01-10-18 Narratives and Numbers by John Allan Paulous
01/10/18
John Allan Paulos -The complex relationship between narratives and numbers. Doug Wind - Synthetic Life
This Wednesday, January 10th, 2018 @ 11:00am to 1:00pm Community Room, Puente Viejo on Calzada de la Aurora #52
Puente Viejo is a gated community; sign in at the entrance.
Any problem, have them call David McClintock - 415-112-5202 ******** Introductions/News
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SMA Science Book Club meeting Tues. Jan. 30th click for details.
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John Allan Paulos - Narratives and Numbers
The complex relationship between stores and statistics or, to vary the alliteration, between narratives and numbers. The most common mathematical mistakes in news reports and the media generally. No mathematical background will be needed, just a bit of arithmetic, a little logic, and maybe a feel for probability.
Why, for example, are we so often apoplectic about minor risks and oblivious of significant ones or exercised by trivial expenditures and accepting of massive outlays? There are many examples of a variety of quantitative solecisms.
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Doug Wind - Synthetic Life
In 2010, scientists led by J. Craig Venter became the first to successfully create ?synthetic life"?putting humankind at the threshold of the most important and exciting phase of biological research, one that will enable us to actually write the genetic code for designing new species to help us adapt and evolve for long-term survival.
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Last Week's Links:
WWII Instruction film: Underwater Explosion Phenomena
The curious relationship between explosion cavities, external pressure and objects:
https://youtu.be/MPJjMJ48CdYNew Device Lets Scientists Explore Physics Near Absolute Zero
https://futurism.com/device-scientists-explore-physics-near-absolute-zero/
NASA-led study solves a methane puzzle
Nice time animation included with article:
"...A new NASA-led study has solved a puzzle involving the recent rise in atmospheric methane, a potent greenhouse gas, with a new calculation of emissions from global fires. The new study resolves what looked like irreconcilable differences in explanations for the increase..."
Bid adieu to chocolate post 2040, experts say
"...According to the report, cacao trees, which require extensive rainfall, are struggling to grow due to rising temperatures. And a temperature rise of 2.1 degrees Celsius over 30 years could potentially destroy the chocolate industry by killing the trees, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Experts say the reason for this rapid loss of cacao trees is that chocolate only grows in a small strip of rainforests around the equator. And as temperatures increase, chocolate planters will have to look at other, less ideal locations to plant cacao trees..."
https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/bid-adieu-chocolate-post-2040-experts-say-74118
Electrical and chemical coupling between Saturn and its rings
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171212141748.htm
Galaxy growth in a massive halo in the first billion years of cosmic history:
"...But the latest ALMA observations push this epoch of massive-galaxy formation back further into the past, as the two galaxies were giants when the universe was only 780 million years old..."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171207140717.htm
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Further presentation notes from Garth Agraik:
The "Further Study" links at the end of the presentation were:
Netflix Documentary – Banking on Bitcoin
Amazon Prime Documentary – The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin
Amazon Books:
The Internet of Money (Antonopoulos)
Digital Gold (Popper)
Blockchain Revolution(Tapscott)
Internet Links:
Somebody claimed that the World Wide Web was decentralized, but from what I have come to understand the nameservers use a distributed but not decentralized client-server model that is managed by ICANN: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System#Name_servers/wiki/Domain_Name_System#Name_servers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICANN
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The SMA Rotary Club rests upon a foundation of compassion and science, so it too gets a heads up from SciTechNature
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The SciTechNature get-together is also on Facebook.
Best,
Stephen Goodfellow