Philosophy corner?

Posted on 2007-12-07 by Jon Leirdal

I recommend you go read this little article on cosmicvariance.com. It’s quite philosophical, but it deals with how time is something that goes only one way, and not the other – The Arrow of Time. The talk is based on the second law of thermodynamics, which basically says that if you have a closed system that everything will flow into an equilibrium, where the differences in energy levels are so low that no further reactions or actions is possible. To put it in other words, if you put some ice-cubes in a glass they will melt to water, but without some outside help that water will never turn into ice-cubes again. An article like that fires off my brain, give it a read and see what you think. As usual I found this one at The Bad Astronomy Blog.

Researcher: Half a million database servers have no firewall

Posted on 2007-11-14 by Jon Leirdal

As a computer consultant I find this quite disturbing.

Sunset, old news. Seen an earth-set?

Posted on 2007-11-14 by Jon Leirdal

The Japanese moon-probe KAGUYA has impressed the world again with stunning pictures of an earth-rise and earth-set while orbiting the moon. Please take a look at their movies on their homepage JAXA | KAGUYA (SELENE) Image Taking of Earth-Rise by HDTV. I personally liked the earth-set best.

As usual. I found this on the Bad Astronomy Blog.

The 10 Most Puzzling Ancient Artifacts. Really??

Posted on 2007-11-09 by Jon Leirdal

Pretty sensational isn’t it? If you check out the article The 10 Most Puzzling Ancient Artifacts or an alternative version here, it seems a bit too god to be true. I am probably quite gullible, but not when it comes to articles like this.

If you do a quick search on Wikipedia several of these gets debunked instantly.

The Grooved Spheres or the Klerksdorp spheres are natural.
The Dropa Stones seems to be a hoax.
The Ica Stones seems to be a hoax. Here is another site that debunks this.
The Antikythera Mechanism is real, but not necessary something beyond the skills of a very skilled man of that era.
The Baghdad Battery is probably not a battery.
The Coso artifact is obviously not 500.000 years old. That kind of stone can not be used for dating.
Ancient Model Aircraft seems to be disputed. But to make models of birds is something mankind has done for thousand of years so I am curious, and I am thinking, why not.
Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica. I would have called them spheres, but hey… I think this site explains it better.
Impossible Fossils seems to be fakes or misinterpreted.
Out of place metal objects. These seems to be fakes. At least neither I nor other sites can find a reliable source where they are mentioned. They are only mentioned on sites having this list.

This list has been debunked several times before I see. Oh well. Now it has been done once more.

Wonder why they forgot this little nugget, the helicopter hieroglyph.

High resolution video of the moon

Posted on 2007-11-08 by Jon Leirdal

Jaxa (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) has sent a lunar explorer to get images of the moon. They call the explorer KAGUYA and so far the mission has been successful. They have just gotten HDTV images from the moon. Me like! You can find some pictures and a video here. It’s highly recommended.

As usual. This information was something that I found on Bad Astronomy where Phil Plait is having a blast with this one.