Comments on: Black Hole Battles

By: Plato

Plato — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:41:27 +0000

It was around the 23 June in the Mendocino area

It was very beautiful in these areas.

By: Clifford

Clifford — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:27:14 +0000

smoke? Was it during one of the big fires? Sorry to hear about the timing.

I think Susskind was simply saying that the black hole scrambles the information a lot, but it eventually comes out, even if you have to look carefully and wait a long time to recover it.

Cheers,

-cvj

By: Plato

Plato — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:33:06 +0000

All of physics as we know it is conditioned on the fact that information is conserved, even if it’s badly scrambled,” Susskind says.

Maybe you can expand on this later in terms of the blackhole?

I guess this is the unfortunate part of being in a small town, but nice that one can access that talk later on?

I must say it was a “culture shock” being in LA the last week of June. First time, and unfortunately we did not to get to visit some of places that you have blogged about. We will next time. Never seen so much smoke.

By: nige cook

nige cook — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:15:51 +0000

Hi Clifford,

Maybe you are being just a little harsh on those blogs about the problems of ‘… deliberate distortions, outright lies, general unpleasantness, lack of time …’

K. C. Cole argues to the contrary, although I’m not sure if this science writing advice extends from print media journalism down to science blogs or not (maybe she only suggests it for print media and TV presentations):

‘Really good science writers need to lie, cheat, and steal, said K. C. Cole in the first plenary of the workshop. She outlined 15 rules for writing in her talk, but focused most on the value of lying. …

‘Her list of 15 rules also included such advice as waste people’s time (”Don’t be afraid to keep asking questions until you understand”), eschew objectivity, and quote out of context (”Quotes are always out of context”).’

- Elise Kleeman, Opening talk by K.C. Cole, Los Angeles Times, http://www.ncswa.org/archive/workshops/2004/3cole.html

Hopefully I’m quoting her out of context, like a good science writer (according to the 15 rules).

By: Clifford

Clifford — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:19:50 +0000

Hi,

Goodness me, it’s definitely not a secret that I don’t read those blogs. I’ve said that here several times. I thought it was common knowledge. Abysmal signal to noise ratio issues, rampant ignorance, deliberate distortions, outright lies, general unpleasantness, lack of time, and so forth. Frankly, I’ve too many more useful and pleasant things to do.

There are several others I don’t read too, for other reasons, and again time. That’s just where I am right now, I guess. Loving it.

Thanks for looking in. Enjoy the books!

Best,

-cvj

By: IG

IG — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:03:55 +0000

Sorry Clifford, but now everybody knows you do not read other blogs (Woit and Motl for example) that mentioned this book about one month ago. Lucky you who dedicates more attention to pertinent things like research.

I already got a copy but haven’t started yet since I’ve been reading Susskind’s previous book on the Landscape.