Sunday, September 4, 2011

The only two strange things in 30 years on this carrier

I have been flying on U for 30 years, and in that time, have been very satisfied most of the time.

There were two strange incidents, however.

Once, the entire crew spent the entire very long flight giggling. It was really quite strange. They did not seem to be drunk or high otherwise, but their behavior was strange and giggling for hours.

The other strange thing that happened is once a nonnative English speaking crew was, I would say, yelling at some passengers to move, but the passengers didn't speak English, and one woman asked the other why they were being yelled at. I told the crew member that the passengers did not speak English and could not understand what she said. Then the crew member stared with WHAT IS YOUR NAME??? SHOW ME YOUR PASSPORT?? WHERE ARE YOU TRANSITING TO??

So of course I replied What is YOUR name?? We are going to see the supervisor at the front desk right now.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Les Miserables

As in the story, in which the first half takes 20 years, and then in the second half fate rains down on them all in a single day, we may very well see, in a telescoped ending, all of the excesses since the Vietnam War come raining down on the empire at dawn.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Happy 20th, World Wide Web!

http://www.slate.com/slideshow/business-tech/happy-20th-birthday-world-wide-web/

You have transformed the world.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Where most of the deficit came from

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/jamesfallows/assets_c/2011/07/24editorial_graph2-popup-58477.php

Audible.com BIZARRE policy

Audible is really great in so many ways, and yet...

There is a bizarre Audible policy that says you can have only 6 credits at one time. After that, credits are cancelled.

What the hell is that? You have credits that you have paid for, and they get cancelled? Why? That is just plain theft.

I think I should cancel my subscription.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Analog TV broadcasting ends in Japan

After 58 years, analog TV broadcasting has ended in Japan, except in those areas affected by the March megaquake.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Thank you, Slava Turyshev!

What a fascinating puzzle! I thoroughly enjoyed following your efforts these many years.

I cannot imagine how much work you and your colleagues did. This project made me think about all kinds of possible effects that I had never considered before.

And you have now constrained many values using a terrific instrument. What a great unplanned experiment!

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-07/mystery-pioneer-anomaly-solved-last

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Urthecast, Spring 2012

Saltwater ocean under Enceladus

It must be just teeming with bacteria. At least!

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/home/124501909.html

The New York Times put up a paywall

I don't know how to tell them this, but they are just not that important anymore.

I used to flip through the NYT every day, but since I did't want to use up my twenty free views per month, I stopped... and after a few weeks, I realized I didn't care because there are so many other things to look at on the Net.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

This is much worse than the Great Depression

Although nominal GDP has returned to levels before the crash, there are 20 million fewer jobs.

Also, since the dollar has lost say 20% against other currencies, I would say the GDP is still way off from what it was. If the dollar declines in value say from the current 73 to 50, then while nominal GDP will be 14 trillion, it will actually be 7 trillion.

http://cr4re.com/charts/charts.html#category=Employment&chart=EmploymentRecessionsAlignedNov.jpg

Oh, of course. Everything is always everyone else's fault.

The country’s energy future is being dictated by the world’s major oil producing nations with no input from American policymakers, a former U.S. intelligence director said Wednesday.

“America’s future is being determined with no Americans in the room,” said retired Adm. Dennis Blair, who served as Obama’s director of national intelligence before resigning last year.

Blair called on policymakers to begin weaning the United States off foreign oil so that the country would not be held hostage by the decisions of major oil producers, which have significant influence over the price of oil on world markets.

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/165347-former-intelligence-director-opec-holding-us-energy-future-hostage

Friday, April 29, 2011

Just put them on roofs!

Oh, wait, then the utility company can't make money...

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011/04/desert-tortoise-ivanpah-brightsource-solar-energy-san-bernardino.html

Monday, April 25, 2011

Another reason to laugh at Microsoft... and shun them

Paul Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, has lashed out at internet rivals such as Apple and described Google as "evil".

...

He describes Steve Jobs, the boss of Apple who is on medical leave, as "monomaniacal". [Yes, Steve Jobs monomaniacally focuses on putting out quality products... more than a decade before Microsoft, then Microsoft copies it... badly... iPod vs. Zune. Microsoft puts out stuff full of bugs that is not even decently beta tested and let's everyone waste time debugging it... for years... and does whatever is necessary to make more money. People hated Vista so much they renamed Vista2 as Windows 7 to mislead everyone into thinking it was not Vista. Microsoft has wasted more of everyone's work time than anything else, all for the sake of making more money.]

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Allen criticisesSergey Brin and Larry Page, the co-founders of Google, for their corporate mission statement: "Don't be evil". Allen talked about their "elbows and claws" in their pursuit for growth.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/24/microsoft-paul-allen-rivals-evil

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

If you don't know, misunderstandings multiply exponentially

Genuine ignorance is... profitable because it is likely to be accompanied by humility, curiosity, and open mindedness; whereas ability to repeat catch-phrases, cant terms, familiar propositions, gives the conceit of learning and coats the mind with varnish waterproof to new ideas.

John Dewey

http://www.quotegarden.com/ignorance.html

Thursday, March 31, 2011

There is something very, very wrong with Harry's dad

What is the matter with some people?

Worse than the criminals they prosecute. Don't want to get the right answer, just want to get an answer... so they can say they did their job and get promoted or something. Sickening.

And all this information is leaking from the Earth, so eventually, the entire universe will know. Have they no shame? As usual, shunning is the only possible response left.

Supreme Court rejects damages for innocent man who spent 14 years on death row

In a 5-4 ruling, justices overturn a jury verdict awarding $14 million to John Thompson, who had sued then-New Orleans Dist. Atty. Harry Connick Sr. because prosecutors hid a blood test that would have proved his innocence in a murder case.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-court-prosecutors-20110330,0,1730487.story

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001065/bio

This is even worse than the thought process in the post below. Hey, start off with a conclusion and then hide the evidence that the conclusion is wrong. Ta-dah!

Like a serial killer, but instead of a knife, uses paperwork.

Stay as far away from people like this as possible because, well, if he did it to them, what makes you think he won't do it to you?

Confabulation is unfortunate and the normal mode of human thought

Just because something appears to make sense, that does not mean it is true. Often times, more than one story appears to make sense, given the available information.
Just because you have not read about an idea already, that does not mean you are the first to have that idea, especially if you don't read much.
Natural systems are incredibly complex, and the fact that we have not yet understood and predicted every detail does not mean the scientific community is negligent or hiding something.

Christie Rowe

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=earthquake-triggering-and-why-we-do-2011-03-30

Saturday, March 5, 2011

EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE!

THIS MIGHT BE IT! DEFINITIVE PROOF THAT THERE IS LIFE OUT THERE.

I expect there are thousands of bodies in our solar system alone that currently harbor living bacteria. That would suggest that there are trillions to quadrillions of bodies in the Milky Way that harbor at least bacterial life.

Fossils of Cyanobacteria in CI1 Carbonaceous Meteorites:
Implications to Life on Comets, Europa, and Enceladus

http://journalofcosmology.com/Life100.html

Sunday, February 20, 2011

At least 50 billion planets in the Milky Way!

I guesstimate there will turn out to be a billion habitable Earthlike planets in the habitable zone of the Milky Way, say 20,000 to 40,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way.

To me, diet soda does not taste sweet

It tastes like plastic.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41479869/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Aluminet is excellet

I have used this for years and it is totally worth the price.

http://www.igcusa.com/greenhouse-shade-cloth-aluminet.html

Touch screens everywhere in the near future

Stunning model of HIV

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2011/02/hiv-as-youve-never-seen-it-before.html

How is it possible to tell of all the sweetness and sadness of life in so few notes

For which Michael Caine wins Best Supporting Actor. A true gentleman. One of the most generous and warm acceptance speeches ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuhXv2wBeiQ

ISBN-13: 978-0295985350

みなしご元禄津波
The Orphan Tsunami of 1700

One winter's night in the year 1700, a mysterious tsunami flooded fields and washed away houses in Japan. It arrived without the warning that a nearby earthquake usually provides. Samurai, merchants, and villagers recorded the event, but nearly three centuries would pass before discoveries in North America revealed the tsunami's source.

The Orphan Tsunami of 1700 tells this scientific detective story through clues from both sides of the Pacific. The evidence uncovered tells of a [magnitude 9 earthquake off the coast of the Pacific Northwest] a century before Lewis and Clark...

You can see a summary at
http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/pp1707/

http://www.amazon.com/Orphan-Tsunami-1700-Japanese-Earthquake/dp/0295985356/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204357404&sr=1-1

Video simulation of the megaquake.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=72698052150208427&q=pacific+northwest+megaquake&total=1&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

Map of simulation of the megaquake.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/supercomputer/02-08Virtual90Megaquake.asp

A tsunami is unlike any "wave" you have ever seen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jixyBvjJZQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl8giZ66j7o

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design)

Liberal, optimistic, exhilarating. The most spectacular lectures you will ever see.

www.ted.com

Try these to start

The best presentation ever... legendary... your view of the world will change in many ways... and there will be hope...
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/92

The World Now Eats (and Dies) Like Americans
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/10

Extremely graphic... even made me queasy... but you cannot understand the light without knowing the darkness...
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/142

The Law of ACCELERTING Returns

You have probably heard of the Law of Diminishing Returns: more effort gets you only marginal increase in reward (for example, if you exercise for half an hour a day, you get most of the health benefits; if you exercise for an hour a day, you get almost all of the health benefits; and exercising for two, three, or four hours a day will give very little added health benefits).

However, there are situations in which reward does not diminish (at least for a long while) and actually speeds up over time. People tend to see progress in technology as proceeding in a linear fashion, so they expect the 21st century (barring something truly unfortunate) to progress something like the way the 20th century did. But according to Ray Kurzweil, the technical progress in the 21st century will be more like 1,000 times that of the 20th century.

Here is an example. Cost to read the DNA of one person
in 1990: 3 billion dollars
in 2005: 2 million dollars
in 2006: 200,000 dollars
target for 2010-2015: 1,000 dollars

Being able to read your DNA will allow medical treatments to be tailored specifically for you, vastly improving outcomes.

This BBC Horizon program is, granted, sensational infotainment, but it is probably the most efficient introduction to this topic.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3882715179234602208&q=human+v2.0&hl=en

The article below is very long, and there may be parts that are difficult to follow, but look over the entire article because it is a map of the world we are already living in, and it shows what looms up the road.

http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0134.html?printable=1

Step 1: Slow the ageing process

Something that humans have seen only once is about to happen again: functional lifespan will vastly increase.

This happened the first time in the 20th century with improvements in public health, sanitation, nutrition, vaccination, and pharmaceuticals. Someone from the 19th century would not believe how low our risk of death is, how free of disability and pain we are, and how long we live now. Things are hardly perfect, but to all humans who lived before the early 1900s, the world we live in now would be an unbelievable paradise.

In the next leap, we will not only live even longer, but disease and disability will often be delayed by years if not decades. If we can just make it through the next 15 years or so, the interventions will be unbelievable. It is quite possible that many of us, even those in middle age, will live to see the dawn of the 22nd century, looking and feeling like 40. I am not joking.

So, how do we improve our chances of getting there? Doing basic things to take care of your health is obvious, but there are other things that can be done.

We have known for 70 years how to slow the ageing process and delay the onset of the diseases of old age: eat less. Or more exactly, reduce the number of calories while maintaining adequate amounts of protein, fats, vitamins, and other nutrients. The difference is shocking, and it has been shown in animals from ameba to monkeys without exception. Basically, when calories are low, cells turn on genes that fix damage, so you age more slowly. Fasting at least once a month seems to produce most of the desired effect.

If you have not seen this New York Times article, take a look at the monkeys.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/31/health/nutrition/31agin.html?ex=1163480400&en=193a4a4fe169ec69&ei=5070

The monkeys are both about 25 years old. The one on the right ate a normal diet and is old, frail, gray, scruffy, and has the shrunken skull of an old monkey (like a 90 year old human). The one on the left ate a diet with the same nutrients, but with about 30 percent fewer calories. The contrast is shocking. The monkey that ate fewer calories still looks young and healthy (like a 60 year old human).

So, step one is avoid excess calories, especially from sugar, white bread, white rice, and white potatoes.

But the amount by which you have to reduce calories is quite difficult for most people to maintain. Is there another way we can turn on the damage repair genes? The answer seems to be yes.

Throughout human evolution, we have always eaten plants that were far from perfect. They were drought stressed, attacked by fungi, and attacked by insects. Ironically, this seems to have been good for us. When plants are attacked or do not receive enough water, they produce huge numbers of chemicals to defend themselves. In seasons when there were a lot of these chemicals in plants, animals eating the plants used that as a signal that hard times may be coming, so their cells turned on the damage control genes to protect what the cells already had. We also did not have steady supplies of food, so whenever we didn't eat for a day, again the damage control genes turned on. Specifically, unnecessary molecular tags are removed from the DNA, returning gene expression to the way it was when we were younger. In modern life, all the plants we eat are completely protected from fungi and insects and are watered carefully. All the stress response chemicals that they would normally produce are not there. We never go for a day without eating. Therefore, our damage control genes are never turned on, so the molecular tags on our DNA become more and more different from the way they were when we were young, our gene expression becomes more abnormal, and we age at a high rate.

If we consume chemicals that plants make in response to stress, it turns on the damage control genes, and voila, the effect is the same as caloric restriction, although it is unclear what dose is necessary. One chemical that has been shown to turn on damage control genes is resveratrol, which is found in the skin of grapes, especially when the grape plants are stressed by drought or fungus infection, and is found in many other plants as well. Since people who drink red wine made from grapes harvested and processed in the French way seemed to have extremely low levels of heart disease, researchers tried screening red wines from France to find out if there were compounds which produced the effect. Resveratrol is the most potent found so far. When given to laboratory animals, it slows ageing by 20% and even much more, and it decreases risk of cancer by up to 70%. Further evidence comes from numerous studies showing that consumption of 3 glasses of red wine per week is associated with 70% reduction in colon cancer, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and other cancers.

I have been taking resveratrol for two years now, and I think the effects are apparent. When I stopped for 6 months because I ran out, the skin started to look old and wrinkled. Resveratrol is easily destroyed by exposure to air, heat, and light. I take the one from Longevinex at
http://www.longevinex.com
because it seems to be the most biologically active. It costs about a dollar a day, which is much cheaper than a glass of wine, though much less fun, so I do both.

These results are not obscure, but you may not have heard about them. Do a Google search for any of these topics and you will find thousands of hits.

So, step 1, let's at least do simple basic things to slow the ageing process and delay the onset of serious diseases of old age. You may be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams. 万歳！