Clare Townhill

The 'What' If Not The 'Why' of Everything

Fascinating, if mind-bending stuff on the development of the theory of the universe. A new theory of the universe has been written by Garrett Lisi, a surfer from Nevada.  Lisi's inspiration lies in the most elegant and intricate shape known to mathematics, called E8 (shown above) by - a complex, eight-dimensional mathematical pattern with 248 points first found in 1887: if written out in tiny print, would cover an area the size of Manhattan. Lisi's theory does not require more than one dimension of time and three of space, when some rival theories need ten or even more spatial dimensions:

An Exceptionally Simple Theory Of Everything

It may even be possible to test Lisi's concepts using new Large Hadron Collider atom smasher that will go into action near Geneva next year.

Telegraph: Surfer Dude Stuns Physicists With Theory Of Everything

Tots Want Tech

Good article in the NYT today about technology for the age-group 3+:

'Cellphones, laptops, digital cameras and MP3 music players are among the hottest gift items this year Toy makers and retailers are filling shelves with new tech devices for children ages 3 and up, and sometimes even down. They say they are catering to junior consumers who want to emulate their parents and are not satisfied with fake gadgets.'

Worth also noting that this is broader than vying for children's attention in the toy market: it's the business of competing for children's attention in the multi-media age.

NYT: For Toddlers, Toy of Choice is Check Device

'Once Upon A Time, Life' & Interactive Nanotechnology

Now, you may not think that nanotechnology and badly dubbed cartoons have much in common. Oh yea of little faith. A recent post on Futurelab about three games designed allow the exploration of nanotechnology reminded me of my favourite cartoon from the 1980s. 'Once upon a time, Life.' As a child I was always up wincingly early. Luckily for my parents I quickly discovered the joy of early-morning tv: 'Once Upon a Time, Life' was on Channel 4 at about 6am. I vividly remember an episode about a little boy with leukaemia who received bone marrow from his brother; as an adult I'm both a blood donor and on the bone marrow register. I'm pretty convinced that my weakness for medical dramas of all flavours (plus the misguided notion that this in someway gives me somekind of medical expertise) is all attributable to OUATL. I've just downloaded the NanoMedicine module to play with. I'll let you know.

Nanomission: Downloads

Swamp Pics

Here's a link to the first batch of pics I've managed to upload onto Flickr. I'm afraid that you'll have to forgive a) my utter ignorance of Louisiana's flora and fauna and b) my spoddy image-filing system which is pulled sharply into focus. And yes, the spiders really were that bloody big.

For The Girl Who Has Everything...

Forgive me if this is old news, I've been away, but I stumbled across this today and felt compelled to write a post. What's not to love about a skirt that turns into a vending machine, or a purse that looks like a manhole cover when lain upon the ground?

What is particularly wonderful about the creations of Tsukioka and other designers like her is the fact that they are born out of fantasy. They are creations driven by novelty rather than an actual need to invent things to deceive and avoid assailants. Japan has one of the lowest street-crime records in the world; the 'mugger' and 'street-attacker' are characters that inhabit the space of a paranoid cultural imagination.

NYT: Fearing Crime, The Japanese Wear The Hiding Place

All-You-Can-Eat Text

Really interesting post from Dannah Boyd on Futurelab about text messaging and teenagers complex mobile-phone habits across the pond. Text messaging is such a huge part of many people's social interaction (myself included as someone who prefers to express myself in written form) in Europe it seems inconceivable that teens stateside are charged 10 cents to receive text messages (I assume there is still also a charge for the sender):

For peculiar business reasons, Americans and Canadians have historically paid to receive text messages (although much of Canada has shifted away from this). This creates a stilted social dynamic whereby a friend forces you to pay $.10 (or use up a precious token msg in your plan) simply by deciding to send you something. You have no choice. There's no blocking, no opt-out. Direct to jail, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.

Needless to say, this alters the culture of texting. From the getgo, Americans have been very cautious about texting. To be on the safe side, many Americans did not add texting to their plan so sending a text message was often futile because it was never clear if a text message would be received by the phone in question or just disappear into the ether. Slowly, mobile users figured out who had SMS and who didn't, but they were still super cautious about sending messages. It just felt rude, or wrong, or risky.

Teens, of course, never had this filter. They were perfectly happy to text. So much so that their parents refused to get them plans that supported it because, not surprisingly, there were all sorts of horror stories about teens who had texted up $700 phone bills. Sure enough, every family that I spoke with told me their version of the horror story and. In the U.S., we don't have pay-as-you-go so going over minutes or texts just gets added to your monthly bill. If you're not careful, that bill can get mighty costly. Unable to declare a max cost upfront, parents have been tremendously wary of teen texting simply for economic costs (although the occasional predator or cheating-in-school scare story does surface). Slowly, things have turned around, primarily with the introduction of cheap all-you-can-eat text messaging plans (and those that are so ridiculously high that it's hard to go over). Once the barrier to participation is dropped, sending and receiving text messages switches from being potentially traumatic to outright fun. What a difference those plans make in user practice. The brick leash suddenly turns into an extension of the thumb for negotiating full-time intimate communities.

The full shebang can be found here 

Down with the Yats

New Orleans is full of linguistic perculiarities and treasures: Burgundy St pronounced with the stress on the 'gundy' not the 'bur'; Tchoupatoulis, the area of the city known as chop (the local joke goes, 'if you can spell it, you're not from here'); Clio, or 'CL ten' as it's known by the Yats; here are a few of my favourite idiomatic ticks from the Big Easy:

pantie-waisted                    - wimpy/weak
ghetto-greeter                   - guard-dog
keep it on the down-low      - keep it quiet/be discreet
where y'at                          - how are you?

For a fuller and richer sense of it all: Yats Wiki

Witches Tits

Now, I'm sure I should have started my first blog post post-New Orleans a little more gently but I just can't. 85 degrees to 35 degrees in the space of a plane ride is enough to make a girl cry. And if you don't believe me about the witches-tit here's a handy formula, a Fahrenheit-to-witches-tit conversion (this roughly works out to one WT at 20 degrees... I digress). Faced with an inbox of 467 unread mails and a few hundred photos to tag and put on Flickr feels very daunting. New Orleans was without doubt the scariest place I have ever been. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is far from over. The reminders are everywhere; the rescue markings written on the buildings and the marks written into the people. It's a tough, beautiful, sad, unique city. I never thought I'd go anywhere that made me look like a panty-waisted tee-totaller (I was wrong). Being without technology and connection for the duration of my six-week stay was something I started as a self-imposed experiment; the reality of being actually without connection to the world beyond Louisiana state lines was tough, and pretty lonely to be honest. I'm not going to attempt to unpack my head on everything just yet, but will try to unravel the spool over a few posts.