I just don’t have anything to add to this. Though I’m pretty sure if the NSA put their massive minds to it, they could figure out how to hear us thinking, let alone typity-typing on our computers without an internet in sight. Did you know that NSA is the country’s largest employer of mathematicians? It […]
February 24 – 28, 2014 Cameron, trains, and writing: “I watched until it grew so dark that the only things that seemed to exist were the fire and the man’s illuminated hands.” Christie, death, and grief: “Such platitudes offered me no comfort. The truth is, Pia died far too young, and I wish she hadn’t.” […]
My God but the veneer of civilization is thin. Baltimore had one of its whomping good snowstorms last week – I stopped measuring at 14 inches – and the next day it had another 3 inches or so, plus sleet, and the day after it had only an inch, plus more of that sleet, and […]
Behind science news stories, which are facts or predictions of facts, is a reality which gives them their context and sometimes their meaning. Science magazine, January 23, 2014: “A new analysis . . . indicates that modern-day rumblings in the New Madrid Seismic Zone are not echoes of the 1811 to 1812 quakes, however. Instead, […]
AG here, based on his examples, seems to mean that the best science undercuts peoples’ faith in their beliefs, thereby annoying them deeply. I’m sure that’s true but I haven’t noticed it myself. What I notice is when, for example, some observer tells some theorist that no, in fact the universe isn’t coasting along slowly, […]
A couple of weeks ago, Michelle subverted the established cultural order by adopting her five-year old’s suggestion that Bilbo Baggins was a girl. Most people applauded but some gnashed their teeth: don’t second-guess literature, they said, and if Bilbo is a hero and heroes are boys, then so be it. But I have prior and […]
December 30, 2013 – January 3, 2014 Ann Redux: You know how, if your sister is a biologist, you have to be a physicist? This isn’t only competition, it’s also cooperation and as such holds the Recipe for World Peace — if only anyone would listen. Cameron Redux: the Snail Apocolypse is upon her, also […]
Ok, so y’all know about how, in general relativity, gravity slows time. Clocks closer to something massive and more strongly attracted to it run slower. And clocks farther away and less attracted run faster. I’d explain this to you in more detail but I’m busy. Anyway, AG can use the different times on his different […]
