11:51 am in Syndicated by Faceless Librarian
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I have the best co-workers in the world!
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5:30 am in Syndicated by Faceless Librarian
Shared by Great Western Dragon
I've said it before, I'll say it again. I am Dewey and Dewey is ME. I would totally Tweet about some schmuck who tried to rob us, especially if he gave us a library card.
6:53 pm in Syndicated by Faceless Librarian
Faceless Librarian posted a photo:
If I fell asleep like that I wouldn't be able to move when I woke up.
6:58 am in Syndicated by Faceless Librarian
The fundamentalist community has a strong interest for some bizarre reason in converting homosexuals into heterosexuals. They consider homosexuality nothing but a bad personal choice, and therefore all gay people need is a little Jesus and they'll switch back to finding the other sex more attractive.
It never seems to occur to them that that implies that their own sexual orientation would then be an arbitrary matter of a trained esthetic, and that that would imply that they should be easily flipped into homosexuality themselves (probably with a little Satan). It's strange: I'd be rather upset if a group of Baptists tried to brainwash me into thinking Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, was a hot dude I ought to fantasize about.
Anyway, the fundies love to cobble up 'scientific' studies that back up their claims of successful conversions. These typically defy common sense and the results of work by real psychologists, but that doesn't stop them. Their latest result claims a program of Christian counseling has a 53% success rate. Unfortunately, even in the press releases that crow about this answer, they have to admit some bothersome details. Like that their sample size was less than a hundred, that over a third of their subjects dropped out and refuse to talk to them, and that even those they managed to retain in the study are very evasive and reluctant to talk to the researchers, all stuff you'd expect of a program that doesn't work in any way other than instilling guilt in their subjects.
Worst of all, credible scientists don't accept their results, for an amusing reason.
"They selectively apply rigorous scientific standards," he said. "So when it comes to examining the evidence that sexual orientation change can occur, they apply extraordinarily rigorous standards, and those standards allow them to disregard significant evidence that sexual orientation change can occur. That's what happens with our study. They, I think, invalidly applied several methodological concerns to dismiss our study."
Curse you, Science, for your rigorous standards and methodological discipline that prevent us from getting the answers we wanted ahead of time!
Read the comments on this post...6:57 pm in Science by Faceless Librarian
If you’ve never read anything by Dr. Michio Kaku, I highly recommend you go find something, anything, that he’s written. He’s also on the Science Channel along with hosting a few documentary projects along the way. The man is a brilliant theoretical physicist and incredibly entertaining to listen to.
But, to get you started, here’s a few (nine) videos of him tackling questions like alien life, time travel, and teleportation. Absolutely fascinating!
3:32 pm in Science by Faceless Librarian
Certain things sound straight out of science fiction.
Imagine a planetary system something like our solar system. All of the planets should revolve around the star in the same direction and that direction is consistent with the rotational direction of the star. Say you’re viewing a system from above and the star is rotating clockwise. Then all the planets should be orbiting the star in a clockwise direction to.
Well, astronomers have found a planet that is orbiting in a direction counter to the rotation of the star. Planet HAT-P-7b, orbiting the star GSC 03547-01402, has an orbital inclination of 180 degrees. What’s that mean? Well, when something is flipped 180 degrees, it’s facing the other way, right? The same thing goes with orbital inclination, that is, it indicates a retrograde orbital rotation.
So what causes something like this?
The theory I give the most credit is one which states that something with a huge gravitational well, either another star or another massive planet, intersected with the orbit of this planet. It may have even hit the planet, but it’s hard to be sure. Either way, the gravitational encounter threw the planet around like a billiards ball and when things finally settled down, it wound up orbiting backwards.
It makes you feel a little lucky that we live in a somewhat less exciting planetary system, doesn’t it?
3:29 pm in Science, Syndicated by Faceless Librarian
An article about the real fairness and randomness involved in a coin toss circulated the net this week and it spoke to several things I’ve thought about, but had no method to actually prove.
The idea that a coin has a 50% chance of landing on either face seemed off to me. Most coins have more detail on one side and to achieve that detail, more of the coin must be stamped or removed. This changes the weight on one side and it also effects the aerodynamics. Truly, the only fair coin, I figured, would be one that’s smooth on both sides.
True randomness is actually hard to come by. Even the random number generators in programmes and video games aren’t completely random. Except for the most sophisticated, their outputs will show some predictability after a given amount of time.
Edit: @aard pointed out another article which further illustrates the issues with coin flipping and randomness.
1:40 pm in Syndicated by Faceless Librarian
5:10 pm in Syndicated by Faceless Librarian
9:10 am in Syndicated by Faceless Librarian
The restrictions infantilize workers--they foster resentment, reduce morale, lock people into inefficient routines, and, worst of all, they kill our incentives to work productively. In the information age, most companies' success depends entirely on the creativity and drive of their workers. IT restrictions are corrosive to that creativity--they keep everyone under the thumb of people who have no idea which tools we need to do our jobs but who are charged with deciding anyway.Unchain the Office Computers! (Thanks, Farhad)If I sound a bit over-exercised about what seems like an uncontroversial practice, it's because I am--for too long, office workers of the world have taken IT restrictions sitting down. Most of my co-workers at Slate labor away on machines that are under bureaucratic control; they need special dispensation to install anything that requires running an installation program, even programs that have been proved to be safe--anything that uses the increasingly popular Adobe AIR platform or new versions of major Web browsers. Other friends are blocked from visiting large swaths of the Web. IT departments install filtering programs that block not only adult sites but anything that might allow for goofing off on "company time," including e-mail and chat programs, dating sites, shopping sites, and news sites like Digg or Reddit (or even Slate).
Different IT managers have different aims, of course. At some companies--like Slate--the techs are mainly trying to keep the network secure; preventing people from installing programs is a simple and effective (if blunt) way to ensure that corporate computers don't ingest scary stuff. Other firms want to do something even more sinister: keep workers from having fun. These companies block the Web and various other online distractions on the theory that cowed a workforce is an efficient one. But that's not really the case.
1:00 am in Syndicated by Faceless Librarian
"Dark Flow" sounds like a new SciFi Channel series. It's not! Back in the Middle Ages, maps showed terrifying images of sea dragons
at the boundaries of the known world. Today, scientists have observed
strange new motion at the very limits of the known universe - kind of
where you'd expect to find new things, but they still didn't expect
this. A huge swath of galactic clusters seem to be heading to a
cosmic hotspot and nobody knows why.
The unexplained motion has hundreds of millions of stars dashing towards a certain part of the sky at over eight hundred kilometers per second. Not much speed in cosmic terms, but the preferred direction certainly is: most cosmological models have things moving in all directions equally at the extreme edges of the universe. Something that could make things aim for a specific spot on such a massive scale hasn't been imagined before. The scientists are keeping to the proven astrophysical strategy of calling anything they don't understand "dark", terming the odd motion a "dark flow".
A black hole can't explain the observations - objects would accelerate into the hole, while the NASA scientists see constant motion over a vast expanse of a billion light-years. You have no idea how big that is. This is giant on a scale where it's not just that we can't see what's doing it; it's that the entire makeup of the universe as we understand it can't be right if this is happening.
Which is fantastic! Such discoveries force a whole new set of ideas onto the table which, even if they turn out to be wrong, are the greatest ways to advance science and our understanding of everything. One explanation that's already been offered is that our universe underwent a period of hyper-inflation early in its existence, and everything we think of as the vast and infinite universe is actually a small corner under the sofa of the real expanse of reality. Which would be an amazing, if humbling, discovery.
Posted by Luke McKinney.
Recommended:8:57 am in Syndicated by Faceless Librarian
At a press event hosted by the New York Public Library, Sony put their recently announced Reader hardware on display and provided an overview of its recent announcements. But the event was more than simply a recap of past announcements. The library location provided context for a program, run through Sony's e-book store, which will allow users to identify their local public library borrow books through its site. There is also new hardware: by the holidays, Sony plans on having a 3G-enabled Reader with a tall seven-inch screen.
The upcoming hardware is called the Reader Daily Edition, which implies partnerships with news outlets. However, aside from the price and 3G capabilities, almost nothing was mentioned about the device. The Sony executive that ran his company's portion of the program (Steve Haber, president of its Digital Reading Business Division) did little more than wave the hardware in front of the audience; it wasn't even clear if it could actually be turned on. Still, it's clear that Sony is gearing up for a long-term battle with not only the Kindle, but the upcoming device (devices?) from Plastic Logic.
8:50 am in Art by Faceless Librarian
Moving sculptures aren’t really a new thing. Mobiles are a regular feature in many good art galleries and some are quite wonderous. But what about sculpture that captures the essence of motion? The Dadaists were interested in this idea, but these pieces by Peter Jansen freeze motion so well, it’s easy to picture them moving on their own.
12:27 am in Syndicated by Faceless Librarian
By Andrew Liszewski
Pixar’s Up will be released on DVD and Blu-ray in November, but fans of Carl Fredricksen and Russel’s adventure to South America might be particularly interested in this special edition of the movie that not only comes with a Blu-ray, DVD and digital copy of the film, but a replica of the Luxo Jr. lamp seen in the company’s animated logo as well. Amazon is currently taking pre-orders for the Luxo Jr. Collectible Lamp Pack, but it will set you back a whopping $140. I mean the movie was was fun and all, but I can’t say I enjoyed it that much.
[ Up - Limited Edition Luxo Jr. Collectible Lamp Pack ] VIA [ Uncrate ]
2:07 pm in Books, Syndicated by Faceless Librarian
Dear Publishing Industry,
Poser is good for many things. It is not, however, good for cover art. Indeed, most cover art made with Poser does nothing but scream “MADE WITH POSER.” It looks shite and it’s lazy too. Knock it off.
Thanks,
~Dan!
10:12 am in Syndicated by Faceless Librarian
Faceless Librarian posted a photo:
My anniversary present from my wife. :)
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9:43 am in Science, Syndicated by Faceless Librarian
Most computer and information scientists believe that the next big leap forward in computing will be the invention of a quantum computer. Actually, there are people already at work on such a device and very basic prototypes are under scrutiny. However, there’s a problem with quantum computing and it has to with a certain cat.
Erwin Schrödinger, an Austrian physicist, one proposed a thought experiement. Take a cat and put it in a box with a deadly poison. Hook the poison up to a Geiger counter which will detect radiation from a substance that decays at the rate of one atom per hour. If the counter detects a radioactive effect, the poison is released and the cat dies. If not, then the cat lives. Now, seal the box and protect it from outside influence. At that point we don’t know the fate of the cat. The radioactive substance might lose an atom, it might not. Because of this, the cat can be seen as being alive and dead at the same time.
Only when we open the box and observe the cat do we collapse the probablilties into a single reality.
This, in a nutshell, is how a quantum computer works. We take quantum superpositions in atoms or particles and change them to represent data. So instead of a transitor’s power state (on or off) representing a 1 or 0, the spin of an electron indicates a 1 or 0. However, quantum physics indicates that things like spin and superpositions can exist in multiple states at the same time, just like the cat in the box. Only when we observe them do the probabilities fall into reality.
This is called wave function collapse. Quantum mechanics says that some particles exist in multiple states simultaneously, kind of like how light behaves as both a particle and as a wave. As long as nothing observes the particle, it remains in multiple states and perhaps even in multiple places. But, as soon as something or someone observes the particle, it snaps into one state.
In other words, a quantum computer must first protect the atoms manipulating the data from direct observation. A mere glance makes the whole thing fall apart. So while progress is being made on the quantum computer, there’s a long way to go.
9:37 am in Ladies and Gentlemen, Music by Faceless Librarian
One of the best things about working in a library is that I get to see a lot of nifty things that not too many people know about. From great books to awesome music to obscure movies, not a day goes by that I don’t see something interesting.
So a few days ago I’m putting away CDs and I happen across one by a group called Chambao. The cover intrigued me. The woman was quite lovely and the image itself was striking. The red skirt splashed across a field of gold and white really caught my eye. I flipped it over and read the back and then I opened up the booklet. Shrugging, I figured it’d be worth a listen and put it back on my cart.
I got back to my desk and popped the CD in my computer and plopped the headphones over my ears. The first song came on, and I was in love. Chambao is usually described as new flamenco or even flamenco chill. Whatever you want to call their music, I call it beautiful and fantastic.
Ladies and gentlemen, Chambao:
5:05 am in Syndicated by Faceless Librarian
By Andrew Liszewski
While the full specs and pricing info aren’t set to be revealed until Nokia World next week, the company has posted a short video on the Nokia Europe website showing off the more notable features of their new Booklet 3G netbook. Running Windows 7 and powered by an Atom processor, the Booklet 3G features a 10.1-inch glass display and a 2cm thick aluminum body and will supposedly have up to 12 hours of battery life.
In terms of connectivity it’s got three USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI connection, an SD card slot as well as Bluetooth, WiFi, 3G HSPA, GPS, A-GPS and according to SlashGear, there’s even a chance of it having a hot-swappable SIM card slot. Now Nokia obviously isn’t the first company that comes to mind when you think of netbooks, but they’ve put together a nice package with the Booklet 3G and if they manage to price it right they could have a real contender on their hands.
[ Nokia Booklet 3G ] VIA [ SlashGear ]
9:36 am in History, Interesting, Pop Culture by Faceless Librarian
I do not understand why some people are allowed to write about things. After all, when you think of publications with their fingers on the pulse of cyberculture, does the New York Times even appear on that list?
Take this article about the FAIL meme that’s been all over the net for some time now. It’s trying to explain where it came from, how it started, what it means, and all that. It mentions other memes like the LOLcats phenomenon and their connection to FAIL. Yet, in a twist of journalistic bullshit, the article utterly fails at its take on the history of cyberculture.
FAIL, like so many other memes, got its start on imageboards like 4chan. It was a dead simple thing that took off big. Its origins can be traced back to a video game called Blazing Star. Like many other Japanese games, the translation from Japanese to English was a tad defective. So when you died, the game mocked you with the phrase YOU FAIL IT! The online underground picked up on the phrase and made it their own. Eventually it was shortened to FAIL and there you have your meme.
Incidentally, the LOLcats thing also started on 4chan with the inception of Caturday, where people would post pictures of cats accompanied by misspelled captions meant to approximate the typing skills of an animal that doesn’t actually speak English to begin with.
Thing is, the Net York Times article mentions none of this. They failed to do their research, they failed to even bother hitting up Wikipedia, and they FAIL at journalism.
