http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron therourke@gmail.com http://www.tnr.com/article/76715/infinite-life?passthru=MDBkMjEwNTgzZjNhNGZmYjBhNzEzZTdiZmVlZDk0Nzg A starry firmament, or sand cascading through one’s open fingers, or weeds springing up time after time: the first conception of infinity, of the uncountable and the unending, is not recorded, but it must have been stimulated by experiences such as these. It may have merged in the mind of an ancient progenitor with thoughts of a God, a possessor of unlimited might, an infinite being itself. But whether or not the idea of God was born with the first thoughts of what cannot be counted, this wonderful book by an American historian of science and a French mathematician teaches… ]]> Thu, 05 Aug 2010 03:18:00 -0700 http://www.tnr.com/article/76715/infinite-life?passthru=MDBkMjEwNTgzZjNhNGZmYjBhNzEzZTdiZmVlZDk0Nzg http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/think-globally/ The most familiar ideas of geometry were inspired by an ancient vision — a vision of the world as flat. From parallel lines that never meet, to the Pythagorean theorem discussed in last week’s column, these are eternal truths about an imaginary place, the two-dimensional landscape of plane geometry.

Conceived in India, China, Egypt and Babylonia more than 2,500 years ago, and codified and refined by Euclid and the Greeks, this flat-earth geometry is the main one (and often the only one) being taught in high schools today. But things have changed in the past few millennia.]]> Fri, 26 Mar 2010 05:54:00 -0700 http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/think-globally/ http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/03/07/symphony_in_j_flat/?page=full What prevents Bohlen-Pierce from becoming unpleasant, dissonant noise is the fact that is not merely an avant-garde musician taking a hacksaw to our current musical system for sheer destructive glee. In the same way that languages share certain principles, Bohlen-Pierce takes advantage of fundamental properties that make our own musical system work. It makes some different basic assumptions, most notably by not using the octave. But it also makes use of analogous ways of creating harmony and chords. The result is music that sounds different, but not bad. “A different tuning system is almost like a different language,” said Ross… ]]> Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:55:00 -0700 http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/03/07/symphony_in_j_flat/?page=full http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect In physics, the Coriolis effect is an apparent deflection of moving objects when they are viewed from a rotating reference frame. For example, consider two children on opposite sides of a spinning roundabout (carousel), who are throwing a ball to each other. From the children's point of view, the ball's path is curved sideways by the Coriolis effect. From the thrower's perspective, the deflection is to the right with anticlockwise carousel rotation (viewed from above). Deflection is to the left with clockwise rotation. Newton's laws of motion govern the motion of an object in an inertial frame of reference. When… ]]> Wed, 20 Jan 2010 06:57:00 -0700 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/12/we-have-message-from-another-world.html In the summer of 1899, whilst alone in his Colorado Springs laboratory working with his magnifying transmitter, the inimitable Nikola Tesla observed a series of unusual rhythmic signals which he described as 'counting codes'. Having just detected cosmic radio signals for the first time, Tesla immediately believed them to be attempted communications from an intelligent life-form on either Venus or Mars, and later said of the experience, 'The feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another'. The next year, Tesla was asked by the Red Cross to… ]]> Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:11:00 -0700 http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/12/we-have-message-from-another-world.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUgjlJ5hEbw&feature=youtube_gdata ]]> Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:45:00 -0700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUgjlJ5hEbw&feature=youtube_gdata http://www.newscientist.com/special/beyond-space-and-time We don't have any trouble coping with three dimensions – or four at a pinch. The 3D world of solid objects and limitless space is something we accept with scarcely a second thought. Time, the fourth dimension, gets a little trickier. But it's when we start to explore worlds that embody more – or indeed fewer – dimensions that things get really tough. These exotic worlds might be daunting, but they matter. String theory, our best guess yet at a theory of everything, doesn't seem to work with fewer than 10 dimensions. Some strange and useful properties of solids, such… ]]> Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:01:00 -0700 http://www.newscientist.com/special/beyond-space-and-time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9KT4M7kiSw ]]> Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:37:00 -0700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9KT4M7kiSw http://www.metafilter.com/82828/Music-is-Math-is-Beauty Glenn Marshall is an Irish computer video artist and musician whose recent work has focused on audio visualization programed in the Processing language. Generally the program is left to its own devices, though his work-for-hire has more intentional design, as in his video for the Peter Gabriel song "The Nest that Sailed the Sky." Marshall has also been hired to create video for Guinness for Sky TV and the Rugby Six Nations Tournament, and a looping animation for Hermes of Paris. Marshall discusses his works with some detail on his blog. (More videos inside) ]]> Sun, 28 Jun 2009 04:05:00 -0700 http://www.metafilter.com/82828/Music-is-Math-is-Beauty