Posted By Tobiah on September 6, 2009
I realize that it’s been nearly a month since I updated, so I figured that I ought to at least but something here. I have in fact been writing (quite a bit), but not things which I feel are appropriate to post here. I’m sorry if that’s a disappointment to anyone.
In recompense, here’s a rather interesting video regarding dimensions.
Posted By Tobiah on August 15, 2009
Sculptures in Motion by Peter Jansen
Rock-art find rewrites history – 06 Oct 2008 – NZ Herald: International and World News
Welcome to the Photo-Africa Blog!: Brutal or Amazing. You Decide…
Gobekli Tepe – Paradise Regained? | Articles | Features | Fortean Times UK
Ex Astris Scientia – Galleries – Bridge Drawings
Scientists Track Down Source of Earth’s Hum | Wired Science | Wired.com
Posted By Tobiah on August 8, 2009
Today I was cleaning out a portion of my harddrive and I found a cache of documents I’d saved from between 1999-2004, including the following, quoted from Everything2:
In the beginning God created three dimensions of space and one of time as a four dimensional pseudo-riemannian manifold with signature (3,1). And the manifold had a scalar curvature approaching infinity asymptotically as time approaches the beginning. The mass-energy it contained was without form, and the inflaton moved upon the face of the spacetime. And God began to divide the fundamental forces. First He separated that which controls the geometry of spacetime and named it gravity. Next He separated the strong force from the rest, which He named the electroweak force. Then God saw that the quantum vacuum of the inflaton was false, so lo he smote it with a second order phase transition, and that did drive exponential inflation of spacetime from the negative energy density of the quantum field. And the universe became vast. And He said, “Let there be quarks in the midst of the quark-gluon plasma,” and he divided the quarks from the antiquarks. And He saw that matter was good, so He caused then CP violation to make more matter than antimatter, so that all might not be annihilated. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, for quark-antiquark annihilation created photons. And so ended the grand unification epoch.
10-12 seconds after the beginning, in the electroweak epoch, God said, “Let electromagnetism be separate from the weak nuclear force and the photons be distinguishable from the weak bosons,” and it was so. And God said, “Let the quarks gather together as brothers and be bound by the gluon, that there might be baryons. ” The baryons condensed and God named them protons and neutrons according to their charge, and almost all the antimatter was annihilated. And one second after the beginning God began nucleosynthesis, bringing together the protons and neutrons to form nuclei. And God said, “Let the hydrogen and deuterium nuclei undergo fusion and bring forth helium, and those bring forth lithium and beryllium according to the laws of the nuclear forces,” and it was so. And God saw that it was good. After 3 minutes, He made it too cool for fusion and waited and the universe cooled and expanded for the next 300,000 years. And then God said, “Let there be recombination, let the electrons be bound to the nuclei,” and He separated the electromagnetic waves from the atoms and so brought forth the cosmic microwave background radiation.
And God said, “Let there be structure in the universe. Let there be fluctuations in matter density that collapse due to gravitational instability.” And God created great nebulae and every celestial object, which brought forth in space protostars. In these protostars He caused fusion to be rekindled, and they became stars as the gas heated and ionized to become plasma, so that the stars gave light throughout the universe: and God saw that it was good. And God said, “Let the first stars expend their nuclear fuel and lose hydrostatic equilibrium, so that they might become supernovae.” And the stars went supernova, creating elements with nuclei heavier than iron, and they were spread throughout the cosmos. And from what was left of the nebulae of the stars God made protoplanets, and the asteroids, and everything that flieth through space or orbiteth a star. And the protoplanets cooled, and one became the Earth.
I’ve personally dithered back and forth regarding my own personal beliefs regarding the nature of the universe and its origins. However, there is nothing inherent in Christianity specifically or religion in general that should make it irreconcilable with science, if that’s what floats your boat. That being said, biblical literalism is immensely stupid in every regard.
Posted By Tobiah on August 8, 2009
A little taste of the strangeness : Pharyngula – The creation museum is a weird freaking place, or it was until they shut it down for tax evasion.
An Analysis of Leading Congressional Health Care Bills, 2007-2008: Part I, Insurance Coverage – If you’re part of the tl;dr crowd, the jist of it is that Single Payer Universal Healthcare would save the US about $58 Billion a year. I found it illuminating, but I’m weird like that.
Change you can freak out about / Or: How parkland pot, flying cars and John Cusack will save the world – He rags on about the pot a bit hard, but there is an overall point here.
The Root Bridges of Cherrapungee | Shillong, India | Atlas Obscura
Discovery News: Material World: Artificial Leaf Pumps Water and Makes Electricity
Posted By Tobiah on August 3, 2009
I’ve edged around the topic of grounding several times before (notably in the articles on genre and the player sphere of perception), but never dealt with it directly, so I feel it’s time to remedy that. As a general rule, it’s necessary for the party to be grounded in the game setting, both on a character level and on a player level. On either level, “Strangers in a Strange Land” presents numerous problems which need to be addressed. (more…)
Posted By Tobiah on August 1, 2009
Sorry I haven’t been posting more recently. Things.
OpEdNews – The American Road to Fascism — a synopsis of Chris Hedges’ new book, Empire of Illusion
Bizarre theory suggests time may be running out | BreakingNews.ie
Brilliant Craig Ferguson rant about what’s wrong with society. (video)
Posted By Tobiah on July 18, 2009
It’s been a slow week on this here internet, I suppose.
BBC NEWS | Technology | Snooping through the power socket
Video Games on Vimeo – Really awesome video, although NSFW
Posted By Tobiah on July 16, 2009
A while back I made some comments about the nature of players in a game versus the audience of a show or book. Of specific note, I said:
When you are planning your adventure you can never make your plots dependent on predicting specific player action; especially when that action is predicated on the players not making logical conclusions.
This became relevant again because of a conversation I had over IM recently with my friend and former group member Ben, discussing his newly formed Deadlands game. It also ties back to comments I made in a number of previous articles, and especially the one on the group contract. The text has been editted for spelling and clarity: (more…)
Posted By Tobiah on July 11, 2009
Brain represents tools as temporary body parts, study confirms
Lewis and Clark . Inside the Corps . To Equip an Expedition | PBS
Android envy hits with Layar | 9 to 5 Mac
WebHome < Main < Reprap – Home Fabrication
“The DNA Code” – New Research Shows Life Hardwired in the Universe
Posted By Tobiah on July 4, 2009
Japanese Coffee-Making Robot is Today’s BIG Thing in Technology – JUN 19, 2009
Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Weblog, short fiction, art, and discussion
YouTube – {PART 1} Daily Show’s John Hodgman @ Radio & Television Correspondents Dinner
Dailymotion – The Present & Future of Mind-Reading Technology – a News & Politics video
Carnivorous Clock eats bugs, begins doomsday countdown
Answering the Question Before Last – Video
The New Economy Won’t Be Like the Last One | CommonDreams.org
