Recommendation 2 Fringe

One of the greatest series ever... Yeah i think so.

Basically the show is about investigating the weird. The show is a little strange and that is my sort of thing. The main characters we have are Olivia Dunham (FBI Detective), Peter Bishop (Jack of all trades smart guy), Walter Bishop (The man! Practically the archetypal mad scientist) and i have to include Astrid Farnsworth (Assistant to Olivia).

The acting in the show is amazing, i especially love how John Noble portrays Walter, a few of my friends call me Walter now and then and that is fine even if Walter is kind of crazy to most folks and displays many autistic traits but then again i can relate.

Its hard to describe the show up to where is have seen it because i don't want to give anything away.
Basically any sort of Fringe science in the series is possible unlike in real life, the series has a lot of twists and turns and things to remember from past episodes.

Hmm i'll find a more professional synopsis to help me describe.

Gathered from wikipedia...

'Fringe is an American science fiction television series created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. The series follows a Federal Bureau of Investigation "Fringe Division" team based in Boston, Massachusetts under the supervision of Homeland Security. The team uses unorthodox "fringe" science and FBI investigative techniques to investigate a series of unexplained, often ghastly occurrences, which are related to mysteries surrounding a parallel universe. The show has been described as a hybrid of The X-Files, Altered States and The Twilight Zone.'

Alot more professional than me.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fringe_%28TV_series%29

I think anyone who enjoys a bit of science and who can appreciate the imagination and thought put into things that could not be possible would enjoy this. To Walter nothing is impossible.

Oh and if you like quotes from tv shows this one is packed full such as on the first episode you get this delightful number.

You just can't not love Walter.

Go and watch now.

Space Elevator

Can i have floor 32,000 please?...

It seems Japan have got the ball rolling to create a space elevator. For those who don't know what this is, it is an elevator... INTO SPACE. Great news for affordable star-seeing and even could be good news for space travel as we know it.

The project will be undertaken by the Obayashi Corp from Tokyo and will be built using Carbon Nanotubes which are twenty times stronger than steel. The elevator will be going up a quarter of the way to the moon which is approximately 96,000 kilometers up. Awesome.

I wonder how much it would be to take a ride. Anyway they want to finish the project by 2050 so there is still time to dream yet.

The full article is from http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120221004421.htm.


The article is also here:

The Yomiuri Shimbun

It may be possible to travel to space in an elevator as early as 2050, a major construction company has announced.
Obayashi Corp., headquartered in Tokyo, on Monday unveiled a project to build a gigantic elevator that would transport passengers to a station 36,000 kilometers above the Earth.
For the envisaged project, the company would utilize carbon nanotubes, which are 20 times stronger than steel, to produce cables for the space elevator.
The idea of space elevators has been described in several science-fiction novels. Obayashi, however, believes it is possible to construct one in the real world thanks to carbon nanotubes, which were invented in the 1990s, the company said.
Some other organizations have also been studying the development of space elevators, such as the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
In Obayashi's project, a cable would be stretched up to 96,000 kilometers, or about one-fourth of the distance between the Earth and the moon. One end of the cable would be anchored at a spaceport on the ground, while the other would be fitted with a counterweight.
The terminal station would house laboratories and living space. The car could carry up to 30 people to the station at 200 kilometers per hour, which would mean a 7-1/2 day trip to reach the station. Magnetic linear motors are one possible means of propulsion for the car, according to Obayashi.
Solar power generation facilities would also be set up around the terminal station to transmit power to the ground, the company added.
Whether carbon nanotubes can be mass-produced economically enough and whether various organizations from around the world can work together are two key issues facing the development of the space elevator, according to the company.
"At this moment, we cannot estimate the cost for the project," an Obayashi official said. "However, we'll try to make steady progress so that it won't end just up as simply a dream."

(Feb. 22, 2012)

 

Thanks Obayashi Corp.

 

Also Weird Things article here http://weirdthings.com/2012/02/japan-seeks-to-build-space-elevator-by-2050/

Cheers.

Recommendation 1 - Andrew Mayne

Just a short post, Andrew Mayne has recently started uploading a new podcast audiobook on Itunes.
And this is my recommendation... GET IT and get it now. I haven't had time to listen yet as it will be some good bedtime listening for me.

But everything Andrew Mayne does is golden, his magic is amzing, his podcasts are exciting and books are riveting. This post might as wel just say ANDREW MAYNE. He has the brains of a science wizard and the skills of a master magician.

Here is a link straight to the podcast.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/chronological-man-monster/id500639018

When the citizens of Boston begin to go missing in the fog in 1890, it’s up to the mysterious Smith, inventor and adventurer, to figure out what’s going on with the help of his assistant, April Malone. They’ll have to face off against a secret society, corrupt policemen and a mad psychologist hell-bent on dissecting Smith, in order to find out what’s going on and to save the city from a graver threat.
This 4.5 hour science adventure novella is the first story about Smith, a mixture of Tony Stark, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who.



I might as well just plug the rest of his stuff here too while i'm here.

His own site for his magics - http://www.andrewmayne.com/

Weird things website and podcast for weird stories and strange news from around the world or mainly eastern europe in many cases - http://weirdthings.com/

He is also one of the mayne (see what i did there) guys behind a very good magic news and review site - http://itricks.com/news/

He seems to also be a regular guest on anther podcast too - http://nsfwshow.com/

Also he works with the JREF now and then to help promote skepticism and to help administer tests - http://www.randi.org/site/

I will start doing alot of recommendations on here, due to me reading, listening, watching and playing alot.

Cheers.

Quirkology

So i got a new book for Christmas and it is awesome. Written by Richard Wiseman who is the Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology and a Magician. He is on wordpress too. The book is an assorted collection of social and psychological experiments and may be one of the most interesting books i've read in quite a while.

The book covers jokes, luck, fake smiles, personal ads, charisma and how our personalities are shaped when we are born among loads of other interesting bits and bobs.
Go and buy the book now its cheap on Amazon

QUIRKOLOGY
The definitive quirky psychology, including the science of charisma, how to detect lies and how our personalities are shaped by when we are born.

If you are interested in psychology or social experiments, just get this book. From reading this book i now realise why people act in certain ways. Its interesting to put into use the things found in this book at work, it helps you realise how others think in different situations too.

Maybe i'll get time to blog more soon seeing as though i have just over a weeks holiday.

Sorry about the way this is written, this isn't the greatest post i've done. It seems my brain is fried.
Cheers.

Lovely and tidy

So i have tidied this page up and now have all relevenat blog posts copied over and now is the time to get finding something to blog about. I would have done more but i have been working all day...

Lets hope i find something interesting to type on here.

Maybe one day i'll get podcasting again or do some sort of youtube thing. I need motivation and inspiration first though i reckon.

 Have fun reading through these posts they are from last year to this year and are the only ones i found relevant from my old blog Skeptic Blog Of Doom.

Cheers.

But i can't swim! / Liquid space?

Sorry for my lack of blogging recently i have been busy and lazy when not busy.

I have a dead laptop and limited time to do stuff so thats my reason.

Ooh about the title it seems i came across an article earlier today which read: Early universe was a liquid.

and so i shall share this piece of interesting intrigue...

it is from Here!

Early Universe Was a Liquid, Nuclei Collisions at the Large Hadron Collider Show

ScienceDaily (Nov. 23, 2010) — In an experiment to collide lead nuclei together at CERN's Large Hadron Collider physicists from the ALICE detector team including researchers from the University of Birmingham have discovered that the very early Universe was not only very hot and dense but behaved like a hot liquid.

By accelerating and smashing together lead nuclei at the highest possible energies, the ALICE experiment has generated incredibly hot and dense sub-atomic fireballs, recreating the conditions that existed in the first few microseconds after the Big Bang. Scientists claim that these mini big bangs create temperatures of over ten trillion degrees.

At these temperatures normal matter is expected to melt into an exotic, primordial 'soup' known as quark-gluon plasma. These first results from lead collisions have already ruled out a number of theoretical physics models, including ones predicting that the quark-gluon plasma created at these energies would behave like a gas.

Although previous research in the USA at lower energies, indicated that the hot fire balls produced in nuclei collisions behaved like a liquid, many expected the quark-gluon plasma to behave like a gas at these much higher energies.

Scientists from the University of Birmingham's School of Physics and Astronomy are playing a key role in this new phase of the LHC's programme which comes after seven months of successfully colliding protons at high energies. Dr David Evans, from the University of Birmingham's School of Physics and Astronomy, and UK lead investigator at ALICE experiment, said: "Although it is very early days we are already learning more about the early Universe."

He continues: "These first results would seem to suggest that the Universe would have behaved like a super-hot liquid immediately after the Big Bang."

The team has also discovered that more sub-atomic particles are produced in these head-on collisions than some theoretical models previously suggested. The fireballs resulting from the collision only lasts a short time, but when the 'soup' cools down, the researchers are able to see thousands of particles radiating out from the fireball. It is in this debris that they are able to draw conclusions about the soup's behaviour.

Two papers detailing this research have been submitted for publication and posted on: http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/1011.3914| and http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/1011.3916|.

This research is funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

Thank you people at CERN.



Ooh and a question do you think i should go to the QED Con or Blackpool Magic Con.... Hmmmm Indeed too complex a quandary for my mind alone.

Doomsday Ark (The Moon)

That name is just awesome and obviously points to something interesting. Well on my way across the internet finding something to blog about i found this article about how some plans being drawn up by the European Space Agency are being discussed to be put into motion.
The plans are for the 'Doomsday Ark' as you probably guessed from the title.
What i gather from this article is that this ark will be a collection of information and maybe some natural evidence of our civilisation and our planet and plenty of history. The basic version would just be sort of like a collection of hard drives containing information on DNA sequencing and sequences and things such as Metal Smelting and planting crops. ( This makes me wonder if anyone who found this used these hard drives why would they need to know how to smelt or plant crops when they at least have the technology to get to this info. Huh?!)

The ark would be buried on the moon just under the surface and another thing i just read on their is that the European Space Agency are going to experiment trying to grow tulips on the moon.... But using an enclosed artifical environment of course along with algae to help make with the photosynthesis for the plant to survive.
They chose tulips because they can be frozen and planted again with little nourishment. This will probably help to eventually try and sustain an ecosystem of sorts up there to possibly help with any natural evidence or specimens in the data vault. The vault will be maintained by robots and also helped along by scientists on earth through radio transmissions.
The European Space Agency say they hope to have a manned station on the moon by the end of the century. The vault though will be solar powered and the first should be on the moon by 2020 with a lifespan of 30 years and then the full archive will be launched is perhaps 2035. It just seems to remind me of the film 'Moon' if you haven't seen it yet go buy it, it should be nice and cheap now plus its a great film. Go and watch it.

Here is a Link to the article. Now i seem to be imagining the moon overrun by tulips and the moon one day being multi coloured. What would they call moon tulips if they were sold back on earth hmmm, Moolips, Toonlips, Moonlips, Toops, hmmm......

Sorting this out.

Ok so i have a few of my posts up these so far are from my old blog site at lhymas.wordpress.com

Check it out for links and more science and magic.

There will be more soon.