Author Archives: Jeff Porten

Why science reporting is screwy

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The BBC headline:

Invisibility ‘time cloak’ developed

The lede:

An “invisibility” time cloak which is able to hide events in a continuous stream of light has been developed by scientists. The cloak works by manipulating the speed of light in optical fibres and means any interaction which takes place during this “hole in time” is not detected.

The buried:

Though called a time cloak, it’s actually “not a manipulation of time, it’s a manipulation of light” explained Greg Gbur, who specialises in optical physics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The researcher, who was not involved in the study, said it showed a huge advance in the work on the time cloak.

Pardon me, then WHY THE FUCK IS IT CALLED A TIME CLOAK?

This is the problem with science reporting: yes, Virginia, it’s a very big deal if we’re able to “manipulate” the speed of light. I assume this has something to do with relativity or quantum behavior or dilithium crystals; in any case, it’s a crucial part of the story, and I’m pretty much left to infer it.

Likewise, I can also infer that monkeying with the speed of light might be synonymous with altering the flow of time (and a bunch of other things), since c shows up in some many equations and is generally constant.

That’s all pretty interesting. An explanation of the above might help get people fired up about science and cutting-edge research. Or we could just call this fucker a Time Cloak, hint at nifty technology in 20 years, and call it a day.

Update: Nature to the rescue with a much better description of what’s going on.

Thanks to skimming Facebook too fast, I just wondered why Larry Wagner was sponsoring a Krav Maga course.

  • Melody Joy Kramer:
    Being dragged to some type of wrestling event tonight that also involves jello. This isn’t going to end well, for anyone.

But it is heartwarming that Bill Cosby stays so busy.

  • Wil Wheaton:
    I’m not saying that I just got a manicure so my nails look good for , but I am saying that I feel damn pretty right about now.
  • Andy Ihnatko:
    And if the red satin underwear helps you get into your character, then nobody should question your Method.

For the love of Christ, I hope there’s no correlation between red satin and Redshirts.

  • Josh Centers:
    I need a 4x podcast player to keep up with all these tech podcasts.

You can actually do that in QuickTime Player. I can’t go higher than 200%. (iPod “2x” actually 150%.)

  • Rob Pegoraro:
    To people saying “But SwiftKey…”: I’ve tried that and like it, but it also requires more tweaking upfront.

I’m shopping for a better Android soft keyboard, but worth trying the Google variety even if I weren’t.

Dear Entire Planet: Lottery machines DON’T WORK THAT WAY. Next person in line wouldn’t have gotten Powerball numbers if she went first.

  • Melody Joy Kramer:
    Oh that is totally not safe for work. I just got past the first paragraph. Whoops. Apologies to your HR departments.

Yeah, but that was one of the most brilliantly written satires I’ve seen in a long time.

  • Jesse Spector:
    Flaw in Google Maps: Cannot search for “that little place where I had the awesome pizza that one time six years ago.”

Actually, you can. My usual trick is to remember if I emailed anyone about it right afterwards.

  • Jesse Spector:
    Wow, I have more e-mail than I thought about pizza.

  • Lauren B Worley:
    do you know if there is a correlation btwn # of followers if people say “tweets are my opinion” in descriptor?
  • Melody Joy Kramer:
    . Tweets are the opinion of my employer’s second cousin, Larry.
  • Melody Joy Kramer:
    I will only be tweeting opinions that are not my own from now on. Here’s one: “Green is a lovely color.”

There’s a guy out there named Larry Geographic?

1) Find 100 people willing to pay you $2/tweet. 2) Sell self to Facebook for $1B. 3) Retire to Aruba.

  • Marco Tabini:
    The length of a person?s coffee order would make an excellent douchebag test.

Easy rule: never order a drink with more syllables in its name than yours.

  • Rob Griffiths:
    BREAKING: Sun-Times fires all reporters. An automated Twitter and Facebook scraping tool is now used to build news stories.

So they’ve adopted the Business Insider model.

  • David Chartier:
    Looks like FB Messenger behaves like iMessage: if you can delete a message, it?s only one-sided; recipient still has it. Never mind.

I’d be concerned about behavior that allowed you to reach into my inbox and delete a stored msg. Once it’s sent, it’s not yours.

  • David Chartier:
    FWIW, Skype, Flowdock, and Twitter DMs all allow you to delete messages/conversations from your recipients.
  • David Chartier:
    I?m not arguing that one is right or wrong, was just observing behavior and wishing I could do something.