Back again

Haven’t  posted anything here for a while. And this really only announces my intention to restart my blog, rather than being anything substantive.  Just finishing a somewhat lazy weekend,  but tomorrow promises to be pretty hectic, which probably means I won’t actually get round to posting anything.

my coat of arms

 

from the Coat of Arms Generator via casa az

Are you Id, Ego or Superego?

You Are the Super Ego

While some people may think first and act later… you often don’t act at all. You rather be safe than sorry, and you take ethics pretty seriously. Like everyone, you have some pretty crazy desires. But unlike everyone, you restrain yourself. You have high standards for your own behavior. And you happily exceed them.

Are You Id, Ego, or Superego?

stolen from az (cos I like the cartoon)

my desktop

Joining in the fun of az’s desktop me-me.

Personality Cocktail

How to make a noggin

Ingredients: 3 parts competetiveness 1 part ambition 5 parts leadership

Method: Add to a cocktail shaker and mix vigorously. Top it off with a sprinkle of fitness and enjoy!

Personality cocktail
From Go-Quiz.com

Found at az’s.

I think they got the wrong person…..

Wolfgang Pawli

Spring Cleaning

The spring is sprung

The grass is riz

I wonder where the birdies is

Yes, it’s that time of year again. Time to change winter clothes and bedding for the summer versions. And to clear out and clean all the cupboards, adding significantly to the global rubbish disposal problem in the process.

But it does give me a nice satisfied feeling to get it done.

From Descartes to the First Law of Thermodynamics

“A cause must be at least as great as its effect.”
Renee Descartes

Because otherwise some of the effect would not be accounted for.

But… An effect must be at least as great as its cause. Otherwise some of the cause would simply “disappear”. It could never be perceived.

Therefore, cause and effect are necessarily equal and constitute a conserved quantity.

Cause and effect are the philosophical terms for energy.

Energy is the scientific term for cause and effect.

Translating

I’m currently doing a job that involves translating, editing and correcting academic medical articles written by Spanish researchers for eventual publication in English language journals.

I’m finding the work itself enjoyable, and so far even the limitations of my rather poor Spanish haven’t really been a problem.

But is there anybody else out there actually making a living doing this kind of work, or who has a working knowledge of the wider implications, problems etc (from either side of the fence, so to speak)? How closely do you work with clients, how “freeform” are your translations, how do you find work, how much do you charge?

Boundaries

First off, it’s important to note that I’m dealing with the logic of boundaries between sets of rules. It’s not necessary to know the content of a single Law of Physics, or for any of our Laws of Physics as currently understood to be correct.

So what happens to anything trying to transit the boundary?

1. There is a rule, or metarule, that governs the transition. But for this to be the case the metarule must apply on both sides of the boundary, and be consistent with both sets. This means that the “local rules” on either side of the boundary are just manifestations of the metarule, and that we are dealing with what physicists call a “phase transition”, (the sort of thing that happens when ice melts) and not a genuine rule change at all.
2. There is no rule, and what happens on one side of the boundary has no bearing on what happens on the other side. In which case “nothing” crosses over, and what we have is a place in “our” space where things happen at random. Noether’s Theorem – If the Laws of Physics are symmetric through all possible rotations (ie if they are universal) then the existence of the universe must be underpinned by a universal constant (ie energy) – has implications here since it means there can’t be such a boundary – a reaon for thinking that the universe is unbounded.