chaoticutopia | August 15, 2006Grisha Perelman recently crawled out the woods with the solution to the Poincare conjecture, and snuck back. There was talk of his love for mushrooms. ...er... Well, it turns out he was correct, so we probably shouldn't question his inspiration.
Since I'm about to hit the road, I can't get into as much detail as I'd like. I've quoted Henri Poincare a number of times (here and here) and reffered to him as a grandfather to chaos theory. (I think... if I haven't, I should have.. he is.) His conjecture, which Perelman managed to prove, was that any object, in any dimension, could either be…
chaoticutopia | August 15, 2006Here are two poems, each embracing a different perception of time:
Vigor
Go ahead...
Walk all over me
I won't bend.
I'm as hard as diamond
Hidden in the rough
Luminous and resilient
Myriad of geometric facets
Layer upon crystalline layer
Depths of fire you'll never see
Without a cut and polish
But thus enhanced
I'll cost a pretty penny
So leave me be, in the rough
In my dark kimberlitic home
Bearing the weight of time.
Fragility
Time drips like Dali's clocks
Slips and cracks
Nothing lasts.
Even now is sliding away
Years trickle past,
Hardly noticed
Seasons blend
To hazy shadows
But the…
chaoticutopia | August 14, 2006
"At last we got through, and I beheld, with some sadness, the goal of my journey, 'The Great Divide,' the Snowy Range, and between me and it South Park, a rolling prairie seventy-five miles long and over 10,000 feet high, treeless, bounded by mountains, and so rich in sun-cured hay that one might fancy that all of the herds of Colorado could find pasture there."
Isabella Bird, describing her 1873 trip through Colorado, in A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, pg 171. (We'll be driving through this area, soon.)
I'm afraid I won't have too much time to attend to my blog this week. We're…
chaoticutopia | August 11, 2006Emergence: Complex patterns arise from the simplest rules. From lighter elements emerge heavier compounds; from clouds of gasses and particles arise galaxies, stars, and planets. From basic atmospheric reactions between basic chemical compounds, the building blocks of life, amino acids emerge. From these acids, patterns of DNA emerge; from DNA, simple life. From simple life forms, complex forms arise, filling countless niches and functions, each form intricately involved from another. From these interactions, ecosystems arise. In these ecosystems, complex beings, dependent upon vast arrays of…
chaoticutopia | August 10, 2006When I wrote about the lady beetle colony in the maple tree outside, I managed to get some great pictures of newly hatched larvae, plenty of pupae, and the beetles themselves. That would be almost the whole life cycle--except my picture of eggs had no actual eggs in it, and the pictures of large larvae were sort of fuzzy. So, when I found these guys, side by side, I figured I should post them:
A larva (Adalia bipuncta, after the 3rd molt, I suspect) and a cluster of eggs (which I'm not as certain about... they are much rounder than typical coccinellidae eggs, which have sort of an ovate…
chaoticutopia | August 10, 2006
Via Sluggy Freelance by Pete Abrams
Sluggy Freelance, my favorite webcomic, is in the midst of a "Stick Figures in Spaaaaace" week. While the stick figures don't show off Pete's artistic ability, they offer a chance for stand-alone gags in a serial strip. (It's a little harder to share a single strip when you have to spend an hour describing the back story.) It came at the perfect time... After a week full of philosophy posts, I needed a break.
chaoticutopia | August 9, 2006Why can't we picture a fifth dimension? One, two, and three seem so easy to grasp. We can even see how one leads to the next: a line, composed of points, is a component of a shape on a plane, which in turn is a component of a spatial object. Consider that object with an additional aspect, enduring through time, and you can almost envision a fourth--a curving sense of endurance, relative to our space. So, why not imagine another dimension, not just curved, but twisted or spun, which consists of the aspects of time, present, future and past, relating to one another? Ok... don't picture it too…
chaoticutopia | August 8, 2006When I last left off, I was describing the relationships between values and matter, and how they fit together to form information or a three-dimensional thing. But something seemed missing. Do we really live in something as simple as a three dimensional world? As I mentioned earlier, the string theorists don't think so, and neither do I. For one, things change. My study of Colorado history has given plenty examples of that. Look at Church Ranch, then versus now, or Lillybridge's studio, and the freeway that sits there today. What makes the difference in forms of these places? Time, naturally…
chaoticutopia | August 8, 2006The title makes this sound like a post about utopia. That wasn't my intention, but maybe, in some ways, it is. When Jose Garcia over at Meme Therapy asked me for a quote about achieving utopia, I discussed the same issues, although just briefly. Here, I'm going into greater detail. In the last post, I talked a bit about the difficulties of defining a solid value to a single sunflower. If we have trouble with something as simple as a flower, then how can we expect to judge anything more complex, like the garden or ecosystem around it? How about the whole changing environment on this planet, or…
chaoticutopia | August 7, 2006Sometimes, reading philosophy is a lot like medieval torture. For some reason, talking about things like objectivity in ethics or the meaning of existence requires numerous dry definitions and explanations. This process causes the reader to be overwhelmed and confused. I'd rather not do that, here. Still, I'd like to approach the subject of values. I've spent the last few days trying to decide the best way to do that. So, instead of diving into semantics and logic, I figured I'd just start with a sunflower.
A sunflower seems simple enough, right? It's pretty enough to show up on dresses and…
chaoticutopia | August 4, 2006Friday sort of snuck up on me. When it did, it brought along a multitude of small annoyances. My cable modem has been flaking out, intermittently. When the modem is working, my pond is flooding and blowing the fuse to my office. I've managed to get a little work done, but I'm about ready to take this as a sign and go somewhere else. I'll admit to being a bit of a techno-geek, but every once in awhile, computers disgust me.
Like, when I get a letter from this company, "NetNet", notifying (in the tiniest font I've ever seen) me that they lost a computer tape containing my personal information:…
chaoticutopia | August 4, 2006Some people have been asking how I make the fractals for the Friday feature. A few just assumed that I took a photograph and plunked it into a computer program, which automatically spit out a fractal. I wish it were that easy... or, I suppose, if it were, everyone could do it, and I could sleep in on Fridays. (There's that wishful thinking again, eh?) I decided to keep this week's fractal rather simple, so I could explain a little about how I create them. While I don't just drop in a picture, I don't exactly sit and work out the math to match it, either. The real process is somewhere in…
chaoticutopia | August 3, 2006It's a dimension of chaos! Shall we battle, or ride the waves?
They say it's a catchy phrase, but I know what they're thinking. They hear words like, "dimension", "chaos", or "battle", and think laser guns and villains with curling mustaches and deep, evil laughs. They hear "ride the waves" and think of blond-haired muscular heroes being cooed at by girls in polka-dot bikinis. They smile, and thus cheered, move on with their lives. Maybe that's what they think. If so, I'm inclined to let them be. Others, who understand why I obsess over fractals and philosophical notions of existence and…
chaoticutopia | August 1, 2006The current "Ask a ScienceBlogger" opens a big can of worms:
I heard that within 15 years, global warming will have made Napa County too hot to grow good wine grapes. Is that true? What other changes are we going to see during our lifetimes because of global warming?
I waited until the last minute on this one, because the more I thought about it, the broader my answer became. So, where to begin?
For want of a nail, the kingdom was lost...
Does a little grape relate to the changes of an entire planetary ecosystem? Of course. Slight changes in temperature will affect the producers, before it…
chaoticutopia | July 31, 2006Last week, my Scibling* Janet tagged me with the Book Meme. There's also been an "old book" meme going about, sort of a do-it-yourself thing, so instead of doing separate posts, I just tacked an extra question on the end of this one:
1. One book that changed your life?Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert M. Pirsig
2. One book you have read more than once?Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
3. One book you would want on a desert island?Sensitive Chaos: The Creation of Flowing Forms in Water and Air by Theodor Schwenk
4. One book that made you…
chaoticutopia | July 31, 2006In my recent post on a lady beetle colony, I posted a picture of a wasp which I'd identified as Polistes dominulus. Unfortunately, the wasp didn't exactly look like the prototypical P. dominulus, as one of my commenters, Julie Stahlhut also noticed. I'm still not exactly sure if it was the same species or not--I'm still looking into it. The rest of the wasps around are easy to identify, like the ones shown here. For a quick comparison, try the site that Julie suggested or check out the same species of wasp in her neighborhood (Rochester, NY.)
Another wasp, hunting remarkably close to a large…
chaoticutopia | July 31, 2006The drums pounded and oars stirred the water in perfect rhythm--the experience was both invigorating and calming at the same time. This weekend, the Dragon Boat races came to Sloan's Lake in Denver. Despite soaring temperatures, hundreds of metro residents came out to join the festivities. Just watching the boats glide across the water was enough to provide some relief from the heat:
The tents were filled with a beautiful assortment of local handmade gifts, imports, and foods. The Scientific & Cultural Facilities District had one of the shadiest tents, along with brochures about…
chaoticutopia | July 29, 2006If you're in the Denver area this weekend, consider checking out the
Colorado Dragonboat Festival. It will run today and tomorrow at Sloan's Lake park, from 10am to 7pm. There will be food, music, shopping (my favorite) and, of course, the Dragonboat races.
chaoticutopia | July 28, 2006I thought I'd do today's fractal a little backwards. I usually begin with a fractal, then show a matching picture from nature, and explain a bit of the science behind the nature. This time, I'm going to start off with a nature photo, and follow with the fractals. Everyone should be familiar with the science behind rainbows, so I'll let the simple beauty of the image speak for itself:
And a similar fractal:
The Mandlebrot set might not be quite as simple, although the formula used to create it sounds simple enough: Z = Z2 + C
But the art found within the set can be deeply complex and…
chaoticutopia | July 27, 2006I love trees, but trees covered in insects aren't usually my cup of tea. 'Till now.
One of the reasons I chose my house was the giant maple tree by the front porch. The foliage provides shade and privacy in the summer and a terrific Halloween backdrop in the fall. So, a few weeks ago, when I noticed the tree was infested with something, I was a bit concerned. Ok, maybe that's putting it lightly. I threw science out the window and freaked out. "The tree's covered with insects! It's gonna die! Ew!! Call somebody! Quick!"
The homeowner's association sent out an arborist to take a look, and I…