Astounding protein folding paper

By assuming that to get from point A to point B you don’t have to hit a sequence of points in between—i.e. the way quantum particles work—these guys accurately predict protein folding rates in 15 different real proteins. This is huge.

The Best is Lost

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and laurel they go: but I am not resigned.

Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains – but the best is lost.

The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love –
They are gone. They have gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind:
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.

– Edna St Vincent Millay

Yudkowski interview

Cool interview with Eliezer Yudkowski on Conversations from the Pale Blue Dot.

In case it wasn’t already abundantly clear…

You know a guy’s a nerd if he pulls over to take a picture of his odometer because it’s showing the Fibonacci sequence.

But it takes a special kind of nerd to have reset his trip odometer 132.1 miles ahead of time in anticipation of taking the picture.

Queensland flooding

Polarization for breakfast

Legos this morning

This one ended up looking rather shark-like:

William chose–who else?–Yoda to pilot the green ship.