It’s only been two weeks since the Skeptical Science iPhone app was released. Nevertheless, the Guardian asked me to write an article on how the climate sceptic iPhone app came about and how its been received. This got me thinking about how software websites usually document all the latest software developments/builds/releases. So this blog post is to serve as a more comprehensive, more technical (and probably more boring) version of the Guardian article. I’ll also included some of the more interesting comments on the app. As new builds are released, they’ll be added to this blog post until a major new release comes along to warrant a new post.
This is a really nice app for my iPhone. Not only is it really useful for discussions but it has figures and links to relevant papers. So we can see exactly what the researchers meant.
I wish we had a good a one for dealing with creationists.
The Pacific has one and now so does the Atlantic. Since these have been found where oceanic gyres exist, there is a likelihood of 2-3 more. Another indication of how polluted our oceans are becoming.
I was expecting some sort of water-breeding, carnivorous, migratory plant that was wrecking havoc across Britain. No such luck.
Just another one of those invasive species that are mucking up waterways. Growing 8 inches a day is pretty incredible and the mats they create can be devastating but,
The Earth is warming up. That’s a fact. Denialists will deny (and no doubt will amp up the noise in the comments below) but the truth is the Earth has warmed on average over a degree Fahrenheit in the past century or so, and the past decade, 2000 – 2009, was the warmest on record.
NASA is not taking this lightly. Our space agency has a fleet of satellites in orbit which examine the Earth, taking its temperature and measuring the effects of this global rise in heat. They have a website called A Warming World, which does a really good job discussing the reality of global warming, and debunking some of the bigger claims of the denialists.
A video they put online discusses things like how changing solar input might affect the Earth, how much of this energy from the Sun is reflected, and how much is trapped. It’s done simply, elegantly, and with excellent graphics that show just how the Earth is warming up.
This is a really nice, easy to understand video from NASA, especially regarding some of the positive and negative feedbacks. It discusses the underlying physics, which really define everything.
Assessments conducted by the intelligence community indicate that climate change could have significant geopolitical impacts around the world, contributing to poverty, environmental degradation, and the further weakening of fragile governments. Climate change will contribute to food and water scarcity, will increase the spread of disease and may spur or exacerbate mass migration.
And the denialists (found in the comments) react by accusing the Pentagon of being a shill for Al Gore, or that the Pentagon wants to get its hands on ll that Green money or that the Pentagon does not really know what it is talking about. They even bring back Trilateral Commission and New World Order conspiracies.
Anything but admit that the physics of the matter may hold some underlying meaning.
You know, King Canute may not have known exactly when the tide was going to come in but physics demanded that it did, no matter how hard he tried to deny it. Similarly, the physics again makes its demands, no matter what the denialists spew.
Steve Jobs has been called arrogant and pretentious by his detractors. Many of them like to use the clip below from 1996 in which he talks about what he dislikes about Microsoft: he evokes type-setting and proportional fonts to illustrate how Redmond consistently fails to innovate.
The story goes that when he saw the footage he felt bad and called Bill Gates to apologise. But it was an apology like only Jobs knows how to deliver them: “I’m sorry I said you had no taste,” he told Gates “I shouldn’t have said that in public.” There was a pause. And then, he couldn’t help himself and added: “but it’s true, you have no taste. I just shouldn’t have said it in public.”
Watch the video from 1996. Jobs was outside Apple at the time, two years away from being back in charge of Apple. Ballmer is a Vice-President shortly to take over Microsoft’s reins. Jobs discusses Microsoft’s production of third0rate products. Ballmer talks about how great Windows 95 and how Microsoft will become a clear leader.
Ballmer mentions that they are only 3 years behind but it seem that only with Windows 7, released 14 years or so from when he spoke in the video, have they caught up with where the industry is.
Of course, the question is how many years behind are they on the new mobile operating system paradigm? It looks very likely that the iPhone OS will occupy a larger and larger segment of computing devices, representing the flexibility of the underlying MacOS. How many years behind this is Microsoft now?
Jobs point is still well taken. Microsoft follows. It does not lead. There is nothing really wrong with that business model, as long as there are still others that are doing the leading. Apple has been doing that ever since Jobs returned. The thing I wonder about is just where we would be if he had remained the leader of Apple for the 10 years proceeding his return.
Look what he has accomplished at Apple in about 10 years, several of them simple getting the company on track. If this is where they are after 10 years, about to pass Microsoft in market capitalization, where would they be with another 10 years of his leadership?
The hype about Bloom Boxes, coupled with the mystery, reminded me of the Segway launch. Lots of ‘It will change the world.’ Nice technology, was the Segway, but not so much world changing.
After seeing the Live blog about Bloom and reading more at their site, it is actually exciting technology but at this point, the ones who are really excited are those corporations that use huge amount of electricity. It makes real sense to them.
According to the web site, there are a variety of possible input fuels, including natural gas and renewable biofuel. The efficiency is 50% and the pay back is 3 -5 years.
Since the normal transmission lines from the grid yield only about 10% of the energy produced at the power plant, increasing the efficiency 5-fold is pretty nice.
It may be awhile before we see these in more mainstream uses or in homes. I wonder about the longevity of the fuel cells themselves and how much they might cost to replace.
But this is something to keep an eye on, one way or the other.
taken with my iPhone
