Okay, there are some weird plots in science papers out there, but something about this one (which Pak at scirate.com pointed me to), taken from arXiv:0711.1751 “Paleontological Tests: Human-like Intelligence is not a Convergent Feature of Evolution,” by Charles H. Lineweaver made me laugh:
Love Songs at a Football Game
Last night I went to the Seahawks/49ers game at Seattle’s spectacular Qwest field. While the field was spectacular, my SF 49ers were less than spectacular, losing the game 24-0. In fact they down right stunk. Ouch. Qwest field really is a rocking venue: I attended a game last year right after the league started investigating the Seahawks for pumping in noise over the speakers (which the team denied, and as far as I know no one has ever shown.) That game had the loudest crowd I have ever heard. Walking to the game from downtown Seattle you could hear the crowd from a huge distance away.
Last night’s game wasn’t quite as loud, but still the crowd was able to illicit multiple off-sides from the niners. More interestingly, and more disturbing I might add, I’m pretty sure the guy right behind me was yelling “I Love You!” throughout the second half whenever the crowd started making noise.
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Life-Size Quantum Computers
D-wave systems, whose paracomputer
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Casting Computer Spells With My Hands
I’m fascinated by watching the developments in touch and movement based computer interfaces over the past few years. From the Apple iPhone to the Nintendo Wii, it seems that there is a great deal of excitement over these new interfaces. Nearly every week I see something interesting in this domain. Here, for example is a neat little video demoing how to do IR tracking with Nintendo Wii’s sensor and some IR reflecting tape on your fingers:
Young Chemist?
Here is the story of a seven year old (supposed) prodigy whose parents are looking for a university which will enroll him. I always find it interesting in these stories that such an emphasis is put on degrees and tests. It also reminds me of my high school math teacher who told us he could teach his six year old son to do calculus.
BTE Nomination: "Heavy Ion Collisions at the LHC – Last Call for Predictions"
Many of you know I’m a big fan of funny/creative paper titles. What with journal editors squashing every last ounce of humanity our of scientific papers, it always makes me happy to see someone else fighting the editorial machine. Today a friend sends me “Heavy Ion Collisions at the LHC – Last Call for Predictions,” by S. Abreu et al arXiv:0711.0974 (scirate here.) which cracks me up.
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Your Dog is in Your Head
What’s that you say Dave? Dogs may be able to think about what their owners are thinking? Sounds like interesting research, Dave. If someone could actually find the real research and not just this science by press release, I would really like to read the paper, Dave! And then I’d like to chew it up and hide it in the backyard.
Happenings in the Quantum World: Nov 7, 2007
SQuInT 2008. Quantum postdocs. Christianity as a laser. Toshiba opens lab with a quantum bent.
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The Purpose of This Blog
Oftentimes I’ve been asked what the purpose of this blog is. As if everything in life must have a purpose:pfft, I say! But because an answer is required, what I usually answer is that the purpose of my blog is to slow down my fellow researchers. I mean sheesh, the people in quantum computing are the modern polyglots of science, speaking physics, computer science, and mathematics with ease. And they’re universally a brainy crowd. So what better purpose can this blog serve that to slow these readers down by offering them great opportunities to surf the intertubes and procrastinate.
Along those lines…
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The Library of Laplace
(With apologies to Jorge Luis Borges.)
The universe, which others call the cellular automata, is composed of an indefinite (and perhaps infinite) number of square rooms, each room having four doors (in what we can, for lack of a better choice, assumelie in the cardinal directions of north, south, east, and west.) Each door leads to an adjoining room which is identical to the other rooms except for one salient feature. In the middle of each room stands a monstrous monolith whose color is not fixed, but changes regularly every forty two seconds.
Like most inhabitants of the universe, I have often contemplated the mysterious workings of the monolith…
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