The small drone was not powerful enough to lift the heavy fibre cable so instead it was used to string a 100m (328ft) length of high-strength fishing line between two points above the trees. The fishing line was attached to a "draw rope" secured to the fibre-optic cable, which was then pulled along the route the drone had forged.
"It's a bit different to connecting an apartment block in London, that's for sure," said Openreach chief engineer Andy Whale. "If we tried running the cable through woods it was also very likely we'd get it caught up in branches and other natural obstructions, so we figured the best option was to fly it in over the top of the tree canopy and then lift it up to make sure it was clear of the tree line."
The cabling job had been all but done in an hour, said Mr Whale. Retired teacher Chris Devismes said: "It has made a world of difference to us. I live here with my two teenage sons and they're often online - watching films, streaming music or Skyping their friends. When all three of us were online at the same time, it could often be a struggle and things would start to buffer and freeze."
Am I the only one who thinks that dropping fibre-optic cables across trees and over fields is going to be a wonderful solution that lasts for all of twenty minutes ?
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42180499
Thursday, 30 November 2017
Trump can't even insult the right person
Donald Drumpf has told Prime Minister Theresa May to focus on "terrorism" in the UK after she criticised his sharing of far-right videos. "Don't focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom," Mr Drumpf tweeted. The US president had earlier retweeted three inflammatory videos posted online by a British far-right group. Mrs May's spokesman said it was "wrong for the president to have done this".
The best bit about this farcical affair :
In hitting out at Mrs May, Mr Drumpf first tagged the wrong Twitter account, sending his statement to a different user with just six followers. He then deleted the tweet and posted it again, this time directing the message to the UK PM's official account.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42176507
The best bit about this farcical affair :
In hitting out at Mrs May, Mr Drumpf first tagged the wrong Twitter account, sending his statement to a different user with just six followers. He then deleted the tweet and posted it again, this time directing the message to the UK PM's official account.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42176507
Monday, 27 November 2017
Theresa May is not gansta enough to ban her from pubs
I like it a lot, but, contrary to recent depictions aboe, I don't believe Theresa really likes pubs all that much. You'd have to ban her from weekly coven meetings or something to have any effect.
Theresa May could be banned from every pub in her constituency following anger from bar owners over police cuts. Landlords have reportedly banded together to keep the Prime Minister away from all licensed venues in Maidenhead after she slashed police budgets by £413m in the last 12 months. The group said it could now take up to one hour for police to respond to incidents at their pubs, which endangered their staff and customers.
David Kimber, manager of the Off the Tap pub, told The Mirror: “This seems to be the only way she’ll get the message.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/theresa-may-banned-pubs-protest-maidenhead-mp-police-funding-a8076506.html
"My photograph is the best ever", says annoyingly good photographer
It is a damn good photograph. It's so good, even the photographer likes it.
"The photograph with which I obtained second place in the Pano Awards was taken during the violent eruption of the Volcán Calbuco, located in the south of Chile," he told Engadget via email. "The technique was simple: long exposure, tripod and a 80-200mm lens. Approximately 10 minutes to achieve that incredible image that, without a doubt, is my best photograph of an eruption and I think the best taken in the world."
Big yourself up, why don't you ?
http://engt.co/2naev9q
"The photograph with which I obtained second place in the Pano Awards was taken during the violent eruption of the Volcán Calbuco, located in the south of Chile," he told Engadget via email. "The technique was simple: long exposure, tripod and a 80-200mm lens. Approximately 10 minutes to achieve that incredible image that, without a doubt, is my best photograph of an eruption and I think the best taken in the world."
Big yourself up, why don't you ?
http://engt.co/2naev9q
Sunday, 26 November 2017
Should we be nicer to Flat Earthers ? Nah
Yet another one about the Flat Earth. Sorry about that. Ironically it also suggests not to reshare articles about the Flat Earth, so sorry about that too.
In the famous Bedford Level experiment of 1870 instigated by Parallax and conducted by zealot and serial harasser John Hampden in a wager against Wallace, a series of fixed poles representing water level were viewed through a telescope to determine if the water surface was curved. In a nutshell, scientists would view the data as conclusive as showing curvature while the flat-earthers would look through the same telescope and conclude evidence for flatness. The hubris with which flat earthers conclude their knowledge trumps the preponderance of evidence continues to the present day.
Many flat-earthers see the issue as a dichotomy of good vs evil. The Bible and human common sense are good, while big government, elite scientists, and money-hungry corporations are bad. When beliefs are not based on objective factual conclusions but are based on ideology or worldview, no amount of facts or reasoning is likely to change that belief. And, in order to accept a flat earth, you must also accept that the earth does not spin or orbit the sun and that gravity isn’t real.
Calling them stupid, making fun of, or arguing with them is not going to work to pry them away from this view but will only entrench them deeper. They relish being different and controversial. They feel privileged and “in the know” by rejecting the path that the rest of the world follows. There’s no use in lamenting about society’s low science literacy. You can throw all the facts and figures around you wish. Believers won’t budge and will likely have a rebuttal that will sound pretty good to bystanders listening to the debate. If you give them attention, they relish the opportunity to expound on their passionate views – more people will listen to THEM, not you.
I think when the stupidity level reaches that point, there's probably nothing you can do. They'd only end up with some other uber-wacky belief anyway.
[I'd also add that the vast majority of them are fundamentally irrational anyway, so even the best evidence isn't going to work. Being nice to them won't make them any more rational so it won't solve the underlying problem.]
http://spookygeology.com/anti-globular-convictions-flat-earth-belief-explodes-in-popularity/
In the famous Bedford Level experiment of 1870 instigated by Parallax and conducted by zealot and serial harasser John Hampden in a wager against Wallace, a series of fixed poles representing water level were viewed through a telescope to determine if the water surface was curved. In a nutshell, scientists would view the data as conclusive as showing curvature while the flat-earthers would look through the same telescope and conclude evidence for flatness. The hubris with which flat earthers conclude their knowledge trumps the preponderance of evidence continues to the present day.
Many flat-earthers see the issue as a dichotomy of good vs evil. The Bible and human common sense are good, while big government, elite scientists, and money-hungry corporations are bad. When beliefs are not based on objective factual conclusions but are based on ideology or worldview, no amount of facts or reasoning is likely to change that belief. And, in order to accept a flat earth, you must also accept that the earth does not spin or orbit the sun and that gravity isn’t real.
Calling them stupid, making fun of, or arguing with them is not going to work to pry them away from this view but will only entrench them deeper. They relish being different and controversial. They feel privileged and “in the know” by rejecting the path that the rest of the world follows. There’s no use in lamenting about society’s low science literacy. You can throw all the facts and figures around you wish. Believers won’t budge and will likely have a rebuttal that will sound pretty good to bystanders listening to the debate. If you give them attention, they relish the opportunity to expound on their passionate views – more people will listen to THEM, not you.
I think when the stupidity level reaches that point, there's probably nothing you can do. They'd only end up with some other uber-wacky belief anyway.
[I'd also add that the vast majority of them are fundamentally irrational anyway, so even the best evidence isn't going to work. Being nice to them won't make them any more rational so it won't solve the underlying problem.]
http://spookygeology.com/anti-globular-convictions-flat-earth-belief-explodes-in-popularity/
Wibbly-wobbly liney-winey
There are no zig-zag lines in the image. But I had to manually add the red curves to convince myself this was true.
Original paper : https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2041669517742178
Optical illusions are a nice reminder that knowledge is not the same as perception.
Original paper : https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2041669517742178
Optical illusions are a nice reminder that knowledge is not the same as perception.
Saturday, 25 November 2017
Mexico helps save the sea
The Mexican government has created a large marine reserve around a group of islands home to hundreds of species including rays, whales and sea turtles. The Revillagigedo Archipelago is a group of volcanic islands off the country's south-west coast. With a protection zone of 57,000 square miles (150,000km), it has become the largest ocean reserve in North America.
The move will mean all fishing activity will be banned, and the area will be patrolled by the navy. It is hoped the move will help populations hit by commercial fishing operations in the area recover. The park was designated by a decree signed by Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. It will also forbid natural resources being extracted from the land or the building of new hotel infrastructure.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-42120610
The move will mean all fishing activity will be banned, and the area will be patrolled by the navy. It is hoped the move will help populations hit by commercial fishing operations in the area recover. The park was designated by a decree signed by Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. It will also forbid natural resources being extracted from the land or the building of new hotel infrastructure.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-42120610
Tonight we research in hell !
Awesome stuff.
Behind sealed doors stood a 14-ton stainless steel tank, its massive ports sealed to hold pressures so high that the screws to secure its nuts have their own nuts. For 33 days, the Glenn Extreme Environments Rig (GEER) had run nonstop, simulating an atmosphere at 460°C and flooded with carbon dioxide at pressures that render it supercritical, both liquid and gas. Inside sat two microchips, pulsing with metronomic accuracy. Neudeck was running a clock on Venus, and it was keeping perfect time.
Rather than barricading electronics within pressure vessels, by early next decade NASA may be able to land simple unprotected robots on Venus that can measure wind, temperature, chemistry, pressure, and seismic waves. And instead of running for a few hours, the landers could last for months. "We don't have the world's fastest chips," Neudeck says. "We don't have the world's most complex chips. But in terms of Venus environment durability—that's what we got."
Silicon carbide has a bigger bandgap than silicon, which means its electrons can absorb much more energy before it becomes a conductor. As a result, it functions as a semiconductor at much higher temperatures. But it is difficult to work with. Because silicon carbide doesn't melt, the techniques used to produce large silicon wafers break down.
The allure of high-temperature electronics was too great to ignore, however. Slowly, with the support of NASA and the Office of Naval Research, researchers, led especially by Cree, an upstart electronics company, devised ways to grow usable silicon carbide crystals more than 150 millimeters in diameter. The power industry is now harnessing the material to build smaller transformers and more efficient power plants, Neudeck says.
Pentiums these are not. A modern silicon chip can contain 7 billion transistors; each of the chips running in the Venus chamber has 175. Neudeck also uses an old-school transistor design, long since abandoned in conventional microelectronics. It's basically a hyperexpensive, obtuse pocket calculator. But a pocket calculator running on Venus could be valuable indeed. "This is already the complexity of many of the early scientific missions flown back in the '60s and '70s," Neudeck says, and more powerful than the chips on Apollo flight computers. "You really can do science."
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/11/armed-tough-computer-chips-scientists-are-ready-return-hell-venus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuR5ect-B34
Behind sealed doors stood a 14-ton stainless steel tank, its massive ports sealed to hold pressures so high that the screws to secure its nuts have their own nuts. For 33 days, the Glenn Extreme Environments Rig (GEER) had run nonstop, simulating an atmosphere at 460°C and flooded with carbon dioxide at pressures that render it supercritical, both liquid and gas. Inside sat two microchips, pulsing with metronomic accuracy. Neudeck was running a clock on Venus, and it was keeping perfect time.
Rather than barricading electronics within pressure vessels, by early next decade NASA may be able to land simple unprotected robots on Venus that can measure wind, temperature, chemistry, pressure, and seismic waves. And instead of running for a few hours, the landers could last for months. "We don't have the world's fastest chips," Neudeck says. "We don't have the world's most complex chips. But in terms of Venus environment durability—that's what we got."
Silicon carbide has a bigger bandgap than silicon, which means its electrons can absorb much more energy before it becomes a conductor. As a result, it functions as a semiconductor at much higher temperatures. But it is difficult to work with. Because silicon carbide doesn't melt, the techniques used to produce large silicon wafers break down.
The allure of high-temperature electronics was too great to ignore, however. Slowly, with the support of NASA and the Office of Naval Research, researchers, led especially by Cree, an upstart electronics company, devised ways to grow usable silicon carbide crystals more than 150 millimeters in diameter. The power industry is now harnessing the material to build smaller transformers and more efficient power plants, Neudeck says.
Pentiums these are not. A modern silicon chip can contain 7 billion transistors; each of the chips running in the Venus chamber has 175. Neudeck also uses an old-school transistor design, long since abandoned in conventional microelectronics. It's basically a hyperexpensive, obtuse pocket calculator. But a pocket calculator running on Venus could be valuable indeed. "This is already the complexity of many of the early scientific missions flown back in the '60s and '70s," Neudeck says, and more powerful than the chips on Apollo flight computers. "You really can do science."
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/11/armed-tough-computer-chips-scientists-are-ready-return-hell-venus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuR5ect-B34
This is not a hat
Snuggly overload.
Yes, I have a cat on my head. Do not wake him, if you want to live...
https://www.boredpanda.com/dog-cat-travelling-cynthia-bennett-baloo-henry/
Yes, I have a cat on my head. Do not wake him, if you want to live...
https://www.boredpanda.com/dog-cat-travelling-cynthia-bennett-baloo-henry/
An unseasonal elephant
This elephant has confused Thanksgiving with Halloween.
https://laughingsquid.com/little-elephant-bobs-for-apples/
https://laughingsquid.com/little-elephant-bobs-for-apples/
Uhhh-huuuuuhhhhhh.....
Uhhh-huuuuuhhhhhh.....
Call me judgemental if you wish, but the hairstyles don't fill me with confidence.
Originally shared by Daedelus Kite
A videogame called Everything in which you can be anything. It is also a vessel for the philosophy of Alan Watts. Curiouser and curiouser...
#Everything
#AlanWatts
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3r63LYtErEI&feature=youtu.be
Call me judgemental if you wish, but the hairstyles don't fill me with confidence.
Originally shared by Daedelus Kite
A videogame called Everything in which you can be anything. It is also a vessel for the philosophy of Alan Watts. Curiouser and curiouser...
#Everything
#AlanWatts
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3r63LYtErEI&feature=youtu.be
Friday, 24 November 2017
Volcanic awesomeness
Activity of Popocatépetl, Fuego, Reventador, Agung and Öræfajökull.
Re-integrating Nazis
Slightly misleading headline : this is about how to re-integrate former Nazis, not how to get them deradicalised in the first place. But interesting nonetheless.
http://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-42100175/world-hacks-how-to-deradicalise-a-neo-nazi
http://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-42100175/world-hacks-how-to-deradicalise-a-neo-nazi
Hydrophobic flies
Using a combination of high-speed video and micro-force measurements in which they plunged flies into a variety of different chemical solutions, van Breugel and Dickinson found that the Mono Lake fly creates a protective bubble of air around its body when crawling into the lakewater. This bubble is a result of an extreme water-repelling phenomenon called superhydrophobicity. The flies are able to do this, the researchers discovered, because they are hairier than the average fly and coat their bodies and hairs with waxes that are particularly effective at repelling the carbonate-rich water. They also have large claws on their feet, which allow them to crawl on underwater rocks while resisting the naturally buoyant force of the bubble. Remarkably, the bubble does not encase the fly's eyes, allowing the fly to see underwater without the bubble's distorting effect.
http://www.caltech.edu/news/strange-case-scuba-diving-fly-80435
http://www.caltech.edu/news/strange-case-scuba-diving-fly-80435
The next president could and should be an iphone
John Olivier was right : this is less coherent than a predictive text message. Utter word salad. Honestly I couldn't even make it as far as the bit about invisible planes because it felt just gggaaaaaarrrrrghhhh.
' I was asking the Air Force guys, I said, how good is this plane? They said, well, sir, you can't see it. I said but in a fight. You know, in a fight, like I watch on the movies. The fight, they're fighting. How good is this? They say, well, it wins every time because the enemy cannot see it. Even if it's right next to them, it can't see it. I said that helps. That's a good thing. '
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-planes-invisible-full-transcript-thanksgiving-coastguard-jets-comments-read-a8072761.html
' I was asking the Air Force guys, I said, how good is this plane? They said, well, sir, you can't see it. I said but in a fight. You know, in a fight, like I watch on the movies. The fight, they're fighting. How good is this? They say, well, it wins every time because the enemy cannot see it. Even if it's right next to them, it can't see it. I said that helps. That's a good thing. '
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-planes-invisible-full-transcript-thanksgiving-coastguard-jets-comments-read-a8072761.html
Thursday, 23 November 2017
Facebook will tell you if you read fake news
Making a bug into a feature !
Facebook plans to let people see if they had "liked" pages created by "foreign actors" to spread propaganda during the US presidential election. The social network has previously said as many as 126 million Americans may have seen content uploaded by Russia-based agents over the past two years. It is building a tool to let people see whether they had followed now-deleted pages made by the Russia-based Internet Research Agency. The tool will be launched in December.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42096045
Facebook plans to let people see if they had "liked" pages created by "foreign actors" to spread propaganda during the US presidential election. The social network has previously said as many as 126 million Americans may have seen content uploaded by Russia-based agents over the past two years. It is building a tool to let people see whether they had followed now-deleted pages made by the Russia-based Internet Research Agency. The tool will be launched in December.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42096045
The magical ass of the turtle
A cold turtle in cold water has a slow metabolism. The colder it gets, the slower its metabolism, which translates into lower energy and oxygen demands. When turtles hibernate, they rely on stored energy and uptake oxygen from the pond water by moving it across body surfaces that are flush with blood vessels. In this way, they can get enough oxygen to support their minimal needs without using their lungs. Turtles have one area that is especially well vascularized —their butts. See, I wasn't kidding, turtles really can breathe through their butts. (The technical term is cloacal respiration.)
Both snapping turtles and painted turtles can survive forced submergence at cold water temperatures in the lab for well over 100 days. Painted turtles are the kings of anoxia-tolerance. They mobilize calcium from their shells to neutralize the acid, in much the same way we take calcium-containing antacids for heartburn.
https://phys.org/news/2017-11-secret-turtle-hibernation-butt-breathing.html
Both snapping turtles and painted turtles can survive forced submergence at cold water temperatures in the lab for well over 100 days. Painted turtles are the kings of anoxia-tolerance. They mobilize calcium from their shells to neutralize the acid, in much the same way we take calcium-containing antacids for heartburn.
https://phys.org/news/2017-11-secret-turtle-hibernation-butt-breathing.html
Wednesday, 22 November 2017
Science guides for judges
Interesting. I hope these guides will be publically available.
Lord Hughes has overseen a project to help the judiciary deal with scientific evidence in the courtroom. The first primers cover DNA fingerprinting and computer techniques to identify suspects from the manner of their walk. Guides on statistics and the physics of car crashes are to come next and one on "shaken baby syndrome" is planned.
The primers are short documents, between 30 and 60 pages long. They give judges the answers to the questions that they themselves have asked about scientific evidence they have to deal with in the court room. They cover complex topics but are written clearly and without any jargon to enable judges to grasp the key issues from a legal perspective. They are produced by scientists who are the foremost experts in the topics covered by the primers. For example the DNA fingerprinting guide has one of the technique's inventors, Prof Sir Alec Jeffreys, and Nobel Prize winner Prof Sir Paul Nurse on the editorial board. The guides also cover the limitations of the science and possible difficulties with its interpretation in real life situations.
According to Lord Hughes, the aim of the primers is not to do away with expert evidence where there is scientific disagreement. "The primers are about the common ground they're not about resolving the cutting edge of the limits of science".
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42057009
Lord Hughes has overseen a project to help the judiciary deal with scientific evidence in the courtroom. The first primers cover DNA fingerprinting and computer techniques to identify suspects from the manner of their walk. Guides on statistics and the physics of car crashes are to come next and one on "shaken baby syndrome" is planned.
The primers are short documents, between 30 and 60 pages long. They give judges the answers to the questions that they themselves have asked about scientific evidence they have to deal with in the court room. They cover complex topics but are written clearly and without any jargon to enable judges to grasp the key issues from a legal perspective. They are produced by scientists who are the foremost experts in the topics covered by the primers. For example the DNA fingerprinting guide has one of the technique's inventors, Prof Sir Alec Jeffreys, and Nobel Prize winner Prof Sir Paul Nurse on the editorial board. The guides also cover the limitations of the science and possible difficulties with its interpretation in real life situations.
According to Lord Hughes, the aim of the primers is not to do away with expert evidence where there is scientific disagreement. "The primers are about the common ground they're not about resolving the cutting edge of the limits of science".
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42057009
Google is attempting a sensible form of censorship
Google is to "derank" stories from Kremlin-owned publications Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik in response to allegations about election meddling by President Putin's government. Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt said the search giant needed to deal with the spread of misinformation. RT has been described by US intelligence agencies as "Russia's state-run propaganda machine".
The publications said the move was a form of censorship.
Well of course it is. And a jolly good thing too.
"I am strongly not in favour of censorship. I am very strongly in favour of ranking. It's what we do," he added. "It's a very legitimate question as to how we rank, A or B, right? And we do the best we can in millions and millions of rankings every day," said Mr Schmidt. But he added that it was a constant tug-of-war altering the search giant's algorithms to detect "weaponised" information because those seeking to manipulate the news agenda "will get better tools too".
Nah, it's censorship matey. But people tend to confuse that with automatically with "bad thing", because they also confuse "free speech" with a good thing to an absurd extreme.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42065644
The publications said the move was a form of censorship.
Well of course it is. And a jolly good thing too.
"I am strongly not in favour of censorship. I am very strongly in favour of ranking. It's what we do," he added. "It's a very legitimate question as to how we rank, A or B, right? And we do the best we can in millions and millions of rankings every day," said Mr Schmidt. But he added that it was a constant tug-of-war altering the search giant's algorithms to detect "weaponised" information because those seeking to manipulate the news agenda "will get better tools too".
Nah, it's censorship matey. But people tend to confuse that with automatically with "bad thing", because they also confuse "free speech" with a good thing to an absurd extreme.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42065644
Fighting malaria with drones filled with mosquitoes
Drones that scatter swarms of sterile mosquitoes over wide areas are being developed to help stop the spread of diseases such as malaria. Sterile male mosquitoes cannot produce offspring when they mate with females. By crowding out other males, they reduce the mosquito population. But spreading them is difficult in areas without roads, so technology organisation WeRobotics has been developing drones to do the job. It will trial the idea in 2018.
"Community engagement is also a key part of the release campaign," Mr Klaptocz told the BBC. "We may be spreading mosquitoes in areas where they are seen as a vector of death. We need to speak to the local population before a single mosquito is released." The drones are still in development, but the non-profit company hopes to trial its technology in Latin America in 2018. Mr Klaptocz hopes to focus on areas at risk from Zika virus first.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42066518
"Community engagement is also a key part of the release campaign," Mr Klaptocz told the BBC. "We may be spreading mosquitoes in areas where they are seen as a vector of death. We need to speak to the local population before a single mosquito is released." The drones are still in development, but the non-profit company hopes to trial its technology in Latin America in 2018. Mr Klaptocz hopes to focus on areas at risk from Zika virus first.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42066518
Bringing back the Starfighter to launch tiny rockets
Even at the high altitudes for which it was designed, the F-104 could be a handful. One very nearly claimed a very high-profile victim. Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to fly faster than the speed of sound, flew a specialised version of the F-104 during his time at the Aerospace Research Pilot School in the 1960s. On 10 December 1963, Yeager flew his modified Starfighter above the California desert. He activated the rocket motor, which tilted the aircraft up and pushed it past 100,000ft (around 30,500m). He then prepared to use the rocket thrusters. These, however, pushed the aircraft into a flat spin. Yeager stayed inside the spinning jet, hoping that he’d be able to regain control when the Starfighter entered heavier air closer to the ground.
Yeager soon realised his Starfighter was doomed – he couldn’t stop the aircraft from spinning. He launched his ejector seat, but as his parachute opened his helmet visor was struck by the bottom of the seat. Molten propellant from the seat’s rocket motor burned through the visor, turning to flame as it reached the oxygen in Yeager’s pressure suit. The test pilot only put out the fire inside his suit by removing a glove and fanning the flames with his bare hand. Yeager floated to the ground – his face and half his hair burned out, and an eye socket cut from the collision with his chair – landing not far from the charred remains of his plane.
It was West Germany’s Luftwaffe that had the most problems. Out of the 1,000 F-104s it bought, nearly 300 were lost in accidents. German pilots dubbed the Starfighter the ‘Widow Maker’ or ‘Lawn Dart’. One widely known joke went: “How do you get your hands on a Starfighter? Buy a field – and wait.”
“The German Air Force learned that the hard way. We lost many planes and pilots, but that’s because the plane was being flown in an environment it wasn’t meant for,” says Merklinghaus. Take away the need to fly very fast and very low above the German countryside, and the Starfighter’s safety record would improve immensely. And there is one company that plans to take the 60-year-old fighter into service for some years to come.
Cubecab plans to launch very small satellites – known as cubesats – using a rocket that weighs a similar amount. It’s much smaller, and therefore cheaper, than any other launch method currently available.Cubecab will strap its lightweight rockets, each carrying a satellite weighing around 10kg, on to the kind of underwing ‘pylons’ usually used to fire missiles. And Starfighters Inc, a Florida-based company which still flies a handful of F-104s, will take their pint-sized payloads up to the edge of the stratosphere and fire them into orbit.
“We intend to have very fast times between ordering and launching,” says Still. “We aim for 30 days from order to launch, most launch providers work on the timescale of about two-to-three years from order to launch. A typical mission might be getting an order from a college to launch a cubesat into a specific orbit."
Still hopes the Starfighters will launch their first satellites sometime in 2018. The F-104s will fly over the Atlantic Ocean, their pilots taking the jets to around 60,000ft, the jets climbing at an acute angle to give the rockets the right trajectory to leave the pull of the Earth’s gravity. Once more, a Starfighter pilot will look out of the confines of his cockpit and see the curve of the Earth, the sky a rich blue-black above.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160826-the-1950s-jet-launching-tiny-satellites
Yeager soon realised his Starfighter was doomed – he couldn’t stop the aircraft from spinning. He launched his ejector seat, but as his parachute opened his helmet visor was struck by the bottom of the seat. Molten propellant from the seat’s rocket motor burned through the visor, turning to flame as it reached the oxygen in Yeager’s pressure suit. The test pilot only put out the fire inside his suit by removing a glove and fanning the flames with his bare hand. Yeager floated to the ground – his face and half his hair burned out, and an eye socket cut from the collision with his chair – landing not far from the charred remains of his plane.
It was West Germany’s Luftwaffe that had the most problems. Out of the 1,000 F-104s it bought, nearly 300 were lost in accidents. German pilots dubbed the Starfighter the ‘Widow Maker’ or ‘Lawn Dart’. One widely known joke went: “How do you get your hands on a Starfighter? Buy a field – and wait.”
“The German Air Force learned that the hard way. We lost many planes and pilots, but that’s because the plane was being flown in an environment it wasn’t meant for,” says Merklinghaus. Take away the need to fly very fast and very low above the German countryside, and the Starfighter’s safety record would improve immensely. And there is one company that plans to take the 60-year-old fighter into service for some years to come.
Cubecab plans to launch very small satellites – known as cubesats – using a rocket that weighs a similar amount. It’s much smaller, and therefore cheaper, than any other launch method currently available.Cubecab will strap its lightweight rockets, each carrying a satellite weighing around 10kg, on to the kind of underwing ‘pylons’ usually used to fire missiles. And Starfighters Inc, a Florida-based company which still flies a handful of F-104s, will take their pint-sized payloads up to the edge of the stratosphere and fire them into orbit.
“We intend to have very fast times between ordering and launching,” says Still. “We aim for 30 days from order to launch, most launch providers work on the timescale of about two-to-three years from order to launch. A typical mission might be getting an order from a college to launch a cubesat into a specific orbit."
Still hopes the Starfighters will launch their first satellites sometime in 2018. The F-104s will fly over the Atlantic Ocean, their pilots taking the jets to around 60,000ft, the jets climbing at an acute angle to give the rockets the right trajectory to leave the pull of the Earth’s gravity. Once more, a Starfighter pilot will look out of the confines of his cockpit and see the curve of the Earth, the sky a rich blue-black above.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160826-the-1950s-jet-launching-tiny-satellites
Monday, 20 November 2017
The Leave campaign cheated
The shady shenanigans continue.
The Electoral Commission has reopened an investigation into Vote Leave's EU referendum spending. The campaign denies attempting to get round spending limits - the Electoral Commission initially accepted this but now says it has new information. A group of campaigning lawyers, The Good Law Project, has started legal action against the commission over its original decision to drop the investigation, claiming the watchdog was not doing its job properly.
The row centres around Darren Grimes, at the time a fashion student at the University of Brighton, who set up a group called BeLeave, to give young pro-Brexit campaigners a voice during last year's referendum. As a registered campaigner, he was allowed to spend up to £700,000. He initially spent very little but in the 10 days leading up to the 23 June vote he ran up a £675,315 bill with AggregateIQ Data, a Canadian marketing firm that specialises in political campaigns.
Money to clear the bill was not given to Mr Grimes but sent directly to Aggregate IQ by Vote Leave, which separately spent £2.7m with the same firm, more than a third of its £6.8m budget. Mr Grimes also received £50,000 from an individual Vote Leave donor in the final 10 days, making the previously obscure campaigner's group one of the best-funded at the referendum.
Vote Leave would have gone over its campaign spending limit if it had spent the money it donated on behalf of Mr Grimes itself. The campaign group said it made the donation to Mr Grimes because it was coming up to its £7m spending limit and wanted a way of using £9.2m it had raised from individuals and companies on campaigning activities. The Electoral Commission said in March this was an "acceptable method of donating under the rules" and after a "detailed look" at the case it did not find reasonable grounds to suspect an offence had been committed.
The new probe will look at whether the spending returns delivered by Mr Grimes, Veterans for Britain and Vote Leave were correct - and whether or not Vote Leave exceeded its spending limit. In April, the Electoral Commission launched a separate investigation into spending during the referendum by Leave.EU, the campaign backed by then-UKIP leader Nigel Farage and donor Arron Banks. It is also investigating spending by the anti-Brexit campaign Britain Stronger in Europe.
Not sure what they'd do if they found spending broke the rules though. Make them say sorry on the side of a big red bus ?
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-42055523
The Electoral Commission has reopened an investigation into Vote Leave's EU referendum spending. The campaign denies attempting to get round spending limits - the Electoral Commission initially accepted this but now says it has new information. A group of campaigning lawyers, The Good Law Project, has started legal action against the commission over its original decision to drop the investigation, claiming the watchdog was not doing its job properly.
The row centres around Darren Grimes, at the time a fashion student at the University of Brighton, who set up a group called BeLeave, to give young pro-Brexit campaigners a voice during last year's referendum. As a registered campaigner, he was allowed to spend up to £700,000. He initially spent very little but in the 10 days leading up to the 23 June vote he ran up a £675,315 bill with AggregateIQ Data, a Canadian marketing firm that specialises in political campaigns.
Money to clear the bill was not given to Mr Grimes but sent directly to Aggregate IQ by Vote Leave, which separately spent £2.7m with the same firm, more than a third of its £6.8m budget. Mr Grimes also received £50,000 from an individual Vote Leave donor in the final 10 days, making the previously obscure campaigner's group one of the best-funded at the referendum.
Vote Leave would have gone over its campaign spending limit if it had spent the money it donated on behalf of Mr Grimes itself. The campaign group said it made the donation to Mr Grimes because it was coming up to its £7m spending limit and wanted a way of using £9.2m it had raised from individuals and companies on campaigning activities. The Electoral Commission said in March this was an "acceptable method of donating under the rules" and after a "detailed look" at the case it did not find reasonable grounds to suspect an offence had been committed.
The new probe will look at whether the spending returns delivered by Mr Grimes, Veterans for Britain and Vote Leave were correct - and whether or not Vote Leave exceeded its spending limit. In April, the Electoral Commission launched a separate investigation into spending during the referendum by Leave.EU, the campaign backed by then-UKIP leader Nigel Farage and donor Arron Banks. It is also investigating spending by the anti-Brexit campaign Britain Stronger in Europe.
Not sure what they'd do if they found spending broke the rules though. Make them say sorry on the side of a big red bus ?
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-42055523
Do animals fart ?
Yes. Next que- wait a minute...
The class Aves contains nearly 10,000 species of birds, which can be found on all seven continents and range in size from the ostrich (2.8 metres) to the bee hummingbird (5 centimetres), but none of them fart! Birds don’t have the same gas-producing bacteria in their gut that are found in mammals and other farting animals, and food passes quickly through a bird’s digestive system, which leaves no time for the build-up of toots. All the necessary anatomy is in place, though, so it is likely they could if they ‘needed to’.
Spider flatulence is an oddly understudied topic in scientific literature, but we can look to their digestive system for some clues... Since the stercoral sac contains bacteria, which helps break down the spider’s food, it seems likely that gas is produced during this process, and therefore there is certainly the possibility that spiders do fart. No work has been done to verify this to date, however, so the truth remains a mystery until urgently needed research funding is allocated.
Get them a grant and an IgNobel prize without delay !
http://bit.ly/2mOckbx
The class Aves contains nearly 10,000 species of birds, which can be found on all seven continents and range in size from the ostrich (2.8 metres) to the bee hummingbird (5 centimetres), but none of them fart! Birds don’t have the same gas-producing bacteria in their gut that are found in mammals and other farting animals, and food passes quickly through a bird’s digestive system, which leaves no time for the build-up of toots. All the necessary anatomy is in place, though, so it is likely they could if they ‘needed to’.
Spider flatulence is an oddly understudied topic in scientific literature, but we can look to their digestive system for some clues... Since the stercoral sac contains bacteria, which helps break down the spider’s food, it seems likely that gas is produced during this process, and therefore there is certainly the possibility that spiders do fart. No work has been done to verify this to date, however, so the truth remains a mystery until urgently needed research funding is allocated.
Get them a grant and an IgNobel prize without delay !
http://bit.ly/2mOckbx
Confessions of a professional internet troll
Interesting, though one has to wonder how this guy is still alive. Plausible deniability ? Regardless, I preferred it when trolls lived under bridges and ate goats. Life was better then.
For months, Vitaly Bespalov, 26, was one of hundreds of workers pumping out misinformation online at the Internet Research Agency, the Russian troll factory responsible for explosive content seen by 126 million Americans in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election. In many ways, the Agency [I'm not calling it the IRA as the original article does because to me that means something very different] was like a normal IT facility, Bespalov told NBC News in an exclusive broadcast interview. There were day shifts and night shifts, a cafeteria, and workers were seated at computers in a large open floor plan.
But in the squat, four-story concrete building on Savushkina Street in St. Petersburg, secured by camouflaged guards and turnstiles, bloggers and former journalists worked around the clock to create thousands of incendiary social media posts and news articles to meet specific quotas.
Bespalov told NBC News he "absolutely" believes the agency is connected to the Kremlin — a notion backed up by the U.S. intelligence community, which noted that a "close Putin ally with ties to Russian intelligence" is the "likely financier" of the agency.
Workers in the “American department” were paid the equivalent of between $1,300 to $2,000 a month for sparking social media uproar. Entry level trolls got only about $1,000 a month with paid bonuses.
Huh, I could earn more for trolling than doing this job... maybe in the next AAAAAAAA I'll throw in more pro-Putin/Trump hashtags...
https://www.reddit.com/r/skeptic/comments/7dzm2e/russian_troll_describes_work_in_the/?ref=share&ref_source=link
For months, Vitaly Bespalov, 26, was one of hundreds of workers pumping out misinformation online at the Internet Research Agency, the Russian troll factory responsible for explosive content seen by 126 million Americans in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election. In many ways, the Agency [I'm not calling it the IRA as the original article does because to me that means something very different] was like a normal IT facility, Bespalov told NBC News in an exclusive broadcast interview. There were day shifts and night shifts, a cafeteria, and workers were seated at computers in a large open floor plan.
But in the squat, four-story concrete building on Savushkina Street in St. Petersburg, secured by camouflaged guards and turnstiles, bloggers and former journalists worked around the clock to create thousands of incendiary social media posts and news articles to meet specific quotas.
Bespalov told NBC News he "absolutely" believes the agency is connected to the Kremlin — a notion backed up by the U.S. intelligence community, which noted that a "close Putin ally with ties to Russian intelligence" is the "likely financier" of the agency.
Workers in the “American department” were paid the equivalent of between $1,300 to $2,000 a month for sparking social media uproar. Entry level trolls got only about $1,000 a month with paid bonuses.
Huh, I could earn more for trolling than doing this job... maybe in the next AAAAAAAA I'll throw in more pro-Putin/Trump hashtags...
https://www.reddit.com/r/skeptic/comments/7dzm2e/russian_troll_describes_work_in_the/?ref=share&ref_source=link
Sunday, 19 November 2017
The noble savage ? Actually they're just like us : a colossal bunch of jerks
This fascinating documentary has been sat in my Netflix list for far too long. It follows the process of an uncontacted tribe encountering modern civilisation for the first time. As you might expect, they're neither noble nor savages : they're people. Some of them are utter jerks. One of the first things that happens on contact is that they insult the anthropologist's "shit" singing abilities, and then they try to steal their stuff. Others are very dangerous indeed : conflict with the local residents has led to many deaths on both sides. They consider murder to be a completely acceptable response to adultery. And living naked in the forest, by their own admission, sucks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMhMov-1VqU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMhMov-1VqU
Gene Roddenberry was not happy with the first draft of Wrath of Khan
In which Gene Roddenberry writes an angry letter to the authors of the first draft of Wrath of Khan. It's brilliant stuff and shows the amount of thought that went into both Trek society and its science. What's more, the writers seem to have addressed almost all of his points in the final version, not always exactly in the way he suggested, but with the effect of producing what he probably intended.
This is a scanned copy so I can't pick out any highlights, though I probably wouldn't anyway because it's worth reading in its entirety.
http://www.indiewire.com/2016/09/star-trek-50th-anniversary-gene-roddenberry-wrath-of-khan-letter-project-366-1201724589/
This is a scanned copy so I can't pick out any highlights, though I probably wouldn't anyway because it's worth reading in its entirety.
http://www.indiewire.com/2016/09/star-trek-50th-anniversary-gene-roddenberry-wrath-of-khan-letter-project-366-1201724589/
The problems of mass communication lies in tail-end effects
I don’t really think significant numbers are going to start doubting the Earth’s shape. What worries me is how, in this bewildering internet age, every fact, however apparently undeniable, has the potential to become a subject for debate. The canniest thing Mark Sargent said in his interview was “Don’t take my word for it – I could be a mental patient recently released from an institution.”
Slightly ranty corollary :
One of the really irritating things about communication en masse via social media is that at least one person will, either legitimately or otherwise, misinterpret something fundamental on a far more frequent basis than old-fashioned real life communications [also, you will encounter perfectly sensible people who have got just one or two damn fool ideas firmly stuck in their heads]. I think it's a numerical effect : everyone makes mistakes. So if thousands of people are reading your posts, a small fraction of them are bound to misunderstand.
Of course the benefit of this is that sometimes you get completely new perspectives on issues you thought were obvious. The downside is you also encounter a selection filter where you more often encounter people who are both so convinced of their idea that they have to post it, despite having made a grievous error. It's not that they're stupid* (wouldn't like to even try estimating how many times I've done this), it's just a tail end of the Gaussian effect.
* Or rather, it's in addition to the stupid people, of which there are many.
Anyway, to return to the original article :
How admirably open-minded of him! But what he’s implying is: so could anyone. You can’t take anybody’s word for anything. The discerning thinker disbelieves everything and then makes up his or her own mind on the basis of looking out to sea. It’s a clever line for him to take, because the Earth being round is a classic example of an issue where, unless you’re an astronaut, you sort of do have to take somebody’s word for it.
The recent explosion of weirdly unfocused scepticism is, I suppose, a natural response to this nasty internet-contaminated era. Accusations of fake news abound and are hugely worsened by, for example, Donald Drumpf’s delusional mixture of lying and denial, and his determination to discredit all the most reliable news sources. Recent revelations that thousands of the accounts tweeting enthusiastically about Brexit were probably malign Russian cyborgs further undermines the credibility of anything but the evidence of our own eyes.
Unfortunately, this boundless doubting could take us right back to the stone age – and not in a time machine we’ve invented. The accumulation and advance of human learning, and therefore of civilisation, relies on things being written down and subsequently believed. It’s built on trust.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/19/the-earth-may-not-be-flat-but-it-is-possibly-doomed-fake-news
Slightly ranty corollary :
One of the really irritating things about communication en masse via social media is that at least one person will, either legitimately or otherwise, misinterpret something fundamental on a far more frequent basis than old-fashioned real life communications [also, you will encounter perfectly sensible people who have got just one or two damn fool ideas firmly stuck in their heads]. I think it's a numerical effect : everyone makes mistakes. So if thousands of people are reading your posts, a small fraction of them are bound to misunderstand.
Of course the benefit of this is that sometimes you get completely new perspectives on issues you thought were obvious. The downside is you also encounter a selection filter where you more often encounter people who are both so convinced of their idea that they have to post it, despite having made a grievous error. It's not that they're stupid* (wouldn't like to even try estimating how many times I've done this), it's just a tail end of the Gaussian effect.
* Or rather, it's in addition to the stupid people, of which there are many.
Anyway, to return to the original article :
How admirably open-minded of him! But what he’s implying is: so could anyone. You can’t take anybody’s word for anything. The discerning thinker disbelieves everything and then makes up his or her own mind on the basis of looking out to sea. It’s a clever line for him to take, because the Earth being round is a classic example of an issue where, unless you’re an astronaut, you sort of do have to take somebody’s word for it.
The recent explosion of weirdly unfocused scepticism is, I suppose, a natural response to this nasty internet-contaminated era. Accusations of fake news abound and are hugely worsened by, for example, Donald Drumpf’s delusional mixture of lying and denial, and his determination to discredit all the most reliable news sources. Recent revelations that thousands of the accounts tweeting enthusiastically about Brexit were probably malign Russian cyborgs further undermines the credibility of anything but the evidence of our own eyes.
Unfortunately, this boundless doubting could take us right back to the stone age – and not in a time machine we’ve invented. The accumulation and advance of human learning, and therefore of civilisation, relies on things being written down and subsequently believed. It’s built on trust.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/19/the-earth-may-not-be-flat-but-it-is-possibly-doomed-fake-news
No nukes is good nukes, says air force general
The top nuclear commander in the US says he would resist any "illegal" presidential order to launch a strike. Air Force Gen John Hyten, said as head of the US Strategic Command he provided advice to a president and expected that a legal alternative would be found.
His comments come just days after US senators discussed a president's authority to launch a nuclear attack. Some of them expressed concern that President Donald Drumpf might irresponsibly order such a strike. Others though said a president must have the authority to act without meddling from lawyers. It was the first such hearing in more than 40 years.
"I provide advice to the president, he will tell me what to do," Gen Hyten said. "And if it's illegal, guess what's going to happen? I'm going to say: 'Mr President, that's illegal.' And guess what he's going to do? He's going to say, 'What would be legal?' And we'll come up with options, of a mix of capabilities to respond to whatever the situation is, and that's the way it works. It's not that complicated."
It's insane that this is even being discussed.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42041975
His comments come just days after US senators discussed a president's authority to launch a nuclear attack. Some of them expressed concern that President Donald Drumpf might irresponsibly order such a strike. Others though said a president must have the authority to act without meddling from lawyers. It was the first such hearing in more than 40 years.
"I provide advice to the president, he will tell me what to do," Gen Hyten said. "And if it's illegal, guess what's going to happen? I'm going to say: 'Mr President, that's illegal.' And guess what he's going to do? He's going to say, 'What would be legal?' And we'll come up with options, of a mix of capabilities to respond to whatever the situation is, and that's the way it works. It's not that complicated."
It's insane that this is even being discussed.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42041975
A private space race
Yay, moooaaaaar rockets !
Reiterating the point that Electron is very much a developing system, the Los Angeles-based launch provider has christened the second flight “Still Testing”. While the first flight carried no commercial payloads, “Still Testing” will ferry at least three small satellites to a highly inclined elliptical orbit.
Though the payloads are small, they represent an important milestone in Rocket Lab’s evolution. Riding to orbit on this flight are at least two Lemur-2 satellites as well as a single Dove satellite. The Dove CubeSat, manufactured and operated by Planet Labs, will join Planet’s existing constellation of imaging satellites, adding to the company’s stable of hardware. Likewise, Spire‘s Lemur CubeSats will take their place amongst the company’s impressive collection of weather and tracking satellites.
Via J. Steven York.
Originally shared by Google Lunar XPRIZE
Another launch from New Zealand's Rocket Lab - launch provider of #GLXP team Moon Express - is coming soon!
http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/organizations/rocket-lab/rocket-lab-prepares-electron-second-test-flight/
Reiterating the point that Electron is very much a developing system, the Los Angeles-based launch provider has christened the second flight “Still Testing”. While the first flight carried no commercial payloads, “Still Testing” will ferry at least three small satellites to a highly inclined elliptical orbit.
Though the payloads are small, they represent an important milestone in Rocket Lab’s evolution. Riding to orbit on this flight are at least two Lemur-2 satellites as well as a single Dove satellite. The Dove CubeSat, manufactured and operated by Planet Labs, will join Planet’s existing constellation of imaging satellites, adding to the company’s stable of hardware. Likewise, Spire‘s Lemur CubeSats will take their place amongst the company’s impressive collection of weather and tracking satellites.
Via J. Steven York.
Originally shared by Google Lunar XPRIZE
Another launch from New Zealand's Rocket Lab - launch provider of #GLXP team Moon Express - is coming soon!
http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/organizations/rocket-lab/rocket-lab-prepares-electron-second-test-flight/
Saturday, 18 November 2017
Education increases analytical intelligence, driving false beliefs further
About one in four Republicans with only a high school education said they worried about climate change a great deal. But among college-educated Republicans, that figure decreases, sharply, to 8 percent.
On many other issues – social issues in particular, including abortion, gay marriage and divorce – more education is associated with higher rates of acceptance, regardless of party. Gaps between Democrats and Republicans persisted, but the relationships moved more or less in tandem.
I'll offer some randomish speculations.
First, Al Gore turned a scientific issue into a political one. Oops.
Then, education is not the same as intelligence. Knowing lots of facts isn't the same as intelligence either. And the ability to process data and form a conclusion (analogous to how computers can process data) is not the same as the ability to critically evaluate that conclusion (i.e. wisdom). They aren't mutually exclusive by any means - there may very well be a correlation - but they're not the same either.
The raw ability to process information can exacerbate the tendency to bullshit and rationalise if it isn't accompanied by the ability and desire to critically evaluate it. Those with a greater "computational" style of intelligence can find ways of justifying a conclusion that flies in the face of the evidence that a less "intelligent" person would never think of. If your education system doesn't promote critical thinking, then it may just give you more tools for your arsenal of rationalising. Everything is subject to doubt and uncertainty. Everything has vulnerabilities that deniers can exploit. It's possible to be highly skilled and intelligent but hold a really, really stupid opinion on at least some issues if you don't have this other sort of critical wisdom : the proverbial clever idiot, if you will.
Couple this with the Al Gore factor and Bob's your uncle. You've now turned that intelligence into a weapon designed not to search for the truth but simply to debunk for the sake of debunking.
Oops.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/14/upshot/climate-change-by-education.html?action=click&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=Article®ion=Footer&contentCollection=The+Upshot
On many other issues – social issues in particular, including abortion, gay marriage and divorce – more education is associated with higher rates of acceptance, regardless of party. Gaps between Democrats and Republicans persisted, but the relationships moved more or less in tandem.
I'll offer some randomish speculations.
First, Al Gore turned a scientific issue into a political one. Oops.
Then, education is not the same as intelligence. Knowing lots of facts isn't the same as intelligence either. And the ability to process data and form a conclusion (analogous to how computers can process data) is not the same as the ability to critically evaluate that conclusion (i.e. wisdom). They aren't mutually exclusive by any means - there may very well be a correlation - but they're not the same either.
The raw ability to process information can exacerbate the tendency to bullshit and rationalise if it isn't accompanied by the ability and desire to critically evaluate it. Those with a greater "computational" style of intelligence can find ways of justifying a conclusion that flies in the face of the evidence that a less "intelligent" person would never think of. If your education system doesn't promote critical thinking, then it may just give you more tools for your arsenal of rationalising. Everything is subject to doubt and uncertainty. Everything has vulnerabilities that deniers can exploit. It's possible to be highly skilled and intelligent but hold a really, really stupid opinion on at least some issues if you don't have this other sort of critical wisdom : the proverbial clever idiot, if you will.
Couple this with the Al Gore factor and Bob's your uncle. You've now turned that intelligence into a weapon designed not to search for the truth but simply to debunk for the sake of debunking.
Oops.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/14/upshot/climate-change-by-education.html?action=click&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=Article®ion=Footer&contentCollection=The+Upshot
The Airlander 10's accidental safety test
Oops, but not too oops. It's a useful test of the safety system, at least.
The world's longest aircraft has collapsed to the ground less than 24 hours after a successful test flight. The Airlander 10 - a combination of a plane and an airship - was seen to "break in two" at an airfield in Bedfordshire, an eyewitness said. Owner Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd said it appeared the Airlander broke free from its mooring mast, triggering a safety system which deflates the aircraft. Two people on the ground suffered minor injuries. It was not flying and was not due to fly, Hybrid Air Vehicles said.
"The safety feature is to ensure our aircraft minimises any potential damage to its surroundings in these circumstances," Hybrid Air Vehicles added. "The aircraft is now deflated and secure on the edge of the airfield. The fuel and helium inside the Airlander have been made safe. We are testing a brand new type of aircraft and incidents of this nature can occur during this phase of development. We will assess the cause of the incident and the extent of repairs needed to the aircraft in the next few weeks."
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-42037832
The world's longest aircraft has collapsed to the ground less than 24 hours after a successful test flight. The Airlander 10 - a combination of a plane and an airship - was seen to "break in two" at an airfield in Bedfordshire, an eyewitness said. Owner Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd said it appeared the Airlander broke free from its mooring mast, triggering a safety system which deflates the aircraft. Two people on the ground suffered minor injuries. It was not flying and was not due to fly, Hybrid Air Vehicles said.
"The safety feature is to ensure our aircraft minimises any potential damage to its surroundings in these circumstances," Hybrid Air Vehicles added. "The aircraft is now deflated and secure on the edge of the airfield. The fuel and helium inside the Airlander have been made safe. We are testing a brand new type of aircraft and incidents of this nature can occur during this phase of development. We will assess the cause of the incident and the extent of repairs needed to the aircraft in the next few weeks."
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-42037832
Blair on Brexit : he learned it from Cicero
A discussion on lying reminded me of something. Here's a snippet from one of Tony Blair's anti-Brexit speeches :
It's like a house swap. They said, "Yep, we wanna swap our house." But they hadn't seen the other one. They'd had one group of people tell them, "This other house is fantastic, you should definitely move there", and another group of people saying, "No, it's a really idea, I wouldn't do that." So what do they do ? They heard two people, they decided to go with the person who told them it's fantastic. Well here's the thing - now they're gonna go and see it. Now they're gonna go and visit the neighbourhood. Now they're gonna go and test the structure. Now they're gonna go and see whether it's the type of move they really want to make. The idea that in those circumstances if they decide, "You know what, I think this is not such a great neighbourhood, I'm not really liking this structure, don't think it's really got the right bedrooms for us, and other facilities... it's gonna cost too much to do it up... err, what, they can't change their mind ? "No, you made your decision, you've just got to do it, nope, stop debating it, don't think about it any more"... what is... ? Who made that rule ?
And here, if you want a more ancient and established authority, is Marcus Tullius Cicero :
Suppose that an honest man wants to sell a house because of certain defects of which he alone is aware. The building is supposed to be quite healthy, but is in fact insanitary, and he is aware that it is; or the place is badly built and is falling down, but nobody knows this except the owner. Suppose that he does not disclose these facts to purchasers, and sells the house for much more than he expected... Anyone can see the sort of concealment this amounts to - and the sort of person who practises it. He is the reverse of open, straightforward, fair and honest : he is a shifty, deep, artful, treacherous, malevolent, underhand, sly, habitual rogue... Misrepresentation is the equivalent of criminal fraud... Our legislators have added suppression of the facts to the indictable offences, ruling that even if the seller has not declared all the defects he must make them good.
It's like a house swap. They said, "Yep, we wanna swap our house." But they hadn't seen the other one. They'd had one group of people tell them, "This other house is fantastic, you should definitely move there", and another group of people saying, "No, it's a really idea, I wouldn't do that." So what do they do ? They heard two people, they decided to go with the person who told them it's fantastic. Well here's the thing - now they're gonna go and see it. Now they're gonna go and visit the neighbourhood. Now they're gonna go and test the structure. Now they're gonna go and see whether it's the type of move they really want to make. The idea that in those circumstances if they decide, "You know what, I think this is not such a great neighbourhood, I'm not really liking this structure, don't think it's really got the right bedrooms for us, and other facilities... it's gonna cost too much to do it up... err, what, they can't change their mind ? "No, you made your decision, you've just got to do it, nope, stop debating it, don't think about it any more"... what is... ? Who made that rule ?
And here, if you want a more ancient and established authority, is Marcus Tullius Cicero :
Suppose that an honest man wants to sell a house because of certain defects of which he alone is aware. The building is supposed to be quite healthy, but is in fact insanitary, and he is aware that it is; or the place is badly built and is falling down, but nobody knows this except the owner. Suppose that he does not disclose these facts to purchasers, and sells the house for much more than he expected... Anyone can see the sort of concealment this amounts to - and the sort of person who practises it. He is the reverse of open, straightforward, fair and honest : he is a shifty, deep, artful, treacherous, malevolent, underhand, sly, habitual rogue... Misrepresentation is the equivalent of criminal fraud... Our legislators have added suppression of the facts to the indictable offences, ruling that even if the seller has not declared all the defects he must make them good.
"Young people are just the shizzle", says the BBC
The BBC is on something of an anti-anti-Millenials crusade.
Citing the fact that the young are more likely to volunteer and more tolerant of diversity, Arnett says his view is directly the opposite of Twenge’s: today’s emerging adults are not only less narcissistic, they’re “an exceptionally generous generation that holds great promise for improving the world”.
In a press release, Roberts also added that older generations may have forgotten their own youthful narcissism; it fades with age. “We have faulty memories,” he said, “so we don’t remember that we were rather self-centered when we were that age.”
This also chimes with a new study just published in New Zealand, which found no evidence of rising entitlement, an aspect of narcissism, among millennials. Intriguingly, it also hinted that the higher sense of entitlement among younger people is a developmental effect, not a generational one. In other words, we generally feel less entitled as we get older.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20171115-millenials-are-the-most-narcissistic-generation-not-so-fast
Citing the fact that the young are more likely to volunteer and more tolerant of diversity, Arnett says his view is directly the opposite of Twenge’s: today’s emerging adults are not only less narcissistic, they’re “an exceptionally generous generation that holds great promise for improving the world”.
In a press release, Roberts also added that older generations may have forgotten their own youthful narcissism; it fades with age. “We have faulty memories,” he said, “so we don’t remember that we were rather self-centered when we were that age.”
This also chimes with a new study just published in New Zealand, which found no evidence of rising entitlement, an aspect of narcissism, among millennials. Intriguingly, it also hinted that the higher sense of entitlement among younger people is a developmental effect, not a generational one. In other words, we generally feel less entitled as we get older.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20171115-millenials-are-the-most-narcissistic-generation-not-so-fast
The strange stone structures of ancient Saudi Arabia
Fascinating. I had no idea these existed.
In Saudi Arabia, he explored 200 sites from the air across the regions of Harrat Khaybar and Harrat Uwayrid. The structures he observed ranged in shapes and sizes, which he describes as gates, kites, triangles, bull’s eyes and keyholes. Over the course of three days, he snapped more than 6,000 aerial photographs, lifting the veil on the ancient wonders.
Of the 400 structures he describes as “gates” that he had identified on Google Earth, Dr. Kennedy studied about 40 from the helicopter and found that the structures were not randomly put together.
“We could see immediately they were much more complicated than they appeared on Google Earth,” Dr. Kennedy said. They were not simply heaps of stone. Rather, each long bar was actually made up of two parallel lines of flat slabs placed on their edges facing each other with small stones filling the space in between. “They are much more sophisticated than I was prepared for,” he said.
Some gates were larger than 1,000 feet long and 250 feet wide. He suspected the oldest may be about 9,000 years old. Though he is not sure of their purpose, he speculated they may have been used for farming purposes.
From above, they typically resemble kites with strings and tails. They are often very large, with many stretching more than a quarter-mile. Archaeologists think gazelle were corralled into the head of the kite, where the hunters would come out to kill them. Sometimes multiple kites would overlap, so that if the animals got past one funnel they would get caught in another. “Essentially there was no escape,” said Dr. Kennedy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/science/saudi-arabia-gates.html?rref=collection/sectioncollection/science&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront
In Saudi Arabia, he explored 200 sites from the air across the regions of Harrat Khaybar and Harrat Uwayrid. The structures he observed ranged in shapes and sizes, which he describes as gates, kites, triangles, bull’s eyes and keyholes. Over the course of three days, he snapped more than 6,000 aerial photographs, lifting the veil on the ancient wonders.
Of the 400 structures he describes as “gates” that he had identified on Google Earth, Dr. Kennedy studied about 40 from the helicopter and found that the structures were not randomly put together.
“We could see immediately they were much more complicated than they appeared on Google Earth,” Dr. Kennedy said. They were not simply heaps of stone. Rather, each long bar was actually made up of two parallel lines of flat slabs placed on their edges facing each other with small stones filling the space in between. “They are much more sophisticated than I was prepared for,” he said.
Some gates were larger than 1,000 feet long and 250 feet wide. He suspected the oldest may be about 9,000 years old. Though he is not sure of their purpose, he speculated they may have been used for farming purposes.
From above, they typically resemble kites with strings and tails. They are often very large, with many stretching more than a quarter-mile. Archaeologists think gazelle were corralled into the head of the kite, where the hunters would come out to kill them. Sometimes multiple kites would overlap, so that if the animals got past one funnel they would get caught in another. “Essentially there was no escape,” said Dr. Kennedy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/science/saudi-arabia-gates.html?rref=collection/sectioncollection/science&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront
President Drumpf hates elephants because of course he does
Imports of trophies from elephants legally hunted in Zambia and Zimbabwe had been set to resume, reversing a 2014 Obama-era ban. But late on Friday, President Drumpf tweeted the change was on hold until he could "review all conservation facts".
Hunting elephants is a bad idea. Review complete. Next question.
... or perhaps this is a job for Catheter Cowboy ?
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42035832
Hunting elephants is a bad idea. Review complete. Next question.
... or perhaps this is a job for Catheter Cowboy ?
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42035832
Friday, 17 November 2017
Arecibo's funding continues
National Science Foundation will look for partners to provide additional financial support for Puerto Rico facility. The US National Science Foundation (NSF), which funds about two-thirds of the observatory’s annual US$12-million budget, has decided to continue operating it in collaboration with as-yet-to-be-decided partners. Over the next five years the agency will reduce its annual contribution from $8.2 million to $2 million, with the rest coming from the unspecified partner institutions.
“I'm so happy they made the right decision,” says Edgard Rivera-Valentín, a planetary scientist who works jointly at the observatory and the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas. “I’m so happy the observatory stays alive.”
"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
It's probably the best outcome possible. AO will continue to operate, but it has to find new partners to make up the funding shortfall. Hopefully this will involve a minimum level of hunting for aliens...
From the Record of Decision :
https://www.nsf.gov/mps/ast/env_impact_reviews/arecibo/final_rod_11152017.pdf
This Alternative might include demolition activities that could remove up to 26 buildings/structures from the site. It is unknown whether specific buildings would be demolished as a collaborative agreement is not yet in place and the needs of any future collaborator(s) are not known at this time. Based on communications with the scientific community, NSF identified the 26 buildings/structures that may be likely candidates for removal, which are provided in Table 2.3-1 of the FEIS. Onsite housing, recreation facilities, and other buildings that could be determined unnecessary would be demolished. Paved roads serving areas that would no longer be used would be removed. The analysis assumes that 26 buildings/structures would be demolished and no new construction would occur, which represents the maximum amount of disturbance that could result under this Alternative.
The wording of this is considerably better than in previous documents, which suggests a slash-and-burn approach and hang the consequences. Now it's seen as a worst-case scenario, with no demolition planned until there's, well, you know, an actual reason for demolition to occur. Some measure of logic appears to have prevailed.
The Commonwealth suffered devastating damage to almost all of its infrastructure. Communications were impossible in the first several days after the Hurricane. When communications were reestablished, NSF learned that the Observatory, though receiving some damage, escaped significant damage. In particular, the damage to structures in the historic district is reparable, and, as a result, NSF determined that no additional NEPA analysis would be needed. If feasible, either through supplemental appropriations for hurricane relief or through normal appropriated funds, NSF intends to fund the repairs of Arecibo Observatory to its pre-hurricane condition.
http://www.nature.com/news/arecibo-telescope-wins-reprieve-from-us-government-1.22994
“I'm so happy they made the right decision,” says Edgard Rivera-Valentín, a planetary scientist who works jointly at the observatory and the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas. “I’m so happy the observatory stays alive.”
"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
It's probably the best outcome possible. AO will continue to operate, but it has to find new partners to make up the funding shortfall. Hopefully this will involve a minimum level of hunting for aliens...
From the Record of Decision :
https://www.nsf.gov/mps/ast/env_impact_reviews/arecibo/final_rod_11152017.pdf
This Alternative might include demolition activities that could remove up to 26 buildings/structures from the site. It is unknown whether specific buildings would be demolished as a collaborative agreement is not yet in place and the needs of any future collaborator(s) are not known at this time. Based on communications with the scientific community, NSF identified the 26 buildings/structures that may be likely candidates for removal, which are provided in Table 2.3-1 of the FEIS. Onsite housing, recreation facilities, and other buildings that could be determined unnecessary would be demolished. Paved roads serving areas that would no longer be used would be removed. The analysis assumes that 26 buildings/structures would be demolished and no new construction would occur, which represents the maximum amount of disturbance that could result under this Alternative.
The wording of this is considerably better than in previous documents, which suggests a slash-and-burn approach and hang the consequences. Now it's seen as a worst-case scenario, with no demolition planned until there's, well, you know, an actual reason for demolition to occur. Some measure of logic appears to have prevailed.
The Commonwealth suffered devastating damage to almost all of its infrastructure. Communications were impossible in the first several days after the Hurricane. When communications were reestablished, NSF learned that the Observatory, though receiving some damage, escaped significant damage. In particular, the damage to structures in the historic district is reparable, and, as a result, NSF determined that no additional NEPA analysis would be needed. If feasible, either through supplemental appropriations for hurricane relief or through normal appropriated funds, NSF intends to fund the repairs of Arecibo Observatory to its pre-hurricane condition.
http://www.nature.com/news/arecibo-telescope-wins-reprieve-from-us-government-1.22994
Tesla's electric lorry
Tesla has unveiled its first electric articulated lorry, designed to challenge diesel trucks as king of the road. The long-anticipated Tesla Semi has a range of 500 miles on a single charge. Tesla says the vehicle - known in the US as a semi-trailer truck - will go into production in 2019.
Chief executive Elon Musk also unexpectedly revealed a new Roadster, which he said would be "the fastest production car ever" made. The red sports car was driven out of the trailer of the electric lorry during Tesla's presentation on Thursday. The Roadster will have a range of close to 1,000km (620 miles) on a single charge and will do 0-100mph in 4.2 seconds.
Mr Musk described it as "a hardcore smackdown to gasoline cars". He said riding in traditional cars would be like driving "a steam engine with a side of quiche". The new Roadster becomes available in 2020.
What's he got against quiche ? Makes me want to take a selfie on a steam train eating some quiche and make a meme out of it...
However, the charismatic Mr Musk faces continued pressure from investors and customers as the firm struggles to meet demand for its Model 3 car. The Model 3 is behind schedule due to factory delays, a situation Mr Musk described recently as “production hell”.
The 46-year-old had been camping at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Reno, Nevada, to oversee battery production for the new cars. However, while the company had predicted it would make 1,500 Model 3 cars in the third quarter of 2017, in reality it only managed 260.
Tesla will not be able to compete on diesel’s range, and battery specialists doubt Tesla can produce a powerful enough battery at a reasonable price. “A 300-mile-capable battery pack costs about $200,000,” a Carnegie Mellon study concluded. “Which is much higher than a diesel-powered semi-truck, which costs about $120,000, on average, for the entire vehicle.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42021713
Chief executive Elon Musk also unexpectedly revealed a new Roadster, which he said would be "the fastest production car ever" made. The red sports car was driven out of the trailer of the electric lorry during Tesla's presentation on Thursday. The Roadster will have a range of close to 1,000km (620 miles) on a single charge and will do 0-100mph in 4.2 seconds.
Mr Musk described it as "a hardcore smackdown to gasoline cars". He said riding in traditional cars would be like driving "a steam engine with a side of quiche". The new Roadster becomes available in 2020.
What's he got against quiche ? Makes me want to take a selfie on a steam train eating some quiche and make a meme out of it...
However, the charismatic Mr Musk faces continued pressure from investors and customers as the firm struggles to meet demand for its Model 3 car. The Model 3 is behind schedule due to factory delays, a situation Mr Musk described recently as “production hell”.
The 46-year-old had been camping at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Reno, Nevada, to oversee battery production for the new cars. However, while the company had predicted it would make 1,500 Model 3 cars in the third quarter of 2017, in reality it only managed 260.
Tesla will not be able to compete on diesel’s range, and battery specialists doubt Tesla can produce a powerful enough battery at a reasonable price. “A 300-mile-capable battery pack costs about $200,000,” a Carnegie Mellon study concluded. “Which is much higher than a diesel-powered semi-truck, which costs about $120,000, on average, for the entire vehicle.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42021713
Thursday, 16 November 2017
Brexiteers who love Britain so much they don't even live there
Take the Barclay brothers – owners of the Daily Telegraph which today denounced the mutineers. David and Frederick Barclay may have been born in Hammersmith, but they live in Monaco and Sark. They give their address as Avenue de Grande Bretagne, Monte Carlo and when once asked why, said that: “(We) left the UK over 23 years ago for health reasons and not for tax reasons in any shape or form.” Methinks they doth protest too much.
Billionaire Rupert Murdoch, whose stable of papers (The Times and Sunday Times excepted) fought the dirty end of the Brexit media war isn’t British, doesn’t live in Britain and is on record as saying that he objects to the EU because it won’t do his bidding. The multi-millionaire owner of the Daily Mail, Jonathan Harmsworth, is a non dom. Nigel Lawson, Chair of Vote Leave, loves Britain so much that he resides full time in a big house in – France. Leave EU Official bigwig Arron Banks lives for much of the year in Belize. His right hand man, Andy Wigmore, not only lives in Belize but is a Belizean citizen and diplomat who represented Belize at the Olympic Games. Andy loves Britain so much that he is no longer actually British.
Key Brexit pusher and financier Lord Ashcroft – also lives in Belize. The official Vote Leave campaign was funded by Peter Cruddas who lives – in Monaco. And this is before we even get to the Brexit talking heads – Louise Mensch lives in America. Steve Hilton – lives in California. I could go on. And on.
How much of this hypocrisy are you willing to put up with Britain? When do you take a good look in the mirror and say “enough is enough.” These are plastic patriots. They aren’t interested in the prosperity and well-being of their homeland. They are too busy being concerned with their tax affairs, their media careers, their business interests and their tans. They have played you for a bunch of fools and whichever way Brexit goes they will most likely go untouched by the fall-out.
https://thepinprick.com/2017/11/15/who-are-the-real-traitors-here-the-peculiar-patriotism-of-the-brexit-leaders/amp/
Billionaire Rupert Murdoch, whose stable of papers (The Times and Sunday Times excepted) fought the dirty end of the Brexit media war isn’t British, doesn’t live in Britain and is on record as saying that he objects to the EU because it won’t do his bidding. The multi-millionaire owner of the Daily Mail, Jonathan Harmsworth, is a non dom. Nigel Lawson, Chair of Vote Leave, loves Britain so much that he resides full time in a big house in – France. Leave EU Official bigwig Arron Banks lives for much of the year in Belize. His right hand man, Andy Wigmore, not only lives in Belize but is a Belizean citizen and diplomat who represented Belize at the Olympic Games. Andy loves Britain so much that he is no longer actually British.
Key Brexit pusher and financier Lord Ashcroft – also lives in Belize. The official Vote Leave campaign was funded by Peter Cruddas who lives – in Monaco. And this is before we even get to the Brexit talking heads – Louise Mensch lives in America. Steve Hilton – lives in California. I could go on. And on.
How much of this hypocrisy are you willing to put up with Britain? When do you take a good look in the mirror and say “enough is enough.” These are plastic patriots. They aren’t interested in the prosperity and well-being of their homeland. They are too busy being concerned with their tax affairs, their media careers, their business interests and their tans. They have played you for a bunch of fools and whichever way Brexit goes they will most likely go untouched by the fall-out.
https://thepinprick.com/2017/11/15/who-are-the-real-traitors-here-the-peculiar-patriotism-of-the-brexit-leaders/amp/
Paltering : a polite form of bullshit
The line between truth and lies is becoming ever murkier, finds Melissa Hogenboom. There's even a new word for a very different form of lying.
Yep, gotcha covered :
http://astrorhysy.blogspot.cz/2017/06/on-bullshit.html
It is no secret that politicians often lie, but consider this – they can do so simply by telling the truth. Confused?
No. You obviously didn't read my article. Silly BBC !
Misleading by "telling the truth" is so pervasive in daily life that a new term has recently been coined to describe it: paltering. That it is so widespread in society now gives us more insight into the grey area between truth and lies, and perhaps even why we lie at all.
Well... I suppose I will concede the need for the term since it's a) acceptable in polite society and b) a specific subset of the greater realm of bullshit.
When Todd Rogers and his colleagues were looking at how often politicians dodge questions during debates they realised something else was going on. By stating another truthful fact, they could get out of answering a question. They could even imply something was truthful when it was not. Politicians do this all the time, says Rogers, a behavioural scientist at Harvard Kennedy School. He and colleagues therefore set out to understand more about it.
He found that paltering was an extremely common tactic of negotiation. Over half the 184 business executives in his study admitted to using the tactic. The research also found that the person doing the paltering believed it was more ethical than lying outright. The individuals who had been deceived, however, did not distinguish between lying and paltering. "It probably leads to too much paltering as communicators think that when disclosed, it will be somewhat ethical, whereas listeners see it as a lie," says Rogers.
It is also difficult to spot a misleading "fact" when we hear something that on the face of it, sounds true. For instance, the UK's Labour Party campaign video to lower the voting age said: "You're 16. Now you can get married, join the Army, work full-time." The BBC's reality check team discovered that these facts do not tell the whole truth.
Well, here we enter a very murky grey area between legitimate simplification and wilful deception. Technically, the BBC's caveats are correct. But are they actually relevant to the point being made ? I don't think so.
Lying can and does clearly serve a devious social purpose. It can help someone paint a better picture than the truth, or help a politician dodge an uncomfortable question. "It's unethical and it makes our democracy worse. But it's how human cognition works," says Rogers.
Unfortunately, the prevalence of lies might stem from the way we are brought up. Lies play a role in our social interactions from a very young age. We tell young children about tooth fairies and Santa, or encourage a child to be grateful for an unwanted present. "We give our kids very mixed messages," says Feldman. "What they ultimately learn is that even though honesty is the best policy, it's also at times fine and preferable to lie about things."
To an extent. But my parents brought me up to believe in Santa et al. and it didn't led me to mistrust them. And I haven't become the proverbial used car salesman either. It's not telling lies/paltering or whatever that's bad, it's the intent behind them.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20171114-the-disturbing-art-of-lying-by-telling-the-truth
Yep, gotcha covered :
http://astrorhysy.blogspot.cz/2017/06/on-bullshit.html
It is no secret that politicians often lie, but consider this – they can do so simply by telling the truth. Confused?
No. You obviously didn't read my article. Silly BBC !
Misleading by "telling the truth" is so pervasive in daily life that a new term has recently been coined to describe it: paltering. That it is so widespread in society now gives us more insight into the grey area between truth and lies, and perhaps even why we lie at all.
Well... I suppose I will concede the need for the term since it's a) acceptable in polite society and b) a specific subset of the greater realm of bullshit.
When Todd Rogers and his colleagues were looking at how often politicians dodge questions during debates they realised something else was going on. By stating another truthful fact, they could get out of answering a question. They could even imply something was truthful when it was not. Politicians do this all the time, says Rogers, a behavioural scientist at Harvard Kennedy School. He and colleagues therefore set out to understand more about it.
He found that paltering was an extremely common tactic of negotiation. Over half the 184 business executives in his study admitted to using the tactic. The research also found that the person doing the paltering believed it was more ethical than lying outright. The individuals who had been deceived, however, did not distinguish between lying and paltering. "It probably leads to too much paltering as communicators think that when disclosed, it will be somewhat ethical, whereas listeners see it as a lie," says Rogers.
It is also difficult to spot a misleading "fact" when we hear something that on the face of it, sounds true. For instance, the UK's Labour Party campaign video to lower the voting age said: "You're 16. Now you can get married, join the Army, work full-time." The BBC's reality check team discovered that these facts do not tell the whole truth.
Well, here we enter a very murky grey area between legitimate simplification and wilful deception. Technically, the BBC's caveats are correct. But are they actually relevant to the point being made ? I don't think so.
Lying can and does clearly serve a devious social purpose. It can help someone paint a better picture than the truth, or help a politician dodge an uncomfortable question. "It's unethical and it makes our democracy worse. But it's how human cognition works," says Rogers.
Unfortunately, the prevalence of lies might stem from the way we are brought up. Lies play a role in our social interactions from a very young age. We tell young children about tooth fairies and Santa, or encourage a child to be grateful for an unwanted present. "We give our kids very mixed messages," says Feldman. "What they ultimately learn is that even though honesty is the best policy, it's also at times fine and preferable to lie about things."
To an extent. But my parents brought me up to believe in Santa et al. and it didn't led me to mistrust them. And I haven't become the proverbial used car salesman either. It's not telling lies/paltering or whatever that's bad, it's the intent behind them.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20171114-the-disturbing-art-of-lying-by-telling-the-truth
Real-life windtraps for cheap clean water
"... and we will change the face of Arakis."
Interesting, but currently very inefficient.
Source works something like this: It draws ambient air through a fan into its devices. There, special nano-materials engineered by Zero Mass absorb the water through a process similar to what makes sugar in an open container clump with humidity. Similar, but highly concentrated, Friesen says. The solar panel then helps separate the water from the material. After it is condensed, it flows into a reservoir below the panel, where it runs through a mineral block that adds magnesium and calcium common in drinking water... The system extracts moisture out of the air at a rate of as much as five liters per day.
Friesen’s clean water doesn’t come cheap. A typical setup for a home will set you back about $4500 -- $2000 for each of two Sources and an additional $500 for installation. Friesen says for a household that regularly buys bottled water, payback will take about five years. Considering that Americans drank, on average, 40 gallons of bottled water last year, he sees plenty of potential customers. Friesen says that over its lifetime, a two-panel set up may help to remove 70,000 plastic bottles from circulation.
I'm not really sure how it could be as high as 70,000. If I drink two 1 litre bottles every day for 70 years, which seems pretty extreme, that's still only 50,000. Though five litres a day is enough for two people, so maybe if you have a couple of long-lived bottled water fanatics sharing the same system... ?
But Friesen has a pitch and a plan to push Source well beyond homes. Consider a school that’s had issues with lead in its water. Installing an array of Source – say a dozen or two of the devices -- could be cheaper than replacing decrepit infrastructure. Contamination doesn’t have to be on the scale of Flint, Michigan for the idea to make sense. Last year, the Los Angeles Unified School District, for example, spent nearly $20 million to retrofit or remove 48,000 contaminated drinking fountains. Zero Mass' backers believe numbers like these point to Source's viability not only for homes but also for institutions and organizations.
I seem to recall that the US has weird and varying laws as to whether you can collect rainwater for drinking without paying the state for it. Perhaps this would be a clever way to circumvent that.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/miguelhelft/2017/11/15/meet-zero-mass-water-whose-solar-panels-pull-drinking-water-from-the-air/#5243b988370e
Interesting, but currently very inefficient.
Source works something like this: It draws ambient air through a fan into its devices. There, special nano-materials engineered by Zero Mass absorb the water through a process similar to what makes sugar in an open container clump with humidity. Similar, but highly concentrated, Friesen says. The solar panel then helps separate the water from the material. After it is condensed, it flows into a reservoir below the panel, where it runs through a mineral block that adds magnesium and calcium common in drinking water... The system extracts moisture out of the air at a rate of as much as five liters per day.
Friesen’s clean water doesn’t come cheap. A typical setup for a home will set you back about $4500 -- $2000 for each of two Sources and an additional $500 for installation. Friesen says for a household that regularly buys bottled water, payback will take about five years. Considering that Americans drank, on average, 40 gallons of bottled water last year, he sees plenty of potential customers. Friesen says that over its lifetime, a two-panel set up may help to remove 70,000 plastic bottles from circulation.
I'm not really sure how it could be as high as 70,000. If I drink two 1 litre bottles every day for 70 years, which seems pretty extreme, that's still only 50,000. Though five litres a day is enough for two people, so maybe if you have a couple of long-lived bottled water fanatics sharing the same system... ?
But Friesen has a pitch and a plan to push Source well beyond homes. Consider a school that’s had issues with lead in its water. Installing an array of Source – say a dozen or two of the devices -- could be cheaper than replacing decrepit infrastructure. Contamination doesn’t have to be on the scale of Flint, Michigan for the idea to make sense. Last year, the Los Angeles Unified School District, for example, spent nearly $20 million to retrofit or remove 48,000 contaminated drinking fountains. Zero Mass' backers believe numbers like these point to Source's viability not only for homes but also for institutions and organizations.
I seem to recall that the US has weird and varying laws as to whether you can collect rainwater for drinking without paying the state for it. Perhaps this would be a clever way to circumvent that.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/miguelhelft/2017/11/15/meet-zero-mass-water-whose-solar-panels-pull-drinking-water-from-the-air/#5243b988370e
Wednesday, 15 November 2017
Star Trek Continues finale
What a properly epic finale.
I am really going to miss this show. Oh well, at least there's Star Trek Disc... aaaaarrrggh GOD NO ANYTHING BUT THAT it's got all the appeal of a flatulent cat with rabies.... why is this one ending but STD continuing.... gaaaaaaaaarrrrrk !
[Runs off weeping, arms flailing wildly]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29L8P1XwnaA&feature=em-subs_digest
I am really going to miss this show. Oh well, at least there's Star Trek Disc... aaaaarrrggh GOD NO ANYTHING BUT THAT it's got all the appeal of a flatulent cat with rabies.... why is this one ending but STD continuing.... gaaaaaaaaarrrrrk !
[Runs off weeping, arms flailing wildly]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29L8P1XwnaA&feature=em-subs_digest
Genetically modified beetles grow working third eye
When scientists deactivated the gene responsible in part for developing and shaping the heads of scarab beetles, the insects hatched with an extra set of compound eyes in the middle of their heads, sometimes forming together into one big third eye. And now, the scientists have learned that the extra eyes actually work.
Biologists from Indiana University discovered last year how a gene called orthodenticle prevented scarab beetles from developing these extra eyes during development. When the biologists disabled the gene, the beetles developed an extra eye (or pair of eyes). It's a common practice in science: Learn how something works, take it apart one piece at a time and see what changes.
In a new experiment, published online Oct. 24 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the same team used scanning electron microscopes to reveal that the new eyes had a complex structure, including connections to the beetle's nervous system. These eyes were no decorative or excess structures merely sitting on the beetle's head; the insects could use their new eyes, the researchers said.
https://www.livescience.com/60935-beetles-grow-functional-third-eye.html
Biologists from Indiana University discovered last year how a gene called orthodenticle prevented scarab beetles from developing these extra eyes during development. When the biologists disabled the gene, the beetles developed an extra eye (or pair of eyes). It's a common practice in science: Learn how something works, take it apart one piece at a time and see what changes.
In a new experiment, published online Oct. 24 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the same team used scanning electron microscopes to reveal that the new eyes had a complex structure, including connections to the beetle's nervous system. These eyes were no decorative or excess structures merely sitting on the beetle's head; the insects could use their new eyes, the researchers said.
https://www.livescience.com/60935-beetles-grow-functional-third-eye.html
Trees walk, but don't be hasty
"TREEEEE ?!?! I am no TREEE !! I am an.... oh, actually, I am a tree."
Like the Ents from JRR Tolkien’s epic Lord of the Rings saga (only a bit slower), these trees actually move across the forest as the growth of new roots gradually relocates them, sometimes two or three centimetres per day. While some scientists debate whether these trees walk, Peter Vrsansky, a palaeobiologist from the Earth Science Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences Bratisla, claims to have seen this phenomenon first hand.
“As the soil erodes, the tree grows new, long roots that find new and more solid ground, sometimes up to 20m,” said Vrsansky. “Then, slowly, as the roots settle in the new soil and the tree bends patiently toward the new roots, the old roots slowly lift into the air. The whole process for the tree to relocate to a new place with better sunlight and more solid ground can take a couple of years.”
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20151207-ecuadors-mysterious-walking-trees
Like the Ents from JRR Tolkien’s epic Lord of the Rings saga (only a bit slower), these trees actually move across the forest as the growth of new roots gradually relocates them, sometimes two or three centimetres per day. While some scientists debate whether these trees walk, Peter Vrsansky, a palaeobiologist from the Earth Science Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences Bratisla, claims to have seen this phenomenon first hand.
“As the soil erodes, the tree grows new, long roots that find new and more solid ground, sometimes up to 20m,” said Vrsansky. “Then, slowly, as the roots settle in the new soil and the tree bends patiently toward the new roots, the old roots slowly lift into the air. The whole process for the tree to relocate to a new place with better sunlight and more solid ground can take a couple of years.”
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20151207-ecuadors-mysterious-walking-trees
Russian involvement in Brexit ?
One of the UK's cyber-defence chiefs has accused Russia of having attacked Britain's media, telecommunications and energy sectors over the past year. Ciaran Martin, chief executive of GCHQ's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), added that Russia was "seeking to undermine the international system". His comments were made at an event organised by the Times newspaper. Ahead of the speech, the paper reported that one of the attacks had targeted the UK's power supply on election day.
The BBC has sought comment from the Russian Embassy in London.
Why ? They're not going to admit, are they ?
"The prime minister made the point on Monday night - international order as we know it is in danger of being eroded," he said. "This is clearly a cause for concern and the NCSC is actively engaging with international partners, industry and civil society to tackle this threat."
To coincide with its event, the Times also published details of a new study into how Russia used Twitter to influence 2016's Brexit referendum. The research indicates that more than 156,000 Russia-based accounts - many of them automated bots - mentioned #Brexit in original posts or retweets in the days surrounding the vote.
Many were in favour of the UK leaving the European Union, but a minority were pro-Remain. The academics involved believed the posts were seen hundreds of millions of times. One of the researchers told the BBC that social media was providing Russia with a relatively cheap way to spread its propaganda.
He added that some form of regulation of the large social media firms might now be required.
YES, dammit ! And now cue the flurry of rabid, "CENSORSHIP BAD ! FREE SPEECH GOOD !" responses...
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41997262
The BBC has sought comment from the Russian Embassy in London.
Why ? They're not going to admit, are they ?
"The prime minister made the point on Monday night - international order as we know it is in danger of being eroded," he said. "This is clearly a cause for concern and the NCSC is actively engaging with international partners, industry and civil society to tackle this threat."
To coincide with its event, the Times also published details of a new study into how Russia used Twitter to influence 2016's Brexit referendum. The research indicates that more than 156,000 Russia-based accounts - many of them automated bots - mentioned #Brexit in original posts or retweets in the days surrounding the vote.
Many were in favour of the UK leaving the European Union, but a minority were pro-Remain. The academics involved believed the posts were seen hundreds of millions of times. One of the researchers told the BBC that social media was providing Russia with a relatively cheap way to spread its propaganda.
He added that some form of regulation of the large social media firms might now be required.
YES, dammit ! And now cue the flurry of rabid, "CENSORSHIP BAD ! FREE SPEECH GOOD !" responses...
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41997262
Misinformed reports on misinformation
The headline is absolutely wrong, as is the opening paragraph.
BuzzFeed has obtained a statement from Facebook in which the tech giant admits, for the first time, that some Russia-linked accounts may have used its platform to try to interfere in the UK’s European Union referendum vote in June 2016.
However, if we follow the BuzzFeed link, things get interesting.
Responding to two questions from BuzzFeed News on Monday about whether there were any Kremlin-linked ads on Facebook around the time of the 2016 Brexit vote, a spokesperson said the tech company had not "observed ... significant co-ordination".
“To date, we have not observed that the known, coordinated clusters in Russia engaged in significant coordination of ad buys or political misinformation targeting the Brexit vote," said the spokesperson. When pushed about whether the statement contradicted a top Facebook executive's earlier words that were was no evidence that Russia interfered in Brexit, a spokesperson said the official statement about "significant co-ordination" was the one the company was standing by.
OK, not so bad. "We haven't observed it" = "no evidence that it's happening", fair enough (which is very distinct from "evidence that it is not happening"). But then we get :
The company refused to clarify whether the statement meant it was aware of at least some coordinated action during last year's referendum, despite several requests.
Benefit of the doubt : Facebook put up a minor lackey as a spokesperson who wasn't authorised to say anything at all beyond the official statement. But it will be very interesting to see how this one develops. Especially, as the original BuzzFeed article goes on to correctly point out :
While its claim not to have found “significant coordination” of Russian activity ahead of the Brexit vote might sound like ‘case closed’ on the EU referendum front, the company has consistently sought to play down the impact of Facebook-distributed Russian misinformation — with CEO Mark Zuckerberg initially describing it as a “pretty crazy idea” that fake news could have influenced voters in the US election. Nearly half a year later, after conducting an internal investigation, Facebook conceded there had been a Russian disinformation campaign during the US election — but claimed the reach of the operation was “statistically very small” in comparison with overall political activity and engagement.
Finally, at the end of last month, about a year after its CEO’s denial of the potency of political disinformation on his mega platform, Facebook admitted Russian-backed content could have reached as many as 126 million people in the US. It now estimates the number of pieces of divisive content at 80,000, after being asked by congressional investigators to report not just direct Russian-bought ads but organic posts, images, events and more, which can also of course become viral vehicles of disinformation on Facebook’s algorithmically driven platform.
So there’s a reason to be cautious about accepting at face value the company’s claim now that Russian Brexit meddling existed on its platform but was not significant.
NO ! Dammit TechCrunch, they did not make that claim. A statement that "no significant co-ordination was observed" is neither mutually exclusive with nor supportive of the claim that "some significant co-ordination was observed". That's not how language works. Facebook's refusal to deny that any co-ordinated action was observed is very interesting, but that's all it is. For now.
That said, I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if this ties up with Cambridge Analytics, Mercer, Nigel Farage, etc. In fact I'd bet that it probably does. But this is based on gut instinct, not rational, objective evidence.
https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/14/facebook-says-russia-did-try-to-meddle-in-brexit-vote/
BuzzFeed has obtained a statement from Facebook in which the tech giant admits, for the first time, that some Russia-linked accounts may have used its platform to try to interfere in the UK’s European Union referendum vote in June 2016.
However, if we follow the BuzzFeed link, things get interesting.
Responding to two questions from BuzzFeed News on Monday about whether there were any Kremlin-linked ads on Facebook around the time of the 2016 Brexit vote, a spokesperson said the tech company had not "observed ... significant co-ordination".
“To date, we have not observed that the known, coordinated clusters in Russia engaged in significant coordination of ad buys or political misinformation targeting the Brexit vote," said the spokesperson. When pushed about whether the statement contradicted a top Facebook executive's earlier words that were was no evidence that Russia interfered in Brexit, a spokesperson said the official statement about "significant co-ordination" was the one the company was standing by.
OK, not so bad. "We haven't observed it" = "no evidence that it's happening", fair enough (which is very distinct from "evidence that it is not happening"). But then we get :
The company refused to clarify whether the statement meant it was aware of at least some coordinated action during last year's referendum, despite several requests.
Benefit of the doubt : Facebook put up a minor lackey as a spokesperson who wasn't authorised to say anything at all beyond the official statement. But it will be very interesting to see how this one develops. Especially, as the original BuzzFeed article goes on to correctly point out :
While its claim not to have found “significant coordination” of Russian activity ahead of the Brexit vote might sound like ‘case closed’ on the EU referendum front, the company has consistently sought to play down the impact of Facebook-distributed Russian misinformation — with CEO Mark Zuckerberg initially describing it as a “pretty crazy idea” that fake news could have influenced voters in the US election. Nearly half a year later, after conducting an internal investigation, Facebook conceded there had been a Russian disinformation campaign during the US election — but claimed the reach of the operation was “statistically very small” in comparison with overall political activity and engagement.
Finally, at the end of last month, about a year after its CEO’s denial of the potency of political disinformation on his mega platform, Facebook admitted Russian-backed content could have reached as many as 126 million people in the US. It now estimates the number of pieces of divisive content at 80,000, after being asked by congressional investigators to report not just direct Russian-bought ads but organic posts, images, events and more, which can also of course become viral vehicles of disinformation on Facebook’s algorithmically driven platform.
So there’s a reason to be cautious about accepting at face value the company’s claim now that Russian Brexit meddling existed on its platform but was not significant.
NO ! Dammit TechCrunch, they did not make that claim. A statement that "no significant co-ordination was observed" is neither mutually exclusive with nor supportive of the claim that "some significant co-ordination was observed". That's not how language works. Facebook's refusal to deny that any co-ordinated action was observed is very interesting, but that's all it is. For now.
That said, I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if this ties up with Cambridge Analytics, Mercer, Nigel Farage, etc. In fact I'd bet that it probably does. But this is based on gut instinct, not rational, objective evidence.
https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/14/facebook-says-russia-did-try-to-meddle-in-brexit-vote/
Making carbon capture profitable
On the roof of a large recycling centre at Hinwil stand 18 metal fans, stacked on top of each, each about the size of a large domestic washing machine. These fans suck in the surrounding air and chemically coated filters inside absorb the CO2. They become saturated in a few hours so, using the waste heat from the recycling facility, the filters are heated up to 100C and very pure carbon dioxide gas is then collected. It can capture about 900 tonnes of CO2 every year. It is then pumped to a large greenhouse a few hundred metres away, where it helps grow bigger vegetables.
This is not supposed to be a demonstration of a clever technology - for the developers, making money from CO2 is critical. "This is the first time we are commercially selling CO2; this is the first of its kind," co-founder Jan Wurzbacher told BBC News. "It has to be for business; CO2 capture can't work for free."
Right now Climeworks is selling the gas to the vegetable growers next door for less than $600 per tonne, which is very expensive. But the company says that this is because it has built its extraction devices from scratch - everything is bespoke. The firm believes that like solar and wind energy, costs will rapidly fall once production is scaled up. "The magic number we always say is $100 per tonne," said Jan Wurzbacher.
Many greens are deeply suspicious of these efforts. They argue that we need a fundamental rethink of the way that we produce and consume to put sustainability at the heart of everything we do. "We need to step back and actually question what are all the possible pathways to a climate safe future," said Lili Fuhr from the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
"Have we seriously explored them and are they not more realistic than relying on these magical technologies that in my view hold immense risks and uncertainties and are certainly harmful for many people around the planet?" Other critics are worried that if the technology works, then it will encourage politicians not to make the cuts in carbon and rapidly move to renewable energy.
I reserve a deep skepticism of militant environmentalists. "Magical" technologies perhaps says more than the speaker intended. It often feels to be that they have a problem with technology and energy use itself, that is, with the ends rather than the means. As though if you could, hypothetically, make a completely clean version of coal, they would choose not to use it. At the extreme view, a certain sort of "let's get back to living in the trees because trees are nice" mentality.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-41816332
This is not supposed to be a demonstration of a clever technology - for the developers, making money from CO2 is critical. "This is the first time we are commercially selling CO2; this is the first of its kind," co-founder Jan Wurzbacher told BBC News. "It has to be for business; CO2 capture can't work for free."
Right now Climeworks is selling the gas to the vegetable growers next door for less than $600 per tonne, which is very expensive. But the company says that this is because it has built its extraction devices from scratch - everything is bespoke. The firm believes that like solar and wind energy, costs will rapidly fall once production is scaled up. "The magic number we always say is $100 per tonne," said Jan Wurzbacher.
Many greens are deeply suspicious of these efforts. They argue that we need a fundamental rethink of the way that we produce and consume to put sustainability at the heart of everything we do. "We need to step back and actually question what are all the possible pathways to a climate safe future," said Lili Fuhr from the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
"Have we seriously explored them and are they not more realistic than relying on these magical technologies that in my view hold immense risks and uncertainties and are certainly harmful for many people around the planet?" Other critics are worried that if the technology works, then it will encourage politicians not to make the cuts in carbon and rapidly move to renewable energy.
I reserve a deep skepticism of militant environmentalists. "Magical" technologies perhaps says more than the speaker intended. It often feels to be that they have a problem with technology and energy use itself, that is, with the ends rather than the means. As though if you could, hypothetically, make a completely clean version of coal, they would choose not to use it. At the extreme view, a certain sort of "let's get back to living in the trees because trees are nice" mentality.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-41816332
Satellites from Shetland ?
The proposals are at an early stage, but if the Shetland Space Centre Ltd gets its way, Unst could become the UK’s premier spaceport with a local economy revitalised by blasting satellites into orbit. The company was set up on the island, a breathtaking fragment nearer Norway than Edinburgh, after it was identified as the most promising launch site in Britain, in a study supported by the UK Space Agency.
A report on the project, known as Sceptre, found that rockets launched from Saxa Vord on Unst could carry the greatest payloads into commercially valuable orbits with the lowest risk to inhabitants if the spacecraft failed and crashed back to Earth.
Unst is so far north that rockets lifting off from the island could fly straight into orbit without passing over populated areas, unlike those from other sites which would have to perform dog-leg manoeuvres, limiting the weight of the payload they could carry.
The Sceptre report assessed the risks of launching from a range of sites to polar and so-called sun-synchronous orbits, which are in high demand from satellite operators for communications and Earth observation respectively. According to the document, the next best locations after Unst include a site in the Orkney Islands, followed by others on the north coast of the mainland.
In 2014, the UK Space Agency identified eight places in Britain that could potentially host a spaceport, but selection was based on sites that had extremely long runways and other facilities needed to fly spaceplanes, which take off horizontally, rather than vertically. A spaceport in the Shetlands would launch conventional satellite-bearing rockets straight up.
Burns said she had not heard any voices against the proposal, despite the inevitability that frequent rocket launches on an island 12 miles by six might impinge on the tranquility of Unst. “I like the peace and quiet, and I love the scenery, but I like to get away too,” she said. “You’d get cabin fever if you didn’t get off for a bit.”
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/nov/14/satellites-could-be-launched-from-shetland-islands-most-nothern-isle
A report on the project, known as Sceptre, found that rockets launched from Saxa Vord on Unst could carry the greatest payloads into commercially valuable orbits with the lowest risk to inhabitants if the spacecraft failed and crashed back to Earth.
Unst is so far north that rockets lifting off from the island could fly straight into orbit without passing over populated areas, unlike those from other sites which would have to perform dog-leg manoeuvres, limiting the weight of the payload they could carry.
The Sceptre report assessed the risks of launching from a range of sites to polar and so-called sun-synchronous orbits, which are in high demand from satellite operators for communications and Earth observation respectively. According to the document, the next best locations after Unst include a site in the Orkney Islands, followed by others on the north coast of the mainland.
In 2014, the UK Space Agency identified eight places in Britain that could potentially host a spaceport, but selection was based on sites that had extremely long runways and other facilities needed to fly spaceplanes, which take off horizontally, rather than vertically. A spaceport in the Shetlands would launch conventional satellite-bearing rockets straight up.
Burns said she had not heard any voices against the proposal, despite the inevitability that frequent rocket launches on an island 12 miles by six might impinge on the tranquility of Unst. “I like the peace and quiet, and I love the scenery, but I like to get away too,” she said. “You’d get cabin fever if you didn’t get off for a bit.”
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/nov/14/satellites-could-be-launched-from-shetland-islands-most-nothern-isle
Tuesday, 14 November 2017
The EU is handling the refugee crisis in entirely the wrong way
The EU's policy of aiding Libyan authorities to intercept migrants and return them to detention is "inhuman", the United Nations said on Tuesday. The UN's human rights chief accused European countries of ignoring warnings over the deal struck with Libya. Authorities say it has caused detainees to rise sharply to almost 20,000. UN monitors who visited facilities said they found "thousands of emaciated and traumatized men, women and children piled on top of each other".
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, said migrants had been locked in hangars and stripped of dignity with "no access to the most basic necessities". He described the situation as fast-deteriorating, and the Libyan detention system as "broken beyond repair".
"What was an already dire situation has now turned catastrophic," Mr Hussein said, urging the international community to stop turning a blind eye. Libya's Department of Combating Illegal Migration (DCIM) said almost 20,000 people were now in their facilities, dramatically up from just 7,000 in September. Thousands of migrants have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean from Africa into Europe.
In August, Italy and the EU put in place a deal where they train the Libyan coastguard to intercept boats and return migrants to Libya, which is a large transit hub. It has seen arrivals drop dramatically, but remains controversial as concerns about abuse and overcrowding in Libyan facilities persist.
The EU's approach on this one is wholly and utterly wrong. It is trying to prevent "migration" without caring about the consequences of doing do.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-41983063
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, said migrants had been locked in hangars and stripped of dignity with "no access to the most basic necessities". He described the situation as fast-deteriorating, and the Libyan detention system as "broken beyond repair".
"What was an already dire situation has now turned catastrophic," Mr Hussein said, urging the international community to stop turning a blind eye. Libya's Department of Combating Illegal Migration (DCIM) said almost 20,000 people were now in their facilities, dramatically up from just 7,000 in September. Thousands of migrants have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean from Africa into Europe.
In August, Italy and the EU put in place a deal where they train the Libyan coastguard to intercept boats and return migrants to Libya, which is a large transit hub. It has seen arrivals drop dramatically, but remains controversial as concerns about abuse and overcrowding in Libyan facilities persist.
The EU's approach on this one is wholly and utterly wrong. It is trying to prevent "migration" without caring about the consequences of doing do.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-41983063
Bacteria talk to each other electrically
Via a link in that earlier article, this is also fascinating.
The preferred form of community for bacteria seems to be the biofilm. On teeth, on pipes, on rocks and in the ocean, microbes glom together by the billions and build sticky organic superstructures around themselves. In these films, bacteria can divide labor: Exterior cells may fend off threats, while interior cells produce food. And like humans, who have succeeded in large part by cooperating with each other, bacteria thrive in communities. Antibiotics that easily dispatch free-swimming cells often prove useless against the same types of cells when they’ve hunkered down in a film.
Scientists are now finding that bacteria in biofilms can also talk to one another electrically. Biofilms appear to use electrically charged particles to organize and synchronize activities across large expanses. This electrical exchange has proved so powerful that biofilms even use it to recruit new bacteria from their surroundings, and to negotiate with neighboring biofilms for their mutual well-being.
The findings form “a very interesting piece of work,” said James Shapiro, a bacterial geneticist at the University of Chicago. Shapiro is not afraid of bold hypotheses: He has argued that bacterial colonies might be capable of a form of cognition. But he approaches analogies between neurons and bacteria with caution. The potassium-mediated behaviors Süel has demonstrated so far are simple enough that they don’t require the type of sophisticated circuitry brains have evolved, Shapiro said. “It’s not clear exactly how much information processing is going on.”
https://www.quantamagazine.org/bacteria-use-brainlike-bursts-of-electricity-to-communicate-20170905/
The preferred form of community for bacteria seems to be the biofilm. On teeth, on pipes, on rocks and in the ocean, microbes glom together by the billions and build sticky organic superstructures around themselves. In these films, bacteria can divide labor: Exterior cells may fend off threats, while interior cells produce food. And like humans, who have succeeded in large part by cooperating with each other, bacteria thrive in communities. Antibiotics that easily dispatch free-swimming cells often prove useless against the same types of cells when they’ve hunkered down in a film.
Scientists are now finding that bacteria in biofilms can also talk to one another electrically. Biofilms appear to use electrically charged particles to organize and synchronize activities across large expanses. This electrical exchange has proved so powerful that biofilms even use it to recruit new bacteria from their surroundings, and to negotiate with neighboring biofilms for their mutual well-being.
The findings form “a very interesting piece of work,” said James Shapiro, a bacterial geneticist at the University of Chicago. Shapiro is not afraid of bold hypotheses: He has argued that bacterial colonies might be capable of a form of cognition. But he approaches analogies between neurons and bacteria with caution. The potassium-mediated behaviors Süel has demonstrated so far are simple enough that they don’t require the type of sophisticated circuitry brains have evolved, Shapiro said. “It’s not clear exactly how much information processing is going on.”
https://www.quantamagazine.org/bacteria-use-brainlike-bursts-of-electricity-to-communicate-20170905/
A simple reason why people still think the Earth is flat
Because they're bloody stupid. Next question.
"I looked around to see who was making a working model of the flat Earth, and I couldn't find anyone."
OH REALLY ?!?! MY GOODNESS ME !!! I AM SHOCKED !
http://www.bbc.com/news/av/41973119/why-do-people-still-think-the-earth-is-flat
"I looked around to see who was making a working model of the flat Earth, and I couldn't find anyone."
OH REALLY ?!?! MY GOODNESS ME !!! I AM SHOCKED !
http://www.bbc.com/news/av/41973119/why-do-people-still-think-the-earth-is-flat
The collective intelligence of biofilms
Fascinating stuff !
The slime mold Physarum polycephalum sometimes barely qualifies as a microorganism at all: When it oozes across the leaf litter of a forest floor during the active, amoeboid stage of its life cycle, it can look like a puddle of yellowish goo between an inch and a meter across. Yet despite its size, Physarum is a huge single cell, with tens of thousands of nuclei floating in an uninterrupted mass of cytoplasm. In this form, Physarum is a superbly efficient hunter. When sensors on its cell membrane detect good sources of nutrients, contractile networks of proteins (closely related to the ones found in human muscle) start pumping streams of cytoplasm in that direction, advancing the slime mold toward what it needs.
But Physarum is not just reflexively surging toward food. As it moves in one direction, signals transmitted throughout the cell discourage it from pushing counterproductively along less promising routes. Moreover, slime molds have evolved a system for essentially mapping their terrain and memorizing where not to go: As they move, they leave a translucent chemical trail behind that tells them which areas are not worth revisiting.
Within the biofilm, the bacteria divide the labor of maintaining the colony and differentiate into forms specialized for their function. In this biofilm of the common soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis, for example, some cells secrete extracellular matrix and anchor in place, while some stay motile; cells at the edges of the biofilm may divide for growth, while others in the middle release spores for surviving tough conditions and colonizing new locations.
Biofilm behaviors testify to the capacity and openness of bacterial to form collectives — but that openness has limits, as shown in this culture with several cohabiting biofilms. Here, adjacent biofilms that consist of the same bacteria or closely related strains comfortably merge. But the adjacent biofilms made up of more divergent bacteria keep themselves distinct and may even try to eliminate or control each other.
“The blue pigment seen in this video is actinorhodin, which is technically an antibiotic,” Chimileski said, but added that the term is misleading in this context. “Killing or growth inhibition usually occurs only at very high concentrations relative to what is out in nature.” For that reason, he said, there is “an emerging view that killing is probably not the ecological function of many or most antibiotics. Rather, these bioactive molecules act as signals or developmental cues” to other cells.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-beautiful-intelligence-of-bacteria-and-other-microbes-20171113/
The slime mold Physarum polycephalum sometimes barely qualifies as a microorganism at all: When it oozes across the leaf litter of a forest floor during the active, amoeboid stage of its life cycle, it can look like a puddle of yellowish goo between an inch and a meter across. Yet despite its size, Physarum is a huge single cell, with tens of thousands of nuclei floating in an uninterrupted mass of cytoplasm. In this form, Physarum is a superbly efficient hunter. When sensors on its cell membrane detect good sources of nutrients, contractile networks of proteins (closely related to the ones found in human muscle) start pumping streams of cytoplasm in that direction, advancing the slime mold toward what it needs.
But Physarum is not just reflexively surging toward food. As it moves in one direction, signals transmitted throughout the cell discourage it from pushing counterproductively along less promising routes. Moreover, slime molds have evolved a system for essentially mapping their terrain and memorizing where not to go: As they move, they leave a translucent chemical trail behind that tells them which areas are not worth revisiting.
Within the biofilm, the bacteria divide the labor of maintaining the colony and differentiate into forms specialized for their function. In this biofilm of the common soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis, for example, some cells secrete extracellular matrix and anchor in place, while some stay motile; cells at the edges of the biofilm may divide for growth, while others in the middle release spores for surviving tough conditions and colonizing new locations.
Biofilm behaviors testify to the capacity and openness of bacterial to form collectives — but that openness has limits, as shown in this culture with several cohabiting biofilms. Here, adjacent biofilms that consist of the same bacteria or closely related strains comfortably merge. But the adjacent biofilms made up of more divergent bacteria keep themselves distinct and may even try to eliminate or control each other.
“The blue pigment seen in this video is actinorhodin, which is technically an antibiotic,” Chimileski said, but added that the term is misleading in this context. “Killing or growth inhibition usually occurs only at very high concentrations relative to what is out in nature.” For that reason, he said, there is “an emerging view that killing is probably not the ecological function of many or most antibiotics. Rather, these bioactive molecules act as signals or developmental cues” to other cells.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-beautiful-intelligence-of-bacteria-and-other-microbes-20171113/
Monday, 13 November 2017
Celebrating Skylark, the forgotten British rocket
It's 60 years to the day that Britain launched its first Skylark rocket. It wasn't a big vehicle, and it didn't go to orbit. But the anniversary of that first flight from Woomera, Australia, should be celebrated because much of what we do in space today has its roots in this particular piece of technology.
Skylark was what is called a sounding rocket. It would go just fast enough and high enough - a few hundred kilometres - to gather new data on the upper atmosphere or to observe space and its unique environment. At the top of the rocket's parabola, for example, experiments would get a few minutes to sample what happens in weightlessness.
"The short timescales from proposing a Skylark mission to its launch - sometimes as little as two years - allowed new ideas and new technologies to be exploited on human timescales, and invoked a real sense of purpose and accomplishment.
"The downside was that the failure rate could be quite high. But the MSSL Director Prof Boyd (later Sir Robert Boyd) memorably said: 'If we are not suffering failures, we are not working at the edge, and if we are not working at the edge, we shouldn't be here'. It was more than career-forming; it was life-forming."
Having been enthusiastically supported at the outset, the programme eventually lost favour in Whitehall and the last motors came off the production line in 1994. That wasn't an immediate end for Skylark because enough components had been stockpiled that flights could be continued through to 2005. The very last mission, on 2 May that year, was recorded by the BBC.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-41945654
Skylark was what is called a sounding rocket. It would go just fast enough and high enough - a few hundred kilometres - to gather new data on the upper atmosphere or to observe space and its unique environment. At the top of the rocket's parabola, for example, experiments would get a few minutes to sample what happens in weightlessness.
"The short timescales from proposing a Skylark mission to its launch - sometimes as little as two years - allowed new ideas and new technologies to be exploited on human timescales, and invoked a real sense of purpose and accomplishment.
"The downside was that the failure rate could be quite high. But the MSSL Director Prof Boyd (later Sir Robert Boyd) memorably said: 'If we are not suffering failures, we are not working at the edge, and if we are not working at the edge, we shouldn't be here'. It was more than career-forming; it was life-forming."
Having been enthusiastically supported at the outset, the programme eventually lost favour in Whitehall and the last motors came off the production line in 1994. That wasn't an immediate end for Skylark because enough components had been stockpiled that flights could be continued through to 2005. The very last mission, on 2 May that year, was recorded by the BBC.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-41945654
Sunday, 12 November 2017
Could Rome have had an industrial revolution ?
I found this economic-based approach to an old idea to be quite fascinating :
I believe it's one of the Science of Discworld books (I forget which one) that discusses the idea that technologies only take off if the market is ripe for them. The problem I have is that it's difficult to see what would prevent steam engines from "going viral". The Romans had gearing, they had steam, they had wood and coal for fires. Yes, they also had slaves... but why would that make replacing them with steam engines less appealing ? The Romans seemed to have suffered from a curious trend of inventing ingenious devices which solved very specific problems in clever ways but never fully exploited them. I know the obvious only seems so with hindsight, but in the case of a steam engine it seems very hard to believe that no-one would wan to tinker and see how much further it could be developed.
Also, I have to say I love the "shards per capita" as an estimate of economics. Perhaps we could have "henges per capita" for the Celtic societies.
https://medium.com/@MarkKoyama/could-rome-have-had-an-industrial-revolution-4126717370a2
For decades, historians were deeply skeptical of the potential of the ancient world to generate sustained economic growth. Influenced by Moses Finlay and Karl Polanyi, historians saw the ancient and modern worlds as separated by a cultural and economic chasm. Prior to the Industrial Revolution-era leaping of this chasm, individuals supposedly lacked “economic rationality,” did not seek opportunities to maximise profit, and were disinclined to use new technology for economic purposes. This view is no longer credible.That last point needs to be greatly elaborated. The Romans did use new technology for economic gain, but rather selectively. Aqueducts ? Sure. Underfloor heating ? No problem. Steam engines ? Invented... but employed on a minuscule scale !
I believe it's one of the Science of Discworld books (I forget which one) that discusses the idea that technologies only take off if the market is ripe for them. The problem I have is that it's difficult to see what would prevent steam engines from "going viral". The Romans had gearing, they had steam, they had wood and coal for fires. Yes, they also had slaves... but why would that make replacing them with steam engines less appealing ? The Romans seemed to have suffered from a curious trend of inventing ingenious devices which solved very specific problems in clever ways but never fully exploited them. I know the obvious only seems so with hindsight, but in the case of a steam engine it seems very hard to believe that no-one would wan to tinker and see how much further it could be developed.
But at even the Roman empire at its peak in the reign of Marcus Aurelius does not appear to have been on the verge of modern economic growth. Rome lacked some of the crucial characteristics of Britain on the eve of the Industrial Revolution. There was no culture of invention and discovery, no large population of skilled tinkerers or machine builders, and no evidence of labour scarcity that might have driven the invention of labour-saving inventions.Necessity may be the mother of invention, but curiosity is not easy to suppress. Not having a pressing need for a steam engine didn't stop Heron of Alexandria from inventing one, so what stopped it from taking over the world ?
First, there those who tend to think that market expansion is sufficient for sustained economic growth. They will be inclined to favourably quote Adam Smith from his lectures on jurisprudence that “Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice”. Many libertarian-learning economists are in this category but few active economic historians.
Second, there are those who argue that colonial empires or natural resources like coal were crucial for modern economic growth. Pop versions are common among many historians and sociologists but this position has little support among economic historians.
Third, there are those who argue that ultimately only innovation can explain the transition to modern economic growth. This is the position of the majority of economic historians. However, this third group is divided between those who seek to explain the increase in innovation in purely economic terms and those who see this as an impossible task and argue that the answer has to be sought elsewhere, perhaps in something that can be broadly defined as culture.
The idea that simple economics could explain why innovators developed labour-saving machinery like the spinning jenny in 18th century England (but not in France or India) is advanced by Bob Allen. It is perhaps the dominant view in economic history at the moment. But it has come under criticism recently as the evidence for a high-wage economy in 18th century England appears weaker than was previously supposed (see the work of Judy Stephenson).I'd have to agree with that last paragraph. Reducing everything to economics is genuinely fascinating (and for me a new perspective) but that can't be all there is to it. My job would be utterly impossible without some pretty advanced tech, but God knows I don't do it for the money, let alone for the sake of advancing economic growth.
Also, I have to say I love the "shards per capita" as an estimate of economics. Perhaps we could have "henges per capita" for the Celtic societies.
https://medium.com/@MarkKoyama/could-rome-have-had-an-industrial-revolution-4126717370a2
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