Sunday, February 18, 2007

BBC Space - New Worlds


How could humans migrate from planet Earth?

Statistical Physics, Computer Simulation, and Probability


Google TechTalks Bay Area Discrete Math Day XII April 15, 2006, Raissa D'Souza (UC Davis)

Statistical physics, computer simulation and discrete mathematics are intimately related through the study of shared models. These are primarily lattice models, such as the Ising model, yet can also involve discrete structures such as networks. Several models illustrate the current interplay between these three fields, while also providing cautionary tales of interpolating results obtained in one realm to the other. This talk will survey several such models, focusing on pattern formation in a simple first-order jamming transition.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

C64 & C-One at Stanford University


Jeri Ellsworth tells about her early fascination with electronics and 8-bit computers setting the stage for her unique approach to learning. Not being challenged she forgoes higher education, to pursue a career in car-racing and chassis fabrication. Afterwards she opens a chain of computer stores, through which, contacts are made who became her mentors; consequently, she sells the businesses to peruse chip design. This leads to the designing of: The CommodoreOne - based upon the Commodore 64 - using reconfigurable logic and the C64 DTV 30- games-in-one joystick, selling, a quarter million units. Presently Jeri is employed by three companies making educational toys, gaming toys and a reconfigurable processor array.

Crystalmoors - War cries on Vindio


Today, Crystal Moors is formed by three members more: Faramir, Gothmog and Thorus, (at the same time members of Noesis, Eldereon and Stygian). The actual style is more influenced by Celtic Black Metal with arrangements and acoustic parts that create a more epic atmosphere than in the past.

In January 2003, CrystalMoors entered at B&C Studios to record their first attack as a band. "The Unconquered Land" was born under the strong hands of this Cantabrian Clan. Seven hymns of epic and raw melodic extreme metal with Celtic influences and lyrics beyond centuries to bring the dawn of our Forefathers' Paganism

CrystalMoors play Cantabrian Pagan Metal exclusively and they are members of Orgenomescos.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005



Here we see Steve Jobs delivering his commencement speech to the graduates of Stanford University in 2005. In it he talks about getting fired from Apple in 1985, life & death.

BBC Space - Star Stuff


The Big Bang theory tells us how the Universe began and is evolving. In essence, it is a theory that was created to explain two facts that we know about the Universe - it is gradually expanding and cooling. In the 1920s, Edwin Hubble found that galaxies far from our own Milky Way are moving away from us. In fact, the further away galaxies are, the faster they are receding. So he concluded that the whole Universe must have been expanding. Working backwards this means that at one stage the Universe must have come from a single point.

We also know that the Universe is cooler now than in the past. In the 1960s Arno Panzias and Robert Wilson detected the afterglow of the Big Bang, known as the cosmic microwave background [or CMB for short], which revealed that the Universe was once a very hot, hostile place. Both these discoveries led astronomers to deduce that the Universe began as an infinitely compact fireball.

BBC Space - Black Holes


Black holes were once thought to be the monsters of the Universe, devouring everything around them in a frenzied cosmic feast. But now astronomers think that rather than being a space menace, black holes may be fundamental to the creation of galaxies.

Black holes are regions of space where gravity is so strong that not even light can escape, making them impossible to see. But we can see the stuff that is being sucked in to these massive cosmic vacuum cleaners. Anything that approaches a black hole is first torn apart by its immense gravitational force and then forms a flat rotating disc that spirals into the hole.

BBC Horizon - Einstein's Unfinished Symphony



As Albert Einstein lay on his deathbed, he asked only for his glasses, his writing implements and his latest equations. He knew he was dying, yet he continued his work. In those final hours of his life, while fading in and out of consciousness, he was working on what he hoped would be his greatest work of all. It was a project of monumental complexity. It was a project that he hoped would unlock the mind of God.

BBC Horizon - The Hawking Paradox



Has Stephen Hawking been wrong for the last 30 years?

Stephen Hawking is the most famous scientist on the planet. His popular science book 'A Brief History of Time' was a publishing sensation, staying at the top of the bestseller lists longer than any other book in recent history. But behind the public face lies an argument that has been raging for almost 30 years. (...)

In 2004, Stephen Hawking admitted to making a mistake. The genius who discovered black holes was claiming that his entire theory about them was wrong. Follow Hawking as he prepares to deliver the paper that he says will prove his doubters wrong.

BBC Horizon - Most of Our Universe is Missing


We know what 4% of the Universe is made of. But what about the rest?

There was a time, not so long ago, when science seemed to understand how the universe worked. Everything – us, the Earth, the stars and even exotic-sounding supernovae – was made of atoms which were all created at time-zero: the Big Bang. In between the atoms was nothing, a void: quite literally, 'space'.

But recently things have started to unravel. There is, it seems, a lot more to the universe than meets the eye. According to the best estimates, we only really know what about 4% of it is made of. But if only 4% is made of atoms, what about the rest? The rest is made of mysterious entities about which very little is understood, with equally mysterious names: dark matter and dark energy.

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Wand'rin' Star - Lee Marvin


"Wand'rin' Star was a UK number one single for Lee Marvin for three weeks in March 1970. Originally written by Alan J. Lerner (lyrics) and Frederick Loewe (music) for the stage musical Paint Your Wagon in 1951. When the film of the musical was made in 1969 Lee Marvin took the role of prospector Ben Rumson. (...) Despite the film being a box office flop, the soundtrack became a success. Orchestrated and arranged by Nelson Riddle, Marvin's version of the song "Wand'rin Star" becoming an unlikely number one single in the UK for him, famously keeping The Beatles at number two with their single Let It Be. Marvin never released a follow up single so is classed as a one hit wonder.

Byzantine 2006 - Putting Quotes Back In Context



September 2006 - Another attempt at a rational dialogue with Islam ends in a fiasco with a quote taken out of context. To understand this, we must put the quote back into its context.

Saturday, February 3, 2007

Global warming is not a priority - Bjørn Lomborg



Economist Bjorn Lomborg makes a persuasive case for prioritizing the world's biggest problems, asking "If we had $50 billion to spend over the next four years to do good in the world, where should we spend it?" His recommendations - based on the findings of the 2004 Copenhagen Consensus - controversially place global warming at the bottom of the list (and AIDS prevention at the top). Lomborg was named one of the 100 Most Influential People by Time magazine after the publication of his controversial book, The Skeptical Environmentalist which challenged widely-held beliefs that the environment is getting worse. Now the Danish economist is taking on the world's biggest problems with his Copenhagen Consensus.

Thursday, February 1, 2007

Money, Banking and the Federal Reserve



Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson understood "The Monster". But to most Americans today, Federal Reserve is just a name on the dollar bill. They have no idea of what the central bank does to the economy, or to their own economic lives; of how and why it was founded and operates; or of the sound money and banking that could end the statism, inflation, and business cycles that the Fed generates.

Dedicated to Murray N. Rothbard, steeped in American history and Austrian economics, and featuring Ron Paul, Joseph Salerno, Hans Hoppe, and Lew Rockwell, this extraordinary new film is the clearest, most compelling explanation ever offered of the Fed, and why curbing it must be our first priority.

WorldMap Live Storm-Worm



F-Secure's WorldMap Live showing an outbreak of malware named Small.DAM.