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Rep Joe Barton Thinks Oil in Alaska Disproves Global Warming

Okay, well he didn’t exactly say that, but he certainly is a smug son of a gun who asked a grade school question to a Nobel prize winner in physics, apparently expecting a “gotcha” moment (via TPM):

Dudes even so proud of himself that he (or his staff) posted this video on his YouTube page.

BEDEVERE: Exactly. So, logically…
VILLAGER #1: If… she… weighs… the same as a duck,… she’s made of wood.
BEDEVERE: And therefore?
VILLAGER #2: A witch!

Then again, what should you expect for someone who produced this:

Wind is God’s way of balancing heat. Wind is the way you shift heat from areas where it’s hotter to areas where it’s cooler. That’s what wind is. Wouldn’t it be ironic if in the interest of global warming we mandated massive switches to energy, which is a finite resource, which slows the winds down, which causes the temperature to go up? Now, I’m not saying that’s going to happen, Mr. Chairman, but that is definitely something on the massive scale. I mean, it does make some sense. You stop something, you can’t transfer that heat, and the heat goes up. It’s just something to think about.

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SciBlogging: A Roundtable Discussion on Science Blogs

Wednesday, April 29, 6:30 p.m I’ll be participating in a panel discussion of science blogging sponsored by the Northwest Science Writers Association:

Join local science bloggers, including Alan Boyle from MSNBC.com’s Cosmic Log, David Bacon the Quantum Pontiff, Sandra Porter of Biology in a Digital World, Julianne Dalcanton of Cosmic Variance, Eric Steig of Real Climate, and Keith Seinfeld from KPLU, for a lively discussion about the state of the art (or is it science?) of science blogs. If you are a sciblogger or like the idea, join NSWA at the UW Paul G. Allen Center in the Gates Commons (top floor) for this event. RSVP to mikeb (put an @ here) seanet.com. Free for members, $5 for non-members.

Come join us, it should be fun (and the view from the Gates Commons is worth the trip!)

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A National Initiative to Build a Quantum Computer

In Vienna, Virginia on April 23-25th a workshop is being held in response to a report, “A Federal Vision for Quantum Information Science” issued by the United States National Science and Technology Council. While this workshop looks, from the outside, like any other typical quantum computing workshop, this is a bit deceiving, as from what I understand this workshop is supposed to provide the impetus for a report arguing for a major spending for quantum information science in the United States, especially from the National Science Foundation. The Quantum Pontiff, unfortunately, is stuck unquantumly pontificating before his intro to computer science theory students, so he won’t be able to attend the workshop. Which is all to say this is as good of place as any to write down my own thoughts on what a national initiative in quantum computing should look like. (Of course my qualifications to make such a judgment are thin at best, being a second-rate pseudo professor from the nether regions of quantum computing. But ain’t blogs great. On the internet no one knows you’re a research assistant professor!)
Continue reading “A National Initiative to Build a Quantum Computer”

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Medicare Spatial Variation

Over at Healthy Algorithms, the healthy theoretical computer scientist, puts up a very interesting graph about spatial variation in Medicare expenditures in the last six months of life. Paper here. Interesting stuff, but am I the only one who gaffs when reading: “Previous studies have shown that regions with greater overall EOL spending do not have better outcomes” (EOL = end of life)?

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Flaming Bacon

Matt points me to Bacon: the Other White Heat:

I recently committed myself to the goal, before the weekend was out, of creating a device entirely from bacon and using it to cut a steel pan in half. My initial attempts were failures, but I knew success was within reach when I was able to ignite and melt the pan using seven beef sticks and a cucumber.

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Dynamical Decoupling Workshop

Michael Biercuk sends me a note about an upcoming workshop on dynamic decoupling. He’s trying to get a gauge of the interest in such a workshop:

Upcoming International Workshop on Dynamical Decoupling (IWODD)
Expected Date: October, 2009
Location: Boulder, CO
By Invitation Only
Interested participants please contact Michael J. Biercuk,
biercuk at boulder.nist.gov

Those interested should shoot Michael an email.