Wheat-dogg’s world
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Today I found a terrific blog written by a 24-year-old Iraqi woman, with the nom d’electronique of River. The link is in my blogroll, Baghdad Burning.

River’s prose is frank, touching and largely apolitical. She gives us a glimpse of life in an occupied country, a view that we here in the States never seem to get. Here’s a sample:

As it is, people fear the Americans will be here for the next twenty years- unless they are bombed and attacked out of the country. Although many Iraqis support armed resistance in theory, I think that the average Iraqi simply wants to see them go back home in one piece- we feel sorry for them and especially sorry for their families at times. There are moments when you forget the personal affronts- the raids, the checkpoints, the fear of bombing, the detentions, etc. and you can see through it all to the actual person behind the weapons and body armor… On the other hand, you never forget that it’s a foreign occupation and will meet with resistance like all foreign occupations.

Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice can all swear that American troops will not pull out of the country no matter how many casualties they sustain, but history has proven otherwise…

Perhaps you have read about the researchers at the U of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign who have developed a quantum computer that can perform an operation even when it is turned off. The computer takes advantage of a peculiarity of quantum states, so that a result obtained when the computer is off can tell us something about a result obtained when the computer is running.

Um, I think I said that right.

Well, here’s the thing. The quantum computer is not a machine like we are using now to write this post or read it. When that kind of computer is turned off, it does nothing except occupy space. A quantum computer is much simpler and is designed to operate when a quantum event occurs, like a photon hitting a photodetector.

The UIUC team built a rudimentary quantum computer using lasers, mirrors, beam splitters and photodetectors — not exactly an iBook. In fact, the concept of the apparatus reminds me of a plastic, mechanical computer I built as a kid in the ’60s. The Digicomp looked really clunky, but it actually worked.
Digicomp mechanical, 3-bit computer, ca. 1968

The UIUC team used photons to operate (or not operate) the computer. Quantum physics says that really small things (photons, subatomic particles, etc.) can exist as a superposition of two apparently exclusive states, like, say, on or off. This superposition can be treated as a “wavefunction,” a mathematical representation of the simultaneous states.

Some of our politicians and religious “leaders” may be unclear about the separation of church and state, but the IRS understands it loud and clear.

The IRS has, in no uncertain terms, put the kabosh on Christocrat church meddling with elections. After reviewing complaints about tax-exempt organizations’ electioneering during 2004, the IRS found 59, including 37 churches, had infringed IRS regulations.

It means that no longer can preachers urge their flocks to vote for candidate X, work for proposition Y, or donate to anything or anyone up for a public vote. Churches or any other non-profit organizations are likewise prohibited from such activities, or they risk the loss of their tax-exempt status.

Should make for interesting, more secular elections this year and in ‘08, than they were in ‘04.

The Daily Kos has some details, based on Associated Press reports, but if you want the news directly from the horse’s mouth, check this IRS press release or the actual IRS report (an Adobe PDF file).

While the IRS does not name any of the organizations involved, it’s a safe assumption that many of those 37 churches were probably stumping for Bush-Cheney and/or local Republicans.

I am now waiting for a vengeful religious right to tangle with the Tax Man. In their view, the IRS would obviously be a tool of the devil, secular humanists, and seditionist forces with a misguided interpretation of the Constitution.

Our ultimate ancestor may have been a virus, according to the intriguing cover article in this month’s Discover magazine.

Until recently, viruses were considered to be a latecomer in the scheme of life, a form of opportunistic, quasi-living entity that uses other organisms to reproduce. With the discovery of a comparatively large, more complex virus, named Mimivirus, biologists are now wondering if viruses actually predate the hosts they invade, and sometimes kill.

There are three domains of living organisms currently recognized by biology: eukaryotes, which have nuclei in their cells and include plants and animals, bacteria, single-celled organisms which may or may not have nuclei, and archaea, “extremist” microbes without nuclei. Viruses were considered to be more chemical assemblages than biological entities — basically not part of the “tree of life.”

Now it seems viruses are more complex and older than previously thought, and may warrant being added as a fourth domain of organisms. Viruses may have also interacted with bacteria and archaea in the dim past to form the first eukaryotes, which eventually evolved into human beings.

So, welcome your distant cousin, influenza, to your family tree. Hopefully, it won’t pay you a surprise visit at the next family reunion.

The Stardust comet probe, which just came back from its successful rendezvous with Comet Wild2 in 2004, brought back samples of comet dust for scientists to study. It also brought back samples of interstellar dust — particles from other stars than our Sun.

Scientists want to study the interstellar dust particles, but first they have to find them. The Stardust team estimates there should about 45 interstellar grains, each a millionth of a meter in size, in the probe’s tennis-racket-sized capture device. For the team to find just one could take 20 years of searching at high magnification.

So, in a new twist to distributed computing (like the SETI@home and Folding@home data analysis projects), the Stardust team wants home-based volunteers to scrutinize high-magnification videos of the capture device for the interstellar dust grains. Successful volunteers will be recognized in published reports as the discovers of the stardust.

The only equipment needed to participate is a computer with a web browser. For more details, check this link, or to go directly to the preregistration form, click here. Registrants need to complete a web-based training session before they can join the search team. There are no age restrictions, by the way.

Distributing computing projects take advantage of the internet to spread research and data analysis across thousands of locations. The Seti@home project participants run a small number-crunching program on their computers to analyze radio telescope data for signs of intelligent life. Folding@home participants run a similar program to “fold” proteins with the aim of finding cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

The book and the movie Jurassic Park were all about the nasty reptiles, but many moviegoers might not realize there were mammals around then. Tiny rodent-like animals aren’t particularly dramatic, though.

But it seems there were larger mammals abroad in the Jurassic than had been suspected. An international team has uncovered in China a very well preserved fossil of a hitherto unknown species of mammal resembling the modern otter or beaver.

The water-dweller has been named Castorocauda lutrasimilis. Castorocauda had a beaver-like tail, strong arms for digging, and sharp teeth specialized for aquatic feeding, similar to the modern river otter.

The fossil includes the carbonized remains of the creature’s water-proof underfur and the impressions in the surrounding rock of its outer pelt. It lived during the middle Jurassic, or Mesozoic Era.

Exciting news, but still, it’s hard to imagine a scary movie featuring Ollie the Otter. Anyway, it seems he’ll be starring in his own movie, probably without T. rex to upstage him.

Details about the find are at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History site.

Ollie the Otter
DVD: Jurassic Park
Book: Jurassic Park

“The curious Wheatdogg” is how I am described by one Harvey Bialy in his reprise of a lengthy set of comments about HIV and AIDS at Aetiology. Now, “curious” can mean “inquisitive,” but it can also mean, “odd.” Well, I am inquisitive, a trait that I suppose led me into newspaper reporting and the study of science. Whether I am odd depends on one’s regard of science teachers. We do tend to be a bit nerdy, but I am not sure I am pleased with the characterization in this case.

Anyway, here’s some background behind my first degree of separation from Dr. Bialy. SEED Magazine hosts several science blogs, one of which is Aetiology, hosted by Tara Smith of the University of Iowa. Dr. Smith was reviewing the chapter on African AIDS included in Tom Bethell’s The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science. She was less than complimentary.

Bethell contends that AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa does not result from a virus (HIV), but is a consequence of poor living conditions. Dr. Smith, arguing for the majority, contends that HIV does indeed cause AIDS; poor living conditions arguably exacerbate the spread of the syndrome.

Therein followed a long series of comments from both the minority opinion — including Dr. Bialy — and from the majority. Since I have lived in South Africa, where AIDS is both a serious and a controversial problem, I decided to weigh in with a comment of my own. It’s about a third of the way down the page, if you are reading Dr. Smith’s blog.

Little more than a few thousand miles across, tiny Pluto still has not one, but three natural satellites. All three have been detected using the Hubble Space Telescope orbiting Earth.

Astronomers at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, have modeled how a collision probably knocked the three moons off their parent body billions of years ago. A similar process probably created our own moon.

Pluto’s moons, Charon, P1 and P2, orbit in the same plane, suggesting a simultaneous origin. P1 and P2 are also in orbital resonance with Charon, the largest of the three, meaning their orbital periods are gravitationally linked. P1 and P2 are likely smaller fragments created when Charon was knocked off Pluto.

Details about the astronomers’ findings are here

The Japanese space agency sent a new infrared (IR) telescope into orbit today, the first such probe since 1983. The Astro-F telescope will circle earth’s poles to conduct a survey of the skies.

Most of us are used to seeing the night sky with just the visible spectrum, but astronomers since the mid-20th century have been exploring the heavens with every frequency from gamma rays to radio waves. The different frequencies of light provide different kinds of information.

IR (heat) waves penetrate dust and gas clouds better than visible light, and are associated with stellar and planetary formation.

IRAS, a joint US-European telescope, previously surveyed the infrared heavens and took the first image of the dust- and-gas-enshrouded core of our galaxy.
Infrared view of Milky Way core.

For more IRAS images, go here. For details about the launch, go here.

Attention fellow Kentuckians! There will be two interesting talks at the University of Kentucky College of Law. The complete details are at The Panda’s Thumb, but here’s the basics.

On Wednesday the 22nd, a seminar on “Religion, the First Amendment, and the New Supreme Court” at 12:00 noon in the College of Law Courtroom. The public is invited.

On Monday the 27th, a discussion about “Intelligent Design: Question and Controversy in Law and Philosophy,” at 4 pm in the Courtroom. The public is also invited to this one.

William Dembski, one of the leading detractors of evolution, now teaches at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary here in Louisville. He could make an appearance at the second talk, which ought to be interesting, to say the least.