Coffeebuzz

Imagine a spherical cow

pyasi — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:27:52 +0000

Neil deGrasse Tyson teaches about the roundness of things in our universe.

Our Place in the Cosmos

pyasi — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 15:27:01 +0000

This is a recent google talk about our place in the cosmos. They talk about how galaxies form. It is full of many photos and animations of galaxies.

Fractal a day

pyasi — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 18:06:47 +0000

This artist posted A fractal a day for the month of november. They make great desktop wallpaper too!

Agent Based Models

pyasi — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 16:56:23 +0000

Through serendipitous web surfing I actually have a copy of their essay in Nature (now behind a paywall) from a few years ago that said that “The policy predictions of the models that are in use aren’t wrong, they are simply non-existant” As they reiterate in the video, “The models aren’t even good enough to be wrong”. With all the computer power available that can model so many inputs and variables it surprises me that economic models did not already attempt to make simulations of the economy in this way.

A Planet of Viruses

pyasi — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 15:39:41 +0000

Viruses are such a huge influence the environment of earth via the effects on their hosts. This is a talk by Carl Zimmer about his book A Planet of Viruses. “The most abundant organisms on earth are viruses. Viruses are planetary forces”

Carl Zimmer: A Planet of Viruses from The Long Now Foundation on FORA.tv

Discrete Math Lecture

pyasi — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 15:11:59 +0000

I use applications of discrete math all the time in programming, though I never got to take a discrete math class. I found this lecture series from a discrete math class by an instructor at Rutgers, Sergio de Biasi. It is one of the few class lectures about discrete math that is online. I’ve included the first class video below. The whole series of lectures is available on on vimeo.

Discrete Structures Fall 2010 Lecture 01 from Sergio de Biasi on Vimeo.

Science Myths in Elementary School Textbooks

pyasi — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 01:17:10 +0000

I just rediscovered this site Science Myths in K-6 Textbooks which I find lots of interesting nuggets on. Like the fact that water IS blue, and the sky is blue because air is blue and also red depending on viewing angle. It reflects blue light but is red at sunset because it transmits red light.

This site always reminds me of the very old science textbook I had in elementary school in the 1980′s that said someday man will go to the moon.

Richard Feynman’s Life in Science

pyasi — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:40:17 +0000

Even though i’ve read a number of books about Richard Feynman this talk by Lawrence Krauss about his life brought to life new insight and anecdotes about his views and character that I never knew. You can learn where one of my favorite title’s of his books, “What do you care what other people think?” comes from.

Chernobyl’s Radioactive Wolves

pyasi — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 01:45:18 +0000

The animals around chernobyl seem to be thriving even with very high levels of radiation still in immediate area and soil around chernobyl. Without people the area has quickly returned to nature.