Ramanisblog

Tag: Y! Bookmarks

  • OH WHAT A COSMIC WEB WE WEAVE-Story and Video.

    Please read my blog on Time-a Non -Linear Theory filed under AstroPhysics for Indian philosophy’s great insight.
    Space fans are no doubt familiar with     the classic short educational film, “Powers of 10,” that provides an eye-popping tour of our universe from the very big to the very small — and ends up right back on the picnic blanket in the park from whence we started. But the original is pretty dated now that we’re wrapping up the “Oughts,” and I’m not just talking about the hairstyles and 1970s togs. We know so much more about our universe since this film was made.

    In fact, it’s really just in the last decade that our technology for exploring the cosmos has improved to the point where astronomers could see that vast galaxies actually clump together and form larger structures. Our universe is a vast tangled web of interconnected galaxy clusters linked by wispy filaments surrounding areas that can only be described as voids. And that’s what scientists have taken to calling it: the Cosmic Web.

    It’s incredibly difficult to model this vast web of galaxies, however, since all the components that make it up vary greatly by orders of magnitude. “Powers of 10” made good use of zooming out and zooming in for its limited cinematic purposes, but when it comes to computer simulations, that approach doesn’t work so well. KFC of the arXiv blog explains:

    “As the small scale structures become too small to resolve, most computer models apply some sort of statistical smoothing process to make the large scale calculations easier. But if you zoom back in again, there is no way to retrieve the information that is lost by the smoothing process other than to rebuild the picture again from the original data. …

    “[I]t’s a problem if you want to simulate how the large scale structures form from smaller structures and how, in turn, the shape of the large structures influences the way smaller structures evolve. This kind of feedback process is impossible to model when the smoothing process between different scales essentially destroys any meaningful links between them.”
    A pair of scientists at the University of Gronengen in the Netherlands think they might have the answer: the Delauney Tessellation Field Estimator. “Delauney tesselation” sounds like something vaguely unpleasant from Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, but it’s actually an approach to computer simulation in which galaxies are treated as points in 3D space. The space between them is filled in with tetrahedra governed by very strict rules about how they combine as scales get larger.

    What makes the technique developed by Rien can de Weygaert and Willem Schaap so intriguing to astronomers is that its rules or reversible. That means you can zoom out and zoom back in your simulation, and the critical information in the original structure is recreated instead of lost. And that means we could soon have an even better model of our great Cosmic Web — and maybe even an updated version of “Powers of Ten.”
    http://news.discovery.com/space/oh-what-a-cosmic-web-we-weave.html

  • Goose photographed flying upside down

    A photographer has taken a picture of a greylag goose, as the bird was flying upside down.
    Brian MacFarlane was amazed when he looked at the photo he had captured of the bird in flight.
    The incredible display of mid-flight acrobatics is also a remarkable feat of wildlife photography.
    Mr MacFarlane was simply photographing geese buffeted by strong winds at Strumpshaw in Norfolk and did not expect to capture a moment of contortionism.
    “The wind was making life difficult for the flying birds,” said Mr MacFarlane.
    “Some were expert at controlling their flight, while others were being tossed around in mid-air.
    “On closer inspection of the image I realised it had flipped upside down but kept its head the right way up.
    “Quite a feat!”
    Paul Stancliffe, of the British Trust for Ornithology, based at Thetford, was able to explain the bird’s bizarre behaviour.
    “It looks like this bird is in mid-whiffle,” he said.
    “When geese come in to land from a great height they partake in a bout of whiffling, this involves the bird twisting and turning to spill air from their wings and thus lowering their speed prior to landing.
    “In 36 years of birdwatching I have seen this many times, particularly when watching pink-footed geese on the north Norfolk coast coming in to roost in the late afternoon and evening. I have, however, never seen a photograph of a bird in mid-whiffle like this. It is an amazing photograph.”
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/5353933/Goose-photographed-flying-upside-down.html

  • Woodpecker takes on 10ft snake in heroic struggle for nest

    A woodpecker has been photographed repeatedly attacking a 10ft snake which invaded its nest in the Amazon.
    The crimson crested woodpecker made repeated attempts to drive the snake out of the tree and was bitten by the snake five times.
    On each occasion the snake, thought to be an olive whipsnake, held the much smaller bird in its mouth and then let it fall to the ground below.

    After a fight lasting about four minutes, the wounded bird left the area and is likely to have died of its injuries or been killed by a predator.
    Assaf Admoni, 38, an engineer from Herzelia in Israel, took the pictures while holidaying on the Yarapa River in Peru in June.
    “We think it [the snake] was looking for eggs or chicks and the woodpecker arrived to find it had moved in while she was away,” he said.
    “It really looked like the female was acting frantically out of maternal instinct. She just kept racing up the tree and attacking the snake on its side.
    “The snake wasn’t very happy about that. It kept lunging at her and it landed its strike every time.”
    He said he had been impressed by the bird’s persistence.
    “What amazed me most was that she completely seemed to sacrifice herself for the chicks we think were inside,” Mr Admoni said.
    “It seemed like she would do anything to try and get this thing out of her nest.”
    But he added: “The woodpecker eventually left. She looked very hurt. Our guides told us she was doomed because smelling of blood would make her an easy target other predators. We don’t know what happened to her in the end.”
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/6852402/Woodpecker-takes-on-10ft-snake-in-heroic-struggle-for-nest.html

  • Climategate: the corruption of Wikipedia

    Revolting, to say the least.Could not have taken place without Wiki’s knowledge9?).
    By James Delingpole Politics Last updated: December 22nd, 2009
    241 Comments Comment on this article
    If you want to know the truth about Climategate, definitely don’t use Wikipedia. “Climatic Research Unit e-mail controversy”, is its preferred, mealy-mouthed euphemism to describe the greatest scientific scandal of the modern age. Not that you’d ever guess it was a scandal from the accompanying article. It reads more like a damage-limitation press release put out by concerned friends and sympathisers of the lying, cheating, data-rigging scientists
    Which funnily enough, is pretty much what it is. Even Wikipedia’s own moderators acknowledge that the entry has been hijacked, as this commentary by an “uninvolved editor” makes clear.
    Unfortunately, this naked bias and corruption has infected the supposedly neutral Wikipedia’s entire coverage of Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) theory. And much of this, as Lawrence Solomon reports in the National Post, is the work of one man, a Cambridge-based scientist and Green Party activist named William Connolley.
    Connolley took control of all things climate in the most used information source the world has ever known – Wikipedia. Starting in February 2003, just when opposition to the claims of the band members were beginning to gel, Connolley set to work on the Wikipedia site. He rewrote Wikipedia’s articles on global warming, on the greenhouse effect, on the instrumental temperature record, on the urban heat island, on climate models, on global cooling. On Feb. 14, he began to erase the Little Ice Age; on Aug.11, the Medieval Warm Period. In October, he turned his attention to the hockey stick graph. He rewrote articles on the politics of global warming and on the scientists who were skeptical of the band. Richard Lindzen and Fred Singer, two of the world’s most distinguished climate scientists, were among his early targets, followed by others that the band especially hated, such as Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, authorities on the Medieval Warm Period.
    All told, Connolley created or rewrote 5,428 unique Wikipedia articles. His control over Wikipedia was greater still, however, through the role he obtained at Wikipedia as a website administrator, which allowed him to act with virtual impunity. When Connolley didn’t like the subject of a certain article, he removed it — more than 500 articles of various descriptions disappeared at his hand. When he disapproved of the arguments that others were making, he often had them barred — over 2,000 Wikipedia contributors who ran afoul of him found themselves blocked from making further contributions. Acolytes whose writing conformed to Connolley’s global warming views, in contrast, were rewarded with Wikipedia’s blessings. In these ways, Connolley turned Wikipedia into the missionary wing of the global warming movement.
    Connolley has supposedly been defrocked as a Wikipedia administrator. Or so Wikipedia claimed in its feeble, there’s-really-not-much-we-can-do response to anxious questions from one of Watts Up With That’s readers.
    In September 2009, the Wikipedia Arbitration Committee revoked Mr. Connolley’s administrator status after finding that he misused his administrative privileges while involved in a dispute unrelated to climate warming.
    If this is true, it doesn’t seem to have made much difference to his creative input on the Wikipedia’s entries. Here he is – unless its just someone with an identical name – busily sticking his oar in to entries on the Medieval Warm Period (again) and the deeply compromised, soon-to-be-leaving (let’s hope) IPCC head Dr Rajendra Pachauri. And here he is again just three days ago, removing a mention of Climategate from Michael Mann’s entry. And here is an example of one of his Wikipedia chums – name of Stephan Schulz – helping to cover up for him by ensuring that no mention of that embarrassing Lawrence Solomon article appears on Connolley’s Wikipedia entry. And here he is deleting criticism of himself.
    Connolley, it should also be noted, was one of the founder members of Real Climate – the friends-of-Michael-Mann propaganda outfit (aka “The Hockey Team”) which, in the guise of disinterested science, pumps out climate-fear-promoting hysteria on AGW and tries to discredit anyone who disagrees with the ManBearPig “consensus”.
    Here he is, for example, being bigged up in a 2006 email from Michael Mann:
    >> I’ve attached the piece in word format. Hyperlinks are still there,
    >> but not clickable in word format. I’ve already given it a good
    >> go-over w/ Gavin, Stefan, and William Connelley (our internal “peer
    >> review” process at RC), so I think its in pretty good shape. Let me
    >> know if any comments…
    >>
    and here are some of his associates:
    From: Phil Jones
    To: William M Connolley ,Caspar Ammann
    Subject: Figure 7.1c from the 1990 IPCC Report
    Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2007 13:38:40 +0000
    Cc: Tom Crowley ,”Michael E. Mann” , “raymond s. bradley” , Stefan Rahmstorf , Eric Steig ,gschmidt@giss.nasa.gov, rasmus.benestad@physics.org,garidel@marine.rutgers.edu, David Archer , “Raymond P.” ,k.briffa@uea.ac.uk, t.osborn@uea.ac.uk, “Mitchell, John FB \(Chief Scientist\)” , “Jenkins, Geoff” , “Warrilow, David \(GA\)” , Tom Wigley ,mafb5@sussex.ac.uk, “Folland, Chris”
    Get that? The guy who has been writing Wikipedia’s entry on Climategate (plus 5,000 others relating to “Climate Change”) is the bosom buddy of the Climategate scientists.
    Nope, this isn’t a problem that is going to go away. Wikipedia may well be beyond redemption – as this useful resource site for Wiki-inaccuracies would seem to suggest. Like so many hippyish notions, Jimmy Wales’s idea of a free encyclopedia for everyone was a noble intention which has been cruelly and horribly abused by some very ugly people.
    Do you want to know just how ugly? I’ve been saving the worst till last. Here it is: William Connelley’s Wikipedia photograph.
    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100020515/climategate-the-corruption-of-wikipedia/

  • Convert Cassettes to MP3

    Cassette tapes may not have the high quality sound that you’re accustomed to with CDs and other digital formats, but analog does have its virtues.
    Witness the resurgence of LPs, which have a warmer sound than digital tracks, and often reveal a different, more subtle side of the music. Since many cassettes were recorded from LPs, some of that magic has been preserved on tape. Cassettes were the format of choice for us kids who grew up in the ’70s and ’80s, so there are still plenty of them floating around in attics, basements and thrift shops.
    If you want to preserve music that’s on cassette, transferring them to a digital format is the way to go.

    Ingredients

    One cassette player – any kind will do, from an old Walkman to a cassette deck
    One computer with a sound card and input jack
    One male-to-male 1/8-inch mini-jack cord (or an RCA-to-mini-jack cord)
    One digital audio recording program

    Software

    There are a variety of audio recording and editing programs you could use – some free, some not – but for the purposes of this exercise, let’s assume you’re using Audacity, one of the most popular freeware recording programs available on the web.
    Audacity is an open-source audio recording and editing program that works on both Macs and PCs, and creates raw WAV files that you can edit and mix to your heart’s delight. You can also use it for burning CDs and creating podcasts or soundtracks. If you want to convert your WAV files to MP3s, you’ll need the LAME MP3 encoder, a separate plug-in that works with Audacity.
    Recording Steps

    Regardless of which audio recording software you’re using, these steps should work pretty well (there are minor differences in menus and terminology from program to program):
    Hook your tape player up to the computer using a mini-jack cord. There should be a headphone or line-out jack on the cassette deck, and a line-in input on your computer’s sound card.
    Go into the Control Panel and make sure the Line In Source is checked. In Windows, the menu path is Control Panel/Multimedia/Multimedia Properties/Devices. You should also check the input panel in your audio software. In Audacity, it’s the I/O tab in the Preferences dialog box. Also make sure the output is set to go through your sound card.
    Check the recording settings in your software program. If you are recording music, check the Record in Stereo box (for voice recordings, that’s not necessary). Under the Quality tab you need to set the sample rate – the higher, the better. For CD quality, use 44,100 Hz.
    Now that your settings are dialed in, press play on your cassette deck, and press the record button in your software program. Audio should be coming from your PC speakers, if you have them connected. Now click the input level meter and enable Start Monitoring to see a recording meter. Adjust the volume to your liking, and then restart the recording.
    When you stop the recording, go to the file menu and save the file to your hard drive. From here you can edit and convert the file to MP3.

    WAV to MP3

    In order to turn a WAV file to MP3, you need MP3 encoder software, such as LAME. Before doing that, however, you may want to split up the tracks in your recording. In your audio editing software, there will be instructions on how to do this – basically, you look for the flatline (silence) in the sound waves between tracks and manually split it there. Select the flat areas with the mouse, and select “Cut” from the “Edit” menu to remove them.
    Once you have MP3 files saved, you can use a MP3 tagger program to apply tags that will be read by whatever MP3 player you play the tracks on.
    In the Future

    There are already cassette and record players that you can buy with USB outputs, which can be used to record audio directly to your computer without the need for a sound card. Next you will see cassette and record players with built-in hard drives, eliminating the middleman.
    http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Convert_Cassettes_to_MP3?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+wired/index+(Wired:+Index+3+(Top+Stories+2))#Ingredients