as I do that man in the distant future will be a far more perfect creature than he now is, it is an intolerable thought that he and all other sentient beings are doomed to complete annihilation after such long-…
thescian | August 6, 2010Succinct and spot-on. This is Darwin speculating that he thinks the prevalent feeling of the world is happiness rather than pain.
Some writers indeed are so much impressed with the amount of suffering in the world, that they doubt if we look to all sentient beings, whether there is more of misery or of happiness;--whether the world as a whole is a good or a bad one. According to my judgement happiness decidedly prevails, though this would be very difficult to prove. If the truth of this conclusion be granted, it harmonises well with the effects which we might expect from natural selection. If…
thescian | August 5, 2010CCTV in Birmingham.
CCTV does not justify its use and cost,in most cases. The money spent on unnecessary CCTV costs twice--the money lost and opportunity lost to spend the money on better training and better recruitment.
thescian | August 5, 2010This was the time when Darwin was studying for his B.A at Cambridge.
But no pursuit at Cambridge was followed with nearly so much eagerness or gave me so much pleasure as collecting beetles. It was the mere passion for collecting, for I did not dissect them and rarely compared their external characters with published descriptions, but got them named anyhow. I will give a proof of my zeal: one day, on tearing off some old bark, I saw two rare beetles and seized one in each hand; then I saw a third and new kind, which I could not bear to lose, so that I popped the one which I held in my right…
thescian | August 4, 2010to my mind there are no advantages and many disadvantages in lectures compared with reading. Dr. Duncan's lectures on Materia Medica at 8 o'clock on a winter's morning are something fearful to remember. Dr. Munro made his lectures on human anatomy as dull, as he was himself, and the subject disgusted me. It has proved one of the greatest evils in my life that I was not urged to practice dissection, for I should soon have got over my disgust; and the practice would have been invaluable for all my future work. This has been an irremediable evil, as well as my incapacity to draw.
...
During my…
thescian | August 4, 2010Lessig's TEDxBoston talk (this is not organized by TED, but by other people in TED spirit, hence TEDx).
thescian | August 3, 2010I'll keep quoting as I read through. Don't want to add anything myself and sully the experience of reading Darwin.
I have heard my father and elder sisters say that I had, as a very young boy, a strong taste for long solitary walks; but what I thought about I know not. I often became quite absorbed, and once, whilst returning to school on the summit of the old fortifications round Shrewsbury, which had been converted into a public foot-path with no parapet on one side, I walked off and fell to the ground, but the height was only seven or eight feet. Nevertheless the number of thoughts which…
thescian | August 3, 2010If you don't know her, google and learn. Completely agree with her assessment of the near irrelevance of Social Media if you aren't focussing on the important things in life.