BBC Documentary – The Secret Life of Chaos
Chaos theory has a bad name, conjuring up images of unpredictable weather, economic crashes and science gone wrong. But there is a fascinating and hidden side to Chaos, one that scientists are only now beginning to understand.
It turns out that chaos theory answers a question that mankind has asked for millennia – how did we get here?
In this documentary, Professor Jim Al-Khalili sets out to uncover one of the great mysteries of science – how does a universe that starts off as dust end up with intelligent life? How does order emerge from disorder?
Twitter joke led to Terror Act arrest
“When heavy snowfall threatened to scupper Paul Chambers’s travel plans, he decided to vent his frustrations on Twitter by tapping out a comment to amuse his friends. “Robin Hood airport is closed,” he wrote. “You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!”
Unfortunately for Mr Chambers, the police didn’t see the funny side. A week after posting the message on the social networking site, he was arrested under the Terrorism Act and questioned for almost seven hours by detectives who interpreted his post as a security threat. After he was released on bail, he was suspended from work pending an internal investigation, and has, he says, been banned from the Doncaster airport for life. “I would never have thought, in a thousand years, that any of this would have happened because of a Twitter post,” said Mr Chambers, 26. “I’m the most mild-mannered guy you could imagine.”
While it has happened in the United States, Mr Chambers is thought to be the first person in the United Kingdom to be arrested for comments posted on Twitter. His ordeal began on 6 January when, after hearing that extreme weather had forced the closure of Robin Hood airport, he posted the ill-advised message – frustrated because he was to fly to Ireland from that airport on Friday 15 January.
After the interview, Mr Hale was returned to a cell for an hour then released. But, he said, not before the police deleted the post from his Twitter page. He has been bailed until 11 February, when he will be told whether or not he will be charged with conspiring to create a bomb hoax. In the interim, detectives have confiscated his iPhone, laptop and home computer. ”
Read more at The Independent (Thanks Josh C)
“Intelligent” Oil Droplet Solves Maze
“There’s some humbling news from the chemical world for anyone who has ever found themselves lost in a garden maze. A simple droplet of organic solvent can find its way through a complicated labyrinth with nothing more to go on than a slight pH difference.
Bartosz Grzybowski’s team at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, used a common polymer to fashion a two-dimensional labyrinth some 2 centimetres on each side. They then flooded the maze with strongly alkaline potassium hydroxide solution, before placing a hydrochloric acid-soaked chunk of gel at the maze exit.
After about 40 seconds they placed a droplet of mineral oil containing hexyldecanoic acid at the maze entrance. The oil, which cannot mix with the potassium hydroxide solution, sits on the surface. But it remains still only for a matter of seconds – it soon begins tearing around the maze at speeds of up to 10 millimetres per second, sniffing out the shortest path to the acid-soaked gel, and solving the maze in the process.
“In the movie files you can see the droplet makes decisions,” says Grzybowski. “It goes left along the wrong path, decides there’s something fishy with that and so it reverses. It looks almost alive.”"
Read more at New Scientist
Synesthesia And The McGurk Effect
“We’ve discussed synesthesia many times before on Cognitive Daily — it’s the seemingly bizarre phenomenon when one stimulus (e.g. a sight or a sound) is experienced in multiple modalities (e.g. taste, vision, or colors). For example, a person might experience a particular smell whenever a given word or letter is seen or heard. Sometimes particular faces are associated with specific colors or auras. Synesthesia is relatively rare, but the people who experience it are genuine: their perceptions are consistent and replicable.
But one question researchers haven’t been able to nail down is exactly how synesthesia occurs. Consider the relatively common form of synesthesia, where colors are perceived along with words. One synesthete consistently sees the color green when she hears someone say “neat.” Does the synesthetic experience occur when she first detects the word, or only after she understands its meaning?
A team led by Gary Bargary has figured out a new way to test when a synesthetic experience occurs by relying on the McGurk Effect. In the McGurk effect, the word you “hear” someone saying changes depending on what you see.”
Check out the link below with a movie giving a quick demonstration of the phenomenon.
Read more at Cognitive Daily
Ignore Most Depressing Day Of The Year Says Psychologist
“Cliff Arnall, the psychologist who ‘calculated’ that Monday is the most depressing day of the year is urging Britons to “refute the whole notion” and be cheerful instead. The third Monday in January became a black day in 2005 when Mr Arnall was paid by a public relations firm to identify the most miserable date in the calendar in order to promote holiday firm, Sky Travel.
The self-styled ‘freelance happiness guru’ chose the date based on a pseudo-mathematical formula involving the weather, debt, motivational levels and time elapsed since Christmas. Now Mr Arnall, from Brecon, Wales, has admitted the idea of a single most depressing day was “not particularly helpful” because it became “a self-fulfilling prophecy” and that achieving happiness and being less materialistic was a year-round aim. He said Monday January 18 should instead be used to “get a bit of perspective” about our own lives.
“I’m pleased about the impact it if it means people are talking about depression and how they feel but I’m also encouraging people to refute the whole notion of there being a most depressing day and to use the day as a springboard for the things that really matter in your life,” he said.”
Read more at The Telegraph
Hindu Godman trampling on infants to “bless” them
WARNING: The following truly bizarre ritual is quite disturbing to watch.
Sanal Edamaruku speaks about a shocking and dangerous ritual in Bihar. A godman tramples on infants to bless them. Parents bring their children for this blessing. The parliament member from this area, a minister and a top priest defend the ritual in the name of religion and tradition. Two days after this TV interview, the godman was arrested and this ritual ended.
Via Atheist Media
Amusing Revelation In Telephone Mast Battle
iBurst who own a telephone mast (Craigavon tower) play a trump card to residents who are complaining of health issues.
“Over the past few months a battle between certain concerned Craigavon residents and iBurst reached fever pitch, with residents demanding that iBurst move a tower that was erected in Fourways Memorial Park on 12 August 2009.
A ‘Craigavon Task Force’ was established shortly after the erection of the tower, partly because some residents in the area complained about ailments which they attributed to the tower. They staged a protest a few weeks after the tower went live, handing out flyers with the message: “iBurst subjects a residential community filled with children to uninvited microwaves from their tower”.
In an email one Craigavon Task Force member, Tracey-Lee Dorny, describes the affected community’s symptoms: “several rash cases were presented in person and by photos from people who could not attend [a meeting with iBurst]. Headaches, nausea, tinnitus, dry burning itchy skins, gastric imbalances and totally disrupted sleep patterns, especially with some of the children, were some of the issues presented by the residents.”
Dorny told The Star that she and her son are spending alternate nights at her mother’s house to get some relief. “When I’m off the property, the symptoms subside,” she said.
Another resident, Dave McGregor, is also quoted in The Star as saying that his wife and nine-year-old son suffer bouts of nausea and retching, and have developed skin rashes since the erection of the tower. “We’ve told our son that the tower is only switched on one day a week, so it’s not psychosomatic,” McGregor told The Star.
iBurst CEO Jannie van Zyl said that no medical proof regarding the ailments was presented by any resident to date, but notwithstanding this absence of medical proof iBurst agreed to meet with the Craigavon residents to address their concerns.
At the meeting Van Zyl agreed to turn off the tower with immediate effect to assess whether the health problems described by some of the residents subsided. What Craigavon residents were unaware of is that the tower had already been switched off in early October – six weeks before the November meeting where residents confirmed the continued ailments they experienced.
Van Zyl argues that this clearly proves that the iBurst tower could not be the cause of the health symptoms described by some of the residents. Van Zyl reiterated that residents said that the symptoms typically subsided in hours or days after leaving the Craigavon area, and since it still prevailed in mid-November it means that it could not have been related to the iBurst tower radiation.”
Read more at My Broadband
Three-Second Fish Memory A Myth
“Fish can remember things for months, according to researchers who have dismissed the myth that the animals have a three-second memory.
The traditional view that fish lack the brain power to retain memories is “absolute rubbish” said Dr Kevin Warburton, an adjunct researcher with Charles Sturt University’s Institute for Land, Water and Society in Australia.
He made his conclusions after studying the behaviour of Australian freshwater fish such as the silver perch, which can remember a predator for several months after only one encounter.”
Read more at The Telegraph (Thanks Berber)
Haiti relief fund
As you will all have heard there is terrible devastation in Haiti caused by a massive earthquake devastating Port-au-Prince, killing tens of thousands and injuring more. This was a large tremor centred on an impoverished country with little recent experience or preparedness for such an event.
The buildings in the quake zones of major industrialised nations sit on damping systems that allow them to ride out tremors that not only shake them back and forth but also twist them in the same movement.
Relief has been arriving, but little has moved beyond the jammed airport. Damage to the seaport, roads and other infrastructure has prevented the speedy distribution of food, water and medical supplies. People are desperate for food.
Oxfam are running a donation scheme that can be reached here you can help with any size donation through Paypal. It can be as much or as little as you like – even just £1.
Chinese police shut down country’s first gay pageant
“Chinese police shut down the country’s first gay pageant tonight, just one hour before the event was due to begin.
Participants hoped the contest would help challenge domestic stereotypes about homosexuality, classified as a mental illness until 2001, and show the rest of the world that gay people could be accepted in China. But officers arrived at a Beijing nightclub shortly before the Mr Gay China competition started and told organisers it was not properly licensed. They are understood to have told the venue’s owners that it was “a sensitive issue”.
The event was to feature a swimwear round and talent section, but contestants would also have been judged on their ability to represent the gay community. The winner was to take part in the Mr Gay Worldwide final in Norway next month.
“I’m about to cry,” said Xue Fei, one of the eight contestants. “We really wanted to promote the sunny side of gay people.” He said he believed the pageant had already achieved some of its aims because advance coverage had highlighted gay issues. But he added: “It’s been a long time since China’s reform and opening policies began and I think it really should follow the steps of the international world.”"
Read more at The Guardian
