Monday, April 7, 2014

Ideas: Farms, both food and solar...

No research on this one, just thinking:
     While riding around northern California today, and thinking of all the wide open spaces, I'm reminded of how I often think we need to bring farming back to the community level, instead of the big business "for profit" level, to get healthy cheap food back where it should be.
      It's going to be a dry year in California this year, as there is next to nothing on the snowpack on many of the mountains in the area.  Barring some late April storms of a sizable nature, I don't see that changing for the better anytime soon.
     However, solar power has plenty of room to throughout California, Nevada, Arizona, .. basically the whole Southwestern area of the United States (and Mexico!).  If we could get out from under this big oil focus, we could, and should, be harnessing more solar power.
     I wonder how much weather change their would be from large solar farms in the sunnier places on earth, if any?

Sunday, March 23, 2014

http://beta.slashdot.org/story/198535
"Re:Balderdash (2)


aristotle-dude | 2 days ago


One of my colleagues in the past had a degree in divinity, and the one who hired my had a psychological degree. You appear to assume that a background in physics or mathematics would give a distinct advantage over others in programming in all fields. While I'm sure those skills are a basic necessity in developing new physics engines and possibly a new sorting, compression or encryption algorithm, many fields do not require a developer to "reinvent" the wheel and they can simply use existing proven technologies. This is often called building on the "shoulders of giants".
I think that the fact that I am multilingual and have a firm grasp of "logic" is far more useful than any mathematics that I might have learned in school. I view programming as more of an "art" than a science. It is a form of expression and the programming languages are analogous to human languages used in writing stories and prose. One could say that methods of a class are very much like prose on a conceptual level and the class is analogous to a chapter in a book."

Friday, March 7, 2014

Asteroid gives us something else to learn regarding physics?

http://offworld.gizmodo.com/this-mysterious-asteroid-breakup-has-scientists-scratch-1537798237/1538205731/+jesusdiaz

Caught by Hubble, an asteroid breaks up in an unexpected way in the Asteroid Belt.  Perhaps the details surrounding this will teach a little more about gravity and it's relation to the universe...

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Saturn's Rings Video Trailer

Cool video from Vimeo about "Saturn's Rings"

In Saturn's Rings First Official Teaser in 4K from Stephen van Vuuren on Vimeo.

I still remember my Uncle Jim Doidge sending me pictures from Voyager when I was a child, the ACTUAL photos that NASA printed out that they used to show on Television.  They were awesome to behold, but especially at that age .

Monday, February 24, 2014

Thinking differently about Black Holes, part 1

     I have much reading to do in the Quantum Physics, Astrophysics, and similar areas.  I have been feeling for a while that there should be more crossover between the bio-sciences and the physical sciences, and look forward to some of the discoveries coming our way.  One thing I would like to research, is how often a good idea or invention comes along, and is bought out by someone with a financial interest of this invention not making it to the masses.

http://www.nature.com/news/stephen-hawking-there-are-no-black-holes-1.14583

     Stephen Hawkin thinking differently about Black Holes, and I think it's about time, in my humble opnion! (IMHO)


Space Wakes?

28jan2014 12:28am Space Wakes

What if space wasn't "empty".  While thinking about the speed of light, and that the speed of dark must be the "same", I came across some interesting thoughts.

If light travels at the "speed" of light, then darkness must travel at the same rate.  It retreats at the same rate that the light approaches, and therefore, does it approach the same speed as light departs?  This got me to thinking about the light trails we so often see from fast moving celestial objects.

  What if the meteor or comet, moving through space, is moving through "something", much like it would in Water.  A speedboat moving across the water, leaves a wake, because it is moving through a medium.  It moves at X speed, distrupting the water by leaving a wake, which moves back into place at a much slower rate than it was displaced, causing waves from the energy displaced.  Now if it moves through the air, the same thing happens, but much differently.  You have to move much faster to get a similar effect, and it recovers much more quickly to fill back into place.



Now let us assume that in space, we are exponentially "thinner" still when compared to solids, liquid and gas, but there is still "something" there, just a whole lot less of it.  Again, you'd need to move quite a lot faster still, to get the same effect, and it would recover even more quickly than moving through gas.

What would we call this 4th state of matter?  Right now we call it "space" and we assume it is a vacuum.  Perhaps there is evidence that this is not accurate?  With Stephen Hawking talking about "black holes" not existing in the way we had imagined, I see the door for much more logical science opening.  No more discussion of "anti-matter" or "dark matter", but instead a greater understanding of gravity, and the true interaction of all matter, in relation to each other, no matter how remote.



  (ported over from personal blog.  I'm seeing more discussions about 4th dimension explanations, and wonder if this relates... more to investigate)

 (in addition, I will return at a later date to re-read these thoughts, and discuss my views on how anti-matter (or dark matter) does not exist, and how I might be thinking of darkness as "something" as opposed to the absence of light)

Absentminded Professor or Mad Scientist? Who cares as long as we think and learn...

     With so much to share and discuss, I have created a 4th blog, this one devoted to Science.  There will be some crossover with my other blogs; Poker Paradox, Gamers Paradox, and my personal blog, but only occasionally.
     The majority of this blog will be about Science, but there will be much theory, and conjecture as well.. please feel FREE to comment or add to discussions on whatever topics interest you.  It has always been said that "Two heads are better than one!" ... and the more the merrier!


Einstein always said, "If I don't know the answer, I know where to find it!"