Sophisticates #32: We’re Counting on You, Base 10
In today’s episode, Ryan, Rajan, and Patches imagine a world that doesn’t rely on Base 10 counting. Yes, this is a nerdy math podcast.
Leave comments/retorts/suggestions by clicking the header, subscribing to the podcast on iTunes, following @sophisticast on Twitter, or leaving us a message here on Tumblr! If you would like to be a guest on the show, feel free to send us topic submissions and we’ll find a time to have you on.
TweetThe expansion of the universe, the video simulation
The film visualizes what’s said to be the most accurate model for measuring the expansion of the universe. The model, produced at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), in Australia, is based off of the Hubble constant and a massive trove of data on galaxies called the 6dF Galaxy Survey. According to ICRAR:
The 6dF Galaxy Survey has collected more than 120,000 redshifts over the southern sky over a 5 year period from 2001 to 2005. Its goal is to map our southern view of the local universe, and use the peculiar motions of one-tenth of the survey to measure galaxy mass. It covers more than eight times the sky area of the successful 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey.Submitted by Delsyd
(via chrispetescia)
We Sophisticates have debated the bigger meaning of putting ink to skin in the form of a tattoo, so these particularly geeky tats only raise more questions.
Check out the “11 Geekiest Tattoos” over at Mental Floss.
The Sophisticates #12
This week:
- The Lack of Non-Sex Slavery Black Markets in America (1:48)
- Broadcasting Your Terminal Illness (10:55)
- Grooming as an Evolutionary Statement (20:25)
Thanks to your guest, Tim Leffel!
Leave comments/retorts/suggestions by clicking the header, e-mailing sophisticatespodcast@gmail.com or following @sophisticast on Twitter! If you would like to be a guest on the show, feel free to send us topic submissions and we’ll find a time to have you on!
What do you think about this weeks topics?
Tweet
All three of us need goggles like that.
nypl:
Toilers in the Westinghouse Lamp Division Research Department perform the firsts tests on “the largest mercury vapor lamp ever built” in this photo from our 1939-40 World’s Fair collection.
More than 60 years later, some similar research and development went on right in our own Science, Industry and Business Library, when Ground-Lab co-founder, Justin Downs, was developing another record-breaking lamp.
The video suggests that real creativity and innovation is born from copying. That everything created is, at its core, a remix. True or False?
Or at least a cure for gray mice!
(via jtotheizzoe)
But it’s far less cool than you’d hope.
One of my favorite feeds in my news reader is CICLOPS, the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations. It’s an endless stream of black and white photos of — and the occasional paper about — Saturn, its 62 moons and other satellites. For someone who loves space, its exploration and the possibilities it offers, this almost-daily deposit of images is some serious fuel for the imagination.
The above video is a stunning presentation of some of those photos. It compiles hundreds of images from the Cassini Mission and sets them in motion alongside a track off of Nine Inch Nails’ album, Ghosts¹. The video’s creator, Chris Abbas, describes his project the best when he says,
I truly enjoy outer space. It’s absolutely amazing that we now have the ability to send instruments out into the void of the universe to observe all sorts of interesting things. Asteroids! Moons! Planets! Dark matter! This is the perfect opportunity for a Carl Sagan quote:
“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
1: Ghosts, described by its creator, is “a soundtrack for daydreams.”
