Late, late, late I am in getting this out to you, but I’m doing another webcast/podcast for Virtually Speaking Science today.
I’ll be talking to my MIT colleague, David Kaiser, who is a physicist and a historian of science in our Science Technology and Society program. He’s also an excellent popular science writer, and we’ll use the hour today (and whenever you might choose to listen) to talk Higgs, Bicep2 and gravitational waves (did the very early universe inflate? Are there butt-loads of universes? How freaking hard is it to make cosmological measurements?*). And we’ll talk about his wonderful book How the Hippies Saved Physics — about the Fundamental Fysics group at Berkeley and their engagement with quantum entanglement, Bell’s theorem, spooky action at a distance and the discovery that yup, the universe does behave that strangely…which is why we are now, almost 50 years later, thinking seriously about quantum computing, encryption and the like: actual this-world technologies that exploit properties that Albert Einstein thought no properly behaved universe should exhibit.
David’s a great explainer — so the opaque shorthand above will become much clearer very soon. We go on the air at 6 ET — half an hour from now. Listen here live or later (also on iTunes — search for Virtually Speaking Science and or Levenson and Kaiser) — or join us as part of the virtual studio audience in Second Life, hosted by my favorite (as in, my childhood) science center, San Franciso’s Exploratorium.
*Spoiler: Very, very hard.
Image: Joseph Wright of Derby, An Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump, 1768
srv
Hey, MIT, how about some spooky action at a distance to Harvard? Here’s Yoda Lessig’s latest on Mayday PAC
Is Harvard a cognitive dissonance free zone?
Corner Stone
I think that at this point, to any rational individual, the answer “Yes” is inescapable.
Yatsuno
@srv:
Welp I’m done.
Gex
OT: A popular facebook comment of mine has been memed.
Baud
@srv:
Two million on a primary?
Corner Stone
However, what can not be explained at this point is how in the ever loving heck is Vanilla Ice doing commercials selling Kraft Mac & Cheese in the Ninja Turtles themed shapes?
I mean…my brain contains multitudes but that just may be one fuck too far.
Gex
Someone memed a popular FB comment of mine.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Corner Stone: What is your deal with processed food marketing?
KG
@Corner Stone: 80s flashbacks for 30 and 40 somethings?
KG
@Corner Stone: speaking of Vallina Ice, his show about flipping high end homes in south Florida is actually fairly interesting, for the genre
Cervantes
@srv:
Can you elaborate your meaning? Thanks.
Southern Beale
Call the fainting couches: This is OT but I jut heard on the evening news that Lois Lerner has a friend who called right-wing talk radio people “crazies,” and the piece was like OMG SHE CALLED THEM CRAZIES and I’m like THEY ARE CRAZIES why is this up for discussion? It’s the fucking Dean Scream all over again. Why do we have to constantly coddle and hand hold these pearl clutchers? Lois Lerner’s friend called right-wing radio crazies THEY ARE jesus fucking christ. Can we progressives please get on top of this latest piece of RW hysteria?
Cervantes
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): I’m not sure I want to know.
Corner Stone
@KG: I don’t actually remember speaking about Vallina Ice. Is that a new starch based processed food being advertised somewhere?
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
I’m so starchy
You already know
In the microwave
From Chef Boy to Spaghetti-O
Corner Stone
Could this Congress possibly be any stupider*?
Fuck you, Newt Gingrich.
*Yes, stupider.
srv
@Cervantes: Both-sides-do-it PAC has to find at least one Republican to give $2M to and only finds one outlier snowflake.
Bipartisanship finest from Harvard Law.
Roger Moore
@Corner Stone:
Peaks Stupid is like Peak Wingnut. There’s always room for them to get stupider, and they’re actively moving in that direction.
Karen in GA
@Gex: Very cool!
Also, hooray for “butt loads” being an actual scientific measurement.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
Let me just note for the record that SyFy is doing a Sharknado 1 & 2 double feature this evening.
Karen in GA
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): And let me just thank you for reminding me!
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@Southern Beale: Crazies is of course damning with faint praise as they are in fact misogynists, violence-mongers, and white supremacists.
Southern Beale
@Another Holocene Human (now with new computer):
True ’nuff, yet Noah O’Donnell is on the NBC Nightly News talking about this like it’s some kind of news that someone in the administration would call them crazies. The real question for Norah O’Donnell is, why the fuck aren’t YOU calling them crazies?
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Southern Beale:
She is paid not to.
PurpleGirl
Many years ago when IBM first opened the office building at Madison Ave and 57th St, they had a conference center and art gallery in the basement. The first exhibit, IIRC, was a selection of pieces from the SF Exploratorium. I loved it. I went back many times to play in the science stuff.
During the years the art gallery was open I went there often, it was a great spot to relax and decompress from whatever. I saved the brochures from the art shows I saw there. Unfortunately, at some point IBM closed the gallery, changed the first floor space and their “indoor garden”, and sold some of the corporately owned art collection. I miss it a lot.
Cervantes
@PurpleGirl: I remember that gallery. It got turned into some sort of watch-making museum.
PurpleGirl
@Cervantes: They cut off some space for a fancy, high-end watch store. They also had a museum of French 19th-century academic art. Now they have an English auction house.
Cervantes
@PurpleGirl: Yes, the watch-maker was Tourneau. Their store was on two levels and their museum was in the basement where the gallery had been. And you’re right, I am not sure how long anything lasts any more.