May 4, 2012
Common Sense and Theoretical Physics

There are a lot of smart crackpots out there who regularly publish refutations of relativity and quantum mechanics. There are good reasons to do so: both theories are highly counter-intuitive. There are good reasons not to do so: both theories have consistently held up under experimental scrutiny. There’s a big problem: these two theories contradict each other.

Nonetheless, they are the cornerstones of contemporary physics, upon which far more grandiose (and far less stable) theories have been built.

So, it’s absolutely delightful to see one of the grandfathers of contemporary physics apply the common sense “sniff test” to the whole grand edifice: Behold, Roger Penrose.

Pretty much every word he utters in this interview is something I think on a regular basis, when I think about theoretical physics. That doesn’t mean I’m worthy to fetch the man his evening scotch-on-the-rocks, but it is very gratifying to learn that it’s going on.

April 16, 2012
Blogginess

Nothing unusual, a damp day in Seattle.

Weekend was gorgeous, that’s unusual, but Monday morning, sure enough, somewhere just the umbrella side of drizzle. 

Bus. Work. Lunch. Work. Bus. The day is symmetrical.

And the renewal of some blogginess.

It’s been a while. Livejournal is still living out there somewhere, but stale. Annoying.

Tumblr, all the hip kids say. Of course, missed my chance at my preferred username, but that’s ok, we’ll push the domain over here and fix ‘er right up. Tumblr. Seems like all the others, to be honest, but it’s easy enough.

News today: Holographic Tupac and Life on Mars. The first is technologists doing something cool, but of highly questionable value to society. The second is scientists making shit up in order to grab some headlines. Swear to god, they get so bored sitting around thinking up ideas for papers, sometimes they just get stoned and try to pass off science fiction as viable theory. When the latest poorly documented theory hits the semi-scientific press, reported on by wide-eyed journalists who don’t understand the subject matter, the best thing to do is sit back and say, “Doubt it.”

Digging into this one, the methodology is interesting, but there’s also a lot that’s not very persuasive. “Radiations following circadian rhythms?” Um that *could* have something to do with the sunlight. Call me crazy. Meanwhile, critics note that the techniques used cannot accurately detect life on earth, so, uh, we’ll chalk this one up to a “Doubt it.”

Liked posts on Tumblr: More liked posts »