Monday, December 28, 2020
Saturday, December 26, 2020
Tuesday, December 15, 2020
The 7 Smartest Animals In The World | Answers With Joe
The long thought figure of 100 billion neurons for humans has been disproven. The correct number is 86 billion. Dogs have 2.25. billion. Cats have 0.75 billion. I think that it is safe to say that dogs exhibit more behaviors than cats, but cats are brilliant at being cats. Ants only have 7 thousand. The house fly has 100 thousand, bees have 960 thousand, while cockroaches and praying mantises have 1 million.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A84MgzOtOLA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A84MgzOtOLA
Thursday, December 10, 2020
FDA panel endorses Pfizer coronavirus vaccine for emergency use | Fox Business
I thought that FDA approval would come today, but they are saying later this week, although there is not much week left. There seems to be some concern about people with allergic reactions. There is also some talk about people being hesitant to take the vaccine. Some of my friends are saying, "You go first", which would be okay by me. We can't make progress without a vaccine.
From what I can tell by casual observation, maybe 10 to 20% of the population doesn't want to take the vaccine.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/healthcare/fda-panel-endorses-pfizer-coronavirus-vaccine-emergency-use
From what I can tell by casual observation, maybe 10 to 20% of the population doesn't want to take the vaccine.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/healthcare/fda-panel-endorses-pfizer-coronavirus-vaccine-emergency-use
Wednesday, December 9, 2020
Monday, December 7, 2020
Friday, December 4, 2020
Fusion is a Terrible Way to Produce Electricity: Princeton Physicist
I find this discouraging. The fusion prototype in France was originally supposed to be working by 2020 or sooner, but now it is scheduled for 2027. I saw their website years ago stating that this was the energy for the future. However, now I learn that this won't even be close to a practical fusion plant.
We have been told repeatedly that we are a decade or two away from fusion energy, but the author thinks that it might be the end of the century.
This makes me wonder what happened to algae fuel?
Tuesday, December 1, 2020
World's Heaviest Weight
I did a calculation and assuming that you were standing 3 meters away, 1 million pounds of mass would generate about one-millionth of G force on your body. Not significant, but it is there. Since the mass is spread out a bit, it might be a little less. If you and the mass were both floating in space, you might very slowly pull toward it. However, it wouldn't take much distance to make the effect negligible.
Sunday, November 29, 2020
Monday, November 23, 2020
Warp Drive News. Seriously! - YouTube
I sort of consider this much ado about nothing.
Sunday, November 22, 2020
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
What If Yellowstone's Supervolcano Erupted? | RealClearScience
https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2019/10/10/what_if_yellowstones_supervolcano_erupted.html
Yellowstone super volcano eruptions are rare and one is not predicted to happen in the next few thousand years. I read that smaller eruptions are more likely than bigger ones.
I suspect that in the event of a big eruption, the safest place to be (or head to) would be Florida. It might be safer to stay indoors. According to one site, the ash fallout in Indiana would be just a few millimeters, and extend down to the southern states like Georgia.
However, the ash contains silicates that can damage your lungs. You would want to have protective breathing gear.
A major eruption would severely damage the environment, causing crop failures worldwide.
There would be massive loss of life in the western states. The last major eruption, around 700,000 years ago, wiped out all the animal life in the neighboring states. The entire western half of the country would be in danger, as well as parts of Canada and Mexico.
Yellowstone super volcano eruptions are rare and one is not predicted to happen in the next few thousand years. I read that smaller eruptions are more likely than bigger ones.
I suspect that in the event of a big eruption, the safest place to be (or head to) would be Florida. It might be safer to stay indoors. According to one site, the ash fallout in Indiana would be just a few millimeters, and extend down to the southern states like Georgia.
However, the ash contains silicates that can damage your lungs. You would want to have protective breathing gear.
A major eruption would severely damage the environment, causing crop failures worldwide.
There would be massive loss of life in the western states. The last major eruption, around 700,000 years ago, wiped out all the animal life in the neighboring states. The entire western half of the country would be in danger, as well as parts of Canada and Mexico.
Sunday, November 15, 2020
We’ll Need More Than One Vaccine to Beat the Pandemic
But this is the first mRNA vaccine, and it turns out to be a precious little snowflake. Pfizer's vaccine has to be stored and shipped at ultracold temperatures, less than 80 degrees below zero—it'll keep for a few days at higher but still very cold conditions. And it needs vials made of a special glass that's able to tolerate the freezing temperatures.
All that shipping and freezing requires a level of technical sophistication that, for now at least, mostly exists in hospitals and labs—posing significant logistical challenges in rural areas and in the developing world. These are the "cold chain" problems that Koff mentioned, the problem of refrigerated shipping. (A critical Ebola vaccine needs the same deep freeze, and engineers stepped up to create specialized coolers to transport it across western Africa—but that was a pandemic that affected tens of thousands of people, not billions, and the people who made the coolers have since gotten out of the cold-chain innovation game.)
https://www.wired.com/story/well-need-more-than-one-vaccine-to-beat-the-pandemic/
All that shipping and freezing requires a level of technical sophistication that, for now at least, mostly exists in hospitals and labs—posing significant logistical challenges in rural areas and in the developing world. These are the "cold chain" problems that Koff mentioned, the problem of refrigerated shipping. (A critical Ebola vaccine needs the same deep freeze, and engineers stepped up to create specialized coolers to transport it across western Africa—but that was a pandemic that affected tens of thousands of people, not billions, and the people who made the coolers have since gotten out of the cold-chain innovation game.)
https://www.wired.com/story/well-need-more-than-one-vaccine-to-beat-the-pandemic/
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
Sunday, November 8, 2020
Wednesday, November 4, 2020
Saturday, October 31, 2020
How Large is the Universe? Bigger than you can Imagine?
The universe that we can see is so large that it might as well be infinite. Our little solar system is like a speck of dust by comparison. That part of the universe that we can't see may actually be infinite, but we might never know.
Friday, October 30, 2020
How Large is the Universe? Bigger than you can Imagine?
The universe that we can see is so large that it might as well be infinite. Our little solar system is like a grain of sand by comparison. That part of the universe that we can't see may actually be infinite, but we might never know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2YJ7aR25P0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2YJ7aR25P0
Thursday, October 29, 2020
Fwd: Chemical Printer
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Larry
Scientists make digital breakthrough in chemistry that could revolutionize the drug industry
- At the Cronin Lab at the University of Glasgow chemists developed software that translates a chemist's words into recipes for molecules that a robot can understand.
- Professor Lee Cronin, the lab's principal investigator, has designed a robotic chemist called a "chemputer" that can produce chemicals from XDL programs, including the drug remdesivir, a FDA-approved antiviral treatment for the coronavirus.
- Cronin and his colleagues represent one of many groups rushing to bring chemistry into the digital age.
digital instructions for whipping up a batch of the nearly 400-atom molecule at the push of a button have been sitting on Github, an online software repository, freely available to anyone with the hardware needed to execute the chemical "program."
A dozen such chemical computers or "chemputers" sit in the University of Glasgow lab of Lee Cronin, the chemist who designed the bird's nest of tubing, pumps, and flasks, and wrote the remdesivir code that runs on it. He's spent years dreaming of a future where researchers can distribute and produce molecules as easily as they email and print PDFs
Cronin and his colleagues described their machine's capability to produce multiple molecules last year, and now they've taken a second major step toward digitizing chemistry with an accessible way to program with the machine. Their software turns academic papers into chemputer-executable programs that researchers can edit without learning to code, they announced earlier this month in Science. And they're not alone. The team represents one of dozens of groups spread across academia and industry all racing to bring chemistry into the digital age, a development that could lead to safer drugs, more efficient solar panels, and a disruptive new industry.
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
What's inside the Millennium Falcon? (Star Wars)
More than you ever wanted to know about The Millenium Falcon.
Contrary to what is presented in the video, I would expect redundant systems in any kind of spacecraft. Nothing is mentioned of heat shielding for re-entry, although if you could slow a craft to a near stop then you wouldn't need it.
Even if we could create and store antimatter, which would be the most compact fuel possible, it would still take an enormous amount of fuel to continuously accelerate a craft all the way to the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Reaching anywhere near the speed of light takes several times more mass of antimatter than the mass of the ship.
Thursday, October 15, 2020
Sunday, October 11, 2020
Saturday, October 10, 2020
Why Does Wi-Fi Use the Same Frequency as Microwaves?
The other day I guessed that a router would broadcast at only 0.1 watts, which would make it about the same power as a cheap walkie-talkie. In theory, the 5ghz band allows for higher speed, but shorter range.
Tuesday, October 6, 2020
The secret history of dirt
This is a bit environmentalist but interesting nevertheless.
It would be reasonable to assume that farmers have some training in how to take care of their soil as well as some incentive to do so. Otherwise, they would be getting lower yields every year. It is possible that they rely heavily on chemical fertilizers, which is mostly just nitrogen, instead of natural ones. Chemical fertilizers are derived from fossil fuels, which are a finite resource.
Thursday, October 1, 2020
Wednesday, September 30, 2020
The Infinite Pattern That Never Repeats
https://youtu.be/48sCx-wBs34
I love mathematics, physics and history. This is probably far more detail than most people would care about, because it might seem like useless trivia, but it lead to the discovery of physical properties that we didn't know about. No telling what we might discover next.
I love mathematics, physics and history. This is probably far more detail than most people would care about, because it might seem like useless trivia, but it lead to the discovery of physical properties that we didn't know about. No telling what we might discover next.
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
Pittsburg Antibody
A Pittsburgh-created medicine to prevent and treat COVID-19 could begin testing in humans in 2021, University of Pittsburgh doctors said Tuesday.
Safety trials of the medicine, dubbed Ab8, will start next year with the hope of getting Food and Drug Administration approval to begin clinical trials, said Dr. John Mellors, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at UPMC and Pitt, the hospital giant's academic partner.
The medicine — which is not a vaccine — is meant to help protect people who are already infected with COVID-19 from having it spread further in their bodies. It should last "weeks to months," Dr. Mellors said during a briefing, but added that it was too early to speculate about the cost of the treatment.
In an article published Monday in the medical journal Cell, Dr. Mellors and other researchers reported that the antibody they'd identified was effective in neutralizing COVID-19 in mice and hamsters.
Friday, September 25, 2020
Fwd: Watch Ring's indoor drone prototype patrol a house - CNN Business
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Albert Nelms
Have you seen the indoor flying security drone? Looks cool. Effective? Maybe.
Watch Ring's indoor drone prototype patrol a house - CNN Business
https://apple.news/AycDSafc8RDeUfgvHtpm1PA
https://apple.news/AycDSafc8RDeUfgvHtpm1PA
Thursday, September 24, 2020
Re: new thorium fuel
People have been talking about Thorium as alternate nuclear energy for a long time, while others claimed that there are problems with it, which is why it probably hasn't been very popular. Maybe this Thorium mixed with low enriched Uranium is something new.
On Thu, Sep 24, 2020 at 8:08 PM Larry wrote:
The U.S. Government Made a Powerful New Kind of Nuclear Fuel
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Daredevil Goslings Make a Terrifying Jump for Life
I have seen this a few times on Facebook and I am always impressed. I don't remember if I have posted it before.
Friday, September 18, 2020
How Kodak Detected the Atomic Bomb
The public health consequences of this are interesting ...
Dark Matter Is Even Stranger Than We Thought | SciShow News - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKrjGWpU4hk
We don't even know if Dark Matter is matter. We just know that extra gravity exists that we can't explain. According to Einstein, gravity isn't so much of a force as it is a side effect of curved space-time. Even while we are still we are moving through space-time, and the curvature of space-time exerts a force on us. (Which to me sounds more like a cute mathematical model than reality.)
I wonder if the extra gravity could be related to the Higgs field or some as of yet undiscovered field?
Do Black Holes have Dark Matter in them? Do Neutron Stars have Dark Matter in them?
We don't even know if Dark Matter is matter. We just know that extra gravity exists that we can't explain. According to Einstein, gravity isn't so much of a force as it is a side effect of curved space-time. Even while we are still we are moving through space-time, and the curvature of space-time exerts a force on us. (Which to me sounds more like a cute mathematical model than reality.)
I wonder if the extra gravity could be related to the Higgs field or some as of yet undiscovered field?
Do Black Holes have Dark Matter in them? Do Neutron Stars have Dark Matter in them?
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Wednesday, September 9, 2020
Monday, September 7, 2020
Fixing Daylight Saving Time Is THIS Easy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMrb56dDpic
I hate this clock switching with a passion. I've been an advocate of what I call "comprise time". Since we can't figure out what time we want to be on, let's split the difference and go permanently halfway between.
Sunday, September 6, 2020
How long does it take the Earth to do one rotation? Not what you may think.
It is hard to wrap my head around this, but the Earth actually rotates once every 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds. If you compare the position of the stars in the sky, they will be in the same place 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds later. However, the Earth is moving around the Sun in what is called prograde motion (same direction as the rotation of the Sun), so consequently, the Sun appears in the same place in the sky roughly every 24 hours. It is a difference of 4 minutes. It is the difference between a Stellar day and a solar day.
--
Friday, September 4, 2020
How Hard Can You Hit a Golf Ball? (at 100,000 FPS) - Smarter Every Day 216
Not everyone would be interested, but what happens when you hit a golf ball at 500 MPH?
Wednesday, September 2, 2020
Egypt
People began to settle Egypt about 10,000 B.C. These people learned to grind grains while mostly abandoning their hunter-gatherer lifestyle. This is technically the beginning of the Neolithic ("New Stone Age") period, where humans first learned how to use grains. Coming out of the previous period of glaciation, 15,000 years ago, the climate in the Fertile Crescent, which included the Nile River, became ideal for farming,
There is a small amount of evidence of cattle usage going back to 8,000 BC, but this didn't really get going until about 4,500 BC. During this period there were locally ruled cities along the entire length of the Nile. Eventually, there would be northern and southern kingdoms, which were untied by force in 3,100 BC, and this began the dynastic period of the Pharaohs.
Egypt was conquered by the Persians in 525 BC and conquered again by Alexander the Great in 332 BC. This continued till 30 BC when they were conquered by the Romans. Egypt began shifting to Christianity. During the late Roman period from the 4th to 6th centuries, they would be ruled by the Byzantine Empire, which had split from the Roman Empire. In 640 AD Egypt was conquered by the Muslims. It would be conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1517 and conquered by the Napolean Bonaparte (the French) in 1798. Egypt was conquered by the British in 1882 and remained under their control until 1954 when the Egyptian Republic was established.
Egypt is one of the oldest examples of farming and human civilization.
--
Best wishes,
John Coffey
http://www.entertainmentjourney.com
There is a small amount of evidence of cattle usage going back to 8,000 BC, but this didn't really get going until about 4,500 BC. During this period there were locally ruled cities along the entire length of the Nile. Eventually, there would be northern and southern kingdoms, which were untied by force in 3,100 BC, and this began the dynastic period of the Pharaohs.
Egypt was conquered by the Persians in 525 BC and conquered again by Alexander the Great in 332 BC. This continued till 30 BC when they were conquered by the Romans. Egypt began shifting to Christianity. During the late Roman period from the 4th to 6th centuries, they would be ruled by the Byzantine Empire, which had split from the Roman Empire. In 640 AD Egypt was conquered by the Muslims. It would be conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1517 and conquered by the Napolean Bonaparte (the French) in 1798. Egypt was conquered by the British in 1882 and remained under their control until 1954 when the Egyptian Republic was established.
Egypt is one of the oldest examples of farming and human civilization.
--
Best wishes,
John Coffey
http://www.entertainmentjourney.com
Saturday, August 22, 2020
Tuesday, August 18, 2020
Phosphates and dishwasher detergents
For about 50 years the United States has been phasing out phosphates used in detergents, and they were completely banned about 10 years ago. The phosphates cause algae blooms that are supposedly harmful to fish.
The problem is that the phosphates were very effective in automatic dishwashing detergents. They not only helped clean the dishes, but they acted as a kind of water softener to prevent hard water stains, calcium build-up, on glassware on other dishes. About a dozen years ago there were a ton of complaints by consumers that dishwashers weren't getting dishes clean as they used to, and because of the hard water stains, the glassware looked dirtier after they were washed in the dishwasher than before.
I have been having this problem. There were noticeable hard water stains on my glassware and other dishes. So I tried washing once with dishwashing detergent, and a second time with no detergent, but I poured vinegar into a 16 once container and set it in the top rack of the dishwasher. After the second wash, everything was spotless. Since the vinegar is acidic, it dissolved any calcium stains.
It is believed by many people that "Tang" can be used to clean out your dishwasher. Since "Tang" is an acid, it might actually work. I had a dishwasher salesman tell me to put "Tang" powder in a cup on the top rack. (I would not do this with the detergent, because one is basic and the other is acidic. At the very least they would cancel each other out, if not react with each other in unpredictable ways.)
However, if you have stains in your dishwasher, bleach is much more effective. In my old house, I had a cheap GE dishwasher that was not stainless steel inside, but it had a cheap plastic interior. That interior got so badly stained that I thought that I was going to have to replace the dishwasher. After I played around with the dishwasher, I realized that each wash would go through three cycles: an initial rinse and drain cycle, a long wash cycle, followed by another drain and rinse and drain cycle. All dishwashers work this way. To solve my stain problem, I waited for the long wash cycle to start, and then I poured a bottle of bleach into the dishwasher. However, when it got to the final drain and rinse cycle, which could have drained out all the bleach, I turned the knob back to the wash cycle so that the bleach would not drain out. I did this a few times so that there was plenty of time for the bleach to circulate in the dishwasher. The end result was amazing because the dishwasher was spotless inside.
Saturday, August 15, 2020
Friday, August 14, 2020
Wednesday, August 12, 2020
Sweden: Lockdown Facts Fauci Won’t Tell You
I don't have an opinion on this one way or the other. I just present it for information purposes.
The population density of Sweeden is about 1/3 less than the United States, but both are tiny compared to the population density of New York City.
Saturday, August 8, 2020
Sunday, July 26, 2020
Comparing AAA Batteries Against Each Other
The cheap dollar store Sunbeam battery smoked the competition.
Saturday, July 25, 2020
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Personal "air conditioners" aren't what they seem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2horH-IeurA
I had a swamp cooler in my first house in Salt Lake City. It worked very poorly and my house would get unbearably hot, which is why I installed central air. I wouldn't dream of using a swamp cooler in my current home Indiana where the humidity is already at unpleasant levels.
I had a swamp cooler in my first house in Salt Lake City. It worked very poorly and my house would get unbearably hot, which is why I installed central air. I wouldn't dream of using a swamp cooler in my current home Indiana where the humidity is already at unpleasant levels.
Tuesday, July 21, 2020
This Is Why Inbreeding Is So Dangerous
Oddly enough, the presenter ties this into what would happen if the world population mostly got wiped out, or if we tried to colonize another world.
Sunday, July 19, 2020
Marie Curie - Wikipedia
She was interred at the cemetery in Sceaux, alongside her husband Pierre.[49] Sixty years later, in 1995, in honour of their achievements, the remains of both were transferred to the Paris Panthéon. Their remains were sealed in a lead lining because of the radioactivity.[77] She became the first woman to be honoured with interment in the Panthéon on her own merits.[5]
Because of their levels of radioactive contamination, her papers from the 1890s are considered too dangerous to handle.[78] Even her cookbook is highly radioactive.[79] Her papers are kept in lead-lined boxes, and those who wish to consult them must wear protective clothing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_CurieBest wishes,
John Coffey
Friday, July 17, 2020
Monday, July 13, 2020
Tuesday, July 7, 2020
Scott Adams on Climate Change
Scott Adams, the cartoonist, has some interesting things to say about Climate Change from 21 minutes to 31 minutes in the video.
Monday, July 6, 2020
Toxic methanol that causes blindness found in hand sanitizers, FDA warns | Ars Technica
All nine hand sanitizers are made by Eskbiochem SA de CV in Mexico. The agency said in its advisory that it discovered methanol while testing two of the company's products. One, called Lavar Gel, was 81-percent methanol—and no ethanol, a safe alcohol meant to be used in hand sanitizers. Another, CleanCare No Germ, was 28-percent methanol.
"Methanol is not an acceptable ingredient for hand sanitizers," the FDA wrote. With use of hand sanitizers at a high amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency advised that anyone who has used the methanol-containing products "seek immediate treatment, which is critical for potential reversal of toxic effects of methanol poisoning."
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/06/toxic-methanol-that-causes-blindness-found-in-hand-sanitizers-fda-warns/
"Methanol is not an acceptable ingredient for hand sanitizers," the FDA wrote. With use of hand sanitizers at a high amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency advised that anyone who has used the methanol-containing products "seek immediate treatment, which is critical for potential reversal of toxic effects of methanol poisoning."
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/06/toxic-methanol-that-causes-blindness-found-in-hand-sanitizers-fda-warns/
Toxic hand sanitizers have blinded and killed adults and children, FDA warns | Ars Technica
In an updated safety warning, the agency identified five more brands of hand sanitizer that contain methanol, a simple alcohol often linked to incorrectly distilled liquor that is poisonous if ingested, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin.
The newly identified products are in addition to nine methanol-containing sanitizers the FDA identified last month, which are all made by the Mexico-based manufacturer Eskbiochem SA de CV.
The newly identified products are in addition to nine methanol-containing sanitizers the FDA identified last month, which are all made by the Mexico-based manufacturer Eskbiochem SA de CV.
Wednesday, July 1, 2020
TIMELAPSE OF THE FUTURE: A Journey to the End of Time (4K) - YouTube
This covers timescales so vast that they might as well be infinite. Our species will experience almost none of it. Even if we do manage to survive more than a few million years, our very distant descendants will be much different than we are now.
Our understanding of the laws of physics is not complete enough to know for sure what will happen in the very far future. Maybe the universe will collapse and be reborn.
https://youtu.be/uD4izuDMUQA
Our understanding of the laws of physics is not complete enough to know for sure what will happen in the very far future. Maybe the universe will collapse and be reborn.
https://youtu.be/uD4izuDMUQA
Thursday, June 25, 2020
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Monday, June 15, 2020
Sunday, June 14, 2020
Sunday, June 7, 2020
Saturday, June 6, 2020
Wednesday, June 3, 2020
Claims of Parallel Universe Where Time Runs Backwards
Oddly enough, there is a movie coming out ("Tenet") about a bridge between a parallel universe where time runs backward...
Monday, June 1, 2020
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
Sunday, May 10, 2020
History of the bicycle
The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora affected the weather worldwide. The year 1816 was called "the year without a summer." There were widespread crop failures. Many horses starved and died. So in 1817, German Baron Karl von Drais invented the first bicycle, which was called a "hobby horse" or a "dandy horse." The first bicycle did not have pedals, so people had to use their legs to push the bicycle. Pedals would be invented in 1863.
Bicycle science - how bikes work and the physics behind them
'Scientists have been puzzling over what makes bicycles balance since they were invented, back in the 19th century. In 2007, a group of engineers and mathematicians led by Nottingham University's J.P. Meijaard announced they'd finally cracked the mystery with a set of incredibly complex mathematical equations that explain how a bicycle behaves—and it turns out that gyroscopes are only part of the story.
According to these scientists, who used 25 separate "parameters" or "variables" to describe every aspect of a bicycle's motion, there's no single reason for a bicycle's balance and stability. As they say:
"A simple explanation does not seem possible because the lean and steer are coupled by a combination of several effects including gyroscopic precession, lateral ground-reaction forces at the front wheel ground contact point trailing behind the steering axis, gravity and inertial reactions from the front assembly having center-of-mass off of the steer axis, and from effects associated with the moment of inertia matrix of the front assembly"
Or, in simple terms, it's partly to do with gyroscopic effects, partly to do with how the mass is distributed on the front wheel, and partly to do with how forces act on the front wheel as it spins. At least, I think that's what they said!'
According to these scientists, who used 25 separate "parameters" or "variables" to describe every aspect of a bicycle's motion, there's no single reason for a bicycle's balance and stability. As they say:
"A simple explanation does not seem possible because the lean and steer are coupled by a combination of several effects including gyroscopic precession, lateral ground-reaction forces at the front wheel ground contact point trailing behind the steering axis, gravity and inertial reactions from the front assembly having center-of-mass off of the steer axis, and from effects associated with the moment of inertia matrix of the front assembly"
Or, in simple terms, it's partly to do with gyroscopic effects, partly to do with how the mass is distributed on the front wheel, and partly to do with how forces act on the front wheel as it spins. At least, I think that's what they said!'
The Future of Humanity
Something I wrote last year:
I see a danger to the future existence of the human race, and it is the kind of thing that people should think about and prepare for now. Sometime in the next 50 years, machines will be smarter than people. There are major technical hurdles to overcome, such as the inevitable end of Moore's Law, which probably means that it is not right around the corner or even within the next couple of decades, but it will happen, and easily within this century. And if for some reason it does happen within the next couple of decades then that means the results will be upon us that much sooner.
We can predict what will happen next and follow it to its logical conclusion, which is a future without people.
As machines become smarter, people will become increasingly reliant on technology. We can see that already with smartphones, which only have been with us for barely over a decade. Eventually, machines will do all the heavy mental work, which will make our lives easier, but also make us more dependent.
And since we will be so dependent on the machines, we will start incorporating them into us. This will evolve over time until we are no longer purely human, but human-machine hybrids. Perhaps when your biological brain dies, the machine part of you will be able to continue with all your memories intact. Maybe it would have an artificial body or maybe it will exist in a virtual world. It is likely that some would prefer to live in a virtual world where they can do more things than they could in the real world. Taken to the eventual extreme, our descendants would no longer bother with biological bodies and prefer to exist as machine intelligence either in the real world or in virtual ones.
The evolutionary pressure will be against purely biological people. Having machines incorporated into you will make you more productive, competitive, and increase your quality of life.
The future I describe might be long distant, but if it is not the future we want for the human race then we should start thinking about it now. Maybe we could have a Pure Human movement that would prohibit the merging of machine intelligence with human intelligence? This could be roughly analogous to the current legal ban on human cloning, because we very likely have the technology right now to clone humans, but countries ban it because they are uneasy about the implications of where that might take us.
However, we might not be able to prevent it. Linking machines with human intelligence is likely to happen in such small steps that we will easily adjust to it. It is sort of happening already with our dependence on computers. It could also start as a series of military applications where having the most effective soldiers determines who wins wars. And once the genie is out of the bottle, we will never get it back in.
--
Best wishes,
John Coffey
http://www.entertainmentjourney.com
I see a danger to the future existence of the human race, and it is the kind of thing that people should think about and prepare for now. Sometime in the next 50 years, machines will be smarter than people. There are major technical hurdles to overcome, such as the inevitable end of Moore's Law, which probably means that it is not right around the corner or even within the next couple of decades, but it will happen, and easily within this century. And if for some reason it does happen within the next couple of decades then that means the results will be upon us that much sooner.
We can predict what will happen next and follow it to its logical conclusion, which is a future without people.
As machines become smarter, people will become increasingly reliant on technology. We can see that already with smartphones, which only have been with us for barely over a decade. Eventually, machines will do all the heavy mental work, which will make our lives easier, but also make us more dependent.
And since we will be so dependent on the machines, we will start incorporating them into us. This will evolve over time until we are no longer purely human, but human-machine hybrids. Perhaps when your biological brain dies, the machine part of you will be able to continue with all your memories intact. Maybe it would have an artificial body or maybe it will exist in a virtual world. It is likely that some would prefer to live in a virtual world where they can do more things than they could in the real world. Taken to the eventual extreme, our descendants would no longer bother with biological bodies and prefer to exist as machine intelligence either in the real world or in virtual ones.
The evolutionary pressure will be against purely biological people. Having machines incorporated into you will make you more productive, competitive, and increase your quality of life.
The future I describe might be long distant, but if it is not the future we want for the human race then we should start thinking about it now. Maybe we could have a Pure Human movement that would prohibit the merging of machine intelligence with human intelligence? This could be roughly analogous to the current legal ban on human cloning, because we very likely have the technology right now to clone humans, but countries ban it because they are uneasy about the implications of where that might take us.
However, we might not be able to prevent it. Linking machines with human intelligence is likely to happen in such small steps that we will easily adjust to it. It is sort of happening already with our dependence on computers. It could also start as a series of military applications where having the most effective soldiers determines who wins wars. And once the genie is out of the bottle, we will never get it back in.
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Best wishes,
John Coffey
http://www.entertainmentjourney.com
Saturday, May 9, 2020
Friday, May 8, 2020
We May Have Just Solved the Mystery of 11 Year Long Solar Cycles
Sunspots go through a cycle roughly every 11 years where they alternate between no sunspots and intense sunspots. This affects temperatures on earth and can interfere with communications. There have been some really bad sunspot eruptions, like around 1860, where the electromagnetic interference damaged telegraph wires. If this were to happen again then we could see disruptions to the electrical grid and communications.
We did not know why this happens every 11 years but now we think that we do. The planets, Earth, Jupiter, and Venus align roughly every 11 years, and the combined effect creates gravitational tidal forces that interfere with the magnetic/electrical currents on the surface of the sun. The video gives more details.
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
Monday, May 4, 2020
The 10 Things That All Flat Earthers Say
I think that this is interesting because it also applies to other misinformation.
If a person either has a belief or has reason to distrust what is generally accepted as the truth and then they hear something that gives confirmation to their point of view, then they will latch onto it like it is the gospel.
Some of this ties in with conspiracy theories, which seem to me to be fueled by the belief that there are sinister forces that intend to do us harm.
Some of this ties in with conspiracy theories, which seem to me to be fueled by the belief that there are sinister forces that intend to do us harm.
Can You Call an iphone in a Vacuum Chamber? 4 Different Signal Tests!
The last part with microwaves is a bit scary. I thought the microwave ovens were supposed to be faraday cages blocking all EMR.
https://youtu.be/_1REFC5lI2U
https://youtu.be/_1REFC5lI2U
March 1st, 1896
March 1st, 1896 - French physicist Henri Becquerel discovered the principle of radioactive decay when he exposed photographic plates to uranium salts.
Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)
This is significant. We are looking at an exponential increase on a daily basis. Since it is still early, it is likely to level off somewhat.
You can launch a balloon mission to the stratosphere for about the cost of an iPad. | Space
https://www.space.com/20089-near-space-balloons-science.html
I have been wondering for a long time why couldn't you have a space capsule that is lifted by multiple hydrogen-filled balloons, and when it reaches the maximum altitude, it would pump the hydrogen out of the ballons and use it for fuel to continue its journey upwards? At the maximum balloon height, air resistance would be minimal. The temperatures would be cold making it easier to store gasses under compression if you need to.
I assume that ordinary balloons will break or be fragile. Perhaps tougher materials can be devised for this.
You will also need oxygen. The only question is if you can get enough from the atmosphere when you need it, or if you have to store it. I'm thinking that maybe you could work out a process to acquire and store it as you rise.
To get a better technology, we need a really dense energy source, such as nuclear power, nuclear fusion, or antimatter. The last two are beyond our capability, for now.
Betelgeuse Looks Fainter Than Usual. Could It Mean It's About to Go Supernova?
Physically, the star is currently bloated out to a radius of perhaps eight Astronomical Units (AU). If you plopped it down in the center of our Solar System, Betelgeuse might extend all the way out to past the orbit of Jupiter.
Predictions I made 10 years ago about 2020.
Now might be a good time to review the predictions I made 10 years ago for the year 2020. However, most of my predictions were overly optimistic. 1. Self Driving Cars. This one was not hard since progress was being made on this ten years ago. We're not yet to the point where everybody can have a self-driving car, but we are not far off. 2. Cloning Organs. Certainly, we will see this in the coming decade. Progress is being made on creating human-compatible organs in animals like pigs. Also, some progress has been made in 3D printing organs and constructing body parts surgically. 3. Intelligent Robots. This prediction was way off, but an astonishing amount of progress has been made in the last decade in Artificial Intelligence. Mostly this has been done in the area of deep mining data to allow computers to make predictions, including predictions about you personally, like what kind of advertising you would like to see. I don't think that "Sophia" counts here, as the robot mostly follows scripted responses. https://www.hansonrobotics.com/sophia/ 4. The joke about Nuclear Fusion is that it has always been 30 years away, and will still be 30 years away 30 years from now. Although the first prototype was originally predicted to come online about now, it is still about five years away. Other efforts at Nuclear Fusion has been making progress and show promise, but are a ways off. It is likely that something will be working by 2030, but not in widespread use until 2040. However, Nuclear Fusion has the potential to change our world as much as any technology that has come before it. 5. Increasing human lifespan. There are people claiming that they can do this right now by lengthening telomeres, but it is far from proven (and maybe dangerous) and may take a long time to become an acceptable medical procedure.
Can This Deadly New Virus Destroy the Human Race?
Many of the recent scary diseases have come from China, which makes sense given the large population base and population density. More than half the world's population lives within a circle in Southern Asia including China and India.
https://youtu.be/-Jhz0pVSKtI
https://youtu.be/-Jhz0pVSKtI
P vs. NP - The Biggest Unsolved Problem in Computer Science
https://youtu.be/EHp4FPyajKQ
A crude chess program in order to look 10 half moves ahead would take the hypothetical 25 moves possible and do roughly 25 to the 10nth power calculations, which would take a very long time. However, the alpha-beta algorithm eliminates mathematically unnecessary calculations making this more like 5 or 6 to the tenth power, which is a huge difference.
What surprises me is that program Stockfish reduces this to more like 2 to the N power, which is considerably less. Exactly how it does this I'm not sure, although I have some idea.
I would contend that looking deeper in chess will always involve an exponential increase, by definition. To not be exponential means that we could look infinitely far ahead and completely solve chess. This is kind of the point of the video.
A crude chess program in order to look 10 half moves ahead would take the hypothetical 25 moves possible and do roughly 25 to the 10nth power calculations, which would take a very long time. However, the alpha-beta algorithm eliminates mathematically unnecessary calculations making this more like 5 or 6 to the tenth power, which is a huge difference.
What surprises me is that program Stockfish reduces this to more like 2 to the N power, which is considerably less. Exactly how it does this I'm not sure, although I have some idea.
I would contend that looking deeper in chess will always involve an exponential increase, by definition. To not be exponential means that we could look infinitely far ahead and completely solve chess. This is kind of the point of the video.
A Scientific Explanation For God? | Answers With Joe - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3_0O-gpeYo
Quantum entanglement doesn't necessarily mean that all the particles in the universe are connected.
Much of the weirdness from Quantum Physics comes from the fact that particles are really fluctuations in fields. What we experience as particles are really waves. Like a packet of energy oscillating in a field.
QFT: What is the universe really made of? Quantum Field Theory visualized
I've been aware of this for a few years. The fundamental building blocks of all matter are particles that are themselves excitations of fields that behave like waves. In 1801, the double-slit experiment showed that light was a wave, but later experiments showed matter also behaves like a wave. This is why you get weird explanations of quantum physics, like particles being able to be in two places at once, and particles popping in and out of existence. This is because the particles are the crests of waves on an invisible ocean. On large scales, you can't see these waves, but on extremely tiny scales particles exhibit weird and random behavior.
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