tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9488356763720278462024-03-13T12:01:47.089-05:00Old & (Not Always) In The WayThings I've Learned, Things I Find Interesting, Things I Think AboutGlenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-86410547737163682092010-01-10T12:03:00.007-06:002010-01-10T12:15:41.539-06:00Decoding the Antikythera Mechanism Over at the Scientific American website, I found these two videos about the decoding of the Antikythera Mechanism.This amazing piece of technology was discovered at the turn of the last century in a shipwreck in the Greek isles. An astronomical calendar, Olympic calendar, eclipse calculator and on and on.As the videos discuss, there is some indication that this device may be a result of Glenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-19167229229654670932009-12-30T07:46:00.009-06:002009-12-30T10:32:08.976-06:00America's Founding -- Not a Christian NationAs a result of a recent response on Facebook to becoming a fan of the Secular Coalition for America, I felt I needed to put together some references about aspects of the founding of our country. In short, the question is: Was America founded as a Christian nation or not?Without too much effort on Google, I found the following information and references. I haven't had the time to search Glenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-40640777836630559702009-10-07T22:09:00.006-05:002009-10-07T22:20:33.677-05:00Clouds of InformationUnder the theory that word selection by itself provides information about a communication, a variety of tools have been developed for the statistical analysis of texts.It can be as simple as counting words. For example, Andrew Sullivan in his The Daily Dish blog over at The Atlantic has a recent post entitled Fact-Checking George Will. In it, he takes Will to task for characterizing the Obamas asGlenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-1790329238506752672009-10-05T21:32:00.008-05:002009-10-07T01:03:30.915-05:00The Only Graph You'll Ever NeedThe folks over at the Journal of Irreproducible Results have come up with another winner! Click on the graph for embiggerment.Links to the runner-ups can be found at http://www.jir.com/graph_contest/index.html#OneGraph.Update: After posting this, I realized that this was several years old but decided that it did not matter. Since this is the graph that proves all theories, it works now, i.e., Glenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-88514560786659316332009-10-05T14:22:00.055-05:002009-10-06T11:54:14.357-05:00The Gist Of The MatterOne man's [re]viewing of the socio-political roots of a cultureClick on the thumbnails for larger versions. All images come from the Wordle tool and are licensed by http://www.wordle.net/.Sources:Genesis 1-2, Ten Commandments, Psalm 23Ecclesiastes, Plato's Republic, Sermon On The MountGolden Rule, Magna Carta, Luther's 95 ThesesMayflower Compact, Galileo Dialogues, Thomas Paine's Common Glenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-89285160866782575192009-10-04T20:08:00.007-05:002009-10-09T15:17:19.501-05:00The Laws Of The Game In A Couple Of Hundred WordsThe wonderful Wordle tool (which I'll write about later which I've now written up over here) is a great way to waste spend some time. Here are the complete laws of soccer:Click on the image for a larger version. From http://www.wordle.net/Glenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-12665858435099951732009-09-24T09:23:00.004-05:002009-09-24T09:48:35.200-05:00A-Theist Does Not Mean A-MoralGreta Christina is a blogger who writes about atheism (among many other things, not always suitable for work or family) over at the cleverly eponymously monickered Greta Christina's Blog. She has begun a new project -- The Facebook Atheist Meme of the Day. See here, here, and here.I'm doing a project on my Facebook page: The Atheist Meme of the Day. Every weekday, I'm going post a short, pithy, Glenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-61678474797093092342009-09-19T22:03:00.003-05:002009-09-19T22:34:41.356-05:00The Power of VisualizationOne of the things that the development of computers has made possible is incredibly powerful visual images. It's almost impossible to find a movie made in the last 10-20 years that doesn't make some use of CGI (computer generated imagery.) Stick around through the credits of any recent realistic movie and you will see that somebody is being credited with computer imagery or enhancement. And Glenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-70924060154620245282009-09-19T18:36:00.010-05:002009-09-19T18:59:31.202-05:00How Cute .... ... and a transitional fossil to boot!One of the constant complaints of IDers and creationists is that there aren't any transitional fossils. This, of course, misses the point that all fossils are transitional fossils. But here is evidence (not the drawing, but the linked article with video) of an early cousin of the awesome Tyrannosaurus rex.This is a conception of the Raptorex.Despite Glenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-10531492478058350942009-09-19T17:32:00.004-05:002009-09-19T17:37:31.799-05:00Music and AerodynamicsI suppose if Philip Glass can create a piece of music/theatre called 1000 Airplanes On The Roof, it makes sense for Karlheinz Stockhausen to create the Helicopter String Quartet. From the Wiki:A performance requires: four helicopters, each equipped with a pilot and sound technician, television transmitter and 3-channel sound transmitter, and an auditorium with four columns of televisions and Glenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-45082944653636128522009-09-19T14:58:00.004-05:002009-09-19T15:13:34.951-05:00Well, It Didn't Just Happen ...Probability is one of those things that people are just not very good at unless trained. There are probably some good reasons why evolution didn't help us come with the intrinsic Calculators of Large Numbers we would need to not be misled so easily.Psychologically, we seem to be much more attuned to the false positives in our data gathering than to the false negatives. Of course, interpreting a Glenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-16991786462251573282009-09-19T13:45:00.007-05:002009-09-19T13:56:17.922-05:00Political Rhetoric Explained by Steven PinkerA bit from a talk by Steven Pinker, one of the more interesting writers on psychology, mind, and language. I particularly liked his quotation of Michael Kinsley's definition of a gaffe:... a gaffe is when a politician says something that is true.His discussion of how words can become colored like swear words is intriguing. Liberal in America connotes something much different than in does in Glenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-74893237766673122582009-09-18T08:40:00.004-05:002009-09-18T08:46:23.044-05:00John Cage (Unplugged)Nowadays, when a musician's performance is characterized as "unplugged" it means that the normally electric instruments are not used, just "acoustic" ones. In this historic footage from 1960(!), avant garde composer John Cage is featured on the TV show "I've Got A Secret." Network television (when there were only three networks.) Prime time (when Prime Time actually was prime time.)Figuring, I Glenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-57361412376479283312009-09-16T18:20:00.004-05:002009-09-16T18:25:59.504-05:00Thinking Inside & Outside the BoxQualiaSoup has nailed it again with a video about a box, theistic claims of existence, and the logical traps of asserting non-physical characteristics (among other things.)Tip o' the hat to Hemant over at FriendlyAtheist.com.Glenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-46099205342428271262009-09-16T08:21:00.017-05:002009-09-16T10:51:57.785-05:00Our Diverse History Is Even More Varied & Interesting Than We Have Been TaughtMy long-time friend Kathleen Thompson is one of the founders of the site OneHistory.org.Kathleen's background includes being a bookseller, an author, a playwright, an editor, an educator, and — throughout it all — a feminist (she co-authored the classic Against Rape). Her diverse interests have reached a new stage with OneHistory.Let's face it, American history is not what most of us have Glenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-26627388767490914852009-09-06T21:59:00.004-05:002009-09-06T22:34:26.181-05:00When You Design and Build Watch Factories ...... everything ends up looking like something a watchmaker would do.Jim Manzi (of Lotus Development and Lotus 1-2-3 fame see comment below) has a piece over at Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish in which he takes on Jerry Coyne's review of Robert Wright's book Evolution of God that was published in The New Republic.I read about this at Coyne's blog where you can read his response to Manzi. You can Glenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-23636469911275631132009-09-04T20:59:00.001-05:002009-09-04T21:03:27.234-05:00Deconstructing (Literally) a Pocket-Size Box of MagicOver at YouTube, I found this piece of "pure nerd porn" in which a MP3/camcorder device is deconstructed before our eyes.Glenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-28093476927504197952009-09-04T20:12:00.002-05:002009-09-04T20:25:29.302-05:00We Might All Eventually Have Machines This PowerfulI ran across another interesting demo of early computer hardware and software. Ivan Sutherland's Sketchpad program was developed in the very early 1960s. Here are a couple of clips about a slightly later version from 1963 demoed at the MIT Lincoln Laboratories. Part The First:Part The Second:Hat Tip to BoingBoing.Glenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-9475230012259046482009-08-28T14:42:00.007-05:002009-08-28T15:11:15.052-05:00I Have No Use Of That HypothesisOne of my favorite stories about the Creator as an explanation of Nature is of the brilliant French scientist Pierre-Simon Laplace — math, physics, probability, celestial mechanics, planetary motions, statistics, astronomy, etc. As a frame of reference, consider that he's been described as the French Newton.From the Wikipedia article on Laplace:An account of a famous interaction between Laplace Glenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-79522768301563864062009-08-28T11:54:00.006-05:002009-08-28T12:16:13.757-05:00Some Small Print I Would Like To SeeThe debate over health care in America has turned very tendentious and downright ugly. I will admit that I have not followed the 'debate' very closely but I occasionally hear sound bites that are pretty outrageous. These outrageous statements are usually made in response to something that sounds pretty reasonable. Some of the bloggers I follow occasionally write interesting, informed, and Glenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-44633356240201833452009-08-28T11:21:00.003-05:002009-08-28T11:39:43.903-05:00Coming Soon: The Greatest Show on EarthThe blogosphere surrounding those of us of certain pursuasions and inclinations is all abuzz with anticipation for the new book by Richard Dawkins -- The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. Coming relatively hard on the heels of Jerry Coyne's Why Evolution Is True, these counter-attacks to the fundamentalist attempts to hijack the education and political process are all about the Glenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-50759443433936909052009-08-26T16:26:00.002-05:002009-08-28T13:20:03.190-05:00Where Were You When You Heard?The passing today of Sen. Edward Kennedy brings to end a period of my life in America. The Camelot dynasty has finally concluded. With his death and the recent death of his sister Eunice, it seems like all the links to the past have finally fallen away and we are on our own. I'm sure I won't remember finding out this morning on my 5am work break. But I remember where I was when I heard some ofGlenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-90236128926422527132009-08-26T12:37:00.010-05:002009-08-26T12:58:55.982-05:00Why Can't We All Just Play Grice?The title of this post is supposed to invoke the sense of mild whining that a teacher or parent uses when talking to their charges. So much of the communication via conversation on today's web (email, tweets, blogs, comments, YouTube videos, etc.) is whiny, mean, silly, untruthful, half-baked, aggressive, ignorant, petty, illogical, narcissistic, political, etc., etc, .... ad infinitumI can seeGlenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-17249800938376774932009-08-22T11:47:00.003-05:002009-08-22T11:56:17.567-05:00The Problem With AnecdotesIf you've gotten an email from me in the last 6-7 months, you might have noticed my signature line: The plural of anecdote is not data.The problems of anecdotes in all kinds of areas is pretty well known if you have looked into it. But if you haven't, this video from QualiaSoup is a good introduction to the issue.There is more from QualiaSoup over at YouTube -- you might want to take a gander.Glenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-948835676372027846.post-34949920600749140242009-08-22T09:23:00.010-05:002009-08-22T09:54:49.090-05:00Data Mining As ArtThe Sociable Media Group at MIT has created a installation work called Metropath(ologies). Watch the video below for more details. The Personas application is available by itself over here. I tried it on myself:You can click on the graph for a larger version.Thanks to GrrlScientist over at Living The Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted) for finding this.Glenn Sogge (FormerComposer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10835357305186156399noreply@blogger.com0