JamesSavik

No risk, no reward. Talk to the guy about anything- preferably a matter of mutual interest- a band you like, a CD you want to burn, a movie or DVD you want to see... An excellent way to win points is if you have a CD that he wants. Burn it for him. When he says thanks, say no problem and ask him about his CD collection and trade rips. You live pretty close to each other. Something you might try is to bike or walk by his house when he is outside. (If you run or jog, make his place part of your route) At home he is in his comfort zone and a lot of the walls people put up at school won't be there. Good luck! JS

The coolest thing about looking at the original work is that you get to see the reasoning processes of some of the worlds gretest thinkers. Kant worked out the idea that those swirly nebula in the sky were actually galaxies swarming with stars and that our own sun was part of one. He did this by pure reasoning in the 17th century- 200 years before that idea was accepted and proven by observation. You are right, some of their math looks like a recipe for Klingon biscuits. Maxwell's equations look like heiroglyphics. I found a paper in which a mathematician translated the math into modern symbols. What I really like about the old papers is that the equations are actually DERIVED- something that I never saw in my undergraduate classes. I think this a HUGE missing piece in American mathematical education. When you see an equation derived, you OWN it. You've seen how it works from the inside out and there is no fear anymore. You also learn a LOT about how math really works seeing it done. Instead of the abstracts of (a, and (x,y), seeing an equation derived puts dimension where there was only abstracts. Oh- just so our young friends here think math is just for people with umpteen degrees, Lord Kelvin, the inventer of thermodynamics, entered Glasgow University at the tender age of 10 and published a very important paper when he was 16. JS

While I agree that emo boyz are whiney and annoying, some of them are pretty cute and they might grow out it if they don't get a brain damaging beating. If we must beat on a group of annoying people, I say Mimes are a much better choice. They are adults who choose to be annoying and creepy. If you don't like clowns, Mimes are WAY worse. [yes- the Beast is clown-a-phobic] And WTF is that crazy "I'm stuck in a invisible f-ing box" thing they always do. Gaah! Get a BAT!

The latest science suggests that it has to do with developmental physiology in the womb rather than a purely genetic cause. A recent study showed a strong correlation in birth order and the incidence of homosexuality. Another study from a couple of years ago suggests that a persons sexuality may be affected by the balance and ratio of certain hormones while the child is in the womb. What I am beginning to think is that there may well be a genetic cause for homosexuality but they are looking for it in the wrong place. They should be looking at the MOTHER and her endocrine system, not at the gay son.

Japan launches Sun 'microscope' By Jonathan Amos Science reporter, BBC News Source Link Scientists have high hopes for Japan's Solar-B mission which has been launched from the Uchinoura spaceport. The spacecraft will investigate the colossal explosions in the Sun's atmosphere known as solar flares. These dramatic events release energy equivalent to tens of millions of hydrogen bombs in just a few minutes. The probe will attempt to find out more about the magnetic fields thought to power solar flares, and try to identify the trigger that sets them off. The ultimate goal for scientists is to use the new insights to make better forecasts of the Sun's behaviour. Flares can hurl radiation and super-fast particles in the direction of the Earth, disrupting radio signals, frying satellite electronics, and damaging the health of astronauts. Solar-B lifted off from Uchinoura, at the southern tip of Japan, at 0636 local time on Saturday (2136 GMT Friday). "It will take two to three weeks to transfer the spacecraft into its so-called Sun-synchronous polar orbit. From this position, Solar-B will be able to observe the Sun without having any nights for eight months of the year," said Professor Tetsuya Watanabe, of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). As is customary on Japanese missions, the satellite will get a new name once it is ready to begin its work. The spacecraft, developed by the Japanese space agency (Jaxa) and the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, has scientific and engineering contributions from, principally, the US and the UK. 'Fine detail' The Sun behaves like a giant twisting magnet; and when contorted field lines that have lifted up off the surface of the star clash, they release a colossal maelstrom of energy. A blast of intense radiation is emitted, and charged particles are accelerated out into the Solar System. Some of these particles are moving so fast they can cover the 149 million km to Earth in just tens of minutes. Whilst scientists understand the flaring process reasonably well, they cannot predict when one of these enormous explosions will occur. Solar-B is expected to transform our understanding. It carries three instruments: a Solar Optical Telescope (SOT), an X-ray Telescope and an Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer. They will make continuous, simultaneous observations of specific solar features, to observe how changes in the magnetic field at the Sun's surface can spread through the layers of the solar atmosphere to produce, ultimately, a flare. "Solar-B acts essentially like a microscope, probing the fine details of what the magnetic field is doing as it builds up to a flare," said mission scientist Professor Louise Harra, from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UCL, UK. "What we don't know is what triggers a flare; we don't understand the physics of that phase at all. Solar-B will show us how tangled the field is, and how the field lines collide to produce all that energy." Space dependence Solar-B is but one of a fleet of spacecraft now dedicated to understanding the relationship between the Sun and the Earth; and more are set to follow. Next month, the US space agency (Nasa) plans to launch its Stereo mission - twin spacecraft that will make 3D observations of our star. As we become more reliant on space-based systems - to provide us with everything from timing and positioning services to the relay of telecoms data - the need to understand the tempestuous Sun-Earth interaction just gets more urgent. Losing a satellite because of solar flare effects could prove costly, not just in economic terms but in human lives. Spacecraft like Solar-B should give scientists the data they need to make better "space weather" forecasts. "The information that Solar-B will provide is significant for understanding and forecasting of solar disturbances, which can interfere with satellite communications, electric power transmission grids, and threaten the safety of astronauts travelling beyond the safety of the Earth's magnetic field," said John Davis, Solar-B project scientist at Nasa's Marshall centre. Scientists would like to predict the onset of solar flares which can have a tremendous impact on both earth and space based systems. [image credit: NASA/SOHO]

DAN! You rock. Good to see you pal. Hope this means that you are back. **crosses fingers** JS

Ugh... my brain hurts after reading that. Must resist urge to edit...

Come on guys. According to the gay agenda, we're supposed to be taking over the world. How can we take over the world unless you do your homework? I wouldn't want to rip you off mate. Your tensor calculus is higher on the mathematical totem pole than complex polynomials. You might like this J. C. Kolecki,Introduction To Tensors

Hey- I love this place. I occassionally declare a cake day of my very own.

Something really awesome is happening on the web! The Royal Society of London is opening 340 years worth of its archives to the public until December. Now, free of charge, you have the oppertunity to download and look at the works of some of the giants of science like Hawkins, Einstien, Pauling, Chandrasekhar, Bohr, Herschel, Kelvin, Liebnitz, Maxwell, Newton, Rutherford and many, many more. Of course I'm biased towards the physical sciences, but biology is covered too. Watson, Crick and Edmond Stone's breakthrough in 1763 that willow bark cured fevers, leading to the discovery of salicylic acid and later the development of aspirin. This is an immeasurable treasure! For people that study or work in the sciences, this is a chance to see our understanding of chemistry, math, physics, biology evolved with time. For historians it is a chance to look at the impact of the earth shaking discoveries like gravity, electricity and DNA. Imagine having tea with Sir Isacc Newton or attending a lecture by Chandrasekhar. This rocks! I'm so going to be downloading like a maniac! 340 Years of Science

Having taken Calculus I, II, III, IV and Differential Equations, been there, done that. It's worth it though. It opens doors for you that widen your horizons. BTW- anybody got change for a complex polynomial?

Witches, Wizards and Warlocks- OH MY! There are a number of mythologies/traditions around magic and the people and creatures that use it. In Norse mythology, there are magical creatures called elves which can be good or evil. Good elves may befriend a person and help them. Evil elves are tricksters and betrayers of people. In Egyptian mythos, Pharaohs are the kin of Gods. The Pharaoh and their families are supposed to have magical abilities. The Priests of various Gods were also supposed to be endued with magical powers. In Greek mythology, people that play with magic are not very nice nor do they do it well. Magic is used by the Gods who are very active in human affairs and take a dim view of humans using magic. In Roman mythology, the Gods bestow magical powers on favored people- Cesare or his Generals, or a favorite gladiator. In native American mythos, magic is everywhere. Every tribe had a Shaman or Medicine-man. People went to the Medicine-man to learn, ask questions or get in touch with an animal guide. In a genre of popular fiction in the sixties, witches(female) and warlocks(male) were a race of their very own with magical powers. They were indistinguishable from ordinary humans but they aged very slowly. Their powers were extreme but they would get in trouble if they exposed their existence or meddled too much in human affairs. In another genre of popular fiction, Mages could be either male or female. Magic was black (evil), red (neutral) or white (good). Mages had to pick one and use it exclusively. If they used a spell outside their "school", they would lose their powers. In a popular television series from the ninties, Friday the 13th, humans with knowledge of the arcane tried to find and secure magical or enchanted items with horrific side effects. This is a VERY deep well with plenty of room for all sorts of good fiction.

Nope. Just plain ole garden variety religious bigots. Fascism is a political ideology that is associated with one or more of the following characteristics: 1) a very high degree of nationalism, 2) centralized control of private enterprise (corporatism), and, after it attains political control of a country, involves 3) a powerful executive-centered (or even dictatorial) state that views the nation as superior to the individuals or groups composing it (authoritarianism.) Fascism also typically calls for the regeneration of the nation, uses populist appeals to unity, and extols militarism as a major virtue. From Wikipedia definition Islamist ideology differs significantly from fascism. It isn't about nationalism or racial superiority. The basis for inclusion/exclusion is strictly religious. The Islamists do pass the fascism test in that they tend to favor Central control and authoritarian rule however that rule is placed in the hands of the clergy (Imans, Mullahs). This is a case where it walks like a duck and tallks like a duck but it's really a turkey. Theocracy is a form of government in which the divine power (in monotheisms the one God) governs an earthly human state, either in person (e.g. as incarnation in a human) or, more often, via its religious institutional representative(s) (e.g. church, temple, mosque), either replacing or dominating the organs of civil government as clerical or spiritual representative(s) of god(s). From Wikipedia definition This definition more clearly defines what the Islamists seek. Central to what the Islamists seek is Islamic law or Sharia. If you check the link and see what that's about, you'll seek that it would be a real nightmare. It's all a simply of sematics. Oppression of any peoples free will based on ideology, religion, race or national origin is repugnant to Americans of any political perspective. Someone said it a lot better and in fewer words than I did. "This will not stand." G. W. Bush, Sept. 12, 2001 I think we can all agree on that.

No Nick. They are no where near the middle. Typically political systems fall into a spectrum from left to right. Far Left Communism<===Marxism<===Democratic Socialism (USSR)-------------(Cuba)---------(the Netherlands) the Middle Coalition/Parliamentarian democracy<==>Representative Republic (UK, most of Europe)-------------------------(US) Far Right Oligarchy===>military Hunta====>"Strong-man" rule====>Nazism (business-------(Thailand,Indonesia)---Iraq under Saddam------Nazi Germany interests) In the Middle, countries with democratically elected governments move to the left and right based on election results as the expressed will of the people. They are constrained from going too far in either direction by Constitutional mandates. There is another system of government that doesn't fit in this model: Theocracy. There hasn't been a successful theocracy in recent history but fundamentalists factions of major religions have tried (ie. Holy Roman Empire, Iran under "the Ayatollah). bin Laden and Hezbollah are for the creation of a world-wide Islamic state based on Islamic law. This would be a holy terror to non-Muslims (infidels) who would have no rights and would be subject to execution under Sharia. They are more properly termed Islamists. Bush's characterization of bin Laden, et al as Islamo-fascists is completely erroneous. Theocracies are outside the traditional right vs left spectrum but are very repressive and authoritarian. Punishments are extremely severe, corruption is rampant and anything that contradicts accepted doctrine is fiercely suppressed. Islamists are the kind of religious EXTREMISTS that we had hoped that the world had grown out of. They are fanatically devoted to several causes- among which are the destruction of Israel and the US, motherhood, democracy and apple pie. We have our own extremists like Fred Phelps or Robertson. We're just don't usually elect them to any office with more responsibly than dog catcher. All rhetoric aside, Bush is an Episcopal which is one of the mellower Christian denominations. Although Christian Fundamentalists support and are represented in his administration, Bush constantly irritates them by taking socially moderate positions. There is another type of government that I characterize as the strong-man government. Saddam was a strong-leader because he enforced order by taking dissidents out and shooting them. A strong-man's politics can be either left or right. The strong-man rules by a cult of personality. They are characterized by being a very charismatic leaders that maintain power by appealing to popular opinion (populism). Chavez in Venezuela falls into this model as does Kim Il-Jong. These guys are quite dangerous to their own people and their neighbors as their power is completely unchecked. JS

NJ are you practicing your satire? There are extremes on the left (Castro) and right (Pat Robinson) that should be avoided. Most people fall somewhere in the middle and have been alienated from both parties because the extremist on both sides seem to be in charge. The extremists are well organized and unduely influence the presidential nomination process of both parties.

If you missed the pilot, it is available online. You can find it here Jericho- the pilot Here a description & review Review of Jericho

A worthy question for any author...

I liked the pilot. If they manage to keep the script out Hollywood cheese factory, it could be pretty good.

OK now that's just wrong. Hilarious, fall on you bum, rolling in the floor but wrong.

Warlock is the masculine form of witch. A gay witch would be... a lesbian witch or are you looking for a story about a gay warlock (like Uncle Arthur)? Charmed took major liberties with the world of arcana. Bewitched created its own mythos of nose twitching witches and warlocks. There are many, many kinds of magic users. Some of the most ancient schools of magic were based on the use of the elements. You can imagine that creating water and throwing fireballs would enhance a persons reputation in the ancient world. Another very old school of magic is astrology which was not only used for reading forecasts of future trends, true maters were said to be able to manipulate those trends. There are many other schools of magic- some of which use quite different energies to do their thing and DO NOT mix. A few are: Conjurers cast spells that bring creatures or material. Illusionists merely create illusions but the more powerful ones can warp reality. Deviners cast spells that gather information. Evokers cast spells that create something from nothing. Alchemist try to transmute some common (or vulgar) material into a rare (or noble) material. Abjuration spells protect, block or banish. Many powerful white magic users practice this school of magic exclusively. Necromancers use spells that manipllate life forces. They are not always evil. White necromancers are powerful healers that often pose as monks or physicians. Enchanters cast spells that can magically enhance an item or control a person or creature. One of my favorites was introducted during Babylon 5 and later appeared in Crusade- the techno-mages. And no. They didn't produce magical dance music. Their bag was micing magic and technology. I was actually considering doing something along these lines for the Fall anthology.

NASA's Hubble Finds Hundreds of Young Galaxies in Early Universe -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NASA Press Release: September 21, 2006 PRESS RELEASE NO.: STScI-PR06-12 Source Link NASA'S HUBBLE FINDS HUNDREDS OF YOUNG GALAXIES IN EARLY UNIVERSE Astronomers analyzing two of the deepest views of the cosmos made with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered a gold mine of galaxies, more than 500 that existed less than a billion years after the Big Bang. These galaxies thrived when the cosmos was less than 7 percent of its present age of 13.7 billion years. This sample represents the most comprehensive compilation of galaxies in the early universe, researchers said. The discovery is scientifically invaluable for understanding the origin of galaxies, considering that just a decade ago early galaxy formation was largely uncharted territory. Astronomers had not seen even one galaxy that existed when the universe was a billion years old, so finding 500 in a Hubble survey is a significant leap forward for cosmologists. The galaxies unveiled by Hubble are smaller than today's giant galaxies and very bluish in color, indicating they are ablaze with star birth. The images appear red because of the galaxies' tremendous distance from Earth. The blue light from their young stars took nearly 13 billion years to arrive at Earth. During the journey, the blue light was shifted to red light due to the expansion of space. "Finding so many of these dwarf galaxies, but so few bright ones, is evidence for galaxies building up from small pieces

Massive stars (20-60 solar masses) that enter the Wolf-Rayet phase often lose quite a lot of mass- sometimes up to a third of the stars mass. It is thought that this phase is a precursor to a type II supernova. The material that is lost from these stars is quite rich in carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. Wolf-Rayet stars are characterized by a strong, hot solar wind. In this picture the WR star is blowing a bubble of highly ionized plasma around itself. The gas that appears green is oxygen. This picture was taken with a filter sensitive to O II (double ionized oxygen). WR stars are quite hot because the outer layers blow away and expose layers of hot plasma underneath. Lower mass stars like our sun go through a similar red-giant phase. The difference is that most of the mass is lost and the core will eventually become a white dwarf. The star just isn't heavy enough to undergo a coer-collapse. The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC6543) is a good example of a planetary nebula formed by a degenerate main sequence star. Both processes serve to enrich the interstellar medium with key elements but only during supernova are elements heavier than iron synthesized. Supernova, particulary type II, are relatively rare but are so energetic that they can be detected from billions of light years away. The picture above is SN1987A +six months in the center of the frame. The only supernova in modern times that was close enough for careful study. (Anglo-Australian Observatory)

I have heard that the best writers are the best rewriters. Typically any first draft will still require a lot of work. A guy that I talked to last summer said write your first draft and put it away for a few days- a week. Then come back to it fresh to make your revisions. Sometimes you'll just want to nuke it and start over.

Sometimes one of our friends goes missing for a while and we'll worry about them. Anybody heard from the Bloke? Let us know if he's alive and well. Reply here if you miss Sumbloke too. James

A 'Genetic Study' Of The Galaxy Galactic Bulge and Disc Stars Shown To Have Different Oxygen Abundances ESO 34/06 - Science Release 12 September 2006 Source Link Part of one of the four regions of the sky in the direction of the Galactic Bulge in which the astronomers measured the iron and oxygen abundances in stars. This particular field is in the vicinity of the so-called 'Baade's Window', a region with relatively low amounts of interstellar "dust" that could block the sight, allowing astronomers to peer into the central parts of the Milky Way galactic centre and beyond. The globular cluster NGC 6528 is visible in the lower left corner. The image is a colour composite, based on images obtained in the B-, V-, and I-filters with the FORS instrument on the ESO VLT. The images were extracted from the ESO Science Archive and processed by Henri Boffin (ESO). North is to the right and East on top. _________________________________________________________________ Galactic Bulge and Disc Stars Shown To Have Different Oxygen Abundances Looking in detail at the composition of stars with ESO's VLT, astronomers are providing a fresh look at the history of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. They reveal that the central part of our Galaxy formed not only very quickly but also independently of the rest. "For the first time, we have clearly established a 'genetic difference' between stars in the disc and the bulge of our Galaxy," said Manuela Zoccali, lead author of the paper presenting the results in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics [1]. "We infer from this that the bulge must have formed more rapidly than the disc, probably in less than a billion years and when the Universe was still very young." The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, having pinwheel-shaped arms of gas, dust, and stars lying in a flattened disc, and extending directly out from a spherical nucleus of stars in the central region. The spherical nucleus is called a bulge, because it bulges out from the disc. While the disc of our Galaxy is made up of stars of all ages, the bulge contains old stars dating from the time the galaxy formed, more than 10 billion years ago. Thus, studying the bulge allows astronomers to know more about how our Galaxy formed. To do this, an international team of astronomers [2] analysed in detail the chemical composition of 50 giant stars in four different areas of the sky towards the Galactic bulge. They made use of the FLAMES/UVES spectrograph on ESO's Very Large Telescope to obtain high-resolution spectra. The chemical composition of stars carries the signature of the enrichment processes undergone by the interstellar matter up to the moment of their formation. It depends on the previous history of star formation and can thus be used to infer whether there is a 'genetic link' between different stellar groups. In particular, comparison between the abundance of oxygen and iron in stars is very illustrative. Oxygen is predominantly produced in the explosion of massive, short-lived stars (so-called Type II supernovae), while iron instead originates mostly in Type Ia supernovae [3], which can take much longer to develop. Comparing oxygen with iron abundances therefore gives insight on the star birth rate in the Milky Way's past. Ratio of Oxygen over Iron abundance as a function of the iron content in stars (both axis are using logarithmic scales). The green circle denotes the stars in the Bulge studied by the present astronomers, while the yellow triangles and blue crosses are previous data obtained for stars in the disc of our Galaxy. The bulge stars are clearly more oxygen-rich than disc stars, highlighting the 'genetic difference' between the bulge and disc stars. _________________________________________________________________ "The larger size and iron-content coverage of our sample allows us to draw much more robust conclusions than were possible until now," said Aurelie Lecureur, from the Paris-Meudon Observatory (France) and co-author of the paper. The astronomers clearly established that, for a given iron content, stars in the bulge possess more oxygen than their disc counterparts. This highlights a systematic, hereditary difference between bulge and disc stars. "In other words, bulge stars did not originate in the disc and then migrate inward to build up the bulge but rather formed independently of the disc," said Zoccali. "Moreover, the chemical enrichment of the bulge, and hence its formation timescale, has been faster than that of the disc." Comparisons with theoretical models indicate that the Galactic bulge must have formed in less than a billion years, most likely through a series of starbursts when the Universe was still very young. Notes [1]: "Oxygen abundances in the Galactic bulge: evidence for fast chemical enrichment" by Zoccali et al. It is freely available from the publisher's web site as a PDF file. [2]: The team is composed of Manuela Zoccali and Dante Minniti (Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago), Aurelie Lecureur, Vanessa Hill and Ana Gomez (Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, France), Beatriz Barbuy (Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil), Alvio Renzini (INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Italy), and Yazan Momany and Sergio Ortolani (Universita di Padova, Italy). [3]: Type Ia supernovae are a sub-class of supernovae that were historically classified as not showing the signature of hydrogen in their spectra. They are currently interpreted as the disruption of small, compact stars, called white dwarfs, that acquire matter from a companion star. A white dwarf represents the penultimate stage of a solar-type star. The nuclear reactor in its core has run out of fuel a long time ago and is now inactive. However, at some point the mounting weight of the accumulating material will have increased the pressure inside the white dwarf so much that the nuclear ashes in there will ignite and start burning into even heavier elements. This process very quickly becomes uncontrolled and the entire star is blown to pieces in a dramatic event. An extremely hot fireball is seen that often outshines the host galaxy. PDF of Zoccali, et al- Oxygen Abundances in the Galactic Halo