Wednesday 2 January 2019

New Scientist 22 Dec_Economics Snow and Death Rays

Apparently the ability to model animal and plant behaviour along the lines of supply and demand is something marvelous. I think there is more math lurking in there, like random variation in behaviour to explore system response. The trade between fungus and plants for phosphorous and carbon is absolutely fascinating.

Unfortunately I found the snow article superficial as I had seen a lot of the information before. The historical wonder at sun dogs rings a bell. Also the myth that no two snowflakes are alike and our cultural lens for the ideal Christmas snowflake would have been an interesting angle on it all.

The death ray article had good structure under the surface. H.G. Wells war of the worlds leading to a number of goffie frauds is interesting reading. I learnt a little more about Tesla, with his 57 m tower being pulled down by investors for scrap rather than to defend against U boats is an interesting angle. The idea it was a death ray rather than a new idea to transmit energy across the country was also a new angle for me. I think receiving $25 000 from the Soviet Union for a death ray, as investigated by Trumps uncle seems just too wild to contain in my head. What sort of police state was the US running not to pick up on this. My conspiracy theory was that the Government must have known but just let this wild exercise run its course so to pick up information about how other states operate. I will have to do a podcast on the "death ray" of sorts I worked on.

MP4 recording     MP3 recording

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