Elegant Desktop ToDo List

…do! Geektool. This beautiful little app is available for free from Tynsoe.org. For more on what it can do, try this tutorial. For our purposes, here’s how to display a TXT file on your Desktop: Create a new Shell geeklet in the Geektool preference pane Enter the command: cat PathToYourList/YourList.txt To synchronize multiple computers, make sure the file is in a Dropbox folder. Quicksilver. This is why I own a mac. It’s free from Blacktree.com….

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Beyond the CPT theorem

…heorem or something like it? It is widely believe that the CPT may fail in generic extensions of quantum theory. In particular, the requirement of a unitary representation of the Poincaré group is pretty strong, and may not hold in the kind of general context of interest in quantum gravity. Just search for CPT-violation on the arxiv to see what I mean. But there is a sense in which something “like” a CPT theorem probably will hold in physics beyon…

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Get Started Reading Blogs on the Philosophy of Science

…ting blog that covers topics in the philosophy of physics, but also a wide range of philosophy of science issues. Cosmic Variance is (Caltech physicist) Sean Carroll’s frequent cyber-stomping ground. Apart from the general entertainment value of this blog, it is of special interest to for both its physical and its philosophical content. Backreaction is one of my very favorite blogs. Sabine Hossenfelder and Stefan Scherer (Perimeter Institute) prov…

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Group Theory Of Your Spine

…ing Wigner to famously call mathematics in general “unreasonably effective.” (I recommend Octavio Bueno’s very informative analysis of this history.) In the last two decades, applications of group theory have surfaced in biology and in medicine as well. For example, groups have been applied to population genetics, epidemiology, neurobiology, and even anesthesiology. However, few of these applications have been very robust. Most deal only with comb…

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When Philosophers of Science Go Practical

…r-regeions of algebraic quantum field theory and differential geometry, or population genetics and probability — or whatever part of scientific practice catches our interest. What happens when that kind of carefree creativity and affinity for science are set loose on raw, practical problems? Nathan Myhrvold seems to have asked this question, and then systematically implemented an answer, in a company called Intellectual Ventures. The first part of…

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