Gravity is Leaking into the 4th Dimension.

Just thought you'd like to know that.
Watch this: "The Elegant Universe" - from Nova.... great stuff. Will blow mind.

Map Confusion, Why is North Up?, Magnetic vs True North, Polar Motion

On maps, why is North always up? Apparently, it's been this way only since the middle ages when Ptolomey's maps were rediscovered. Before that, it was a free-for-all.

Even the word "orientation" refers to the fact that the "orient" i.e. the "East" was placed in the UP position- North thereby being moved to where West is today. According to baby-naming websites scoured prior to my son's birth- the name "Benjamin" means "son of the right hand" ... and is also translated as "Son of the South". This makes sense if the map has East at the top, or if you are facing the "East" towards Jerusalem- presumably you'd have to be West of the "Middle East" for that to be true!

Even more confusing is the fact that Magnetic North keeps moving , flipping around like a fish in a bucket. It's on it's way from Canada to Siberia at 41km/year as we speak. Actually, it may jiggle up to 85km in a single day and apparently is rarely found where it is supposed to be!

Compasses - despite popular belief- do not point North, or even to Magnetic North! Compasses point along LOCAL magnetic field lines- these are wobbly, and depend on moving flows of iron and nickel deep within the earth. The difference between where your compass is pointing and where true (geographic) north is, is known as Magnetic Declination. Off the coast of Madagascar, this can be up to 40 degrees!

In any case, the north pole of any magnet (including that in a compass) is attracted to another south pole- hence the North Magnetic Pole should really be renamed "The Earth's South Magnetic Pole Which is Currently Located Vaguely Around Somewhere Near True North".

Even True North- the geographic North Pole is moving ("Polar Motion") - albeit very slowly, and very slightly. It takes a cycle of about 400 years, but the point the Earth is twisting around moves by up to 20m. (see chart below). I guess we are tumbling rather than twisting our way around the sun. Fascinatingly, some of this is due to melting of the Greenland ice sheets and the subsequent rebound of the unburdened earth! Global warming is literally throwing the Earth "off kilter".

Finally, thanks to "precession" - like the wobbling of a spinning top- True North points to varying regions of space. Currently (in the northern hemisphere) it points to Polaris (aptly named!).

Harper Lee, Laptop Warmth, Erythema Ab Igne

Just got my MacBook battery replaced - it died, they took it, they replaced it- no cost. Why? Because it's less than 6 months since they last replaced it. Great idea - i think i'll take my MacBook down to the MRI department and rub it on the magnet every 11.99 months.
I remember reading an interview with the reclusive Harper Lee (author of 'To Kill a Mockingbird') where she expressed a view that paperbacks will neve die because "who has ever heard of anyone curling up in bed with a laptop?". Obviously she has never owned a laptop - the heat generated by my MacBook battery is incredible ! There is a well described phenomenon in dermatology known as "erythema ab igne" - reticulate (netlike) erythema (redness) after prolonged exposure to infra-red radiant heat. It's often recognised on little old ladies' shins but is quite common nowdays on the anterior thighs from prolonged exposure to laptop heat.

Apparatchik Vs Apparatchnik

Russia and Georgia are all over the papers - but rather than spend time trying to work out the details on who's right and who's wrong (that would require 30mins on wikipedia and at the end of the day you can bet it's all about greed, corruption, oil and power)- i've got hung up on the word "Apparatchnik". Couldn't get it out of my head. An incessant loop. Try doing a google lookup (search term "Define: Appartchnik") - nothing! Most unusual.... but i DID find a really fascinating blog post about the word .. and whether it should be a chick or a nik?

Retro Cylon Posters

The Fastest

Oh and another fascinating thing i read/heard about somewhere recently... the "speed of light" (otherwise known as "c") is the fastest thing there is.... except it's not. Light can travel at all speeds... recently it has been slowed down so much that it actually stopped. (Amazing- those Bose-Einstein condensates- imagine outrunning a beam of light!). Anyway - the fastest that ANYTHING can travel (including information) is "c". There's nothing particularly special about photons in this regard.... er.. i think.... i need to go back to university and do a physics degree.

Dark Black Hole?

This is not really a blog post- more a question. Those who peruse the blog will know i have no real grasp of physics but at least i am interested in these deep questions.

I'm also fascinated by how extraordinary things can become mundane: Antimatter? Big Deal! it's got the wrong charge- otherwise almost the same as ordinary stuff. Black Holes? boring - there's one in the middle of every galaxy. Wave-particle duality? Meh! When you don't look, it's a wave- when you look it's a particle. Easy. Like Alice in Wonderland, you really can "Believe six impossible things before breakfast.".

The hip cool stuff now is dark matter and dark energy .. and i was wondering ... can you get a black hole forming from the gravitational collapse of dark matter? Presumably, it doesn't interact strongly enough with gravity to form dark matter planets, stars, galaxies.. but is this just because the universe is only 14.7 billion years old? Given enough time, wouldn't it start to clump like non-dark matter?

Discuss.

The Large Hadron Collider Explained

Ernst Haekel

I never knew Haeckel was an artist. I heard about him in 1st year med school embryology. His dictum "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" has been generally discredited but there is obviously more than a grain of truth in it. Natural Selection never goes "back to the drawing board". Mutations accumulate, leading to modification and extensions of existing embryonal pathways. This is why a human embryo and a mouse embryo look pretty similar at an early stage.

Ontogeny seems to be forgotten in talk of "artificial intelligence". According to Kevin Kelly and Ray Kurzweil, when the complexity of the web matches the complextity of the human brain in 2040, AI will automatically ensue- but I think this "brain" will remsemble an embryonic one prior to any darwinian pruning. (see Neural Darwinism). An 8 month old baby has twice the number of synapses as an adolescent. We are born with brains - not minds.

German gallery of Haekel's creepy crawlies.

Tips on Parenting Twins : Pick a Favourite!

Short, informative video about parenting twins. Here's how i found it- as an example of how the internet is an amazing thing... in fact it is THE most amazing thing. In 10,000 years it will still be seen as a pivotal event in human history (i'm sure).


a) iGoogle RSS feed reader

b) Boing Boing link

c)Article "Mom, Dad, I'm Into Steampunk: an imaginary monologue" from McSweeny's

d) Linked to McSweeney's as already fan of Dave Eggers since reading novel "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius".. and an even bigger fan since watching his Ted Prize Talk. Have been tempted to buy a real copy of the beautifully produced McSweeney's but have resisted as now only read non-fiction and trashy SF.

e) Read about "Wolphin" - his quarterly DVD magazine of short films.

Found the thing about the Twins.

Mirror Stuff

Your head is twice as close as it appears in a mirror. Does that make sense? New York Times "Science" article on the subject here.

Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers

Even if the neo-swing music isn't great (which it is) - you've got to love the name of the band! Plus she is quite sexy... she's done a great version of "Blue Skies".

also here.

Great Talk by Paul Ehrlich

No- not THAT Paul Ehrlich (who invented immunology) the OTHER one. Great (but long as always) talk from the Long Now Foundation from a slightly kooky anti-population guru. Surprisingly funny and entertaining given that it is essentially a litany of environmental fuck-ups.

Guess what he looks like now! eeeek!

click here to find out!

Nostalgia

Nostalgia: comes from Greek nostos "homeward journey, return home" and algosnostos originally referring to the journey of Odysseus and the heroes from Troy.

Nostalgia: the word Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson: you find the present tense, but the past perfect!

Nostalgia: describes a longing for the past, often in idealized form. Nostalgia may or may not also be known as homesickness. The exact meaning changed over time and today nostalgia isn't what it used to be.