HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: sarfatti@well.sf.ca.us (Jack Sarfatti)
Subject: TIME TRAVEL
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 19:31:27 GMT


From John Gribbon's pop-book UNVEILING THE EDGE OF TIME which is easier to
understand than Zeh's THE DIRECTION OF TIME:
"...down at around 10^-33 centimeters (the Plank scale) spacetime itself
... a constant seethe of activity .... during this seething activity a tiny
wormhole will form in the fabric of spacetime ... This might be a wormhole
with both mouths 'in' our Universe, like the wormholes discussed by the
Thorne-Novikov consortium but on a tiny scale. Scientists interested in
time travel point out that in the far distant future a superior
civilization might be able to capture one of these tiny wormholes and
stretch it in some way, to create a kind of time tunnel.... there are other
forms of quantum wormhole [a black hole much smaller than a proton] .. that
pinches off a tiny piece of spacetime from our Universe, in such a way that
the pinched-off portion of spacetime begins to expand and form another
universe in its own right, connected to our Universe by the microscopic
wormhole .... this possibility ... a 'baby universe' p.215

the way the baby universe starts to expand.. is .. the way our own Universe
started to expand away from the initial singularity .... Inflation explains
how a tiny seed of a universe ... no bigger than a quantum fluctuation of
the vacuum [controlled from the future?-JS] can be blown up into the
fireball of the Big Bang. literally in a plit second [10^-35 sec]. Before
the idea of inflation came along, cosmologoists were happy to explain (...
using the general theory of relativity) how the Universe got to be the way
it is starting out from the Big Bang fireball; but they had no idea how
that fireball of energy came into being in the first place....

information may leak from one universe into another through the microscopic
wormholes that connect them ..this could resolve one of the longest-
standing puzzles in cosmology, the vanishing of the cosmological
constant..p.217

one way to think of the [cosmological] constant is as a kind of antigravity
... or as an energy possessed by the vacuum itself .. if the constant were
positive it would make the Universe expand much more rapidly than we
actually see(if the constant were negative, it would make the Universe
expand less rapidly than we actually see) p.219

inflation ... this rapid expansion, which created the Big Bang fireball, is
thought to have been driven by the negative pressure of a strong vacuum
energy that existed at that time - in effect, by a positive cosmological
constant. It is exactly this negative-pressure state of the vacuum that
might be frozen into pieces of cosmic string left over from the
inflationary phase, offering a chance for a superior civilization to obtain
the scaffolding required to hold open the mouth of a traversable wormhole,
in accordance with Visser's bluprint."..p.219



Newsgroups: sci.physics
From: jbaez@riesz.mit.edu (John C. Baez)
Subject: Re: Time to develop a crackpot index?
Organization: MIT Department of Mathematics, Cambridge, MA
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 92 03:49:22 GMT

In article <mcirvin.719096772@scws3> mcirvin@scws3.harvard.edu (Mcirvin) writes:
>jbaez@riesz.mit.edu (John C. Baez) writes:
>>7) 5 points for each word in all capital letters (except for posters
>>with defective keyboards).  
>>9) 10 points for every use of science fiction works as if they were
>>fact.

>WHAT is NUMBER 8?????!!!!  Has it been REMOVED by CENSORS FROM
>THE BIG G?????????   or MICROWAVE BRAIN-scrambling EQUIPMENT??????

Yes, the math department microwave oven has a "brain-scrambling" setting
and the secretaries tend to set it on that whenever I come by for some
coffee.  It's part of the global conspiracy to make me seem
absent-minded.

By the way, your posting rates a measly 75 on the following (updated)
Richter scale:

0)  A -5 point starting credit.
1) 1 point for every statement that is widely agreed on to be false.
2) 2 points for every statement that is logically inconsistent.
3) 5 points for each such statement that is adhered to despite careful
correction.
4) 30 points for each posting that claims a revolutionary theory but
gives no concrete testable predictions.
5) 10 points for each favorable comparison of oneself to Einstein, or
claim that special or general relativity are fundamentally misguided
(without good evidence).
6) 10 points for each claim the quantum mechanics is fundamentally
misguided (without good evidence).
7) 20 points for each favorable comparison of oneself to Newton
claim that classical mechanics is fundamentally misguided (without
evidence).
8) 40 points for each favorable comparison of oneself to Galileo,
claims that the Inquisition is hard at work on ones case, etc..
9) 20 points for suggesting that you deserve a Nobel prize.
10) 5 points for each word in all capital letters (except for posters
with defective keyboards).  
11) 10 points for every use of science fiction works as if they were
fact.
12) 20 points for claiming that the "scientific establishment" is
engaged
in a "conspiracy" to prevent ones work from gaining its well-deserved
fame, or suchlike.
13) 10 points for pointing out that one has gone to school, as if this
were evidence of sanity.
14) 5 points for using a thought experiment that contradicts the results
of a widely accepted real experiment.


>I second the proposal to include comparisons to Galileo as an
>extra bonus, particularly if it makes specific reference to the
>Inquisition.  We ought to keep track of speed records for the
>appearance of the first Galileo comparison.  If it comes up in
>the subject's first posting, it should count double.

See above.
From: gilligan@bldrdoc.gov (Jonathan M. Gilligan)
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: Re: Quantum Zeno Effect, Part 1.
Date: 15 Oct 92 00:14:48 GMT
Organization: National Institute of Standards and Technology

In article <1992Oct9.012727.9412@oracorp.com> daryl@oracorp.com (Daryl McCullough) writes:
>I don't consider exponential decay to be a counter-example of the
>Zeno, but a consequence of it! Rather than deal with nuclear decay,
>let me try a simpler problem: A spin-1/2 particle starts off in the
>state |+1/2> (spin in the z-direction is +1/2) with a magnetice field
>in the y-direction. Now, because |+1/2> is not an energy eigenstate,
>it will tend to evolve into a superposition of |+1/2> and |-1/2>.

[... details of spin precession ...]

>Now we will consider an experiment in which the z-component of the
>spin of the particle is continually observed at intervals dt such that
>1/dt is much greater than omega. The experiment ends when spin -1/2 is
>observed.
>
>The probability after N observations that the particle will still be
>found in the state |+1/2> every time is approximately exp(-a N dt^2),
                                                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>where a = (mu B/h-bar)^2. Letting T = N dt be the total time, we get
>the probability as
>
>     exp(-T/\tau)
>
>where \tau is a time constant given by 1/(dt (mu B/h-bar)^2).

Note the arithmetic error here:

  P(N) = exp(-a N dt^2)

T = N dt, so dt^2 = T^2/N. Thus,

  P(N) = exp(-a T^2 /N) -----------> 1
                        N->infinity

This is manifestly _not_ exponential decay!!!!!!!  Before proposing a
theory that contradicts observed data (Itano and coworkers'
observation of the suppression of driven transitions by frequent
measurement) always check your arithmetic ;-).

---Jon
-- 

Disclaimer --- The government probably disagrees with my opinions.
Newsgroups: sci.physics
From: jbaez@riesz.mit.edu (John C. Baez)
Subject: Crackpot Index
Organization: MIT Department of Mathematics, Cambridge, MA
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 92 04:17:22 GMT


>My only worry about your indexing scheme is the -5 "bonus" per post, which
>seems to encourage sheer volume.  We all know of posters who intersperse
>between successive 30-point revolutionizings of physics 5 chatty and/or
>autobiographical posts, thus netting no crackpot points.

Hmm, my intent was not to keep track of long-term averages of crackpot
indices (I certainly don't have the energy for that!), but simply to
give folks a break on any given post so they can say a few false
things and not be a "crackpot".   If someone posts a single post with CI
> 30 they should be sent to the Inquisition for cross-examination by the
scientific establishment (and maybe the cultural elite while we're at
it).

>I would say that each poster should receive 1 point per posting in the
>previous month, and to this should be added any points beyond five which
>he/she accumulates in a single post (but only if this latter quantity is
>positive).

Ahem, are you subtly hinting that my loquaciousness gives me the
impression of being a crackpot?  It's possible.  But I really think that
frequent posters such as myself, Dale, Scott, McIrvin and others are not
crackpots; we are simply loudmouths.  Perhaps a separate score should
be devised for that, but I am not going to do it.  (You should be
relieved to note that nasty telnet/emacs interactions currently limit my
posts to one screenful unless I do extra fancy maneuvers.)

>Probably the best would be to try to set up a scheme like the one Mermin
>wrote about in Reference Frame some months ago, in which the newsgroup
>remained unrefereed, but a parallel newsgroup contained a "grade" for
>each article and/or poster-- not actual referee reports, since those
>constitute follow-up articles, but perhaps three numbers: the number of
>people who felt the urge to send in an evaluation of the article (say -10
>for a waste of space, +10 for more interesting than average, -50 for utter
>nonsense, +50 for a must-read, et cetera), the average grade, and its
>standard deviation.  (The last item to point up those articles which
>provoke strong reactions in both directions.)

Well, your suggestions are nice but quite elaborate, and go well beyond
my simple goal, which is to expose crackpots by a fairly simple rating
system that any decent physicist can calculate from a single post.
From: ande@sierra.com (Ande Rychter)
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: Stephen W. Hawking?
Date: 15 Oct 92 00:19:59 GMT
Organization: Sierra Geophysics Inc.,  Kirkland, Wa

In 25108 George II Lenzer asks:

> Has anyone heard anything about Hawking as of late?  I need to get 
> info on him for a paper relating religion and physics.
> If anyone can provide information, especially on that topic, it
> would be greatly appreciated.

Religion and physics are two opposites.  The effect of physics on religion
is that of water on fire.  (The effect of religion on physics is the same.) -AR
From: sichase@csa3.lbl.gov (SCOTT I CHASE)
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: Re: some HEP detector information please
Date: 7 Oct 1992 10:26 PST
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory - Berkeley, CA, USA
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.254.198
Keywords: HEP, detector
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    

In article <7OCT199210545457@vxcrna.cern.ch>, hearns@vxcrna.cern.ch (HEARNS,J./EP) writes...
>Could some high energy physicists help me out please?
>I need to know the depth in radiation lengths of the E/M 
>calorimeters used by the TPC collaboration and by Delphi.
>This is for a table in my thesis.
>No, I'm not too lazy to go to the library to look them up.
>I have lots and lots of reviews and papers, but these pieces of information
>are not to hand.

This should be very easy information to find, no?  Every big collaboration
has a series of technical papers to which they refer over and over again
in every publication.  You know... "The details of the detector have 
been described elsewhere(1), so we confine ourselves to reviewing only
those portions of the detector relevent for the current analysis."  If
Delphi has not published half a dozen NIM papers, or their equivalent, 
discussing their calorimetry in painful detail, then I will be very 
surprised.

I assume that by "the TPC" you mean the original PEP4 TPC.  If so, then
if necessary, I can find the information for you from the folks here at LBL.
But I recommend that you dig a little further in the literature first.

-Scott
--------------------
Scott I. Chase			"The question seems to be of such a character
SICHASE@CSA2.LBL.GOV		that if I should come to life after my death
				and some mathematician were to tell me that it
				had been definitely settled, I think I would
				immediately drop dead again."      - Vandiver
From: paul@mtnmath.UUCP (Paul Budnik)
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: Re: Quantum reality silliness
Date: 10 Oct 92 16:20:17 GMT
Organization: Mountain Math Software, P. O. Box 2124, Saratoga. CA 95070

In article <1992Oct10.025445.14017@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>, ddixon@nyx.cs.du.edu (David Dixon) writes:
> AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUURGH!  I can't take it anymore!  Bell's
> inequality to the left of me, wave function collapse to the right!  I
> think I'm going ... MAD!

Cantor went insane trying to prove the continuum hypothesis. Maybe you
should stop reading sci.physics. :-)

>...
> The *physical* reality of the matter is that Aspect
> et al observed Bell's inequality to be violated by TWENTY STANDARD
> DEVIATIONS!  From the standpoint of statistics, this is the word of God.
> A lot of arguments are invoked regarding the possible "communication" between
> polarizers, etc., but it is pretty much straw grabbing on the part of the
> determinists.
>...

Since information about the relative angle of the two polarizers influences
the probability of a jont detection, it is reasonable to conclude that this
information was communicated to and influenced those results. There is
no disagreement about this among those who understand Bell's result, although
some would use different language to describe this. The disagreement is
about whether this information was transferred instantaneously or by
some local mechanism that is not yet understood. There are other loopholes
as well, but I do not consider these to be likely.

The accuracy of the observed correlations is irrelevant since Aspect did
not prove that the change in polarizer angles and the observed detections
that were influenced by them had a space-like separation. The
error Aspect made was so gross that, had it been made in an article with
results conflicting with quantum mechanics, it never would have got past
the referees. Franson first pointed this out in a more circumspect
and diplomatic way. (J. D. Franson, Physical Review D, pgs. 2529-2532,
Vol. 31, No. 10, May 1985.) Aspect based his timing on the time
it would take a classical particle to traverse a polarizer and be detected.
Such assumptions are invalid in quantum mechanics. They lead to false
predictions. Leggett also mentioned this defect in Aspect's experiment in
reviewing Quantum Reality by Nick Herbert (A. Leggett, Foundations of
Physics, V 17, p. 875.)

Paul Budnik
Newsgroups: sci.image.processing
From: cote@cs.ucsd.edu (Brad Cote)
Newsgroups: sci.image.processing
Subject: Re: Image processing hardware
Date: 13 Oct 92 19:04:08 GMT

kaykit@iti.gov.sg (Chan Kay Kit (KSL)) writes:

>I need some information on off-the-shelf hardware cards for the PC/SPARCstation
>that can perform thresholding, noise elimination and/or mathematical morphology
>operations on grey level images. Can anyone out there tell me

Try Matrox Imaging Products. They are located in Quebec, Canada. They
have several PC based products, but the product which has built in
morphology is their top of the line product called the Vision line. It
consists of three boards: a frame-grabber, a main processing/memory
board, and a neighborhood processor board. I believe that you need the
neighborhood board for the morphology. They support DOS, OS/2, and
UNIX via software device drivers.

I'm nor sure on price, but i believe that the two boards, without the
framegrabber are about $15K.
 
>---
>Kay-Kit CHAN    			| Internet: kaykit@iti.gov.sg
>Knowledge Systems Lab			| Bitnet:   kaykit@itivax
>Information Technology Institute	| Tel:      (65) 772-0920
>National Computer Board of Singapore    | Fax:      (65) 770-3043
Newsgroups: sci.image.processing
From: srsuresh@laser1.engr.utk.edu (Marapane Suresh)
Subject: Workshop on ACTIVE/PURPOSIVE SYSTEMS
Keywords: ACTIVE/PURPOSIVE Vision
Organization: University of Tennessee ECE dept.
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 21:26:09 GMT


		ADVANCED TECHNICAL PROGRAM 


        %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

    	Workshop on Intelligent Robotic Systems:  
		Design and Applications

		ACTIVE/PURPOSIVE SYSTEMS
                ------------------------


                Hynes Convention Center
               Boston, Massachusetts, USA 
	      
               Monday November 16,  1992


Sponsored by:
        The International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE)
In Cooperation with:
	IEEE Computer Society
	IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society


Program Committee: Mohan Trivedi, Tennessee, Chair; Peter Allen,
Columbia; Dave Casasent, CMU; Martin Herman, NIST; Ramesh Jain, 
Michigan; Avi Kak, Purdue; Takeo Kanade, CMU; Paul Schenker, 
JPL/NASA.


For further information contact: trivedi@vms1.engr.utk.edu

        %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

		  PRESENTATIONS BY
                  ----------------

   * CHRIS BROWN, UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
     ------------	
	Task Oriented Vision and Action in Dynamic Domains.

   * ERIC KROTKOV, CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY
     ------------
	 Active Perception of Material Properties

   * JOHN TSOTSOS, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
     -------------
	Aspects of attention for eye/head control

   * LYNN ABBOTT,  VERGINIA TECH
     ------------
	Active Visual Pose Estimation of a Grasped Object.
 
   * JIM CLARK, HARVARD UNIVERSITY
     ----------

   *  JAN-OLOF EKLUNDH, ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, SWEDEN
       -----------------
 	Active vision as a methodology.
     
   * XIAOPING YUN, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
     ------------

   * HENRIK CHRISTENSEN, AALBORG UNIVERSITY, DENMARK
     -------------------
   	Purposive Vision for Mobile Robot Navigation

   * MARTIN HERMAN, NATIONAL INST. OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY
     --------------
	Visual Navigation Using Relevant 2-D Image Motion Cues

   * NARENDRA AHUJA, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
     ---------------

   * DAVID KORTENKEMP, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
     ----------------
	Integrating High-Speed Obstacle Avoidance and Long-Range
             	Sensing to Accomplish a Find and Visit Task.
              

        %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
From: spl@szechuan.ucsd.edu (Steve Lamont)
Newsgroups: sci.image.processing
Subject: Re: KHOROS - MORE INFORMATION.
Date: 12 Oct 1992 18:09:42 GMT
Organization: University of Calif., San Diego/Microscopy and Imaging Resource
NNTP-Posting-Host: szechuan.ucsd.edu

In article <1bb5qcINNh4u@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> pxm22@po.CWRU.Edu (Prakash Mandgi) writes:
>
>i heard that the KHOROS software for image and Signal Processing is free
>stuff for the SUN -os . I am searching for the ftp sites where it is available
>. Any additional information would highly appreciated. 
>			All responses would be summarized and posted on the net

From the comp.graphics FAQ:

    Khoros, a huge (~100 meg) graphical development environment based on
    X11R4.  Khoros components include a visual programming language, code
    generators for extending the visual language and adding new application
    packages to the system, an interactive user interface editor, an
    interactive image display package, an extensive library of image and
    signal processing routines, and 2D/3D plotting packages.  Available via
    FTP as pprg.eece.unm.edu:pub/khoros/*.

[pprg.eece.unm.edu == 192.31.154.1]

							spl
-- 
Steve Lamont, SciViGuy -- (619) 534-7968 -- spl@szechuan.ucsd.edu
UCSD Microscopy and Imaging Resource/UCSD Med School/La Jolla, CA 92093-0608
"Twit twit twit/Jug jug jug jug jug jug/So rudely forc'd./Tereu"
                - T. S. Eliot, "The Waste Land," III. The Fire Sermon
From: kmurali2@uoft02.utoledo.edu
Newsgroups: sci.image.processing
Subject: Dithering help wanted
Date: 13 Oct 92 21:20:59 EST
Organization: University of Toledo, Computer Services

Hi Netters,

Can anybody help me to implement Dithering in Image coding? Is there any
artilcles or papers that I could find. I checked at our university for 
any papers or articles, but I could not find any. 

Thanks.
murali. k
From: jonallen@acsu.buffalo.edu (Jon J. Allen)
Newsgroups: daryl+@pitt.edu,sci.image.processing
Subject: Re: ?? NTSC to RS1?0...
Keywords: NTSC, RS1?0, converting
Date: 12 Oct 92 09:16:16 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: SUNY AT BUFFALO Computer Science

In article <7485@blue.cis.pitt.edu.UUCP> daryl+@pitt.edu (Daryl P Sawders) writes:
>I get the impression that you can use a camcorder to capture
>images to an imaging board...  Thanks to those that responded!
>
>Hhhmm...  it seems that the camcorder I'm using produces NTSC (per
>the owners book...) and that the imaging board I have uses RS1?0
>(it's late.. I can't remember the #) so the question(s) become...

Its RS-170 for monochrome, RS-330 for color.

>
>What exactly is NTSC (signal wise) ??
>

A Mess...

>What exactly is RS1?0 (signal wise) ??
>

NTSC without the color.

>How do you convert between them ??  (any way on the cheap ??)
>

Sure, string the cable. Your frame grabber should ignore the color info,
it it is a good one.  I have used Data Translation frame grabbers for many
years and have had no problems using RS-330 on an RS-170 input.


However....  Using a monochrome camera yealds a much better picture than
color, mostly when there is a lighting problem. 

-- 
--Jon-J-Allen--jonallen@acsu.buffalo.edu--Computer-Science--SUNY-@-Buffalo-NY--
 "Ah lately I'm like a watch that's overwound and I've got both feet
  off the ground.  Because you see I'm gonna be so busy,
  oh my pretty. " - SUPERTRAMP
Newsgroups: sci.image.processing
From: regie@bombardier.ireq-robot (Regis Houde)
Subject: Re: real-time video grabbing
Reply-To: regie@bombardier.ireq-robot
Organization: Sun Microsystems
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 15:10:24 GMT

In article 14314@cv.ruu.nl, tosb@cv.ruu.nl (Tos Berendschot) writes:
>
>Does anybody know if there exists some smart card, which
>allows you to grab real-time video images and store them
>on hard-disk (if possible in some compressed format).
>If so, could you send a little message where to get information
>to tosb@cv.ruu.nl
>
>Thanks in advance,   Tos Berendschot


Yes, there's a lot! But can you be more specific : On what machine do you
want to install that (Sun, Mac, IBM-pc, etc)???? 


--------------------------------------------------------------------
Regis Houde                             regie@ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca
Institut de recherche d'Hydro-Quebec    regie@ireq-robot.uucp
1800, montee Sainte-Julie		(514) 652-8107
Varennes, Que., Canada   J3X 1S1	FAX : (514) 652-8435
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Newsgroups: sci.image.processing,sci.electronics,sci.optics
From: tauzero@netcom.com (Rob Tow)
Subject: Need info on very small and/or flat video cameras
Keywords: video cameras small flat
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 19:33:51 GMT

I am interested, in connection with a research project at Interval Research,
in very small and/or flat video cameras - CCD, or otherwise. Small and flat
includes the optics as well - so, innovations such as "binary" or holographic
lensing systems are definitely included in the question.

Any pointers will be much appreciated.


***

Rob Tow
Interval Research Corp.
1801C Page Mill Road
Palo Alto, CA
voice: (415)-354-8675
fax:   (415)-354-0872
email: rob_tow@interval.com
 or:   tauzero@netcom.com
 or:   tauzero@well.sf.ca.us