Saturday, July 31, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
US deficits don't matter....
Two links to articles on deficit hysteria...
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/deficit-schmeficit.html
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/deficit-schmeficit.html
Saturday, April 10, 2010
debt denialism?
Zero hedge has been very pessimistic. I just want to save this so I can go back and read it later...
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/ltcm-general-counsel-debt-denial-there-little-time-avoid-catastrophe-and-almost-no-exit-sugg
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/ltcm-general-counsel-debt-denial-there-little-time-avoid-catastrophe-and-almost-no-exit-sugg
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
'no way to run an empire' -- what happens when there's no accountability
More documenting the atrocities of the Bush years... and the lack of accountability afterwards...
http://vagabondscholar.blogspot.com/2010/02/american-political-insanity-explained.html
http://vagabondscholar.blogspot.com/2010/02/american-political-insanity-explained.html
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Remember to blame this guy when the dust settles...
Just remember -- the f*ups were mostly his fault. Of course the President hired him... his most tragic mistake.
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2010/02/is-damage-rahm-emanuel-has-done-to.html
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2010/02/is-damage-rahm-emanuel-has-done-to.html
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
The little black box on your roof...
Many years ago Senator Barry Goldwater was interviewed by The New Yorker magazine. Buried in the rambling discussion was a comment of his that some day everyone would have this small black box sitting on their roof tops that extracted electricity from 'the universe' seemingly for 'free'. How that black box did the trick was not revealed as far as I recall, but I've never forgotten that remark of his for some reason.
It now appears that a Japanese physicist may have discovered a mechanism for transferring energy by quantum teleportation
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24759/
The actual paper is referenced here:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1002.0200
The reviewer at the first link appears at first read to be hyping the result more than it perhaps deserves. But perhaps not.
If it were possible to transfer energy from the entangled state of quantum systems spread across the universe (with one end of those systems present on your roof top...), then the Senator's vision might be realized. Of course since we wouldn't know whose else might be sucking on the same energy tit, we might create some intergalactic social problems if we jumped into such arrangements willy nilly -- something the human race probably wouldn't think twice about doing if the opportunity arose.
There is a famous novel about someone who created a 'free' energy device of this kind -- it almost destroyed the earth as I recall before people figured out how to use the idea properly. I'll look for the link to that book and post it here if I can recall the title.
buyer beware!
It now appears that a Japanese physicist may have discovered a mechanism for transferring energy by quantum teleportation
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24759/
The actual paper is referenced here:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1002.0200
The reviewer at the first link appears at first read to be hyping the result more than it perhaps deserves. But perhaps not.
If it were possible to transfer energy from the entangled state of quantum systems spread across the universe (with one end of those systems present on your roof top...), then the Senator's vision might be realized. Of course since we wouldn't know whose else might be sucking on the same energy tit, we might create some intergalactic social problems if we jumped into such arrangements willy nilly -- something the human race probably wouldn't think twice about doing if the opportunity arose.
There is a famous novel about someone who created a 'free' energy device of this kind -- it almost destroyed the earth as I recall before people figured out how to use the idea properly. I'll look for the link to that book and post it here if I can recall the title.
buyer beware!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Quantum Darwinsim
A discussion of quantum Darwinism.
1) Does QD => biological evolution, i.e., Darwin's theory of natural selection for living creatures?
2) Is QD an example of universal Darwinism (see physics archive paper linked within the link below)?
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24630/
1) Does QD => biological evolution, i.e., Darwin's theory of natural selection for living creatures?
2) Is QD an example of universal Darwinism (see physics archive paper linked within the link below)?
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24630/
Friday, January 8, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
More color on the LHC apocalypse scenario(s)
This is a good article on the arrogance of some physicists and the crackpots they have to deal with on occasion. On the other hand, there's also a nice link to a Russian physicist who may have something important to say on the black hole issue -- if they are producible at the LHC.
LHC as dinner bell
This is science fiction. Just want to be clear about that before anyone might think otherwise.
--------
Of the many disaster/doomsday scenarios that might arise from the start of collisions at the LHC, there is one I haven't seen mentioned although I'm sure it's out there in the imaginarium somewhere...
We live in a quantum universe. All the implications of that fact are incompletely explored. For example, we humans ignore the quantum correlations that exist between all 'isoated' macroscopic systems because its technically impractical if not imposible to do otherwise, and also as that very ignorance may be a precondition for our being able to distinguish one object from another. However, civilizations more advanced than our own may have the ability to keep track of those correlations or at least some highly unusual ones. In particular, a local systematic change in the vacuum state of the quantum fields (or string fields or whatever quantum 'it' is at the bottom of IT all...) somewhere in the universe may be something they might be easily aware of. The vacuum state itself transcends space (and probably time as well), but the quantum fields which effectuate the creation and annihilation of particle states do act in space-time relative to that ground state. Consequently local changes to the vacuum state may also have an instantaneous universal signature if you know how to listen for it. For example, there may be a tachyonic event associated with the production of some exotic particle states. A civilization capable of detecting such 'signals' might be able to trace the origin of the production of such events.
When the quantum fields are excited by collisions induced by our ever advancing accelerator technologies to produce unusual states of high mass, an advanced civilzation (hereafter referred to as "the aliens") might notice the effect via that instantaneously distributed disturbance caused in the vacuum state by the production of those exotic states. Now some would object that cosmic ray collisions are always creating states of much higher mass and exotic character throughout the universe, and also near our own lonely planet -- states certainly much higher in mass than anything we can produce domestically -- so this noisy background of high mass states should make it hard for the aliens to spot our own efforts.
But would it really? The LHC will be circulating beams at very high frequencie;, inducing collisions at that rate. Consequently, the creation of the high mass states, though rare, will occur with remarkable regularity. In particular, if the LHC is capable of producing the Higgs boson state as is ardently expected by the physics community, that regular production of Higgs bosons could be like a gong (or alarm) being struck in the vacuum which many alien societies might be aware of almost as soon as it starts occurring.
The question is then whether we should soon expect a formal visit from the aliens. And would they take the signal as an alert that another civilization has joined the cadre of those able to understand the core principles of the universe, or as a dinner bell?
--------
Of the many disaster/doomsday scenarios that might arise from the start of collisions at the LHC, there is one I haven't seen mentioned although I'm sure it's out there in the imaginarium somewhere...
We live in a quantum universe. All the implications of that fact are incompletely explored. For example, we humans ignore the quantum correlations that exist between all 'isoated' macroscopic systems because its technically impractical if not imposible to do otherwise, and also as that very ignorance may be a precondition for our being able to distinguish one object from another. However, civilizations more advanced than our own may have the ability to keep track of those correlations or at least some highly unusual ones. In particular, a local systematic change in the vacuum state of the quantum fields (or string fields or whatever quantum 'it' is at the bottom of IT all...) somewhere in the universe may be something they might be easily aware of. The vacuum state itself transcends space (and probably time as well), but the quantum fields which effectuate the creation and annihilation of particle states do act in space-time relative to that ground state. Consequently local changes to the vacuum state may also have an instantaneous universal signature if you know how to listen for it. For example, there may be a tachyonic event associated with the production of some exotic particle states. A civilization capable of detecting such 'signals' might be able to trace the origin of the production of such events.
When the quantum fields are excited by collisions induced by our ever advancing accelerator technologies to produce unusual states of high mass, an advanced civilzation (hereafter referred to as "the aliens") might notice the effect via that instantaneously distributed disturbance caused in the vacuum state by the production of those exotic states. Now some would object that cosmic ray collisions are always creating states of much higher mass and exotic character throughout the universe, and also near our own lonely planet -- states certainly much higher in mass than anything we can produce domestically -- so this noisy background of high mass states should make it hard for the aliens to spot our own efforts.
But would it really? The LHC will be circulating beams at very high frequencie;, inducing collisions at that rate. Consequently, the creation of the high mass states, though rare, will occur with remarkable regularity. In particular, if the LHC is capable of producing the Higgs boson state as is ardently expected by the physics community, that regular production of Higgs bosons could be like a gong (or alarm) being struck in the vacuum which many alien societies might be aware of almost as soon as it starts occurring.
The question is then whether we should soon expect a formal visit from the aliens. And would they take the signal as an alert that another civilization has joined the cadre of those able to understand the core principles of the universe, or as a dinner bell?
the legal case against the LHC: NOT
There's a lot of crapola in here, but saving the link nonetheless:
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24611/
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24611/
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