Posts

Showing posts from August, 2009

Beauty of Science

Image
It a common argument I hear in epistemological discussion I have from time to time: We cannot hear or touch or see electromagnetic waves, but we know they exist. Apart from the fallacy that seeing is feeling the electromagnetic waves we know as light, this is a great example of how we come to knowledge through science. Hans Christian Ørsted noticed that electric current produced magnetic forces. Faraday took this observation further, and through his experiments showed changing magnetic forces create electric current. Both of these were descriptive laws, however no mathematical derivation from first principles were provided. It was Maxwell who combined these laws in his equations, which made testable predictions such as the existence of radio waves which were capable of action at distance. Hertz demonstrated that this is the case, and it is thanks to these people you are able to read this post. Long story summarized, scientific method works! This wonderful picture is another beautiful

The Show About Nothing That Is About Everything

This summer was a express ride for me. Even though I planned for working on my thesis, I ended up flying almost every 2 weeks. At the gates, in the planes, on the bus rides, train rides I was laughing all the time. If not I had a smile all the time. It was thanks to The Fab Four of the Seinfeld Crew. I will watch the finale this weekend. I am feeling like I am going away from home, and would never see my friends again. So, here are four of my favorite clips of my friends: Cosmo Seinfeld - Jerry and Kramer exchange apartments. Kramer acts more like Jerry, and Jerry acts more like Kramer. George and His Answering Machine - George's girlfriend wants to break up. He runs away and hides from the girl, to avoid breakup. He does not answer phones, so we get to hear his answering machine message. Elaine on Drugs - Elaine goes down to Florida to visit Seinfelds. She gets a back ache and takes a lot of drugs. She get high, and here's what happens. Kramer the Showman - Kramer finds the se

Champions League

Image
The draw is tonight. Here is my dream draw: 1- Sevilla, for the cured ham and architecture. 2- Rangers, Glasgow, for being the most fun city I've visited. 3- Haifa, cause I like Israel.

The shortest poem in English language

I had written previously about " When We Were Kings ," the Academy Award winning documentary about the fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire. I watched it again last week, and I just have to recommend it again to everyone. It is definitely the best documentary I've watched. In addition to getting to know Muhammad Ali, you will also hear the shortest poem in English Language. --SPOILER WARNING-- Muhammad Ali goes to Harvard graduation. He talks at the graduation, and the students shout to him for a poem. He recites poems in his interviews. He then improvises the shortest, but yet powerful poem I've ever heard. " Me, We. Muhammad Ali" He's a great man. --SPOILER WARNING--

Azrail yeter Ulan!

Image
Bizimkiler'in Besiktas'li Katil'i Aykut Oray'i kaybettik. Basimiz sagolsun. Resim bu seneki sampiyonluk kutlamasindan. Yanindaki eski topcumuz Kör Tugrul.

The beauty and the beast of celestial mechanics

The revolutionary idea of Newton was not finding out there is a force pulling the apple that fell on his head. It was all to obvious. What he found, and made the thinkers of his time so upset -the science was about to be born, it was called natural philosophy back then- was that the same set of rules govern the celestial bodies such as stars and planets -which were perfect and eternal,- and moral bodies such as an apple or humans. He was able to explain the astronomical laws that Kepler derived based on the painstaking observations by Tycho Brahe, with the laws he derived from everyday objects. The world and the skies were never to be seen as different spheres anymore. This year marks also the 400th anniversary of Galileo's observation of the stars and the planets, and the birth of modern astronomy. Following the path he opened, that is using publicly available observations, we are able to construct a fairly complete model of the history of our universe since -and before- its birth

Capitalist Bacteria

This New Scientist article , which summarizes the meeting of the American Ecological Society of America, gives a rather exaggerated, yet realistic analogy. When one places some number of bacteria in a confined environment, and give them enough food, they reproduce without any end, finish all the food, and drown in their own waste. The moral of the analogy is that there is no built-in mechanisms in organisms to harness their urge to reproduce and conqueror. Humans are no exceptions. This is another evidence to my hypothesis, that "greed" is retrospective most of the time. We only feel greedy, and regret our actions, after we feel the consequences. The article goes onto discuss, how the culture of consumerism, endorsed by the American government after the World War II to increase the internal demand, is feeding on top of the inherent greed of humans, and how this may lead to collapse of civilization. It is easy to take an anti-American, or anti-Capitalist stance, but I think th

Watchmen: My favorite comic adaptation

I have to say I may have watched the movie with a little bit bias. Intro scene with the original "Times Are A'Changing"? Acoustic, and without cutting it? I am sure all the the movie had a head start with all the Dylan fans. The movie is worth watching even just for the soundtrack. The list speaks for itself: Simon and Garfunkel, Philip Glass, and Leonard Cohen, Jimi Hendrix, and a Bob Dylan (an original and a cover). The story is from the cult comic series Watchmen, by Alan Moore, who also wrote V for Vendetta. The director is Zack Snyder, who is the director of 300, which I loved. His style matches even more to the alternative history setting of 1980s. The tone and the depth of the issues it discusses was very satisfying. I've watched the theatrical version, but loved it so much, that I wanna watch the director's cut as well. !!!SPOILER ALERT!!! Here is a taste of my favorite character in the movie, the Rorschach: Heard joke once: Man goes to doctor. Says he'

Meet your new neighbors: The Crow

Image
The argument from perfect design never made sense to me. The human body seems all too fragile and vulnerable to me to be a "evidence" for a designer. If I were a creationist, my choice of the animal for presenting as "evidence as perfect design" would definitely be the crow. Think about it, how long could a human survive on the streets without any medical care, no shelter, no guaranteed source of food, no clothes, no form of protected sex? The crows can survive as long as 70 years! And now this: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/aesops-fable-this-one-turns-out-to-be-true-1767920.html The crows throw rocks in a half full cup with worms on the top of the surface of the water to raise the water level. Given the right tools and time, I am sure they can open a lock. Thats no wonder from a species whose evolutionary forefathers include the great dinosaurs. A lot of blind design went into them. Here is the link to the video, thanks to Pinar. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1