Ever wonder what Theodore Roosevelt’s voice sounded like? Or Woodrow Wilson’s? Or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s? Check out this very interesting compilation entitled “25 Rare Recordings From Some Of The Most Important People At The Turn The 20th Century.”
Author: Richard
How statistics won the Second World War
Well, “won” may be an exaggeration, but apparently a certain statistical formula certainly helped. Curious? Read on:
A simple statistical formula successfully estimated the number of tanks
the enemy was producing, at a time when this could not be directly
observed by the allied spy network.By 1941-42, the allies knew that
US and even British tanks had been technically superior to German Panzer
tanks in combat, but they were worried about the capabilities of the
new marks IV and V. More troubling, they had really very little idea of
how many tanks the enemy was capable of producing in a year. Without
this information, they were unsure whether any invasion of the continent
on the western front could succeed.One solution was to ask
intelligence to guess the number by secretly observing the output of
German factories, or by trying to count tanks on the battlefield. Both
the British and the Americans tried this, but they found that the
estimates returned by intelligence were contradictory and unreliable.
Therefore they asked statistical intelligence to see whether the
accuracy of the estimates could be improved.The statisticians had
one key piece of information, which was the serial numbers on captured
mark V tanks. The statisticians believed that the Germans, being
Germans, had logically numbered their tanks in the order in which they
were produced. And this deduction turned out to be right. It was enough
to enable them to make an estimate of the total number of tanks that had
been produced up to any given moment.
You can read the whole story here. Personally, I find this sort of thing fascinating. Scientists, mathematicians, and indeed statisticians made extremely important contributions to the Allied war effort, and while these contributions are easily overlooked and often forgotten, I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that the war would’ve gone very differently without them. Civilians cracked both the German Enigma and the Japanese cryptography, preventing thousands of Allied casualties. I’m very glad that, at long last, the scientists and mathematicians behind these efforts are finally getting the recognition they deserve. (Particularly Alan Turing, the father of artificial intelligence and computer science, who despite cracking Enigma was persecuted by the British government to the point of suicide because he was gay.)
Snake gives virgin birth to genetically anomalous babies
The scientific community is absolutely reeling at this bizarre (perhaps… portentous?) situation:
A female boa constrictor snake has given birth to two litters of extraordinary offspring.
Evidence suggests the mother snake has had multiple virgin births, producing 22 baby snakes that have no father.
More
than that, the genetic make-up of the baby snakes is unlike any
previously recorded among vertebrates, the group which includes almost
all animals with a backbone.
Perhaps these scientists wouldn’t have been so surprised had they seen Jurassic Park – then they’d know that life will always find a way. Jokes aside, though, this is apparently quite unusual. You can find out more here.
Dark matter spotted?
Image via Wikipedia
I’m not too good at explaining or summarizing theoretical or experimental physics that I myself barely comprehend (to put it generously), so I’ll instead quote the fine science writers at MSNBC:
In a new finding that could have game-changing effects if borne
out, two astrophysicists think they’ve finally tracked down the elusive
signature of dark matter.
This invisible substance is thought to make up much of the universe but scientists have little idea what it is. They can only infer the
existence of dark matter by measuring its gravitational tug on the normal matter that they can see.Now, after sifting through observations of the center of our Milky Way galaxy, two researchers think they’ve found evidence of
the annihilation of dark matter particles in powerful explosions.
You can read the whole article about this exciting discovery here. The diagram above details the hypothetical composition of the known universe. As you can see, most of it is dark energy and dark matter.
Storm of historic proportions to hit Midwest
“We’re staring,” reports The Weather Channel, “at a powerful storm that is poised to rake high winds,
severe t-storms, and, yes, even wet snow in parts of the Midwest.” Some are calling it a “land hurricane.” There are currently tornado warnings in 25 different spots across the path of the storm. From The Weather Channel:
Meteorologists know this will be intense due to expected lowest central
pressure of the low in western Ontario bottoming out in the neighborhood
of 960-970 mb. This is a storm potentially as strong or stronger than
the infamous “Edmund Fitzgerald” storm in Nov. 1975 and an even stronger
version almost exactly 23 years after that in Nov. 1998.
(See the full forecast here.) Rather than “land hurricane,” the correct term for the phenomenon we’re seeing is (unlikely as it sounds) “bomb cyclogenesis.” As related by boingboing:
Basically, bomb cyclogenesis
is the formation of an over-land cyclone (“cyclogenesis”) in a
dramatically short period of time (“kablooey”). The phenomenon might be
involved in the formation of Atlantic Nor’easters, and was the force
behind some of the biggest blizzards of the mid-20th century. In fact, Minnesota Public Radio’s Updraft blog is going so far as to call this incoming weather system a “land hurricane”
(“telegram”). The Eastern side of Lake Superior is expecting 25-foot
waves this afternoon. Should be exciting. And we’ve all learned a new
word.
Werewolves
Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net
The greatest “order pizza to a stranger’s house” prank in history
… Occurred nearly 200 years ago, in London. From Wikipedia:
The Berners Street Hoax was perpetrated by Theodore Hook in the City of Westminster, London, in 1810.
On 27 November, at five o’clock in the morning, a sweep arrived to
sweep the chimneys of 54 Berners Street, the home of Mrs Tottenham. The
maid who answered the door informed him that no sweep had been
requested, and that his services were not required, and the disappointed
tradesman went on his way. A few moments later another sweep presented
himself at the door, then another, and another, 12 in all. After the
last of the sweeps had been sent away, a fleet of carts carrying large
deliveries of coal began to arrive, followed by a series of cakemakers
delivering large wedding cakes, then doctors, lawyers, vicars and
priests summoned to minister to someone in the house they had been told
was dying. Fishmongers, shoemakers, and over a dozen pianos were among
the next to appear, along with “six stout men bearing an organ”.
Dignitaries, including the Governor of the Bank of England, the Duke of York, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Mayor of the City of London
also arrived. The narrow streets soon became severely congested with
disgruntled tradesmen and onlookers. Deliveries and visits continued
until the early evening, bringing a large part of London to a
standstill.[1]Hook had bet his friend Samuel Beazley
that he could transform any house in London into the most talked-about
address in a week. To achieve his goal he had sent out 4,000 letters
purporting to be Mrs Tottenham, requesting deliveries, visitors, and
assistance. Hook had stationed himself in the house directly opposite
54 Berners Street, and he and his friend had spent an amusing day
watching the chaos unfold.[1]
You really can’t top that.
Testing the hypothesis of a holographic universe
Last February, we blogged about the theory that the universe may not, in fact, be three-dimensional, but might rather be merely a holographic projection. Now, it seems that the Fermilab particle astrophysicist who proposed this theory is building a device with which to test it. From Fermilab’s blog:
Black hole physics, in which space and time become compressed,
provides a basis for math showing that the third dimension may not exist
at all. In this two-dimensional cartoon of a universe, what we perceive
as a third dimension would actually be a projection of time intertwined
with depth. If this is true, the illusion can only be maintained until
equipment becomes sensitive enough to find its limits.“You can’t perceive it because nothing ever travels faster than
light,” says Hogan. “This holographic view is how the universe would
look if you sat on a photon.”Not everyone agrees with this idea. Its foundation is formed with
math rather than hard data, as is common in theoretical physics. And
although a holographic universe would answer many questions about black
hole physics and other paradoxes, it clashes with classical geometry,
which demands a universe of smooth, continuous paths in space and time.
“So we want to build a machine which will be the most sensitive
measurement ever made of spacetime itself,” says Hogan. “That’s the
holometer.”
Read the whole article here, and be confused.
Sensory and motor homunculi
This is fascinating and bizarre. Below are pictures of what the human body would look like if each part was proportioned according to the area of the brain concerned with that part’s motor control and sensory perception, respectively. In other words, our brains devote considerably larger areas to the sensory perception and motor control of the hands, say, th
an a random patch of skin on the back. Note how the motor homunculus is almost entirely hand and mouth – makes sense. (From the London Natural History Museum.)
