Same mind, different universes…the Earth as the Kim Kardashian of our solar system ….

Workout notes
6.1-6.2 mile “run” in 1:04 (hilly; two Cornstalk loops plus a mini-loop). The leg didn’t hurt until 48 minutes or so. It was cold (sub freezing) and sunny. Then I stretched for about 10-15 minutes as I slept through yoga class.

Quantum Mechanics and its relation to classical mechanics
This is a nice, somewhat non-technical but not insultingly so discussion of quantum mechanics and the role of probability.

This is a longer article but I really love the following paragraph:

It’s even easier to understand why humans don’t “get” QM. Our brains evolved according to selection pressures that involved only macroscopic objects like fruit, tigers and trees. We didn’t have to develop neural circuitry that had an intuitive feel for quantum interference phenomena, because there was no evolutionary advantage to doing so. Freeman Dyson once said that the book of the world might be written in Jabberwocky, a language that human beings were incapable of understanding. QM is not as bad as that. We CAN understand the language if we’re willing to do the math, and if we’re willing to put aside our intuitions about how the world must be, in the same way that we understand that our intuitions about how velocities add are only an approximation to the correct rules given by the Lorentz group. QM is worse, I think, because it says that logic, which our minds grasp as the basic, correct formulation of rules of thought, is wrong. This is why I’ve emphasized that once you formulate logic mathematically, QM is an obvious and inevitable consequence. Systems that obey the rules of ordinary logic are special QM systems where a particular choice among the infinite number of complementary QM observables remains sharp for all times, and we insist that those are the only variables we can measure. Viewed in this way, classical physics looks like a sleazy way of dodging the general rules. It achieves a more profound status only because it also emerges as an exponentially good approximation to the behavior of systems with a large number of constituents.

Emphasis mine. Note: our poor underpowered minds don’t come naturally to this; I’ve read that our minds didn’t evolve to do mathematics. They evolved to tell us to come in out of the rain and to tell us how to find berries and how to avoid getting eaten by tigers.

Speaking of mathematics, this is a very interesting article about the volumes of n-balls (the region in n-space bounded by the traditional n-1 sphere which would have coordinate equations .

The upshot: as the dimension increases, the volume (hypervolumes) actually decreases with after .

There is this graph which shows this:

Astronomy
Here is a chart of the various moons:

Note that the moon to planet ratio of the earth and its moon is quite large; remember how big Jupiter and Saturn are. You might say that the earth is the Kim Kardashian of our solar system (large “moon” to “overall size” ratio):

Of course this photo reminds me of this recent Onion article: call it a “Safe FAP” alarm (via the Onion)

‘The Daily Show’ Takes On Occupy Wall Street’s Own Class Warfare (VIDEO)

After eight weeks of Occupy Wall Street protesters filling Zuccotti park in downtown Manhattan, a police raid Tuesday left it nearly bare. But a few days before the protesters were evicted, “The Daily Show” got in one more eye-opening segment, this time highlighting the movement’s inner class warfare.

‘The Daily Show’ Takes On Occupy Wall Street’s …, posted with vodpod

Republican Faith Chat: RIP

Republican Faith Chat is no more:

I wonder if it will appear? My guess……yes. If it doesn’t appear on its own…..

Update A site called Republican Faith Chat is up and running for now. This isn’t the old site.

Michelle Bachmann Attacks Other Republicans

Really. I remember some saying about “glass houses”:

Jon Stewart Rips Jerry Sandusky On ‘The Daily Show’ (VIDEO)

It was quite unexpected when NBC announced on Monday afternoon that former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, who was arrested over a week ago and charged with sexually abusing eight young boys over 15 years, was granting an interview to Bob Costas on NBC’s “Rock Center.” During this telephone interview, Sandusky admitted to showering with young boys while maintaining that he was innocent of the sexually assault.

Jon Stewart Rips Jerry Sandusky On ‘The Daily S…, posted with vodpod

Bursting My Bubble….

I’ve always known that I am of Mexican heritage. But I always believed that I was the variety that descended from the Aztecs; after all I have “almost black” hair and dark skin.

Early Mexico consisted of 4 classes of people: Españolas (people born in Spain), Criollos, (people of Spanish ancestry born in Mexico), Mestizos (mixed race between Criollos and Indios) and Indios (natives; e. g. Aztecs). I knew that I had some Spanish ancestry (my maternal grandfather was born in Spain) but thought that while I was a Mestizo, I figured I was predominantly “Indio”.

There were times when I would be running on a trail and imagine one of my ancestors…perhaps an Aztec warrior…doing something similar. Ok…the Aztec warrior probably didn’t have high tech running shoes, prescription orthotics, wicking socks, runner’s lube, a breathable shirt, prescription eyewear….and he probably wouldn’t have had several high tech knee operations in his past…nor would he have been running on a groomed trail…but never mind all that.

Then I got my DNA tested. I knew that my maternal grandfather wouldn’t show up so I was expecting South American Indian halpogroups.

What I got: X chromosome

Y chromosome

Short story: I have European genes from both by maternal and paternal lineages; genetically I am a Spaniard.

%$#@!!!!

Workout notes
Walking on the track: 13:26 warm up mile, 11:34 (2-1-2-1-2), 10:40 (1-3-1-3), 10:19 (1-7) for 46:00. This was about 40 seconds slower than the last two times, but still ok.

Swimming: 2200 yards; 500 of fist/free, 500 of free/back, 250 of catch-free, 250 of 3g-free, 500 pull, 200 swim.

Note: my LEFT (non-operated on) knee has been bothering me a bit over the past 2-3 days though it didn’t hinder my walk. Time will tell if this is the usual “weather change” ache (and it feels like it) or something more serious.

Hot MILFs, Science, Elections and Information

Humor
You are up on internet humor if you “get” why this headline is funny

(hat tip: Randazza)

Security
“Hot” (as in “stolen”) information
Yes, some companies work to gather personal information for companies that wish to commit fraud:

Researchers from security vendor Trusteer have come across a professional calling service that caters to cybercriminals. The business offers to extract sensitive information needed for bank fraud and identity theft from individuals.

The security company spotted an advertisement for making on-demand calls in English and other European languages to private individuals, banks, shops, post offices and similar organizations. At a cost of US$10 per call, cybercriminals were offered the possibility of obtaining the missing pieces of information they needed to pull off attacks.[...]

One of the easiest ways to obtain information from a target is social engineering — convincing someone to provide it. However, not every cybercriminal is skilled in such techniques and those who are capable of pulling off these attacks are often faced with a language barrier.

This is where call services like the one found by Trusteer come in. Their staff is trained to impersonate bank employees, computer technicians, travel agents, recruiters and other people to whom targeted individuals are likely to disclose information.

The callers receive background information about the targets from cybercriminals and use it to establish trusting relationships with the victims.

For example, if a fraudster wants to log into an account by using stolen online banking credentials, but is prompted for an OTP because he uses a different IP address than the real account holder, he can give a caller the information needed to impersonate a bank employee.

Armed with things like the victim’s name, account number, birth date and other personal information, the caller can claim that he’s performing system checks and ask the targeted individual to read back the code sent to their phone.[...]

Unbelievable. Well, not unbelievable but disgusting.

Politics
Hot elections
Nate Silver takes a look at the early states in the GOP primary: how can Mitt Romney navigate these?

The analysis is fun; the conclusion:

The bottom line is that almost any winner of Iowa apart from Mr. Romney himself would present some kind of threat to him in one of the next three states. (The exceptions are probably Michele Bachmann and Mr. Santorum.) Mr. Romney certainly does not need to win Iowa to win the nomination. But unless he builds up more of a cushion in the national polls before the voting there, a loss for his campaign in the caucuses would at least make for an exciting January.

Evolution
Hot peppers provides an example of how targeted reproduction can enhance a particular trait that had been initially given by natural selection. Here is Jerry Coyne’s take on the science of hot peppers!

Running Intervals: too fast of a start doomed me.

Workout notes
Yoga, 6 mile run (new shoes), weights
Weights; 2 sets of leg presses (angled), 2 sets of leg presses (seated), 2 sets of squats (135, Smith Machine), 2 sets of lunges, 2 sets of step ups (lower steps), calf raises, toe raises.

Run: 2 mile warm up (knees felt good), 9 x 440 with .11 mile recovery (goose loop). First 3 were too fast; by the end of 5 I could no longer really jog a recovery. So my goose loop 1.08 miles were 9:32, 10:15 and then I stopped the watch and finished up the 400′s with walk recoveries. Then I jogged 1 mile back to do the weights.

Yoga: two of my favorite MILF’s were there in tight spandex, so I lined up in the back. When we went into “child pose” it was a sweet sight. Yes, I normally line up front but not this time.

Geese: I am sorry that I didn’t take my camera. There were the usual Canadian but there were also domestic hybrids (orange feet and bills) and some other white faced, brown bodied varieties. During my next riverfront workout I am taking a camera.

Haplogroup R1b (M 343): Cro-Magnon

Yes, R1b, M343, Subclade R1b1a2, M269…descendant of the European Cro-Magnons. 90 percent of Spanish men share this Haplogroup with me.

In other words: European genes on my paternal side as well….both sides. Hmmm.

You can see my X chromosome here.

Divided Football Loyalties….

Workout notes
no swimming (late lifeguard) but I did lift; it was the usual, sans lunges.

Difference: two sets of seated dumbbell military presses (15 x 40 lb.), 120 sit ups (30 at each level), curls on the pulley machine and bench press: 10 x 135, 4 x 170, 4 x 170, 9 x 155.

I am feeling a bit tired and weak; it appears that my body is fighting off the cold that my wife has.

College Football
I don’t know how unusual I am, but I am following 4 teams:

Illinois: season tickets; this is the first time I’ve followed them this closely. I missed going to live games and now I do.
Appeal: they are the closest “in state, home team)

Navy: where I went to school. Of course, I went to all of the home games when I was there (I had to, but I would have gone anyway) and I went to a few road ones too: Army (had to, but wanted to), Notre Dame (twice), Air Force and the Garden State Bowl against Houston.

I’ve also seen a Notre Dame-Navy game (1984) and Navy-Virginia (1983) and Navy-Air Force (1983) since graduating.

Texas: this was my home town college and where I went to graduate school. I saw every home game in 1975, 1976, all but one in 1981 (I lived in San Antonio), individual games in 1982 (Texas A&M), 1983 (North Texas), 1984 (Penn State), then all but one home game from 1985 to 1991 as well as many away games. I saw them a few times since I moved to Illinois too.

Notre Dame: don’t know why, but I started following them since I was a little boy and have never outgrown the habit. I did see them in the Cotton Bowl (1988) and against Purdue a couple of times as well as 3 Navy games.

Pro Football: In this order: Rams, Bears, Cowboys. Ok, the Rams stink (right now); the Bears are decent and the Cowboys: who knows.

I was once a Packer fan, but that was because my dad was.

I wonder how many people follow several teams and how many have “just one team”.

Personally: I start to get attached to teams when I start watching them regularly.