Svalbard

Facts about Svalbard:

In 2009, Svalbard has a population of 2,753, of which 423 are Russian, 10 are Polish and 322 are non-Norwegians living in Norwegian settlements. The largest non-Norwegian groups in Longyearbyen in 2005 were from Thailand, Sweden, Denmark, Russia and Germany. Svalbard is among the safest places on Earth, with virtually no crime.

Svalbard is the northernmost tip of Europe and, a few military bases aside, its settlements are the northernmost permanently inhabited spots on the planet.

Svalbard literally means "cold edge."

The Internet connection in Svalbard is top class, courtesy of NASA renting bulk capacity on undersea fiber optic cables running at seabed to mainland Norway for its experiments.

The biggest threat on Svalbard is polar bears (isbjørn), some 500 of which inhabit the main islands at any one time. Five people have been killed by polar bears since 1973.

Anyone outside of settlements is required to carry a rifle to kill polar bears in self defense, as a last resort, should they attack.

Surface water may contain tapeworm eggs from fox feces and should be boiled before consumption.

Images of Svalbard:









Video:

Arctic Fox

Top Notch Street Performer

This almost seems choreographed but clearly it isn't. I'd love to see a street performer like this. Heck, I'd sign this guy to a record label.

Guilty

"We feel a deep pleasure from realizing that we believe something in common with our friends, and different from most people. We feel an even deeper pleasure letting everyone know of this fact. This feeling is EVIL. Learn to see it in yourself, and then learn to be horrified by how thoroughly it can poison your mind. Yes evidence may at times force you to disagree with a majority, and your friends may have correlated exposure to that evidence, but take no pleasure when you and your associates disagree with others; that is the road to rationality ruin."

From Overcoming Bias

The Third Man

Great beginning to a film. There should be more zither in the world.

My Favorite Albums of the first decade of the 21st century

1. Person Pitch - Panda Bear



2. Merriweather Post Pavilion - Animal Collective



3. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - The Flaming Lips



4. The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse



5. Broadcast -Ha Ha Sound



6. Joanna Newsom - Ys



7. Songs Ohia - Magnolia Electic Co



8. Okay- High Road/Low Road

9. Snowglobe - Our Land Brains

10. ???????

All Honorable Men

Sam Harris on MDMA

Sam Harris started his long history of thinking about religion, philosophy, psychology and neuroscience after taking MDMA in 1987. Here are some of his thoughts on it:

"It was an incredibly simple experience in the context in which I took it, it was just feeling so much neurosis drop away in a way that you never thought was possible. It was a sense of being much more nakedly aware of your experience than you have ever been; many of the things you have always been trying to get rid of without knowing you want to get rid of them, like anxiety and fear and judgement and apprehension about the future, all of that was just dropped away. It suggested that there really was a path whether it's pharmacological, or attentional, or through happenstance, or whether you just happen to have good genes. Whatever it is there is a difference between how I was tending to feel and how it was possible to feel."

Here Come the Warm Jets

It's a Here Come the Warm Jets kind of day.

Let there be light

Popular Science points to a German institute working on wireless internet using LED lighting:

Researchers there have found a way to encode a visible-frequency wireless signal in the light coming from lamps and fixtures, turning the light that surrounds us into a high-speed broadband source.
That's not to say there's anything particularly wrong with radio-frequency wi-fi, but its limited bandwidth restricts it to a certain spectrum within an already crowded field of signals. It also leaks through walls -- a benefit for signal pirates but a detriment for those who want a signal that is both secure and free of interference.

Visible-frequency wireless works by flickering all the lights in a room ever so slightly -- so slightly, in fact, that the human eye could never detect it. Incandescent and fluorescent bulbs can't flicker fast enough, so the scheme does require LED lighting, but the connection doesn't require any kind of specialized fixture, just commercial LEDs.

I read about this idea a few years ago. The article speculated on a variety of applications. One of which was paging doctors in a hosptial. Rather than using a PA system to page a person by broadcasting the page through the whole building, they could send the signal through the lights and a pager on the recipient's person could recieve the page without annoying everyone else. It seems like there are many potentially great ideas that can piggyback on this technology.

I haven't looked into it much but I wonder how data goes upstream? Are you still tied to wires or old style radio signals? It would seem that in order to send data you'd need an optical receiving device within sight of the device you're using.

Assuming this technology took off I don't see it being too far fetched for future mobile devices being "LED ready" and I don't see it as far fetched for stores to advertise via their lights. Imagine walking through a well lighted area or mall and having some sort of coupon that expires in an hour sent to your mobile device enticing you to come in to the store you just walked passed, or better yet, are about to pass. Hmm, I wonder if I can patent "short-lived coupon over wireless LED signal" ?

Anyway, what do you think this could be used for?

http://www.philipkdick.com/new_letters-laddcompany.html


Philip K. Dick in 1981:

Let me sum it up this way. Science fiction has slowly and ineluctably settled into a monotonous death: it has become inbred, derivative, stale. Suddenly you people have come in, some of the greatest talents currently in existence, and now we have a new life, a new start. As for my own role in the BLADE RUNNER project, I can only say that I did not know that a work of mine or a set of ideas of mine, could be escalated into such stunning dimensions. My life and creative work are justified and completed by BLADE RUNNER. Thank you... and it is going to be one hell of a commercial success. It will prove invincible.

Blade Runner IS a superb film. Also if you think about the time this was written most science fiction was still "white men in rocket ships" and most of it ignored the big questions and big ideas science fiction lends itself to so perfectly. The genre has come a long way since then, in no small part thanks to Philip K. Dick.

Also, I can't think of another example where an author seems to be more pleased with a film adaptation than their own work.

"...but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I've got to?" (Alice had not the slightest idea what Latitude was, or longitude either, but she thought they were nice grand words to say.)

Animal Rights

Here is a compelling argument from Robert Nozick

"Suppose then that I enjoy swinging a baseball bat. It happens that in front of the only place to swing it stands a cow. Swinging the bat unfor­tunately would involve smashing the cow's head. But I wouldn't get fun from doing that; the pleasure comes from exercising my muscles, swinging well, and so on. It's unfortunate that as a side effect (not a means) of my doing this, the animal's skull gets smashed. To be sure, I could forego swinging the bat, and instead bend down and touch my toes or do some other exercise. But this wouldn't be as enjoyable as swinging the bat; I won't get as much fun, pleasure, or delight out of it. So the question is: would it be all right for me to swing the bat in order to get the extra pleasure of swinging it as compared to the best available alternative activity that does not involve harming the animal? Suppose that it is not merely a question of foregoing today's special pleasures of bat swinging; suppose that each day the same situation arises with a different animal. Is there some principle that would allow killing and eating animals for the additional pleasure this brings, yet would not allow swinging the bat for the extra pleasure it brings?"

I find this to be the most convincing and troubling argument against eating animals in the modern world. Yet I still eat them. What does that say?

Pale Blue Dot

More from In the Shadow of the Moon

Here are some pretty great quotes from some of the astronauts who went to the moon.

"In earth orbit the horizon is just slightly curved. When you head on out to the moon, in very short order, and you get a chance to look back at the earth that horizon slowly curves around and upon itself, and all of a sudden you are looking at something that is very strange but it is very very familiar because you're beginning to see the earth evolve..."

"I was able to look out the window to see this incredible sight of the whole circle of the earth. Oceans were crystal blue, the land was brown, and the clouds and the snow were pure white and that jewel of Earth was just hung, up in the blackness of space."

"how peaceful and calm and quiet and serene it looked, how fragile it appeared, oddly enough the overriding senstaiton I got looking at the earth was--my god that little thing is so fragile out there."

"You get to see the earth receding, you get to see the moon coming twoard you and it's awe inspiring..."

"The only people that have seen the whole circle of the earth, are the 24 guys that went to the moon."

In the Shadow of the Moon

Between 1968 and 1972,
nine American spacecraft
voyaged to the Moon.

The men on board are the
only human beings to
have visited another world.

In their own words,
this is the story of the men
who went to the Moon.

The above is from the intro to the fantastic documentary "In the Shadow of the Moon."

Human beings have walked on another world. This is real. This happened. It's so wonderful I could cry.

Interesting(harsh) comments on Japan

These comments come from a commenter posting a comment to this critical write up on Japan.

"Japan is a dark place. It is a dying civilisation; a vice-infested, overpopulated society of drinkers, gamblers and smokers; an aging demographic where change is frowned upon and facades are the norm; where people will do most anything to make a name for themselves; where insecurities and identity crises are misconstrued as politeness and honour; a country that stifles creativity and burns out innovation, seeking to subdue efficiency and stamp its product with a culture that hides behind festivity and self-effacement, and pumps out clone after clone of lifeless, aspiration-quenched servants.

But it is also a place of great history and myriad marvels, where you can travel but a small distance and experience a different part of the overarching culture. There are so many subcultures existent within these shores that it is like a hotpot of various dishes, all blended together but each with its own unique, separate flavour.

Sure, anime has gone to the dogs, most people refuse to change or to step outside the box, and the country is in dire financial straits. But living here -- even out in the middle of nowhere where there isn't even a convenience store and the local grocery store shuts at 7pm -- is a unique experience and one that the adventurous traveller dare not pass up."

I am not really endorsing this, but there is a depressing truth to what is said.

Streetlamp

Once my favorite piece of art. This is a painting of the first street lamp in Italy by Giacomo Balla. It's a story of human triumph over nature. Powerful and sad all at once.

The Art and illustrations of Boris Artzybasheff

Blogs I read, so you don't have to read this one.

Greg Mankiw

A Harvard Professor of Economics who wrote the seminal textbook on macro. Very bright but sometimes he rubs me too partisan.


Marginal Revolution

Possibly the best blog on the internet. Thoughtful and concise economics and errata. Run by Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok of George Mason University. Did I mention this might be the best blog on the internet?

Bad Astronomy

Great for news on space, science, and skepticism.

Matthew Yglesias

A young thoughtful liberal. He almost always has compelling arguments with a leftist take. More importantly he is not afraid to criticize his own side.

Paul Krugman

Krugman is a great economist and a great liberal. He's proof the two aren't mutually exclusive.

NeuroLogica Blog

Dr. Steven Novella writes this blog. He is one of the most brilliant skeptics out there and a neurologist to boot. This blog is great for both neuroscience, skepticism, and the occasional lesson in logical fallacy. Steve Novella is also a contributer to the excellent blog Science Based Medicine.

Real Climate

The go-to site for actual climate science by actual climate scientists.

Skepticblog

Skeptics being skeptical.

Inhabitat: Urban Planning Blog

Pretty pictures and sometimes great architecture pointers but mostly I feel like it's a clever disguise for advertisements cloaked in "green."

Glen Greenwald

Constitutional lawyer and fierce defender of civil liberties. Never would I want to end up in a debate with this man.

Urban Planning Blog

Very infrequent urban planning posts.

Ben Casnocha

A blog on entrepreneurship and errata. Ben Casnocha always seems to have something interesting to say or point to.

Felix Salmon

Talks often about finance, but mostly he's good for his links.

Serious Eats

Great road map for tonight's dinner.

The Bellows

This is economist Ryan Avent's blog that mostly focuses on urban/city/transportation issues. He's fantastic all around. I almost always come away from his posts agreeing with him.

The Frontal Cortex

Fascinating blog on neuroscience. Never dull. Always interesting.

The Internet Food Association

Pretty food pictures that make me hungry. Mostly run by political bloggers.

Overcoming Bias

Robin Hanson is scary smart. Everything he says is worth reading and thinking about.

Whirled Citizen

I found this blog after the earthquake in Haiti. Very good posts on international development.

The Art and Ilustrations of James Jean

http://www.jamesjean.com/

Design and Adaptation

From the fantastic blog Overcoming Bias

"First, it is pretty obvious that within a century or two at most our descendants just won’t be creating descendants by randomly mixing the features of two parents, any more than firms today design new products via random mixes of old product features. No, our descendants will be more deliberately designed, with design components inspired by, if not directly taken from, a great many predecessors. They just won’t make babies the bio-sex way."

"Our mental adaptations to sex are subtle and well-tuned for our mating task of slowly teasing out the abilities and intentions of others while becoming increasingly committed to and dependent on those others. Our distant descendants will likely adapt such abilities for their many purposes. Future sex may well change greatly to meet future needs, but it will still be recognizably sex all the same. Long live sex!"