So in this series of posts I have not yet addressed the word in my title … ‘Computation’.
To cut a long story short, it seems to me that what Quantum Mechanics does is what any computer programmer would do when faced with an enormous amount of information that he could not possibly compute in a [...]
This post follows on from my much earlier musings on Quantum Mechanics, here, here and here.
It does not sit well with me to think that a conscious observer is required for QM to work and therefore for the Universe to exist.
Which of these two would you say has a fundamental existence? The understanding of Mathematics or [...]
You may have seen in the media that skepchick.org has a campaign to give people boosters to their Pertussis (Whooping Cough) vaccination immunity. At the recent DragonCon free injections were being given out.
Over the past year or two I’ve been doing a lot of research into vaccines and the anti-vax movement. One thing I did [...]
Funny conversation at the golf course last night…
Man at front of queue gestures at bracelets on sale at the counter. The packaging says “Embedded Holographic Technology” and “May improve your strength and swing” etc.
Man at front of queue: Do those really work then?
Boy behind counter: Yeah, I wear one all the time.
Me: Yeah, wearing a [...]
In preparation for my pursuit of the claims made by the purveyors of magnetic bracelets I decided to Google “Clinical Trial Magnet Therapy” in an attempt to find some proper trials and evidence. Conversely if you Google “Magnetic Healing” you’ll find thousands of hits for sales of the devices, their claims and no evidence.
My top [...]
There is a great deal of media exposure these days about Organic food and Organic farming and it is ALWAYS asociated with several presumptions:
1. That Organic Farming is better for the environment.
2. That Organic Food tastes better.
From my own previous discoveries I have several pre-formed opinions:
A. Organic Farming’s output is sufficiently lower than non-Organic farming [...]
I ought to note, briefly, that while the Cochrane Analysis that I mentioned two posts ago showed that a low sodium diet had little effect on blood pressure another Analysis by them does show that there is a significant benefit in reducing salt intake.
Specifically here for the long term effects.
Just goes to show how careful [...]
I’ve been using the Cochrane Organisations systemic reviews to look into the evidence for a number of popular beliefs on the efficacy of treatments. Here are the results I have found so far.
Glucosamine for Osteoarthritis
I was expecting to find a negative result here but the review is not quite so clear cut. One brand, Rotta, [...]
Science cuts away yet another Intelligent Design objection to Evolution: Wired Science
A great Atheist Blog with some really interesting commentary on he Bible. Some very similar points to my own articles on Free Will (and better written!): Daylight Atheism
Chris Brown’s assault on Rihanna is really God showing his goodness says Chris’s mum: Friendly Atheist
What is fundamental?
Mathematics as an exercise?
Nature’s existence?
What I mean is quite a subtle question…
Can you describe Physics as applied Mathematics?
I would say yes because we have Mathematics that can describe any geometry, any equation, any self-consistent ‘thing’. We can talk about the mathematics of a universe that differs from our own.
Physics [...]