Quotations and notes from "Round About the Earth" - Circumnavigation from Magellan to Orbit by Joyce E. Chaplin
"Satellites were indeed the easiest way for nations to enter the space age, ... France{November 1965}, Japan{February 1970}, and China{April 1970} became the third, fourth, and fifth nations to put satellites in orbit." Post-colonial nations also put up satellites: India{briefly functioning in April 1975}, Indonesia{1976}, the Arab League{1985}, and Pakistan{1990}.
"Apollo 17 delivered .. the last person, so far, to have strolled the lunar surface. This expedition of 1972, the longest Moon stay, lasted 75 hours, about 11 percent of the 655.73 hours that it takes for the Moon to circle the planet."
"By 2012, over five hundred people had gone into space."
"The USSR established nine orbital outposts between 1971 and 1982. .. America's Skylab orbited from 1973 to 1979, .. A subsequent Russian station, Mir, orbited for fifteen years, a total of 86,000 times around the world, .. from 1986 to 2001. .. Finally, there is the world's current extraterrestrial outpost, the International Space Station{ISS}, first orbited in 1998, .."
At 569 kilometers above Earth, and higher, are the 'robotic emissaries'. "By the end of 2007, close to nine hundred satellites were in orbit, operated by authorities in over forty different countries."
Of course the earlier parts of the book were very interesting too.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Experimental Blog # 146
Quotations and notes from "The Last Lost World - Ice Ages, Human Origins, and the Invention of the Pleistocene" by Lydia V. Pyne and Stephen J. Pyne
"As a geologic epoch, the Pleistocene lasted from approximately 2.6 million to 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. It includes an ice age, ...Earth's fifth great extinction event{the Toba eruption 73,000 to 71,000 years ago}, and the appearance and evolution of the hominins." "but Earth did not re-lay its tectonic tiles in any major way during the epoch."
There are 3 cycles{or "orbital forcings"}, orbital stretching, axis tilting, and axis wobbling, which coincide in extremely complex ways to cause Ice Ages. "80 percent of the Pleistocene was glacial, and no interglacial lasted more than 12,000 years."
"The saga of Homo was not unique within the Pleistocene for its evolutionary experience was characteristic of the times. What happened to hominins .. happened to clades of other taxa ..", such as the African bovids and the elephantids -- the proboscideans.
"An estimated 210 skulls of paleohumans exist".. Apparently in 8 species, so far.
"The earliest tendencies toward the modern sapients probably appeared 500,000 years ago in Africa with clear definitions both anatomical and genetic evident between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago."
"Some 22,000 years ago the last glacial reached its maximum ... But a consensus places the general collapse at 11,500 to 14,500 years ago."
"Between 3,000 and 50,000 years ago, some two-thirds of mammal genera and half of all species that weighed more than roughly one hundred pounds went missing."
"...most of the mammalian biomass in the world today is either human{40 megatons of carbon} or human domesticates{100 to 120 megatons of carbon}, while wild vertebrates claim only 5 megatons."
"The arts and humanities can no longer claim - even pretend to claim - that they can make valid statements about the material world and how it works. .. But philosophy, literature, and history can help explain how the sciences work. .. They can illuminate how we might understand and express the practice of knowing, and how we come to a felt sense of who we are and how we should behave."
Science "cannot, unaided, address what it means to live, what makes a life worth living, what purpose spans the narrative of a life or of humanity. It cannot say why a society should even engage in this kind of inquiry."
"As a geologic epoch, the Pleistocene lasted from approximately 2.6 million to 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. It includes an ice age, ...Earth's fifth great extinction event{the Toba eruption 73,000 to 71,000 years ago}, and the appearance and evolution of the hominins." "but Earth did not re-lay its tectonic tiles in any major way during the epoch."
There are 3 cycles{or "orbital forcings"}, orbital stretching, axis tilting, and axis wobbling, which coincide in extremely complex ways to cause Ice Ages. "80 percent of the Pleistocene was glacial, and no interglacial lasted more than 12,000 years."
"The saga of Homo was not unique within the Pleistocene for its evolutionary experience was characteristic of the times. What happened to hominins .. happened to clades of other taxa ..", such as the African bovids and the elephantids -- the proboscideans.
"An estimated 210 skulls of paleohumans exist".. Apparently in 8 species, so far.
"The earliest tendencies toward the modern sapients probably appeared 500,000 years ago in Africa with clear definitions both anatomical and genetic evident between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago."
"Some 22,000 years ago the last glacial reached its maximum ... But a consensus places the general collapse at 11,500 to 14,500 years ago."
"Between 3,000 and 50,000 years ago, some two-thirds of mammal genera and half of all species that weighed more than roughly one hundred pounds went missing."
"...most of the mammalian biomass in the world today is either human{40 megatons of carbon} or human domesticates{100 to 120 megatons of carbon}, while wild vertebrates claim only 5 megatons."
"The arts and humanities can no longer claim - even pretend to claim - that they can make valid statements about the material world and how it works. .. But philosophy, literature, and history can help explain how the sciences work. .. They can illuminate how we might understand and express the practice of knowing, and how we come to a felt sense of who we are and how we should behave."
Science "cannot, unaided, address what it means to live, what makes a life worth living, what purpose spans the narrative of a life or of humanity. It cannot say why a society should even engage in this kind of inquiry."
Friday, December 28, 2012
Experimental Blog #145
Quotations from "The Information" - A History, A Theory, A Flood by James Gleick
"The hardest technology to erase from our minds is the first of all: writing. ..'Without writing{Walter Ong}, words as such have no visual presence, ..'"
"The written word is the mechanism by which we know what we know. It organizes our thought. ... Language is not a technology, .. it is what the mind does."
"Before writing, communication is evanescent and local; sounds carry a few yards and fade to oblivion."
"In all the languages of earth there is only one word for alphabet. The alphabet was invented only once. .. near the eastern littoral of the Mediterranean Sea, ... not much before 1500 BCE .. "
"Logic might be imagined to exist independent of writing - ... but it did not. .. Logic descended from the written word, in Greece as well as India and China, where it developed independently."
"Mathematics too, followed from the invention of writing .."
"Three great waves of electrical communication crested in sequence: telegraphy, telephony, and radio. .. These devices changed the topology - ripped the social fabric and reconnected it .."
"Information{according to the American engineer Claude Shannon in 1948 or '49} is uncertainty, surprise, difficulty, and entropy .."
"Memes{bodiless replicators} emerge in brains and travel outward, establishing beachheads on paper and celluloid and silicon and anywhere else information can go."
"Memes could travel wordlessly even before language was born. Plain mimicry is enough to replicate knowledge .."
"The information produced and consumed by mankind used to vanish .. Now expectations have inverted. Everything may be recorded and preserved, at least potentially: every musical performance; every crime in a shop, elevator, or city street; every volcano or tsunami on the remotest shore; every card played or piece moved in an online game; every rugby scrum and cricket match."
"The hardest technology to erase from our minds is the first of all: writing. ..'Without writing{Walter Ong}, words as such have no visual presence, ..'"
"The written word is the mechanism by which we know what we know. It organizes our thought. ... Language is not a technology, .. it is what the mind does."
"Before writing, communication is evanescent and local; sounds carry a few yards and fade to oblivion."
"In all the languages of earth there is only one word for alphabet. The alphabet was invented only once. .. near the eastern littoral of the Mediterranean Sea, ... not much before 1500 BCE .. "
"Logic might be imagined to exist independent of writing - ... but it did not. .. Logic descended from the written word, in Greece as well as India and China, where it developed independently."
"Mathematics too, followed from the invention of writing .."
"Three great waves of electrical communication crested in sequence: telegraphy, telephony, and radio. .. These devices changed the topology - ripped the social fabric and reconnected it .."
"Information{according to the American engineer Claude Shannon in 1948 or '49} is uncertainty, surprise, difficulty, and entropy .."
"Memes{bodiless replicators} emerge in brains and travel outward, establishing beachheads on paper and celluloid and silicon and anywhere else information can go."
"Memes could travel wordlessly even before language was born. Plain mimicry is enough to replicate knowledge .."
"The information produced and consumed by mankind used to vanish .. Now expectations have inverted. Everything may be recorded and preserved, at least potentially: every musical performance; every crime in a shop, elevator, or city street; every volcano or tsunami on the remotest shore; every card played or piece moved in an online game; every rugby scrum and cricket match."
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Experimental Blog #144
Comments from "The Pattern on the Stone" - The Simple Ideas that Make Computers Work by Daniel Hillis
The copywright year of this book is 1998.
In the early pages of his book Daniel Hillis recounts his childhood introduction to Boolean algebra and logic.
Since all computers, so the author seems to say, operate on bits of information and in the same, or very similar way, Daniel Hillis once even made, with the help of friends, a computer with the switches and connections made out of the sticks of Tinker Toys and strings.
Besides functions that stay constant in time, there are functions that involve sequences in time. To implement such time-varying functions a finite-state machine must also include a summary of the past, or memory.
"The central idea in the theory of computation is that of a universal computer - that is, a computer powerful enough to simulate any other computing device." This is also known as "Turing universality", which refers to the British mathematician Alan Turing.
"Like digital phenomena, quantum phenomena exist only in discrete states. From the quantum point of view, the continuous ... nature of the physical world ... is an illusion ... there is no such thing as half an electron." ..and "nothing can be exactly in any place at all." !!
An algorithm is a "fail-safe procedure"; while a heuristic rule "almost always gets the right answer", but is not gauranteed to do so.
The copywright year of this book is 1998.
In the early pages of his book Daniel Hillis recounts his childhood introduction to Boolean algebra and logic.
Since all computers, so the author seems to say, operate on bits of information and in the same, or very similar way, Daniel Hillis once even made, with the help of friends, a computer with the switches and connections made out of the sticks of Tinker Toys and strings.
Besides functions that stay constant in time, there are functions that involve sequences in time. To implement such time-varying functions a finite-state machine must also include a summary of the past, or memory.
"The central idea in the theory of computation is that of a universal computer - that is, a computer powerful enough to simulate any other computing device." This is also known as "Turing universality", which refers to the British mathematician Alan Turing.
"Like digital phenomena, quantum phenomena exist only in discrete states. From the quantum point of view, the continuous ... nature of the physical world ... is an illusion ... there is no such thing as half an electron." ..and "nothing can be exactly in any place at all." !!
An algorithm is a "fail-safe procedure"; while a heuristic rule "almost always gets the right answer", but is not gauranteed to do so.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Experimental Blog # 143
Quotations and notes from "Turing's Cathedral" - The Origins of the Digital Universe by George Dyson
"A digital universe - whether 5 kilobytes or the entire Internet - consists of two species of bits: differences in space, and differences in time."
"That two symbols were sufficient for encoding all communication had been established by Francis Bacon in 1623." "That zero and one were sufficient for logic as well as arithmetic was established by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in 1679..."
"In March of 1953 there were 53 kilobytes of high-speed random-access memory on planet Earth."{in about 15 separate computers}"Each island in the new archipelago constituted a universe unto itself."
"The new machine was christened MANIAC{Mathematical and Numerical Integrator and Computer} and put to its first test, during the summer of 1951, with a thermonuclear calculation that ran for sixty days. The results were confirmed by two huge explosions in the South Pacific: Ivy Mike, yielding the equivalent of 10.4 million tons of TNT at Enewetak on November 1, 1952, and Castle Bravo, yielding 15 megatons at Bikini on February 28, 1954."
"The year 1953 was one of frenzied preparations in between. ... the eleven nuclear tests, yielding a total of 252 kilotons, conducted at the Nevada Test Site in 1953..."
"...the largest fission weapon ever produced .... the Super Oralloy Bomb yeilded 500 kilotons in the Ivy King test at Enewetak on November 15, 1952, and was intended to demonstrate that for any conceivable military purpose, half a megaton should be enough."
"The digital universe and the hydrogen bomb were brought into existence at the same time."
"The bombs ... were a spectacular success. ... there had been forty-three explosions at Enewetak and twenty-three at Bikini, for a total yield of 108 megatons. The computers did their job perfectly, but on Castle Bravo, ... there was a human error, perhaps the largest human error in history, in failing to account for the generation of tritium from lithium-7 as well as lithium-6. The explosion, on March 1, 1954, was expected to yield some 6 megatons, but yielded over 15 megatons instead."
"A digital universe - whether 5 kilobytes or the entire Internet - consists of two species of bits: differences in space, and differences in time."
"That two symbols were sufficient for encoding all communication had been established by Francis Bacon in 1623." "That zero and one were sufficient for logic as well as arithmetic was established by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in 1679..."
"In March of 1953 there were 53 kilobytes of high-speed random-access memory on planet Earth."{in about 15 separate computers}"Each island in the new archipelago constituted a universe unto itself."
"The new machine was christened MANIAC{Mathematical and Numerical Integrator and Computer} and put to its first test, during the summer of 1951, with a thermonuclear calculation that ran for sixty days. The results were confirmed by two huge explosions in the South Pacific: Ivy Mike, yielding the equivalent of 10.4 million tons of TNT at Enewetak on November 1, 1952, and Castle Bravo, yielding 15 megatons at Bikini on February 28, 1954."
"The year 1953 was one of frenzied preparations in between. ... the eleven nuclear tests, yielding a total of 252 kilotons, conducted at the Nevada Test Site in 1953..."
"...the largest fission weapon ever produced .... the Super Oralloy Bomb yeilded 500 kilotons in the Ivy King test at Enewetak on November 15, 1952, and was intended to demonstrate that for any conceivable military purpose, half a megaton should be enough."
"The digital universe and the hydrogen bomb were brought into existence at the same time."
"The bombs ... were a spectacular success. ... there had been forty-three explosions at Enewetak and twenty-three at Bikini, for a total yield of 108 megatons. The computers did their job perfectly, but on Castle Bravo, ... there was a human error, perhaps the largest human error in history, in failing to account for the generation of tritium from lithium-7 as well as lithium-6. The explosion, on March 1, 1954, was expected to yield some 6 megatons, but yielded over 15 megatons instead."
Monday, December 10, 2012
Experimental Blog # 142
Quotations and notes from "Eating Bitterness - Stories from the Front Lines of China's Great Urban Migration" by Michelle Dammon Loyalka
"China has lifted a record 230 million people out of poverty. Its nominal GDP{Gross Domestic Product} has increased seventy-five times over{apparently since 1982}"!?
"At any given time, over 200 million such people{rural migrants} leave their families and farms behind and flock to China's urban centers, where they provide a profusion of cheap labor that helps fuel the country's massive city-building process as well as its staggering economic growth."
The eight chapters of this very finely written book focus on eight real people, or families, that the author, Michelle Loyalka, interviews and observes over a considerable period of time, "On average, ... about three weeks with each individual, though that was often spread out over several months."
"...migrants' salaries have risen rapidly in recent years and are now just 300 yuan lower, on average, than a college graduate's starting salary." "Even for well-trained professionals in the High-Tech Zone, a typical salary isn't more than 4,000 yuan a month..." If 200 yuan equals about 30 dollars, 4,000 yuan should equal 600 dollars. However, Michelle Loyalka points out that the college graduates' salaries will significantly rise, and the migrants lack access to affordable housing, education, health care, and other protections.
"The government is not indifferent to these issues, but the enormity and complexity of the task at hand are staggering."
"Those{rural migrants} who undertake this journey are neither able to completely abandon their rural lifestyles nor are they able to fully join the urban ranks; they belong neither to the nation's traditional past nor to its modernized future." "...they remain largely in limbo, stuck somewhere between their point of origin and their intended destination."!!?
"China has lifted a record 230 million people out of poverty. Its nominal GDP{Gross Domestic Product} has increased seventy-five times over{apparently since 1982}"!?
"At any given time, over 200 million such people{rural migrants} leave their families and farms behind and flock to China's urban centers, where they provide a profusion of cheap labor that helps fuel the country's massive city-building process as well as its staggering economic growth."
The eight chapters of this very finely written book focus on eight real people, or families, that the author, Michelle Loyalka, interviews and observes over a considerable period of time, "On average, ... about three weeks with each individual, though that was often spread out over several months."
"...migrants' salaries have risen rapidly in recent years and are now just 300 yuan lower, on average, than a college graduate's starting salary." "Even for well-trained professionals in the High-Tech Zone, a typical salary isn't more than 4,000 yuan a month..." If 200 yuan equals about 30 dollars, 4,000 yuan should equal 600 dollars. However, Michelle Loyalka points out that the college graduates' salaries will significantly rise, and the migrants lack access to affordable housing, education, health care, and other protections.
"The government is not indifferent to these issues, but the enormity and complexity of the task at hand are staggering."
"Those{rural migrants} who undertake this journey are neither able to completely abandon their rural lifestyles nor are they able to fully join the urban ranks; they belong neither to the nation's traditional past nor to its modernized future." "...they remain largely in limbo, stuck somewhere between their point of origin and their intended destination."!!?
Monday, December 3, 2012
Experimental Blog #141
Notes on "Natural Computing " - DNA, Quantum Bits, and the Future of Smart Machines by Dennis Shasha and Cathy Lazere
The first section of this extremely technical book is about how biological concepts, such as, evolution, learning, and adaptation are being applied in engineering and finance. Computers and machines for space probes that are millions of miles from Earth must be able to repair themselves. Evolutionary algorithms are being used to figure out when to buy or sell US Treasury Bonds. Missile defense saftey systems are tested to determine how well they adapt to failure.
The second section of this book is about the applications of "cellular computing". These applications make use of the "self assembly" characteristics of DNA and the "pattern formation" and "robustness" of embryogenesis.
The third section of this book is about the applications of quantum mechanics. These researches involve quantum chemistry, "quantum computing", and the differences between digital and analog computers. These are only a very few of the projects described in this book.
The first section of this extremely technical book is about how biological concepts, such as, evolution, learning, and adaptation are being applied in engineering and finance. Computers and machines for space probes that are millions of miles from Earth must be able to repair themselves. Evolutionary algorithms are being used to figure out when to buy or sell US Treasury Bonds. Missile defense saftey systems are tested to determine how well they adapt to failure.
The second section of this book is about the applications of "cellular computing". These applications make use of the "self assembly" characteristics of DNA and the "pattern formation" and "robustness" of embryogenesis.
The third section of this book is about the applications of quantum mechanics. These researches involve quantum chemistry, "quantum computing", and the differences between digital and analog computers. These are only a very few of the projects described in this book.
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