This is what happens when you're friends with the most hilarious people on earth.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Monday, August 11, 2008
Invisibility Cloaks
Taken from an article on Yahoo.com.
New Material Could Make Objects Invisible
Scientists have taken another step toward the goal of rendering objects invisible using high-tech cloaks that redirect light.
Researchers for the first time demonstrated that a new material can bend visible light the wrong way in three dimensional tests. It builds on research that cloaks objects in the microwave wavelength.
The research, announced today, will be detailed later this week in the journals Nature and Science.
The metamaterial, as it is called, produces what's known as negative refraction of visible light. That means light is made to travel in the opposite direction from how it normally should bend when passing through a material. A common example is how a pencil will appear to bend upward when half-submerged in a glass of water. In the new work, researchers make the light appear to bend the other way.
Metamaterials are artificially engineered structures that have "extraordinary optical properties that do not exist in nature," the researchers write in Science. "They can alter the propagation of electromagnetic waves, resulting in negative refraction, subwavelength imaging and cloaking."
Visible light is just one type of electromagnetic radiation, a spectrum that includes everything from radio waves to X-rays and more.
Until now, the effectiveness of the cloaking has been demonstrated only in thin, two-dimensional materials.
Now at a National Science Foundation lab at the University of California, Berkeley, Jason Valentine, Jie Yao, Xiang Zhang and others have create a multilayered, "fishnet structure" that "unambiguously exhibits negative refractive index," they write.
"This straightforward and elegant demonstration enhances our ability to mould and harness light at will," according to a statement from the journal Nature.
Other research has looked into using plasmons - tiny electronic excitations on the surfaces of some metals - to cancel out the visible light or other radiation coming from an object and effectively cloak it.
Sci-fi fans know that cloaking technology made Romulan spaceships disappear in Star Trek. Among the real applications pondered for the future of real-world cloaking technology: stealth military devices and new medical techniques.
New Material Could Make Objects Invisible
Scientists have taken another step toward the goal of rendering objects invisible using high-tech cloaks that redirect light.
Researchers for the first time demonstrated that a new material can bend visible light the wrong way in three dimensional tests. It builds on research that cloaks objects in the microwave wavelength.
The research, announced today, will be detailed later this week in the journals Nature and Science.
The metamaterial, as it is called, produces what's known as negative refraction of visible light. That means light is made to travel in the opposite direction from how it normally should bend when passing through a material. A common example is how a pencil will appear to bend upward when half-submerged in a glass of water. In the new work, researchers make the light appear to bend the other way.
Metamaterials are artificially engineered structures that have "extraordinary optical properties that do not exist in nature," the researchers write in Science. "They can alter the propagation of electromagnetic waves, resulting in negative refraction, subwavelength imaging and cloaking."
Visible light is just one type of electromagnetic radiation, a spectrum that includes everything from radio waves to X-rays and more.
Until now, the effectiveness of the cloaking has been demonstrated only in thin, two-dimensional materials.
Now at a National Science Foundation lab at the University of California, Berkeley, Jason Valentine, Jie Yao, Xiang Zhang and others have create a multilayered, "fishnet structure" that "unambiguously exhibits negative refractive index," they write.
"This straightforward and elegant demonstration enhances our ability to mould and harness light at will," according to a statement from the journal Nature.
Other research has looked into using plasmons - tiny electronic excitations on the surfaces of some metals - to cancel out the visible light or other radiation coming from an object and effectively cloak it.
Sci-fi fans know that cloaking technology made Romulan spaceships disappear in Star Trek. Among the real applications pondered for the future of real-world cloaking technology: stealth military devices and new medical techniques.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
That's Just How It Works...
This probably wont be a very long entry, and it definitely wont even come close to the colossal textwall that my last one was, but I want to write some stuff down while it's fresh on my mind.
First, right now, I can hear my parents and a neighbor upstairs talking about politics and current events, and it's getting me a little bit flustered. I wasn't really eavesdropping until the subject changed to the whole 'insurgent imprisonment', Guantanamo Bay and such, and I heard them all nodding and agreeing to the fact that they don't deserve a fair trial because they're out there killing our troops.
Alright, I've got a few problems with that statement. I am in no way some bleeding heart liberal member of Amnesty International that believes that everyone should be forgiven, regardless of their offense - even though that's what Jesus would do, that's not a very practical way to run a planet. Because almost nobody feels that way. I believe in accountability for one's actions, and in taking responsibility for whatever you do, for better or for worse. Integrity, that sort of thing.
But denying a captured insurgent the right to a fair trial is just...wrong. Sure, you're pissed off that this character may have ended the lives of valiant American soldiers that died in the heat of battle defending their country. I'm sorry. This kind of thing happens. This is war.
And here's where my problems start. Look at their side of the situation: We're a bunch of foreigners that, in the name of "peace", and "good will", decided it would be a fascinatingly good idea to go ahead and hop on over into their country and to rearrange political affairs and situations to our liking. And in doing so, we introduced a whole lot of instability and ill will towards ourselves, and the situation still hasn't improved. We've turned Iraq from a really undesirable place to live into a chaotic hellhole. What if some other country had done that to us? What if a country with more power and more military resources had just one day decided (and on faulty intelligence, no less) that they were gonna march in and switch shit around because they didn't like how our country was being run? Would we not have a reason to fight back against invaders, regardless of their motives?
Imagine that something like that actually DID happen. Imagine that a more powerful nation came to our country, and started shooting people that tried to resist. Let's say that one of those people was you, because you're a patriot and you love your country, and you don't want to see someone else's ideas change your homeland. And let's say that they outnumber you, and capture you, and transport you to some strange island off the coast of Australia, where they torture and hurt you, a lone rebel, to try and find information about some 'terrorist network' that you've never heard of.
Does that sound fair, peaceful, or humane to you?
The insurgents are human beings. They aren't Americans, no, but they are human beings. I was always taught to love my fellow man, no matter what their sin was, and the insurgents fall under the category of 'fellow man'. I'm even going to go so far as to say that the real terrorists, the people whose only goal is to kill as many American infidels as they possibly can, are human beings. They have a faith that is seemingly and radically different than many of our own faiths, and they follow it with a remarkable level of zeal, and why? Because it is what they honestly and truly believe to be right.
And I don't think that the real terrorists should be let off the hook. If you kill somebody, no matter what your cause is, then you should be punished accordingly. But you shouldn't be punished without a fair trial. If there is no hard evidence that someone committed some atrocious act of violence? We have no right to pass judgment on them - because we can't prove that they did anything wrong.
And as for the men and women that are captured for simply being insurgents - what right do we have, as fellow human beings, to punish somebody for simply being patriotic in a country that we're invading? Again, picture this is YOU that's being punished. One day, you wake up, and take a stand against foreign invaders, like any so-called "God-Fearing American" would. And they capture you, take you away, and kill you. Why? Because you stood up for your right to be free and your right to live in the country of your choice.
How evil would these invaders seem to you?
These people aren't animals. They aren't a country of feral dogs that was writhing in pools of misery, just waiting for Democracy and Capitalism to come and save them from their own filth. They're human, and they can think and feel for themselves. There's no reason for us to lower ourselves to such a level in the name of protecting peace and freedom. If anything, we're doing the exact opposite. We're putting a double-standard on human life.
tl;dr - Iraqi insurgents are just as worthy of a fair trial as you would say that American prisoners of war in a foreign nation should be.
First, right now, I can hear my parents and a neighbor upstairs talking about politics and current events, and it's getting me a little bit flustered. I wasn't really eavesdropping until the subject changed to the whole 'insurgent imprisonment', Guantanamo Bay and such, and I heard them all nodding and agreeing to the fact that they don't deserve a fair trial because they're out there killing our troops.
Alright, I've got a few problems with that statement. I am in no way some bleeding heart liberal member of Amnesty International that believes that everyone should be forgiven, regardless of their offense - even though that's what Jesus would do, that's not a very practical way to run a planet. Because almost nobody feels that way. I believe in accountability for one's actions, and in taking responsibility for whatever you do, for better or for worse. Integrity, that sort of thing.
But denying a captured insurgent the right to a fair trial is just...wrong. Sure, you're pissed off that this character may have ended the lives of valiant American soldiers that died in the heat of battle defending their country. I'm sorry. This kind of thing happens. This is war.
And here's where my problems start. Look at their side of the situation: We're a bunch of foreigners that, in the name of "peace", and "good will", decided it would be a fascinatingly good idea to go ahead and hop on over into their country and to rearrange political affairs and situations to our liking. And in doing so, we introduced a whole lot of instability and ill will towards ourselves, and the situation still hasn't improved. We've turned Iraq from a really undesirable place to live into a chaotic hellhole. What if some other country had done that to us? What if a country with more power and more military resources had just one day decided (and on faulty intelligence, no less) that they were gonna march in and switch shit around because they didn't like how our country was being run? Would we not have a reason to fight back against invaders, regardless of their motives?
Imagine that something like that actually DID happen. Imagine that a more powerful nation came to our country, and started shooting people that tried to resist. Let's say that one of those people was you, because you're a patriot and you love your country, and you don't want to see someone else's ideas change your homeland. And let's say that they outnumber you, and capture you, and transport you to some strange island off the coast of Australia, where they torture and hurt you, a lone rebel, to try and find information about some 'terrorist network' that you've never heard of.
Does that sound fair, peaceful, or humane to you?
The insurgents are human beings. They aren't Americans, no, but they are human beings. I was always taught to love my fellow man, no matter what their sin was, and the insurgents fall under the category of 'fellow man'. I'm even going to go so far as to say that the real terrorists, the people whose only goal is to kill as many American infidels as they possibly can, are human beings. They have a faith that is seemingly and radically different than many of our own faiths, and they follow it with a remarkable level of zeal, and why? Because it is what they honestly and truly believe to be right.
And I don't think that the real terrorists should be let off the hook. If you kill somebody, no matter what your cause is, then you should be punished accordingly. But you shouldn't be punished without a fair trial. If there is no hard evidence that someone committed some atrocious act of violence? We have no right to pass judgment on them - because we can't prove that they did anything wrong.
And as for the men and women that are captured for simply being insurgents - what right do we have, as fellow human beings, to punish somebody for simply being patriotic in a country that we're invading? Again, picture this is YOU that's being punished. One day, you wake up, and take a stand against foreign invaders, like any so-called "God-Fearing American" would. And they capture you, take you away, and kill you. Why? Because you stood up for your right to be free and your right to live in the country of your choice.
How evil would these invaders seem to you?
These people aren't animals. They aren't a country of feral dogs that was writhing in pools of misery, just waiting for Democracy and Capitalism to come and save them from their own filth. They're human, and they can think and feel for themselves. There's no reason for us to lower ourselves to such a level in the name of protecting peace and freedom. If anything, we're doing the exact opposite. We're putting a double-standard on human life.
tl;dr - Iraqi insurgents are just as worthy of a fair trial as you would say that American prisoners of war in a foreign nation should be.
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