Barcodes in Nature
I have used the barcode as a
symbol of precise analysis, in all its beauty. Mixed light is sorted into its
rainbow of component colours and everybody sees beauty. That is a first
analysis. Closer detail reveals fine lines and a new elegance, the elegance
of detection, of the bringing of order and understanding. Fraunhofer
barcodes speak to us of the exact elemental nature of distant stars. A
precisely measured pattern of stripes is a coded message from across the
parsecs. There is grace in th...
notes The Hourglass
Not the flowing waters of time but the falling sands of time have given
modern poets their favorite metaphor for the passing hours. In England,
sandglasses were frequently placed in coffins as a symbol that life's time had
run out. "The sands of time are sinking," went the hymn. "The dawn of
heaven breaks."
But the hourglass, measuring time by dripping sand, comes late in our
story. Sand was, of course, less fluid than water, and hence less adapted to
the subtle calibration required by the v... notesSand vs water, the evolving art and ingenuity involved in crafting this timepiece.
AI Philosophizing
Tachikoma: So, will we be sent back to lab too?
Batou: Wha...? Who's been telling you that?
Tachikoma: Well, it's just that the way the Major's been looking at us lately is kinda scary.
Batou: Oh, is that all? The major's always scary, remember? I think you guys are doing a fine job.
Tachikoma: You really think so?
Batou: What, you're still worried about that?
Tachikoma: Yeah... It just seems like the Major is angry about what we've acquired recently.
Batou: "Acquired"? Acquired what?
... notesNot deep, confusing, but I like the idea that AIs are digital, but humans are analog.
Universities have Replaced Cathedrals
We thought of universities as the cathedrals of the modern world. In the middle ages, the cathedral was the center and symbol of the city. In the modern world, its place could be taken by the university. 
1 In the modern world.
The Marvelous Invention of Indian Arithematic
It is India that gave us the ingenious method of expressing all numbers by means of ten symbols, each symbol receiving a value of position as well as an absolute value; a profound and important idea which appears so simple to us now that we ignore its true merit. But its very simplicity and the great ease which it has lent to computations put our arithmetic in the first rank of useful inventions; and we shall appreciate the grandeur of the achievement the more when we remember that it escaped...Quoting Pierre-Simon Laplace.
The Eiffel Tower as a Symbol of Time
Man has been here 32,000 years. That it took a hundred million years to prepare the world for him is proof that that is what it was done for. I suppose it is. I dunno. If the Eiffel tower were now representing the world's age, the skin of paint on the pinnacle-knob at its summit would represent man's share of that age; & anybody would perceive that that skin was what the tower was built for. I reckon they would. I dunno.From Mark Twain, with the paint on the top of it as Man's time on Earth.
Notes from the "Defending Science Online" session
No direct quote for this meme. notesSummaries of important points and comments made by the speakers and audience for this session:
Chris Mooney
· How do we correct misinformation?
· “How I Started Worrying and Learned to Doubt the Blog”
· Internet is second only to TVF as source of information about Science and Technology
· Brendan Nyhan – people did not change their minds when presented with corrections that challenge their ideological point of view
· Cultural Cognition of Scientific Facts (Kahan et al): conservative libertarians were more likely to accept an article on reducing pollution when it included headline about nuclear power.
· “What Happened on Delibaration Day” Case _____
· Correcting George Will: “no global warming for more than a decade” bloggers tar and feathered him, Washington Post recognized the outrage and WMO wrote letter correcting him, but Will did not apologize or correct himself.
· Message First, Facts Second
Joshua Rosenau
· Blogs can’t correct Texas Textbooks.
· School Board science standards 1998 review “strengths and weaknesses” but they only wanted to review weaknesses of evolution.
· Texas Freedom Network, texasteachers.org, Teach them Science, NCSE
· Reach people with documentaries about Kansas, and convince them to speak at meetings.
· Audience Research: talk about medical advances from evolution, compatibility of faith and evolution
· Start Online, Move Offline.
· Make it hard to be dismissed: state why your opinion matters (member of the community, scientific background)
· If you’re in a coalition and you’re comfortable, you know it’s not a big enough coalition. – Bernice Johnson Reagon
Val Jones
· Science Based Medicine blog.
· 80% of Americans go online for health information, but only 20% consider the source.
· Case Study of Two Patients going to two different online sources for health information.
· True story: colon cancer survivor who found oncologist online, breast cancer who tried alternative medicines and died in six months
· Getbetterhealth.com
Comments:
· November 1963: Malcom X Black Revolution
· Margaret Sangers: planned parenthood
· Meam Goldman: talked about birth control when it was illegal
· George Will is into Toaster oven science, not real science. (look up article where George Will says he loves science)
· Van: academic centers need to set up social media centers. Shout down crazy people.
· Create peer-to-peer references that people can link to in response to people being wrong in comments sections.
· Van: Health Blogger Code of Ethics
· Astrology News: Astrologers said It’s true, but it doesn’t change any of the results. There’s a reason it doesn’t change any of the results.
· Mooney: quick heuristics to determine whether to engage someone, politely say, “I don’t want to have this conversation.”
