Category Archives: science

arts, books, links, science, thoughts

Links of the Week

A collection of the curious and interesting you may have missed. This week we have a selcetion of the eccentric and the scientific …

First up here are nine equations true (science) geeks should know — or at least pretend to know. No I’d never heard of some of them either!

Why is this cargo container emitting so much radiation? Seems fairly obvious to me but it clearly puzzled the Italians.

Science, philosophy and religion: which best offers us the tools to understand the world around us? Here’s the scientist’s view, which is much as expected but still interesting to read.

John Lennon’s tooth bought by Canadian dentist. FFS why?

And finally … They’re baffling but they’re rather splendid. Who left a tree and a coffin in the library?

amusements, current affairs, science

Quantum Economics

This is an old one, but given the current dire situation of a good proportion of the Euro-zone countries, it seems strangely apposite — again!

Quantum Economics

The discussion of the creation of money and debt puts me in mind of the creation of virtual particle/antiparticle pairs in the vacuum. I wonder how many other Quantum Physics concepts can be applied to money.

Cash is not continuous but exists in discreet levels. The smallest quantum of money is called the Plank Penny.

Like energy and matter, money can be converted into things and vice versa. However during the conversion some money is always lost to a form of entropy called VAT.

It is not possible to be absolutely sure of both where your money is and how much it is worth. Finding out how much your money is really worth involves spending it which destroys the money. This is called the Uncertainty Principle.

Large accumulations of money distort the economic space around them producing an effect comparable to gravity. This is called the Million Pound Note effect.

Large accumulations of debt (anti-money) also have the effect of attracting more debt. Eventually the debt can collapse under its own weight forming a black hole. The space near a black hole is characterised by strong economic distortions such as hyperinflation and large amounts of spin.

The three laws of thermodynamics, apply equally to economics:
1. you can’t win
2. you can’t break even
3. you can’t get out of the game.

And the final reason why economics is like quantum physics? If you think you understand it, then you don’t really understand it at all.


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food+drink, memes, music, personal, quotes, science

Ten Things – November

Number 11 in my monthly series of “Ten Things” for 2011. Each month I list one thing from each of ten categories which will remain the same for each month of 2011. So at the end of the year you have ten lists of twelve things about me.

  1. Something I Like: Beaujolais Nouveau (This year’s is supposed to be even better than last year’s which was superb; and it’ll be here in a few days time!)
  2. Something I Won’t Do: Plumbing
  3. Something I Want To Do: Visit Norway & Sweden
  4. A Blog I Like: Cocktail Party Physics
  5. A Book I Like: Douglas Adams, Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy
  6. Some Music I Like: Handel, Messiah
  7. A Food I Like: Pizza
  8. A Food or Drink I Dislike: Sweet Potatoes
  9. A Word I Like: Mendicant
  10. A Quote I Like: The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose. [JBS Haldane]
environment, science, topographical

Fukushima Revisited

I’ve not written recently about the nuclear disaster in Japan following March’s earthquake and tsunami. This is largely because there has been little in the way of new news. However a few days ago an IEEE Spectrum report was released which looks at the first 24 hours at the nuclear facility following the earthquake and highlights some of the design and procedural errors which exacerbated the disaster.

Although the situation in the reactors was clearly far worse than we had been led to believe, I’ll not extract the report here: you can read a summary on-line. And it is worth reading: it’s clear, lucid, gives a flavour of just how complex these situations really are, how much wasn’t know (or wasn’t told) and how people react under extreme pressure.

What I will do is mention the six major lessons which have been highlighted by the report, with the inevitable handful of comments. This should be sufficient to show where there were errors in the design of plant and procedure. Before that there’s one important thing to note:

[The] report is based on interviews with officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the International Atomic Energy Agency, local governments, and with other experts in nuclear engineering, as well as a review of hundreds of pages of official reports.

So it isn’t just make-believe; it should be good stuff. Anyway here are those lessons:

Lesson 1. Emergency generators should be installed at high elevations or in watertight chambers.
Sounds obvious, doesn’t it. But it all comes down to good risk analysis. If you aren’t expecting significant flooding it makes great sense to put plant, especially emergency generators etc., on the ground: they’re excessively heavy and when operating generate huge amounts of noise and vibration.

LESSON 2. If a cooling system is intended to operate without power, make sure all of its parts can be manipulated without power.
Again sounds obvious when stated like that, but far too easy to overlook, although good design reviews should have picked this up.

LESSON 3. Keep power trucks [mobile emergency generators] on or very close to the power plant site.
Why would we do that? Isn’t a central facility more cost effective? In this case no, it may not be!

LESSON 4. Install independent and secure battery systems to power crucial instruments during emergencies.
Same comment as for Lesson 2.

LESSON 5. Ensure that catalytic hydrogen recombiners (power-free devices that turn dangerous hydrogen gas back into steam) are positioned at the tops of reactor buildings where gas would most likely collect.
You’re never going to get a big build-up of hydrogen inside a containment building are you. Wait: isn’t that what a containment building is for? But be honest, how many of us would have thought of this?

LESSON 6. Install power-free filters on vent lines to remove radio-active materials and allow for venting that won’t harm nearby residents.
Again, see Lesson 2.

What remains clear to me is that the plant, the systems and the procedures worked correctly, and were implemented correctly, as they were designed. What failed is the 40-year-old design and the procedures which didn’t go far enough in their disaster scenario planning.

We would (and do) do much better now and will do even better as a result of this disaster. Because of its safety critical nature, the nuclear industry is like the aviation industry: every accident (and near-accident) is analysed for the underlying root cause(s) and there is a culture of incremental improvements and (where necessary/possible) of retro-fitting improvements. Notwithstanding the fact that Fukushima was (and is) a disaster, exacerbated by continuing failures in transparency and communication, I see this as a positive experience which should make nuclear power safer and more acceptable — not the reverse.

The biggest disaster is the effect on the displaced and frightened people which is largely psychological and social rather than medical; and that’s in large part down to the obfuscation and half-truths of the TEPCO and Japanese government communications. One day governments will learn that total transparency is the only safe course of action.

beliefs, history, links, science, sexuality, thoughts

Links of the Week

This weeks collection of the curious and interesting you may have missed …

Lord Norwich makes some sly remarks about Popes. But how does he know what Pope Nicholas V was like?

Now apparently out gut bacteria may be causing obesity. And you thought it was because I ate too much.

Scientists also think they’ve discovered why some of us hate Brussels Sprouts. Yes it’s all in the genetics, and our taste buds.

In other news, speculation is rife that Palaeolithic man went in for piercing his penis. It all sounds pretty tenuous to me, but then there’s nothing new under the foreskin sun.

And finally … And finally someone in “authority” has come to realise that what we’ve been saying all these years might just be helpful: prostitution could be solved by decriminalising brothels. Government: smell the coffee … it ain’t going to go away and if you licence it you can tax it!

beliefs, books, quotes, science

Quotes of the Week: Sublime & Ridiculous

The Tuesday scowls, the Wednesday growls, the Thursday curses, the Friday howls, the Saturday snores, the Sunday yawns, the Monday morns, the Monday morns. The whacks, the moans, the cracks, the groans, the welts, the squeaks, the belts, the shrieks, the pricks, the prayers, the kicks, the tears, the skelps, and the yelps.
[Samuel Beckett, Watt]

The moon lives twenty-eight days and this is our month. Each of these days represents something sacred to us: two of the days represent the Great Spirit; two are for Mother Earth; four are for the four winds; one is for the Spotted Eagle; one for the sun; and one for the moon; one is for the Morning Star; and four are for the four ages; seven for our seven great rites; one is for the buffalo; one for the fire; one for the water; one for the rock; and finally, one is for the two-legged people. If you add all these days up you will see that they come to twenty-eight. You should know also that the buffalo has twenty-eight ribs, and that in our war bonnets we usually wear twenty-eight feathers. You see, there is a signif­icance for everything, and these are things that are good for men to know and to remember.
[Black Elk, quoted somewhere I now forget by Joseph Campbell]

Moyers: What happens when a society no longer embraces a powerful mythology?
Campbell: What we’ve got on our hands. If you want to find out what it means to have a society without any rituals, read the New York Times.
Moyers: And you’d find?
Campbell: The news of the day, including destructive and violent acts by young people who don’t know how to behave in a civilized society.
Moyers: Society has provided them no rituals by which they become members of the tribe, of the community. All children need to be twice born, to learn to function rationally in the present world, leaving childhood behind …
Campbell: That’s exactly it. That’s the significance of the puberty rites. In primal societies, there are teeth knocked out, there are scarifications, there are circumcisions, there are all kinds of things done. So you don’t have your little baby body any more, you’re something else entirely.
When I was a kid, we wore short trousers, you know, knee pants. And then there was a great moment when you put on long pants. Boys now don’t get that. I see even five-year-olds walking around with long trousers. When are they going to know that they’re now men and must put aside childish things?
Moyers: Where do the kids growing up in the city — on 125th and Broadway, for example — where do these kids get their myths today?
Campbell: They make them up themselves. This is why we have graffiti all over the city. These kids have their own gangs and their own initiations and their own morality, and they’re doing the best they can … they have not been initiated into our society.
[Joseph Campbell; The Power of Myth]

Out of this scrimmage Thomas Drury emerges as something of an orchestrator, an impresario of knaveries …
[Charles Nicholl, The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe, 2nd edition, 2002]

A fair hot wench in flame-coloured taffeta.
[Shakespeare, I Henry IV, I ii]

environment, freedom of speech, links, medical, memes, quotes, science, sexuality, thoughts, topographical

Weekly Links

Here’s this week’s selection of interesting articles you may have missed. And what a selection it is!

Turning the lights off won’t save oil, says Melissa C Lott in the Scientific American blog. Maybe not, but it will save coal and gas, reduce emissions and stop wasting our (increasingly expensive) electricity.

“Put that fly down! You don’t know where it’s been.” But Rob Dunn does. Again in the Scientific American blog.

The Divided Brain is an 11 minute video in which Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist describes the real differences between the left and right halves of the human brain. It’s not simply “emotion on the right, reason on the left” but something far more complex and interesting. Love the cartoons!

Max Davidson in the Daily Telegraph defends old-fashioned words against the influx of new text-speak.

And here’s yet another from the Sci Am blog … Ingrid Wickelgren goes looking for the secrets to a happy marriage. And finds some unexpected answers.

The right to keep your pubes. A feminist perspective on shaving for childbirth. I dunno what’s so feminist about it; seems like a basic right to me.

And lastly, if I hadn’t read this here, I wouldn’t believe it. Londoners are being told to stop shagging for a bit, ‘cos the Mayor doesn’t want girlies dropping bairns in the streets during the sacred cow Olympics. Maybe Boris needs to make sure we keep the lights on!

medical, memes, music, nudism, personal, photography, science, sexuality, topographical

Ten More Things

Quite a while back Katyboo resurrected the “Ten Things” meme. Although I’m doing a monthly sequence of ten things, I thought I’d join the overladen tumbrils and bandwagons rolling down the cobbled streets. So leaving out the inevitable choices of food, wine, cake, coffee, my wife, the cats, blah, blah, blah, here’s my slightly more unusual, and possibly controversial, version.

    Hockneylated ...

  1. My Cameras. I realised recently I’ve been taking photographs for 50 years, having started at around 9 or 10 with my father’s Kodak Box Brownie. It has remained something I enjoy. I wouldn’t claim to be a good photographer and I’ve never had any formal photographic training. What skill I have was acquired at my father’s knee. My approach has always been to take what I see; what interests, intrigues or amuses me. It is about trying to see things and make them into a picture. I have no interest in fashion photography, formal portraiture, studio and still-life work, getting up early for special shots, sitting in wet woodlands waiting for worms or tigers, spending hours in darkrooms or doing loads of fancy post-processing. None of these things do it for me. I’m happy photographing wayside flowers or just sitting somewhere watching people go by.
  2. Romney Marsh & Dungeness. The far south-east corner of Kent is almost wholly reclaimed land. This whole area SE of the arc of the Royal Military Canal running roughly from Hythe in the NE to Rye in the SW was largely sea until a few hundred years ago. The escarpment to the NW of the canal used to be the shoreline. Henry VIII had shipyards at Smallhythe on an estuary; it’s now 10 miles inland! Storms and the sea moved the rivers and built up the single bank of Dungeness — and the sea is still moving it about. In phases since the Romans man has reclaimed the marsh between the gravel and the escarpment as pasture for sheep and as arable land. I have ancestors who come from New Romney and from around the margins of the marsh. The area is dotted with delightful medieval churches, all with a rich history. And sheep. Thousands of sheep. Although fewer than there used to be. Dungeness is a desolate, windswept wasteland populated only by a few hardy souls, a couple of lighthouses a nuclear power station, an Army firing range and miles of endangered wildlife. It is one of those visceral and cathartic places.
  3. Nudity. One of the things I have to thank my parents for is a slightly bohemian upbringing where nudity was normal, doors were left open, and sexuality was normal, as were books and discussion. I was taken to a nudist club on several occasions when I was about 10; partly this was “educational” but my parents wouldn’t have done it unless it was also something they wanted to do. Consequently I’m comfortable with nudity and bodies — mine and other peoples’. Indeed I enjoy being nude and spend much of the time at home that way. I dress if I’m too cold (which isn’t often) and to save the blushes of other people. Nudity is natural, normal and good for you. Even Benjamin Franklin used to take “air baths”.
  4. My PA. No idea WTF I’m talking about? See here. [NSFW warning!] Viewings by arrangement.
  5. Pink Floyd. They’re just one of the greatest rock bands of all time. Think See Emily Play, The Wall, Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Learning to Fly. Despite the inevitable rocky times the surviving members have gotten back together in recent years and are performing occasional gigs again.
  6. Pretty Girls with Maps of Tasmania. All at sea again? See this post of some while ago. Oh come on! Let’s be honest. What red-blooded (hetero) bloke doesn’t enjoy looking at pretty girls? And why shouldn’t they? And girls … Don’t try kidding us you don’t like seeing good looking fellas. We know you look at them. You’re just a lot more subtle than most of us blokes.
  7. Seaside. I love the smell of the sea. The sound of the sea. Warm sand between my toes. There’s always something interesting going on in a harbour, on the beach or under the cliffs. Just standing on the seafront having the cobwebs blown away is exhilarating.
  8. Sunshine. I always feel better when the sun shines, especially in winter. I suffer from SAD (thankfully only mildly) so winter sun always boosts my mood. And I love the feel of the sun on my back. But I’m not one for lying and toasting on the beach, despite my love of being nude, so you’ll never find me with a high tan.
  9. KCMWearing Glasses. This is something else I’ve done since I was young — like about 14. I’m basically short-sighted, so I’m pretty blind without my glasses. Which is why I’m not a natural ball-player, despite my love of cricket and hockey. Contact lenses weren’t around when I started wearing glasses, so there was no choice: wear glasses or not read the blackboard at school. I hated glasses at first, largely because I had horrible frames. But once I was allowed to choose my own metal frames (like when I could pay for them myself) and have plastic lenses I got to like glasses. They don’t worry me. Most of the time I don’t know I’m wearing them. Yes, keeping them clean is a pain. But for me lenses would probably be worse; I’m not sure if I could adjust to them and this would be harder given my hayfever etc. — all the lens wearers I know seem to have continual trouble with them.
  10. Being Eccentric/Outrageous. Yeah well you know this already, right? Being open about what I think and feel is, to me, all part of my role as a catalyst and controversialist; as is playing Devil’s advocate. Hopefully this introduces people to different ideas and new ways of looking at the world; makes people think; and thereby to helps them develop. I can’t abide being prissy and prudish; and standing on one’s dignity or unnecessary formality. I’m me and you take me as I am, or not. Your choice. At the other extreme, neither am I one to be disreputable and sluttish. I try to retain a certain amount of decorum; indeed professionalism even if it is slightly disgraceful.
current affairs, medical, science, sexuality

Weekly Links

Here’s another in my occasional series of round-ups of things you may have missed but shouldn’t have done.

Scientists have discovered and characterised a giganto-virus and called it … Megavirus. How original! The Loom has the low-down.

Is the alcohol message wrong? Apparently the answer is, yes. By focussing people on not drinking and not getting violent we stimulate them to exactly the opposite. Apparently we should be concentrating on getting them to drink sensibly and enjoy it, not trying to forbid drinking. Here’s the story from the BBC.

An interesting observation from Diamond Geezer on the evolution of news presentation. The intertubes make it all complex, indexed and top down, whereas what most of us want is the diversity of the traditional linear presentation.

Finally one for the girls … You want bigger tits? Why have expensive (and allegedly dangerous) surgery when you can achieve the result with Breast Slapping?