Category Archives: Science

RIP Benoît Mandelbrot

Posted on October 17, 2010 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

De mathematicus is de bedenker van de term ‘fractal’ voor een bepaald type geometrisch figuur, dat oneindig gedetailleerd is en op elk niveau grotendeels gelijk is aan het ‘hoofdfiguur’: een fractal bestaat in feite uit oneindige gelijkenissen van zichzelf. Mandelbrot is tevens de ontdekker van een van de bekendste typen fractals: de Mandelbrot-verzameling.

In toenemende mate tonen fractals aan dat de 4e dimensie, naast lengte/breedte/hoogte, “ruwheid”, een bruikbare tool zijn voor het berekenen van complex georganiseerde structuren. Een deelgebied in de wiskunde dat alweer 30 jaar bestaat, voorbeelden en meer hier.

    Posted in Science | Tagged | Comments Off

    Richard Dawkins’ Speech at Protest the Pope March

    Posted on September 20, 2010 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

      Posted in Politics, Science | Comments Off

      Why is it America’s job to save the world from asteroids?

      Posted on September 13, 2010 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

      dd

      The U.S. currently spends about $5.5 million per year to track NEO’s and less than a million on researching ways to counter them, but is falling far short of asteroid-detection goals. Some might say that’s already too much, given the more terrestrial problems the U.S. faces. On the other hand, the United States spends more than $1 billion — the amount NASA says it needs to meet its goal of detecting all potentially dangerous objects by 2020 — on far less lofty goals than saving humanity from the fate of the dinosaurs. Even an asteroid just one kilometer in diameter would be enough to cause worldwide crop failures and a shift in the earth’s climate. One just a few meters wide could wipe out a major city.

      But why, in this supposedly post-American world, is the United States expected to take the lead on this?

        Posted in Science | Tagged , , | Comments Off

        30 Years of Asteroids in 3 Minutes

        Posted on September 1, 2010 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

        Finding the space rock trash within our solar system has, just as with space flight junk been spotted and registered better and better. Flying to Mars seems suddenly a bit tougher.

          Posted in General Interest, Science | Tagged , , | Comments Off

          Memristors coming quickly to your shop

          Posted on September 1, 2010 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

          q

          Flash memory is becoming more and more fragile so it can’t be written and erased many times.
          HP is just three years away from bringing the memristor to market as a new product called ReRAM, for Resistive Random Access Memory. ReRAM can read and write memory bits much faster than flash, even as it consumes a tenth of the energy as flash memory. Read More

            Posted in Innovation & Knowledge Economy, Science | Comments Off

            Scientists Solved the Bermuda Triangle Mystery

            Posted on August 9, 2010 by Vincent Barnhard

            Bermuda Triangle map

            According to two research scientists the mystery of vanished ships and airplanes in the region dubbed “The Bermuda Triangle” has been solved. Natural gas … specifically methane, is the culprit behind the mysterious disappearances and loss of water and air craft … Any ships caught within the methane mega-bubble immediately lose all buoyancy and sink to the bottom of the ocean. If the bubbles are big enough and possess a high enough density they can also knock aircraft out of the sky with little or no warning.

            Read more @ Salem-news.com [via Tijs]

              Posted in Science | Comments Off

              Office workers: Excercise is not enough

              Posted on July 15, 2010 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

              exercize

              What was unexpected was that many of the men who sat long hours and developed heart problems also exercised. Quite a few of them said they did so regularly and led active lifestyles. The men worked out, then sat in cars and in front of televisions for hours, and their risk of heart disease soared, despite the exercise. Their workouts did not counteract the ill effects of sitting.
              Most of us have heard that sitting is unhealthy. But many of us also have discounted the warnings, since we spend our lunch hours conscientiously visiting the gym.

                Posted in Science, Sport | Tagged | Comments Off

                Dawkins: If Science Worked Like Religion

                Posted on May 11, 2010 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

                  Posted in Science | Tagged | Comments Off

                  Nasa’s Direction 2010

                  Posted on April 4, 2010 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

                  nasaplans

                  NASA’s annual budget announcements are always an easy target for the public and media. This is due its open nature of communication and very public purpose. Last month however, the 2010 announcement has become ground of particularly heated debates and general disapproval.

                  Obama administration proposed to axe manned flight (exit space shuttle, constellation project, moon plans) until commercial space flight and research is mature enough to sustain an affordable (Mars?) mission again. Much money goes therefore to research only.

                  However, congress and the Senate don’t buy this “flexible” plan. Many jobs are lost, no definite planning is made and reliance on foreign countries and an immature space industry give great worries. The plan has been send back. Change has come, but where is it eventually going? Check more for some highlighted discussions of the senate and congres.
                  (more…)

                    Posted in Innovation & Knowledge Economy, Science | Tagged , | Comments Off

                    NASA Astronaut Dan Barry – Space & Robots

                    Posted on April 3, 2010 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

                    Great talk by Dan on why it is so hard to prepare robots for space or even more precise: adaption. With interesting own experiences as an astronaut Dan illustrates how well nature is capable of doing this.

                      Posted in Innovation & Knowledge Economy, Science | Tagged , | Comments Off

                      Happy Memories vs Happy Experiences

                      Posted on March 7, 2010 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

                      There is increasingly interest in happiness. However articles and books unfortunately make too little correct distinction between happy memories and experiences, which make a big difference. If you want to optimize your happiness, each needs a different approach. Social Economics clearly has much ground to gain here.

                        Posted in General Interest, Science | Tagged | Comments Off

                        Prototype of the Augmented ID concept

                        Posted on February 25, 2010 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

                        A TAT Cascades powered prototype of the Augmented ID concept. Accurate mobile face detection and recognition using Polar Rose’s FaceLib. Recognizr shows how powerful computer vision and 3D graphics can be used to create fast, precise and aesthetic augmented reality. This prototype runs on Android.

                        Website: Tat.se [via]
                        Blog: Mobileuserinterfaces.blogspot.com

                          Posted in Privacy, Science, Webtech | Comments Off

                          David Agus: A new strategy in the war on cancer

                          Posted on February 6, 2010 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

                          Traditionally, David Agus explains, cancer treatments have had a short-sighted focus on the offending individual cells. He suggests a new, cross-disciplinary approach, using atypical drugs, computer modeling and protein analysis to treat and analyze the whole body.

                            Posted in Science | Tagged , | Comments Off

                            Climategate: Those hacked e-mails

                            Posted on December 6, 2009 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

                            Now that the conspiracy theorists have blown off steam, it’s time for a more sober analysis of those e-mails and what they mean. I can’t go through all of them, there are far too many, and . So I’ve taken the two that seem to be getting conspiracy theorists most worked up — Phil Jones’s e-mail about “Mike’s Nature trick” and Kevin Trenberth’s e-mail about a “travesty.” I’m glad to see that skeptic websites that cover the science understand what these e-mails actually mean. As you’ll see, very few commentators who jumped on the conspiracy bandwagon even before reading the e-mails mandged to get it right. [Youtube]

                            [via]

                              Posted in Gossip, Nature, Politics, Science | Tagged | Comments Off

                              R.I.P. Claude Lévi-Strauss

                              Posted on November 4, 2009 by Vincent Barnhard

                              Strauss
                              28-11-1908 | 1-11-2009

                              Claude Lévi-Strauss died on November 1, 2009, a few weeks before his 101st birthday. The death was announced today. The Daily Telegraph said in its obituary that Lévi-Strauss was “one of the dominating postwar influences in French intellectual life and the leading exponent of Structuralism in the social sciences”.

                              Lévi-Strauss sought to apply the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure to anthropology. At the time, the family was traditionally considered the fundamental object of analysis, but was seen primarily as a self-contained unit consisting of a husband, a wife, and their children. Nephews, cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents were all treated as secondary. But Lévi-Strauss argued that, akin to Saussure’s notion of linguistic value, families acquire determinate identities only through relations with one another. Thus he inverted the classical view of anthropology, putting the secondary family members first and insisting on analyzing the relations between units instead of the units themselves

                                Posted in Science | Comments Off

                                Discussing A Long Repealed Copyright Law

                                Posted on October 25, 2009 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

                                Who Knew Discussing A Long Repealed Copyright Law Could
                                Be So Interesting…                                 from the copyright-geeking dept

                                The summary? Copyright law is so screwed up that even if you put a significant number of the top copyright scholars and students in an auditorium for a day, they’ll disagree on almost everything, and only agree that the system is a total mess. Even simple questions like “how should copyright be handled on blogs” created a collective shoulder shrug, with everyone effectively admitting that copyright law has no answer for such basic questions. That should worry people. If the intention of copyright is to “promote the progress of science” then it shouldn’t be so incredibly ambiguous and contentious. All in all, it seems to reinforce the point that copyright law has been stretched and twisted in so many different ways over the years, that it may be fundamentally broken. Basically, copyright law is adjusted every so often not based on any look at whether or not it actually promotes the progress, but based on whatever new technological innovation comes along that throws some legacy providers’ business models into doubt. That industry freaks out, and politicians respond with some patch that protects that industry, but has little to nothing to do with actually promoting progress.

                                Read more @ Techdirt.com

                                  Posted in Innovation & Knowledge Economy, Politics, Science, Webtech | Comments Off

                                  BUMA this is awesome to the billionth power !

                                  Posted on October 6, 2009 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

                                  This awesome song & video, made by John Boswell , can be downloaded here: Colorpulsemusic.com [© 2009 Colorpulse]

                                  Sounding like a cross between Auto-Tune-abusing T-Pain and The Matrix’s Agent Smith, Carl Sagan describes the natural beauty of the universe in a song called “A Glorious Dawn.” Seeing as how Sagan probably was the most successful science popularizer of all time, this song seems in keeping with his goal of getting the masses to appreciate science. A few verses even feature the “vocal” talents of noted astrophysicist Stephen Hawking (also no slouch in the “make science popular” field). [read more]

                                  Quote: This is awesome to the billionth power [Cynical-c.com]

                                  Barnhard Blog note:

                                  John Boswell is good example of an artist who uses the new media for the distribution of his work.

                                  Recent worrisome BUMA-Stemra (Dutch RIAA) billing announcements may cut-off the Dutch market for artist like John Boswell by simply scaring the hell out of Dutch social media users with sky-rocketing bills for embedding Youtube clips on e.g. weblogs (like non-commercial ones like Barnhard Blog).

                                  Although BUMA-Stemra only aims to bill embedded clips on blogs containing licensed material it is expected that Dutch bloggers will be hesitated/scarred to post any embedded clip containing music, just to be sure …

                                  Update & another John Boswell‘s clip: (more…)

                                    Posted in Innovation & Knowledge Economy, Music, Politics, Science | Comments Off

                                    You are being shagged by a rare parrot

                                    Posted on October 2, 2009 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

                                    Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine head to the ends of the earth in search of animals on the edge of extinction. In New Zealand the travellers make their way through one of the most dramatic landscapes in the world. They are on a journey to find the last remaining kakapo, a fat, flightless parrot which, when threatened with attack, adopts a strategy of standing very still indeed.

                                    [via]

                                      Posted in General Interest, Humor, Science | Comments Off

                                      Regulatory capture by the Goldman Web

                                      Posted on July 17, 2009 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

                                      A nice view inside the regulatory government apparatus rounding Goldman.

                                        Posted in General Interest, Science | Comments Off

                                        Antichrist & Mandatory Suicide populair in Irak

                                        Posted on July 4, 2009 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

                                        De thrash metal band Slayer is lange tijd erg populair geweest onder Amerikaanse soldaten. Nummers als The Antichrist en Mandatory Suicide (over het leven van een militair) appeleerden kennelijk aan de soldaten. Of anders wel het nummer Jihad, geschreven vanuit het perspectief van een terrorist.

                                        Toen de Amerikaanse componist en universitair muziek Jonathan Pieslak las dat tijdens de Golfoorlog veertig procent van de fanmail van soldaten uit het Midden-Oosten kwam, raakte hij geïntrigeerd. Het resultaat daarvan is zijn onlangs verschenen boek Sound Targets: American Soldiers and Music in the Iraq War.

                                        Lees meer: NRC – Heavy metal en andere martiale muziek in Irak

                                          Posted in Music, Science | Tagged | Comments Off

                                          Solar system’s planets could spin out of control

                                          Posted on June 11, 2009 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

                                          THE solar system’s clockwork motion is by no means guaranteed: one day the Earth could collide with Venus or tear Mars apart in a close encounter, a new simulation has shown.

                                          Read full article @ Newscientist.com

                                            Posted in Science | Tagged | Comments Off

                                            Meet the real 40-year-old virgins

                                            Posted on June 5, 2009 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

                                            kerkgang

                                            Contrary to Hollywood notions, the 40-year-old virgin is not an awkward yet funny and endearing electronics salesman played by Steve Carell. He is a church-going teetotaller who has neither been to jail nor served in the military, according to a new survey of more than 7000 people. He also represents an estimated 1.1 million American men and 800,000 women aged 25 to 45 who have never had sex.

                                            Men and women who attended church at least once a week were respectively 5 and 3.9 times more likely to be virgins than those who attended church less often. Virgins of both sexes were slightly less likely to have swigged a beer in the last year, compared to non-virgins. And women with college degrees were 5.4 times more likely to be virgins than women who never got their Bachelor’s.

                                            Read more: Newscientist.com – Meet the real 40-year-old virgins

                                              Posted in Science | Comments Off

                                              Victory! Amendment 138 was voted again.

                                              Posted on April 27, 2009 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

                                              According to Jérémie Zimmermann, co-founder of La Quadrature du Net: “The European citizens will remember this courageous stand. Members of the European parliament honoured their mandates by standing courageously for citizens’ rights and freedoms. This is one more blow to Nicolas Sarkozy’s ‘three strikes’ or ‘HADOPI’ law in France, and a strong sign that nobody in Europe will want to pass such a stupid legislation going against progress, citizens’ rights and common sense.”.

                                              Philippe Aigrain, also co-founder of La Quadrature du Net concludes: “We will also follow with great attention the negociations in a future conciliation committee to make impossible for the Council to endanger other aspects of the telecom packet such as equitable networking. It is time for Member States to realize that the economy and society can benefit together from an open infrastructure and a strong affirmation of rights.”. (more)

                                              Parlement has voted rightly in favor of net neutrality.

                                                Posted in General Interest, Privacy, Science | Tagged | Comments Off

                                                Reminder: Next Web 2009

                                                Posted on March 3, 2009 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

                                                j

                                                The Next Web 2009 komt er aan.

                                                  Posted in General Interest, Science | Comments Off

                                                  TERUG NAAR JE MAKER

                                                  Posted on February 23, 2009 by Administrator Barnhard Blog

                                                  terugnaarjemaker.nl

                                                  Het is 2009 , het jaar van Darwin. De man die, zoals u weet, verwoede pogingen heeft gedaan om het ontstaan van soorten via het evolutieproces te verklaren. Een verklaring die bij meeste christenen het zere beentje roert.

                                                  Nee, geen logisch proces van mutatie en overlevingsdrang heeft de soorten doen ontstaan, het was een man op een wolk die het in 6 dagen voor elkaar heeft gebokst. Een aantal Christelijke organisaties en particulieren onder leiding van Kees van Helden, heeft besloten dat u dat ook maar eens onder ogen moet zien. Ditmaal met een eenzijdige brochure die bij élk Nederlands huishouden in de bus gegooid gaat worden.

                                                  Deze brochure is bij ons niet welkom, aangezien wij prima zelf kunnen nadenken en hier geen denkbeeldig vriendje voor nodig hebben. Samen met verschillende weblogs, waaronder Retecool, GeenStijl, Sargasso, Flabber en GeenCommentaar heeft Barnhard Blog de actie ‘Stuur die brochure terug naar zijn maker‘ opgestart. Laat de religieuze fanaten weten dat het afgelopen moet zijn met hun indocrinatie tot voorbij uw voordeur.

                                                  Barnhard Blog en alle opinieblogs die meedoen met de ‘Terug naar je Maker’ staan erom bekend dat reageerders met elkaar in discussie kunnen gaan. Volgens het Actie Comité Schepping is het doel van de anti-evolutiefolder een discussie in gang te zetten. De weblogs vinden dat discussie gevoerd op basis van een fabel geen discussie is en gaan daarom het debat met de initiatiefnemers van de folder niet aan.

                                                  Op www.terugnaarjemaker.nl vindt u onder andere een begeleidend schrijven om met de brochure mee te sturen, geschreven door columnist Luuk Koelman, u kunt deze brief naar hartelust aanpassen, zodat u uw eigen boodschap ook kwijt kunt.

                                                  Steun samen met ons ‘Terugnaarjemaker.nl‘

                                                  Update: screenshot van adres Kees

                                                   
                                                  See Also:
                                                  Earlier atheism related posts.

                                                  2009/02/04 Pat: Shame on the Netherlands
                                                  2008/09/28 Richard Dawkins website banned in Turkey
                                                  2008/09/26 Palin Witchcraft
                                                  2008/03/31 Pat Condell – The Religion of Fear
                                                  2008/03/29 FITNA? “SINT – The Movie” is more shocking
                                                  2008/03/22 Trailer Fitna
                                                  2008/02/16 Scientology Raid In Orlando
                                                  2007/09/02 Teeuwen and the Halal Girls
                                                  2007/05/03 Creationism in 3 minutes
                                                  2006/11/16 A War On Science -Horizon Documentary
                                                  2006/08/10 Dumb
                                                  2006/03/19 Tree of Life
                                                  2006/02/07 We are too sick of it all
                                                  2005/04/16 72 maagden of druiven in het paradijs?

                                                    Posted in General Interest, Science | Tagged | 2 Comments