This Blog has Moved to NovaSpivack.com

How Water Bugs Climb

Water bugs have the ability to somehow climb up the slippery meniscus where water meets an edge of something else. Nobody has been able to figure out just how they do this... until now.

Immune Cells Capable of Long-Distance Communication

Breakthrough research has found that human immune cells communicate over long distances via microtubulin pathways. This proves that neurons are not the only cells in the body capable of long-distance messaging. It establishes the immune system runs on another, previously unknown, communications network in the body. This is a Big Discovery. Amazing innovations will follow from it.

You do what you eat?

This article presents some fascinating evidence that nutrition has a direct relationship on behavior, particularly antisocial behavior.

Another Actor Running for Office?

Oy Vey. CNN just reported that Virginia Democrats are rumored to be asking Ben Affleck to run for the Senate. Note to the Virginia Democrats: Ben Affleck is an A-C-T-O-R not a politician. Am I the only one who is completely fed up with actors running for (and holding) public office? I mean what exactly are their job-qualifications anyway? Pretending to be someone they are not for a living? Memorizing scripts? Drinking, gambling and carousing? Clowning for the cameras? Hmm.. Come to think of it, maybe actors are ideally qualified to be politicians. But not good politicians.

I'm sorry but why in the world should Ben Affleck be in the Senate? What exactly does he know about being a Senator? Besides, he hooked up with Jennifer Garner -- something I, and legions of other Alias fans, will never forgive him for. Is he just jealous of the Governator? Or this all just a publicity stunt for an upcoming Sequel to some horrible J-LO movie in which Senator Ben and his kid's nanny, J-LO, team up to save the world? Come-on, people, what happened to the concept of real Leaders, you know -- statesmen -- people who actually have some actual understanding of Government, let alone experience?

We wonder why America is not what it used to be. Well, perhaps it's because the government is increasingly run by showboating businessmen and Hollywood celebrities with no political experience, instead of real public servants with a lifetime of practical wisdom about how to grow and lead a nation.

A Possible Future of Physics

Today I read this nice article which provides a short consumer-friendly overview of the history of the Digital Physics paradigm. Digital Physics is not mainstream physics -- but it is growing and someday could become huge. It brings together computer scientists and physicists in an interdisciplinary approach to physics. While many advocates simply take the position that some physical processes resemble computations, the most extreme would go so far as to posit that the universe is actually a giant computation taking place on some sort of primordial computing fabric.

I've been involved with this field since the 1980's when, as a college student at Oberlin, I got interested in cellular automata as a tool for modelling both the brain and the universe. This led to summer research on cellular automata simulations of physical systems on the CAM-6 parallel processor at the lab of Tomasso Toffoli and Norman Margolus at MIT. They were among the first experimentalists in the digital physics field -- running massive cellular automata simulations of fluid dynamics, population biology, optics, and spin glasses, among other things. Since then I've had the opportunity to spend some time with both Ed Fredkin and Stephen Wolfram, discussing the future of digital physics and the quest for a Theory of Everything.

I think that the Digital Physics is the The Next Revolution in physics. But it may still be another 50 to 100 years before it really takes root. But it's just the beginning of what I think may be an ongoing process of future physical models. Below, I speculate about where this trend will lead us (disclaimer: Wild Speculation ahead: Read at your own risk!)

Radar Networks News...

Great news! Radar Networks, the venture I've been building, has received its first round of outside funding from Vulcan Capital. We are heavily in stealth mode.

Evil Offshore Telemarketers

Over the last few days I've had an interesting experience. Prior to living where I presently live there once lived a charming couple by the name of "Mr. and Mrs. Amit." That's all I know of these people, other than the still-lingering smell of exotic spices that will forever permeate one of my kitchen cabinents. But I've recently learned something new about the Amits: as well as having the good-taste to live in my future home, they also seem to have really pissed off a bunch of telemarketers somewhere on the Indian subcontinent.

This has become evident to me over the last few months in the form of bizarre, cryptically worded phone calls I have received on a regular basis from various Indian-or-Pakistani-accented telemarketing drones. Invariably these calls have the same basic script -- First the phone rings at some odd hour and I answer it and hear only the sound of a crackling long-distance connection bouncing across several satellites and what sounds like Calcutta's ancient telephone infrastructure. Next a heavily accented male or female asks for "Mr. or Mrs. Amit." In the background I can hear the sounds of a sweatshop in which what may be dozens of other operators are making similar calls. I politely explain to the caller that Amits no longer live here and that I am Mr. Spivack, the new resident. There is no response on the other side, but they invariably hang up on me as I am speaking the "Please put..." part of "Please put me on your do-not-call-list."

In the last month the frequency of these odd calls has increased, and with it, I have become more creative in trying to convince them that I really am not Mr. Amit. I use my best all-American accent and I even get belligerent. But they never believe me, and they always hang up just as I am saying "Please put..."

Yesterday, for some reason, these folks decided to turn it up a notch. I guess they really wanted to teach the Amits a lesson! I received dozens of calls in the same 2 hour period, starting at about 6 PM PST. Sometimes the calls were from the same operators, sometimes new ones. They all worked in the same facility however -- I could tell from the unique background noise. I tried the "I am not Mr. Amit" answer, I tried the "The Amits no longer live here," answer, I even tried the "Can I speak to your manager" answer (to which I received a very polite, "Of course Sir, one minute please, Sir" after which they would politely hang up on me every time).

Finally, after the Nth call I was getting frustrated. These people were interfering with my enjoyment of Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm on HBO, dammit! I decided, This. Has. Got. To. Stop.

They called me one more time.

Crackling sound. "Hello, may I speak to Mr. or Mrs. Amit," the operator requested.

Finally it hit me. I knew what to say.

"The Amits have moved back to Pakistan," I announced matter-of-factly.  I had no idea whether this was true, or whether the Amits were even Pakistanis for that matter. But I knew this would finally register as making sense in the mind of the caller.

Silence...Then: "To Pakistan?" the operator replied.

"Yes," I said. "Somewhere in Pakistan."

Silence...Then: "Thank you," the voice replied.

And that's the last call I received from them.

Peace at last!  Although, if there is anyone in Pakistan with the last name "Amit," they are probably not as lucky.

Katrina Disaster: Where is the Military?

I just got back from vacation and am catching up on the terrible aftermath of Katrina. I find it unbelievable that with our enormous military budget, it has been 3 days and we are still unable to provide even basic food, water, shelter, medical care, and security to the stranded people of New Orleans. It appears that there has been a complete breakdown of our Homeland Security and FEMA response system, or at least total incompentence and negligence. Given the billions of dollars the nation has been spending to prepare for large-scale disasters and terrorist attacks, it is incredible that the system is performing so poorly for the people of New Orleans.

Why have we not started dropping emergency food and water supplies to these stranded people? Why has the military not started parachuting in thousands of soldiers to keep the peace? Where are the Navy, Air Force, Army and the Marines in all this? It appears that we are literally leaving thousands of men, women and children to fend for themselves against the elements, disease, and violence. Is it simply because the scale of the disaster was so unexpected? Is it because our Homeland Security and FEMA infrastructure are completely dysfunctional? Or is it because many of the people affected by this disaster are from the poorest segments of our society and simply don't matter to the political establishment?

Amazingly, our response to last year's Tsunami in Asia was far more organized and effective than our response to this disaster in our own backyard. Considering that we launched a world war over a few thousand people dying in New York on 911, I would think that this disaster in New Orleans (which is likely to have a much larger death toll) should merit a much larger response.

Frankly I am furious, horrified and ashamed at what is taking place in New Orleans -- America can and should do much better in times of national crisis.