The Rational Druid

Well, I’ve had several ideas mulling around in my head, and I think they’ve reached the point where I’m ready to start actually working on them. I’ve had two ideas for regular articles: a “What if?” column, and a column of “Maple for Mythbusters”. The first column will be articles where I look at different ideas and say “What if this idea were real? What would it mean?” The first one is going to look at homeopathy, and make the assumption that it is real. Starting there, what else do we have to accept, by logic, due to accepting that homeopathy is real. I’m going to look at a different idea for each article. The second column is going to look at different experiments that the Mythbusters have done and see how we can use Maple to do some scientific computations around those experiments. I really like Maple, and I think more people should be supporting a Canadian made product.

These two columns are going to run on alternate weeks, starting with “What if?” this Friday. If you have any ideas for either column, things you’d like to see covered, please let me know.

The physics department just had a talk by a researcher from Wilfred Laurier University, discussing the EPR (Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen) Paradox. This is a very counter-intuitive quantum effect which is very difficult to describe. The speaker this afternoon did an excellent job of describing it in regular language. I was very impressed. It really is true, you can only really explain something to someone else once you fully understand it yourself.

In short, Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen were bothered by the weirder conclusion from quantum mechanics. So they proposed an experiment that you could do which would show that the quantum model was incomplete. Unfortunately for them, the counter-intuitive results of the experiment actually did occur, proving that quantum mechanics actually is correct. This experiment was the beginning of quantum entanglement, and all of the wonderful weirdness which grew out of that.

Open Circuits provides a site full of ideas and circuits put into the open source community. Using their description:

Open Circuits is a wiki for sharing open source electronics knowledge, schematics, board layouts, ports and parts libraries. This include open hardware Music Players, atomic microscopes, PC, PDA and mobile phones, and batteries.

Visit, and add what you can.

I just saw this site this morning. I found the link in Make magazine (awesome magazine, by the way). There is far too much info here for me to go into. All I can say is that you need to go check this out if you have any interest in physics or science.

You’ve likely heard of permaculture before. This is the philosophy of agriculture which is capable of being permanent. The idea is that you plant your crops and care for your soil so that it can be sustained indefinitely. I think that it is time for us to start thinking the same way about our technology. A kind of permatech.

The beginnings of a movement are starting to form. An example is the repair manifesto. The idea here is that we should look at the items that we purchase and use in our day-to-day life, and choose items that can be repaired. If an item cannot be repaired, we are effectively just renting the item. When it finally does break, or wear out, we have no choice but to dump it in the trash and get a new one. The manifesto itself is:

1. Make your products live longer!
   Repairing means taking the opportunity to give your product a second life. Don’t ditch it, stitch it! Don’t end it, mend it! Repairing is not anti-consumption. It is anti- needlessly throwing things away.
2. Things should be designed so that they can be repaired.
   Product designers: Make your products repairable. Share clear, understandable information about DIY repairs. Consumers: Buy things you know can be repaired, or else find out why they don’t exist. Be critical and inquisitive.
3. Repair is not replacement.
   Replacement is throwing away the broken bit. This is NOT the kind of repair that we’re talking about.
4. What doesn’t kill it makes it stronger.
   Every time we repair something, we add to its potential, its history, its soul and its inherent beauty.
5. Repairing is a creative challenge.
   Making repairs is good for the imagination. Using new techniques, tools and materials ushers in possibility rather than dead ends.
6. Repair survives fashion.
   Repair is not about styling or trends. There are no due-dates for repairable items.
7. To repair is to discover.
   As you fix objects, you’ll learn amazing things about how they actually work. Or don’t work.
8. Repair – even in good times!
   If you think this manifesto has to do with the recession, forget it. This isn’t about money, it’s about a mentality.
9. Repaired things are unique.
   Even fakes become originals when you repair them.
10. Repairing is about independence.
    Don’t be a slave to technology – be its master. If it’s broken, fix it and make it better. And if you’re a master, empower others.
11. You can repair anything, even a plastic bag.
    But we’d recommend getting a bag that will last longer, and then repairing it if necessary.

Stop Recycling. Start Repairing. www.platform21.nl

Instead of buying the cheapest item, I think that we need to start thinking about the actual quality of the items we are purchasing. And we also need to start thinking about the total value of an item. This includes its aesthetic value. Objects should look good, feel good, be sturdy, and be capable of being repaired. If they worked well, we would actually use the item. If it looked good, we would likely take better care of it, and feel good about having it. If it was easy to repair, we would feel more investment in it.

Health Canada has said that ear candles are illegal in Canada. If you see any place in Canada dealing with ear candles, you can call Health Canada at 1-800-267-9675.

I don’t know if you’ve ever listened to the Skeptoid podcast, but Brian Dunning produces it.  You can find it on iTunes and at skeptoid.com.  He has recently produced a video called Here Be Dragons.  This video is an amazing introduction to skeptical thinking, and ways in which thinking can go wrong.  This should be mandatory viewing for everyone.  You can get it from the skeptoid site, or from it’s own site at herebedragons.com.  I hope everyone who reads this goes out and watches this video.

This past weekend was really fun.  The math department here at UNB held a mini-conference on general relativity.  The one talk that really got my juices flowing was one on stochastic gravity.  This formulation seems to allow for a bottom up way of tying quantum fields to the metric.  I’m going to use this with a field description of the electron and see what I find.