There is an infinite family of infinite series that represent any complex number z. For details, go to
http://www.angelfire.com/az3/nfold/1funzero.html
Friday, October 16, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
Crash course in entropy
One way to think of entropy gain in a building collapse is thermodynamically, whereby the maximum Boltzmann entropy is reached when one cannot easily distinguish the rubble from the environment. In terms of Shannon entropy, the maximum is reached when one cannot distinguish the signal, or the information consistent with building structure, from the noise, or the ambient information of the environment. The entropy gain means that application of information is required if the building is to be restored.
But we can apply Shannon information somewhat differently to the issue of building collapse, specifically the fire-driven collapse of steel structures. The National Institutes of Standards and Technology concedes that the collapse of a steel-frame building with fire as the main cause is an exceptionally rare event. In fact --excluding the case of the twin towers -- the only one known instance is the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7 at 5:20 p.m. on 9/11.
So we could review records of steel building damage by fire and ask these questions: what percentage of the building was destroyed?; what was the highest point remaining in the post-fire structure?; what degree of symmetry was evident in the collapse? This last question would match the collapse against some symmetrical grid and assign values. We should be able to come up with a method that works satisfactorily for a number of cases.
Here a high-information outlier isn't a building unscathed by its fire, but a building with either near-total collapse or with near-symmetrical collapse (the two cases intersect).
Now the NIST might respond that the information gain reflects a unique building design for Building 7, which proved to be an Achilles heel once fire broke out. The building used an outlier design, in other words.
However, the twin towers also collapsed that day. The NIST deftly suggested that a combination of jet impact and fire led to the collapses. A close reading of the agency's reports, however, shows that its simulations put the blame largely on fire. And, the agency brought up the unique design used in the twin towers. This unique design was the Achilles heel that supposedly permitted the utter collapses. So, in the NIST scenario, the design of the towers would represent another outlier.
The design "flaws" and hence the Achilles heels were completely different in the cases of Building 7 and the twin towers.
The existence of two strikingly different Achilles heels side by side in New York of course represents something highly anomolous. Either the killers were magically aided by one of the most bizarre flukes in history or the gain in information represents a non-random influence.
But we can apply Shannon information somewhat differently to the issue of building collapse, specifically the fire-driven collapse of steel structures. The National Institutes of Standards and Technology concedes that the collapse of a steel-frame building with fire as the main cause is an exceptionally rare event. In fact --excluding the case of the twin towers -- the only one known instance is the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7 at 5:20 p.m. on 9/11.
So we could review records of steel building damage by fire and ask these questions: what percentage of the building was destroyed?; what was the highest point remaining in the post-fire structure?; what degree of symmetry was evident in the collapse? This last question would match the collapse against some symmetrical grid and assign values. We should be able to come up with a method that works satisfactorily for a number of cases.
We then compile our cases, using the statistics gathered, and generate one (or several, if we like) normal curves. Now we know that the highest information is under the outliers and the least within the central 68 percent of the curve. Entropy increase here implies that, statistically, we will tend to move from outlier events to central events.
Here a high-information outlier isn't a building unscathed by its fire, but a building with either near-total collapse or with near-symmetrical collapse (the two cases intersect).
Now the NIST might respond that the information gain reflects a unique building design for Building 7, which proved to be an Achilles heel once fire broke out. The building used an outlier design, in other words.
However, the twin towers also collapsed that day. The NIST deftly suggested that a combination of jet impact and fire led to the collapses. A close reading of the agency's reports, however, shows that its simulations put the blame largely on fire. And, the agency brought up the unique design used in the twin towers. This unique design was the Achilles heel that supposedly permitted the utter collapses. So, in the NIST scenario, the design of the towers would represent another outlier.
The design "flaws" and hence the Achilles heels were completely different in the cases of Building 7 and the twin towers.
The existence of two strikingly different Achilles heels side by side in New York of course represents something highly anomolous. Either the killers were magically aided by one of the most bizarre flukes in history or the gain in information represents a non-random influence.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Colliderscope
Gail Collins mixes some sci-fi with politics in her New York Times column today. Even though jokingly, she makes sure to refute my suspicion that black holes in the Large Hadron Collider had made the Times' squelch list.
Check the post below and her column at http://nytimes.com
It must be a wormhole. That explains how we journalists are bypassing the embargoes.
Check the post below and her column at http://nytimes.com
It must be a wormhole. That explains how we journalists are bypassing the embargoes.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Paint it black
So suppose Hawking is right that the Large Hadron Collider will have a one in a hundred chance of producing mini-black holes? His theory, buttressed by many physicists, is that such entities would vaporize so fast they could do no harm.
But I'd like to know, are they sure these little buggers aren't quantum entities subject to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle? Because if they are quantum entities, wouldn't that imply that every once in a great while something improbable happens? The hole violates energy conservation just long enough to translate from virtual to real, in which case it I presume could then gobble the planet in short order.
The fact that statistically energy conservation can't be violated does no good if one little beastie acts wildly but in accord with quantum rules. Remember, all solid state circuits are based on this improbable energy violation, whereby a "particle" slips through an energy barrier or potential well. So occasional energy violation would be expected if the mini-holes are quantum particles.
If hundreds of thousands of such particles are produced, is there a signficant chance that one will balloon into a doomsday particle within the next, say, 20 years?
Anybody have an answer for me?
Aug. 4, 2009--Today's New York Times had a feature on the CERN collider saying that the engineers were having a tough time getting the machine to crank up the highest energies. They're still tinkering with it. Scientists would be happy even if it doesn't go at full tilt since the energy levels would still be far higher than those the Fermilab's Tevatron can produce.
Nowhere in Dennis Overbye's otherwise respectable story were black holes mentioned. So I suppose we must infer that we shouldn't worry because the collider won't reach black hole energy levels anytime soon. Funny how many things are on the uncool-to-discuss list. Now even the scientific topic of black holes has made the list, it seems.
But I'd like to know, are they sure these little buggers aren't quantum entities subject to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle? Because if they are quantum entities, wouldn't that imply that every once in a great while something improbable happens? The hole violates energy conservation just long enough to translate from virtual to real, in which case it I presume could then gobble the planet in short order.
The fact that statistically energy conservation can't be violated does no good if one little beastie acts wildly but in accord with quantum rules. Remember, all solid state circuits are based on this improbable energy violation, whereby a "particle" slips through an energy barrier or potential well. So occasional energy violation would be expected if the mini-holes are quantum particles.
If hundreds of thousands of such particles are produced, is there a signficant chance that one will balloon into a doomsday particle within the next, say, 20 years?
Anybody have an answer for me?
Aug. 4, 2009--Today's New York Times had a feature on the CERN collider saying that the engineers were having a tough time getting the machine to crank up the highest energies. They're still tinkering with it. Scientists would be happy even if it doesn't go at full tilt since the energy levels would still be far higher than those the Fermilab's Tevatron can produce.
Nowhere in Dennis Overbye's otherwise respectable story were black holes mentioned. So I suppose we must infer that we shouldn't worry because the collider won't reach black hole energy levels anytime soon. Funny how many things are on the uncool-to-discuss list. Now even the scientific topic of black holes has made the list, it seems.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Weather warfare?
Several days ago the History Channel aired a That's Impossible segment about weather warfare. The show discussed the possibility that extremely low frequency radio transmissions could be used to alter regional weather.
The idea was that the ELF waves can heat up the ionosphere, causing it to bubble upward and pushing aside the jetstream, yielding marked changes in regional weather. Other possibilities were that such tinkering could redirect hurricanes toward or away from coastlines or that the powerful waves, that can penetrate deep sea depths, could cause human brains to malfunction. And one oil-search technologist was interviewed who claimed that ELF waves, used to probe for oil deposits, can trigger earthquakes in quake-prone zones, and that he had been with a crew that had inadvertently done just that.
Of course there's lots of misinformation and goofy speculation out there on TV and the internet; when I heard that the fantastic ELF effects derived from Nikola Tesla's research I was even more wary. Tesla's name is affiliated with all sorts of nonsense. Nevetheless, I did some checking.
A man named Nick Begich of Anchorage wrote Angels Don't Play This HAARP, an expose book about the HAARP project, a federal operation that beams ELF waves into the ionosphere. I found a summary of his book via Google Scholar which describes how he used Pentagon documents and patent filings to uncover that ELF transmissions might not only be used for long-range submarine communication or exploration of the auroras, but also could possibly be used to focus on a specific part of the ionosphere to generate a plume that affects the jetstream. As for the point that ELF (between 3 and 30 Herz) might cause people to become confused or depressed and to suffer headaches, there is already bona fide research that shows that certain wavelengths (with sufficient amplitude) can indeed have such consequences.
An ELF pulse might be used to jam communications worldwide, while itself being very hard to jam, it has been reported. Such a pulse could be used as a substitute for the method of setting off a high-altitude thermonuclear bomb to jam telecommunications, reports say. The feasibility of this is hinted at by the so-called "Russian woodpecker" ELF transmissions, which disrupted global ham radio with a persistent annoying pulsing noise during the latter Soviet era. The "woodpecker" has been said to have been part of an over-the-horizon missile warning system. (One "crazy" theories is that the woodpecker was used to force a longterm drought over the Western United States as part of a failed economic warfare scheme during the Soviet Union's last years. Another wild theory is that there was an attempt to cause free-floating anxiety in the American population, though I would wonder whether sufficient amplitudes were available.)
I glanced through a Navy document about its ELF transmitters (not the Alaska operation) and noticed that the Navy's research showed that no significant biological effects resulted from its transmissions, but one was left to wonder why the Navy felt it so important to check for biological consequences.
It should be noted that Dr. Begich is the son of a noted Alaska politician, now deceased, and that he has served as head of the Alaska teachers union. (I don't know what field his doctorate represents.)
Geoengineering may be a taboo topic ethically, but it is not so far-fetched. For example, one of a number of ideas for combating global warming is the so-called Geritol solution, whereby iron ore is dumped in the Pacific to stimulate plankton growth, which then sucks the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. One test-run of this idea is known to have been wildly successful, according to a 1995 Science News article.
The idea was that the ELF waves can heat up the ionosphere, causing it to bubble upward and pushing aside the jetstream, yielding marked changes in regional weather. Other possibilities were that such tinkering could redirect hurricanes toward or away from coastlines or that the powerful waves, that can penetrate deep sea depths, could cause human brains to malfunction. And one oil-search technologist was interviewed who claimed that ELF waves, used to probe for oil deposits, can trigger earthquakes in quake-prone zones, and that he had been with a crew that had inadvertently done just that.
Of course there's lots of misinformation and goofy speculation out there on TV and the internet; when I heard that the fantastic ELF effects derived from Nikola Tesla's research I was even more wary. Tesla's name is affiliated with all sorts of nonsense. Nevetheless, I did some checking.
A man named Nick Begich of Anchorage wrote Angels Don't Play This HAARP, an expose book about the HAARP project, a federal operation that beams ELF waves into the ionosphere. I found a summary of his book via Google Scholar which describes how he used Pentagon documents and patent filings to uncover that ELF transmissions might not only be used for long-range submarine communication or exploration of the auroras, but also could possibly be used to focus on a specific part of the ionosphere to generate a plume that affects the jetstream. As for the point that ELF (between 3 and 30 Herz) might cause people to become confused or depressed and to suffer headaches, there is already bona fide research that shows that certain wavelengths (with sufficient amplitude) can indeed have such consequences.
An ELF pulse might be used to jam communications worldwide, while itself being very hard to jam, it has been reported. Such a pulse could be used as a substitute for the method of setting off a high-altitude thermonuclear bomb to jam telecommunications, reports say. The feasibility of this is hinted at by the so-called "Russian woodpecker" ELF transmissions, which disrupted global ham radio with a persistent annoying pulsing noise during the latter Soviet era. The "woodpecker" has been said to have been part of an over-the-horizon missile warning system. (One "crazy" theories is that the woodpecker was used to force a longterm drought over the Western United States as part of a failed economic warfare scheme during the Soviet Union's last years. Another wild theory is that there was an attempt to cause free-floating anxiety in the American population, though I would wonder whether sufficient amplitudes were available.)
I glanced through a Navy document about its ELF transmitters (not the Alaska operation) and noticed that the Navy's research showed that no significant biological effects resulted from its transmissions, but one was left to wonder why the Navy felt it so important to check for biological consequences.
It should be noted that Dr. Begich is the son of a noted Alaska politician, now deceased, and that he has served as head of the Alaska teachers union. (I don't know what field his doctorate represents.)
Geoengineering may be a taboo topic ethically, but it is not so far-fetched. For example, one of a number of ideas for combating global warming is the so-called Geritol solution, whereby iron ore is dumped in the Pacific to stimulate plankton growth, which then sucks the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. One test-run of this idea is known to have been wildly successful, according to a 1995 Science News article.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Perception and reality
A search may send you to previous incarnations of the Kryptograff blog. I have had quite a bit of trouble with bugs on Blogspot, but even so I'll give Blogspot another try.
I'd like to draw your attention to my latest effort,
Toward a signal model of perception
http://www.angelfire.com/ult/znewz1/qball.html
and invite your comments and corrections.
F. David Peat has covered this ground before. However, what I do is try to go beyond a popular presentation.
Many will be more interested in the appendices on synchronicity anecdotes and experiments than in the paper, but I caution that those appendices should be read in light of the main article.
I'd like to draw your attention to my latest effort,
Toward a signal model of perception
http://www.angelfire.com/ult/znewz1/qball.html
and invite your comments and corrections.
F. David Peat has covered this ground before. However, what I do is try to go beyond a popular presentation.
Many will be more interested in the appendices on synchronicity anecdotes and experiments than in the paper, but I caution that those appendices should be read in light of the main article.
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