Brunslo.com

Uncle Brunslo Explains the Universe: Episode II

2009-02-02T10:16:00.004+11:00

New article [http://tr.im/e1yg], this time about how Quantum Mechanics may in fact be a Hidden Variable Theorem after all (with a bunch of caveats). Let me know if this is retarded or cool, or else I'm just going to keep doing this unchanged.

Me: New mind-fuck:
Quantum Mechanics may be a coarse-grained approximation of a true high-energy deterministic model of physics.
Ryan: Oh yeah?
That's not half as mind-fucky as this goddamn country-western Superbowl intro song
Me: HAH
Looking forward to seeing that tonight.
Ryan: Tonight?
Me: I'm Tivoing it.
I'm at work.
Ryan: ahhhhh
shits
Me: srsly
See previous twitter regarding unholy land.
*tweet
Ryan: I'm pretty sure John Madden is actually just an animatronic bag of pork rinds.
Me: HAH
Yes
Ryan: Anyway, quantum mechanics?
Me: But yeah, the idea is that at really high-energy levels, physics is deterministic similar to our understanding of Classical Mechanics. However, when the energy level comes down, a lot of these outcomes end up "cooling" into rigid discrete energy levels and we lose the information about the previous deterministic system.
Ryan: Oh, interesting.
Me: The main idea is that this statistics game we're forced to play in QM is the result of information loss rather than it being the absolute natural limit of our understanding.
Ryan: That seems sensible.
Me: Yeah, it's a lot more sensible than QM ever has been to me.
Basically we just need super high-energy goggles and we can more than likely build flying cars once we understand how this high-energy deterministic model works.
Ryan: OMG
MAKE IT SO
Me: srsly, it's gonna be awesome.
Ryan: I think I'll root for the Cardinals.
Why the fuck not.
Me: All of Australia will be.
Ryan: Oh yeah?
Me: Their punter used to play in the AFL and be the team captain of the Geelong Cats.
Ryan: Oh snap
Cardinals it is then

Uncle Brunslo Explains the Universe: Episode I

2009-01-19T11:09:00.004+11:00

Ok, so I'm starting a new part of my blog. This is raw and embryonic so bear with me. This started when Ryan sent me a link about this universe as a hologram thing. I may well polish this post up later, but for now I'm just going to let it fly.

Ryan: The universe is a hologram, apparently.
Me: Oh really?
That's cool.
Ryan: http://tr.im/9sjb
I don't understand a goddamn thing that article says, but it sounds cool.
Me: Oh shit, that's tight. Would you like to know more about this hologram idea?
Ryan: Sure
Me: So basically the idea is that all the information in the universe is encoded on the inside of a big balloon.
Me: The distance from the center of the balloon to the edge is the distance light can have traveled since the big bang. So the speed of light multiplied by ~14 billion years.
Where this is fancy is that the information at every point on the inside of the sphere, basically the universe as we see it in 3D, is just a projection of the information on the surface of the balloon.
Ryan: oh shit
This makes so much more sense than that damn Pringle analogy.
Me: Yeah, the science writer needs to talk to real people every now and again.
But yeah, so the noise that this big grav wave detector is picking up could be caused by an interesting consequence of this hologram.
Physics says there's a finite pixel size called the Planck Length. It's 1/10^32 meters long.
Now since the hologram is projecting the information about the pixel from a huge distance away, this smallest pixel size has to get blown up.
Ryan: woah
Me: Yeah, so instead of looking for 1/10^32 pixel sizes, we should be looking for 1/10^16 or so. Basically we're looking at a blown up old-school DVD on an HD-TV and wondering why we see artifacts.
Ryan: That's awesome
It explains why I can't see for shit
Me: hehehehhe
If it pans out this could help us bring gravity back into the fold.
Actually....
I wonder if that explains dark matter.
Ryan: I was wondering the same thing.
Me: Gravity acting over a 2D surface instead of 3D...
Ryan: PAPER
Me: FLATLAND
Ryan: hehehe
Me: But yeah, this could be another string theory.
I think if we give it a year we'll know more. It's a fascinating mind-fuck though.
Ryan: You should have a blog where you translate indecipherable physics articles into words that actually make sense.
Me: heheh, ok. I'll start with this conversation.
Ryan: :D
"Uncle Brunslo Explains the Universe"
Me: HAH

Sydney!

2008-10-12T22:26:00.004+11:00

P1010027
Originally uploaded by Brunslo

Hello all! I went to a conference in Sydney, OzLens2008, and figured I'd do some sight-seeing with my mate Gero. Fun was had by all! Click the picture and behold the photostream within!

Things are generally very good at the moment, very happy. I made a Wordle of my undergrad thesis. Fun stuff!

ALSO, I'm submitting my ballot in the mail tomorrow, and it will probably arrive Monday night. If my ballot beats yours, my fellow Oregonians, FOR SHAME! FedEx rocks and is sending it for free! Woot!

The Big One

2008-09-01T10:46:00.002+10:00

So I've basically been under a rock and failed at blogging. So here I am making amends. I am now on Twitter, and to the right you can see me twitting and tweeting. W00t.

Caitlin and I had an engagement party, and it was good. A movie was made! It is here:

Caitlin and Loren's Engagement Party from Loren Bruns on Vimeo.

So yeah, things are going very well. My footy team is top of the ladder and will be winning the grand final here in the next few weeks. GO CATTERS!

So yeah, I'm slowly catching on to this whole "internet" thing the kids talk about all the time. Woo!

The Doctor and His Companion

2008-07-09T15:53:00.003+10:00

The Doctor and His Companion
Originally uploaded by Brunslo

Ok, so I got my hair cut and it requires wax. ZOMG. But now I look like The Doctor, which is good because I often feel as weird as David Tennant looks. And now I look like David Tennant. Which is good.

Things are great.

I have a cell phone now! HAH! And all it does is make calls and text. It doesn't even have a camera! I'm so happy I could pop. It's a little Nokia 1208 and I couldn't be more impressed with the little guy.

Oh, I also got my Victorian driver's license! So I can now drive on the left side of the road legally. These will be dark times for the rest of Oz's commuter traffic. Took 20 minutes from start to finish, best DMVesque service I've ever had the pleasure of partaking in.

Also, it seems that I'm blogging frequently now. I don't know what this means.

Finally, thank Wonko for getting me to unbufuct the DNS entry for both the brunslo.com and www.brunslo.com addresses. It's now right as rain.

Crikey

2008-07-02T13:19:00.001+10:00

So there you have it. All of you who had bets about how long it would take for me to blog a "Crikey" entry must now pay up. Come on, I'll know if you don't. Because there are 2 of you and I'm probably talking to you now anyway on IM.

I went to the You Yangs mountain range with Caitlin a couple days ago. It was awesome! We had a wonderful time and pointed at all kinds of things whilst getting our pictures taken. WE WON THE GAME!

Astrophysics is phun with a capital PHUN. Learning all kinds of things about the universe and Lambda-CDM cosmology. Hopefully the full science whammy with telescopes and automagic computer datamining/crunching codes will be in full swing shortly.

Wha.

Austrialia Cometh

2008-05-29T07:39:00.000+10:00

So here I am. I figured it was a big enough deal to blog when I change continents. I'm currently in Melbourne in Caitlin's dressing gown (mine was too big to fit in my luggage) feeling fat and sassy. The flight was fine, except that I didn't get to see the last 20 minutes of National Treasure 2, so I don't know what all the fuss was about. It was up there with IJ:TotWTF, woo. And now the computer is being taken from me physically so I will have to finish this later.

BRUNSLO OUT.

FRIST POST

2008-04-16T06:15:00.000+10:00

So here I am, blogging. Really for the first time, though I've always felt edgy and underground before. I'm using BLOGGER. /sigh

Nothing wrong with Blogger really, took me about 15 seconds to set this up. Probably take me 5 minutes to set my domain name up to this site. But now it's so easy I might actually use it. And it's free. This is big, for I will have little income upcoming.

Oh, I'm engaged and moving to Australia to start my Astrophysics PhD in May. Just an FYI.

EDIT:
This came to me about a minute after I posted:

1:20 PM brunslo: I finally realized why people stop being hardcore when it's easier not to be.
1:20 PM Ryan Grove: hehe
1:20 PM brunslo: I mean, in the beginning it's what you have to do to just accomplish something.
1:21 PM brunslo: Now... I use blogger.