Author: dabacon

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The World Market is Five Quantum Computers

From the bits blog at the New York Times, a list of technology famous quotes which may or may not have been said. Two of which I believe I’ve used before (doh!):

“640K ought to be enough for anybody.” This quotation is attributed to Bill Gates, but Mr. Shapiro suspects that it is apocryphal, and is seeking the person who either said it or first attributed it to Mr. Gates.
…
“I think there is a world market for about five computers.” This is a attributed to Thomas J. Watson, Jr., but Mr. Shapiro suspects it of being apocryphal and is seeking the person who either said it or first attributed it to Mr. Watson.

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Museum Tours For the Insecure

I always knew that T-Rex was a vegetarian:

“Trying to teach children not to believe everything they see.” Shouldn’t they add “and believe in everything they don’t see?”
Update: I should have known Pharnygula would have posted this before me. Note to self: always check with PZ before posting something about creationism 🙂

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Shor Calculations (Quantum Wonkish)

Over at Emergent Chaos I found an article which throws down the gauntlet over quantum computers. And there isn’t anything I cherish more than gauntlets thrown down!
Note: I should preface this by saying that I don’t consider myself a over the top hyper of quantum computers in the sense attacked by the author. I find quantum computers fascinating, would really like to see if one can be built, but find the hyperbole that accompanies any small advance in the field a bit over the top. However I also think the article misses a lot of important points (and insinuates that people haven’t actually thought about these points, something which I find as annoying as quantum computing hype.)
Update: Say it ain’t so Bruce. Say it ain’t so.
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Win Ben Stein Some Brains!

I always thought that I was special because I have, in my short life, been kicked into a night club. But now, comes word of an even more spectacular event: scienceblogs’ own PZ Myers was expelled from seeing the creationist propoganda film “Expelled!” Adding to the irony, noted biologist/athiest Richard Dawkins, who is famous enough to appear as a character on “Southpark” and who was PZ’s guest, was allowed to view the movie! Holy craptacular convergence of ironies, batman!
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Braaaiiins!

Greetings from SMF! Home to the slowest baggage claim in the west (not that I was crazy enough to check a bag.)
Even from beyond the grave Feynman gives string theory no love:

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Crayon Physics Game

In high school, we had software which would simulate dynamics of different shaped objects. I used to set up part of the screen as a “hoop” and then try to design the crazies way for a ball to bounce off all sorts of shapes set with different initial velocities and into the hoop. It was kind of cool how Rube Goldburg you could get with this physics simulation, and it was, I’ll admit, both quite fun, and absolutely geeky. Now, via Slate, I find that someone has made this into a game:

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Room Temperature?

Dear Digg, no, this article and press release do not mean that Scientists Invent Room Temperature Superconducting Material. It means that scientists have put molecular silane under hundreds of giga-Pascals presures (for comparison, atmospheric pressure is 100 kilo-Pascals) at a temperature of around 20 Kelvin, and gotten it to superconduct. While this is certainly cool, it is not “room temperature” as far as I can tell.
One day I was driving down the road and listening to AM radio when Paul Harvey came on and did his schtick (“and now you know, the rest of the story.”) At one point in the show, Harvey made a statement that physicists had recently discovered how to get superconductivity at room temperature. I almost drove off the road hearing this and ran home to see if it was true. Unfortunately it was not, and I will never, ever, forgive Paul Harvey for making me think this amazing discovery had been made. And now you know the rest of the…ah, whatever.

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Ecologists Can't Handle Their Beer Like Physicists

A New York Times article has appeared about a study on the effects of excessive beer drinking on scientific productivity. The study, (Tomas Grim, “A possible role of social activity to explain differences in publication output among ecologists.” Oikos 117 (4), 484-487) done by the aptly named ecologist, Dr. Thomas Grim, claimed that scientific productivity among Czech avian ecologists and behavioral ecologists (as measured by number of publications, citation rate per paper, etc.) dropped according to how many beers the ecologists drank.
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