Useful Thoughts and Actions Taken

Economist and Economic Modeller Steve Keen showing instability inherent in high debt economies

Steve Keen talks about instability inherent in high debt economies.  He does this while modeling economies on a computer and demonstrating the oscillations.

Video Notes

  • I have seen this kind of stability analysis applied before.  It is valid for circuits and system functions – I would posit it is valid for economic systems
  • When economies start using debt to drive employment things are ok for a few economic cycles – then you hit a last cycle when debt taken on is huge – the economic levitation ends – the economy shuts down.
  • The blue trace with loops is a tracing of oscillator "squegging" as we call it in electrical engineering – parametric modulation
  • because private debt levels are so high private deleveraging can overwhelm government deficit spending
  • writing off the bad debt – a.k.a. recognizing the bad debt is the only solution
  • to stabilize the system the system should be tweaked to limit the amount of personal debt individuals are willing to take on – base housing loan prices on rents you can get for said house instead of what appraisers conjure up
  • Full talk at the Whitlam Institute is here
  • The associated PowerPoint presentation is here
By Fudgy McFarlen, ago

Quantum Entanglement of Photons demonstrated in relatively low cost set up

  • Louis DeBroglie does not get the credit he deserves for original thinking in quantum machanics – DeBroglie thesis paper   – he won the Nobel Prize in 1929 for very good reasons which you will see if you read his thesis paper.
  • I am looking for the single photon counter used in this experimental setup

PowerPoint presentation of experiment Uses an SPCM-APD  ( Single Photon Counting Module – Avalanch Photo Detector )

One of the experimenters

Relatively simple setup uses spontaneous parametric downconversion of photon to create 2 photons that are entangled.  Then these are sent to 2 single photon detectors.   If you have any of the parts or pieces of this setup for sale I would be interested in buying.     

By Fudgy McFarlen, ago

Summary Outline of Richard Feynmans Thesis – Framework for learning QED and Quantum Mechanics in general

He was a fun guy.

 A reasonable strategy for learning QED would be to try to recreate Richard Feynman's path of discovery that lead him to his thesis paper.   If you are an electrical or computer engineer you should probably set about the task of learning the subject for sooner or later quantum computing and nanotechnology are going to go mainstream.  If I am successful in learning this subject it will mark the first time I have not been at least 10 years behind the technology curve when it finally hits.

Research Links

— The following summary is from his Nobel prize address in 1965 and yields some insight as to how he went about the problem of reformulating QED into a more usable form.   It includes some information about the wrong turns he took which of course is very instructive in and of itself. —

By Fudgy McFarlen, ago

My Guide to all things Richard Feynman

Wikipedia entry  – with a list of papers at the bottom.

Selected papers of Richard Feynman

Feynman related book bit torrents  – includes the Feynman lectures on physics 1, 2, 3 –  Buy a hard copy because they are great but when traveling soft copy is the way to go.

Feynman lectures on computation  – hard copy on Amazon – Bittorrent   – Of course, we might get useful ideas from studying how the brain works, but we must remember that automobiles do not have legs like cheetahs nor do airplanes flap their wings!

By Fudgy McFarlen, ago

Video: KITP Lecture : Putting Weirdness to Work: Quantum Information Science

boxes and soxes

Backup copy: Putting quantum weirdness to work: Quantum Information Science

Quantum physics, information theory, and computer science are among the crowning intellectual achievements of the 20th century. Now, a new synthesis of these themes is underway. The emerg- ing field of quantum information science is providing important insights into fundamental issues at the interface of computation and physical science, and may guide the way to revolutionary technological advances. The quantum laws that govern atoms and other tiny objects differ radically from the classical laws that govern our ordinary experience. In particular, quantum information (information en- coded in a quantum system) has weird properties that contrast sharply with the familiar properties of classical information. Physicists, who for many years have relished this weirdness, have begun to recognize in recent years that we can put the weirdness to work: There are tasks involving the acquisition, transmission, and processing of information that are achievable in principle because Nature is quantum mechanical, but that would be impossible in a less weird classical world. John Preskill will describe the properties of quantum bits ("qubits"), the indivisible units of quantum infor- mation, and explain the essential ways in which qubits differ from classical bits. For one thing, it is impossible to read or copy the state of a qubit without disturbing it. This property is the basis of "quantum cryptography," wherein the privacy of secret information can be founded on principles of fundamental physics. Qubits can be "entangled" with one another. This means that the qubits can exhibit subtle quantum correlations that have no classical analogue; roughly speaking, when two qubits are en- tangled, their joint state is more definite than the state of either qubit by itself. Because of quantum entanglement, a vast amount of classical information would be needed to describe completely the quantum state of just a few hundred qubits. Therefore, a "quantum computer" operating on just a few hundred qubits could perform tasks that ordinary digital computers could not possibly emulate. 

Links

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By Fudgy McFarlen, ago

Gettin Started – Shipping the van to Vladivostok

Includes details on shipping vehicle to Russia

Here we go again.
 
Details, details, details. To get going is all about details. You CAN take it with you, in fact if you forget something you have to deal with it for a long time. We took the van and bike over to Long Beach to put them into a hicube container. Thanks Harry for the ride back. We got there the night before I was led to understand we were to load the container. Waited around for something like three hours the next morning and still no move to load. Then they allowed as there was no container to load. Lots of finger pointing as to why this was so. Shipping Company blamed the Warehouse Company and the Warehouse Company blamed the Shipping Company, you get the picture. As it turned out it was the Shipping Company. So we left the stuff there with the hopes they would load it without mishap. Was told that the door opening was eight feet five inches high and my measurements said at most there was a half-inch to spare. Guess I’ll see what the result is when we unload in Vladivostok.
 
Finally everything was supposedly loaded and headed to the boat, when US Customs put a hold on the container. Customs would give no date for the inspection to occur; other than it would be less than a month. They totally unloaded the container and did a $785 inspection, plus the hauling and unload and reload charges, all at my expense of course. Total was about $1800, plus the original $4600 shipping. The delay caused the container to miss the boat.
 
So had to rebook the plane tickets ($400) and as it turns out, change the invite dates for the Russian visas ($250). Apparently your entry date has to be correct. You have to register within seventy-two hours after arrival. Or so I was told. I’m a little skeptical on that one, as Jack was a week late, because he missed his original ferry. He had a one month tourist visa though , so maybe they’re treated different.
 
As before I’ll try and give some of the details, for those reading this, who might be inclined, to do something equally stupid. Things like shipping charges and gas prices. Boring maybe, but hard to find out any other way.
 
What I learned from all this is, if I were to do it again, I would explore shipping from outside the US. Ensenada Baja Mexico or Vancouver or some such place. Can’t see how they could possibly have a more expensive or screwed up system. Charged $70 for a ‘clean truck’, really. When I shipped from Cartegena Columbia, it was much simpler, with everything handled before hand and inspection and container loading done at the same time. If at all possible ship from outside the US. A system brought to you by the same people that gave you Ol Lyin George and Microsoft.
 
Getting a visa of more than a month is hard, for Russia. Looks like I’m going to be a consultant, so I can get a one-year multiple entry business Visa. You can stay in Russia for ninety days in any one hundred-eighty day period. Also a visa, in advance, is needed for Kazakhstan. Only thirty days is possible for a tourist visa. Problem is you need to specify dates in advance. So just had to guess and hope things work out, time wise.
By Fudgy McFarlen, ago

Video: The Pigeon drop con

Con 1 & 2 = confidence men  Person 3 = victim

The steps

  • con 1 engages victim in conversation
  • con 2 walks by and "finds" a wallets with 3000 dollars in it.   He opens wallet and says "wow" we should keep it
  • con 1 says no wait it might be a stolen wallet
  • con 2 says I'll go in a nearby building and call police to inquire. I will take the money with me
  • con 1 says "Hey wait a minute I'm not sure if I trust you"
  • con 3 says ok but how can I trust you?
  • con 1 says "here I'll seal the money up in an envelop"…and give you 50 dollars of my own to hold.  He hands a sealed up envelop to the victim.  The victim thinks he has money in the envelop but its not.  It is paper cut to size of bank notes.
  • con 2 asks some money of the victim
  • con 2 goes in the building
  • con 1 after a long time waiting goes into the building and dissappears
  • The victim is left holding an envelop of worthless paper.
By Fudgy McFarlen, ago