Fringe: Season 2: Episode 8: “August”

The restaurant runs out of chili peppers.

There’s more than one of everything – even Observers! This episode was refreshingly easy to watch.

This episode is debunked at Popular Mechanics and Polite Dissent, and you can read more about it at Fox, IMDb and the A.V. Club.

Random thoughts

That would have to be one of the most expensive security cameras in the world to be able to show the flight of a bullet. We can have a think about what would actually be required with a back-of-the-envelope calculation:

At the slower end, a handgun bullet might travel at 300 m s^-1 (just under the speed of sound), and the horizontal distance covered by the camera when Astrid was clicking through video frames was about a metre (based on the size of August’s arm). The bullet travelled about 60 % of the distance, or 0.6 m, in three frames and so we can conclude that each frame lasted for about 0.00067 s, which is 1500 frames per second. By way of comparison, video cameras generally capture around 30 fps.

Once again we can see some old-school communication equipment; this time a dot matrix printer. I posit (Walterism) that communication between the two worlds is only possible with equipment that existed before the event that caused them to diverge. It therefore looks like the two timelines separated in the 1980s, right when Walter was retrieving Peter.

This is bordering on the obsessive, but if Flight 821 went down two hours out of Rome then it could not have been off the Italian coast and was probably not in the Atlantic Ocean. Either it was two hours away and in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Spain or Portugal (or possibly France), or it was in the Mediterranean Sea (or even the Tyrrhenian Sea – technically these are within the Atlantic Ocean, but they are always referred to by their localised names) and closer than two hours to Rome.

The photographs and paintings of The Observer at key points in history reminded me a little of James in 12 Monkeys (he’s shown in a WWI trench). Perhaps it’s also how J. Robert Oppenheimer got the idea for his hat.

As is fairly common knowledge, screw-on silencers (or, more correctly, suppressors) do not “silence” bullets very much at all.

The Lewis Code

We are treated to another chemistry-inspired code this week, this time to do with the Lewis structure of atoms. However, like the code in Earthling it’s pretty much impossible to decipher.

Different atoms have different numbers of electrons, and this is one of the ways we can tell different atoms apart (it’s called the atomic number). However, the Lewis bonding model is all about electrons in the outer shell of an atom (the valence electrons), which are not so unique. Each atom in a group (a vertical column in the periodic table) has the same number of valence electrons as the other atoms in the group – this is one of the reasons why those atoms have similar properties. This means that for every dot diagram that Walter noted, there would be at least four elements that it could match (and possibly six, depending on the group in question).

Walter's Lewis structure code.

Firstly, Astrid’s code-cracking program would have picked up on some of the repeated symbols – for example, “7″, “As” and “N” are the same. Secondly, the numbers in the address do not seem to correspond to the number of electrons. It seems to be (number of electrons)+2 except in the case of “2″, though how Walter would know this is beyond me (perhaps there isn’t a 2536 Hastings). Thirdly, as I mentioned above, each symbol can represent different atoms (this is illustrated in the code with “As”/”N” and “Ti”/”Ge”). Walter would have found the address with a lot of trial and error, and could easily have gone to the wrong place – for example, by taking other elements in the same groups, we could make vaguely plausible names like “Kassipsis” (K-As-Si-P-Si-S).

A less ambiguous code?

On top of all that, titanium (Ti) is a transition metal and has partially filled d-orbitals. We do not normally describe transition elements using Lewis structures, as they tend to break the rules – this is one of the reasons why the Lewis model is not used very much in modern chemistry. Titanium does have four valence electrons, but it would be unlikely to come to mind from a Lewis four-electron diagram (though perhaps Walter thinks in unconventional ways).

In order to make the code clearer, there would have to be some method of either identifying the correct period (row), or identifying the number of electron sub-shells underneath the valence shell (though of course this would also make it easier for someone else to decipher). I propose a second symbol (inside the large circle) to identify the electron shell that is being filled, and more dots to identify the correct period. Thus an empty circle would be interpreted as a number, a second circle (s-orbital) as groups I and II, a looped cross (d-orbital) as groups III-XII and a figure of eight (p-orbital) as groups XIII-XVII. The code would then look like the second diagram on the left – more complex but unambiguous.

For background information on this topic, see the primer on atomic structure.

Fringe: Season 1: Episode 8: “The Equation”

Olivia on the final chase.

The Shadowy Organisation^TM has to solve some complicated equation, but for some reason cannot bring its immense manpower and computing resources onto the task. This episode was refreshingly easy to watch.

This episode is debunked at Popular Mechanics, and you can read more about it at Fox, IMDb and the A.V. Club.

Using flashing lights to hypnotise people is just about plausible – we know that strobe lights can induce seizures and light trances, and that perception of colour is both a physiological and psychological response. It does seem to be an extremely roundabout way of immobilising someone to kidnap them (or their child), though, especially as everyone remembers what the hypnotiser looks like.

“Can you convert that into standard musical notation?” Why, of course – all scientific equations have musical equivalents! While there are some parallels between music and mathematics, you can’t just arbitrarily convert one to the other – it’d be like saying, “Here’s a paragraph from Shakespeare’s King Lear. Can you convert it into an architectural diagram?”

By this point, Fringe is reading minds on a weekly basis and so immersing someone in a Matrix-style constructed reality only warrants another reminder that this really is impossible.

The visual equivalent of the escape pod was a nice touch, but perhaps a tad impractical. If the whole area was bathed in light, as we saw, the hypnotiser (and any allies) would risk getting caught in the trance.

Once again, normal computers don’t beep to remind you that you just did something – when you walk into a room full of computers, you only hear the tapping of keys and the hum of cooling fans. The same generally applies to lights and remote controls, which are extremely noisy in this episode.

Breaking Bad : Season 2 : Episode 8: “Better Call Saul”

Walt and Jesse prepare for illegal activity.

Just when Walt and Jesse think it’s safe to buy a money-counting machine, one of their dealers (or are they considered thoroughbreds now?) is nabbed by the cops. Time to call in the next essential component of a smooth-running drug operation, the criminal lawyer. In this post, I’ll be talking about Walt’s exam paper.

You can read more about this episode at AMC, IMDb and the A.V. Club.

The midterm exam

Towards the end of the episode, just before Saul enters the classroom, it’s possible to sneak a look at the exam papers Walt is marking. This term’s topic is apparently physical chemistry (thermodynamics and the properties of gases).

A mass of air occupies a volume of 5.7 l at a pressure of 0.52 atm. What is the pressure if the same mass of air at the same temperature is transferred to a 2.0 l container?

This question is a straightforward application of Boyle’s Law, which states:

Hence:

The gas inside a piston was heated until the volume of gas had increased from 125 ml to 850 ml. If the temperature inside the piston was originally 15 °C, calculate the new temperature in °C. Pressure remains constant.

This time, we have a straightforward application of Charles’s Law, which states:

The slight twist in this problem is that Charles’s Law, and indeed virtually all relationships in the sciences, require the temperature to be expressed as a thermodynamic temperature. This is an absolute temperature scale, measured in kelvins (K) where 0 K (absolute zero) represents the complete absence of any thermal energy. We can easily convert to the Celsius scale, as the scale divisions are identical and 0 K = -273.15 °C (hence 0 °C = 273.15 K).

Hence:

Elements in the credits

I’m not sure why Michael Slovis wasn’t assigned iodine (I), carbon (C), hydrogen (H), sulfur (S), oxygen (O) or vanadium (V).

Xenophile Neurocam recently posted some machinima footage that he shot at my Rezzable Visions show in October 2008:

http://blip.tv/file/2514901/

Kumi Kuhr posted a short machinima video shot of my 6,672 prim E8 Polytope structure built on Butler sim:

http://blip.tv/file/1945189/

Nitwacket published machinima video of Burning Life 2008 which includes some footage of my build “It Came from the 8th Dimension”:

http://blip.tv/file/1375230/

We’d been recommended the Dove by a number of sources, not least for their awesome selection of Belgian beers.  I can attest that the beer is very good, but as ever, that’s not what we’re here for.

On with the food!

So, the roasts board offered whole chicken (to share), sirloin of beef, roast pork and a veggie option of courgette and aubergine stack with halloumi.

Our table went wholeheartedly for the pork, with our resident vegan getting the veggie option sans halloumi.  Points to the Dove for providing a Yorkshire pud with all roasts, not just the beef.

The pork was a little on the tough side, which is a shame since the rest of the meal was pretty competent.  The gravy was very well seasoned, albeit a little on the thin side, and the veggies were very good indeed.  Nice mix too, including mini turnips, roast and boiled potatoes, parsnip and broccoli.  Good crackling.  There was also a choice of veggie/meat gravy, which isn’t always the case at pubs providing a vegetarian option.

We even went for puds, and the standout there was the cheese course which was a) resolutely English (we have so many underrated native cheeses, to not make use of them is a crying shame) and plentiful.

So, reasonable food in a very trendy area of East London at a fairly reasonably £11.99.  Nothing to write home about, but add in the excellent beer selection and pleasant environment, it’s a solid bet.  7/10

At Buggies and Bikes Friday Mornings.
23 Broadway Market, Hackney, London E8 4PH 020 7241 5382‎

Call Suzie to book: 07721 610 574
Email: suzie@soothe-me.com
Web: www.soothe-me.com/baby

Baby Yoga & Fitness for Mums   Fridays 10.30am – 11.20am
4 week course £40, Pay as you go/drop in £9
Baby Yoga is a joint practice between you and your baby it’s a lovely way to move and play together. Classes provide babies with a variety of gentle exercises, movements, rhythm and song. Classes include gentle yoga and exercises for parents to improve strength, fitness & flexibility. Get fit with your baby! To finish the class there is relaxation and a mini tension releasing shoulder massage for all the adults. For babies from 12wks to around 12mths

Baby Massage Fridays 11.30am – 12.30pm
4 week course £40, Pay per class £11 (Organic oil provided, please bring a towel)
I teach developmental baby massage, it combines baby massage and movements (soft gymnastics), helping your baby and you to relax together.  Regular practice helps ease birth trauma, colic. It can even help to calm babies with reflux (it helped my son).  Massage works with the muscles and the joints, increases flexibility and teaching you a lovely skill to use with your child for life. Suitable from birth.

[----]As I mentioned in my Sidekick 2008 review, I traded it off for another, much more exciting device. And this is it! It’s the Motorola ROKR E8, and I’m glad I traded away the Sidekick for it. For starters, it’s got one of the most unusual keypad/displays I’ve ever seen. Believe me when I say this: You’ve never experienced haptics until you’ve played around with this device. When turned on, the device acts eerily like it has a real keypad. You can actually “feel” the keypresses as you use the device. But turn it off, and you’re suddenly aware that you were actually just feeling some very clever design work, because the entire face of the device doesn’t physically budge a bit! Add to this the changing keys for multimedia and camera use and you’ve got a very unique device on your hands.
[----]I got this for a few reasons. The first being I had finally realized how little use I’d get out of my Sidekick even once my Turbo-SIM 3G Storm arrived in the mail (it’s a SIM-unlock adapter). Once this set in, I was worried about getting stuck with a device that would only lose value… not the worst thing in the world considering what this line of trades started as, but a scary thought nonetheless. And then, because I had found this E8 on craigslist, and the owner was willing to trade, I looked up the device and figured I might as well give the device a chance, since it, after all, appeared to be Motorola’s best handset to date. It also looked pretty sweet.
[----]Now that I have the device, I can tell you this… it’s very cool. Granted, mine has a rather annoying hairline scratch on the display which shows up every time the device is NOT on, but I still like it. I guess the remaining question is… how long will I keep the E8? Even after the Turbo-SIM arrives, do I keep using the E8 or attempt to trade it for an iPhone? Already, the progression from eXplorist 100 -> Samsung Eternity -> Sidekick 2008 -> Moto E8 is quite an impressive line of trade-ups (at least in my opinion).

[----]Perhaps this camera is yet more impressive though. It’s a Nikon D40. And the trading which went into this is quite enormous: Sony Vaio UX -> Nokia N82 (Titanium) -> Nokia E90 -> Nokia N82 (Black) -> HP Mini 2133 -> Nikon D40. The first trade was an obvious down-step, but have no fear for I received cash along with the phone (which was ordered brand new as part of the trade). Every step from then on has been goods trading only.
[----]But back to the camera… this has been used on the Sidekick 2008 review, and I think you can tell that the Macro mode is much more… usable. The Z812 isn’t really equipped with the focus capabilities to be used as a Macro camera. The D40 on the other hand produces some absolutely stunning Macro shots assuming that there’s enough lighting on hand (it’s not as bad as the Z812 however). It’s depth of field is much more narrow, resulting in shots that are more intriguing without the use of photoshop. Now I just need to get myself a fish-eye lens!

Ella Parry (left, top picture), 19, Fashion student at Ravensbourne, East London, www.eparry.blogspot.com

Claire Barrow (right, top picture), 19, Fashion student at Westminster, East London

Tell me something about yourself: Ella: I need to stop smoking. Claire: I like tinned strawberries, Chinese food and ready meals.

Ella and Claire are currently working on a book which includes their illustrations and photography.

I teach baby yoga classes in East London, Tower Hamlets, Bow, Hackney Forge, coming soon to Buggies & Bikes – Hackney Broadway. Help your babies development have fun and get fit together!

BABY YOGA classes are fun and lively, they provide babies with physical and mental stimulation through a variety of gentle exercises, movements, rhythm and song. It is a lovely way to relax and play together, as a mum baby yoga helped me form a stronger bond and gain deeper physical awareness of my baby. Classes also include yoga-style stretching for parents and some to help postnatal mums re-gain some fitness, so please wear loose clothing and be prepared for a giggle and to sing a bit! My classes are best suited for babies of 12 weeks to around 15 months.

BABY YOGA CLASSES – All in East London

Mondays 10.30am – 11.30pm, 2 Arlington, Bow Quarter E3,
Small groups taught within my home, lovely friendly atmosphere and high personal attention.
Prices : 4 week Course £38, Drop in £9
These sessions include a 2 min neck & shoulder massage for parents at end of class.
For information and bookings call Suzie: +44 (0)7721 610 574
email: suzie@soothe-me.com

Fridays 2pm – 3pm, Hackney Forge E9 7HD,
Prices : 4 week Course £32, Taster session £8.50
For information and bookings call Suzie: +44 (0)7721 610 574
email: suzie@soothe-me.com

Buggies & bikes – Hackney Broadway Market
Friday 10.30am – 11.20pm, Buggies & Bikes E8,
Prices : 4 week Course £40, Taster session £9
For information and bookings call Suzie: +44 (0)7721 610 574
email: suzie@soothe-me.com

You can also book me for private sessions for just you or perhaps with friends – call to enquire

Finally http://www.univerbstudios.co.za/ is back online. We had to shut down the previous forums because of the huge amount of spam we incurred.

Have read up on our current focus, the E8 Framework, basically a Linux / Windows based game development framework written in C++, this framework will enable us to produce better projects quicker as time goes on.

Have a browse, register and interact with us as we move on with our various projects.

Ponsel Musik Wajah Beragam

Peralihan fungsi dari ponsel menjadi pemutar musik dan kamera digital hanya dengan satu sentuhan.

Tipe terbaru ponsel musik Motorola tampak beda dari pendahulunya. MOTOROKR E8 mengusung beberapa keunikan seperti sensitive touch pad, ModeShift, dan FastScroll. Di bagian depan ponsel tak ada satupun tombol keypad yang menonjol. Seluruh permukaannya rata yang disebut sebagai sensitive touch keypad.

Tombol on/off terletak di sisi kanan atas bersebelahan dengan port USB. Cara mengaktifkan ponsel adalah dengan mengeser dan menahan sebentar tombol on/off ke arah bawah. Jika tombol itu kita tekan ke atas maka ponsel akan terkunci. Mungkin sebagai antisipasi, karena touch padnya sensitif bila tak sengaja tersentuh.

Di sisi kiri ada tombol pengontrol volume suara dan tombol shorcut kamera. Di bagian atas terletak port audio plug 3,5mm untuk output audio via headset ataupun ke speaker hifi lainnya. Port ini cukup aman karena dilindungi dengan karet penutup apabila tidak digunakan. Lensa kamera berkekuatan 2 MPix berada di bagian belakang. Di sebelah lensa ada lubang kecil, yang akan mengeluarkan cahaya merah jika kita melakukan pemotretan.

MODESHIFT
Fitur unik ini diusung untuk memberi sensasi baru sebuah ponsel. MOTOROKR E8 dapat berubah wujud dari sebuah ponsel, pemutar musik dan kamera digital dengan sekali sentuh. Ketika berfungsi sebagai ponsel, jajaran ikon-ikon angka akan muncul di touch pad. Begitu beralih fungsi sebagai pemutar musik, yang muncul di touch pad adalah ikon-ikon pemutar musik seperti play, pause, next, back, shuffle dan loop. Dan ketika fungsi kamera diaktifkan, yang ada di touch pad adalah tombol-tombol zoom in/out, kamera foto/video dan galeri.
Pengujian: Mencoba masuk ke menu pemutar musik sambil mengaktifkan kamera ponsel
Nilai: 4
Catatan: Dapat melakukan multi tasking, meski terasa agak lemot.

FASTSCROOL DAN SENSITIVE TOUCH PAD
Keunikan lain adalah ketika kita sedang memencet-mencet sensitive keypad, akan terasa getaran halus menandakan apa yang kita tekan berjalan baik (haptic). Misalnya kita sedang menekan nomor telepon, setiap ikon angka-angka yang kita tekan akan merespon efek getar. Di bagian tengah ponsel ini tampak sebuah lingkaran yang tidak utuh. Itulah fastscroll. Kita dapat mengendalikan menu, daftar lagu dan daftar kontak dengan menyentuh fastscroll dan menggerakkannya ke arah kanan atau kiri.
Pengujian: Mencari nomor kontak, memilih-milih lagu untuk diputar dengan fastscroll
Nilai: 4
Catatan: fitur fastscroll responsif.

LAYAR
Motorokr E8 memiliki ukuran layar yang terbilang agak kecil jika dibandingkan dengan ukuran keseluruhan ponsel. Bandingkan saja, ukuran ponsel memiliki panjang lebar 115x 53 mm, sedangkan layarnya hanya berukuran 42,5 x 31 mm. Saat menampilkan gambar-gambar wallpaper yang ada di ponsel, layar jenis TFT ini cukup jernih dengan resolusi 240×320 pixels dan ketajaman 262 ribu warna.
Pengujian: Membuka file-file foto hasil jepretan kamera dan wallpaper pada kondisi indoor dan outdoor
Nilai:3
Catatan: Pada kondisi outdoor layar tidak terlihat maksimal.

PEMUTAR MUSIK
Keunggulannya sebagai pemutar musik tak perlu disangsikan lagi. Baik dari sisi fitur pendukung, kemudahan dan kualitasnya. ROKR E8 dapat memutar beragam format musik seperti MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MIDI, AMR dan Real Audio. Untuk peningkatan kualitas audio kita bisa mengeset equalizer, 3D stereo dan bass boost. Yang menarik adalah saat sinkronisasi lagu-lagu dari PC ke ponsel. Karena ROKR E8 ini kompatibel dengan Windows Media Player 11, urusan mentransfer lagu menjadi lebih mudah. Cukup drag and drop saja, lagu-lagu di PC sudah berpindah dengan cepat dengan kabel USB 2.0. Fasilitas musik dilengkapi dengan SongID untuk mengenali lagu dan terhubung ke server Shazam
Pengujian: mentransfer sebuah file mp3 sebesar +/- 4MB kurang lebih 3 detik.
Nilai:4
Catatan: Dapat menikmati musik melalui bluetooth A2DP dan headset 3,5 mm

RADIO FM
Memiliki fitur pemutar musik bukan berarti, penggemar musik tak butuh mendengar perkembangan musik di radio. Untuk itulah fitur radio FM juga disisipkan bagi penggemar musik yang ingin mengikuti tren lagu-lagu terbaru dari stasiun radio favorit. Scan otomatis untuk mencari frekuensi radio sudah tersedia dan bisa disimpan sesuai nama stasiun radionya. Untuk mengaktifkan fungsi radio terlebih dulu harus mencolok, headset 3,5 mm
Pengujian: Melakukan scan otomatis frekuensi radio yang bisa ditangkap di Jakarta.
Nilai:3,5
Catatan: Tidak ada fasilitas rekam siaran radio.

KAMERA
Ditilik dari kualitas resolusi nya, ponsel ini bukan pemilik kualitas kamera terbaik yang ada di pasaran. Pasalnya hanya dibekali kamera dengan resolusi 2MP dan tanpa pendukung optimalisasi seperti flash light. Namun masih ada fitur pendukung seperti night mode, multishot (sampai dengan 8 pengambilan sekaligus dalam sekali jepret), efek, timer dan auto save. Lensa kamera yang terletak di belakang ini juga tampaknya tak ada pelindung, sehingga rentan kemasukan debu.
Pengujian: Memotret objek pada kondisi indoor dan outdoor.
Nilai: 3
Catatan: Hasil foto indoor kurang maksimal, kualitas rekam video hanya 176 x 220 pixel.

INTERNET BROWSER
Meski layarnya kecil, kita masih bisa melakukan browsing di ponsel ini. Browser yang ada di ponsel ini adalah Symphony versi 1.1.0. Ada banyak setting untuk optimalisasi saat browsing, misalnya kita bisa membuka beberapa window sekaligus sepeti di PC. Kita juga bisa memperbesar/memperkecil tampilan halaman web dan ada pula fasilitas bookmark untuk mempermudah kita kembali ke halaman web favorit yang sudah pernah kita kunjungi.
Pengujian: melakukan koneksi internet ke halaman wap.detik.com
Nilai: 3,4
Catatan: Sudah tersedia setting GPRS otomatis operator lokal seperti 3, Indosat, Telkomsel dan XL pada browser setup.

KONEKTIVITAS
Dua jenis konektivitas yang memiliki kehandalan lebih adalah bluetooth dan mini USB. Bluetooth bisa digunakan sebagai sarana untuk mentransfer data, headset untuk bertelepon, maupun untuk mendengarkan musik yang sudah mendukung Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP). Kabel mini USB dapat digunakan untuk Media sync (mentransfer lagu lewat Windows Media Player 11), modem, memory card dan USB printing.
Pengujian: menjadikan ponsel ini sebagai modem GPRS dengan software Motorola Phone Tools versi 5
Nilai: 3,5

Copyright © 2009 Wizard Gynoid

This Lotus-like flower pattern was found inside the E8 Polytope.  I have colored it here with the seven colors of the rainbow, beginning with red at the center and ending with violet on the edges.

The same seven colors of the rainbow are used to color the seven chakras.

Copyright © 2009 Wizard Gynoid

Here we see the sequence in reverse, with violet on the inside and red on the outside.

I’ve been dissecting the insides of the E8 Polytope.  I had an intuition that I could find a spiral in it.  After analyzing seven sets of squares that descend in size, I created the following:

Copyright © 2009 Wizard Gynoid

Then I was able to perceive a single four-color spiral:

Copyright © 2009 Wizard Gynoid

I was gazing at my RL painting of the E8 Polytope and I perceived an octagon and a unicursal octagram embedded in the center:

That got me thinking.  Could that shape be used to tile space?

That thought inspired me to try to build a tiled space using prims and this is the result:

Islamic-style Trellis-like Tile made from prims.

This is about 1,000 prims and can conceivably be used for wall dividers or latticeworks in Second Life and other Virtual Worlds.

Scope Cleaver and company check out the new tiling.

What else will I find in the E8?

Lately,  I’ve been rendering some of my RL work in Second Life.

This time, it’s going the other way.  I’m painting a painting in Real Life based on some of the work I’ve been doing in Second Life.

I decided to attempt a 3 foot by 3 foot painting of the E8 Polytope.  In Second Life, my E8 Polytope is three dimensional (and very complex.)  In fact, the latest version has 6,672 prims.  (Which makes it hard to find it a home on a 15,000 prim sim.)

Without further ado, here is the front view of the Concentric Circles Rotation of the 4_21 Gossett E8 Polytope:

3 foot by 3 foot painting of the E8 Polytope

Earlier this month in Windhoek, Namibia, Ministers of Health in the SADC (Southern Africa Development Community) countries launched “E8″ a cross-border partnership to eliminate malaria.

According to the Roll Back Malaria website, the E8 -Elimination 8 – initiative “brings together Ministers from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland, four low-burden countries which have been targeted for elimination by the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), to work closely with their counterparts in neighbouring Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, where malaria still has a serious impact on health and livelihoods.”

The RBM website’s Angola page also contains a detailed English language map that can be downloaded as a PDF which shows a province by province breakdown of malaria distribution in Angola. Although the page is in french, the map is in English.

A friend of mine is scared of science.

scientists: intense

Or to be more specific, he’s unnerved by theoretical physics, which he finds impenetrable and arcane. I’m sure that it’s some deep seated phobia induced by a long ago by watching sci-fi movies obsessively. All science leads to HAL, he feels, which leads to death in outer-space at the hands of a deranged, murderous A.I operating system  which likes to sing nursery rhymes…apparently.

 He doubts that science can explain everything, which is fair, but it got me thinking about the aspects of ‘everything’ that science can explain.

I was looking into ‘everything’, as in the theory of everything. (which I’m sure is one of eminent Mr Hawkins books; those hefty tomes so misleadingly subtitled ‘everything you ever wanted to know about theoretical physics but were just too plain dumb to even begin to form the correct coherent question to ask’) and I discovered that there are quite a few different theories out there, battling it out like different religious sects, or else like white coated scientist versions of Robot Wars, only with clever hypothesises instead of whirling buzz-saw arms.

‘Theories of everything’, in case you are unclear, are hypothetical theories of theoretical physics that basically aim to fully explain and link together all known physical phenomena. Quite a tall order by anyone’s standards, but one in which there has been more and more interest in over the previous century, and one which has resulted in quite a bit of scientific argument and verbal bitch-slapping in the boffin community. The problem with all of these various theories is of course, it is ridiculously difficult to produce any kind of results that are testable by experimentation. They don’t generally stand up to experimental scrutiny. But then, neither does the idea that a benevolent God created everything in a week (it’s hard to test that, unless you count it as a test of faith…which I don’t) So I believe they at least deserve five minutes on the ‘soapbox of explaining everything’ as well in my opinion.

There are four leading theories, so in order to endow you and my physics-phobic associate with glittering, semi-coherent and partially informed party conversation (if you are ever invited to a scientist’s dinner party that is – and if you are, don’t touch the dip, that’s not guacamole, it’s cultured Ebola) I have listed here, in no particular order, the four main theories I can make sense of below:

Number one!

Superstring theory: “Everything comes from excited strings”

bondage: not for fumblers

Everybody

has heard of String theory, even if you don’t have any real interest in science. It’s one of the terms you still hear people bandy about. People living in the deepest Alabama backwaters without electricity and with many guns, meet at whatever passes for the water cooler to discuss it. (The rusty horse trough perhaps?) Unfortunately, it’s usually a case of ‘ah yes, string theory, very hot topic at the moment, indeed, saw it mentioned on the cover of New Scientist….and….erm, well… there was a picture… looked like spaghetti on LSD’. And that’s about it.  (cue howling winds of humiliating silence as the source of your knowledge is exposed as being limited to magazine covers and whatever happens to be on Wikipedia)

So…to break down string theory into handy bite size chunks of tasty and low calorie Physics then:

Think of a guitar string which has been tuned by stretching the string under tension across the guitar. (It’s not really important if you think of an electric or an acoustic guitar, whatever your preference)  The important thing is that depending on how the string is plucked and how much tension is in the string, you will get a different musical note. These notes could be said to be ‘excitation modes’ of that particular guitar string under tension.

Now replace the guitar with a Particle accelerator, (not as sexy on a live stage I know, no matter how much dry ice, but bear with me) In String Theory, the elementary particles which we observe in particle accelerators could be thought of as the “musical notes” or excitation modes of elementary strings.

In String Theory (as in the most excellent of thrash metal guitar playing) the string needs to be stretched under tension in order to become excited. (classic ‘Rock stance’ also helps, although moreso in Thrash Metal than in String Theory)  However, the strings in String Theory are floating in spacetime, they aren’t tied down to a guitar, not even an enormous cosmic one. Nonetheless, they have tension. When I say tension, obviously I’m not talking about a moody silence in an English period drama, but tension of a different kind altogether:

 The string tension in String theory is denoted by the quantity 1/(2 p a’), where a’ is pronounced “alpha prime” and is equal to the square of the string length scale.

If String theory is to be a theory of quantum gravity, then the average size of a string should be somewhere near the length scale of quantum gravity (called the Planck length) which is about a millionth of a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a centimeter. Smaller even than  the itty bitty wiggly things you might see underneath even the most powerful microscope. Smaller than the chance of Matthew Perry making a bearable movie. Yes. Even smaller than that.

 Unfortunately, this means that strings are much too small to see by any means we have at the moment, and so String theorists have to devise ever more ingenious methods to test the theory and convince us that they are looking for little strings we can’t see that are “definitely there, we just can’t see them, ever…so just take our word for it…”

There are several String theories, classified according to whether or not the strings are required to be closed loops, and whether or not the particle spectrum includes fermions. (not the Celtic Mythological demons…that’s Fomorians…don’t confuse the two)

 In order to include fermions in String Theory, there must be a special kind of symmetry called Supersymmetry, which, aside from sounding like the happy cry of an excited Feng shui obsessed interior designer, actually means that for every boson (particle that transmits a force) there is a corresponding fermion (particle that makes up matter). So Supersymmetry relates the particles that transmit forces to the particles that make up matter.

Supersymmetric partners to currently known particles have not been observed in particle experiments, but theorists believe this is because supersymmetric particles are too massive to be detected at current accelerators working levels. (you get this a lot in physics, things are either too small or too massive, known as the Goldilocks paradox… not really, I just made that up)

 Particle accelerators as well as being impressive and huge and terrifying a large portion of the general population with rumours of creating black holes on earth, are also quite useful however, and could be on the verge of finding evidence for high energy Supersymmetry in the next ten years or so. Evidence for Supersymmetry at high energy would be compelling evidence that string theory was a good mathematical model for Nature at the smallest distance scales. So there you have it. There is no proof really at the moment, but give us ten years and we’ll prove that everything comes from excited strings, which is not to say that I should be misquoted as claiming that everytime Metallica play a live set, they are creating existence. They’re not, just rapid screaming riffs.

Number two!

Holographic paradigm: “The universe is an Hologram”

holo-cherades was just as dull...

Don’t start off picturing the Star-trek Holo-deck here, or Al from Quantum-Leap. That’s not what I mean.
Basically the holographic paradigm is the intriguing bastard offspring of two concepts that were developed independently:

Idea number one: That the universe is in some sense a holographic structure

Idea number two: That consciousness is dependent on holographic structure

Combining the two suggests that theories utilizing holographic structures may lead to a unified understanding of consciousness and the universe, if I can risk sounding a bit Zen and new-agey.

The physicist David Bohm, as well as having intriguing hair, developed a pretty damn sophisticated approach to this concept of the universe, which he termed (rather pleasingly) ‘undivided wholeness’. He used the analogy of the hologram to illustrate the concept of undivided wholeness. So I suppose the first thing we have to clarify is ‘what is a hologram?’.

 Excluding that bit in the movie Total recall where there are two Arnies running around an alien base on Mars helping the bad guys to waste bullets playing ‘who’s the real Quaid’ a hologram is actually a special kind of photographic plate produced with the highly coherent light of a laser source. By coherent I mean ‘light which is all of the same frequency and which does not disperse’, not that ‘it isn’t drunk and mumbling broken folk songs’. Whereas an ordinary photographic plate records a flat image of an illuminated object, a hologram provides a three-dimensional reconstruction of that object. Spiffy.

 If a hologram is illuminated with the same coherent light with which it was produced, then the optical effect is as if the original object were being observed. When the observer moves his or her head around, different perspectives of the object can be seen. A remarkable property of holograms is that even if only a tiny portion of the plate is illuminated the whole of the object is reconstructed (although the resolution of the reconstruction is not as great as when the complete plate is illuminated)

Now, the physics of holograms is well understood and easily explainable (if I can explain it, it must be simple) The point here is that the hologram serves as a simple analogy for Bohm’s concept of undivided wholeness. ‘The universe is like a hologram, in which the whole image is contained within every segment. In other words, the whole is enfolded within each segment’. By shining laser light onto a part of the hologram, an unfolding occurs in which the form and structure of the whole become apparent. (imagine an enormous pitch black cathedral in which, if you hid in the corner and struck a match, the entire building would become brightly and clearly illuminated. That’s some match, and that’s why holograms are undeniably spiffy in the extreme)

 Similarly, processes of unfolding occur continually in the universe, yielding the patterns and structures which we can see and measure. Tenuous? Perhaps. But I still like this theory. It makes we want to go and sit on a mountain top and chant ‘ommm’ until I reach Nirvana.

Number three!

E8-based Theory of Everything:

crop circle regretted taking LSD

See this picture? Isn’t it pretty? It’s our universe (at least mathematically speaking) and according to theory number three, the imaginative and catchily titled ‘E8-based theory’.(give them a break, they’re scientists, not poets. You can’t be good at everything (unless you’re Stephen Fry)

This theory sprung, like a greek goddess from the head of her cannibalistic father, from the throbbing and powerful brain of Antony Garrett Lisi, an American theoretical physicist, and it describes a new unified field theory that connects the theories of quantum physics and gravitation using the mathematical shape ‘E8’. ( The pretty picture which admittedly looks as though it’s been done with one of those ‘spiro-graph’ toys for kids)

Lisi’s inspiration lies in this elegant and intricate shape known to mathematics, a complex, eight-dimensional mathematical pattern with 248 points which was first discovered in 1887 (under a rock in someone’s back yard in Ohio….not really) Although the shape has been known all this time, it was only recently fully understood in the last few years in mathematical terms, after a lot of very clever people worked though equations which, if written out in teeny tiny print, would cover an area the size of Manhattan island. (and you think your paperwork is hard to keep track of?)

 E8 encapsulates the symmetries of a geometric object that is 57-dimensional and in itself is 248-dimensional. Lisi was quoted as saying “I think our universe is this beautiful shape.” Then he had a nose-bleed from contemplating too many dimensions.

What makes E8 so exciting to theoretical physicists, and has them rolling around purring in the theory like it was a big pile of theoretical catnip, is that Nature also seems to have embedded it at the heart of many bits of physics. One interpretation of why we have such a quirky list of fundamental particles for example is because they all result from different facets of the strange symmetries of E8. Spooky. Proof of God via intelligent design? Not really. Proof of design? Arguably very much yes indeed. 

What Lisi had realised was that he could find a way to place the various elementary particles and forces on E8’s 248 points, like plotting a map. What remained was 20 gaps left over when he finished, which he filled with ‘notional particles’. (scientist-speak for ‘made up stuff) : for example those that some physicists predict to be associated with gravity…maybe, perhaps

Physicists have long puzzled over why elementary particles appear to belong to families, but if you follow the E8 theory, this arises naturally from the geometry of the shape. A place for everything and everything in it’s place. So far, all the interactions predicted by the complex geometrical relationships inside E8 match with observations in the real world. The chaos of reality, it seems, is actually not chaos at all, but a very very complicated form of order. Lisi must be very, very smug indeed.

The crucial tests of his work are still coming in through testable predictions. Boffins are now calculating the masses that the 20 new ‘spare’ particles should have, in the hope that they may be spotted through the tireless work of the notorious Large Hadron Collider (hopefully before it creates a singularity on Earth and kills us all, as crazy bloggers would have us believe)
Chances are much higher that the Large Hadron Collider, (something which if you mis-spell in a Google search brings up some very alarming results) will let us see some of these particles, than that it will see Superparticles, extra dimensions, or micro black holes as predicted by string theory. (remember the excited strings?)

Number four!

Integral theory: “everything in creation –except perhaps creation itself– is a holon”

holon pictures: hard to find...so heres a cylon instead

That’s right, a holon.
‘What the devil is a holon?’ I hear you cry in gibbering physics-fear. Well… The idea of holons came from the manic but thoughtful scribblings of Arthur Koestler. In considering what might be the basic building blocks of existence, he observed that it seems that every entity and concept shares a dual nature: as a whole in itself, and as a part of some other whole. For example, although you are made of parts (your nervous system, your skeletal system, etc.), you are also a part of your society, your country, your bridge club, the Sandy Duncan fan club etc. An alphabetic letter is a self-existing entity in itself and simultaneously an integral part of a word. (TV hosts Ant and Dec may be the exception to this rule, no-one has any proof they are separate entities)

Everything from quarks, matter, energy and ideas can be looked at in this way. Everything in creation except perhaps creation itself is a holon. Even you. Now you feel special don’t you? You are a holon. Add it to your online C.V.

AQAL lies at the heart of the holon musings. It stands for “All Quadrants All Levels” (not, as you might imagine “Atlantean Queens All Lactate) but equally it connotes ‘all lines’, ‘all states’ and ‘all types’. These are the five irreducible categories of this model of manifest existence. In order for an account of the cosmos to be complete, supporters of this theory believe that it must include each of these five categories. Every last one of the AQAL categories (quadrants, lines, levels, states, and types) relate to relative truth in the ‘two truths’ doctrine of Buddhism, (yin and yang: not just a bad choice of tattoo). According to this theory, none of the categories are true in an absolute sense: only formless awareness, “the simple feeling of being,” exists absolutely.

Each holon, or unit-of-reality-that-is-both-a-whole-and-a-part-of-a-larger-whole, has an interior and an exterior. It also exists as an individual and (assuming more than one of these entities exists) as a collective. Observing the holon from the outside constitutes an exterior perspective on that holon. Observing it from the inside is the interior perspective, and so forth. If you map these four perspectives into quadrants, you have four quadrants, or dimensions (these are unrelated to the three spatial dimensions, don’t get confused)

To give an example of how this works, consider four schools of social science. Freudian psychoanalysis, which interprets people’s interior experiences, is an account of the interior individual (or quadrant) Behaviorism, which limits itself to the observation of the behavior of organisms, is an exterior individual (or quadrant). Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics interprets the collective consciousness of a society, and is thus an interior plural perspective. Marxist economic theory examines the external behavior of a society.

Thus all four head-shrinking pursuits;  psychoanalysis, behaviorism, philosophical hermeneutics and Marxism; offer complementary, rather than contradictory, perspectives, which I find quite pleasing for some reason. It is possible for all to be correct and necessary for a complete account of human existence. The holon-hollerers (advocates of intregal theory) have here integrated these four areas of knowledge through an acknowledgement of the four fundamental dimensions of existence. Further, these four perspectives are equally valid at all levels of existence. And people say sociology is bull. Tch. For shame.

So there you have it. Everything…in a nutshell. Or four nutshells as it were. (unless you side with intregal theory, where the metaphor breaks down into a tasty and complementary holon-hazelnut spread. Broken down into user-friendly and hopefully less confusing chunks.  I hope my friend is happy now, and no longer scared of science. Theoretical Physics are your friend Paul, not the boogyman.

have i got something in my eye Dave?

Unless of course it’s the kind of Science which produces HAL.

On a final note, I have to add, for the sake of balance, that sometimes of course, Science is nothing more than a big fat waste of everyone’s time, as in the below, which is an actual scientific paper upon which people spent time, energy and money:

«Ultrasonic Velocity in Cheddar Cheese as Affected by Temperature»
(A. Mulet, J. Benedito and J. Bon; Polytechnic University of Valencia; 2006)

“The ultrasonic velocity in Cheddar cheese is temperature dependent. This relationship can be used to make corrections when determining ultrasonic texture or to determine mean temperatures in cooling/heating processes. At 0 < T < 35 °C ultrasonic velocity was 1590 to 1696 Ms, at 0 and 35 °C, respectively. Differential Scanning Calorimetry thermograms linked the temperature dependence of ultrasonic velocity to fat melting. Three parts are distinguished in the curve as a consequence of the fat melting and the appearance of free oil. The most reliable temperature interval to carry out ultrasonic measurements in Cheddar cheese is identified as 0 to 17 °C.”

Seriously?

I’m still waiting on the lab results regarding Brie. It may change our world.

 

 

 

 

Wizzy keeps building geometric objects of more and more intricacy and complexity.  Wizzy’s building is therefore necessarily Extropic.

6672 prim E8 Polytope

This is my latest project.  A 6672 prim E8 Polytope.  This one is more representative of the E8 than any of my previous attempts.  It took several attempts to successfully rez this object, and even so the sim creaked and groaned.

This particular rotation of the E8 Polytope is important because it shows *all* 240 of the vertices.  Each vertice can be seen above as a meeting of edge struts.

From this angle, we can see a clear hole on this axis going straight down through the object.  When flattened down to two dimensions this object would look this:

The 2D graph commonly recognized as the E8 Polytope

This 2D version has 240 recognizable vertices or nodes.  If Second Life had less perspective programmed into our view, from this axis or view we could see the object like this.

Some of you might wonder why I am so obviously obsessed with this object.  It is considered to be the most beautiful and elegant geometric object known to mathematicians.  That alone is probably reason enough…

But as I proceed with this obsession, at each step I learn more and more.  I gain a more intuitive grasp of what this thing is all about.  Each new discovery is a wonder and a joy.

Another axis of symmetry reveals itself

Where do I go from here?

The direction of higher complexity leads from the eighth dimension up to all 248 dimensions of the E8 Group.

The direction of lower complexity leads downward to the G2.  The cube-like, hexagonal symmetry of the G2 lends itself to demonstrations of how quarks and the strong force relate.

Next stop, G2.

Back in October 2008, I received an IM from someone named M Linden.  He told me he was looking at some of my work and wanted to buy some.  I asked him where he was and he said he was at Rezzable Visions.  So I immediately dropped everything and TP’d over there.

Chatting with M Linden

M Linden happens to be Mark Kingdon in Real Life, and he is the Chief Executive Officer of Second Life!

Luckily, I knew that when he IM’d me.

I helped him buy some of my stuff, and he said at the time that he wanted to put them up in his own personal sculpture garden in SL.  I went looking for his land at one point but it happens to be on protected Linden land, so I couldn’t get in to see what he did with it.

I thought that was the end of that.

Yesterday, Torley Linden posted a Tweet (on Twitter) about a Flickr picture of M Linden’s SL office.  I was ecstatic to find a picture of two of my sculptures floating over his office:

Two of my geometric sculptures floating over M Linden's office in SL.

I then went through all of Mr. CEO Linden’s posts on Flickr and found some more good shots of his visit to my Rezzable Visions build.

"I love this. Bought one from the creator and it's sitting on my roof "

My marching orders are to try to crash Rezzable’s Alpha Open Sim Grid.  So I set about to do that with a passion once scripting was turned on on my two regions.  Somehow Foolish Frost fixed the script engine, commenting that Rezzable Open Sim doesn’t use the Xengine script engine.  In that case, I would expect this grid to behave differently from the Reaction Grid.  So far, all behavior seems very similar.

Rezzing the E8 Concentric Circles Projection on Rezzable Alpha Grid

Next, I tried to “stretch” the object as large as I could, given the limitations of the Linden Lab viewer.  Initially I had a lot of problems getting the viewer to allow me to stretch.  It was acting kludgie and I think it might have had to do with the sim stats.  Check out the sim speed:

Note the Frame and Sim Times

After I relogged, I was able to “stretch” (after the selection tool accepted all 2956 prims).  With the ten meter limit on prim size however, it didn’t stretch much.

Stretching the object

After I stretched it to maximum, I moved it straight down to ground level.  This is easier said than done, because you’ve selected about 3,000 prims to move and the sim creaks and groans and complains.  It’s not done easily, let me just say that.

E8 Concentric Circles on Wizzy sim & Desde sim in the background.

Remarkably, with almost 3,000 active scripts on the region, I was able to rez a prim and create and compile a script afterwards.  Only one anomaly was noticed – I couldn’t “take” a prim that I should have been able to.  Instead I had to delete it and then restore it.  This small anomaly might count toward “crashing” the sim, but so far Rezzable Alpha has been resistant to my banging on it.  Will continue to do so tomorrow.

Goth Wizzy on Wizzy sim with Desde Sim in the background.