http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html
Heralded by its trademark twin sonic booms, space shuttle Endeavour
returned to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8:39 p.m. EDT,
concluding the STS-123 mission with a smooth touchdown on Runway 15.
snip
Down and safe, maybe you got a chance to watch NASA TV.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/
Thanks for looking up with me.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
==============================================================
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/launch/landing_blog.html
Welcome to NASA's STS-123 Landing Blog
Video highlights from today's landing are selected from televised
coverage provided by NASA TV.
- View Videos
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts123/launch/landing_
allvideos.html>
*Note:* All times are given in Eastern Time unless otherwise noted.
10:04 p.m. - The weather is pleasant and in the mid-60s with no rain in
the forecast while Endeavour is on the runway waiting to be towed to the
Orbiter Processing Facility.
9:54 p.m. - The crew members are being welcomed by NASA Administrator
Michael Griffin, Deputy Administrator Shana Dale, Kennedy Space Center
Director Bill Parsons, Launch Director Mike Leinbach and other NASA and
Japanese officials.
9:51 p.m. - The stairs are down on the crew transport vehicle and the
astronauts have emerged.
Some of the crew members are taking a walk around the orbiter for one
last look at the vehicle.
9:45 p.m. - NASA's Astrovan will be arriving at the landing facility.
The vehicle will carry the STS-123 mission team back to the crew
quarters, where they suited up for this eventful mission more than 15
days ago. There they will undergo a complete medical exam and be
reunited with their immediate family members.
9:35 p.m. - Endeavour's crew hatch has been opened. The astronauts have
left the orbiter and entered the crew transport vehicle or CTV. The CTV
contains beds and comfortable seats so that the astronauts can receive a
brief medical checkup before stepping onto the tarmac.
9:32 p.m. - The final steps in 'safing' the vehicle are being completed.
9:15 p.m. - The recovery operations convoy has arrived. When the vehicle
is considered safe from all potential hazards and free of toxic gases,
the purge and coolant umbilical access vehicle will move into position
at the rear of the orbiter.
Following purge and cooling system connections, the crew transport
vehicle moves into position adjacent to the orbiter access hatch on
Endeavour's port side.
9:01 p.m. - It's been a little over 20 minutes since Endeavour and its
crew touched down at Kennedy Space Center. The landing convoy will be
gathering around the vehicle to work on "safing" procedures.
8:58 p.m. - The orbiter's hydraulic systems are being shut down.
8:50 p.m. - Work to safely shut down Endeavour's systems is continuing.
8:45 p.m. - The Endeavour crew returned to Earth after about 16 days in
space including a record-breaking 12 days at the International Space
Station. The mission concluded on its 250th orbit.
8:42 p.m. - The crew will now work through a checklist for shutting down
the orbiter and "safing" the vehicle.
8:39 p.m. - Main gear is down and locked � Main gear touchdown... Nose
gear touchdown ...
Touchdown! Endeavour has safely landed with its crew of seven astronauts
at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The drag chute is deployed ...
Endeavour's wheels have come to a stop. Welcome home, Endeavour, after
completing a journey of more than 6,578,000 million miles!
snip
==============================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
==============================================================
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
TRIPLE FLYBY ALERT: Space shuttle Endeavour has undocked from the International Space Station
Ok, this is from the March 24, 2008 Space Weather News and I should have said something.
You can watch activities on NASA TV and you can check out the over flies from the Space Weather links below and from Heavens Above link as well.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
It is Spring break for the grandchildren, dogs barking, and Sangad is in Thailand buying up the place. :-)
Life gets interesting. :-)
Thanks for looking up with me.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
==============================================================
Space Weather News for March 24, 2008
http://spaceweather.com
TRIPLE FLYBY ALERT: Space shuttle Endeavour has undocked from the International Space Station and the two spaceships are now orbiting Earth in tandem. This sets the stage for a series of rare *triple* flybys, which many sky watchers will be able to observe on Tuesday, March 25th. It's a triple because three spacecraft are involved. First to appear is the European Space Agency's Jules Verne cargo carrier flying 2000 kilometers ahead of the ISS-Endeavour combo. Jules Verne is about as bright as a 1st magnitude star. Four minutes later, and even brighter, the space shuttle and space station follow Jules Verne across the starry sky--a spectacular sight!
US and Canadian readers can find out when to look using our new Simple Satellite Flybys tool: http://spaceweather.com/flybys. (Note: We haven't forgotten about the rest of the world. Work is underway to expand our simple flyby predictions beyond North America to all parts of the globe. Stay tuned.)
SOLAR ACTIVITY: Who says the sun is quiet? Two new sunspots are growing rapidly near the sun's equator. Just yesterday they were almost invisible; now the active regions are several times larger than Earth and are putting on a good show for anyone with a backyard solar telescope. Visit http://spaceweather.com for movies, photos and updates.
snip
==============================================================
http://www.heavens-above.com/
Space Shuttle Mission STS-123
Endeavour has now separated from the ISS.
Please use link below for predictions until landing.
==============================================================
NASA AIRS NEW SPACECRAFT'S MANEUVERS AND DOCKING TO SPACE STATION
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/mar/HQ_M08065_ATV-NASA_TV.html
March 25, 2008
John Yembrick
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0602
john.yembrick-1@nasa.gov
James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
james.a.hartsfield@nasa.gov
MEDIA ADVISORY: M08-065
NASA AIRS NEW SPACECRAFT'S MANEUVERS AND DOCKING TO SPACE STATION
HOUSTON -- Less than three weeks after its maiden launch, the European
Space Agency's Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle, or ATV, is set
to begin a series of automated approaches and make an eventual
docking with the International Space Station. NASA Television will
broadcast the most critical maneuvers on March 31 and April 3, with
commentary from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
During the docking, the spacecraft will be controlled by engineers at
the ESA ATV Control Center in Toulouse, France, working with flight
controllers at the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev, outside
Moscow, and at Johnson. On March 31, NASA TV coverage will begin at 9
a.m. CDT as the ATV begins an approach to the station from two miles
away. A series of engine firings will bring the cargo ship to within
36 feet of the station before the Expedition 16 crew sends an abort
command to move the ATV away from the complex for its final approach
three days later. These maneuvers will test all of the ATV's vital
systems, which are required for a safe automated linkup to the
station.
On April 3, NASA TV coverage will begin at 7 a.m. as the cargo ship
closes in for docking to the rear port of the station's Zvezda
service module. Docking is scheduled for 9:40 a.m. A briefing with
NASA Flight Director Brian Smith will air on NASA TV at 11:30 a.m.
Questions will be taken from media at participating NASA locations.
The ATV will remain at the space station until early August. After
undocking, it will perform a deorbit maneuver and burn up in Earth's
atmosphere. Additional ATVs are planned to launch in the future. For
NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
-end-
==============================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
==============================================================
You can watch activities on NASA TV and you can check out the over flies from the Space Weather links below and from Heavens Above link as well.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
It is Spring break for the grandchildren, dogs barking, and Sangad is in Thailand buying up the place. :-)
Life gets interesting. :-)
Thanks for looking up with me.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
==============================================================
Space Weather News for March 24, 2008
http://spaceweather.com
TRIPLE FLYBY ALERT: Space shuttle Endeavour has undocked from the International Space Station and the two spaceships are now orbiting Earth in tandem. This sets the stage for a series of rare *triple* flybys, which many sky watchers will be able to observe on Tuesday, March 25th. It's a triple because three spacecraft are involved. First to appear is the European Space Agency's Jules Verne cargo carrier flying 2000 kilometers ahead of the ISS-Endeavour combo. Jules Verne is about as bright as a 1st magnitude star. Four minutes later, and even brighter, the space shuttle and space station follow Jules Verne across the starry sky--a spectacular sight!
US and Canadian readers can find out when to look using our new Simple Satellite Flybys tool: http://spaceweather.com/flybys. (Note: We haven't forgotten about the rest of the world. Work is underway to expand our simple flyby predictions beyond North America to all parts of the globe. Stay tuned.)
SOLAR ACTIVITY: Who says the sun is quiet? Two new sunspots are growing rapidly near the sun's equator. Just yesterday they were almost invisible; now the active regions are several times larger than Earth and are putting on a good show for anyone with a backyard solar telescope. Visit http://spaceweather.com for movies, photos and updates.
snip
==============================================================
http://www.heavens-above.com/
Space Shuttle Mission STS-123
Endeavour has now separated from the ISS.
Please use link below for predictions until landing.
ATV Jules Verne Launched
Europes unmanned space tranporter Jules Verne has been successfully launched.
Please use the link below for visibility predictions.
Configuration
Current observing site: Unspecified, 0.0000�N, 0.0000�E
select from map or from database or edit manually
Registered user login | Why register?
Subscribe to our AvantGo channel
Satellites
10 day predictions for: ISS | STS-123 | ATV | Genesis-1 / 2 | Envisat | HST
Daily predictions for all satellites brighter than magnitude:
(brightest) 3.5 | 4.0 | 4.5 (dimmest)
Iridium Flares
next 24 hrs | next 7 days | previous 48 hrs
Daytime flares for 7 days - see satellites in broad daylight!
Spacecraft escaping the Solar System - where are they now?
Radio amateur satellites - 24 hour predictions (all passes)
Select a satellite from the database
Height of the ISS - how does it vary with time
snip| Developed and maintained by Chris Peat, Heavens-Above GmbH Please read the updated FAQ before sending e-mail. |  |
NASA AIRS NEW SPACECRAFT'S MANEUVERS AND DOCKING TO SPACE STATION
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/mar/HQ_M08065_ATV-NASA_TV.html
March 25, 2008
John Yembrick
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0602
john.yembrick-1@nasa.gov
James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
james.a.hartsfield@nasa.gov
MEDIA ADVISORY: M08-065
NASA AIRS NEW SPACECRAFT'S MANEUVERS AND DOCKING TO SPACE STATION
HOUSTON -- Less than three weeks after its maiden launch, the European
Space Agency's Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle, or ATV, is set
to begin a series of automated approaches and make an eventual
docking with the International Space Station. NASA Television will
broadcast the most critical maneuvers on March 31 and April 3, with
commentary from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
During the docking, the spacecraft will be controlled by engineers at
the ESA ATV Control Center in Toulouse, France, working with flight
controllers at the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev, outside
Moscow, and at Johnson. On March 31, NASA TV coverage will begin at 9
a.m. CDT as the ATV begins an approach to the station from two miles
away. A series of engine firings will bring the cargo ship to within
36 feet of the station before the Expedition 16 crew sends an abort
command to move the ATV away from the complex for its final approach
three days later. These maneuvers will test all of the ATV's vital
systems, which are required for a safe automated linkup to the
station.
On April 3, NASA TV coverage will begin at 7 a.m. as the cargo ship
closes in for docking to the rear port of the station's Zvezda
service module. Docking is scheduled for 9:40 a.m. A briefing with
NASA Flight Director Brian Smith will air on NASA TV at 11:30 a.m.
Questions will be taken from media at participating NASA locations.
The ATV will remain at the space station until early August. After
undocking, it will perform a deorbit maneuver and burn up in Earth's
atmosphere. Additional ATVs are planned to launch in the future. For
NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
-end-
==============================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
==============================================================
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Figments of Reality - The Evolution of the Curious Mind
I am still watching the work on the new additions to the International Space Station while the astronauts work on installing the Canadian Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, (SPDM) Dextre robotics system to the station.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-123
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
Is this for real?
We are just up there going around mother Earth with a sunrise about every 92 minutes.
http://suzymchale.com/kosmonavtka/issorbit.html
Not long ago we were beating animals over the head with clubs, well maybe a few years back.
Would the early cave man ever have thought he might be flying higher than the birds?
How did we get here from there?
http://www.kubrick2001.com/
I have been talking with David Robertson in England about trying to make software neurons that would work like our brain does.
To get my gray matter working, have been reading a number of books about nerves, brains and what it means to be human.
I just finished "Out of Control" by Kevin Kelly and "Figments of Reality - The Evolution of The Curious Mind" by Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen.
We are going to be going back to the Moon soon and it might be a good exercise to open our minds to new ways of thinking.
Take a look at some of the clips below and check out some of the links and if you are in for a mind blowing expansion, check out the book.
I bought my copy from Amazon.com, used, Hard Back, for $3.72 plus $3.99 shipping.
I now have a lot more ideas of what I might do with large number of software neurons that work in mysterious ways.
Our 14 month old granddaughter is walking, crawling through my chair barricades, kicking a ball back to me, and directing me to many new items in her field of view. She already lets you know what she wants and smiles when she pulls my coat off the chair to make it through the tunnel.
What might she do on the Moon and will your intelligent cybernetic assistant be there to help as well?
http://web.tuke.sk/kkui/dokumenty/AR2006.pdf
[28 page pdf from Technical University in Košice - http://www.tuke.sk/ ]
http://www.tuke.sk/tuke?set_language=en&cl=en
also
http://web.tuke.sk/kkui/dokumenty/AR2007.pdf
Department of Cybernetics and Artificial Intelligence
http://www.tuke.sk/tuke/for-students/for-international-students
TUKE caters for a wide range of educational needs not only in the East-Slovak region, but throughout Slovakia and Central Europe, as in many specializations it is the only centre of education and research in this area. TUKE closely co-operates with other universities and with industrial organizations throughout the region and the Slovak Republic.
Now to Figments of Reality.
- LRK -
_______________________________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia
Is this for real?
We are just up there going around mother Earth with a sunrise about every 92 minutes.
http://suzymchale.com/kosmonavt
Not long ago we were beating animals over the head with clubs, well maybe a few years back.
Would the early cave man ever have thought he might be flying higher than the birds?
How did we get here from there?
http://www.kubrick2001.com/
I have been talking with David Robertson in England about trying to make software neurons that would work like our brain does.
To get my gray matter working, have been reading a number of books about nerves, brains and what it means to be human.
I just finished "Out of Control" by Kevin Kelly and "Figments of Reality - The Evolution of The Curious Mind" by Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen.
We are going to be going back to the Moon soon and it might be a good exercise to open our minds to new ways of thinking.
Take a look at some of the clips below and check out some of the links and if you are in for a mind blowing expansion, check out the book.
I bought my copy from Amazon.com, used, Hard Back, for $3.72 plus $3.99 shipping.
I now have a lot more ideas of what I might do with large number of software neurons that work in mysterious ways.
Our 14 month old granddaughter is walking, crawling through my chair barricades, kicking a ball back to me, and directing me to many new items in her field of view. She already lets you know what she wants and smiles when she pulls my coat off the chair to make it through the tunnel.
What might she do on the Moon and will your intelligent cybernetic assistant be there to help as well?
http://web.tuke.sk/kkui
[28 page pdf from Technical University in Košice - http://www.tuke.sk/ ]
http://www.tuke.sk/tuke?set
also
http://web.tuke.sk/kkui
Department of Cybernetics and Artificial Intelligence
http://www.tuke.sk/tuke/for
TUKE caters for a wide range of educational needs not only in the East-Slovak region, but throughout Slovakia and Central Europe, as in many specializations it is the only centre of education and research in this area. TUKE closely co-operates with other universities and with industrial organizations throughout the region and the Slovak Republic.
Now to Figments of Reality.
- LRK -
_______________________________________________________________
http://www.amazon.com/Figments-Reality-Evolution-Curious-Mind/dp/0521663830/
Figments of Reality: The Evolution of the Curious Mind (Paperback)
by Ian Stewart (Author), Jack Cohen (Author) "that this matter is organised in a
different manner. Most of the interesting features of our personal universes are
people and their activities - friends..."
Snip
_______________________________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figments_of_Reality
______________________________
Dextre has arms. :-)
http://www.space.com/spaceshuttle/
Thanks for looking up with me.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
==============================================================
==> TEMPLARSER <== http://www.geocities.com/templarser/figments.html
Fifteen thousand million years ago the universe was no bigger than the dot at the end of this sentence.
A tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of a second before that - but there was no fraction of a second before that. There was no time before the universe began, and without time, there can be no 'before'. (As well to ask what lies north of the North Pole.) There was no space, no time, and no matter. But when the space that was coextensive with the universe had grown to the size of a dot, time had already begun to tick. The temperature within the dot was far too high for matter to exist, but there was plenty of what was required to create matter: radiation. The primal dot seethed with radiant energy.
During time's first duodecillionth (10-39) of a second of existence, the universe was a 'false vacuum', a state of negative pressure in which every fragment of space repelled every other fragment. Space exploded exponentially, and in that near-infinitesimal instant the universe inflated from a tiny dot to a ball many light-years across as its negative pressure literally blew it apart. As the temperature dropped the false vacuum gave way to a true vacuum, a state of zero pressure, and the era of inflation ceased. The universe, now large enough to be interesting, continued to expand under its own momentum - but more sedately, at a rate of a few thousand kilometres per second.
When time was one ten thousandth of a second old, the temperature of the universe dropped to a trillion degrees. Pairs of particles, one of matter, one of antimatter, were winking into existence and out again, born in and dying as fluctuations of radiant energy. Matter and radiation were in perfect balance. However, the balance between matter and antimatter was imperfect. For every 999,999,999 antiprotons there were 1,000,000,000 protons. From that imbalance came everything that we know.
When time attained the grand old age of one second, the temperature of the nascent universe had fallen to a mere ten billion degrees. Electrons and antielectrons, colliding in pairs, filled the universe with bursts of neutrinos and antineutrinos. Neutrons, no longer stable, decayed into protons and electrons.
Two minutes after time began (some say one and a half minutes, others three) the universe had cooled to one billion degrees, and matter as we know it began to assemble. Neutrons paired incestuously with their proton offspring to form creation's first atoms - heavy hydrogen, otherwise known as deuterium. Deuterium fused into helium and matter began to diversify.
snip
[If you have not read the book, then do take a look at the clips from the book as noted by Melanie Mitchell who heads the Adaptive Computation Program at the Santa Fe Institute in California - from New Scientist - 8 November 1997 - LRK]
http://www.geocities.com/templarser/index.html
snip
==============================================================
http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/v5/psyche-5-33-scott.html
The Evolution of Body, Mind and Culture
Review of Figments of Reality by Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen
Alwyn Scott
Department of Mathematics
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
U.S.A.
snip
Considering the dozens of books on the nature of consciousness that
have descended upon us over the past decade or so, I opened Figments
of Reality with some hesitation. Would this study of mind really
"break new ground and develop profoundly thought-provoking and novel
insights into the nature of evolution, science and humanity" (as
promised on the dust-jacket)? Or should it be expected to sink - like
Roderick Usher's castle - into the tarn of conflicting claims and
counterclaims, leaving no trace on the surface?
Happily, mathematician Ian Stewart and biologist Jack Cohen live up to
the claims of their promoters. They have given us a book that presents
novel ideas in a lively style, which the general scientific reader
will be able to appreciate. Focussing attention on a few key issues,
the authors dismiss much of the intellectual trivia that confuses
current discussions of consciousness, showing little patience with
theoretical arguments based on fictitious zombies and attempts to
relate studies of consciousness to the vagaries of quantum theory.
This book begins at the beginning, recognizing the obvious fact that
mind emerged from living organisms and asking the readers to consider
how intelligent life developed. Interestingly, almost half of the book
is devoted to describing the biological context in which our brains
evolved.
Figments opens with complementary critiques of the related concepts of
reductionism and a theory of everything, pointing out that both are
problematic in the real world of experimental science. Diligently
applied to the biological realm, a theory of everything runs afoul of
a practically unlimited number of possibilities at higher levels of
description. Similarly, current research in high energy physics - for
all its intellectual brilliance and excitement - is unlikely to modify
the facts of chemistry, upon which biology is based. Thus the
biochemist, the cytologist and the physiologist have no professional
stake in becoming knowledgeable about (say) quarks or Higgs bosons or
string theory or whatever. Such fundamental concepts, as every
bioscientist knows in his or her gut, are simply irrelevant to the
development of meaningful models of living organisms.
These rather obvious caveats - often blithely ignored by theorists in
the physical sciences - are brought home to the readers of this book
through an informative and entertaining discussion of game theory.
Although some games (uninteresting ones) can be well played using
simple strategies, all of the interesting games (chess, bridge, go,
and so on) offer so very many possibilities that sure-fire
generalizations about strategy are practically impossible. The course
of evolution, Stewart and Cohen suggest, is of the second sort, where
the rules of the game change over time and the aim is to stay in play.
No argument there, but how has nature managed to discern and implement
winning strategies in this most interesting of games?
The answer is a phenomenon that the authors call complicity, a complex
sort of positive feedback threading through interacting levels of the
biosphere, and allowing unexpected causal loops to arise. As a
striking example of how intricate complicit phenomena can be, the
authors cite a parasitic flatworm that spends part of its life inside
an ant, while its reproductive stage is inside a cow. The technique
that nature has evolved to allow the worm to transfer from one animal
to the other is described as follows.
The parasite infects the ant, and presses on a particular part of its
brain. This interferes with the normal behavior of the brain, which
causes the ant to climb a grass stem, grasp it with its jaws, and hang
there, permanently attached. So when a cow comes along and eats the
grass, the parasite enters the cow.
This three-way complicity (among worm, ant and cow) thus generates an
emergent phenomenon (the clever reproductive strategy of the flatworm)
which hardly seems amenable to reductive analysis.
snip
Why does Figments work so well? In part, of course, because both of
the authors are skilled and thoughtful writers, but that is not alone
sufficient as several recent books on the nature of mind by science
journalists have clearly shown. In addition to demonstrating the
necessary writing ability, the authors stem from appropriate
professional backgrounds. One (Stewart) is a respected mathematician
with a deep knowledge of current physical science, and the other
(Cohen) is a biologist with wide appreciation for the varieties of
living creatures. As one learns from this book, a thorough familiarity
with both of these scientific realms is necessary for achieving an
understanding of the nature of consciousness.
If you are seriously interested in the scientific study of
consciousness, buy Figments of Reality. And read it!
Snip
==============================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
==============================================================
Figments of Reality: The Evolution of the Curious Mind (Paperback)
by Ian Stewart (Author), Jack Cohen (Author) "that this matter is organised in a
different manner. Most of the interesting features of our personal universes are
people and their activities - friends..."
Snip
______________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
Figments of Reality: The Evolution of the Curious Mind (1997) is a book about
the evolution of the intelligent and conscious human mind by biologist Jack Cohen
and mathematician Ian Stewart.
In this book Cohen and Stewart give their ideas on how the sentient human being evolved. Various chapters discuss scientific and philosophical ideas such as emergence and chaos, free will, perception versus reality, objectivity versus subjectivity, self-awareness, the ego and id, groupthink, and extelligence. A theme is that intelligence is an inevitable result of letting evolution progress for long enough.
Topics are illustrated with humorous science fiction snippets dealing with a hypothetical alien intelligence, the Zarathustrians, whom Cohen and Stewart use as metaphors of the human mind itself, an alternative evolution story, and various philosophical concepts.
______________________________Dextre has arms. :-)
http://www.space.com/spaceshutt
Thanks for looking up with me.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com
==============================
==> TEMPLARSER <== http://www.geocities.com
Prologue
Fifteen thousand million years ago the universe was no bigger than the dot at the end of this sentence.
A tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of a second before that - but there was no fraction of a second before that. There was no time before the universe began, and without time, there can be no 'before'. (As well to ask what lies north of the North Pole.) There was no space, no time, and no matter. But when the space that was coextensive with the universe had grown to the size of a dot, time had already begun to tick. The temperature within the dot was far too high for matter to exist, but there was plenty of what was required to create matter: radiation. The primal dot seethed with radiant energy.
During time's first duodecillionth (10-39) of a second of existence, the universe was a 'false vacuum', a state of negative pressure in which every fragment of space repelled every other fragment. Space exploded exponentially, and in that near-infinitesimal instant the universe inflated from a tiny dot to a ball many light-years across as its negative pressure literally blew it apart. As the temperature dropped the false vacuum gave way to a true vacuum, a state of zero pressure, and the era of inflation ceased. The universe, now large enough to be interesting, continued to expand under its own momentum - but more sedately, at a rate of a few thousand kilometres per second.
When time was one ten thousandth of a second old, the temperature of the universe dropped to a trillion degrees. Pairs of particles, one of matter, one of antimatter, were winking into existence and out again, born in and dying as fluctuations of radiant energy. Matter and radiation were in perfect balance. However, the balance between matter and antimatter was imperfect. For every 999,999,999 antiprotons there were 1,000,000,000 protons. From that imbalance came everything that we know.
When time attained the grand old age of one second, the temperature of the nascent universe had fallen to a mere ten billion degrees. Electrons and antielectrons, colliding in pairs, filled the universe with bursts of neutrinos and antineutrinos. Neutrons, no longer stable, decayed into protons and electrons.
Two minutes after time began (some say one and a half minutes, others three) the universe had cooled to one billion degrees, and matter as we know it began to assemble. Neutrons paired incestuously with their proton offspring to form creation's first atoms - heavy hydrogen, otherwise known as deuterium. Deuterium fused into helium and matter began to diversify.
snip
[If you have not read the book, then do take a look at the clips from the book as noted by Melanie Mitchell who heads the Adaptive Computation Program at the Santa Fe Institute in California - from New Scientist - 8 November 1997 - LRK]
http://www.geocities.com
snip
==============================
http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au
The Evolution of Body, Mind and Culture
Review of Figments of Reality by Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen
Alwyn Scott
Department of Mathematics
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
U.S.A.
snip
Considering the dozens of books on the nature of consciousness that
have descended upon us over the past decade or so, I opened Figments
of Reality with some hesitation. Would this study of mind really
"break new ground and develop profoundly thought-provoking and novel
insights into the nature of evolution, science and humanity" (as
promised on the dust-jacket)? Or should it be expected to sink - like
Roderick Usher's castle - into the tarn of conflicting claims and
counterclaims, leaving no trace on the surface?
Happily, mathematician Ian Stewart and biologist Jack Cohen live up to
the claims of their promoters. They have given us a book that presents
novel ideas in a lively style, which the general scientific reader
will be able to appreciate. Focussing attention on a few key issues,
the authors dismiss much of the intellectual trivia that confuses
current discussions of consciousness, showing little patience with
theoretical arguments based on fictitious zombies and attempts to
relate studies of consciousness to the vagaries of quantum theory.
This book begins at the beginning, recognizing the obvious fact that
mind emerged from living organisms and asking the readers to consider
how intelligent life developed. Interestingly, almost half of the book
is devoted to describing the biological context in which our brains
evolved.
Figments opens with complementary critiques of the related concepts of
reductionism and a theory of everything, pointing out that both are
problematic in the real world of experimental science. Diligently
applied to the biological realm, a theory of everything runs afoul of
a practically unlimited number of possibilities at higher levels of
description. Similarly, current research in high energy physics - for
all its intellectual brilliance and excitement - is unlikely to modify
the facts of chemistry, upon which biology is based. Thus the
biochemist, the cytologist and the physiologist have no professional
stake in becoming knowledgeable about (say) quarks or Higgs bosons or
string theory or whatever. Such fundamental concepts, as every
bioscientist knows in his or her gut, are simply irrelevant to the
development of meaningful models of living organisms.
These rather obvious caveats - often blithely ignored by theorists in
the physical sciences - are brought home to the readers of this book
through an informative and entertaining discussion of game theory.
Although some games (uninteresting ones) can be well played using
simple strategies, all of the interesting games (chess, bridge, go,
and so on) offer so very many possibilities that sure-fire
generalizations about strategy are practically impossible. The course
of evolution, Stewart and Cohen suggest, is of the second sort, where
the rules of the game change over time and the aim is to stay in play.
No argument there, but how has nature managed to discern and implement
winning strategies in this most interesting of games?
The answer is a phenomenon that the authors call complicity, a complex
sort of positive feedback threading through interacting levels of the
biosphere, and allowing unexpected causal loops to arise. As a
striking example of how intricate complicit phenomena can be, the
authors cite a parasitic flatworm that spends part of its life inside
an ant, while its reproductive stage is inside a cow. The technique
that nature has evolved to allow the worm to transfer from one animal
to the other is described as follows.
The parasite infects the ant, and presses on a particular part of its
brain. This interferes with the normal behavior of the brain, which
causes the ant to climb a grass stem, grasp it with its jaws, and hang
there, permanently attached. So when a cow comes along and eats the
grass, the parasite enters the cow.
This three-way complicity (among worm, ant and cow) thus generates an
emergent phenomenon (the clever reproductive strategy of the flatworm)
which hardly seems amenable to reductive analysis.
snip
Why does Figments work so well? In part, of course, because both of
the authors are skilled and thoughtful writers, but that is not alone
sufficient as several recent books on the nature of mind by science
journalists have clearly shown. In addition to demonstrating the
necessary writing ability, the authors stem from appropriate
professional backgrounds. One (Stewart) is a respected mathematician
with a deep knowledge of current physical science, and the other
(Cohen) is a biologist with wide appreciation for the varieties of
living creatures. As one learns from this book, a thorough familiarity
with both of these scientific realms is necessary for achieving an
understanding of the nature of consciousness.
If you are seriously interested in the scientific study of
consciousness, buy Figments of Reality. And read it!
Snip
==============================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
==============================
Thursday, March 13, 2008
STS-123 to Begin First Spacewalk, Install JLP
Live on NASA TV now.
- LRK -
---------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html
STS-123 to Begin First Spacewalk, Install JLP
Mission Specialist Rick Linnehan and Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman will kick off STS-123's first spacewalk at 9:23 p.m. EDT. Their primary goal is to prepare the Japanese Logistics Module - Pressurized Section (JLP), the first component of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory, to be installed on the International Space Station early Friday morning.
Their tasks will include preparing the JLP for unberthing from space shuttle Endeavour's payload bay. They will open the Centerline Berthing Camera System on top of the Harmony module. The system provides live video to assist with docking spacecraft and modules together. The two spacewalkers also will remove the Passive Common Berthing Mechanism, the round flange which can attach to another spacecraft or module.
snip
Media Resources
› STS-123 Execute Packages
› STS-123 TV Schedule
› STS-123 Press Kit (4.4 Mb PDF)
› STS-123 Fact Sheet (433 Kb PDF)
snip
---------------------------------------------------------------
Time flies and so does the shuttle.
An important addition to the International Space Station is Japan's Kibo laboratory.
- LRK -
---------------------------------------------------------------
http://kibo.jaxa.jp/en/
Today, space shuttle Endeavour docked with the International Space Station (ISS) at 00:49 p.m. (10:49 p.m. March 12 CDT).
http://kibo.jaxa.jp/en/mission/1ja/
---------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for looking up with me.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
==============================================================
- LRK -
http://www.nasa.gov/mission
STS-123 to Begin First Spacewalk, Install JLP
Mission Specialist Rick Linnehan and Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman will kick off STS-123's first spacewalk at 9:23 p.m. EDT. Their primary goal is to prepare the Japanese Logistics Module - Pressurized Section (JLP), the first component of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory, to be installed on the International Space Station early Friday morning.
Their tasks will include preparing the JLP for unberthing from space shuttle Endeavour's payload bay. They will open the Centerline Berthing Camera System on top of the Harmony module. The system provides live video to assist with docking spacecraft and modules together. The two spacewalkers also will remove the Passive Common Berthing Mechanism, the round flange which can attach to another spacecraft or module.
snip
Media Resources
› STS-123 Execute Packages
› STS-123 TV Schedule
› STS-123 Press Kit (4.4 Mb PDF)
› STS-123 Fact Sheet (433 Kb PDF)
snip
---------------------------------------------------------------
Time flies and so does the shuttle.
An important addition to the International Space Station is Japan's Kibo laboratory.
- LRK -
---------------------------------------------------------------
http://kibo.jaxa.jp/en/
Today, space shuttle Endeavour docked with the International Space Station (ISS) at 00:49 p.m. (10:49 p.m. March 12 CDT).
http://kibo.jaxa.jp/en/mission
---------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for looking up with me.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com
==============================
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
Digital NASA Television via Satellite
In the continental United States, NASA Television's Public, Education and Media channels are carried by MPEG-2 digital C-band signal on AMC-6, at 72 degrees west longitude, Transponder 17C, 4040 MHz, vertical polarization. They're available in Alaska and Hawaii on an MPEG-2 digital C-band signal accessed via satellite AMC-7, transponder 18C, 137 degrees west longitude, 4060 MHz, vertical polarization. A Digital Video Broadcast compliant Integrated Receiver Decoder is required for reception. Analog NASA TV is no longer available.
For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information,
visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
-end-
Snip
==============================================================
http://www.nasa.gov/missions/index.html
Snip
==============================================================
http://kibo.jaxa.jp/en/mission/1ja/1ja_news/
==============================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
==============================================================
Digital NASA Television via Satellite
In the continental United States, NASA Television's Public, Education and Media channels are carried by MPEG-2 digital C-band signal on AMC-6, at 72 degrees west longitude, Transponder 17C, 4040 MHz, vertical polarization. They're available in Alaska and Hawaii on an MPEG-2 digital C-band signal accessed via satellite AMC-7, transponder 18C, 137 degrees west longitude, 4060 MHz, vertical polarization. A Digital Video Broadcast compliant Integrated Receiver Decoder is required for reception. Analog NASA TV is no longer available.
For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information,
visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
-end-
Snip
==============================
http://www.nasa.gov/missions
Current Missions
Endeavour in Orbit on STS-123 Mission
Endeavour delivers the first section of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory and the Canadian Space Agency's two-armed robotic system, Dextre.› Complete Shuttle Coverage
› Mission TV Schedule
› Interactive Mission Timeline
› Latest Images and Videos
› Mission TV Schedule
› Interactive Mission Timeline
› Latest Images and Videos
Snip
==============================
http://kibo.jaxa.jp/en/mission
Today, space shuttle Endeavour docked with the International Space Station (ISS) at 00:49 p.m. (10:49 p.m. March 12 CDT).
At 01:28 p.m., the hatches between the ISS and the space shuttle were opened and the STS-123 Mission crewmembers floated into the ISS. As soon as astronaut Doi entered the ISS, three members of the ISS crew welcomed him with big smiles; the ISS crew and astronaut Doi greeted each other with warm hugs.
Shortly thereafter, the STS-123 Mission crew and ISS crew started their joint operations. Before the sleep period, they completed all of the tightly scheduled tasks, such as robotic transfer of the spacelab pallet (SLP) and preparation of the mission's first Extravehicular Activity (EVA) etc.
Snip==============================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
==============================
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
