Is there a crack in the monolith? A play about the persecution of a scientist who expresses skepticism about global warming is running in London, with favorable reviews!
An evening pause: Thirty-one years ago, February 22, 1980, Lake Placid, New York, the winter Olympics: The USA hockey team beats the Soviet Union 4 to 3 to set up their gold medal victory.
An evening pause: On February 15, 2011, the Sun emitted its strongest flare in four years. Though the Sun continues to act relatively wimpy as it ramps up towards solar maximum, this flare was spectacular, mostly because we now have some amazing instruments in space to image and study it. This video does an excellent job explaining what was happening, as it happened. Watch, and enjoy.
And note, as powerful as this flare was, and despite the fact that it was pointed right at the Earth, it represented a relatively minor threat to our technological society, despite what some doomsayers might be claiming. A very active Sun can cause us problems, especially with power systems and electrical grids, but based on past experience during previous solar maximums, most power companies have taken careful steps to protect themselves from this risk. And with the Sun as weakly active as it is, the risks are further reduced. The doomsayers are simply shilling for more government research dollars.
An evening pause: Hiking in the Santa Catalina mountains overlooking Tucson, Arizona. Amazing shots of wildlife as well.
‘Watson’ the computer creams human ‘Jeopardy!’ champs. Key quote:
“I for one welcome our new computer overlords,” contestant Ken Jennings — who holds the “Jeopardy!” record of 74 straight wins — cheekily wrote on his answer screen at the conclusion of the much-hyped three-day showdown.
Australian space beer ready for micro-gravity test.
The computer has crushed the human champions in the second of three rounds of “Jeopardy!”
It’s a tie after the first round of Jeopardy!’s computer vs human competition.
An evening pause: Some more cool engineering: how to move a boat eight stories from one canal to another. More here.
An evening pause: Music by Don Slepian (1984). Graphics: analog video synthesizer.
An evening pause: All funny, but the best moment is the look on Groucho’s face when he asks Benny the “Big Question”.
