Media

Very interesting film about the history of venture capital.  It all started with some guys working issues on the side.  An amazing history of interest to anyone who wants to start their own company.

From the webpage summary

Official selection of the 2011 San Francisco International Film Festival.

Conceived by co-executive producer Paul Holland and directed by Emmy Award winning filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, SOMETHING VENTURED tells the story of the creation of an industry that went on to become the single greatest engine of innovation and economic growth in the twentieth century. It is told by the visionary risk-takers who dared to make it happen: Tom Perkins, Don Valentine, Arthur Rock, Dick Kramlich and others. The film also includes some of our finest entrepreneurs sharing how they worked with these venture capitalists to grow world-class companies like Intel, Apple, Cisco, Atari, Genentech, Tandem and others. Beginning in the late 1950s, this small group of high rollers fostered a one-of-a-kind business culture that encouraged extraordinary risk and made possible unprecedented rewards. They laid the groundwork for America's start-up economy, providing not just the capital but the guidance to allow seedling companies to reach their full potential. Our lives would be dramatically different without the contributions that these venture capitalists made to the creation of PCs, the Internet and life-saving drugs.

Watch here

Video Notes

In a guest lecture at the University of Waterloo's Institute for Quantum Computing, Dr. Peter Milonni of the Los Alamos National Laboratory explains Casimir effects.

Casimir effects are generally regarded as manifestations of zero-point energies of quantum fields. The best-known Casimir effects are those associated with the electromagnetic vacuum field; these are of great current interest not only for basic physics but also for their implications for nanotechnology. Following a brief review of the concept of zero-point energy, and experimental evidence for it, attention is be focused on the most famous Casimir effect—the force between two perfectly conducting plates—and the extension of the theory to dielectric materials.

For more information:

www.iqc.ca Follow IQC on Twitter: @QuantumIQC

Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/quantumIQC

—Video went AWOL —

A very good video because it brings zero point energy into the explanation of the Casimir effect.  

Notes

• Shows the invariant term for spectra which is the sum of the  Wave Term + Particle term

Poor Henrietta Lacks.  ( aka HeLa ).   

A fascinating tale of cancer research gone wrong. The story, dating back to the 1950s, of the search for a cure for cancer and the impact of Henrietta Lacks, the "woman who will never die" because her cancer cells never stopped reproducing.  

A must watch series on your base functions.  Human Instinct

Wikipedia: Ring of Fire

  Documentary Video Film 202: The Ring of Fire, Part 5
  Documentary Video Film 201: The Ring of Fire, Part 4
  Documentary Video Film 200: The Ring of Fire, Part 3
  Documentary Video Film 199: The Ring of Fire, Part 2
  Documentary Video Film 198: The Ring of Fire, Part 1

• Trail of Genghis Khan 1
• Trail of Genghis Khan 2
• Trail of Genghis Khan 3
• Trail of Genghis Khan 4
• Trail of Genghis Khan 5
• Trail of Genghis Khan 6

From the former Mongol capital Karakorum to the Danube, young Australian adventurer Tim Cope retraced the path of the first nomads and followed the route taken by legendary Genghis Khan as he forged his great empire. Over three and a half gruelling years, and guided by an old Kazakh wisdom – "to understand the wolf, you must put on the skin of a wolf and look through its eyes" – Tim lived just as the ancient nomads did.

Tim travelled 10,000kms alone on horseback across the Eurasian steppe through Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine and Hungary.

When he set out with his fearless dog Tigon as a companion there was no certainty – no backup from a camera crew, no escape route – and he could barely ride a horse. Ahead lay wolf-infested plateaux, the glaciated Altai Mountains, minus fifty degree temperatures on the 'starving steppe', scorching heat in the Kazakh desert, violent clashes between sedentary and nomadic societies and the deep forests and treacherous peals of the Carpathians. He would also suffer the greatest tragedy of his life. To cope he would have to draw on everything he learnt from the nomads.

The extreme challenges gave Tim empathy and insight into the nomadic way of life, and as a young man growing up; the journey became a personal rite of passage. Along the way, just as the nomads did, Tim sought refuge with local families, who welcomed him with open arms, traditional nomad hospitality and taught him the ways of the steppe.

At the end of his journey, Time arrived on the Danube having achieved the first crossing of the steppe in modern times.

See the video here:  Off the Rails

These sort of trips are what I call "a cultural experience".   You think it is about the bicycle but a strange thing happens when you bicycle.  Your endorphins rise and people open up to you like a door swung wide open.  I know because it has happened to me before.  

See also 

• Off the Rails – production company
• Tim Cope adventures
• Mongolian Adventure on Horseback
• In the Steppes of Nomads  (playlist on youtube)