They could do it themselves

by katybate

Shame
[Via Open Mind]

Two of the most prominent claims of global warming denialists have been proven wrong.

This raises two very serious issues. First, it’s certainly possible to “run the numbers” in order to check the truth or falsehood of their claims, but they didn’t bother to do so. I have. For them to make the claims they’ve made, without even doing the work require to find out, is fundamentally dishonest.

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This work was something that anyone who really wanted to could replicate. It examined two of the comments made by many denialists. But they never bother to examine whether those statements were true, as a good researcher would.

And, as I have seen so many times with creationists, when they are shown the facts, that their statements are not true, they do not respond like scientists. Scientists would examine the data and results and either confirm them or detail why they are not right.

But denialists usually respond with ad hominems. Like lawyers, – When you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. When you have the law on your side, argue the law. When you have neither, holler.

They have no facts. They have no law. So they can simply holler and attack the other side.

[Listening to: I Am from the album "Wander This World" by Jonny Lang]

Not my megacity

by cliff1066™

A Megacity Girds for a Major Quake
[Via Dot Earth]

I have an article running in The Times on efforts to move away from what the psychologist Paul Slovic calls “gut” thinking, which tends to make people discount long-term threats even if science has delineated them with crystal clarity. The focus is great earthquakes that, without any doubt, will someday hammer great cities. The case study is Istanbul, but it could just as easily be Lima or Katmandu or Karachi or a host of other fast-growing urban centers in developing countries.

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This is the sort of undertaking far too many cities are not doing. So many cities are built on or near fault zones. People may know what they need to do but it can just be so slow to make the changes.

There is a 1/8 chance of a 9.0 happening off the coast of Oregon in the next 50 years. Here is a nice article with a great visual of some of the problems worldwide.

See that little dot on the West Coast. That is Seattle. In the Seattle area, we are almost 10 years on from the Nisqually quake, a relatively tame 6.8 tremor. We may not get as big a one as Oregon but we have a large population on pretty unstable land.

The Nisqually quake, whose tremors lasted maybe 30 seconds, was one of the peak events in my life. Our waterfront office building was built on fill that in some quakes, such as seen in San Francisco, can become almost liquid during an earthquake. Luckily the building I was working in had lots of quake retrofitting and remained intact.

But I could look down the hallway and see the floor ripple with the waves of the temblor. Spookiest thing I have ever seen. And one of the scariest.

If the firm, strong edifice I worked in could ripple and buckle like a weird funhouse attraction, then how stable were so many of my perceptions of the world around me?

I stood there in the doorway thinking that the decision I made in the next few seconds could be the difference between life and death. I could go out the window, probably survive the jump but have to worry about falling glass and a falling freeway next to us (more on that later).

Or I could try for the interior stair well. Being reinforced concrete, it might survive the building coming down but could also become a place where I would be entombed waiting for rescuers. I could duck underneath my desk but have to worry about the ceiling beams coming down and pinning me there.

Luckily the shaking stopped before I had to make any critical decisions.

However, the freeway right next to the building, the Alaskan Way Viaduct (seen above), was damaged by the earthquake. Analysis indicated that it had to come down; that it would not sustain another large quake.

So, almost 10 years later and the viaduct still stands. We have made some political progress and there may be a project begun shortly. It is hard to know for sure because the current mayor wants to stop this project. Even if there are no roadblocks, it will not be finished until around 2016, 15 years after the need was recognized. That is assuming no barriers arise.

Experts say there is a 5% chance an earthquake that destroys the Viaduct will occur before completion.

It may take another quake, perhaps one that actually brings the freeway down, before a route that carries about 110,000 cars a day is actually fixed.

Seattle does not seem to be girding very rapidly. I am certainly glad I am working anywhere near the Viaduct anymore.

[Listening to: Mood for a Day from the album "The Haunted Melody" by Steve Howe Trio]

[Listening to: In the Flesh? from the album "Pink Box: Songs of Pink Floyd" by Adrian Belew (King Crimson) & Keith Emerson]

This is legal?

by Mhogan35

Class-Action Lawsuit Accuses Yelp of Extortion
[Via Discover Magazine]

Yelp, the popular website that offers reviews of local businesses, has just been bitten by Cats and Dogs, a veterinary hospital that is accusing the site of extortion. In a class-action lawsuit filed in Los Angeles this week, the Long Beach pet hospital claims that Yelp tried to get it to cough up $300 a month for a 12-month advertising commitment in exchange for tweaking possible bad reviews of the clinic.

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Let me get this right. This online site will put up good reviews and take down bad ones if the business only gives them $3600? And if the business refuses, then up go all sorts of anonymous bad reviews with no idea who is actually putting them up while the good reviews disappear?

Sounds to me like we have discovered their business plan! How is this really any different than someone walking into a business and stating: “Nice place you have here. Shame if anything was to happen to it. For just $3600 a year we can provide ‘insurance’.”

According to newspaper accounts, this has happened to multiple businesses. But this is what got me:

A former Yelp employee reportedly confirmed to the paper that several sales reps promised local businesses that bad reviews would be purged in exchange for advertising on the site. While this is legal, the report pointed out that it raised ethical questions about a site that prides itself on “Real People. Real Reviews.”

This is legal, just unethical? How can a site allow anonymous reviewers while also shaking down businesses? If these facts turn out to be as stated, I hope a class-action suit has some effect.

I know that after reading this, I will not take anything stated on Yelp with any sort of seriousness.

[Listening to: Spanish Harlem Incident from the album "The Byrds Play Dylan" by The Byrds]

Geeking with the Who

The Who’s Baba O’Reily, played using only items from Think Geek.

[Via WWdN: In Exile]

I watched this while trying to drink my coffee this morning.

I say “trying” because I just sat here with my mouth hanging open until the whole thing was over. This is pure brilliance.

Anyway, it seems appropriate to share this as I’m going out the door to start work on The Big Bang Theory:

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This was really incredible, demonstrating not only the great inventiveness of the true geek, but also paying tribute to rock’s greatest band.

I always loved the Who because they seemed to play right at the limit if their abilities, creating a lot of tension when hearing them play live. Bands like Genesis seemed to have such tremendous musical ability that they often seemed to be slumming it with a rock tune. Not the Who. Their tremendous song writing abilities were coupled with a musical presence that always seemed to be on the edge of completely falling apart.

But they did not.

They were like a garage band all grown up but with tremendous prowess for creative music-making. And now we have a group of geeks recreating that image.

Fun with 19th century science

Happy Sesquicentennial: The Chemical History of a Candle
[Via Boing Boing]

I propose to bring before you, in the course of these lectures, the Chemical History of a Candle. There is no better, there is no more open door by which you can enter into the study of natural philosophy than by considering the physical phenomena of a candle.–Michael Faraday, introduction to lecture 1

This is my all time favorite DIY science book. 150 years ago, the great Faraday (and I do mean great; I don’t believe there has been an experimental scientist of his ability since) gave a series of lectures for school children at London’s Royal Institution. In six lectures he explained many mysteries of chemistry and physics using a wax candle and some very simple props. The text for all six lectures are available for free online. I am still looking for an online edition that contains the drawings, which are pretty important.



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The text is also available from Google Books, which does have some great usefulness when it comes to books from this era. Some of the greatest scientists have been excellent teachers also.

So much of the time, we think that any science older than 20 years is simply obsolete. Then read these lectures where Faraday discusses what to them is an necessity – the light that comes from a candle and the reasons for that.

It is still incredibly engaging and really makes me want to try out some of these experiments on a handy candle. It is a great exercise in inductive reasoning, starting from the specifics of a candle and expanding into a wide range of chemical processes.

He makes examining the shadow of a candle’s flame sound like something really remarkable, which it is.

He then moves onto the components of the flame, the gases and combustions products. He then moves onto other types of combustion and their products, exploring the flames and chemical processes involved. Some of these are quite complex, as can be seen from the illustration above where he uses a battery to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. He even takes the vessel with oxygen in it and lights it. demonstrating that the resulting boom is not at all what one would expect from hydrogen.

I really love this book. The idea of a scientist exploding things in a classroom seems to me to be a great way to get children involved in science. It seems that science class in the 19th century was so much more fun than in the 21st.

Apps on iPods vs iPhone

by DeclanTM

iPod touch users spend more time using apps than those with iPhones
[Via AppleInsider]

A new survey of mobile device consumers has discovered that iPhone and iPod touch owners are mostly male, though iPhone users are older and have less time to use downloaded applications than those who have an iPod touch.

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I had not realized that there was an age difference but it makes sense. Of course, the iPhone has a lot more that it does for its users than just apps, so it makes sense that iPhone users do not spend as much time working with apps.

Now the overall high sales for the touch make a lot more sense.