Whatever happened to the Big Crunch?

According to this news story, 'scientists' now believe that the universe will continue expanding forever.

How things change. When I was a physics student (about 20 years ago), the dominant theory was that the universe was expanding, following the Big Bang, but was decelerating in its expansion. The theory went that at some (future) time the universe would reach its maximum size and then begin collapsing in on itself, eventually ending up in the opposite of the Big Bang - the Big Crunch.

At the time it was taught to us as 'fact'. Now it appears that it was wrong and we have a new 'fact'.

"'A thousand years ago we thought the world was a bowl,' he said. 'Five hundred years ago we knew it was a globe. Today we know it is flat and round and carried through space on the back of a turtle.' He turned and gave the High Priest another smile. 'Don't you wonder what shape it will turn out to be tomorrow?'"

Terry Pratchett, 'The Truth'

The future is finally here...

Remember when you were a kid and people in sci-fi shows had really cool gadgets in their watches, like Dick Tracey's video watch, or Michael Knight talking to KITT through his watch...?

Well, that future has arrived.

A few years ago I heard tale of a mobile-phone-in-a-watch called 'Wristmo' - it looked really clumsy and was remarkably feature-free. And you only got it in Japan.
Now you can get something so much better that that, in the UK, for a surprisingly reasonable price. The sWaP watch. Get one (appropriately enough) from iwantoneofthose.com for a mere £250.

How cool is that? It is a watch combined with all the features of a contemporary mobile phone. So you can send and receive texts and multimedia messages, it can play mp3s or even mp4 video clips, it has a built in speaker / microphone so you can actually use it as a phone without attaching any extra bits. But if you want to attach stuff you can include a wired 'hands free' kit or even a bluetooth headset.

Here's the features list:

• A watch, a mobile phone and a media centre all rolled into one.
  
• Choose from a number of different watch faces stored in the sWap Watches' memory.
  
• Pop your SIM card into the watch and it's easy to make and receive calls
  
• 1.5 inch TFT colour touch screen so you can watch movies!
  
• Includes a hands free kit, Bluetooth headset and a stylus (plus one spare) for negotiating the touch screen.
  
• The stylus is stored in a handy slot built in to the watch strap.
  
• No need to buy a new SIM card - simply take it out of your mobile and pop it in the watch.
  
• Receives SMS, MMS and can display recent and missed calls.
  
• Store up to 300 contacts.
  
• Built in alarm clock has 5 different tones to choose from.
  
• Compatible with all UK networks except 3.
  
• Record audio using the hands-free kit's mic and use the craftily concealed 1.3 megapixel camera to take pics and record video.
  
• 128MB memory can be expanded up to 2GB with a Micro SD card (not included).
  
• Supports MP3, MIDI, WAV, AAC and MP4 files.
  
• Standby time: 100 hours.
  
• Talk time: 150-180mins.
  
• Requires a 650mAh rechargeable battery (included).

Sounds fantastic! The only alarm bell I get while reading that list is the word 'stylus' - can it not be operated using fingers?

But can I justify buying one? No.

:o(

I already have a gadget phone that does all that and more. And I have an iPod. The combination of those two satisfies most of my portable gadget needs. And the sWaP doesn't do wi-fi, e-mail or mobile internet (well, it does GPRS, but...).

But it is highly cool.

Scientifically proven fact!

It is a scientifically proven fact that whenever someone uses the phrase "scientifically proven fact" what they really mean is 'I heard someone say this and I believed them, but I haven't put in the time and effort to find any references for it' or possibly 'I read it on wikipedia'.

It is self-evident that when someone uses the phrase "it is self-evident" what they really mean is 'this is my interpretation of the facts and if you come to different conclusions then you are wrong'.

And 99% of statistics that claim that "99%" of some group are united on an issue are completely made up.

I've heard two of these abused in the past 24 hours and it can't be long before someone uses the third...

The Prestige

Watched The Prestige (2006) at the weekend. Great.

Its a tale of two rival stage magicians / performers in Victorian London. Christian Bale plays Alfred Borden a.k.a. 'The Professor' - an excellent magician but without the flair of Robert Angier a.k.a. 'The Great Danton', played by Hugh Jackman, who is a great performer but perhaps not as great a magician.

At the outset they are colleagues working together on a magic show. But an accident happens on stage which may or may not have been the fault of Alfred and Robert's wife dies. From this point on they are rivals, each seeking to out-perform and best the other, and occasionally resorting to underhand tricks and worse to bring the other down.

There are many twists and turns in this movie and it is hard to comment on it without giving anything major away. So much falls into place at the end that you want to go back and watch it for a second time, just to see how everything fits together.

The performances of the main actors are great and Scarlett Johansson adds an extra bit of shine to the film. However, Michael Caine is Michael Caine and I have no idea what David Bowie is supposed to be. It takes a few minutes of screen time for both of them to turn into character, rather than being the iconic actor and singer. Good to see Andy Serkis in a film where he's not being a CGI puppet, even if his role is small.

Minor spoiler below.

But I have one gripe with the film. For most of the film we see the illusionists wowing the audience with 'how on earth did they do that?' type trickery. But at one point (towards the end), one of the magicians does something which is actually impossible (or certainly is currently impossible with today's technology and certainly would have been impossible in Victorian times, however clever Mr Tesla might have been; but maybe it will be possible in the future, who knows?) and this is dressed up as 'science'. But this is really pure science-fiction. The film crosses the boundary from possible fiction to impossible fiction and in some way that cheapened the cleverness of the 'magic', even if there is a further twist that is quite shocking, and more so the more you think about it.

But I can't let that minor gripe spoil the review. Although it took a while to grab my attention, it was a very good film once it got going and the ending was all it should have been. Recommended.

Enough about Science?

Leaving This Earth
by Dave Stewart
from the album 'Sly-Fi' (1998)
She's leaving this earth again
there's a shuttle bound for take off
11.45 a.m. she'll be there
she's special, oh so special
knows enough about science
to get married to a millionaire
she'll be there

She takes a shower in a small town near Birmingham
and though here clothes are unfashionable
they have a timeless feel, but is she real?

She leaves the building and walks through
the housing estate. It's 7.30, a state grey sky
but in spite of this she turns and blows a kiss

She's leaving this earth again
there's a shuttle bound for take off
11.45 a.m. she'll be there
she's special, oh so special
knows enough about science
to get married to a millionaire
she'll be there

He'll comb his hair in a high rise apartment
on the river Tyne, though his neck is scarred
he has a strong and handsome face, a human face
he leaves the building and walks to his electric car
it's 7.30 there's a bitter wind but in spite of that
he turns and tips his hat

He's leaving this earth again
there's a shuttle bound for take off
11.45 a.m. he'll be there
he's so special oh so special
knows enough about science
to forget about his morning prayers
he'll be there

I'm leaving this earth again
there's a shuttle bound for take off
11.45 a.m. I'll be there
I'm special oh so special
I was chosen by the captain
of a spaceship in Trafalgar Square
and I promised I'd be there or be square!

---

Just out of interest, how much about science do you have to know to either:

1. ... get married to a millionaire, or
2. ... forget about your morning prayers?

Just wondering...

Nothing

What is nothing?

If nothing can be defined, it has properties.

If it has properties, it must be something.

So what is nothing?

Everyone has a book inside of them...

According to a Readers' Digest survey a few years ago, over 70% of people believe that 'everyone has a book inside of them'. Some years ago I had a conversation with a few friends (at least one of whom reads this blog; hello San) where we discussed this and I admitted that I had the bones of a story in my head. The story in question was a Narnia-like kids fantasy story and, when questioned about it I made the mistake of replying that 'my fantasy world isn't fully developed' - which resulted in a good few sniggers.

Anyway, the fantasy world has actually developed over the years and I now have a much more fully thought through novel idea. What I don't seem to have found is the time to actually put pen to paper (or, more likely, fingers to keyboard) and actually write the thing. In a moment of extreme procrastination a few years ago, when I was supposed to be writing my PhD thesis, I actually did write the entire prologue and first chapter of that book, but never wrote any more. If I was to revisit it, I would almost certainly rewrite the entire thing from scratch.

Over the past few years, two other story ideas have formed in my head, although neither has been written in any form, and I'm not sure I am actually capable of doing the ideas justice. But since this blog is an airing ground for my private ideas, I thought I'd share the half-baked ideas with you, my somewhat restricted reading public, and see if you want to offer any thoughts or comments on my book ideas...

Story 1
This started out life as being a kids' fantasy, but as the idea has developed it has become much more of a 'young adult' novel, more in line with the tone and subject matter of the later Harry Potter books (which feature death, politics, hatred and snogging) than the Narnia stories. As yet the book has no title. The story follows two characters, the first is an eleven year old boy from Edinburgh who ends up in the fantasy world, the other is a nineteen year old student alchemist from the fantasy world who ends up in our world. The story follows each character, chapter about, as they find out about the world they find themselves in and, as is usual in these sort of stories, find out about themselves along the way. The story is deliberately episodic in nature and does (deliberately) adhere to several of the cliches of fantasy writing. Hopefully I would be able to subvert the cliches in an entertaining manner. The main problem I have with this story is how to keep the story of the alchemist in this world interesting. Most of the action happens in the fantasy world, but I want some to happen here too.

Story 2
This is another fantasy novel. Given that most of the books I read are fantasy, it is no surprise that most of the books I want to write are also fantasy. The idea of this book is a much more complicated one. The entire events of this story occur in a fantasy world, although I don't necessarily think that any magic occurs here. The benefit of setting a story in a fantasy world is that the reader has no presuppositions about what is real there.

In many ways the pattern for this book was inspired by 'The Lions of Al Rassan' by Guy Gavriel Kay - that book is set in a fantasy world, yet there is no magic in the book at all. In that story the main characters are from different religious groups, with different gods, but the reader has no pre-judged idea of whether there is or is not a god - it may be that all the gods are real, it may be that none are, it may be that only one is, but the reader does not know - and it turns out to be irrelevant to the story, but the reader doesn't know that at the outset. When reading a fantasy novel people expect real gods and magic...

Anyway, the concept behind this novel is that it is set in a reasonably small, back-water type town which is part of a larger empire. The town is ruled (or is it?) by a woman considered by some to be royalty, considered by others to be a witch, considered by herself to be something else entirely. Each chapter is told in first-person narrative by a different character in the story. Thus, it is told from within the belief system and presuppositions of that character. All the characters have different viewpoints and perhaps none of them are close to reality. The main point of the story is who is this woman? The final chapter is told from her point of view, so we finally find out (or do we? maybe she is deluded?). This is a tricky story to tell and I'm not sure I have the time or ability to actually do it well. Perhaps when I'm older.

There is a cliche in certain types of fantasy novels relating to maps. See, for example, the stories of David Eddings. Here the maps are important and he seems intent on taking the story through all the different countries and places on the maps that he has devised. My subversion of the map idea here is that each chapter starts with a map; not a map of how the world is, but rather a map of how the world is perceived by the narrator of that particular chapter. For example, the opening chapter is narrated by a young teenage boy, his map shows the town (provisionally named 'Stone') centrally on the map, with very little detail more than a day's journey away from the town. The chapter narrated by the merchant has a much more detailed map of the whole empire, and so on. In fact the whole novel idea more or less sprung from this concept.

Story 3
This is the story which I am actually most likely to work on. It is not a fantasy in the sense of the other two, but is not set in the real world either. It is more of an alternative history. The story is narrated in first person by an old man, writing to a younger audience. I think he is writing in about the year 2050, when he is over 100 years old and is on some form of life-support machine. He is recounting the days of his youth to anybody who has time to listen. The novel begins with a shocking opening line - which was basically the first thing I thought of and the basis for the whole story that unfolds thereafter. The opening line is:

"Although I was only five at the time, I can still clearly remember where I was and what I was doing on the day that God died."

From that opening, the narrator recounts the story of how 'research theologians' in California had conclusively proved the existence of God some years earlier and talks through all the subsequent discoveries they made about the nature of God over the next few years, before inadvertently killing him in 1950. The narrator also recounts the response of the religious and non religious people, first to the revelation that there definitely was a God, then to the revelation that he was dead. The story also recounts the events of world history between 1950 and 2050 in the light of the absence of God. Due to the scatter-brained character of the narrator, all this does not necessarily come in chronological order.

The book is more or less an exploration of some of the ideas that I have been expressing on my other blog (Confessions of a Doubting Thomas), although there is a story of self-discovery which unfolds in between the 'historical' narrative. There will also be some twists. By doing this as first-person narrative I can, once again, impose a prejudiced and not-entirely-accurate world view onto the narrator.

The book is provisionally entitled 'God of the gaps' as the narrator comments early on about the 'God of the gaps' type reasoning which was once used by atheists before God was proved, and how it only became apparent that 'some of the smallest gaps are the most important' after God died.

Maybe one day I'll be able to write one or more of these proplerly. But for now I'd appreciate any comments you may have on my ideas.

Saturn

That's not a graphic. That's a real photo of Saturn from the Cassini probe. In this photo, the sun is directly behind the planet. Isn't it amazing?

At higher resolution, you can even see the earth in this picture (just above the left extremity of the densely packed rings, just outside the first faint ring) - earth seen from almost a billion miles away. How cool is that?

If you want to see Saturn for yourself, look into the eastern sky an hour or two after sunset (Feb 10th for the best view, although it should be visible tonight and for another few weeks) and the brightests yellow 'star' you see should be Saturn. A small telescope should be all that is needed to see the rings...

The secret of invisibility: Einstein was wrong...

Cool science news. Boffins at Imperial in London have managed to make something invisible... and proved Einstein wrong along the way. Read all about it here.

Return to Eden

Wow. Read this news story. Archaeologists are excavating the world's oldest temple - built in 10,000 BC! That's 8,000 years before Stonehenge and some four thousand years older than the entire world (if 'young earth creationists' are to be believed).

But the thing that really intrigues me is that the temple appears to tell the 'Garden of Eden' story in sculpture form - is the carving on the right really a representation of the 'serpent' before it was cursed and lost its limbs?

I know that some biblical scholars are pretty convinced that the Garden of Eden story (Genesis 2v8 - 3v24) is the oldest story in the bible (some say at least a thousand years older than the creation story in Genesis 1), but here we appear to have it about 6,000 years earlier than I thought it was supposed to be. Wow.