You know that Infinite monkey theorem? The idea that an infinite amount of time at a keyboard would somehow eventually get a monkey producing Shakespeare’s complete works? Yeah, probably not. Why? This article in Wired News, linked at the Wikipedia entry above, has a good answer for it, but it basically boils down to a misunderstanding about the nature of animal mentality: Phillips said the experiment showed that monkeys “are not random generators. They’re more complex than that.
Tag: Science & Technology
Just Like Paper, But Not
It’s too bad that all the toys I like are expensive. It’s nice to know they’ll be half the current price, or less, and much better, in a year or two.
Meet the Tardigrade!
While doing a little research on cryptobiosis, for a far-future flash story I’m writing about a society where longevity-treatments are the ultimate key to power in a society, I ran across a description of the weirdest animal I’ve ever heard of: the tardigrade, also known as the “water bear”. Check out these characteristics (courtesy of the Wikipedia entry linked above): Body with four segments and head Ventral nervous system with one ganglion per segment Multilobed brain Triradiate muscular sucking pharynx Stylets A single gonad Instead of a coelom they have a haemocoel, the only place where we still can find …
Adrian on Cosmology and Airports
I really liked this post by Adrian at mssv.net. Just musings about airports and the Milky Way.
Chirality @ Clarion
Brief note: mainly posting this so as not to lose the link or have to hunt for it: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2001 was awarded for work in chirality, which is something that looks like it will be an important science bitlet in the story I’m writing now. The link above is a really good explanation of what the hell chirality is. Working like mad, hoping to finish this at midweek and, barring objections, submit it for crit on a day when fewer submissions are currently scheduled. If it’s okay with our very cool new instructor, Maureen McHugh, who …
FDA Approves Cervical Cancer Vaccine — Couzin 2006 (608): 1 — ScienceNOW
FDA says okay, but depending on the ruling of the ruling made by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, this may not become a part of the Public Health Strategy in some states. And I think we know which ones would rather not, since they’ll consider this another encouragement of promiscuity.
It’s Only $300 Billion
A member of a mailing list I’m on passed on this article, It’s Only $300 Billion, which asks the question why it’s possible for America to fund a war in Iraq, but not to fund the Kyoto Protocol. I’ve thought of that before too, but you see, the mere suggestion is heresy. The War in Iraq is all about profit and control of oil freedom and democracy, while the Kyoto Protocol is all about ensuring a livable planet for generations to come, achieved the only way it’s going to be possible, with the wealthy leading the way since they can …
Too Late But Fun
During a marking break, I finally got a chance to experiment with the mashup tool that Yahoo created for the San Francisco International Film Festival. I was too late to be eligible for my video mashup to be entered into the contest and played on the big screen, but it was fun nonetheless. The mashup is in the gallery, and I registered under the name gordsellar. The title of the mashup is “(No electric sheep)” and it’s just a man’s dream about women. Silly, but it was fun to play with this technology. Too late but fun has two meanings, …
When the Government Tries to Get Its Hands On Your…
This article in Glamour was linked by someone on Culturelist, and it’s rather sobering. Rightwing religious fanatics trying to control the reproduction even of people who aren’t members of their religion… it’s sick, like so much of the Right in America.
‘junk’ DNA not junk?
BBC reports that it might not be. I’ve long thought the declaration of what’s not understood to be junk a little suspect, myself. This article also is written in a way that reminds me how much like computation genetics is. Very interesting. Reminiscent of Cory Doctorow’s story “0wnz0red”, among others.