09 AUG 2014 by ideonexus
Hydrogen Levels in the Universe
Our Sun is significantly enriched, having formed when the Universe was more than 9 billion years old in the plane of a spiral galaxy, one of the most enriched places in the Universe. Yet, when our Sun formed, it was still made out of — by mass — 71% hydrogen, 27% helium, and about 2% “other” stuff. If we convert that into “number of atoms” and treat the Sun as typical of the Universe, that means, over the first 9.3 billion years of the Universe, the fraction of hydrogen ha... 1 
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notes13 MAR 2014 by ideonexus
Donald Knuth Doesn't Use Email
I have been a happy man ever since January 1, 1990, when I no longer had an email address. I'd used email since about 1975, and it seems to me that 15 years of email is plenty for one lifetime.
Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things. What I do takes long hours of studying and uninterruptible concentration. I try to learn certain areas of computer science exhaustively; then I try to digest th...Folksonomies: productivity email
Folksonomies: productivity email
1 notes
notesIt's for people who need to keep on top of things. He needs deep-immersion.
16 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
Real Life NPCs are Boring
Let's start off with my likes for this title: First, the graphics are really good. I really felt immersed in the environment and quaint little neighborhood in the first level. I know other games have pretty good graphics, but Going Outside: You Know, Real Life? takes it to another level, because when you look closely at an object, instead of seeing blurry pixels, the developers made a point to add really fine details. The levels in this game are huge; there's plenty of areas to explore and lo...
1 They are antisocial, too busy to talk to.
11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Mark Twain's Description of Evolution
Adam is fading out. It is on account of Darwin and that crowd. I can see that he is not going to last much longer. There's a plenty of signs. He is getting belittled to a germ—a little bit of a speck that you can't see without a microscope powerful enough to raise a gnat to the size of a church. They take that speck and breed from it: first a flea; then a fly, then a bug, then cross these and get a fish, then a raft of fishes, all kinds, then cross the whole lot and get a reptile, then work...Folksonomies: humor big history
Folksonomies: humor big history
1 notes
notesWitty.
11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
We Have Hunter-Gatherer Brains
For three million years we were hunter-gatherers, and it was through the evolutionary pressures of that way of life that a brain so adaptable and so creative eventually emerged. Today we stand with the brains of hunter-gatherers in our heads, looking out on a modern world made comfortable for some by the fruits of human inventiveness, and made miserable for others by the scandal of deprivation in the midst of plenty. 1 notes
notesAttempting to work in a modern world where some hoard their comforts and other go without.
22 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
The Need to Get Off Foreign Oil
New technologies are advancing to the marketplace. but consumers can be wary of change. If they unequivocally demand alternatives to gasoline, for example, the marketplace will be activated, but ±ere is plenty of resistance to overcome. Recently, the president of Shell Oil, John Hoffmeister, expressed his views on world demand for energy and business opportunities ahead. Shell Oil's position, as Hoffmeister explained it, is ±at America will always need foreign oil even as it aggressively de...Folksonomies: environmentalism alternative energy
Folksonomies: environmentalism alternative energy
1 notes
notesGingrich argues that we cannot have an intelligent conversation on alternative energies and oil production unless we agree on this principle.
18 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Call for Nitrogen Fixation
England and all civilised nations stand in deadly peril of not having enough to eat. As mouths multiply, food resources dwindle. Land is a limited quantity, and the land that will grow wheat is absolutely dependent on difficult and capricious natural phenomena... I hope to point a way out of the colossal dilemma. It is the chemist who must come to the rescue of the threatened communities. It is through the laboratory that starvation may ultimately be turned into plenty... The fixation of atmo... 1 notes
notesCrookes predicts the failure of farming to support a growing population and calls on chemists to work on improving production.
05 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Mathematical Proof that an Arm's Length of DNA is in Ever...
We know from X-ray diffraction studies that a strand of DNA is 1.5 nanometers (1.5 x 10 to the -9 meters) in radius. Assume a cylinder 1 meter long (the arm's length) with a radius of 1.5 nanometers and work out the volume (length x pi r-squared). A typical animal cell is about 8 micrometers (8 x 10 to the -6 meters) in radius. Assume a spherical cell and calculate the volume (4/3 pi r-cubed). Do it yourself. You will see that the DNA fits easily inside the cell, with plenty of room for all o...Folksonomies: mathematics dna
Folksonomies: mathematics dna
Chet Raymo does the math to demonstrate this seemingly impossible scientific facts.
12 MAR 2011 by ideonexus
What If People Stopped Valuing Money?
Mexico and Chile and Brazil and Argentina were likewise bankrupt--and Indonesia and the Philippines and Pakistan and India and Thailand and Italy and Ireland and Belgium and Turkey. Whole nations were suddenly in the same situation as the San Mateo, unable to buy with their paper money and coins, or their written promises to pay later, even the barest essentials. Persons with anything life sustaining to sell, fellow citizenes as well as foreigners, were refusing to exchange their goods for mo...
1 Vonnegut describes a fictional account of the currencies of numerous countries in the world suddenly being no longer valuable, making them just pretty paper.
