Month: March 2016

2016-03-11 (Fredag)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Idag lärde jag mig, att:

Det är idag precis 5 år sedan den allvarligaste kärnkraftsolyckan i historien, när det japanska kärnkraftverket i Fukushima drabbades av tre härdsmältor. Jag lyssnade på SR Vetenskapsredaktions Veckomagasin idag, där man kommenterade vad som har blivit konsekvenserna av de tre största olyckorna, Harrisburg 1979, Chernobyl 1986 och Fukushima 2011. Jag rekommenderar att de intresserade lyssnar på det programmet, se referens nummer 1 nedan.

Men densamma vetenskapsredaktionen hade också en mycket trevligare nyhet att berätta om några timmar tidigare. Det rör sig om en den australiensiska fjärilen Common bluebottle, en släkting till den svenska Makaonfjärilen, som har utsetts till världens skickligaste färgseende insekt.

Forskare har tidigare misstänkt att den här fjärilen ser färger bra. Den har nämligen ovanligt stora ögon och använder sina regnbågsskimrande vingar för att kommunicera. Men att den skulle ha 15 olika färgreceptorer i ögat har ingen kunnat gissa. Vi människor hara bara tre olika färgreceptorer, så kallade tappar, i våra ögon. De är känsliga för rött, grönt respektive blått ljus. Insekten på andra plats har nio.

Common bluebottle

Common bluebottle, världens färgkänsligaste varelse. Foto: Kazuo Unno

… Slut för idag, tack för idag !

(The text in Swedish above deals with the fifth anniversary of the nuclear accident in Fukushima in 2011 and presents the world’s most colour sensible creature.)

Refs.:

1: Blir kärnkraften säkrare efter katastroferna?

2: Fjärilen som slår världsrekord i färgseende

+: What did you learn in school today ?

2016-03-10 (Thursday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

The world is undergoing a constant evolution, and in the field of technology it seems more evident than ever.

Do you remember Deep Blue, the first computer to beat a human world champion in chess? It happened in 1996, when it won the first game of six against Garry Kasparov, although Kasparov came back and won the series with 4-2. But in 1997, Deep Blue got its revenge, winning a tough series of games with 3,5-2,5. Deep Blue was a joint project between IBM and Carnegie Mellon University. Kasparov accused IBM of cheating and demanded a rematch, but IBM denied it. Later it was the inverse, IBM challenged Kasparov again, in vain. However, Deep Blue gave inspiration to other chess playing programs and nowadays it is quite common to see human chess players go up against their virtual opponents. See also reference #1 below.

DBW

To the left: Deep Blue (photo by James the photographer – http://flickr.com/photos/22453761@N00/592436598/), and to the right: Ken Jennings, Watson, and Brad Rutter in their Jeopardy! exhibition match (Wikipedia)

Then came Watson, yet another implementation from IBM. In 2011, a computer won the popular quiz game of Jeopardy! against the champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. IBM later continued development of Watson further into a commercial application for management decisions in lung cancer treatment, announced in 2013, see reference #2 below, and an update in January 2016 (reference # 3 below) gives more recent examples of where Watson is finding applications for its skills.

Both Deep Blue and Watson are good examples of what is commonly called Artificial Intelligence (AI), and yesterday, 2016-03-09, represented another historic date for AI. This time, the application is playing the ancient Chinese boardgame Go, considered to be far more complex than chess. The British company Deep Mind started in 2010 to develop a computer system which purpose was to play Go the way no man (or machine) had ever done before. Google acquired the company in 2014 and here comes the graduation task for AlphaGo: beat the world’s leading Go player.

The series of best of 5 games, which is held in Seoul, started yesterday, when AlphaGo won the first game of Go against the world’s best player, the Korean Lee Sedol. Also in the second game, held today, AlphaGo defeated its opponent, and unless Sedol wins the remaining three games, we will have proof, once more, that well designed computers can beat the best players in the world in their respective specialities. The following images show the result of the first two games. For more information about the match and Go in general, see references #4 and #5 below.

go12

The two first games of the historic match between AlphaGo and Lee Sedol, played in Seoul 2016-03-09–10. Graphic produced by Google.

Finally, although the machines are clever, do not forget that there are humans behind them, responsible for the programming. Reference #6 below talks about a case revealed today about how hackers were able to transfer US$ 81 million from the US Federal Reserve Bank in New York to Asia, completing thus 4 of the assigned 13 transfers. But on the fifth task, a routing bank in Germany detected a misspelling of “foundation” as “fandation”, which stopped the remaining US$ 850 million from getting stolen.

This reminds me of the old slogan for Esso gasoline to “put a tiger in the tank”. Such a procedure will not have any effect if there is “a jackass sitting behind the wheel” !!!

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: Deep Blue (chess computer)

2: Watson (computer)

3: The Rise Of Thinking Machines: How IBM’s Watson Takes On The World

4: AlphaGo’s ultimate challenge: a five-game match against the legendary Lee Sedol

5: Go (game)

6: Hackers tried and failed to steal a billion dollars from bank

+: What did you learn in school today ?

2016-03-09 (Wednesday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

Already yesterday, I could watch in real time a streaming video of the total solar eclipse, which was happening at the same time next day in the Pacific Ocean. It was a webcast arranged by NASA (North American Space Administration) transmitting live from one of the Micronesian islands, where the eclipse was total during 4 minutes, from 22:38 to 22:42 yesterday my time. Below, I show two screen shots that I took during the totality.

totaleclipse

Two photos from NASAs webcast from Micronesia, showing the totality of the solar eclipse. The left photo, from the first seconds of totality, shows the Sun’s corona and the second one is the exact moment when the Sun starts to get out of the Moon’s obstruction, creating a so-called Diamond Ring.

And while we are at it, here comes another update to my post from 2016-02-15, when AIK celebrated its 125th anniversary:

After an exciting sudden death, AIK beat Tingsryd with 4-3 and won the Swedish Icehockey’s 2nd division, aka Allsvenskan. Now AIK will dispute a series of best of 7 against Karlskrona, where the winner is qualified for SHL next year.

And of course, we must not forget that the Swedish female national football team today qualified for the Olympic Games after a draw (1-1) with the Netherlands.

To continue in the name of sports, here are two other interesting facts:

According to a podcast from Scientific American (reference #2 below), a researcher who wanted to measure perception went to a softball game and after the game, she showed the players a poster with different sized softballs, asking them to point out the correct one. People who hit better selected a larger circle, meaning the batters who were hitting better saw the ball as bigger. Which means not everyone sees the ball the same way. And it also means that what we see is affected by our ability to act. Performance impacts vision.

In other studies she found that golfers who putted better saw the hole as bigger than did poor putters. Faster swimmers saw targets underwater as being closer than did slower swimmers. And she had athletes who were not placekickers try to make field goals in American football. The ones who did better saw the space between the uprights as wider.

Bottom line:
“You don’t see the world the same the others. You see the world in a way that’s unique to you, and it’s unique to your abilities.”

Finally, do you know what a golden set is? In volleyball, if after the last play-off match, two teams are still tied, a sixth set (“golden set”) decides which team wins the play-off series. This means, that one team wins by a 3-3 set draw! See reference #3 below, if you do not believe me!

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: The total solar eclipse 2016-03-09 over Micronesia

2: Ball Really Looks Bigger to Better Hitters

3: Golden set to decide a volleyball game

+: What did you learn in school today ?

2016-03-08 (Tuesday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

Many countries around the world is today commemorating the International Women’s Day, and of course I participate in congratulating all those women who make our lives worth living. I understand that there places, including my home country Sweden, where the women do not believe that there is a need for such a day, argumenting that there is no special day for the men. Well, they are correct, of course, but only in part! In fact, we men have 364 days (even 365 days this year) we can call special days for men, so we cannot complain. Girls, I beg you, please acknowledge your day and do not leave us in the dark!

Eclipsesolar

Total Eclipse of the Sun in Salzburg, Austria, on 1999-08-11

Speaking about being left in the dark, the photo above shows just that situation. I took it in Salzburg, Austria, on 1999-08-11 when there was a total solar eclipse against a complete clear sky! I was there with my family and still in the very morning of that day, we were worried that an abundant volume of clouds would continue to reign the skies and leave us without any sighting of the vacant sun. But luckily, one hour before the point of totality, the sky cleared and we had a marvellous view of this rare phenomenon. More information can be found in reference #1 below.

When I was a kid, my parents often told me about the total solar eclipse which occurred on 1954-06-30, when suddenly in the middle of the day the sky went pitch black and the birds stopped their usual singing. I was there but only passively participating from within my mother’s womb. 45 years later, our daughter was in the same spot, present but not actively so. References # 2 and #3 give more information about that eclipse.

The reason for all this talk about a total eclipse of the sun is that such a one will occur tomorrow in Indonesia, see reference #4 below. A band of eclipse hunters have headed there and let us hope that their travel is worth their while. Listen to the podcast of reference #5 below from one of them.

The travelers of flight Alaska Airlines 870 from Anchorage to Honolulu will receive a bonus on their flight when the departure time will be delayed so that they can intercept the eclipse en route, see reference #6 below.

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: Solar eclipse of August 11, 1999

2: 1954-06-30 Senaste totala solförmörkelsen i Sverige

3: Solförmörkelsen 1954 i direkt reportage på Sveriges Radio

4: Solar eclipse of March 9, 2016

5: Mar 6th: The Indonesian total solar eclipse of 8/9 March 2016

6: Alaska Airlines is adjusting a plane’s flight plan so passengers can see tomorrow’s solar eclipse

+: What did you learn in school today ?

2016-03-07 (Monday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

The world is in mourning. We just learned that the inventor of e-mail, Ray Tomlinson, died last Saturday, March 5, at the age of 74.

Although I did not know him personally, I remember very well a course we had at my university called “Computer networks”. Today, it would not make much fuss, but mind you, I took this course in 1976, when computers in networks were not all abundant as they are today. I had been given the task of searching for articles about a certain network called ARPANET, and I found that there was a Boston company, BBN (Bolt, Beranek and Newman) that had been the pioneers in the development of ARPANET. ARPANET was later renamed DARPANET and finally Internet. (Update on 2016-09-29: Today I published the report I made back in 1976, see reference # 4 below.)

Ray worked at BBN and was the one that suggested and performed the first task of transfering messages from one computer to another, and attributed the @ sign to separate user and computer in the e-mail address.

ray-tomlinson

Ray Tomlinson. Photo by BBN Technologies

According to the Internet Hall of Fame,”Tomlinson’s email program brought about a complete revolution, fundamentally changing the way people communicate, including the way businesses, from huge corporations to tiny mom-and-pop shops, operate and the way millions of people shop, bank, and keep in touch with friends and family, whether they are across town or across oceans. Today, tens of millions of email-enabled devices are in use every day. Email remains the most popular application, with over a billion and a half users spanning the globe and communicating across the traditional barriers of time and space.”

See also references #1, #2 and #3 below for further information.

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: Email inventor Ray Tomlinson dies aged 74

2: Ray Tomlinson on Wikipedia

3: Official Biography: Raymond Tomlinson

4: ARPANET

+: What did you learn in school today ?

2016-03-06 (Sunday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

The 2016 edition of Vasaloppet, that took place earlier today, was the toughest of all the 92 races held so far. Details will follow later on, but let us first discuss what Vasaloppet is and why it is such an important  sports event.

It all started in 1397, when a meeting in the Swedish city of Kalmar, on the East Coast, resulted in a personal union between the kings of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, in which a new king, Erik of Pomerania, was elected to be responsible for both the domestic and foreign policies of the three sovereign states. But the nobility in both Sweden and Denmark did not accept to be put aside and so there were constant conflicts from the 1430s until the end date of the union, which happened in 1523.

The beginning of the end came in 1520, when the Danish king Kristian II (aka Kristian the Good One in Denmark / Kristian the Tyrant in Sweden) invited the Swedish aristocracy to a reconciliation party in Stockholm, but once there, had them all killed in what was later known as the Stockholm Bloodbath. But the nobleman Gustav Ericsson Vasa was able to escape and headed towards Norway. However, a speech he made in Mora, close to the Norwegian border finally convinced the people there to join him in a rebellion against Kristian, although it took so long for them to decide in favor of him that Gustav had already left for Norway on skis. When he arrived in Sälen, a town about 70 km away from Mora, going in a straight line, two good skiers from Mora were able to stop him, explaining that the others in Mora had decided to join Gustav in his battle against Kristian. After  battles in the following years, this rebellion finally led to that the Swedes defeated the Danish. So on June 6, 1523, Gustav Vasa was elected the new king of Sweden. Still today, that date is very important, being celebrated as the Swedish National Day.

In order to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the successful capture of Gustav Vasa by the two Mora skiers, there was instituted a cross-country race, and on March 19, 1922, the first Vasaloppet race was held, but in reverse direction, starting in Sälen and finishing in Mora. 136 skiers participated and the first winner was the 22-year old Ernst Alm, still today the youngest winner of all races held since.

vloppstr

A map showing start and finish, as well as all the intermediate check points of Vasaloppet.

Vasaloppet is the oldest and longest cross-country ski race in the world as well as the one with the highest number of participants, with a current maximum capacity of 15 800 athletes. Originally, the race was 85 km long, but it was prolonged to 90 km some decades ago. In Sweden, it is an almost sacred event, held on the first Sunday of March every year. The athlete with most wins (9 in total) over the years was named Nils Karlsson, with domicile in Mora, thus nick-named Mora-Nisse. The first non-Swede who won the race was the Finn Pekka Kuvaja in 1954. Nowadays, there is a steady fight by the best Swedish and Norwegian skiers, which the latter ones have won during the four most recent races.

Female athletes have been permitted to participate in the race since 1997, and also there is a big fight between Swedish and foreign skiers.

Now over to today’s race. The men’s race resulted in that 26 skiers entered the finish area with a chance to win, with four Norwegian skiers in the top places and the best Swedish skier in 6th place. The women’s race went to Austria and Katerina Smutná, with the leading World Cup skier, Sweden’s Britta Johansson Norgren, in second place.

Finish 2016

The finish of the toughest of all 92 races held so far, showing the winner John Kristian Dahl in the centre. Picture copyright vasaloppet.se

Update 2016-03-09:
Click on references #3 and #4 below to access the official web site of Vasaloppet and watch a video of the competition in 2016, respectively.

Problem # 4, Drilling square holes

This problem is very different from the earlier three riddles. The question is: How would you construct a tool to drill square holes? The solution seems impossible, but I have it, and will post it next Saturday, 2016-03-12.

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: Kalmar Union

2: About Vasaloppet in English

3: Results from Vasaloppet 2016

4: Video from Vasaloppet 2016

+: What did you learn in school today ?

2016-03-05 (Saturday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

If I were in Northern Europe now, I believe that a typical Brazilian dish would be very welcome to keep the cold out.

In my post of 2016-02-14, I explained how to make a typical Brazilian drink called Caipirinha. And after one or a couple of those, when the stomach starts to rumble, what could be better on a lazy Saturday afternoon than a Feijoada?

feijoada

Complete Feijoada from Minas Gerais

Feijoada is a stew of beans (named “feijão” in Portuguese) with beef and pork, with origins in Portugal, but made famous in Brazil. It is a typical dish for lunch on Wednesdays and Saturdays, although eating it in the middle of the week can be too filling for many people, so they prefer to wait until Saturday, when they can also enjoy it without guilt after the Caipirinha. Reference #1 gives the basic idea of what is needed to compose a Feijoada, but if you want the whole story, look in reference #2 (in Portuguese), with gives all the details of how the traditional Feijoada is made in the state of Minas Gerais, such as in the photo above.

Solution to The fast mover, posted on 2016-02-27

The riddle read: What can go from there to here by disappearing and then go from here to there by appearing? Look at the phrase again, which is the difference between the words ‘there’ and ‘here’? Of course, the letter ‘t’, which is the solution to the whole riddle.

A new problem will be presented tomorrow!

Svaret på bonusfrågan om det falska körkortet är att det finns tre fel i personnumret, angivet såsom 660202-0001:

  • De tre siffrorna närmast efter bindestrecket, de sjunde till nionde siffrorna, måste vara en sekvens från 001 till 999, 000 finns ej. I äldre personnummer indikerar de sjunde och åttonde siffrorna i vilket län personen föddes, men det gäller inte längre.
  • Om vi kan anta att innehavaren av körkortet är man, vilket både namn och foto tyder på, så måste den nionde siffran vara udda. Jämna siffror, inklusive 0, är reserverade för kvinnor.
  • Även om de första nio siffrorna vore korrekta, så är den tionde siffran (kontrollsiffran) fel. Om vi använder  formeln i Skatteverkets informationsblad, referens nr 3, så skulle slutsiffran vara 7.

 

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: Feijoada explained in English

2: Feijoada mineira completa

3: Skatteverkets informationsblad om personnummer

+: What did you learn in school today ?

2016-03-04 (Sexta-feira/Friday/Fredag)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Hoje, aprendi que:

Recebi reclamações de que meus posts raramente estejam escritos em português, portanto gostaria de melhorar isso um pouco hoje.

Li um artigo interessante em O Estado de S. Paulo que trata dos perigos de usar baterias de lítio de baixa qualidade. Leiam e contemplam o que está escrito no artigo da referência 1.

Above, I mentioned an article in Portuguese describing the dangers of using lithium-ion batteries of low quality. Luckily for those who do not understand Portuguese, reference #2 contains the original article, published in the New York Times.

And in the same spirit as the article above, I suggest that you read also the article in reference #3. It deals with a project for importing cheap hoverboards from China and reselling them in USA, written by a person from the reputable site TechCrunch. Yet another interesting read, if you ever had a desire to do something similar.

swiftdecks

The hoverboard that Khaled “Tito” Hamze imported and resold in USA

Upprepning av inlägg från 2016-03-03:

Om du vill hjälpa till med dagens teknikutveckling och tjäna en liten peng, ta en titt i dokumentet i referens 4 nedan. Men det gäller att vara snabb i handlingen, senast söndag behöver jag ha ditt test.

Deixei para o final o acontecimento mais importante do dia, o aniversário da minha adorável esposa, PARABÉNS !!!

… That’s what I learned in school ! … Slut för idag, tack för idag ! … Por hoje é só !

Refs.:

1: Bateria de lítio barata pode custar caro

2: The risks in hoverboards and other lithium-ion gadgets

3: How I built a hoverboard company and then blew it up

4: Snabba cash

+: What did you learn in school today ?

2016-03-03 (Torsdag)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Idag lärde jag mig, att:

Svenska företag har inte gett upp hoppet att hänga mig i den globala teknikutvecklingen, tvärtom! Titta bara på den följande europeiska rankingen:

1. Schweiz 873
2. Nederländerna 419
3. Sverige 392
4. Finland 365
5. Danmark 346

Siffrorna avser antalet patentansökningar per capita (miljon invånare). Under 2015 ökade antalet svenska patentansökningar till 1 939, vilket är 13,7 % fler än året innan. Guillaume Minnoye, vicepresident för EPO (Europeiska patentverket), säger att både Nederländerna och Sverige gör ett gott arbete i att stödja produktivitet och effektivitet. För Sveriges del handlar det till stor del om Ericssons framgångar. Ericsson stod ensamt för mer än hälften av de svenska ansökningarna till EPO, men även SKF, Electrolux och Volvo hamnar i toppen. Över hälften av patentansökningarna från Sverige kom också från företag i Stockholmsområdet, medan Västra Götalandsregionen stod för 19 procent.

Susanne Sivborg, generaldirektör för Patent- och registreringsverket, PRV, tillägger att Sverige är ett innovativt och teknikorienterat land. Svenska företag är duktiga på att använda immaterialrätten för att skydda sin verksamhet och stärka konkurrensen. Orsaken till att Schweiz ligger etta beror främst på dess skatte- och företagslagstiftning. Många globala företag har sina huvudkontor i Schweiz som dessutom har en liten befolkning.

Den kompletta artikeln från Dagens Nyheter kan läsas i referens nr 1 nedan.

Jag kan inte glömma bort vad som sades på 1800-talet, när en legend säger att chefen för amerikanska patentverket hotade att avgå då allt som var värt att uppfinna hade redan uppfunnits, och därför kunde patentverket lika gärna läggas ned. Men det är bara en skröna, i verkligheten var det som så att i en rapport till kongressen 1843 skrev Patent Office Commissioner Henry Ellsworth att “The advancement of the arts, from year to year, taxes our credulity and seems to presage the arrival of that period when human improvement must end.” Istället var det som så att han använde sig av retorik för att undertrycka det ökande antalet patent som presenteras i rapporten framöver. Se också referens nr 2 nedan.

Om du vill hjälpa till med dagens teknikutveckling och tjäna en liten peng, ta en titt i dokumentet i referens 3 nedan. Men det gäller att vara snabb i handlingen, senast söndag behöver jag ha ditt test.

Och så slutligen, kommer ni ihåg anekdoten om Oscar II? Aron Jonason var fotograf åt kung Oscar II på kungayachten HMS Drott som låg förtöjd i Marstrand. En kväll då Jonason fotograferat mycket och använt magnesiumblixt utbrister kungen:
– Det var väldigt vad Jonason blixtrar mycket!
– Ja, blixtrar den ene så åskar den andre! replikerade Jonason.

HMSDrott1897

Kungayachten HMS Drott fotograferad 1897

Kommer det någonsin att finnas en anekdot om Oscar III? Framtiden får utvisa det.

… Slut för idag, tack för idag !

Refs.:

1: Rekordmånga svenska patent beviljade

2: Rumor has it…

3: Snabba cash

4: Oscar II

+: What did you learn in school today ?

2016-03-02 (Wednesday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

After some recent very negative posts, today I would like us all to be merry!

I saw this interesting article about a music machine, that is simply adorable. It is the Swedish musician Martin Molin that created it out of 3 000 pieces of wood, and where an army of 2 000 marbles are striking the chords. See the article of reference #1 and watch the video in reference #2, it is amazing! The name of his band is strikingly called Wintergatan, the Swedish word for Milky Way, so why not listen to the music of the spheres?

Wintergatan

Wood and marble in unison to play the music of the spheres. Copyright by Wintergatan

Do you remember when George Harrison sang “Ring out the old, ring in the new”? Well, that is exactly what is happening in the small Ukrainian town of Kalini. The regional governor there decided that enough is enough, and changed the name of the main street from Lenin Street to Lennon Street.

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: Musician creates bizarre instrument that uses 2 000 marbles and some impressive engineering to play tune

2: Wintergatan music machine

3: Lennongatan i Kalini

4: Ring out the old, ring in the new

+: What did you learn in school today ?