Cop Car's Beat

Wandering

As much as my mind wandered in elementary and secondary school classes, I should be the most creative person around, if the following article is to be believed! Come to think of it, my mind stil.....

From Slashdot.org:

Allowing the Mind To Wander Aids Creative Problem Solving67

Posted by samzenpuson Monday May 21, @02:09PM
from the daydream-a-better-tomorrow dept.

ananyo writes "From the Nature story: 'Scientists from Archimedes to Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein are said to have had flashes of inspiration while thinking about other things. But the mechanisms behind this psychological phenomenon have remained unclear. A study now suggests that simply taking a break does not bring on inspiration — rather, creativity is fostered by tasks that allow the mind to wander.' The researchers gave 145 students 2 minutes to list as many possible uses for an everyday object (the creative thinking task). Participants then either rested, undertook a demanding memory activity that required their full attention or engaged in an undemanding reaction-time activity known to elicit mind-wandering. A fourth group of students had no break. The researchers then set the students a second set of unusual-uses tasks and found those that had, in the interim, been set the undemanding task that encouraged mind-wandering performed an average of around 40% better than they did before. The students in the other three groups showed no improvement."

You would never believe how I got from the above to the YouTube presentation, below! (I'm not even a dulcimer fan.)

 

Well...maybe you would. My mind wandered!

Too many unfinished projects running around

Unfortunately, I am really, really good at starting projects - which then drag on forever because I lose interest, rapidly. These days, I'm trying to get all of my bird sighting records onto spreadsheets so that I can throw 60 years' worth of paper listings. Wish me well!

Other documentation efforts that have hung fire:

    - Photos from Hunky Husband's and my families, some of which are over 100 years old. I'm trying to get them all scanned and organized so that someone who doesn't recognize the people who are in the photos, by sight, can make sense out of it all. Truly, I don't know why I even wish to do this. Obviously, I don't recognize some of the people in the older photos.

    - Letters and cards accumulated over my lifetime. I started recording data from them into spreadsheets, scanning some, sending some of the letters to surviving children of the writers, etc. In theory, if successful, this project will get about 10-20 boxes of paperwork out of our basement!

    - Genealogy. I don't even want to talk about this. I've never been interested and only became involved when Elder Brother threw up his hands and sent me his electronic files. (It took a few years before I even got around to finding the right software to open his file.)

Non-documentation efforts that have hung fire:

    - Quilt making

    - Getting rid of accumulated needlework materials such as yarns, knitting needles, etc.

Tipping the scales

For the past several years, I've earmarked my annual contribution to my alma mater to be used for equipment required by those conducting research in the physics department. Last year, a physics major who was an undergraduate while I was in graduate school, and who started and runs a successful technical business, donated $$ (a relatively modest amount) to a project of the physics department - for which he had his name tagged onto the project.

Some weeks ago, the head of the physics department sent me a package of materials with a letter suggesting that I give $$ (he specified an amount 1.3 times what my fellow student had donated) toward funding scholarships with the suggestion that such a project might bear my name.

I have been hesitantly considering the proposition. My hesitation has four causes: 1) I'm not fond of someone's suggesting how much money I should donate, even though it is not an outlandish amount, 2) I have concerns as to who would be the beneficiaries, as the implication was that it wouldn't just be physics majors nor USA nationals, 3) I don't care to have my name tagged onto any project, and 4) it seems to me that providing scholarships to college-bound students is not where money could be used most effectively. I've been considering that it might be more effective to provide money to help under-served children in 4th - 7th grades develop an appreciation for science.

This item from Slashdot.org tipped the scales, for me. Where would you put your money?

Only 22% of California 8th Graders Pass National Science Test524

Posted by Soulskillon Friday May 11, @11:39AM
from the above-the-mendoza-line dept.

bonch writes "22 percent of California eighth-graders passed a national science test, ranking California among the worst in the U.S. according to the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress. The test measures knowledge in Earth and space sciences, biology, and basic physics. The states that fared worse than California were Mississippi, Alabama, and a tie between the District of Columbia and Hawaii. 'Nationally, 31 percent of eighth-graders who were tested scored proficient or advanced. Both the national and state scores improved slightly over scores from two years ago, the last time the test was administered.'"

I, myself, was hooked on science before I started grade school. Is 4th grade too late to spark an interest? BTW: I do thank Dr S for getting me to thinking, at least!

Good housekeeping

Note the plea in the background of the photo, below, of the Dream Chaser lifting body model. (The sign is just a plus to an interesting photo.)

               

Dream Chaser

The Dream Chaser model with its Atlas V launch vehicle is undergoing final preparations at the Aerospace Composite Model Development Section's workshop for buffet tests at the Transonic Dynamics Tunnel at NASA Langley. The scale model is being tested as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Development program to regain the American capability to launch astronauts safely to the International Space Station. The lifting body reusable spacecraft would carry as many as seven astronauts to the space station. Sierra Nevada Space Systems is developing the craft under a Space Act Agreement with NASA.

With the help of hundreds of pressure transducers, engineers from Sierra Nevada Corporation, the United Launch Alliance and NASA Langley will look at the pressure fluctuations the model and launch vehicle stack experience during the critical ascent to orbit, especially at transonic speeds. Shock-waves form on launch vehicles as they approach the speed of sound and may result in regions of highly unsteady flow. Within these regions of the Dream Chaser and launch vehicle, the resulting buffet forces and high frequency acoustic noise must be clearly understood as part of the vehicle design process. Transonic wind-tunnel testing of large, highly instrumented scale models is the only method of determining the buffet environments of launch vehicles with complex shapes.

Image Credit: NASA EDGE/Ron Beard

IMHO: There are other ways of determining the buffet environments; but, wind tunnel testing is cheaper than flying testbeds. There is nearly always "more than one way of skinning a cat" as my mother would have said.

Just what I need!

I may have to rejoin Facebook when this device is perfected. Don't hold your breath waiting for me to rejoin FB; but, the device might solve the problem of my walking off without my phone - as I did for the mega-zillionth time, yesterday. (I don't mind being without my phone; but, my driver's license and credit card are in the tiny phone pouch.) Perhaps a microchip driver's license implanted in my arm wouldn't be such a bad idea!

From Slashdot.org:

Researchers Push Implanted User Interfaces32

Posted by timothyon Saturday May 05, @06:43AM
from the well-if-it's-good-enough-for-cadavers dept.

MatthewVD writes "A new, user interface-enabled generation of electronics that you wear under your skin could be used for convenience, or even pleasure, rather than medical reasons. Scientists at Autodesk Research in Toronto have implanted electronics with user buttons, pressure sensors and LEDs under the skin of a cadaver's arm and wrapped in artificial skin. The electronics could buzz you when you have an appointment, carry memory cards with data, or connect you in a social network with others wearing electronics."

Return on investment

During my 74 years - well, during the ones that I've thought about the issue, at least - I've never understood the concept of doing anything with the attitude that it must be done regardless of the cost. I don't dine on steak and lobster every night - the cost to my health and wallet are too high. Who in the world thought, at any point during the past 11 years, that the panic mode in which public opinion seemed to demand that we operate was worth what it cost - in freedoms, time, energy, money? I've never understood and still don't understand why we stand still for TSA. At least one politician agrees with me (or, perhaps I agree with him!)

From Slashdot.org:

Rand Paul Has a Quick Fix For TSA: Pull the Plug637

Posted by Soulskillon Friday May 04, @02:29PM
from the might-increase-their-efficacy dept.

suraj.sun quotes from Politico:"Rand Paul has a reform plan for the Transportation Security Administration: Scrap the whole thing. A personal message from Paul (R-Ky.) came atop emails this week from the Campaign for Liberty Vice President Matt Hawes, asking for readers to sign a petition in support of Paul's 'End the TSA' bill. A Paul spokeswoman said that legislation is being finalized next week. 'Every inch of our person has become fair game for government thugs posing as "security" as we travel around the country. Senator Rand Paul has a plan to do away with the TSA for good, but he needs our help,' reads the petition, which also asks signers to 'chip in a contribution to help C4L mobilize liberty activists across America to turn the heat up on Congress and end the TSA's abuse of our rights.' 'The American people shouldn't be subjected to harassment, groping, and other public humiliation simply to board an airplane. As you may have heard, I have some personal experience with this, and I've vowed to lead the charge to fight back,' Paul wrote at the top of a C4L fundraising pitch, according to blogs that received the email. 'Campaign for Liberty is leading the fight to pressure Congress to act now and restore our liberty. It's time to END the TSA and get the government's hands back to only stealing our wallets instead of groping toddlers and grandmothers.'"

The year of the butterflies

In recent years I have often lamented the (near) absence of butterflies. Not this year. This is the year of the butterfly. When we move anywhere around the plantings in our yard, clouds of butterflies flock and swirl about us - I kid you not. First, a week or so ago, I noticed prodigious numbers of butterflies on our sage bush blossoms - at least four species (not that I could identify them you understand). For the past couple of days I've noted that the butterflies are mobbing on our in-bloom cilantro and on our masses of sedum in bloom - including at least a fifth species of butterfly. Unfortunately, I have neither the abilities nor the equipment to capture those flitting critters. Following are the best that I could manage (the winds don't help, either, with everything waving about in-and-out-of focus!)

The first five photos feature butterflies on sedum.

        
 

     

                                     

Turning to the sage bush: I guessed that there were about 100 butterflies on the bush when I snapped the left hand photo. If you tell me that you only see a couple - even after blowing up the photo by clicking on it - I won't think that you are calling me a liar. I can't see them, either. But...look at the right hand photo. It is a small area of the left hand photo, chosen at random to enlarge. Now...I can see at least four small butterflies (or they may be moths instead of skipper-type butterflies) and I am confident that there are more critters there than I can detect in the photo.

   

Now, I'll get back to what I really got the camera out to show you. First, below, is a photo of our first mum plant to bloom this year. Yes, I know one should pick off buds until July 4th in order to increase and stave off blooming until the fall; but, they showed color so freakishly early that I decided to let the mums go ahead and bloom. Perhaps they will bloom again, later in the year.

The right-hand photo shows the blanket roses that I put out about 10 years ago - without realizing that they would be growing in the shade once the chokeberry and vibernum bushes grew.

     
 

Babbage: nerd of the 1830s

The Greatest Machine Never Built115

Posted by samzenpuson Sunday April 29, @11:58AM
from the oldest-school dept.

mikejuk writes "John Graham-Cumming is the leading light behind a project to actually build the analytical engine dreamed of by Charles Babbage. There is a tendency to think that everything that Babbage thought up was little more than a calculating machine, but as the video makes 100% clear the analytical engine was a real computer that could run programs. From the article: 'Of course Ada Lovelace was the first programmer, but more importantly her work with Babbage took the analytical engine from the realms of mathematical table construction into the wider world of non-mathematical programming. Her notes indicate that had the machine been built there is no question that it would have been exploited just as we use silicon-based machines today. To see the machine built and running programs would be the final proof that Babbage really did invent the general purpose computer in the age of the steam engine.'"

More from Slashdot.org

Bionic Eye Patient Tests Planned For 201356

Posted by samzenpuson Friday April 27, @08:02AM
from the gentlemen-we-can-rebuild-him dept.

angry tapir writes "Australian researchers are getting ready to test a bionic eye on patients in 2013. The eye consists of 98 electrodes that stimulate nerve cells in the retina, which is a tissue lining the back of the eye that converts light into electrical impulses necessary for sight, and allow users to better differentiate between light and dark. With the bionic eye, images taken by a camera are processed in an external unit, such as a smartphone, then relayed to the implant's chip. This stimulates the retina by sending electric signals along the optic nerve into the brain where they are decoded as vision."

Analytic Thinking Can Decrease Religious Belief877

Posted by Soulskillon Friday April 27, @08:45AM
from the can-of-worms dept.

Freshly Exhumed writes "A new University of British Columbia study finds that analytic thinking can decrease religious belief, even in devout believers. The study, which will appear in tomorrow's issue of Science (abstract), finds that thinking analytically increases disbelief among believers and skeptics alike, shedding important new light on the psychology of religious belief."

Back to Nerdville

I'm sure that every one of my blog friends has missed being kept up on the goings-on in Nerdville. Thanks to Slashdot.org, I'll put an end to that drought.

Study Suggests the Number-Line Concept Is Not Intuitive 352

Posted by samzenpuson Wednesday April 25, @10:56PM
from the learning-to-count dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Yupno people of New Guinea have provided clues to the origins of the number-line concept, and suggest that the familiar concept of time may be cultural as well. From the article: 'Tape measures. Rulers. Graphs. The gas gauge in your car, and the icon on your favorite digital device showing battery power. The number line and its cousins – notations that map numbers onto space and often represent magnitude – are everywhere. Most adults in industrialized societies are so fluent at using the concept, we hardly think about it. We don't stop to wonder: Is it 'natural'? Is it cultural? Now, challenging a mainstream scholarly position that the number-line concept is innate, a study suggests it is learned."

 

Microsoft's Hotmail Challenge Backfires428

Posted by samzenpuson Wednesday April 25, @05:50PM
from the not-the-desired-outcome dept.

Barence writes "Microsoft challenged the editor of PC Pro to return to Hotmail after six years of using Gmail, to prove that its webmail service had vastly improved — but the challenge backfired when he had his Hotmail account hacked. PC Pro's editor say he was quietly impressed with a number of new Hotmail features, including SkyDrive integration and mailbox clean-up features. He'd even imported his Gmail and contacts into Microsoft's service. But the two-week experiment came to an abrupt end when Hotmail sent a message containing a malicious link to all of his contacts. 'What's even more worrying is that it's not only my webmail that's been compromised, but my Xbox login (which holds my credit card details) and now my PC login too. Because Windows 8 practically forces you to login with your Windows Live/Hotmail details to access features such as the Metro Store, synchronization and SkyDrive,' he writes."

 

'Gaia' Scientist Admits Mispredicting Rate of Climate Change697

Posted by Unknown Lameron Wednesday April 25, @10:05AM
from the captain-planet-will-still-kill-you dept.

DesScorp writes "James Lovelock, the scientist that came up with the 'Gaia Theory' and a prominent herald of climate change, once predicted utter disaster for the planet from climate change, writing 'before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable.' Now Lovelock is walking back his rhetoric, admitting that he and other prominent global warming advocates were being alarmists. In a new interview with MSNBC he says: '"The problem is we don't know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago. That led to some alarmist books — mine included — because it looked clear-cut, but it hasn't happened," Lovelock said. "The climate is doing its usual tricks. There's nothing much really happening yet. We were supposed to be halfway toward a frying world now," he said. "The world has not warmed up very much since the millennium. Twelve years is a reasonable time it (the temperature) has stayed almost constant, whereas it should have been rising — carbon dioxide is rising, no question about that," he added.' Lovelock still believes the climate is changing, but at a much, much slower pace."