Sep/090
Feynman on Physics: Gates Brilliant Philanthropy?
I recently stumbled upon a project at Microsoft Research called “Tuva” which is an enhanced video player that is aimed at providing a rich informational video experience. It features video searching, full transcripts, interactive extras, an indexed time-line, and bookmarking capabilities.
By visiting the Project Tuva website you can view in their entirety Dr. Richard Feynman’s “Messenger Series” lectures on physics at Cornell university in 1964.
Here’s a quick over-view of the knowledge Feynman will be spitting at you in glorious Black and white video.
The Messenger Series Lectures
- Law of Gravitation – An Example of Physical Law
- The Relation of Mathematics and Physics
- The Great Conservation Principles
- Symmetry in Physical Law
- The Distinction of Past and Future
- Probability and Uncertainty – The Quantum Mechanical view of Nature
- Seeking New Laws
Each lecture is approximately 55 minutes and is guaranteed to expand your mind, or make you laugh. Regardless, it’s a good way to kill an hour… or seven.
Sep/090
Well fuck you too, decoherence.
I recently finished reading a really fantastic book by Charles Seife called Decoding the Universe: How the New Science of Information is Explaining Everything in the Cosmos, From our Brains to Black Holes that talks about classical and quantum physics in the context of Information Theory.
The badassery of this book aside, that’s not what I’m here to talk about; I’ve got a bone to pick with the theory of quantum decoherence. As any good power-nerd reading up on quantum theory I was particularly interested in the wacky things that can happen at the quantum level of things such as superposed objects, and entangled objects that appear to communicate at faster than the speed of light.
As it turns out quantum decoherence is like being waken up in the middle of a great dream about flying over a city-scape at night, only to realize that your alarm is telling you to get off your ass and embrace the real-world. It says that I can’t remain unobserved (in a quantum state) for any measurable period of time because I’m so big. Weak.
Sep/090
Practical Introspection: Observing Your Thoughts
Introspective Goals: Observe how thoughts arise in the mind
Time Commitment: 5-10 minutes
I would like to cover a simple and time-flexible focus exercise presented by the Dalai Lama.
If practiced continually one could reasonably expect to be able to focus more intently on things, or think critically for longer periods of time without distraction. It is because of these benefits that I consider this to be practical introspection.
I think it’s important to note that even though this exercise is put forth by the Dalai Lama, it is just a mental exercise to help cultivate better focus that does not depend on Buddhism or any religious practice to be useful.
Aug/090
SWEDISH SWING HIPHOP JAZZ?!
Last week little known TV celebrity Stephen Colbert had the Swedish swing hip/hop jazz band Movits! on his show to perform one of their songs. You can find the performance over at the Colbert Nation. They were so good that I feel the need to share them with you, here on my blog.
MOVITS! -- Fel Del Av Gården
These swedes really know how to kick it; their music is soulful and refreshingly different. If you dig new and interesting music, I recommend you give them a listen.
Jun/090
Facebook Enabled Comments
Yesterday I decided that I should look at allowing comments on my blog to be linked to a Facebook user account, rather than some random account that has to be registered for my site.
So I spent a few hours last night figuring out how I could integrate Facebook Connect with my blog.
As it turns out, if you want to integrate Facebook Connect into your WordPress blog there are quite a few options. The problem being that all of the ones I found could be described by at least one of the following adjectives…
- |O_o| Holy. Epic. "Big changes to the DMCA. Awesome. http://bit.ly/blkjBv" /via @nkohari
- Something is wrong with this picture, I wonder what it could be? http://twitpic.com/280gqu