Experimental Blog #140

Comments on "Tubes - A Journey to the Center of the Internet" by Andrew Blum

Among other things the Internet{the author, Andrew Blum, prefers to capitalize the word} perhaps contains trillions of silicon chips and millions of miles of just as "magical" fiber-optic cables; including hundreds of thousands of miles of undersea cables. The Internet also involves satellites, but satellite transmission is slower and more expensive. All of these things make the Internet one of the most complex "things" in the known universe.

Andrew Blum says that it all started in 1969 when 3 computers at 3 universities in California and one university in Utah formed the first computer network. These 4 universities were joined the next year by 4 universities on the east coast, which Blum says were, perhaps, more conservative. By 1989, twenty years after the beginning, there were about 159,000 computers on the Internet.

In 1991 the US Congress passed the "Gore Bill", which was named after its original sponsor, Senator Al Gore. Andrew Blum says that this "push from the government was crucial in getting the Internet out of its academic ghetto." Apparently, there are now over 2 billion computers connected to the Internet.

The Internet today includes dozens of, sometimes huge, Internet exchanges, or IXs, around the world, such as in Frankfurt, Amsterdam, London, and Moscow. The data centers of the Internet are also sometimes enormous. One "500,000-square-foot building demanding fifty megawatts of power" is "about as much as it takes to light a small city". "According to a 2010 Greenpeace report, 2 percent of the world's electricity usage can now be traced to data centers..."!!

Experimental Blog #139

Comments on "Science Set Free" - 10 Paths to New Discovery by Rupert Sheldrake

The scope of this book appears to be all of science, old and new. Throughout the entire book the author, Rupert Sheldrake, criticizes and challenges what he refers to as the "materialist{or mechanistic} worldview of science". Some people might say, however, that the philosophy of science is something more like pragmatism; which is not quite the same thing as materialist philosophy, but depends more on the consistency and dependability of results and products.

Sheldrake's writing is very stimulating about many scientific questions and problems, including: the total amount of matter and energy in the universe, the fixity of the laws of nature, the extent of consciousness and mind and memory, the purposes of nature and evolution, and biological inheritance and developement.

Sheldrake points out that what are considered to be the universal constants of nature, that is: Newton's gravitational constant, the fine structure constant{which is necessary in calculations of astrophysics}, and the speed of light, have all inexplicably varied since they have been discovered and calculated. However, does it really seem to be so counter-intuitive that these 3 constants should very slightly vibrate, or oscillate, throughout space and time in the universe?

Experimental Blog #138

Comments on "In My Father's Country" - An Afgan Woman Defies Her Fate by Saima Wahab

This account of the author's life, which begins in Kabul, Afganistan, apparently, in 1976, is fascinating and very instructive; besides being frequently tragic. Saima Wahab describes, in equal terms, her Pashtun people and culture, and their numerous villages and tribes. She also writes about their relationships with the Farsibans and Hazaras, who are other minority people. Besides these people, there are also villages of Uzbeks and Tajiks in Afganistan.

Saima Wahab returned to "her father's country" several times from 2005 to 2009. At first she was a civilian translater, or CAT II. Later, and still a civilian, although she might be in military uniform and very heavily armed, she went as a member of a "Human Terrain Team", or HTT. HTT is one of many American Army acronyms, such as: IED, RPG, CONEX, MWR, FOB, PRT, HESCO, CAT, IBA, ECP, TOC, CMOC, and COIN, besides others which pepper this book.

Saima Wahab's experiences with the American Army and other "civilian contract" employees are also extremely informative.