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Sorry, it was long before that.

You can always read Anthony C. Sutton's works or read Major Jordan's Diaries.

I'm a grad student in communications (information and communication technology, MS...;) and I've never, ever heard a proper development of that all too often quoted phrase "the medium is the message"

Seriously? You know he wrote several books on the topic, right? Understanding Media for one, and for the lighter-hearted reader, The Medium is the Massage

ex: if I use a telephone to call my friend to tell her I'm coming over...in the context of that quote, is "telephone" the message? no!

No, but that call that you made to your friend would never have occurred had the telephone not been invented, and so the existence of the telephone is fundamentally more important than the banal conversation that you might have with it...which is, in a nutshell, the point.

Regardless, my point wasn't that there's this Marshall McLuhan quote that people like to use, it was that the GP's overstatement that "comm theory" would proclaim that "technology doesn't fundamentally change communication" is entirely dependent on the communications theorist with which you are talking.

I'm a grad student in communications (information and communication technology, MS...;) and I've never, ever heard a proper development of that all too often quoted phrase "the medium is the message"

Seriously? You know he wrote several books on the topic, right? Understanding Media for one, and for the lighter-hearted reader, The Medium is the Massage

ex: if I use a telephone to call my friend to tell her I'm coming over...in the context of that quote, is "telephone" the message? no!

No, but that call that you made to your friend would never have occurred had the telephone not been invented, and so the existence of the telephone is fundamentally more important than the banal conversation that you might have with it...which is, in a nutshell, the point.

Regardless, my point wasn't that there's this Marshall McLuhan quote that people like to use, it was that the GP's overstatement that "comm theory" would proclaim that "technology doesn't fundamentally change communication" is entirely dependent on the communications theorist with which you are talking.

These are a good investment even without interplanetary missions. One of the features of Frank Herbert's novel Dune that I always thought fascinating was the stillsuit, where a person's waste water, whether urine, tears, or sweat, could be recycled with extreme efficiency. If you work in the desert, wouldn't it be nice to have one of these for emergencies?

there's a great book called Schroedinger's kittens, some good back story on fundamental physics, etc. Author John Gribbin Talks about Quantum mechanics, historically, and even ...in regards to recent developments, and how we got there. http://www.amazon.com/Schrodingers-Kittens-Search-Reality-Gribbin/dp/0316328383

I prefer the possibility sword from China Miéville's The Scar. Imagine the Heart of Gold powering a sword so that every swing you make projects all the other swings you could have made. The more likely the swing, the more damaging the cut. The book is worth a read just for that IMO.

This is straight out of chapter one of Christopher Brookmyre's All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses an eye. http://www.amazon.com/All-Games-Until-Somebody-Loses/dp/0316725234

You make a good point, but there's actually a reason only Jedis *can* use them: the gyroscope required for stabilizing the beam makes the lightsaber impossible to handle for anyone without superhuman strength. Read that in the The Visual Dictionary of Star Wars, Episodes IV, V, & VI: The Ultimate Guide to Star Wars Characters and Creatures.

Methods of Mathematical Physics by Jeffrys & Jeffries is a classic. http://www.amazon.com/Methods-Mathematical-Physics-Cambridge-Library/dp/0521664020

The Logic of Science is a great read. You would need to have a basic knowledge of PDEs but it is more about statistics. It has a wonderful advanced applications section that gives a great review of applied science in many fields.

If you are looking for some general graduate level books, I would suggest either Boaz, Arfkin, or Butkov. All 3 have a "Mathematical Physics" textbook.

Gravitation by Misner has good applied Differential Geometry problems.

The Logic of Science is a great read. You would need to have a basic knowledge of PDEs but it is more about statistics. It has a wonderful advanced applications section that gives a great review of applied science in many fields.

If you are looking for some general graduate level books, I would suggest either Boaz, Arfkin, or Butkov. All 3 have a "Mathematical Physics" textbook.

Gravitation by Misner has good applied Differential Geometry problems.

I don't think you get it either. Observable universe is 15 billion years old. Considering that universe is expanding, and has an age, it's size is well determined. Younger universe is not sufficiently evolved to support life. Hence the universe has to be as big as it is to support us.

All this follows from the anthropic principle which is really stating the obvious (at least the weak anthropic principle).

If you are more interested in the topic may I suggest an interesting book: "The Anthropic Cosmological Principle" [ http://www.amazon.com/Anthropic-Cosmological-Principle-Oxford-Paperbacks/dp/0192821474 ]

It's an interesting read and delves into the analysis of some of these questions deeper.

As an applied physicist wanting a better grasp of the mathematics I use, I'm working through Mathematics of Classical and Quantum Physics by Byron and Fuller. It's a Dover book, so it's inexpensive, and so far it has been enlightening. For instance, it uses the example of vortexes in a swirling bucket of water to help visualize the curl of a vector field.

I said it in another thread, but the Thermal Physics we used was called, appropriately, 'Thermal Physics,' by Ralph Baierlein. I'm not sure if it's a standard text that most universities used, but it seemed good enough that it could be.

All good books.

For Thermal Physics:

We used 'Thermal Physics' by Ralph Baierlein.

The introductory physics text at my university was the all time classic Physics by Alonso & Finn. It's an awesome book covering pretty much all areas of the subject. It's so good, I still have it on my bookshelf 11 years after I graduated.

-for GR and such http://www.amazon.com/Gravitation-Physics-Charles-W-Misner/dp/0716703440/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226901528&sr=1-1

Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick, you're pointing him to The Black Death straight out of the gate? Why not give him underwear made of wolverine chow? Wheeler would have died ten years ago if not for the life-giving tears of those who opened that book unprepared. That is to say, everyone.

Seriously, dial it back a bit. First, hit the Feynman lectures (stop when you get to 'partons'.) Then, for someone coming from a mathematical bent, I'd suggest starting with Sokolnikoff's book "Tensor Analysis: Theory and Applications to Geometry and Mechanics of Continua", which covers a lot of ground besides GR. Due to the absence of a just and loving god it is out of print, but surely one of the profs in a math department with a PhD program has a copy (or at minimum the library.) And there's always copies on Alibris.

And, seconding suggestions from other posters, Kittel and Kroemer's "Thermal Physics" is a good starting point on thermo, As for quantum, in the absence of all knowledge in the field I'd start with Tipler's "Modern Physics", with the goal of ramping up to Cohen-Tannoudji, Diu, and Laloe's "Quantum Mechanics".

The wave equation and diffusion equation are technically partial differential equations because of the 3 space dimensions and time, but these are simple PDEs because the three space dimensions are basically the same and the derivatives usually only appear as the Del operator, which treats each direction equally, and the boundary conditions are usually such that the constant of integration is just zero.

In thermodynamics, you actually have serious PDEs which involve variables that aren't all the same, and the constant of integration must be found by matching arbitrary functions to each other and boundary conditions.

This probably isn't a book for someone new to physics, but it does use some PDEs.

I just thought of another one. It's Mathematical Methods for Physicists by Arfken. I wouldn't necessarily recommend buying it, but find one you can flip through (most university libraries have it, as do most math/physics department libraries. and I can almost guarantee that someone you know has this book).

http://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Methods-Physicists-George-Arfken/dp/0120598760/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226903092&sr=1-5

It's a math text, but since it's geared as a math text for physicists, the explanations may have the right amount of physics in them.

(I've always liked it as my math reference).

Though, I don't think this will be at your level (probably below), but it may help with the ground work. As I said, don't buy it, but find a copy to flip through.

Here's a good thermal book I used in my Undergrad.

http://www.amazon.com/Thermal-Physics-2nd-Charles-Kittel/dp/0716710889/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226902024&sr=8-1

Also had a bit from http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1031405&op=Reply&threshold=-1&commentsort=0&mode=nested&pid=25782785

It wasn't too bad.

Hard for me to say if either of those are really "good" texts as I hated Thermal.

An excellent Physics book that is very math heavy but assumes no prereqs is Penrose's Road to Reality. This pretty much covers all of the main theory/formulas in cosmology, and he has 350 pages of math (much of it graduate level) to get there.

Most of the previous comments have been far too elementary. I too am a math Ph.D. student and I understand what you are looking for as for while I was working in mathematical physics on loop quantum gravity. Here are some big ones; -classical mechanics has one resounding answer http://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Classical-Mechanics-Graduate-Mathematics/dp/0387968903/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226901309&sr=8-1 -for quantum theory and such use http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Physics-Stephen-Gasiorowicz/dp/0471057002/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226901473&sr=1-1 -for GR and such http://www.amazon.com/Gravitation-Physics-Charles-W-Misner/dp/0716703440/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226901528&sr=1-1 I dont know a good thermal book, but I am sure you can come up with one. By the way, there was a very similar ask slashdot during the summer from an astronomer asking for the same thing. good luck and I dont know what you research field is, but in general a great read if you are in algebra is the book on quantum groups by Majid. This has a nice physical perspective on the objects. http://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Quantum-Group-Theory-Shahn/dp/0521648688/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226901678&sr=1-4

Most of the previous comments have been far too elementary. I too am a math Ph.D. student and I understand what you are looking for as for while I was working in mathematical physics on loop quantum gravity. Here are some big ones; -classical mechanics has one resounding answer http://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Classical-Mechanics-Graduate-Mathematics/dp/0387968903/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226901309&sr=8-1 -for quantum theory and such use http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Physics-Stephen-Gasiorowicz/dp/0471057002/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226901473&sr=1-1 -for GR and such http://www.amazon.com/Gravitation-Physics-Charles-W-Misner/dp/0716703440/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226901528&sr=1-1 I dont know a good thermal book, but I am sure you can come up with one. By the way, there was a very similar ask slashdot during the summer from an astronomer asking for the same thing. good luck and I dont know what you research field is, but in general a great read if you are in algebra is the book on quantum groups by Majid. This has a nice physical perspective on the objects. http://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Quantum-Group-Theory-Shahn/dp/0521648688/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226901678&sr=1-4

Most of the previous comments have been far too elementary. I too am a math Ph.D. student and I understand what you are looking for as for while I was working in mathematical physics on loop quantum gravity. Here are some big ones; -classical mechanics has one resounding answer http://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Classical-Mechanics-Graduate-Mathematics/dp/0387968903/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226901309&sr=8-1 -for quantum theory and such use http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Physics-Stephen-Gasiorowicz/dp/0471057002/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226901473&sr=1-1 -for GR and such http://www.amazon.com/Gravitation-Physics-Charles-W-Misner/dp/0716703440/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226901528&sr=1-1 I dont know a good thermal book, but I am sure you can come up with one. By the way, there was a very similar ask slashdot during the summer from an astronomer asking for the same thing. good luck and I dont know what you research field is, but in general a great read if you are in algebra is the book on quantum groups by Majid. This has a nice physical perspective on the objects. http://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Quantum-Group-Theory-Shahn/dp/0521648688/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226901678&sr=1-4

Most of the previous comments have been far too elementary. I too am a math Ph.D. student and I understand what you are looking for as for while I was working in mathematical physics on loop quantum gravity. Here are some big ones; -classical mechanics has one resounding answer http://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Classical-Mechanics-Graduate-Mathematics/dp/0387968903/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226901309&sr=8-1 -for quantum theory and such use http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Physics-Stephen-Gasiorowicz/dp/0471057002/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226901473&sr=1-1 -for GR and such http://www.amazon.com/Gravitation-Physics-Charles-W-Misner/dp/0716703440/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226901528&sr=1-1 I dont know a good thermal book, but I am sure you can come up with one. By the way, there was a very similar ask slashdot during the summer from an astronomer asking for the same thing. good luck and I dont know what you research field is, but in general a great read if you are in algebra is the book on quantum groups by Majid. This has a nice physical perspective on the objects. http://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Quantum-Group-Theory-Shahn/dp/0521648688/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226901678&sr=1-4

They Feynman Lectures on Physics would probably be a good place to start. It'll be basic to advanced.

http://www.amazon.com/Feynman-Lectures-Physics-including-Feynmans/dp/0805390456/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226900482&sr=8-2

If you want something more specific, to a topic, there will be a slew of books. I found some pretty good ones following links on Amazon from one to another and reading reviews.

While I share your respect for the Founders' vision, the system of copyright we have now is founded in British common law, and in fact harks back to 1662. Copyrights originally carried for 27 years, and currently go for over 100 years. Thomas Jefferson considered 14 years and he was reluctant about even that and was swayed (or more likely, conceded to get a more important concession) by James Madison. Patents originated further back in ancient Greece, around 500BC and originally carried for 1 year but now extend to up to 20 years. Both have been extended to include things not then invented that are far beyond the original scope.

Should every modern presentation of the dramatic arts credit the contribution of Aeschylus? Should each modern electronic inventor credit Julius Edgar Lilienfeld? Maybe. But should some portion of the profits go to them? Probably not. Each was standing on the shoulders of prior giants after all, as are we all, and neither (being dead) would benefit from the cash.

Innovation happens in a climate that encourages or requires it. Perhaps the defining characteristic of Men is that we take the inventions of others and improve them. Each inventor and creator owes a debt to the culture and climate that fostered him or her. That debt is fulfilled when their creation becomes the property of all in the commons from whence a new generation of creator draws from the well and adds their contribution, to profit from for a limited time but ultimately to become part of the common pool again.

The current climate encourages neither business nor innovation. This is a lawyer's paradise where they can make claims of infringements for forgotten claims decades - no, even a whole century - from a prior claim of invention and need prevail only one time in a dozen to reap ridiculous wealth. In the mean time their suits and The duration is being stretched beyond imagining, supported and extended by the wealth of those who support and exploit the inventions of others without inventing, creating, or building anything (NPE). The Crazy Years are truly upon us. I believe there was once a popular author whose histrionic vision included such a period that ended in "the year they hanged the lawyers".

Copyrights and patents have become monsters that must be slain.

There are guerrilla marketing books that might catch her interest too, though i can't recall titles atm.

I think that Unmarketable by Anne Elizabeth Moore is about this.

I know it's in poor style to reply to one's self post, but this time I really had to; I must retract what I said earlier - NO I can not recover my costs quickly, at all! The Kindle versions of my textbooks are effing expenisve! So expensive in fact, that I feel 0 motivation to buy them. Compare the Kindle version of this textbook to the hardcover version of the same

That's only US$20 of difference in price. I'm not going to bother gettin e-books.

I know it's in poor style to reply to one's self post, but this time I really had to; I must retract what I said earlier - NO I can not recover my costs quickly, at all! The Kindle versions of my textbooks are effing expenisve! So expensive in fact, that I feel 0 motivation to buy them. Compare the Kindle version of this textbook to the hardcover version of the same

That's only US$20 of difference in price. I'm not going to bother gettin e-books.

The economic formula for this is far oversimplified. It needs to include more factors, not something as complicated as cost benefit analysis but algebra-level microeconomics would do. I wish at times Slashdot were more numerate but than I would pry never have stopped wasting all my time here; honestly though, this model should be avoided for any serious analysis.

Get an ebook reader because you can sell many of your books when you do. My last move, I sold over 1500 dollars worth of books over 6 months to save on freight and that is just like 100 books or so, mostly technical and engineering. I have at times in my life had nearly 2,000 books and it was becoming unmanageable before my little Sony ebook reader. The Amazon Kindle is circus ugly, I am no aesthete, but it made me grimace to use it.

Very insightful overall. I have mod points to burn at the moment, but since I already posted on this article, I can't help you get modded up ;-)

Just one nitpick: though it's not necessarily obvious from the outside what they do with all the talent they hire, it is both well-known and documented.

What I wanted to add was that e-ink readers could be incredibly useful beyond the instant newspaper/book, library in your hand idea: especially if they would ever combine it with things something like a stylus version (doesn't exist) of the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen (released this year). The pen has few button, rather relying on 'special' paper that really just has some prearranded dots to orient the pen as well as some functions on the bottom of the sheet for the pen to do it's thing. Since that company also lets you print your own paper, this as an ereader stylus could be combined into something incredible useful. IMO, that would be the future of such things:

http://www.amazon.com/Livescribe-2GB-Pulse-Smartpen-APA-00002/dp/B001AAN4PW

This reminds me of a book I was flipping through earlier this evening at a local bookstore, Daniel Wilson's Where's My Jetpack? , a "A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future That Never Arrived". Popular Mechanics has been promising that a flying car is right around the corner for half a century now. It's not here, and I've given up all hope.

interesting , i will pick this up. Have you read Unruly Americans http://www.amazon.com/Unruly-Americans-Origins-Constitution-Holton/dp/0809016435/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226699901&sr=1-1
  ?

This covers a very elitist version of events where the founders only gave up as little power as they could, and only for fear that failing to ratify the constitution would destroy independence due to poor financial choices brought on by too much democracy.

http://google.com/
http://amazon.com/
http://gutenberg.org/

these things are old enough there are lots of translations available. go nuts.

oh look. Project Gutenberg has Electra:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14322

The modern canonical torah was finalized sometime between 1700 and 1900 years ago, as can be seen in differences from the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Just one of several textual analyses of the torah showing revisions is Friedman's breakdown into several component parts, written at different times.

There's even more details about history of "bible" authorship that explains how most of the source texts that christians used around 1700 years ago were left out of the canonization of the New Testament, mostly gnostic rivals to the people who decided on the canon.

MADE THAT INTO TOTAL GIBBERISH for you

Fixed that for you.

The best description of all this I've ever read is the preface to Models of Democracy, a textbook by David Held. Held is a left-wing Brit whose politics I do not agree with at *all*. But his explanation of what the American founders were *trying to do*, and why, (setting aside the question of how well they succeeded) is second to none. For your sake, I strongly recommend picking this up from your local library and just reading the preface. You will actually learn something.

- Alaska Jack

With the rise of nanotech, grey goo has always been a popular vision of the end of the world. After recently reading Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep , however, what I'm more scared of is the combination of nanotech and AI that would reduce human beings to mere drones of a hive mind. Is the human race still human if it's subjugated to the will of our future digital overlords?

It doesn't matter as long as we keep forcing you to ask that question so you think it hasn't already happened.

With the rise of nanotech, grey goo has always been a popular vision of the end of the world. After recently reading Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep , however, what I'm more scared of is the combination of nanotech and AI that would reduce human beings to mere drones of a hive mind. Is the human race still human if it's subjugated to the will of our future digital overlords?

You can have my abstinence-only education textbook when you pry it from my cold dead fingers!

:-)

The problem is, that if you're not a bank, there is no such thing as generating value (out of thin air).

You confuse value and money. I went to a show the other night to hear a favorite singer. She generated value out of thin air, and I gave her money for it. Money I got because I generated value for somebody else.

If you're interested in the topic, Frozen Desire is a very interesting read.

Although it's possible she's mentally ill, I wouldn't bet on it. I know people who have been taken in scams for substantial money, and they're both smart and sane. It's just that they don't have much experience in dealing with highly manipulative people who have a lot of practice in fooling honest citizens.

If you're interested in the topic, I highly recommend the book The Big Con. It's a great cultural portrait of scam artists of the 1930s. They took advantage not of madness but of normal parts of human nature.

I'm sorry, but humans taste far more like giant porcupine than chicken ... and I think that was a religious apple, not a magic one (lol.)

A planet orbiting Fomalhaut? Well, it seems Gene Wolfe was prescient in his work The Book of the New Sun when one of his characters contacts a wise civilization there on, as Wolfe uses the Arabic name, "the Fishes' Mouth".

No, I meant Anderson, as in:
http://www.amazon.com/Paul-Dune-Brian-Herbert/dp/0765312948

Sanderson might do a decent job, but when the family decides they want more money, they'll hire out the writing of books 14+ to the lowest common denominator, and trash the series.

The difference being that in open source you don't know the cost until after you've been using the software. I know we joke about "the first one is always free", but is that really the sort of business model that we want? The same business model used by drug dealers and payday loans?

Actually, University of Chicago economics have done systematic analysis of the financial records of on-the-street drug dealers in the US, and have used the empirical evidence to fairly conclusively prove that drug dealers use a franchise business model. That is, drug dealers use the same basic business model as McDonalds. I think you're confusing sales practices with business models.

More info so you can look it up yourself: http://www.amazon.com/Freakonomics-Economist-Explores-Hidden-Everything/dp/006073132X

What possible legitimate reason could there be for military operations off the coast of Venezuela?

Gathering intelligence? They do it to us, we do it to them. Spying has probably prevented more wars than starting them, as we have a better idea of what's really going on.

As for relevance to submarines, read Blind Man's Bluff.

Yeah, I've been thinking that really the best chance at good sound quality is headphones.....I've heard these are really good, but I haven't gone around trying every earphone available. Still, if this technology makes good sound cheaper, available for everyone, then that will make me happy. What is the point of recording great sound if most people can't even hear it?

"And even if you can express the theorems that way, that doesn't necessarily give them the same meaning. Equivalent yet different meaning? That must be philosophy! ;)

All the symbol pushing in the world doesn't necessarily result in meaningful computation, and there is a necessary degree of applicability, at least intuitively, for many elements of mathematics which is the duality of its power to be wonderfully applicable to the world we live in to express observations yet also a study in the beauty and nature of structure and relation independent of any observation at all!"

I hear you but mathematicas has become a kind of cult/religion for many, people don't like having what they deem as 'the most reliable way to truth' shown to be wrong, i.e. it is one of many paths, which makes their claims to 'the only way' erroneus.

We could frame it a different way too, the whole idea of subjective and objective is also incoherent, consider: You feel that something is hot, are you going to consider that a subjective feeling? Because if you don't move your hand you will get burned.

We could put it another way: If life is incapable of determining truth, then how did it survive and evolve? Being able to know and navigate an environment (knowing truth from error) is a paramount ability, and this totally lost on many in western science and the current fallacies of the enlightenment we currently suffer from.

The idea that reality is seperate from itself has come out of the enlightenment and the idea that things are seperate, when in fact they are not.

Some books you might enjoy, they are not perfect but they are stimulating reads:

http://www.amazon.com/Where-Mathematics-Comes-Embodied-Brings/dp/0465037712/
http://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Flesh-Embodied-Challenge-Western/dp/0465056741/
http://www.amazon.com/Molecule-Metaphor-Neural-Language-Bradford/dp/0262562359/