Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Monday, February 26, 2007
Saturday, February 24, 2007
"Lone and level sands" -a genre to watch
Lone and Level Sands: Exodus told from the p.o.v. of Pharoah.
| Pharaoh Ramses II hasn’t seen his long-lost cousin Moses in nearly forty years. Yet while pressed by the Hittites to the North and construction delays in the South, Ramses must make time for this ancient desert rascal, the long-ago mystery he represents, and the impossible demands of an alien deity. |
I think this genre has legs.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Rehearsal Party, Ft Lauderdale, 2/18/07
Jean-Paul dressed for his role as the Chai-Man in our "Night Train from Kochi to Goa" skit. Note Dad and Beata at right, Ai at left. His outfithad to be truncated because it was initially a duplicate of what B. is wearing. Are we tactful or what?
Tim and Livvie dressed as themselves traveling, for the skit.
Ai and Tim. Note tie, present from me to Peter last Xmas.
Ceci: I tried to photoshop away the phony blue that red-eye correction had painted onto her pupils.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Whoa. Stereo photographs without all that eyecrossing.
By rapidly moving the image between two perspectives, these images appear to the brain as 3D.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Friday, February 16, 2007
Origami Polypolyhedra
I decided that the salient features of FIT that I wanted to replicate were the following:The structure was composed of units that followed the edges of geometric polyhedra;
The structure must be composed of a single type of origami unit;
The structure must contain multiple polyhedra;
The multiple polyhedra must be linked together;
The structure must hold together by folded locks.
I resolved to find all such structure that satisfied these criteria. Because these structures were compounds of polyhedra, I coined the name polypolyhedra to describe them.
These are what our friend George Hart calls Orderly Tangles.
Sean in NYC on Feb 11
The guy in the middle is Chris Ng, a business client of Sean's from Hong Kong.
We're at "Room 4 Dessert" a very narrow dessert restaurant on Cleveland Place in the Village.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
ORDER OF THE SCIENCE SCOUTS OF EXEMPLARY REPUTE AND ABOVE AVERAGE PHYSIQUE
http://scq.ubc.ca/sciencescouts/
For the propagation of an ideal where science communicators can meet firstly, for drinks; secondly, for communicating; and ultimately, for networking. Joining is easy - please simply provide name with your city and a corresponding link (or more - we can take up to 3). Links should be something or other that demonstrates your science communication fit. Information in that regard can be entertained by emailing tscq@interchange.ubc.ca.
The "respect me - I've published at an upper tier publication for popular science readership" badge.
In which the recipient has works in print at publications with circulations of 50,000 or higher.
The "worship me - I've published in Nature or Science" badge.
In which the recipient has research published at Nature or Science.
For the propagation of an ideal where science communicators can meet firstly, for drinks; secondly, for communicating; and ultimately, for networking. Joining is easy - please simply provide name with your city and a corresponding link (or more - we can take up to 3). Links should be something or other that demonstrates your science communication fit. Information in that regard can be entertained by emailing tscq@interchange.ubc.ca.
The "respect me - I've published at an upper tier publication for popular science readership" badge.In which the recipient has works in print at publications with circulations of 50,000 or higher.
The "worship me - I've published in Nature or Science" badge.
In which the recipient has research published at Nature or Science.
The "talking science" badge.Required for all members. Assumes the recipient conducts himself/herself in such a manner as to talk science whenever he/she gets the chance. Not easily fazed by looks of disinterest from friends or the act of "zoning out" by well intentioned loved ones.
The "destroyer of quackery" badge.
In which the recipient never ever backs down from an argument that pits sound science over quackery.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Fluid polygons-update
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2007 18:04:18 -0500
From: John Bush
To: Tony Phillips
Cc: John Bush
Subject: Re: liquid polygons
Tony,
I believe that webpage has to be updated, along with all the others!
We never did come to a satisfactory rationale for the polygons, and so
only the phots have been published (in the Gallery of Fluid Motion).
We did measure the flux in the sheet, and found an azimuthal dependence
consistent with the form of the polygons. It appeared that the
axisymmetry
of the sheet was prompted by an instability at its sourse, i.e. at
the impactor.
The origins of this instability, however, remain unknown.
All the best,
John Bush
MIT
From: John Bush
To: Tony Phillips
Cc: John Bush
Subject: Re: liquid polygons
Tony,
I believe that webpage has to be updated, along with all the others!
We never did come to a satisfactory rationale for the polygons, and so
only the phots have been published (in the Gallery of Fluid Motion).
We did measure the flux in the sheet, and found an azimuthal dependence
consistent with the form of the polygons. It appeared that the
axisymmetry
of the sheet was prompted by an instability at its sourse, i.e. at
the impactor.
The origins of this instability, however, remain unknown.
All the best,
John Bush
MIT
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Philosophy and Neuroscience in the New Yorker 2/12/07
Not to be missed: "Two Heads" by Larissa MacFarquhar. Has a
hilarious "Master of all masters" moment about 2/3 of the way
through.
hilarious "Master of all masters" moment about 2/3 of the way
through.
Thursday, February 8, 2007
PICTURES: Fluid Polygons and Polyhedra
"When a vertical water jet strikes a circular horizontal impactor, the water is deflected into a horizontal sheet. At sufficiently high speeds, the flow results in a circular water sheet, whose radius is set by a balance between inertial and curvature forces..."
read more digg story
read more digg story
80,000 Sound and Video Recordings of Animals now Available to Public Online
Now anyone can explore the archive's holdings on his or her own. For the first time, more than 65,000 sound clips and some 18,000 video clips of birds and other animals are accessible for no charge.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Monday, February 5, 2007
Re: satellite image
If I spelled out:
in bales of hay, would it be legible?
| | |
|- - -| |
| | |
|\ /| - - - |\ /|
| \/ | | | | \/ |
| | |___| | |
in bales of hay, would it be legible?
From today's "Metropolitan Diary"
1. Cell-phone conversation overheard at Prince and Greene Streets in SoHo: "I have to go now - they're calling my flight."
2. Overheard on escalator of 63rd St subway station.
Six-year-old daughter: "I'm going to get $2000!"
Mother: "My dear, don't be silly; if the tooth fairy gave everyone $2000, nobody would have any teeth."
2. Overheard on escalator of 63rd St subway station.
Six-year-old daughter: "I'm going to get $2000!"
Mother: "My dear, don't be silly; if the tooth fairy gave everyone $2000, nobody would have any teeth."
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Using Metadata Effectively in OS X
http://theappleblog.com/2007/02/01/using-metadata-effectively-in-os-x/
When Tiger launched in 2005 it brought with it Spotlight for unparalleled searching capabilities. A large factor in this amazing new tech was the ability of the operating system to leverage metadata in files. What is metadata? It’s information about information…Ok, a better explanation: Metadata is the term used for details about a file. For instance, who created the file, when, how large is the file size, and so on.
But the best part came with the addition of Spotlight Comments. Accessible through the Get Info screen of any file on OS X, the Spotlight Comments field gives the user free-reign for creating customized metadata (referred to as ‘tags’ from here on out in this article). Think about tagging in the mainstream sense. Just about everyone has seen it in action with the advent of Web 2.0. Del.icio.us uses it for ‘categorizing’ bookmarks, flickr allows you to tag your images, and many blogs provide tag clouds of the many blog post categories offered within their pages. So we translate that thinking to our files and the way we organize them on our hard drive.
When Tiger launched in 2005 it brought with it Spotlight for unparalleled searching capabilities. A large factor in this amazing new tech was the ability of the operating system to leverage metadata in files. What is metadata? It’s information about information…Ok, a better explanation: Metadata is the term used for details about a file. For instance, who created the file, when, how large is the file size, and so on.
But the best part came with the addition of Spotlight Comments. Accessible through the Get Info screen of any file on OS X, the Spotlight Comments field gives the user free-reign for creating customized metadata (referred to as ‘tags’ from here on out in this article). Think about tagging in the mainstream sense. Just about everyone has seen it in action with the advent of Web 2.0. Del.icio.us uses it for ‘categorizing’ bookmarks, flickr allows you to tag your images, and many blogs provide tag clouds of the many blog post categories offered within their pages. So we translate that thinking to our files and the way we organize them on our hard drive.
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