Posts

Posted on

Craig Barrett: You're Subsidizing the Wrong Seed Corn

Craig Barrett, the chairman of Intel has a scathing op-ed in the San Fransisco Chronicle on the recent spending omnibus and its effect on science funding (via Computing Research Policy Blog):

What are they thinking? When will they wake up? It may already be too late; but I genuinely think the citizenry of this country wants the United States to compete. If only our elected leaders weren’t holding us back.

Of course, I can hear the cries already: typical liberal west coaster spouting more government spending. But, oh. Doh. Okay, well what can basic science research possibly lead to anyway.

Posted on

Villa Sophia 2007 "Gruccia"

This weekend was “bottling weekend.” Here is one of the final products:
That’s right, the Villa Sophia, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon “Gruccia” has found its way, with a little labor on my part, out of the carboys and into the bottle. This year’s wine is called “gruccia.” You see at one point during the winemaking a bung made its way into the carboy, and well, you can guess how I got it out, can’t you?

Posted on

Second Life Banks

Second Life, the virtual community, bans banks which aren’t banks in the real world.

Since the collapse of Ginko Financial in August 2007, Linden Lab has received complaints about several in-world “banks” defaulting on their promises. These banks often promise unusually high rates of L$ return, reaching 20, 40, or even 60 percent annualized.

Second Life imitating the first?

Posted on

The Contextuality of Quantum Theory in Ten Minutes

Through my computer science “information is king” eyeglasses, there are really only two notions which thoroughly distinguish quantum theory from classical theories of how the world works: the nonlocal nature of quantum correlations as exemplified by Bell’s theorem and the much less well known contextual nature of quantum measurements as exemplified by the Bell-Kochen-Specker theorem. While the former is well known (and hence, to paraphrase Gell-Mann, what you’ve heard about it is mostly wrong), the later is less well known. Is that because it is a complicated idea? I don’t think so! Indeed I think you can learn what quantum contextuality means in less than ten minutes. Yep, it’s another edition of “explain quantum theory in ten minutes!”
Continue reading “The Contextuality of Quantum Theory in Ten Minutes”

Posted on

Aliens and Photos

What else am I to conclude from recent UFO reports out of Texas, except that no one in the entire town had a cell phone with a camera? Or a digital camera? Do the aliens use data from cell phone usage and digital camera usage when they decide where to do their joy riding?
Oh, and I will be happy to update this post when photos emerge! (I grew up reading UFO books, by the way. I credit them with developing an idea for what science is and is not.)