tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289892832012-02-20T14:08:44.991Z(stuff like birds and stars and numbers and treetops and mountains and that)Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.comBlogger341100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-64623344987709140852011-10-05T15:18:00.030+01:002011-12-16T12:07:32.830Z

The Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded yesterday for the discovery of dark energy in 1998.What is dark energy? Do we really need to just accept that it's complicated and freaky, unless we're boffins?I don't think so.It's an apparently constant 'energy' per unit volume of space, which causes space to expand. In 1915, Einstein developed a theory of gravity, out of essentially nothing more than the

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-78275333220107023842011-10-01T18:31:00.064+01:002011-10-30T09:37:32.344Z

A question for Hallowe'en. For each person alive on Earth, how many ghosts are there? And what are they like?If you want to skip the numerical details, click on Ghosts.Contents:The population of the livingThe population of the deadGhostsThe Population of the LivingThe human population of our planet has increased at a tremendous rate over the past few decades, and is poised to exceed 7 billion.You

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-77513763422765470392011-07-01T14:00:00.062+01:002011-07-11T18:32:29.959+01:00

Happy anniversary, Neptune!According to those tables of numbers you get in books about the Solar System, the planet Neptune takes 164.79 years to travel once around the Sun. And Neptune was discovered 164.77 years ago as I write this post (1st July 2011).This means our blue ice giant has still not made even one full journey around the Sun since being spotted and recognised for the first time by

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-84473734960181450632011-01-24T21:30:00.010Z2011-01-29T00:58:49.593Z

In the last twelve months, this blog strayed somewhat from its tagline and became a vehicle for exposing the pseudoscience of some Hawaiian fruitloop with a cult following. It's been kind of fun, but I'm a bit tired of arguing with people now. I figured it was time for a change.Today I was reminded by a friend about a man called Arne Naess, a visionary philosopher who was central to the

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-88968904718343996712010-07-22T12:01:00.090+01:002011-08-04T03:14:21.357+01:00

Contents:IntroductionThe nature of Nassim's responseThe physics in Nassim's response 1. The discrepancy of the mass of the proton 2. The discrepancy of the force between protons 3. All the other thingsAn apologyIntroductionThere's been a lot of talk about Nassim Haramein's physics on this blog over the past few months. I'm intending to wrap up the saga with this little post. Wish me

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com270tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-72778238104603185432010-06-08T14:05:00.070+01:002011-12-16T12:54:54.225Z

"If a planet suddenly stopped spinning it would explode"NH explains his Grand Unified Field Theory (here).I've said a number of times that Nassim Haramein is misleading people, and I'd like to try to make it crystal clear why. Have a quick browse, or have a good old read... it's up to you.I'm aiming to encourage people to think carefully about what he is telling them. I'm not out to discourage

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com239tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-42486371814663775282010-03-26T21:58:00.059Z2011-02-09T23:57:58.146Z

'The Schwarzschild Proton' is a paper written by Nassim Haramein, proposing a model of the proton based on what he calls 'the Schwarzschild condition'.I've discussed Haramein's methods more broadly here (starting with a look at the award he displays for this paper), but here I'm focusing on the physics in this paper. It's fairly basic, so I'm hoping to be able to present this in a way that makes

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com276tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-48169330945187748562010-02-27T11:02:00.059Z2011-10-04T19:59:21.203+01:00

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article about a guy called Nassim Haramein who makes a living by giving talks on the nature of the universe, and why I think he's a fake. I kind of pulled him to pieces, and carried on pulling him to pieces until I got tired.His ideas seem to be extraordinarily popular, and he has quite a following, so my article has caused a bit of a stir. But to a lot of people

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-51549119561937467582010-02-13T18:12:00.027Z2011-12-16T12:51:05.632Z

(Click here if you don't need introducing to Nassim Haramein.)Recently I've been impressed by the rise to internet fame of Nassim Haramein. He's lauded as a multi-disciplinary thinker, as a scientist, as an inspirational speaker, and as director of research of The Resonance Project.From the following that he's developed, it's fair to say that he's touched a lot of people's lives. There are a lot

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com105tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-8413307623188847412010-02-13T18:11:00.089Z2011-05-28T22:13:28.662+01:00

I'd like to outline here some very sound reasons for asserting that Nassim Haramein is grossly misleading people by claiming to have any depth of scientific understanding behind his ideas.If you'd prefer to just see some straightforward examples, try some of these – but do come back when you're done...(Alternatively, read this if you think I'm just being a bit horrid.)Explicación y discusión en

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com597tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-56886690127300084282010-02-13T18:10:00.049Z2010-11-18T13:02:08.747Z

This is a more detailed look at one of the points made in my post on Nassim Haramein (number 3 on that page). I've written this in plain text for now, which I appreciate isn't easy to read... I'd like to set out the equations nicely sometime.In the above video, from 3 minutes onwards, Haramein can be seen arguing that the off-centre location of the emanation point of a phi spiral within an

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com76tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-64376455324431553922009-03-11T19:32:00.018Z2009-03-11T21:16:42.836Z

Today I finished off two neat little bird lists. If you click on either the images below, you can grab yourself a copy.The first is a straightforward list of all the native birds of Great Britain. If you print it and fold into quarters, you can slip it in your bird guide on a day out and make a note of what you've seen as you go.I've included all species for which, on average, more than 5 pairs

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-4825620231397363282009-02-07T19:04:00.057Z2010-02-15T14:25:44.655Z

The Six Nations Championship started today. I tried to watch the first game, but got distracted by the pretty numbers. The scoring possibilities at any point in the game are 3 (drop goal or penalty goal, g), 5 (unconverted try, u) or 7 (converted try, c). Some scores (e.g. 4) are not possible at all. Some (e.g. 10 = cg or uu) are possible in more than one way. What the blazes is going on? There

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-15020264268409674162008-07-13T23:15:00.063+01:002011-04-28T13:44:30.168+01:00

Following on from the previous post, it seemed fitting to launch this blog's own stupidly big number.Introducing the Up Function, Up(n): a Conway arrow chain (a very elegant, one could even say simple, way of producing very large numbers) containing n copies of any number n: Up(1) = 1 Up(2) = 2→2 Up(3) = 3→3→3 Up(4) = 4→4→4→4 etc.They look innocent

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-69816430065825380802008-07-09T12:42:00.059+01:002011-08-25T13:11:55.935+01:00

Once upon a time, there was a man called Graham, and he was wondering about cubes. By the time he'd finished wondering, he'd come up with the largest numerical answer to a reasonable question* in the history of the world. Here's the game. Draw a cube. Draw lines joining each corner to every other corner. Colour each line either blue or red, as you wish. Your cube might look like this: Now look

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-18807034768384118182007-06-08T17:03:00.000+01:002008-12-10T11:40:03.402Z

I went on a long, long journey to the end of the world.Camped at Wrynose Pass, Lake District, with my little car.Road to Ben Nevis from Fort William. Ben Nevis is on the left. The road runs along Glen Nevis, an astoundingly beautiful region and somewhere I'm very keen to return to explore properly before long. The empty, dream-like A838 in the Far NorthGorse-lit view from the Borgie Forest,

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-51321621542932756622007-04-30T23:35:00.000+01:002008-12-10T11:40:04.040Z

I went to the highest unbroken waterfall in England. Higher than Wales' best, higher even than Ireland's. But all that is visible to a normal human being is a very disconcerting hole in a Yorkshire hillside.The sheerest cliff tops have nothing on this place. I didn't kneel to peer over - I couldn't stay near the edge for longer than a few seconds.

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-3149724717638928212007-04-12T11:38:00.003+01:002010-02-14T14:35:59.890Z

Give a monkey a typewriter, and if you wait long enough it will type out the Complete Works of William Shakespeare.This is the infinite monkey theorem.I've been thinking about how much monkey typing is needed, and decided to do some tests. I acquired a small gedanken monkey that can type randomly at 48wpm (4 keystrokes per second) without stopping for food or rest. I gave my monkey a small

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com32tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-7405286944522453192007-01-09T00:25:00.000Z2007-01-09T00:31:57.682Z

A curious question here, for the logically-minded: boing boing. Good for the soul, I say. (I know I can't convince everyone of that...)I've put my twopenneth in, but don't take my word for it.

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-1163945983802255212006-11-19T13:35:00.000Z2010-03-29T19:50:31.904+01:00

I've been looking at some big numbers today, after my latest crude attempt to calculate the hypervolume of cosmic history in Planck units. This seems to me to be the biggest number that could have any actual physical significance (as distinct from statistics or pure number theory) - but that's for me to claim and you to dispute. It's a 243-digit number, and probably begins with a 7. I want to

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-1163678134499222512006-11-16T11:35:00.000Z2006-11-16T20:13:29.083Z

I have discovered the driest substance in the known universe.Just one Oatibix, weighing less than 24g, will soak up seventeen gallons of liquid without any loss of dryness at the core. My team's careful analysis has revealed a chance distribution of oaty complexes, each clustered around a central atom of praseodymium-141, creating a six-dimensional vortex that traps water molecules and spins

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-1162172952507059742006-10-30T01:48:00.001Z2009-09-09T14:19:14.429+01:00

In a few billion years, our local, friendly sun will slowly redden and expand to lovingly engulf our planet in a glorious fiery final embrace.Might seem harsh, but it's only fair - it's been very good to us, and it's got its own stuff to deal with. We've been given a lot of notice, and we're perfectly free to choose what to do about it. We can take up the challenge to move on, taking our

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-1161904715370575272006-10-27T00:17:00.000+01:002006-10-28T13:59:32.193+01:00

Q1. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?Q2. How many woodchucks would a woodchuck-chucker chuck if a woodchuck-chucker could chuck woodchucks?Q3. How many woodchuck-chuckers would a woodchuck-chucker-chucker chuck if a woodchuck-chucker-chucker could chuck woodchuck-chuckers?Q4. How many woodchuck-chucker-chuckers would a woodchuck-chucker-chucker-chucker chuck

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-1153082159774494092006-07-16T20:56:00.002+01:002009-01-18T17:56:58.374Z

Last night, and this morning, I breathed life back into a half-finished project from a couple of years ago: hand-sketching little constellation charts.(with a little help from Skyglobe, the very program I used to learn constellations fifteen years ago, in full DOS glory)I stopped originally when it became frustratingly clear that they were bugger-all use in Brighton, where you're lucky if you can

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-1152572863268262272006-07-10T23:06:00.000+01:002006-10-27T02:25:13.056+01:00

Take a look at Hakan's* space balls!Complete with weird space-music! (there's a little green play button). Even so, I do like this kind of thing. There's nothing so pure and stunning as a sphere, and some of the spheres out there are beauties. I knew that some were a lot bigger than others (I've seen the numbers), but you don't really see until someone shows you.Even then, let's be honest, we

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-1150549203828889462006-06-17T13:57:00.000+01:002006-07-15T11:20:14.836+01:00

Yesterday I had a day out at the Natural History Museum, including one of the most quietly thrilling exhibitions I've ever seen. But I know better than to try to compete with Toast in the telling of a story.

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-1150151029180849482006-06-12T22:54:00.000+01:002006-07-15T10:58:27.283+01:00

my true love gave to meOne million cows.

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-1149897336285671912006-06-10T00:36:00.000+01:002006-07-15T11:00:39.333+01:00

If you haven't yet had the pleasure of hearing sounds from other planets - such as the dawn chorus on Jupiter - then have a listen here.

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-1149755854868695682006-06-08T08:30:00.000+01:002006-06-09T14:00:52.926+01:00

Today: something cubish. Bear with me on this one.1D: If you have a little line, you can use it to represent any 'bipolar' situation, like the potential outcomes of tossing a coin. You could label the ends H and T, or, if you like a spot of binary, 0 and 1.2D: If you have a square, the four corners could represent the possible outcomes of tossing two coins (HH, HT, TH, TT). You might label

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-1149206595666184922006-06-02T00:34:00.000+01:002006-07-15T11:13:51.636+01:00

Click picture for detail.They have complex lives. Sometimes I think I liked them better when they were just white dots and they all looked the same. (Sometimes I think that about people too.) Other times I marvel. And I do like a good marvel.Here's the current extent of my understanding: It starts at the bottom-left and follows the wiggly path. If it goes right, it's getting redder; if it goes

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-1149164183587026442006-06-01T12:46:00.000+01:002006-06-02T00:02:23.360+01:00

Made tired by the day now,my passionate longingshall welcome the starry nightlike a tired child.Hands, leave all your activity,brow, forget all thought,for all my sensesare about to go to sleep.And my soul, unguarded,will float freelyinto the magic circle of the night -deeply and a thousand times alive. The third of Strauss's Four Last Songs: one of the most emotionally powerful - and yet

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-1149087197002362802006-05-31T15:51:00.000+01:002006-05-31T16:04:23.270+01:00

Friend of mine.Rescued me once with his catbus.Really!(what??)

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-1149072425630375522006-05-31T11:42:00.000+01:002006-05-31T16:29:42.476+01:00

I got one of these inside.(it's not a gull.)

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28989283.post-1149006056781469772006-05-30T17:20:00.000+01:002006-06-01T23:56:22.520+01:00

           Meanwhile, hot air rises.And the two men held for twenty-one days in living conditions           decidedly worse than those in most high-security prisons            are not the victimsof some hard-line oppressive regime, or political refugees,            or eco-warriors digging in on the side of rare toads and ancient trees,            or dumbstruck hostages,or

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04484470826735770498noreply@blogger.com0