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Feb
03
2010

Podcast Roundup

I used to have a blogroll on the sidebar, but the current build doesn’t have a slot for it. I may get around to putting it back up. However, that still does not necessarily indicate why I subscribe to a podcast or a blog, so here is a listing of some of the things I ingest visually or aurally on a regular basis.

Podcasts (in alpha order)

  • Astronomy Cast – still one of my top favorite listens. Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela Gay have wonderful voices to listen to and their weekly discussion on astronomical or physics topics is a delight. The target audience is your average non-physics graduate, but I still learn things on a regular basis.
  • Geologic Podcast – George Hrab is a very non-standard (to me) musician and much of his music is not to my taste. However, I do enjoy his snarky humor and commentary on his weekly podcast, especially the Indestructible Bastards, Ask George, and Religious Morons of the Week. (But, really, can lose the Horrorscopes, Geo!)
  • Grammar Girl and Modern Manners Guy are both podcasts from the Quick and Dirty Tips site (along with other themed shows on Math, Money, Health, Pets, etc.). The grammar tips are great and help reinforce things and keep my language skills relatively tidy. The manners show often has episodes on dealing with a variety of awkward situations that I hope I’ll never have to practice. All well-written and spoken.
  • inFact with Brian Dunning is  new video podcast from man who brings us the amazing Skeptoid podcast (see below). It has promise! Only bad thing about vodcasts is that I can’t watch them while driving (my standard time to get updated on my ‘casts).
  • Memories of the Futurecast – Hey, I like Wil Wheaton (which is in no way the same as liking Wesley Crusher). I’ve enjoyed everything I have seen him in lately (especially a very creepy performance on Criminal Minds and an awesome Evil Wil version on Big Bang Theory). In this podcast, he read excerpts and behind the scenes portions of us new book, Memories of the Future, Volume One, an episode-by-episode recap of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s first series. Incredibly entertaining listen! I wish he would do a full audio version of the book because hearing Wil read his stuff is vastly better than having to use my own voice.
  • Mr. Deity – A wonderfully-produced vodcast about the every-day life of the creator and everything he must endure to manage his creation. It’s all hilarious, but I think the “Mr. Deity and the Identity Crisis” and “Mr. Deity and the Woman” are my favorite episodes so far.
  • The Skeptics’ Guide 5×5 is a 5-minute, classroom-friendly discussion about a single bit of science, pseudoscience or news item by the creators of the SGU (next item). I like the boiled down aspect of it – no chatter, no silly jokes, just straight up, condensed talking points.
  • The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe is a 80-minute(ish) podcast filled with current science news, skepticism and discussion of pseudoscience. There are often interviews with prominent scientists as well as other folks (including some on the “other” side of the skeptical fence). Although occasionally encumbered by too much irrelevant chatter (some is fine), including recently an in-depth discussion of quantum mechanics (which is interesting to me, but has no place at all on a Skeptics podcast), I do find the show entertaining and listen-worthy.
  • Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena – My absolute favorite podcast. If I have a new Skeptoid available, I will listen to it even if I am in the middle of another one at the moment. Brian has no fear in tackling any subject in pop culture (paranormal claims, alt meds, pseudoscience, even religion) and he has the hate mail to prove it. Two things strike me most strongly about his work: first, he does a reasonable amount of research (for a 10-minute weekly podcast) to back up his statements; second, he always stresses that you do NOT believe him – he is merely giving you starting points to research if you have doubts as to the facts and opinions as presented. I think his podcasts should be required listening either in-class or as homework assignments for nearly all school ages. (E.g., listen to this week’s podcast, and then do your own research to verify or dispute the statements that Brian made.)

I have a few other podcasts that I get regular downloads for, but those generally sit there unlistened to until I get rid of the backlog of my favorites (with no school and no job currently, my car-time is reduced substantially – in the house, I usually have other things to do). Finally, there are some science news-based shows I only subscribe to when I can keep current, because it isn’t news if I don’t listen to it for 8 months!

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Posted in Science, Skepticism, podcasts | No Comments »

Jan
20
2010

Brain still ticking along…

In an attempt to not totally lose my most recent education (as my electrical engineering knowledge has long flown the coop), I have been trying to read less fiction (which I so dearly love) and more physics-related non-fiction. It helps that I am reading the Harry Potter series to my daughters, so I get my fiction/adventure fix there.

I’ve just finished Carl Sagan’s Billions & Billions – the last book he wrote (indeed, the final chapter was written from his hospital bed). Very insightful, but that is nothing surprising for Sagan. Right now I’m working on Feynman’s Lost Lecture: The Motion of Planets Around the Sun. So far, it’s been historical information, which is very interesting and an easy read. Eventually it’ll get into the math and I’ll be slowing down a bit to figure it out with him.

A long-time neighbor (they’ve lived here nearly as long as we have and we’ve been here over a decade now) died last year after a long illness. Knowing my interest in physics, his wife has kindly offered me any books from his library that interest me. And boy do they interest me! It turns out Bruce was a mathematician with a strong bent towards physics and astrophysics (especially solar studies and orbital science). I wish I had known his passion for physics during our early years as neighbors, before he got too sick to socialize. We could have had some good talks, I expect.

I brought eight books home with me (in no preferential order; the smallest book is on top and each one is physically larger than the next as they are in one big, neat stack):

Not exactly light reading. The hard part was holding myself back from trying to cart it all away. Not that she would have minded, but I didn’t want to seem too greedy – and, let’s face it, there’s no chance I’ll get through even what I did pick up! I have been invited back for any additional books I might desire (he had a number of other Sagan books as well as a demonstrated fondness for both fictional and non-fictional accounts of Albert Einstein’s life).

In an unrelated event, I managed to snap a great sunrise picture the other day. I really need to carry the camera around with me more.

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Posted in Photography, Science, physics | No Comments »

Jan
14
2009

Immortality

In George Hrab’s recent podcast, he answered a question from a user above whether he would accept immortality if it were offered him. I thought his answer was interesting.

Anyone who really knows me knows that I plan to live forever. I totally hate the idea of dying – of ceasing to exist as a thinking entity. In that regard, I cannot entirely side with George (who was not entirely sure he would be into the idea). I would far rather live as long as I wanted to – even if (perhaps especially if) it means thousands of years – and die when I felt I had done everything interesting that I could possibly do than to leave this life at any earlier time.

George raised related issues, though, which I have thought about on and off over the years. It all revolves around three points of view – those of our current mind (the “meat”), the new mind (digital), and everyone else in the universe (others).

Machine intelligence
A common theme in sci-fi and near-future predictions is the ability to “download” (although, really, “upload” is a more appropriate term) our minds into a machine of some sort – computer, robot, whatever – and thus live happily forever.

My problem with this is that our mind is a collection of the entire contents of our brain. If that brain is emptied, our mind is gone. A copy may exist in that machine, but that copy is not, as far as our meat body is concerned, our mind. The meat mind will, for all intents and purposes, consider itself to be dying and will cease to exist as soon as the transfer is complete. The digital mind will think of itself as the “original,” because it will have all the thoughts of the meat mind up to and including the transfer, so it will feel as though it experienced a continuous existence. The rest of the universe will consider the digital mind to be “original,” because it will behave and react exactly as the original mind.

So, from a universal point of view, including that of the digital mind, a transfer from meat to machine would appear to produce the original consciousness in the new medium. However, to the meat, it will still feel like dying – the original consciousness will be gone and no amount of copying will ever change the fact that you, as the original meat, will have died.

Transporter disruption
This brings up a concept I thought of some time ago relating to Star Trek. From everything I understand about the “science” behind transporters, and without going too deep into semi-nonsensical Trekker speak, a transportee’s body is captured in a matrix, disassembled and then reassembled in the new location. (Keep any discrepancies between that simplistic explanation and Trekker lore to yourself – I really don’t care all that much.) From my point of view, the original transportee’s mind is destroyed at the first disassembling. Therefore, every person in the Star Trek universe who has ever been transported has been killed – there just happens to be a new entity with the same mind replacing that person. From a universal point of view, there has been a full transfer. From the original meat POV, death has occured. However, nobody notices it because everyone who goes through the transporter has died, leaving only perfect (or sometimes not-so-perfect) copies behind.

Ultimately, the best way to immortality without risking the meat/digital dichotomy presented above is to do it piecemeal. Don’t replace the brain, make modifications to it; change just a bit at a time via memory expansions, processor upgrades, sense modification, whatever the options are. If I just increase my memory, my mind is not destroyed. If it just works faster, nothing has otherwise changed. Over time and many changes, it is entirely possible that only digital will be left, but I am confident that during the entire process, there is no discontinuity of the original “meat” consciousness. It is the only form of digital immortality that would be acceptable to me. (Hurry up, science!)

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Posted in Science, random | 1 Comment »

Jan
05
2009

Ringing in 2009

Not much of note since the last post. We are recovering from the holidays (and what a long vacation for the children that was!) and the house is beginning to look more like normal – not that that is necessarily a good thing, but at least the Christmas decorations are largely absent.

This household eagerly awaits January 20th and the hoped-for changes the event will cause. (It would definitely be nice not to be despised by the majority of the industrialized world again.)

Life in a Fishbowl

Life in a Fishbowl

Now that I have found most of my desk, school work of a sort begins again – I have research to restart, much to learn and studying for a dreadedly-anticipated Physics GRE to manage. This all will likely result in 2-3 days per week at GMU, because I have well-convinced myself that I cannot do serious work at home unless I am already totally in the grove (which will probably happen once I get seriously programming in IDL). It’s just way too easy to get distracted.

I also hope to get a lot more exercise this year, including regular krav maga sessions now that I no longer have a class schedule in conflict with training. We’ll see how that works out!

WWII Memorial and Washington Monument

WWII Memorial and Washington Monument

In the trickling way which will probably continue, here is another image taken from my Washington Photo Safari. In this one, I set up with my back to the reflecting pool (where I took this photo) and aimed at the area we had just left – the WWII memorial and Washington monument. I liked the setup, especially with the monument reflecting in the glass-smooth pool in the foreground. I definitely need to make my way back down to the monuments at night, alone or with another enthusiast, so I can take my time and get the shots I really like (instead of needing to stick with a group and being under a deadline).

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Posted in Photography, election2008, krav maga, research, school | No Comments »

Dec
20
2008

Undergraduate Days Gone By

This past semester was my final one as a physics undergrad. I had two last classes to take officially – one had to be Sr. Physics Lab but the other was an elective which could (and, by the opinion of various advisors, should) have been Quantum Mechanics but I chose to take Introduction to Astrophysics instead. The benefit of being a (putative) adult is that I do not always need to take the advice of others, even if it really is a good idea. The administration of the physics department has corrected that oversight and QM is required for anyone using the latest course catalogs.

Senior Physics Lab, taught by Dr. Karen Sauer, was quite interesting as I had hoped and expected it to be. It consisted of two 30-45 minute lectures followed by 3 official hours of lab work each week. We could work additional hours if we wanted to, except for the one experiment that required a radioactive source only the instructor was permitted to handle. Each student had to complete four projects/experiments over the semester, generally as a solo project (except for one or two projects considered difficult/complicated enough to duo). For my projects, I chose the Zeeman Effect, Plasma Diagnosis, Compton Scattering and Optical Pumping. The projects themselves ranged from fairly easy (ZM) to bothersomely difficult (PD). The write-ups, however, were the real challenge. Dr. Sauer demanded (after the first draft) fairly rigorous, publishable-level papers. Whether she got anything close to that level is a question for her, but I tried. My papers ran 1600-3300 words and were graded 9 out of 10 on average. My grade for the semester: A

Introduction to Astrophysics, taught by Dr. Shobita Satyapal, was a mixed bag. On one hand, the topic is incredibly interesting to me and getting some in-depth information on how the universe works was fascinating. On the other hand, I felt the class was easier than perhaps it should be. Granted, it is a survey course (like nearly everything else in the undergrad physics world), but I think we could have spent more time on the equations of astrophysics beyond the mostly-unproved basics. On the other hand, if it had been very difficult, I likely would have just complained about that, so I should just be happy with the A+ grade I received.

Even though I only took two classes officially, I still tried to squeeze in some more unofficially, just to keep things active.

Astrobiology, by Dr. Summers. I’ve taken this before and since I am nominally doing research for him and really enjoyed the class, I regularly attended this class. It was great two years ago and even better now. Class attendance has doubled and his slides have become even more awesome with time. It’s still fun. I took one exam without studying for it (did not realize it was being offered) and scored an 85, which was pretty good considering I usually forget things immediately after the semester ends.

Electromagnetic Theory – I sat through maybe half the classes of this one, hoping to pick up something I had missed in my first horrid class. However, the instructor was teaching off the same exact notes (word for word, example for example) as the ones used in the class I took officially and the teaching seemed under par.

Introduction to Quantum Mechanics was every bit as complex as I anticipated, but I attended and took notes as well as I could. I kept up fairly well with the topics until we reached Hermitian operators, at which point an entire class went by which sounded like a completely foreign language to me (the result of doing no outside work on the class). At that point, I realized I would be wasting my time attending further classes and used the time to extend my lab work or go home early and see my children before bedtime.

And so my undergrad career comes to a close with a cumulative GPA of 3.96. Now that I am not distracted by regular classes, I hope to be able to dig deep into my research, probably by taking my laptop to school one or more days a week and concentrating on things there, since I will always find a distraction if I stay at home. The grad school situation is currently fuzzy – my intent is to continue my work at GMU with Dr. Summers, but they now require applicants to take the Physics GRE and the next test is not held until just before the deadline for applications, so I may end up with a dead semester or two until I can get the paperwork completed, unless I can get a waiver to skip that portion given the faculty’s familiarity with me over the past several years. Time will tell.

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Posted in fall08, research, school | Comments Off

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