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Seems pertinent to the discussion. “Ultra-precise clocks on the International Space Station and other space missions may determine whether Albert Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity is correct and could dramatically change our understanding of the universe.”...

Aubrey D.N.J. de Grey is one of the scientists who endorsed the article. He is an active researcher in the biology of aging and he supports research initiatives to reverse aging. (See http://www.sciforums.com/t5340/s/thread.html) The SciAm article is extremely conservative. There is strong...

MS in Peruvian open-source nightmare Interesting (but long) article on mandated use of open source software for government use. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/25157.html

Orthogonal, missed your posts. Welcome back.

If matter is required for space to exist, then it is reasonable to assume a lower limit on the matter per spatial unit. In that case, as Tom points out, an infinite universe would imply infinite matter. (However if there is no lower limit on density, then an infinite universe could have a finite...

Ad rodentia argument. Hehe.

This hamster does have a problem with excluding Iraqi students from certain courses. Not concerned about the Iraqi students, as they will find schools in other countries. What will be the next step? MIT has begun making its courses available online. From the hamster perspective this is a...

Shaman, thanks. Interesting paper. Recently this hamster discussed with a friend research on building a neural net simulation to solve Raven Matrices. Major focus was on how dynamic neural nets could perform symbolic reasoning and learn. Very ambitious. Too ambitious. He couldn’t get his...

Q, “Silence is often interpreted as agreement.” On a single post, perhaps. Repeated lack of response implies a lack of interest. Some statements are so foolish that a reply compounds the foolishness. “Choosing to remain silent towards one individual and not another sets one up as...

Bugs enjoy hamster sex “Waters's results suggest that bacteria try their luck with mammalian cells all the time. But there is little evidence that such matings are fruitful - reports of bacterial genes transferred directly into the human genome are disputed.”...

There are far more writers and composers working today than at the time of the great classic writers and composers. Most of today’s writers are better educated and have much better mentoring opportunities. So why are the classical writers and composers held in such high regard as compared to...

CB, the medical community is neck deep into AI. One of the first successful expert systems was MYECIN used to diagnosis bacterial infections. It worked well enough to aid doctors but not well enough to replace them. (Nor was MYECIN intended to replace doctors.) There have been many follow on...

Merlijn, it was to this hamster. It is difficult to balance understandability with accuracy when introducing a technical topic. Felt you gave a good explanation. (In such a diverse group one can’t expect universal comprehension.)

Merlijn, that was a good population example. Wanted to describe climate as a strange attractor for weather but also wanted to avoid jargon. Wonder if a new ice age or runaway global warming could be seen as two more weather attractors.

Small initial differences in nonlinear systems may lead to very different states. The states may still be somewhat predictable. The weather may be impossible to predict with any accuracy a month from today but the climate is relatively stable. Chaotic systems sweep out ranges of possible values...

Yep. Might help to imagine that one is an ant crawling on the surface with the circle. The ant can’t “see” any difference when the diameter passes over the dip. However the ant can measure that the diameter is longer than when the circle was flat. Just as a two dimensional surface can curve...

Silence may mean that there is nothing constructive to add. Or that responding may take the discussion along a fruitless pathway or diverts attention from more important issues. Or silence may be implicit agreement. Silence has many meanings. (Didn’t want hamster silence to imply agreement in...

Scarlet Letter

Amusing…quotes of quotes make it difficult to see who is saying what and who is disagreeing with whom. For the record…this hamster personally supports tolerance and values diversity. This hamster does not feel “tolerance” is a universal value as many societies and groups place little value on...

Consider a “flat” circle with a diagonal line. Define Pi as the ratio of the circumference to that diameter. Now “push” on the center of the circle, stretching the diameter while leaving the circumference fixed. Pi decreases. Is Pi the same for all circles in this curved space? Small areas in...