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Size, distance, and the solar eclipse From the earth’s surface, it can be difficult to tell how big or far away objects in the solar system are. From the earth’s surface, as illustrated by yesterday’s total solar eclipse, the moon and sun are the same apparent size. Here’s a slightly cheesy YouTube video that describes …
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The sound of the big bang Today we take a closer look at the sound of the big bang © John g. Cramer – 2003, which he created from the data gathered by the WMAP satellite. Here’s his original article on the subject. Here are a bunch of versions of the sound of different lengths, …
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When rocks go boom In 2013, a 10 to 11 ton rock exploded in the skys over Russia. That came in handy when I wanted an explosion sound effect. As Long as I used it, I may as well make an episode out of it. Here’s a video of the event, and a couple of …
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Ep 35: How to make a mind—part1 How could you make a mind—a mind at least as good as ours are. Here’s one approach that has already worked. The details are a bit hazy, and I’m rather certain it’s outside of my budget; but it’s a place to start. The sound of the big bang …
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Just dumb enough to work It’s called, “open label placebo,” and it seems to work by all reports. You take a sugar pill or other placebo, you know it is just a placebo, and yet sometimes, you still get some benefits. Here’s a short NPR segment when an author is interviewed about his experiences using …
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I’m superstitious about placebos I was chatting with Antony, (@AntonyTheReal_) about the show and the recent episodes about the placebo effect. He wondered if you could take a placebo, know it’s a placebo, and still get some benefit from doing so. It turns out that you can. It happens to be Antony’s birthday, and he …
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This is my lucky rabbit; I named him Placebo In episode 27 and episode 28, we had a look at the placebo effect and found that it can improve performance on both physical and mental activities. But how do you give yourself a placebo? Here’s one of many articles that referenced a 2010 study that …
As I said in the previous post, trying to figure out which object was which by tossing them wasn’t quite working out. Later that day, I had my assistant assist. He’d flip a coin, and then set one or the other of the two clay shapes in front of me, and I would say which …