MadMen yourself

http://www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/madmenyourself/

CHOON

A Life Elsewhere. First 3 minutes especially.

The Dunning Kruger effect

I came across this reference to the Dunning Kruger effect. "The paper compares people's skill levels to their own assessment of their abilities. In hindsight, the result seems self-evident. Unskilled people lack the skill to rate their own level of competence. This leads to the unfortunate result that unskilled people rate themselves higher than more competent people." This poses the question - am I so competent that I downgrade my abilities, or am I just incompetent?!

BitNami: Open Source. Simplified

This is good!

1963 as seen from 2010

Just watched Episodes 1 & 2 of Madmen series 3. Total genius. Urgently need to move to upstate New York and start commuting to Madison Avenue.

Are environmentalists bad for the planet?

Just caught the end of quite an interesting Analysis on Radio 4, in which Newsnight's 'Ethical Man' asked whether environmentalists were bad for the planet ? His point being that the green movement's hard line approach makes other people hostile and resistant to environmental issues. It's a debate worth having, I think. Personally, I like the sound of most of what they have to say, but agree that most of the population are so offended by the implications of a lot of it that it makes them resent and reject the whole issue, often angrily. Think I'll Listen Again and get the beginning.

2010 as forseen in 1972

Somebody's unearthed a child's book from 1972 which predicts how we will all live in 2010.

Ah takes me back

The Buckfast Code

The Secret Life of Chaos

Did anyone see The Secret Life of Chaos on BBC4 last night? Excellent documentary on chaos theory. You'll have heard some of it before (Turing, Mandelbrot etc.), but it was a very watchable and well put together overview, nicely directed, and not much actual maths! They get into the relationship between chaos and evolution, and there's a fascinating bit where some maths geniuses develop a programme that enables a computer to learn how to make a little virtual avatar guy walk around without falling over. What they actually do is produce 100 different avatar-controlling programmes, then let the computer evolve a better programme through natural selection. It ends up with a far more sophisticated ability to control the avatar than a human would have been able to programme from scratch. It's repeated a few times (see the link), including next Saturday (17th) at 8.30pm, or is on iPlayer.

Will Self on catastrophe books

"Just because we've been crying wolf for decades now it doesn't mean that there isn't a whole pack of them, it just means they haven't come to blow your house down yet."


(I just read elsewhere that 'catastrophe' literally means a 'down stroke' in fortunes.)

mathematical constants

If I was going to make two sure-fire predictions for the future, they would be that the world is going to get warmer, and that some weirdo will calculate an even higher number for pi.

Best of the Fitz 2009

Google Analytics may possibly say otherwise, but Fitzrovian Tuesdays has been a vibrant and important part of the cultural landscape for much of the last decade, and 2009 was no exception. As ever, and in no particular order, below is my traditional list of highlights from the last year:

1) http://fitzroytuesday.blogspot.com/2009/01/when-central-bankers-rescued-then.html

2) http://fitzroytuesday.blogspot.com/2009/02/diana-and-acteaon-to-stay-in-scotland.html

3) http://fitzroytuesday.blogspot.com/2009/05/edna-unveiled.html

4) http://fitzroytuesday.blogspot.com/2009/09/well-bit-of-good-news.html

5) http://fitzroytuesday.blogspot.com/2009/10/barmy-nutters-party.html

Another Ice Age?

Climate change sceptics often protest that in the 1970s, scientists claimed we were heading for another ice age. Those who believe in the threat of global warming generally counter that there were only a very small number of such claims, which the sceptics deliberately keep bringing up in order to muddy the waters. The famous piece that is meant to have inspired the sceptical line of argument was a cover story in Time magazine in 1974. I just Googled it, and was surprised to find that it's on the Time website here. They must have digitized their archives. Interesting to actually read the original.

Here's someone's blog post showing that there were far more papers predicting warming, even in the 60s and 70s.

In Order to Edit

Yowsa.

Morrissey on Desert Island Discs: suicide is 'honourable' - Telegraph

Morrissey on Desert Island Discs: suicide is 'honourable' - Telegraph

They F*** You Up

This is brilliant. Completely unnerving but brilliant.

Muji Lego

Thought it was time for a frivolous post, so - Muji Lego. Every north London home should have a set. What's with all that papery stuff? They seem to be missing the point.

Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air

I've posted about David JC MacKay's Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air before, but as I said in a comment to the last post, I've now read the whole book. Thought I'd summarise some key points in case you can't face the whole thing.

In summary, MacKay says: "First, we electrify transport. Electrification both gets transport off fossil fuels, and makes transport more energy-efficient. (Of course, electrification increases our demand for green electricity.) Second, to supplement solar-thermal heating, we electrify most heating of air and water in buildings using heat pumps, which are four times more efficient than ordinary electrical heaters. This electrification of heating further increases the amount of green electricity required. Third, we get all the green electricity from a mix of four sources: from our own renewables; perhaps from "clean coal"; perhaps from nuclear; and finally, and with great politeness, from other countries’ renewables. Among other countries’ renewables, solar power in deserts is the most plentiful option. As long as we can build peaceful international collaborations, solar power in other people’s deserts certainly has the technical potential to provide us, them, and everyone with 125 kWh per day per person."

Or, in a bit more detail, he also provides a 10-page synopsis.

And here's one of his proposed possible energy plans (plus a diagram summarising some alternative plans).

Some other bits worth looking at:

His calculation of total possible UK renewable energy. His is the column on the left, compared with some more conservative estimates. (He is deliberately ignoring economic, political and practical factors at this point and concentrating only on possible energy output from renewables.)

And if you're wondering what you could do, here's some bits about how he reduced his home energy consumption by two thirds (turning down the thermostat and reducing draughts have the biggest impact), more here (5 pages or so). For buildings, he's particularly into heat pumps, more detail here. And some stuff on gadgets here, and why articles about standby and unplugging mobile phone chargers have the emphasis wrong (though you should still switch off gadgets and unplug chargers anyway).

Oh, he's got a pretty good blog too, which I hadn't realised.

Doom and Gloom

I think we've had it. Little prospect of the politicians agreeing anything tangible at Copenhagen, nevermind anything like what's needed. Meanwhile, the scientific prognosis seems to get worse and worse, while the general public continue to show astounding levels of uninterest and scepticism about global warming. I just don't see how we're going to get out of it.

Mundane Science Fiction

Just heard the editor of this book on radio 4 talking about 'mundane science fiction', a term I hadn't heard before. Meaning fiction derived from existing or imminent scientific research, rather than the far-fetched stuff of the movies, with teleportation, light-speed travel etc. (essentially fantasy magic). The anthology paired research scientists with writers to inspire the short stories. (Indirectly, also reminded me of the excellent insultingly stupid movie physics site.)