Slashdot Mirror
Nobel Prizes Awarded
imrdkl writes: "Looks like Cisco has done a deal with CNN to present a nice overview of the Nobel Prizes this year. The Science awards that have been presented so far include one for singing atoms in Physics, as well as others linked from the URL above for medicine and chemistry. It's worth noting that the physics article was already covered here on slashdot, but now it's official for all."
As someone who works with Bose-Einstein condensates all I can say is that I've never heard one sing. Since they're kept under vacuum I can't hear them scream either. Pity.
I'm not sure I'd want "computers that rival the brain in ... storage."
My experience is the brain has an exceedingly high rate of data loss =)
The Maths equivalent of the Nobel prize is the Fields medal.
... but I suspect that's just a rumour put about to make maths look interesting :-)
My professor at university claimed that there isn't a Nobel prize for Mathematics because Alfred Nobel's wife ran off with a mathematician
---As for the economics award, the world has no use for a science dedicated to depriving people of freedom and controlling them.---
This is an extremely unfair assement of the field of economics. Just because you may not like the some of the thrust of a social science is no reason to charge it with evil motives. And I would guess from your characterization that your sense of an "economist" is a boogeyman out of the Wall Street Journal, not a brilliant and thoughtful man like Joeseph Stiglitz. Indeed, the general thrust of academic economics is almost entirely the OPPOSITE of what you describe: it's normative goals are everywhere and always to maximize things like choice and social welfare.
...regarding where the Internet might take us in the next 20 years.
More information can be found here.
-k
Balderdash. In a few years generic versions of these drugs will be available at low cost. Thats about as good as you are going to get - if you cut the money out of the commercial drug business, you won't get any drugs for rich or for poor, as the generics manufacturers simply don't spend the research dollars necessary to develop the drugs.
As for the economics award, the world has no use for a science dedicated to depriving people of freedom and controlling them.
Thats odd, Milton Freidman is renowned for his award winning thesis that political freedom and economic freedom are closely related.
The only awards that I can inequivocably agree with are the literature and peace awards. The United Nations has done a lot of good work, and it is a shame that the American government is blind to the advantages of supporting it completely.
Yes, how could Americans not see the value in a bloated bureaucracy that is not elected and is accountable to no one? I thought there was a revolution fought over those same principles...
Well actually, the medecine prize was given to 2 people who work for the Imperial Cancer Research Foundation which is a UK based charity, and one person who works in the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center which is also a non-profit organisation.
And singing, what's up with that?
One assumes there was slightly more to their theories than this!
There's more. A lot more. The best "dumbed down" explanation is that of a used car sale. There's a buyer and a seller. Typically, the seller will know a lot more about the vehicle than the buyer. If the seller offers to sell a $15,000 car for $10,000, is this because the seller knows something the buyer doesn't, is the seller looking to unload it quickly, or is the seller just an idiot?
It's a relatively simple concept, but one with profound impacts as far as markets go. Consider the dotcom bubble. Was it because the companies were really worth it, was it "irrational exuberance", or was it asymmetric information? The basic theory is that there's always going to be a certain degree of asymmetric information, but that in the extreme, the market breaks down.
The truth about Scientology, Xenu, and you: Operation Clambake
All I know is that about half the used cars for sale are lemons, worth nothing, and about half are good ones, worth $15,000. I have no way of knowing which is which. On average, if I buy a bunch of these cars, I'll be ok if I pay $7,500 each.
If you sell your good car for $7,500, you get screwed.
If no-one will sell good cars for less than $15,000, then I know that there are no good cars for sale, and I don't buy at all.
Both these outcomes are market failure due to imperfect information. Neither version is likely to last for long in the real world: some third party will come along and sell inspections (i.e., information) for a big chunk of the profits we are loosing.
Of course, this is just the beginning. Take a look in Mas-Colell, Whinston and Green's Microeconomic Theory for more. I don't think Varian has it.
More worryingly, why does one of the recipients look exactly like Steve Martin?
Obviously, one of the economists who got the Nobel prize was wearing a Steve Martin mask, trying to pose as a celebrity. Some people will do anything to be noticed.
See what I've been reading.
Anyone who thinks an indtustrialized nation in the process of teaching its women and children how to kill with pointy sticks as a method of defence is "on the brink of surrender" has another thing coming.
Japan, contrary to the rather misguided perceptions of the historicaly naive, was more or less in the grip of a throwback code of morality dictated by the military elements in the nation known as "Bushido." The word breaks into Bushi and Do meaning Warrior and Way, or more generaly, the way of the warrior.
Japan and the japanese were prepared to fight to the end. Estimates as to the K.I.A count (Killed in Action) for invading and holding the home islands of Japan ran well into the hundreds of thousands [US Troops only]. For your reference, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagisaki combined killed a scant 105 thousand Japanese, well within the estimates for a home island invasion.
Was the US justified in droping the Atomic Bomb? Based on what we now know about the bomb's after affects, no. But that information was not available on August 6, 1945. You can not hold the military planners responcible for forces beyond their understanding or indeed anyone's understanding in this case.
Finaly, for comparitive purposes consider the casualtie estimates for the fire bombing attack on Tokyo -- 234,412, Dresden - 250,000 (high estimate). Japan lost some 107,539 soliders at the battle of Okinawa alone, burned out by flame throwers for the most part. US Army estimates put total Japanese losses for Okinawa at more than 140,000.
So was the atomic bombing really an act to scare the Soviets? Probably not. More importantly, Truman and Stalin got along wonderfully. Truman is often quoted discribing Stalin as "a man I can worth with." There was no need for Truman to frighten Stalin, indeed, Truman himself said that US posturing after WWII was not because of his fear of Stalin, but rather who would come after him.
Not that I'm disagreeing with you, just pointing out the problems in that statement of yours.
Killfile(TGK)
No trees were killed in the creation of this post. However, many electrons were inconvenienced.