Archive for the ‘Awesome’ Category
Atheism aka Science vs Tree of Religion
Posted by pwl on May 31, 2014
Posted in Adult Supervision Required, Awesome, Awesome beyond awesome, Ethics in Science, Get some perspective people, Good science attitude, Hard Science, Rational Thinking, Science Education, Science over Propaganada, Science Smackdown, Scientific Method | 1 Comment »
Matrix of Design, Why Some Computer Scientists See What Other Scientists Can’t
Posted by pwl on March 29, 2014
The unseen world of science that some computer scientists have an advantage seeing the objective reality of Nature through the Matrix of Design.
“Two important characteristics of maps should be noticed. A map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness.” – Alfred Korzybski
It must be noted that Information Science is at the very heart of the objective reality of Nature, the fabric of spacetime itself distinguishes information into discrete quantum packets of particles and components of energy at the smallest level of Plank time and length (Plank Spacetime). Existence would not exist without distinction of information, this from that, that from this, here from there, there from here, now from then, etc… in a (seemingly) never ending continuum and volume.
In a very real way information science is more fundamental than even physics. Without information existence would not exist. Is it even possible to have existence without information? Only in a singularity of the pre-big bang instant when there is nothing, I’d assert.
“There is a considerable difference between a mathematician’s view of the world and a computer scientist’s. To a mathematician all structures are static: they have always been and will always be; the only time dependence is that we just have not discovered them all yet. The computer scientist is concerned with (and fascinated by) the continuous creation, combination, separation and destruction of structures: time is of the essence.
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Posted in A New Kind of Science [NKS], Awesome, Awesome beyond awesome, Complex Systems, Definition of Terms, Ignorance to Knowledge, Philosophy, Rational Thinking, Science Education, Science over Propaganada, Scientific Method, Something to think about | 1 Comment »
It’s A Particle, No It’s A Wave, Wait It’s A Particle
Posted by pwl on October 26, 2013
It’s a particle, no it’s a wave, wait it’s a particle. Well actually it’s a wavy particle. Just when you thought things where solid science shows how Nature is fluid.

The Amazing Golf Ball as it’s hitting a steel plate at 150mph in 70,000 fps. What an amazing object, the golf ball, it didn’t fracture even after this kind of structural abuse. I have a new respect for golf. Well for golf balls anyhow.
Posted in Awesome, Awesome beyond awesome, Energy, Fun, Science Education | 1 Comment »
Amazing Mechanical Computers From the 1700’s
Posted by pwl on September 28, 2013
“The story of Pierre Jaquet Droz and his sons is one of the most moving in the history of Horology. Born in 1721, Pierre Jaquet Droz, master of time in the Age of Enlightenment — mechanical genius, avant-garde creator of jewellery watchmaking and composer of poetry and dreams — is one of the most fascinating figures of the period.
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Posted in Awesome, Get some perspective people, Good science attitude, Hard Science, History, Ignorance to Knowledge, Majestic Universe, Making a REAL Positive Difference in the World, Math, Parallel Computing, People|Science, Rational Thinking, Science Education, Science Info Educational Videos, Science Shows, Video, WOW!!! | Tagged: computer mechanical | 6 Comments »
Same-Sex Marriage IS A Christian Rite
Posted by pwl on May 15, 2012
When Same-Sex Marriage Was A Christian Rite [What Was Still IS]
Written by Thos Payne, Colfax Record.
A Kiev art museum contains a curious icon from St. Catherine’s Monastery on Mt. Sinai in Israel. It shows two robed Christian saints. Between them is a traditional Roman ‘pronubus’ (a best man), overseeing a wedding. The pronubus is Christ. The married couple are both men.
Is the icon suggesting that a gay “wedding” is being sanctified by Christ himself? The idea seems shocking. But the full answer comes from other early Christian sources about the two men featured in the icon, St. Sergius and St. Bacchus,2 two Roman soldiers who were Christian martyrs. These two officers in the Roman army incurred the anger of Emperor Maximian when they were exposed as ‘secret Christians’ by refusing to enter a pagan temple. Both were sent to Syria circa 303 CE where Bacchus is thought to have died while being flogged. Sergius survived torture but was later beheaded. Legend says that Bacchus appeared to the dying Sergius as an angel, telling him to be brave because they would soon be reunited in heaven.
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Posted in Adult Supervision Required, Awesome, Get some perspective people, Holding those who run the world responsible for their crimes against humanity, Ontology of Being, Philosophy, Politics, Proofs, Rational Thinking, Religion, WOW!!! | 11 Comments »
Quantum Levitation Locking aka Star Trek Tractor Beams
Posted by pwl on October 18, 2011
“Tel-Aviv University demos quantum superconductors locked in a magnetic field.”
This is a kind of Tractor Beam where the beam is the magnetic field of permanent magnets and a superconducting material. It’s quite impressive aspect of Quantum Mechanics operating at a macro scale, something we’re not used to seeing. It’s the “locking” aspect that is fantastic. Of course this raises many questions about what applications are posisble.
First let’s watch the recent demo that’s been spreading like wildfire.
Now for more indepth videos that get a little bit into the science.
Posted in Awesome, Awesome beyond awesome, Energy, Hard Science, Majestic Universe, Science Education, Video, WOW!!! | 1 Comment »
Occupy The Solar System
Posted by pwl on September 30, 2011
Going beyond the small dream of Occupy Wall Street; embrace a real dream: we are already occupying the Earth, soon the Moon and then onto the goal of occupying the entire Solar System! A worthy goal for the various space programs of Earth.
The NASA director gives 54 minute talk on occupying the solar system.
Dr S.Pete Worden, Director of NASA Ames Research Park, NASA’s cutting edge research base in Silicon Valley, discusses humanity’s goal of settling the solar system.
Posted in Awesome, Colonization, Complex Systems, Hard Science, Rational Thinking, Science Missions, Space Travel | Leave a Comment »
It Ain’t Over Till The Fat Lady Neutrina Sings Again
Posted by pwl on September 23, 2011
It ain’t over till the fat lady Neutrina sings again in a number of encore performances around the world, aka “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” (to borrow a principle from Carl Sagan).
A quick summary of the alleged discovery of slightly faster than light neutrinos:
CERN’s Antonio Ereditato does a brief BBC Inteview.
“[The following] is the live Webcast from CERN on Friday September 23, 2011. Given the potential far-reaching consequences of the OPERA experiment — which observes a neutrino beam from CERN 730 km away at Italy’s INFN Gran Sasso Laboratory, indicating that the neutrinos travel at a velocity 20 parts per million above the speed of light — independent measurements are needed before the effect can either be refuted or firmly established, according to a CERN statement just issued. The OPERA collaboration has therefore decided to open the result to broader scrutiny.”
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Posted in Adventure, Awesome, Complex Systems, Energy, Good science attitude, Hard Science, Hard Science Required, Humbled by Nature, Majestic Universe, Proofs, Proofs Needed, Rational Thinking, Science Education, Science Missions, Video, Wait for it!, WOW!!! | 1 Comment »
Wonders Of The Universe with Professor Brian Cox
Posted by pwl on June 6, 2011
“Wonders of the Universe is a 2011 television series produced by the BBC, Discovery Channel, and Science Channel, hosted by physicist Brian Cox. Wonders of the Universe was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 6 March 2011. The series comprises four episodes, each of which focuses on an aspect of the universe and features a ‘wonder’ relevant to the theme. It follows on from Cox’s previous series for the BBC, Wonders of the Solar System, which was first broadcast in 2010.” [1]
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Posted in Awesome, Awesome beyond awesome, Complex Systems, Energy, Ethics in Science, Exercise For the Reader, Get some perspective people, Good science attitude, Gravity, Hard Science, Hard Science Required, History, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Philosophy, Proofs, Rational Thinking, Reality Based Environmentalism, Science Education, Science Shows | Leave a Comment »
Somewhere, Something Incredible Is Waiting To Be Known
Posted by pwl on June 3, 2011
“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” – Carl Sagan
Posted in Adventure, Awesome, Awesome beyond awesome, Hard Science Required, Humbled by Nature, Majestic Universe, Video | 1 Comment »
Behold the Mind-Rending HORROR of …
Posted by pwl on May 11, 2011
Posted in Awesome, Philosophy, Rational Thinking, Something to think about, Yikes! The sky is NOT falling! | Leave a Comment »
On the Love of Language
Posted by pwl on October 17, 2010
“The purpose of language is to communicate and as long as you’ve communicated getting the nouns and verbs in the right order, grammar, spelling, pronunciation, or any of that correct is irrelevant.” ~ Powell Janulus, Master of Language, Speaker of 80+ Languages, Language Teacher, Court Translator, (paraphrased).
Posted in Awesome, Awesome beyond awesome, Philosophy, Video | Tagged: On the Love of Language | 2 Comments »
We are all African Apes with a Shave
Posted by pwl on October 9, 2010
Posted in Awesome, Awesome beyond awesome, Bill Maher, Biology, Charles Darwin, Hard Science, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Philosophy, Rational Thinking, Richard Dawkins, Science Education, Science over Propaganada, Video | Leave a Comment »
Investigating the campaign against reason and the revolt against intelligence
Posted by pwl on October 7, 2010
Leonard Peikoff “investigates the campaign against reason being waged”.
An excellent pod cast.
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Posted in Awesome, Ethics in Science, Get some perspective people, Good science attitude, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Rational Thinking, Science Education, Video | Leave a Comment »
Nano nano
Posted by pwl on October 7, 2010
The strange new world of Nanoscience that will, that is, changing and improving our lives.
Posted in A New Kind of Science [NKS], Adventure, Awesome, Awesome beyond awesome, Biology, Get some perspective people, Hard Science, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Majestic Universe, Proofs, Rational Thinking, Science Education, Some Intelligent Designer, Stephen Wolfram, Video | Tagged: Nano nano | Leave a Comment »
Jesus explains the Crucifixion
Posted by pwl on October 7, 2010
Posted in Awesome, Awesome beyond awesome, Baby that became Zombie Jesus, bashing ingorant shit over the head with a shovel, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Get some perspective people, History, Holding those who run the world responsible for their crimes against humanity, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Live Brains!, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Rational Thinking, Really Funny, Something to think about, WOW!!!, Zombie Jesus | Leave a Comment »
Where do the laws of Nature come from? It from Bit?
Posted by pwl on September 3, 2010
Where do the laws of Nature come from?
Let’s explore this by way of two very interesting conversations, one from philosopher and physicist Paul Davies and the other from Stephen Wolfram.
Philosopher and physicist Paul Davies give a fascinating and thought-provoking talk on the possibility of an ultimate explanation for our universe. Dismissing the multiverse and God, he outlines an idea for finding an explanation for the universe and physical laws within the universe itself.
Posted in A New Kind of Science [NKS], Adult Supervision Required, Awesome, Awesome beyond awesome, Complex Systems, Definition of Terms, Energy, Get some perspective people, Gravity, Hard Science Required, Humbled by Nature, Ideas Crazy Enough to Have a Chance, Ignorance to Knowledge, Majestic Universe, Paradigm Shift, Philosophy, Proofs, Proofs Needed, Rational Thinking, Science over Propaganada, Science Shows, Something to think about, Spooky Action at a Distance, Stephen Wolfram, Video | 1 Comment »
Cargo Cult Science, A Lesson From Richard Feynman For Scientists of Today to Learn
Posted by pwl on February 19, 2010
CARGO CULT SCIENCE by Richard Feynman
Adapted from the Caltech commencement address given in 1974.
During the Middle Ages there were all kinds of crazy ideas, such as that a piece of rhinoceros horn would increase potency. Then a method was discovered for separating the ideas–which was to try one to see if it worked, and if it didn’t work, to eliminate it. This method became organized, of course, into science. And it developed very well, so that we are now in the scientific age. It is such a scientific age, in fact that we have difficulty in understanding how witch doctors could ever have existed, when nothing that they proposed ever really worked–or very little of it did.
But even today I meet lots of people who sooner or later get me into a conversation about UFOS, or astrology, or some form of mysticism, expanded consciousness, new types of awareness, ESP, and so forth. And I’ve concluded that it’s not a scientific world.
Posted in Awesome, Debunking Bad Environmentalism, Ethics in Science, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Get some perspective people, Good science attitude, Hard Science, Hard Science Required, Philosophy, Rational Thinking, Reality Based Environmentalism, Richard Feynman, Science Education, Science over Propaganada | 17 Comments »
Snowmageddon 2010 Hits East Coast of USA
Posted by pwl on February 6, 2010
It’s official, Obama named the storm “Snowmageddon“!
Snowmaggedon, the epic snow storms of 2010, descends up on the east coast of the USA. Snowmaggedon is just a few categories below The Day After Tomorrow as far as snow disasters go.
Snowmaggeddon 2010 – NOAA/NASA
“The North American blizzard of 2010 is a winter storm and severe weather event creating potential for historic snowfall totals in the Middle Atlantic states, possibly eclipsing the Knickerbocker Storm of 1922. The blizzard stretched from Mexico and New Mexico (USA) to New Jersey, killing people in New Mexico, Maryland and Virginia.
Posted in Awesome, Climate Science, Climategate, Debunking Bad Environmentalism, Double Yikes!!, Eeek!, Humbled by Nature | 3 Comments »
AGW Climate Change: Enough is Enough
Posted by pwl on February 4, 2010
Posted in Adult Supervision Required, Awesome, Climate Science, Climategate, Complex Systems, Debunking Bad Environmentalism, Dupenhagen aka Copenhagen 2009, Ethics in Science, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Get some perspective people, Good science attitude, Hard Science, Hard Science Required, Holding those who run the world responsible for their crimes against humanity, Humbled by Nature, Rational Thinking, Reality Based Economics, Reality Based Environmentalism, Science Education, Science Info Educational Videos, Science over Propaganada, Total Control Over Our Lives, Video, WOW!!!, Yikes! The sky is NOT falling! | Leave a Comment »
The Spirit of Mars
Posted by pwl on February 4, 2010
The Spirit of Mars
(Click to enlarge).
Thx1138 to XKCD.
Posted in Adventure, Awesome, Ethics in Science, Fun, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Reality Based Environmentalism, Science Education, Science Missions, The End is Nigh, Wait for it!, Yikes! | 1 Comment »
The Astounding Depth of Human Arrogance As Revealed In Belief Stricken Delusional Mythologies
Posted by pwl on January 15, 2010
The profound deep arrogance of man is revealed in the self imposed delusional mythological belief systems from the Bronze Ages. Many people, purportedly the vast majority of people on Earth, believe that the universe was created for man. How arrogant. How sad. The cartoon above says it well.
Let’s get it through our thick skulls. The universe wasn’t created for human beings. We simple evolved here fighting and clawing our way from sub-cellular life to multi-cellular all the way up to human being. To say that the universe was created for us is so insulting to our ancestors that it isn’t funny- it does them a deep disrespect for it says that their struggle in the continuous chain of life from them to us was unnecessary and make believe just to suit the whims of some arrogant God that want’s to toy with us for his/her/it’s own designs.
Anyone who truly gets the notion of freedom and independence must reject the notions of arrogance implied and supported by the profoundly horrific self conceited notion that the universe was created for us.
Posted in Awesome, Awesome beyond awesome, Baby that became Zombie Jesus, Bad Ideas, Belief Stricken, Complex Systems, Get some perspective people, Good science attitude, Hard Science Required, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Proof God Can NOT Exist, Rational Thinking, Science Education, Science over Propaganada | 2 Comments »
The New Defense of Responsible Journalism
Posted by pwl on January 9, 2010
A new ruling by the Supreme Court in Canada will allow journalists and bloggers greater protection from defamation lawsuits, establishing the new defence of responsible journalism.
If sued for defamation, journalists will be able to defend themselves by proving that they acted in the public interest and that they acted in a responsible way to gather the information. This rule will still apply even if particular facts are found to be false.” – Canadian Supreme Court Strengthens Press Freedom
This covers anyone blogging from Canada. I’m not sure [but am double checking] that this might cover Steve McIntyre of Climate Audit dot Org fame (assuming he’s resident in Canada). Certainly Stephen set’s the bar for indepth scientific blogging that goes beyond what any journalists that I’ve ever read have done (with the except of a few that have authored of books). One can aim towards Stephen McIntyre’s standards and not go wrong.
Posted in Awesome, Holding those who run the world responsible for their crimes against humanity, Politics, Proofs Needed, Rational Thinking | 1 Comment »
Christopher Monckton Discusses Hitler Youth Comment Freely with Random Person Who Walked Up to Interview Him
Posted by pwl on December 21, 2009
Christopher Monckton FREELY discussing his Hitler Youth comment when randomly approached and interviewed by a stranger.
Posted in Awesome, Climate Science, Climategate, Complex Systems, Conspiracy Theory, Debunking Bad Environmentalism, Dupenhagen aka Copenhagen 2009, Eco-zombie Terrorists, Ethics in Science, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Get some perspective people, Good science attitude, Hard Science, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Majestic Universe, Rational Thinking, Reality Based Economics, Reality Based Environmentalism, Science over Propaganada, Science Smackdown, Yikes! The sky is NOT falling! | 4 Comments »
Climategate Whistle-Blower(s) Should Get an Award for Their Actions Confirming the Worst Fears of Faked AGW Science
Posted by pwl on December 17, 2009
Posted in Awesome, Climate Science, Climategate, Debunking Bad Environmentalism, Ethics in Science, Get some perspective people, Good science attitude, Ignorance to Knowledge, Learning about Science Organizations, Rational Thinking, Reality Based Environmentalism, Scams, Science over Propaganada, Science Smackdown, Watching the Watchers | Leave a Comment »
NASA JPL Satellite Eyes On the Earth 3D – Gravity Balls and Friends
Posted by pwl on December 10, 2009
Very cool tool from visualizing data from NASA satellites in 3d in a web browser.
What I’m interested in is not just the visualization aspect but the actual data behind the visualizations since as we know from the Climategate confirmations of scientific fraud in climate science visual images can be highly misleading towards the alleged scientists point of view. Raw data please. All manipulations MUST be FULLY documented with the software source code that made the changes and detailed reasons listed for all adjustments.
If we are to raise our knowledge, skills and competence in using the scientific method to study the Earth, Moon, Sol and other relevant systems we must do some basic learning. Hard science requires making use of hard data without cheating and with showing ones data and any adjustments with justifications and open source code for auditing and proper open peer reviews!
Now let’s see what we can learn from this 3d puppy. My favorite is the GRACE Gravity satellites.
I’ve often wondered what impact the uneven gravity has on the Earth’s climate systems and if the gravity effects are taken into account in the so called climate models. As you can see from the above video the Earth isn’t even an oblate spheroid, it’s a really bumpy place when it comes to gravity. This must impact the weather and thus the climate systems as the atmosphere and water and ice move about.
Posted in Adventure, Awesome, Big Brother Planetary Control System, Climate Science, Climategate, Complex Systems, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Get some perspective people, Graphics, Gravity, Hard Science, Hard Science Required, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, It's weather AND climate!, Learning about Science Organizations, Majestic Universe, Math, Proofs, Proofs Needed, Rational Thinking, Reality Based Environmentalism, Science Ficition, Science Missions, Science over Propaganada, SkyNet Battlefield Earth, Total Control Over Our Lives, Video, WOW!!! | 4 Comments »
As goes the Sun so goes the Earth. The Sun is Daddy.
Posted by pwl on December 10, 2009
John Coleman, the founder of The Weather Channel speaks out against global warming.
“John Coleman is a harsh critic of anthropogenic global warming. In the fall of 2007, he described the current concern over global warming “a fictional, manufactured crisis, and a total scam.”. In 2008, Coleman gave a speech of the same tone, before the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, blaming the “global warming scam” and environmentalist lobby, for rising gas and food prices. He also declared the scam “a threat to our economy and our civilization.”
Posted in Awesome, Climate Science, Complex Systems, Debunking Bad Environmentalism, Ethics in Science, Hard Science, Hard Science Required, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Majestic Universe, Rational Thinking, Science Education, Video | Leave a Comment »
The Sun is Failing? Never Fall Back!
Posted by pwl on December 9, 2009
Posted in Adventure, Awesome, Get some perspective people, Ignorance to Knowledge, Rational Thinking, Really Funny, Science Education, Science Smackdown, The End is Nigh, The Ground is Falling Up!, The Sky Is Falling | Leave a Comment »
Strip Al Gore of his Oscar and Nobel Prize
Posted by pwl on December 9, 2009
Posted in Awesome, Climate Science, Climategate, Debunking Bad Environmentalism, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Rational Thinking, Reality Based Economics, Reality Based Environmentalism, Science over Propaganada, Science Smackdown | Leave a Comment »
The Climategate Rap: Gore vs Monckton
Posted by pwl on December 9, 2009
The creativity of videos on Climategate are amazing.
What we need is verifiable and auditable open climate science, not points of view by media manipulators.
Monckton’s criticisms are valid. Al Gore is a serious problem for the planet.
In case we forget their crimes against science and humanity:
Posted in Awesome, Rational Thinking, Reality Based Economics, Reality Based Environmentalism, Science over Propaganada, Science Smackdown, Violent | 1 Comment »
Naught to 2,500 mph in 10 seconds!!! Zoom, zoom, zoom!!! Book your place in space!
Posted by pwl on December 7, 2009
While Branson get’s it wrong on ManN Made Global Warming Climate Change his engineer Burt Rutan gets it on target!
Rutan made headlines … in 2004 with SpaceShipOne, which became the first privately built, flown, and funded craft to reach space in June of that year, winning the Ansari X Prize a few months later on October 4. SpaceShipOne completed two flights within two weeks, flying with the equivalent weight of 3 persons and doing so while reusing at least 80% of the vehicle hardware. The project team was honored with the 2004 Collier Trophy, awarded by the National Aeronautic Association for “greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America.” The craft embodies Rutan’s unique style, and is another of the “icons of flight” displayed in the NASM Milestones of Flight exhibit.
This achievement was quickly commercialized — Virgin Galactic, an offshoot of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, announced that it would begin space tourism flights in 2008 using craft based on the designs of SpaceShipOne. Dubbed SpaceShipTwo, these new craft, also designed by Burt Rutan, are intended to allow six “experience optimized” passengers to glimpse the planet from 70–80 miles up in suborbital space. Production of the first of five planned SpaceShipTwo craft has started, with the first test flights currently scheduled for 2007-8. An explosion at the Scaled Composite factory at the Mojave Spaceport on July 26, 2007 killed three engineers and seriously injured three others. They were testing components for SpaceShipTwo, but as of August 2007[update] Scaled
Composites remained dedicated to perfecting the design of SpaceShipTwo.
…
On July 29, 2009, Burt Rutan drew a full house for his presentation at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s EAA Airventure 2009 Oshkosh Conference entitled “Non-Aerospace Research Quests of a Designer/Flight Test Engineer” where he discussed his thoughts on his hobby of climate change.[1] Although he admitted in his presentation that he was not a climate scientist, he stated he spent most of his career on data analysis and interpretation and how it is used or misused.[2]“I put myself in the (Those who fear expansion of Government control) group, and do not hide the fact that I have a clear bias on [ Anthropogenic global warming (AGW)]. My bias is based on fear of Government expansion and the observation of AGW data presentation fraud – not based on financial or any other personal benefit. I merely have found that the closer you look at the data and alarmists’ presentations, the more fraud you find and the less you think there is an AGW problem… For decades, as a professional experimental test engineer, I have analyzed experimental data and watched others massage and present data. I became a cynic; My conclusion – “if someone is aggressively selling a technical product who’s [sic] merits are dependent [sic] on complex experimental data, he is likely lying”. That is true whether the product is an airplane or a Carbon Credit.”
Burt Rutan also states he was raised Republican but now seems to think that both official parties have grown too big and socialist for his more libertarian leanings. He describes his interest on the topic deriving from his “interest in technology, not tree hugging”.
Posted in Adventure, Awesome, Awesome beyond awesome, Climate Science, Science Missions, Space Travel, Video | Leave a Comment »
Excellent Summary of Dupenhagen aka Copenhagen Climate Conference 2009
Posted by pwl on December 7, 2009
Posted in Awesome, Awesome beyond awesome, Climate Science, Climategate, Complex Systems, Debunking Bad Environmentalism, Dupenhagen aka Copenhagen 2009, Energy, Ethics in Science, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Get some perspective people, Green Religion, Hard Science Required, Holding those who run the world responsible for their crimes against humanity, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Paradigm Shift, Philosophy, Proofs, Proofs Needed, Rational Thinking, Reality Based Economics, Reality Based Environmentalism, Science Missions, Science over Propaganada, The End is Nigh, The Sky Is Falling, Video, WOW!!!, Yikes! The sky is NOT falling! | Leave a Comment »
Shaping the News Masterfully, Jon Stewart Frames Climategate
Posted by pwl on December 2, 2009
We have seen Noam Chomsky’s principle of “Manufacturing Consent” working with the Climategate criminals Jones, Mann, et. al.. A conspiracy of “values and beliefs”, an elitist clique that thought that they were above the rest of the people they worked for, us. Other scientists have this “academic” elitist bias or shared value, that says that you need not just the “qualifications” but the “right attitude” otherwise you’re “outside the group”. Einstein broke the mold as have McIntyre and others, Einstein was a “patent clerk” when he worked on his famous breakthroughs.
Now we see it with Jon Stewart. While making light of the Climategate in a really funny way he reveals his bias in that he “believes” in “global warming” when he says “does it [Climategate] disprove global warming, no”. Unfortunately it’s much more complex than Jon Stewart realizes and that his shared values and beliefs in “global warming” blind him from deeper inquiry. OR, as a masterful media perception shaper he’s doing his job of making people laugh with short segments and the Climategate is way too much to get into and his demographic also shares his values in “global warming”.
In any event the science will clearly demonstrate what’s going on as time unfolds and Nature does what she does.
What’s interesting in Jon Stewart’s masterful media play is really how good he is at it.
Posted in Awesome, Awesome beyond awesome, Bad Science, Bad Science Attitude, Big Brother Planetary Control System, Climate Science, Climategate, Complex Systems, Conspiracy Theory, Debunking Bad Environmentalism, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Get some perspective people, Hard Science, Hard Science Required, Holding those who run the world responsible for their crimes against humanity, Politics, Proofs Needed, Rational Thinking, Reality Based Economics, Reality Based Environmentalism, Really Funny, Respect Nature or Else, Science Education, Science over Propaganada, Science Smackdown, Something to think about, Video, WOW!!! | 2 Comments »
Shuttle Atlantis Mission STS-129
Posted by pwl on November 27, 2009
STS-129 (ISS assembly flight ULF3)[2] was the most recent Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Atlantis launched on 16 November 2009, at 14:28 Eastern: UTC -5[3][4] and landed at 9:44 a.m. EST on 27 November 2009 on runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility.
STS-129 focused on staging spare components outside the station. The 11-day flight included three spacewalks. The payload bay carried two large ExPRESS Logistics Carriers holding two spare gyroscopes, two nitrogen tank assemblies, two pump modules, an ammonia tank assembly, a spare latching end effector for the station’s robotic arm, a spare trailing umbilical system for the Mobile Transporter, and a high-pressure gas tank. STS-129 was the first flight of an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier. The completion of this mission leaves five space shuttle flights remaining until the end of the program.[5]
Posted in Awesome, Dreaming, Fun, Hard Science, Science Education, Video | Leave a Comment »
The Muppets rule as Queen in Bohemian Rhapsody, plus the classic Mahna Mahna
Posted by pwl on November 26, 2009
Posted in Awesome, Awesome beyond awesome, Entertainment, Fun, Majestic Universe, Really Funny, Video, WOW!!! | Leave a Comment »
Learning to think for yourself means getting outside of your box of known knowns, known unknowns, unknown knows and unknown unknowns and explore the possibilities beyond the options
Posted by pwl on November 6, 2009
The Ontology of Being
“It’s to give people an opportunity to think for themselves… what happens is that most of us think that our very strongly held beliefs, you know those things we hold, our opinions, that are very strong, we think that that is thinking for ourselves but it isn’t really. The ability to think for yourself really means the ability to think something that you haven’t thought before. To think outside the allowable range of thoughts rather than just inside the allowable range of thoughts.” – Werner Erhard, TV Interview
Learn to think for yourself out side of your allowable range of thoughts and especially outside the cage of your beliefs and opinions.
The Known Knowns.
The Known Unknowns.
The Unknown Knowns.
The Unknown Unknowns.
“There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. These are things we do not know we don’t know.” – quote popularized globally by Donald Rumsfeld in justification of mass murder; quote popularized by Werner Erhard in the 1970’s and 80’s to make the world a better place one person at a time.
During the 1970’s and 1980’s Werner Ehard’s est Training Program used this quote (or a variant thereof that covers all four possibilities, known knowns, known unknowns, unknown knowns, unknown unknowns) as a part of the course material. Landmark Education’s The Landmark Forum course also uses it. One point of using it is to help people see the limits of their knowledge and the edges of the metaphorical box they live in. Where are our blind spots when it comes to our knowledge or lack there of? What are the risks of ignorance? The exploration of these four domains would be extensive and take many hours of these courses.
Posted in Adult Supervision Required, Awesome, Awesome beyond awesome, Ethics in Science, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Get some perspective people, Hard Science Required, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ideas Crazy Enough to Have a Chance, Ignorance to Knowledge, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Live Brains!, Ontology of Being, Philosophy, Rational Thinking, Science over Propaganada, Something to think about, Video, Werner Erhard, WOW!!! | 8 Comments »
Why is science important?
Posted by pwl on October 20, 2009
“It’s said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. That is false and tragically false. Look for yourself, this is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people where turned into numbers. … It was not done by gas… It was done by arrogance… it was done by dogma… it was done by ignorance. When people believe they have absolute knowledge with no test in reality this how they behave. this is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of the gods. … Science is a very human kind of knowledge… we are always at the brink of the known… every judgment in science stands on the edge of error and is personal. Science is a tribute to what we can know although we are fallible. We have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute power.” – Bronowski‘s The Ascent of Man
Continuing Dr Bronowski’s personal view of mans major discoveries and the evolution of his thought; this programme highlights the achievement of twentieth century physics in proving that absolute certainty inside or outside science is beyond our grasp.
1) The Method of the Artist.
2) The Invisible Waves.
3) Karl Friedrich Gauss and Göttingen.
4) Max Born and Heisenberg.
5) The Principle of Uncertainty.
6) Leo Szilard.
7) The Tragedy of Scientists.
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Green House Conspiracy
Posted by pwl on September 20, 2009
This documentary is a good companion to the latest documentary,”The Great Global Warming Swindle” recently shown on CH 4 UK and is available on Google video. The hoax of Global Warming / Green House was exposed 19 years ago by CH 4 UK in this documentary entitled Green House Conspiracy. Those who subscribe to the rubbish trotted out by Al Gore and his mindless followers are not new they were the same arse clowns who were telling us we were all going to freeze to death 30 years ago.
What The FUCK? Almost every aspect of this video from 19 years ago is exactly the same as it is today!!!! Wow, nothing has changed. The warmies are still crying wolf. I wonder who let them out of the asylum?
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Death from the skys, the real serious threat to Earth and it’s critters including humans
Posted by pwl on September 17, 2009
Unlike theories such as Anthropogenic Global Warming aka Climate Change, there is ZERO doubt about this very real serious threat.
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The Math of Zombie Infections and Pandemics
Posted by pwl on August 16, 2009
This time the Math of Zombies tells us like it is: basically were all doomed to either be eaten alive for our brains (highly nutritious component of the Zombie Diet not to mention very addictive) or be converted into a zombie and eat the brains of the rest of us. Take your pick: be the food or the eater of the food.
“A zombie outbreak is likely to lead to the collapse of civilisation, unless it is dealt with quickly. While aggressive quarantine may contain the epidemic, or a cure may lead to coexistence of humans and zombies, the most effective way to contain the rise of the undead is to hit hard and hit often. ”
“Zombies are … usually … brought about through an outbreak or epidemic. Consequently, we model a zombie attack, using biological assumptions …. We introduce a basic model for zombie infection, determine equilibria and their stability, and illustrate the outcome with numerical solutions. We then refine the model to introduce a latent period of zombification, whereby humans are infected, but not infectious, before becoming undead. We then modify the model to include the effects of possible quarantine or a cure. Finally, we examine the impact of regular, impulsive reductions in the number of zombies and derive conditions under which eradication can occur. We show that only quick, aggressive attacks can stave off the doomsday scenario: the collapse of society as zombies overtake us all.” – Math of Zombies (pdf paper)!
First off you should note that there is a fundamental flaw in the paper: it assumes that Zombie Attacks are not real but just in the movies! This is a way of keeping the secret while discussing this serious problem in academic papers! Zombies are as real as Jesus Christ! The more real you think Jesus Christ to be the more real Zombies are! Fantasies come alive in our brains and that is why Zombies of all kinds including Sweet Zombie Jesus want your brain! Don’t let them have it, remain belief and faith free by embracing Nature and Rational Thought and Science. May your brains survive the Zombie Attacks of religion, faith and belief in the supernatural and may you avoid having the delusion of an invisible friend in the sky who will save you from death with the false promise of an everlasting life! Obliterate faith and belief in delusions that can’t be proven since that is how they get your live brains and then control you sucking the independence and life out of you! Face it, the only way to exist is to not have your brains eaten by the Zombie Virus and other mind eaters!
An outbreak of zombies infecting humans is likely to be disastrous, unless extremely aggressive tactics are employed against the undead. While aggressive quarantine may eradicate the infection, this is unlikely to happen in practice. A cure would only result in some humans surviving the outbreak, although they will still coexist with zombies. Only sufficiently frequent attacks, with increasing force, will result in eradication, assuming the available resources can be mustered in time.
Furthermore, these results assumed that the timescale of the outbreak was short, so that the natural birth and death rates could be ignored. If the timescale of the outbreak increases, then the result is the doomsday scenario: an outbreak of zombies will result in the collapse of civilisation, with every human infected, or dead. This is because human births and deaths will provide the undead with a limitless supply of new bodies to infect, resurrect and convert. Thus,
if[WHEN] zombies arrive, we must act quickly and decisively to eradicate them before they eradicate us.The key difference between the models presented here and other models of infectious disease is that the dead can come back to life.
In summary, a zombie outbreak is likely to lead to the collapse of civilisation, unless it is dealt with quickly. While aggressive quarantine may contain the epidemic, or a cure may lead to coexistence of humans and zombies, the most effective way to contain the rise of the undead is to hit hard and hit often.
See other articles on the important topic of Zombies and of Sweet Zombie Jesus!
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When otherwise good math goes wrong especially in parallel or massively parallel programs
Posted by pwl on July 31, 2009
“Sometimes we forget that not all numbers are the same. This becomes very apparent in dealing with floating point numbers in parallel computing. … Floating numbers are not associative or distributive. … The more cores programmers run their parallelized code on, the more ways operations can be interleaved and the more challenges programmers face.” – Tim Mattson and Ken Strandberg, Intel
As if it’s climate science is not bad enough with intentionally corrupt or incompetently done statistics it turns out that climate models may be based upon computer programs with serious math flaws: the limits of the floating point and double precision floating point data types can produce incorrect results since “Floating Point Numbers Aren’t Real Numbers!” they are data types with limited precision. It gets even worse than that, when supposedly good programs are transformed into massively parallel programs with N threads of execution the results can vary with the number of threads chosen to run the program! Of course in climate science N can be 2 or 4 threads on a single multi-core machine but it can also be 1,000+ using GPGPUs or server compute farms.
Have the climate model programs been vetted to ensure mathematical accuracy? Is there a set of test cases that validate it after new changes have been made to the climate models? Do the test cases cover all the calculations in the climate model software? How do we know the answers are even accurate mathematically? (Of course that’s not even asking how do we know the model is relevant but this inquiry is not into relevancy it’s into accuracy of the calculations, whatever they happen to be, in climate models).
“The more cores programmers run their parallelized code on, the more ways operations can be interleaved and the more challenges programmers face. Parallel programmers must deal with a host of issues peculiar to parallel programs such as synchronization, protecting shared variables, and finding thread safe versions of common math routines (such as random number generation). One of the most subtle problems faced by the parallel programmer, however, arises from the properties of floating point numbers. Floating point numbers are the same in serial and parallel computations, of course, but when a program executes in parallel, special features of these numbers are more likely to impact your results.” – Tim Mattson and Ken Strandberg, Intel, in “Parallelization and Floating Point Numbers“
One aspect of models in science and engineering that involve calculations using the “floating point number format” is that Floating Point numbers are NOT REAL NUMBERS they are limited precision approximations of Real Numbers and as such they have their limits often caused by rounding which results in Floating Point numbers not being associative, in other words the order matters!!! What happens in science and engineering calculations on computers using Float 32 or Double floats (64 bits) especially when scaling massive numbers of computations to multiple threads on your multiple cores or on thousands of processor nodes in super computers or on GPGPU (general purpose graphics processing units) is that you get the wrong answers due to the miss use of these floating point data types.
You can easily generate numbers that don’t fit into the floating point format, and thus you produce answers from the basic arithmetic operations that don’t fit into a floating point format. In other words, the floating point numbers when operated on by the basic arithmetic operations do not constitute a closed set.
The impact of this is significant. Floating numbers are not associative or distributive. So,
A * (C * B) ≠ (A * C) * B and
A * (B + C) ≠ A * B + A * C
[Obviously the sentence is missing something here, most likely the two equations do not produce the same answers! -pwl]
This means that as you change the order of a long sequence of arithmetic operations, you can generate different answers. Mathematically with real numbers, the answers can’t depend on the order of the operations (for commutative operations) or the way they are grouped together (associatively). But with floating point numbers, if you interleave the operations in different ways, you get different results.
Here’s a good test to demonstrate the implications of this behavior by floating point numbers:
1. Fill 2 arrays each with 10000 random values between 0.0 and 1.0.
2. Shift one up by 100 and shift the other down by 0.001.
3. Mix the arrays together, sum them, and subtract a large number (500000).
Here are the results run on 1, 2, and 4 threads.
1 thread computes 170.968750
2 threads computes 171.968750
4 threads computes 172.750000
Which one of these numbers is correct, the 1-thread, 2-thread, or 4-thread value? Are any of these the true value? Would you consider that with 4 threads, the answer is correct and the others wrong? Or with 1 thread?
This is not a trick question, nor is its goal to make programmers look silly. Developers are smart people. But, many programmers steeped in sequential programming for so many years make the assumption that there is only one right answer for their algorithm. After all, their code has always delivered the same answer every time it was run. When you consider the above example, however, all the answers are equally correct. To pick one arbitrarily and call it right and the others wrong is completely unjustified.
Wait there is more! This is quite shocking isn’t it? What you were taught in math class isn’t the way that computers do math! Yikes. Most computer scientists are not aware of this problem as most never encounter it in their careers, or don’t know that it’s a problem that is happening right under their noses. Scary.
By mixing the numbers as this example does, it creates a pathological situation designed to maximize problems due to round off error. The test mixes very large and very small numbers together. The arithmetic unit aligns the numbers before adding them, which, given the large difference in their absolute magnitudes, all but guarantees that we’ll loose bits of precision in the process.
As the number of threads changes, the combinations of numbers being added also changes. With all the roundoff errors, as the way these numbers are combined changes, the way roundoff error is accumulated also keeps changing. Thus, the answers change.
So which answer is correct? The algorithm for adding them together is unstable. If you carefully add the numbers together so large numbers add with large numbers and small numbers add with small numbers, and then add the “large_set_sum” to the “small_set_sum”, you get a numerically stable result. The answer in this case is 177.750. Note that the test answers in every case considerably vary from the stable method of obtaining the answer.
Note also that, with a serial algorithm, you’d never know there was a problem. Only as the thread count grows and the answers change, does the instability of the algorithm become obvious. It’s apparent the problem is not in the compiler or even the program. The problem is with the numerical instability of the algorithm. And it’s only revealed by going to multiple threads.
The video with Tim Mattson explains it well.
Are you getting different numbers for calculations as you vary the number of threads? Your algorithm may be incorrect. Real numbers are nice; floating numbers are not nice. Floating numbers are not a closed set, the overflow bits need to be rounded and that can change the results of a calculation. Tim discusses how to work with floating point numbers and resources available to help in the Intel Math Kernel Libraries.
In the engineering applications that I’ve worked on for civil engineering of bridges we found that Double Precision Floating Point Numbers at 64 bits was simply not enough accuracy. We were able to use 80bit Extended Double Precision Floating Point numbers supported by the 8087 math coprocessor in the Intel line of chips. Even though the extended precision covered most of the cases that Double Precision didn’t there were a few cases where we had to adjust the order of our computations to ensure that we didn’t overflow the precision limits of the computation of the extended 80bit math! As you can imagine errors in bridge calculations are rather critical to life and limb.
The same is true in the Climate Models, lives and treasure both depend on correct math. The science fails when the math is wrong. Have they been vetted for numeric accuracy? How do we know that? Have test cases been written that test these limits in the climate model programs?
The same applies to random numbers in computers, they are not real random numbers either. As Tim Mattson says “We now know that god does play dice but that computers can’t!” (paraphrased). Random numbers are important in climate models since the climate is in inherently a system with randomness being generated from within. See Wolfram’s A New Kind of Science.
Computers cannot make truly random numbers. For statistical algorithms requiring random numbers, developers need to be careful in parallel code to avoid overlapping sequences from random number generators. Tim discusses different methods to use random number generators – including using independent generators for each thread and the “leap frog method” – to produce “pseudo random numbers” for statistical algorithms that work in parallel code.
Very interesting and important topic to any system that depends upon parallel computations being correct to protect limb, life and treasure.
Thanks to Intel, Tim Mattson and Ken Strandberg for this important information.
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Let’s go Direct to Mars for real!
Posted by pwl on July 22, 2009
Mars Direct is a proposal for a relatively low-cost manned mission to Mars with current rocket technology. The plan was originally detailed in a research paper by Robert Zubrin and David Baker in 1990. The mission was expanded upon in Zubrin’s 1996 book The Case for Mars.
The plan involves launching an unmanned “Earth Return Vehicle” (ERV) directly from Earth’s surface to Mars using a heavy-lift booster derived from Space Shuttle components. The booster is no bigger than the Saturn V used for the Apollo missions. Several launches are made in preparation for the manned mission.
The first of these launches the ERV, a supply of hydrogen, a chemical plant and a small nuclear reactor. Once there, a relatively simple set of chemical reactions (the Sabatier reaction coupled with electrolysis) would combine a small amount of hydrogen carried by the ERV with the carbon dioxide of the Martian atmosphere to create up to 112 tonnes of methane and oxygen propellants, 96 tonnes of which would be needed to return the ERV to Earth at the end of the mission. This process would take approximately ten months to complete.
Some 26 months after the ERV is originally launched from Earth, a second vehicle, the “Mars Habitat Unit” (MHU), would be launched on a high-energy transfer to Mars carrying a crew of four. This vehicle would take some six months to reach Mars. During the trip, artificial gravity would be generated by tying the spent upper stage of the booster to the Habitat Unit, and setting them both rotating about a common axis.
On reaching Mars, the spent upper stage would be jettisoned, with the Habitat Unit aerobraking into Mars orbit before soft-landing in proximity to the ERV. Once on Mars, the crew would spend 18 months on the surface, carrying out a range of scientific research, aided by a small rover vehicle carried aboard their MHU, and powered by excess methane produced by the ERV. To return, they would use the ERV, leaving the MHU for the possible use of subsequent explorers. The propulsion stage of the ERV would be used as a counterweight to generate artificial gravity for the trip back.
The initial cost estimate for Mars Direct was put at $55 billion, to be paid over ten years.
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