Archive for the ‘Skepticism’ Category

Q: Is it possible to beat the laws of physics?

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Physicist: No…
But to be fair, when a physical law is beaten it stops being a law.

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Paranoia, Philosophical, Skepticism | 1 Comment »

Video: What your Spiritual Guru Never Told you about Quantum Mechanics

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

AskAMathematician.com presents a lecture on Quantum Mechanics given as part of Nerd Nite (NYC):

Quantum Mechanics has been around since the thirties and is the basis of essentially all of modern physics. It is a clean theory and has been tested, retested, and verified more than any other physical theory in history. However, some of the basic ideas involved are a little weird, unintuitive, seemingly impossible, and philosophically repugnant. For decades, cults, spiritual healers, and the like have taken the weirdness of actual quantum physics and spun it into fake ideas like “Quantum Consciousness,” “Quantum Healing,” and (sorry to say) “Quantum Leap.” In this talk we will go over some of the misconceptions, the original experiments that led to them, and also how these ideas are applied today and (hopefully) will be in the future.

Entire talk in Power Point format:

Download What Your Spiritual Guru Never Told You About Quantum Mechanics Power Point File

The video comprising part 1 of the 3 parts of the lecture:

The video comprising part 2 of the 3 parts of the lecture:

The video comprising part 3 of the 3 parts of the lecture:

Further Information:

Physicist: If you’re here because of Nerd Nite, welcome!  This is to round off what didn’t get covered.  And for everyone else; check this shit out!

For more on Quantum Seeing in the Dark, here’s a Scientific American article about the technique, and also how to make it spooky and awesome using the quantum zeno effect:

research.physics.illinois.edu/qi/photonics/papers/kwiat-sciam-1996-nov.pdf

This here is a cavalcade of information about quantum non-locality, and the relevant experiments.  Turns out causality is just a suggestion:

http://www.dhushara.com/book/quantcos/qnonloc/qnonloc.htm

Holy crap!  A different, and difficult to follow, presentation on Quantum Information Theory, the Shor Algorithm, and Hipsters!

Right Here

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Physics, Quantum Theory, Skepticism, Videos | No Comments »

Video: The Scientific Investigation of Aliens – Evidence Examined

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010
This talk given at Nerd Nite (NYC) by the Mathematician discusses some of the evidence that has been proposed for the idea that technologically advanced aliens have already arrived on earth, including UFO photographs, crop circles, and abduction stories.

The PowerPoint presentation of this lecture, including references:

Download the Scientific Investigation of Aliens PowerPoint Presentation

Part 1 of the video of this lecture:

Part 2 of the video of this lecture:

References:

Polls

Roper Poll Survey 1999 :

http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc850.htm

Public Opinion Polls on UFOs :

http://www.ufoevidence.org/topics/PublicOpinionPolls.htm

CNN/TIME Poll 1997 :

http://www.cnn.com/US/9706/15/ufo.poll/

Gallup Poll 2005:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/19558/Paranormal-Beliefs-Come-SuperNaturally-Some.aspx

Hallucination Poll Data :

“Prevalence of hallucinations and their pathological associations in the general population”, 2000 by Maurice M. Ohayon

Crop Circles

The International Crop Circle Database :

http://ccdb.cropcircleresearch.com/index.cgi

Why Crop Circles Can’t Be Hoaxed :

http://theconversation.org/booklet2.html

Abductions

Hill Abduction:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_and_Barney_Hill_abduction

Kenneth Arnold UFO Sighting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Arnold_unidentified_flying_object_sighting

Susan Blackmore on Aliens :

http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/journalism/ns94.html

John Edward Mack :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Edward_Mack

Astronomy

Number of Planets in the Galaxy :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_life

Number of Galaxies in the Universe :

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/021127a.html

Number of planets in our galaxy :

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2000-01/948204035.As.r.html

Meteorites :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteorite#Fall_phenomena

Other Info

Photo Tampering Throughout History :

http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/research/digitaltampering/

Alien Abduction Insurance:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_abduction_insurance

Alien Abduction Insurance Articles :

http://www.alienabductioninsurance.com/articles.html

Aliens and Children :

http://www.aliensandchildren.org/

Developments in Crop Circles Over Time :

http://www.cropcircles.net/

Top 10 Controversial pieces of evidence for extraterrestrial life :

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9943-top-10-controversial-pieces-of-evidence-for-extraterrestrial-life.html

The Drake Equation :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

The Flake Equation :

http://xkcd.com/718/

UFOs :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO

Causes of Hallucinations :

http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/h/hallucination/causes.htm#causeslist

Crop Circle :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_circle

Sleep Paralysis :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

Water Bears :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_bear

Videos

Best of UFOs (part 1) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XXOvUwr2YU

Documentaries About Aleins :

http://www.hyper.net/ufo/video-documentaries.html

Crop Circle Being Made (Schofields Quest – Doug Bower 1994) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkGbnUXfh4U

UFO sighting (part 2/3) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iVYCYjso-U&feature=player_embedded

National Geographic Crop Circles :

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/science/weird-science-sci/uk_cropcircles.html

Why people believe strange things:

http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_shermer_on_believing_strange_things.html

Photos

Best UFO Photos:

http://www.ufocasebook.com/bestufopictures.html

Strange Flying Machines Slideshow :

http://www.slideshare.net/webtel125/strange-flying-machines-presentation-793157

UFO Photo Competitions :

http://fx.worth1000.com/contests/8300/sightings-7

Circle Makers :

http://www.circlemakers.org/totc2007.html

UFO Drawings :

http://www.ufo-blog.com/ufo-blog/2010/02/sketches-from-fifth-tranche-of-mod-ufo.html

Three spooky UFO vidoes :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WYRyuL4Z5I

UFO Haiti :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up5jmbSjWkw

List of Military Aircraft in the United States :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_aircraft_of_the_United_States

Balloon Boy Balloon :

http://s2.hubimg.com/u/1922877_f520.jpg

Sun Dogs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dogs

Lenticular Clouds :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenticular_cloud

Photoshopped Images :

http://www.funnydb.com/Pictures/Celebrities/mona_diesel-3320.html

Books

The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan :

http://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark/dp/0345409469


Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in -- By the Mathematician, Astronomy, Skepticism, Videos | No Comments »