nham

disgusting

Quantum walk

Quantum walks were first proposed by physicist Richard Feynman and are, in terms of probability, the opposite of a random walk. A random walk might be modeled by a person flipping a coin, and for each flip he steps left for heads and right for tails. In this case, his most probable location is the center, with the probability distribution tapering off in either direction. A quantum walk involves the use of internal states and superpositions, and results in the hypothetical person "exploring" every possible position simultaneously.

When a quantum walker flips a coin, it directs him to move one way, but he maintains an "internal state" that moves the other way, making him a superposition of both directions of movement. During a quantum walk, as the quantum object takes more steps, it becomes "delocalized" over all available positions, as if its presence is blurred.

A second feature of quantum walking is matter-wave interference, as when the person flips heads and next flips tails. The second step makes the new superposition overlap the old one, and the new superposition can either amplify the old position or remove it. After all this occurs and the desired number of steps have been taken, an attempted observation will collapse the superposition and "resolve" the object to a single position.

As previously mentioned, a random walk's probability distribution has a single peak tapering off in either direction. A quantum walk's probability distribution generally has two peaks placed evenly on either side of the starting position. However, this distribution can vary depending on the initial internal state of the particle doing the walking, which can cause the final position to strongly favor one side or the other.

in Ars Technica

Miseries of Scholars

Now because they are commonly subject to such hazards and inconveniences as dotage, madness, simplicity, &c. Jo. Voschius would have good scholars to be highly rewarded, and had in some extraordinary respect above other men, "to have greater [2000]privileges than the rest, that adventure themselves and abbreviate their lives for the public good." But our patrons of learning are so far nowadays from respecting the muses, and giving that honour to scholars, or reward which they deserve, and are allowed by those indulgent privileges of many noble princes, that after all their pains taken in the universities, cost and charge, expenses, irksome hours, laborious tasks, wearisome days, dangers, hazards, (barred interim from all pleasures which other men have, mewed up like hawks all their lives) if they chance to wade through them, they shall in the end be rejected, contemned, and which is their greatest misery, driven to their shifts, exposed to want, poverty, and beggary. Their familiar attendants are,

[2001]Pallentes morbi, luctus, curaeque laborque
Et metus, et malesuada fames, et turpis egestas,
Terribiles visu formae———

Grief, labour, care, pale sickness, miseries,
Fear, filthy poverty, hunger that cries,
Terrible monsters to be seen with eyes.

If there were nothing else to trouble them, the conceit of this alone were enough to make them all melancholy. Most other trades and professions, after some seven years' apprenticeship, are enabled by their craft to live of themselves. A merchant adventures his goods at sea, and though his hazard be great, yet if one ship return of four, he likely makes a saving voyage. An husbandman's gains are almost certain; quibus ipse Jupiter nocere non potest (whom Jove himself can't harm) ('tis [2002]Cato's hyperbole, a great husband himself); only scholars methinks are most uncertain, unrespected, subject to all casualties, and hazards. For first, not one of a many proves to be a scholar, all are not capable and docile, [2003]ex omniligno non fit Mercurius: we can make majors and officers every year, but not scholars: kings can invest knights and barons, as Sigismund the emperor confessed; universities can give degrees; and Tu quod es, e populo quilibet esse potest; but he nor they, nor all the world, can give learning, make philosophers, artists, orators, poets; we can soon say, as Seneca well notes, O virum bonum, o divitem, point at a rich man, a good, a happy man, a prosperous man, sumptuose vestitum, Calamistratum, bene olentem, magno temporis impendio constat haec laudatio, o virum literarum, but 'tis not so easily performed to find out a learned man. Learning is not so quickly got, though they may be willing to take pains, to that end sufficiently informed, and liberally maintained by their patrons and parents, yet few can compass it. Or if they be docile, yet all men's wills are not answerable to their wits, they can apprehend, but will not take pains; they are either seduced by bad companions, vel in puellam impingunt, vel in poculum (they fall in with women or wine) and so spend their time to their friends' grief and their own undoings. Or put case they be studious, industrious, of ripe wits, and perhaps good capacities, then how many diseases of body and mind must they encounter? No labour in the world like unto study. It may be, their temperature will not endure it, but striving to be excellent to know all, they lose health, wealth, wit, life and all.

excerpt from The Anatomy of Melancholy, by Robert Burton, (first edition 1621).
full book in the Project Gutenberg Library

30

thirty are better than one

Reclamação

Ideia genial. Agora a companhia anda atrás dele para lhe pagar. E a música... fantástica!...

future

Projects for the future becoming projects for projecting the future.

1 futures toolkit

The Great American Bubble Machine

The Great American Bubble Machine
Matt Taibbi on how Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression
MATT TAIBBI
in Rolling Stone
Posted Jul 02, 2009 8:38 Am

In Rolling Stone Issue 1082-83, Matt Taibbi takes on "the Wall Street Bubble Mafia" — investment bank Goldman Sachs. The piece has generated controversy, with Goldman Sachs firing back that Taibbi's piece is "an hysterical compilation of conspiracy theories" and a spokesman adding, "We reject the assertion that we are inflators of bubbles and profiteers in busts, and we are painfully conscious of the importance in being a force for good." Taibbi shot back: "Goldman has its alumni pushing its views from the pulpit of the U.S. Treasury, the NYSE, the World Bank, and numerous other important posts; it also has former players fronting major TV shows. They have the ear of the president if they want it." Here, now, are excerpts from Matt Taibbi's piece and video of Taibbi exploring the key issues.

ele mandou

"I ain't proud of anything except being alive."

receita para o sucesso

Self study
A little self-promotion goes a long way
Marc Abrahams
The Guardian, Tuesday 30 June 2009

Scientists who struggle to get their reports published, or to get anyone to pay attention to them, might consider the path blazed by Dr Mohamed El Naschie. El Naschie found an appreciative science journal editor. The editor subsequently published hundreds of El Naschie's studies, and also made El Naschie a glamorous figure - featuring him in lavish photo-spreads in the company of famous scientists and powerful world leaders.

The science journal is called Chaos, Solitons & Fractals. Its founding editor-in-chief is Dr Mohamed El Naschie.

A 19-page pictorial in the August 2005 issue shows El Naschie in the company of numerous Nobel laureates, and also of many medals, plaques, certificates and floral arrangements....

au revoir et merci

Transparência II

Transparência na AP

Site da Associação Nacional para o Software Livre (ANSOL) para apoiar a transparência na administração pública portuguesa.

Foi desenvolvido para resolver as muitas dificuldades com a pesquisa e navegação no sítio oficial Base - Contratos Públicos Online. A informação aqui presente é uma cópia da informação oficial actualizada periodicamente e disponibilizada através de um interface que facilita e incentiva a procura. De momento apenas pesquisa pelo objecto e nomes das entidades envolvidas nos Ajustes Directos lá publicados.
Tecnologias utilizadas

Na sua elaboração foram utilizados os programas Apache httpd (web server), WordPress (gestor de conteúdos) e a base de dados MySQL; todos são Software Livre.
Custos

Estes foram os custos de implementação deste sítio (unidades: euros e tempo-homem, para uma pessoa que nunca programou em PHP antes):

1. Registo do domínio: 18€
2. Configuração do webserver, BD do sítio e instalação do WordPress: 3min
3. Escolher um tema gráfico: 15min
4. Ajustes de configuração: 30min
5. Imagens de instituições públicas: 15min
6. Ajustes de conteúdos: 27min
7. Motor de pesquisa: 10h45min

Custo total: 18€ + 12h15 min

Foi ainda doado a este serviço:

* 6 horas de stress testing

Transparência I

Portal da transparência adjudicado sem concurso

A Microsoft ganhou a adjudicação de um serviço do Estado em que foi consultora, sem concurso público. O mais curioso é que o serviço tinha por objectivo a transparência.

O portal Base – Contratos Públicos On Line é uma iniciativa levada a cabo pelo Instituto da Construção e Imobiliário (ICI), que tem por objectivo a publicação dos ajustes directos e derrapagens de contratos celebrados entre o Estado e respectivos fornecedores.

Segundo notícia do Público, o ICI não tardou muito a incorrer nas falas que pretendia contrariar, ao adjudicar à Microsoft a produção do portal sem concurso e numa altura (a 27 de Junho de 2008) em que as portarias que regulamentam a criação do Base ainda não tinham sido publicadas.

O Público refere mesmo que a Microsoft, que presta serviços de consultoria para o Ministério das Obras Públicas, Transportes e Comunicações (a tutela do ICI), terá começado a trabalhar no Base ainda antes de ter celebrado o contrato.

A urgência em terminar o portal terá determinado a celebração de um contrato que, alegadamente, não seguiu todos os trâmites legais.

Há ainda a suspeita de atrasos no lançamento de ferramentas, dificuldade de inserção de funcionalidades de pesquisa ou a duplicação de facturação relativa aos serviços prestados pela Microsoft durante a produção do Base.

A Microsoft nega qualquer atraso no serviço, apesar de admitir que o projecto se mantém em curso. A companhia não fornece quaisquer detalhes sobre o contrato.
in Exame Informática

Scientists' sense of fun

teens' sense of humour

o som da comida

Charles Spence, Oxford University, UK: Vencedor do IgNobel de 2008 de Nutrição, entrevistado pela BBC

When you play the sound of crisps when people bite into Pringles - if we change the sound as they eat, we can actually change how fresh, or how crisp, the Pringle tastes to people.

We've used [a bacon sizzling] sound to flip the flavour of bacon and egg ice cream. If we play that sound over the loudspeakers in the room, the ice cream will taste more 'bacony' than if you play the sound of, say, farmyard chickens.

Ouvir http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7650584.stm

sandes de peixe