'Fog's rollin' in off the East River bank, Like a shroud it covers Bleeker Street, Fills the alleys where men sleep, Hides the shepherd from the sheep.'
sexta-feira, 21 de junho de 2013
F¥Fa'$$$$$$$$ :-$:-$:-$:-$:-$:-$:-$:-$
quinta-feira, 20 de junho de 2013
[1306.4061] The London-Anderson-Englert-Brout-Higgs-Guralnik-Hagen-Kibble-Weinberg mechanism and Higgs boson reveal the unity and future excitement of physics
'via Blog this' The Honourable Schoolboy
terça-feira, 18 de junho de 2013
Grupo de Alto Nível da UE: formar professores para o ensino
The Honourable Schoolboy
Nb. Super Obrigado Dra Joana Dias (Dir. Bublioteca UBI por ter indicado este doc\txt)
domingo, 16 de junho de 2013
NBA and physics...
Will novelty emerge in 014 or just more of the same by now fairly standard?
The longitude challenge. This century.
Seeing the light fantastic...
Ah, Lisbon...
Chez Tate. Cannot miss it.
The universe. Nearby...
How every undergraduate could benefit from a course on statistics and the media
Astronomers' animated video mock-up of the known universe takes you where no man has gone before – watch it:
Physics
Bodum relies on physics for a great cup
Interesante las universidades de #España y #Brasil q forman parte del World's top 100 universities under 50 years old.....
Sampaio da Nóvoa entra na política - Expresso.pt
Nb. Olha lá a nova UL...
'via Blog this' The Honourable Schoolboy
sábado, 15 de junho de 2013
Beal's conjecture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
a million...
'via Blog this' The Honourable Schoolboy
40% dos alunos do secundário não querem entrar no superior - PÚBLICO
'via Blog this' The Honourable Schoolboy
Licenciaturas para o desemprego ... Polemico. As usual. But...
http://umonline.uminho.pt/uploads/clipping/NOT_94024/4821806448218064.pdf
'via Blog this' The Honourable Schoolboy
Ensino politécnico português precisa de mais massa crítica e 'etiqueta$$$ tb....
http://umonline.uminho.pt/uploads/clipping/NOT_94075/4821862748218627.pdf
'via Blog this' The Honourable Schoolboy
sexta-feira, 14 de junho de 2013
Worrying...
Interesting....
Mr. Spock, have you read this?
To think...
quinta-feira, 13 de junho de 2013
Your cat with a gps....
Soon at a west end theatre?
Pertinent...
Check your comic books...
Impressive...
U may want 2 take dis'into consideration...
quarta-feira, 12 de junho de 2013
[1306.1939] A critique of Sadi Carnot's work and a mathematical theory of the caloric
A critique of Sadi Carnot's work and a mathematical theory of the caloric
In this work, Sadi Carnot;s fundamental work is critically examined, and contrasted with modern thermodynamics. A mathematical theory of his work is given on the basis of the observation that in caloric theory dQ is a perfect differential.
Comments: | 17 pages, 8 figures, prepared in JHEP style |
Subjects: | History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph); Classical Physics (physics.class-ph); Physics Education (physics.ed-ph) |
Cite as: | arXiv:1306.1939 [physics.hist-ph] |
(or arXiv:1306.1939v1 [physics.hist-ph] for this version) |
'via Blog this' The Honourable Schoolboy
[1306.2537] Analysis of communities in a mythological social network
Analysis of communities in a mythological social network
The intriguing nature of classical Homeric narratives has always fascinated the occidental culture contributing to philosophy, history, mythology and straight forwardly to literature. However what would be so intriguing about Homer's narratives' At a first gaze we shall recognize the very literal appeal and aesthetic pleasure presented on every page across Homer's chants in Odyssey and rhapsodies in Iliad. Secondly we may perceive a biased aspect of its stories contents, varying from real-historical to fictional-mythological. To encompass this glance, there are some new archeological finding that supports historicity of some events described within Iliad, and consequently to Odyssey. Considering these observations and using complex network theory concepts, we managed to built and analyze a social network gathered across the classical epic, Odyssey of Homer. Longing for further understanding, topological quantities were collected in order to classify its social network qualitatively into real or fictional. It turns out that most of the found properties belong to real social networks besides assortativity and giant component's size. In order to test the network's possibilities to be real, we removed some mythological members that could imprint a fictional aspect on the network. Carrying on this maneuver the modified social network resulted on assortative mixing and reduction of the giant component, as expected for real social networks. Overall we observe that Odyssey might be an amalgam of fictional elements plus real based human relations, which corroborates other author's findings for Iliad and archeological evidences.
Subjects: | Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph); Social and Information Networks (cs.SI); Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems (nlin.AO) |
Cite as: | arXiv:1306.2537 [physics.soc-ph] |
(or arXiv:1306.2537v1 [physics.soc-ph] for this version) |
'via Blog this' The Honourable Schoolboy
[1306.2487] How many parameters to model states of mind ?
How many parameters to model states of mind ?
A series of examples of computational models is provided, where the model aim is to interpret numerical results in terms of internal states of agents minds. Two opposite strategies or research can be distinguished in the literature. First is to reproduce the richness and complexity of real world as faithfully as possible, second is to apply simple assumptions and check the results in depth. As a rule, the results of the latter method agree only qualitatively with some stylized facts. The price we pay for more detailed predictions within the former method is that consequences of the rich set of underlying assumptions remain unchecked. Here we argue that for computational reasons, complex models with many parameters are less suitable.
Comments: | 5 pages, no figures; Proceedings 27th European Conference on Modelling and Simulation ECMS Webjorn Rekdalsbakken, Robin T. Bye, Houxiang Zhang (Editors), 2013 |
Subjects: | Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph); Social and Information Networks (cs.SI) |
Cite as: | arXiv:1306.2487 [physics.soc-ph] |
(or arXiv:1306.2487v1 [physics.soc-ph] for this version) |
'via Blog this' The Honourable Schoolboy
[1306.2416] Aspects of Gond Astronomy
Aspects of Gond Astronomy
The Gond community is considered to be one of the most ancient tribes of India with a continuing history of several thousand years. They are also known for their largely isolated history which they have retained through the millennia. Several of their intellectual traditions therefore are a record of parallel aspects of human intellectual growth, and still preserve their original flavour and have not been homogenised by the later traditions of India. In view of this, the Gonds provide a special window to the different currents that constitute contemporary India. In the present study, we summarise their mythology, genetics and script. We then investigate their astronomical traditions and try to understand this community through a survey of 15 Gond villages spread over Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. We show that they have a distinctly different view of the sky from the conventional astronomical ideas encountered elsewhere in India, which is both interesting and informative. We briefly comment on other aspects of their life as culled from our encounters with different members of the Gond community.
Comments: | A survey of astronomical beliefs of an ancient tribe in India |
Subjects: | History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph) |
Journal reference: | Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 16(1), 29-44 (2013) |
Cite as: | arXiv:1306.2416 [physics.hist-ph] |
(or arXiv:1306.2416v1 [physics.hist-ph] for this version) |
'via Blog this' The Honourable Schoolboy
Gallery - Images that have changed perspectives on the universe - Image 3 - New Scientist
Actually a bit of Waters, Gilmour, Mason and Wright....
'via Blog this' The Honourable Schoolboy
Old Mars rover digs up evidence for drinkable water - space - 10 June 2013 - New Scientist
Not quite Evian. But...
Are the gods playing marbles on Mars? - space - 11 June 2013 - New Scientist
Rolling Stones. On Mars. But still can´t get (much) satisfaction...
domingo, 9 de junho de 2013
Other Gettysburgh address.
Cliff Pickover (@pickover) tweetou às 3:08 AM on dom, Jun 09, 2013: The mathematical writings of President Abe Lincoln. http://t.co/ly660MIePf (thanks @MathUpdate) (https://twitter.com/pickover/status/343550019858751490) Adquira o aplicativo oficial do Twitter em https://twitter.com/download
Bayesian. At a casino near you. If you can. Matter of literacy. Science.
Migueln (@miguelnmigueln) tweetou às 9:36 AM on seg, Mai 06, 2013: Bayesian Games: Models for Poker: http://t.co/0i1i1hgWyP (https://twitter.com/miguelnmigueln/status/331326499347120128) Adquira o aplicativo oficial do Twitter em https://twitter.com/download
Oh la la. Argincourt sort if....
TimesHigherEducation (@timeshighered) tweetou às 8:35 AM on dom, Jun 09, 2013: France is bitterly divided over whether its universities should teach in English. But is it such a new idea? http://t.co/GNxXXVrp2Y (https://twitter.com/timeshighered/status/343632418693079040) Adquira o aplicativo oficial do Twitter em https://twitter.com/download
sexta-feira, 7 de junho de 2013
To think about. Surely not a UK exclusive...
Charity warns: Half of Britons living in 2020 will get cancer http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/charity-warns-half-of-britons-living-in-2020-will-get-cancer-8648402.html
Not so much bringing controversy but shaping the question...
Send fewer kids to university, not ever more http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/send-fewer-kids-to-university-not-ever-more-8647491.html
quinta-feira, 6 de junho de 2013
Quantum cosmology from the de Broglie-Bohm perspective
Quantum cosmology from the de Broglie-Bohm perspective
We review the main results that have been obtained in quantum cosmology from the perspective of the de Broglie-Bohm quantum theory. As it is a dynamical theory of assumed objectively real trajectories in the configuration space of the physical system under investigation, this quantum theory is not essentially probabilistic and dispenses the collapse postulate, turning it suitable to be applied to cosmology. In the framework of minisuperspace models, we show how quantum cosmological effects in the de-Broglie-Bohm's approach can avoid the initial singularity, and isotropize the Universe. We then extend minisuperspace in order to include linear cosmological perturbations. We present the main equations which govern the dynamics of quantum cosmological perturbations evolving in non-singular quantum cosmological backgrounds, and calculate some of their observational consequences. These results are not known how to be obtained in other approaches to quantum theory. In the general case of full superspace, we enumerate the possible structures of quantum space and time that emerge from the de Broglie-Bohm picture. Finally, we compare some of the results coming from the de Broglie-Bohm theory with other approaches, and discuss the physical reasons for some discrepancies that occur.
Comments: | Latex file, 75 pages, 3 figures in eps format. To appear in CQG as an invited Topical Review |
Subjects: | General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc); Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO); High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) |
Cite as: | arXiv:1306.0820 [gr-qc] |
(or arXiv:1306.0820v1 [gr-qc] for this version) |
The Honourable Schoolboy
Does cosmological expansion affect local physics?
Does cosmological expansion affect local physics?
In this contribution I wish to address the question whether, and how, the global cosmological expansion influences local physics. I argue that a pseudo Newtonian picture can be quite accurate if ``expansion'' is taken to be an attribute of the inertial structure rather than of ``space'' in some substantivalist sense. This contradicts the often-heard suggestion to imagine cosmological expansion as that of ``space itself''. Regarding General Relativity, I emphasise the need for proper geometric characterisations in order to meaningfully compare localised systems in different spacetimes, like black holes in static and expanding environments. Examples of this sort are discussed in some detail to clearly map out the problems.
Comments: | 35 pages, 6 figures. Based on a talk delivered at the conference on "Philosophical Aspects of Modern Cosmology", held in Granada, 22-23 September 2011 |
Subjects: | General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) |
MSC classes: | 83F05 83C40 83C20 |
Cite as: | arXiv:1306.0374 [gr-qc] |
(or arXiv:1306.0374v1 [gr-qc] for this version) |
The Honourable Schoolboy
An Introduction to the Einstein Toolkit
An Introduction to the Einstein Toolkit
We give an introduction to the Einstein Toolkit, a mature, open-source computational infrastructure for numerical relativity based on the Cactus Framework, for the target group of new users. This toolkit is composed of several different modules, is developed by researchers from different institutions throughout the world and is in active continuous development. Documentation for the toolkit and its several modules is often scattered across different locations, a difficulty new users may at times have to struggle with. Scientific papers exist describing the toolkit and its methods in detail, but they might be overwhelming at first. With these lecture notes we hope to provide an initial overview for new users. We cover how to obtain, compile and run the toolkit, and give an overview of some of the tools and modules provided with it.
Comments: | Lecture notes from the NRHEP spring school held at IST-Lisbon, March 2013. Extra material and notebooks available online at this http URL To be published by IJMPA (V. Cardoso, L. Gualtieri, C. Herdeiro and U. Sperhake, Eds., 2013). v2: minor changes; added figure |
Subjects: | General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc); Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph) |
Cite as: | arXiv:1305.5299 [gr-qc] |
(or arXiv:1305.5299v2 [gr-qc] for this version) |
The Honourable Schoolboy
...traditional cultures of Aboriginal Australians include a significant astronomical component
The traditional cultures of Aboriginal Australians include a significant astronomical component, perpetuated through oral tradition, ceremony, and art. This astronomical component includes a deep understanding of the motion of objects in the sky, and this knowledge was used for practical purposes, such as constructing calendars. There is also evidence that traditional Aboriginal Australians made careful records and measurements of cyclical phenomena, paid careful attention to unexpected phenomena such as eclipses and meteorite impacts, and could determine the cardinal points to an accuracy of a few degrees.
The Honourable Schoolboy
Cosmological constant as a free thermodynamical variable
Remember how to do polynomial division by hand? You needn't
"Incentives are focused on getting it published, rather than getting it right."
Bora Bora!
Little-known mathematician who worked at a sandwich shop may have made a prime no. theory breakthrough
We need a new dialogue between physics and philosophy
Sabbatical. Many...
Maybe holiday'ing... aka trekking & hiking high