Update: brushing my teeth

What? You aren't interested? If it was Chris Hadfield would you be interested?

Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian, lead a mission in the space station, recorded a series of fun videos showing what it is like to do everyday activities in space. He was up for nearly six months, re-entering on May 13.

The Daily Mail Collection

Easy Study = Weak Memory?

There are two ideas in this article. Today I am interested in the second:
1) Easy come, easy go; information quickly found is quickly forgotten.
2) Divided attention makes weak learning.

Mr. Enns says that of course this is true. What's more, it gets to the heart of the difference between interesting education and boring education.

Human brains can do 7 thoughts at once (with very little variation). To read a book is to do several thoughts at once: eg. hold the book, look at the page, interpret the letters, recognize a word, understand the sentence, remember two or three things from the last sentences, paragraphs or pages. Skilled readers can "chunk" some things together and ignore other things so that tasks take less brain power.

(Recognizing a word might take a beginning reader five thoughts, two thoughts for an average reader and maybe only one thought for a skilled reader. That is why the hard concentrating toddler reads so intently he doesn't notice that the bell has rung and the rest of the class is going for lunch. Meanwhile, the practiced housewife, can read her iPad while folding laundry and watching the baby.  It looks like some people can do more things at once, but that is not exactly it. With practice, complex tasks become so easy they become one thought. No-one can do more than seven thoughts.)


If you have any brain power left over, you can make connections. What does this book have to do with my favorite sports or hobbies? Have I read something similar? ...contradictory? Does it fit with the math, science or history that I know? The number (and strength) of connections that you make determines how well you will remember. Connections also provide the triggers that will allow you to recall facts. More connections means that you can recall the information in more different situations. Making extra connections is where learning becomes relevant, interesting, fun and memorable.

Listening to music, texting, watching a video, playing a simple game: every electronic distraction takes up at least one thought, probably more. That is one less thought available to make connections. Those missing connections mean you will think of it less often, understand it less well, notice less usefulness to your life, find it less interesting and remember it less.

Swing Videos

 Here are a couple of videos to give a taste of swing dancing.

Simple performance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zOx3m40GAo
Two minutes Twice Blessed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESc5D5lWQQ0
Groovie Movie(9:00):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbaNYWkQYYA
Swing arials:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FAy0cYbPi18

Which is More Dangerous?

Fracking or Puppies?

Cooking is Science

Look at Amazon link to read the captions

At least, it can be: chemistry mostly (chemical reactions, changes of state) but also physics (temperatures, heat flow). [short videos]

There is a movement about that goes by the name "modernist cooking". It seems to be about analyzing the science behind cooking. (What is the reaction that changes my meat from "raw" to "cooked the way I like it" to "overdone" or "burnt".) then measuring it precisely and finding a process that achieves the exact conditions I wanted: nothing more, nothing less.

If you want your steak medium-rare, that means 55 °C. Now, how can we cook this thing so the whole steak is 55 °C, we keep all the juices and achieve any other properties we were looking for? The short answer to that puzzle seems to be found in sous vide cooking techniques. There are other puzzles to be solved.

It started in the 80's, but has flourished recently. The gold standard is called Modernist Cuisine and there is a home version and a simpler version (and tips). It is the pinnacle of a whole series of cooking science books. Finally, here is a feature-length promo from Harvard.

Fusion Powered Rockets?!

 Nuclear fusion has been done by humans for 50 years now. Doing fusion without blowing things up...now that's another story. There are several multibillion dollar projects on the go. None of them have produced yet. What if you could blow things up a little bit?

Scientific Basis for a Viking Myth

The Vikings traveled far, to France, to Iceland, to Greenland, to Baffin Island and to Newfoundland. But they had no compass. How did they navigate, especially when clouds blocked the sun? Legend tells of a sun-stone that could locate the sun on a cloudy day. In 1967 an archaeologist proposed Icelandic feldspar as the mythical stone. In 2011, a scientist demonstrated its effectiveness. Now we have found a Viking shipwreck with a crystal found beside a navigational tool.

Going to Mars Sooner?

NASA plans a manned trip to Mars in the 2030's. A private businessman wants to pull together a trip in 2018. Neither one involves landing, just orbiting.

Safety requirements in the private world are a lot lower than for NASA.

I provide the article from three sources. Compare the comments.

It is also possible that they will be visiting a much-changed Mars. An extinction-sized comet will  make a close approach to Mars in October 2014. It probably won't hit.

Pie Chart

Via IFLS

A Scientific Proposal

How to read a scientific journal report:

1. Avoid reading the whole thing. That will put you to sleep.
2. Read title. (If interesting, continue.)
3. Read abstract. (If interesting, continue.)
4. Look at graph
5. Read conclusion (If interesting or suspicious, read the body of the report.)

Via Science is Beauty (with lots more good stuff ) and IFLS

The Higgs Boson and the End of the Universe

We humans have been talking about the Big Bang for some time. The story we tell explains the beginning of the universe. Usually, we gloss over the part about it being impossible. That, as I understand it, is the excitement behind the Higgs Boson. The Higgs Boson suggests a storyline that makes the Big Bang possible.

Unfortunately, within a year of its discovery, the Higgs Boson folks have been doing some thinking. Fresh from declaring the beginning of the universe possible, they have now noticed that so is the end.

Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds, who adds his usual practical application.

A Boy in Philidelphia

Anthony Esolen does some thinking about boys in Philadelphia, where about half the kids drop out between grade 9 and graduation, more if they are black or Hispanic boys. He imagines the letter one might write about his situation and how well society has served him. He sounds angry.

Our government has failed to admit that its own selfishness is the root of many societal problems it has tried to address.

Formal Fridays

It's not just me, anymore!

A Break From Studied Foolishness

A sensible response to yesterday's school attack by Chris Rock. (language warning, in case you had not already guessed)

Via The Other McCain

Uranium is a metal

And this particular piece is weapons-grade.

Moving to Mars?

If you are 5-20 years old, in 20 years, you'll be 25-40: just about the right age to start up a new life on Mars. Elon Musk, who made a fortune on Paypal has been building SpaceX, a private space exploration agency. Now he says his goal is to start a colony on mars. He says he'll charge about $500,000. More detail here.

Want to travel at the speed of light?

OK, previous post notwithstanding, you can't. But MIT has a game out where you can see what it would be like to walk at nearly the speed of light. They don't make you walk really fast; instead they make light go really slowly. Popular Science has a description here.

MIT wants people to go beyond. What they are making is the game engine. That is, they do the hard work of the relativistic effects. You can then program your own game in their relativistic world.

Warp Drives

Now significantly less impossible.

Education and Carreers

University professors often wax eloquent about the glories of education for education's sake: a noble, but expensive luxury. Students and their parents usually think about education as career training. Here is a list of traditional university majors with a lousy track record for landing jobs.

I notice two things about the list: they are fields people take for the pure love of education and they don't include the women's studies, environmental studies, African-american studies &c. that are the usual butt of career jokes.

OTOH - Good jobs w/o degrees - maybe a good way to follow up that philosophy degree.

Scientist with the Greatest Legacy?

The greatest impact on the world of science would have to go to Newton, possibly Bacon or Aristotle. The greatest benefit to mankind from scientific work? I guess that would be Norman Borlaug.

Who?

Borlaug was a farmer and a researcher into farming practices. His main idea was to adapt the best practices of the western farmer to the third world: first Mexico, then Pakistan and India. His most famous work was to breed a "semi-dwarf" wheat that could be grown strong and full without growing too tall, then falling over and rotting.

In doing so, he allowed millions of people to live who would have starved to death, probably hundreds of millions. He may have saved more lives than were taken by Mao, Stalin, Hitler and Pol Pot, combined. In the early 70's, the smart set had agreed that mass starvation was a fact of life that could only get worse. Intellectual discussions were how to manage the suffering.

Even as they published, Borlaug had already proven the technology and was implementing the green revolution.

Norman Borlaug passed away three years ago, today. He was 95.

(Or this video has a little more technical content)