Gray Watson's Blog -- April 2005

I've found that blogging is a useful way for me to record my thoughts and digital travels every so often.

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April 29, 2005   

• I found out last night that my definition of decibels is flawed. I thought that a 10 dB increase in a noise meant that it doubled in intensity but that is the perceived doubling. The sound power actually doubles every 3 dB. I just adjusted the decibels Wikipedia page to clarify this. Thanks to this page entitled what is a decibel from the University of New South Wales.
• So one of the dudes in my group at work's dad was on the Sea Robin submarine. They were the first submarine to go around Cape Horn in 1947 on a "simulated war patrol" in which she traveled around both coasts of South American on what sounds like a public relations type of tour. Here's the home page of SS-407.
• Very depressing article entitled Blood for Oil which provides answers to the question of whether the Iraqi War was over oil. The details of the relationships between the government and oil companies is just staggering. How can the common American put up with such corporate involvement in every level of government.

  Saddam Husseins destabilizing influence -- his "demonstrated willingness to threaten to use the oil weapon" -- raised the possibility of a need for military intervention. A top secret National Security Council document directed staff to co-operate fully with the Energy Task Force, one main aim of which was the melding of two policy arenas: the review of operational policies toward rogue states and actions regarding the capture of new and existing oilfields.

April 28, 2005   

• The American Lung Association has published its 2005 list of the most polluted cities. This is part of their State Of The Air: 2005. The top 5 are Los Angeles CA, Fresno CA, Bakersfield CA, and my old home town Pittsburgh PA. It's a real shame that Pittsburgh is that high on the list.

  "Dirty air threatens the lives and health of far too many Americans," said John L. Kirkwood, president and chief executive officer of the American Lung Association. "Unfortunately, some of the largest producers of dirty air are big energy companies, who have worked with their friends in Congress on legislation to change the rules so they don't have to clean up their pollution. Fortunately, the Senate recently blocked that bill, but the vote was very close. We need to ask ourselves: Why was Congress even considering a bill that protects corporate polluters instead of the public?" he said.

• What started as a search for information on couscous during lunch took me to maize and then to this fascinating page from Wikipedia on alcohol fuel. They deal with the chemistry, renewable energy questions, arguments, criticisms, politics, pollution, Brazilian details, etc.. Excellent.

  Many early studies concluded that the use of corn ethanol for fuel would have a negative net energy balance. Namely, the total energy needed to produce ethanol from grain including fermentation, fertilizing, fuel for farm tractors, harvesting and transporting the grain, building and operating an ethanol plant, and the natural gas used to distill corn sugars into alcohol exceeds the energy content of ethanol... Many other studies of corn ethanol production have been conducted, with greatly varied net energy estimates. Most indicate that production requires energy equivalent to 1/2, 2/3, or more of the fuel produced is required to run the process.

• Wow! They have found Ivory Billed Woodpeckers still alive in Arkansas. Here's the NPR report. Science article. IvoryBill.org of all things.

  Long believed to be extinct, a magnificent bird - the ivory-billed woodpecker - has been rediscovered in the Big Woods of eastern Arkansas. More than 60 years after the last confirmed sighting of the species in the United States, a research team today announced that at least one male ivory-bill still survives in vast areas of bottomland swamp forest... The largest woodpecker in North America, the ivory-billed woodpecker is known through lore as a bird of beauty and indomitable spirit. The species vanished after extensive clearing destroyed millions of acres of virgin forest throughout the South between the 1880s and mid-1940s. Although the majestic bird has been sought for decades, until now there was no firm evidence that it still existed.

April 26, 2005   

• Oh my goodness this is funny. It's an IRC discussion between some dudes and this hacker fool. The hacker is threatening to attack this guy's computer so he gives the hacker his the IP address 127.0.0.1 which is the local address of every computer. The hacker then commences to remove all of the files off his own computer. Classic script kiddie idiot. Everyone considers hackers to be these computer geniuses, but the predominant majority are script kiddies who use hacking kits they download from various sites and really little knowledge of their crafts -- they are technicians.

April 25, 2005   

• Scientists have announced a new method of making LED bulbs which results in 30-60% more light output per watt after research at the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) . This pushes LEDs to 80 lumens per watt versus 60 for compact fluorescents, and 14 for incandescent.

  Commercially available white LEDs combine a light-emitting semiconductor with a phosphor, a rare earth compound, to produce visible white light. However, more than half of the light, or photons, produced by the phosphor is diverted back toward the LED where much of it is lost due to absorption. This reduces the LED's overall light output. A research group, led by Dr. Narendran, developed a method to extract the backscattered photons by moving the phosphor away from the semiconductor and shaping the LED lens geometry. When combined, these changes allow the photons that would typically be absorbed inside the LED to escape as visible light. The new technology is patent pending.

• A disturbing report from Mother Jones magazine about how the oil industry is funding anti global-warming groups.

  There is overwhelming scientific consensus that greenhouse gases emitted by human activity are causing global average temperatures to rise. Conservative think tanks are trying to undermine this conclusion with a disinformation campaign employing reports designed to look like a counterbalance to peer-reviewed studies, skeptic propaganda masquerading as journalism, and events like the AEI luncheon that Crichton addressed. The think tanks provide both intellectual cover for those who reject what the best science currently tells us, and ammunition for conservative policymakers like Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, who calls global warming a hoax.

• It's "TV Turn Off Week" from April 25 through May 1st and I'll have mine switched off. I encourage you to give it a try. Here's some information from my site about television perils. I'm a big watcher, for some stupid reason, and the first time I told my wife about it, she laughed at me and didn't think I could do it. I got a lot of work done that week for sure. I also just ordered a TV-B-Gone device which knows how to send the remote control power signal and turn off virtually any TV on the market. It's a good way to switch off TVs in public places where appropriate.
• I'm a bit of a tinkerer although I often don't finish my project ideas. They are always simmering though. Recently I've come across two sites that seem to be a good supplier of parts to the tinkerer/inventer. McMaster Carr seems to have everything from air-drills to work-platforms, calipers to thermocouples. Smallparts Inc. has a number of cool parts such as o-rings, tools, etc.. along the same lines.
• A terrible article from the BBC about how the US prison rate has increased. The US has 726 people per 100,000 in jail, versus 142 in the UK, 118 in China, 91 in France, 58 in Japan, and 31 in Nigeria.

  The continued rise in imprisonment was due to tough policies brought in to tackle high crime rates over the last 20 years, said Paige Harrison, a justice department official who co-wrote the report... But Malcolm Young, of the Sentencing Project, which promotes other forms of punishment, said many of those languishing in prison were not dangerous, but low-level drug offenders.

• Interesting article about how Washington has been pushing Japan to take a more militarist stance in the far east.

  The Bush administrations backing has encouraged Tokyo to take an uncompromising and antagonistic stance towards the latest anti-Japanese protests in China. The White House immediately lined up with the Japanese government by criticizing Beijings failure to prevent violence and bring the demonstrations under control. US spokesmen remained silent on the provocative actions of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi who deliberately added more fuel to the fire.

  In the midst of the demonstrations, the Koizumi government authorized a new school history text that whitewashes the crimes of Japanese imperialism in the 1930s and 1940s and then gave the green light for Japanese companies to drill for oil in an area of the East China Sea contested by Beijing. To cap it off, Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura went to Beijing to demand an apology and compensation for damage caused to Japanese property in the course of the protests.

April 21, 2005   

• Just got reading this fun diary about a guy who converted his car into an electric vehicle. He took a 1985 Mazda 626 and converted it to an EV for about $8k or so. Top speed of 75 mph, cruises fine at 65, 30 miles range which is fine for local trips and a short commute. Fun!

  In order to put all of the EV components into the new car, all of the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) stuff has to come out. Lucky for me (and maybe not for him) my brother in-law visited for a weekend. I sadly overlooked the suggestions in EV literature of getting the engine steamed cleaned first and ended up completely black with oil from my elbows on down. I've always worked on my own vehicles, but this mess went a long ways toward convincing me how nice an EV will be without having to mess with oil, anti-freeze, and gasoline.

April 20, 2005   

• Found this story on CNN and just had to click on it. Some see Virgin Mary in Underpass Stain. Yes folks! The lord leaves signs in underpass stains now. Forget about the toasted cheese. That's a fake. It makes me want to go around and make images of the Virgin Mary in strange places to see if the devoted finds them. Here's another story about the stain.

  Obdulia Delgado said she was driving home along Fullerton Avenue on April 10 after getting off work at St. Elizabeth Hospital when she saw what she believes to be the Virgin Mary on the wall. She quickly pulled over and examined the form, and then began praying.

• Stumbled across a link to the Tango electric vehicle pages. Found it from a cool site that a friend sent me who is looking at Electric Commuter Bikes. If I had $85k to burn I'd definitely get a Tango. It also links to the Tango and other electric vehicles. If I had $85k to burn I'd definitely get a Tango. It's more an electric race car than commuter vehicle, but boy would it be fun to tear around town in it.

  The Tango is a glimpse into the future of commuting. Lane doubling, lane splitting, and perpendicular parking will become commonplace. Traffic-induced headaches and lost time will fade into the past. No more worries about safety as you're ballasted for flat-out cornering stability and protected by a racing-certified roll cage designed to protect you and your passenger. Park in places you wouldn't even dream of in a Mini Cooper. Emission-free and exciting, the electric Tango T600 is designed to beat most sports cars in the quarter mile with acceleration from 0 to 60 mph in just 4 seconds and a top speed of 150 mph!

April 18, 2005   

• A 23 meter high freak wave battered the cruise ship Norwegian Dawn on its way back to New York City from the Bahamas early Saturday. Although it was a big storm, the highest waves should have been 6-8 meters so this rogue wave was way out of proportion. Although stories abounded about these beasts, scientists had previously said that the chances of them were infinitesimal. But the European Space Agency used their ERS satellites whose main instrument is a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to find 10 giant waves in the world's oceans after a 3 weeks survey. In 1995 the Queen Elizabeth II met a 100 foot high rogue wave during a hurricane in the North Atlantic that the Captain described as "a great wall of water". In early 2001 two hardened cruise liners had their bridge windows smashed by 30 meter rogue waves in the South Atlantic.

  A spokeswoman for Norwegian Cruise Line, Susan Robison, said the wave Saturday reached as high as Deck 10 on the Norwegian Dawn, which has 15 decks, injuring four passengers, breaking windows and flooding 62 of the ship's 1,112 cabins. None of the injuries were serious, she said, though one passenger required stitches.

April 17, 2005   

• Cool article about another litter picker upper like myself. Cheers to Boris Weinstein. Tim and I went out today and cleared a section of common land and a lot next to the MacDonalds on Lexington/Waltham line.

  Weinstein, a spry 75-year-old, assigned himself to an area that includes Copeland Street, Bellefonte Street, Filbert Street, Ivy Street, Elmer Street, Telegraph Way, Telephone Way, Urn Way, Myrtle Way, Culloden Way. He focuses on portions of the zone during his one- to two-hour outings, during which he eagerly crows over grabbing hard-to-reach items behind fences or in gutters. Thursday, he had his eye on Ivy Street. Progress is easy to measure. When he goes out to a section and is able to count the pieces of litter accumulated since his last visit, he knows he has that area under control.

• 

  Is humor timely? I've been wondering for some time about the fact that many of the comedies that I thought were hilarious when I was growing up seem less funny to me today. My brother and I were/are big fans of the Marx Brother's movies (The Big Store, A Day at the Races, and A Night At the Opera are personal favorites) and I remember going to full theaters at the old Playhouse to watch people of all ages enjoy them. I wonder now if any kids would think they were at all funny. I remember my Dad's disappointment when we went to see a W. C. Fields movie and even he didn't find it as funny as he remembers.

  I think that humor must be timely. I don't think that modern comedies are funnier because they have a better "recipe". I don't think that Jim Carey is better than Groucho Marx at all. I think that many jokes must be at their best during a certain moment in time. Maybe when Tim grows up a bit and I show him Ghostbusters and other movies I found hilarious as a child, he'll just give me that typical look of disgust.

April 15, 2005   

• Tax day here in the USA. Ro and I submitted an extension for the first time in 5 years. One of our new investment accounts makes tons of small stock sales each year and we did not start early enough in accounting for them all. Sigh.
• Signed up for a Blogline account. Very cool. From their site I can read, Wired, CNN, Space Flight Now, the Register, Slashdot, New York Times, Boston.com, etc.. Very nice. It's like creating your own newspaper.

April 14, 2005   

• Another great article from the Onion about living wills.

  If, in the event of a catastrophic brain injury, you wish to be taken off life support and kept out of the guardianship of your overprotective Catholic parents, underline those directives over and over with a thick red pen and then highlight them in bright yellow.

April 13, 2005   

• Chris and I were looking for docs on how to open and upgrade your Mac mini. Nice site.

  Before you go opening your new mini, I highly recommend you read this official Apple guide to Mac mini servicing (thx to Smash). It covers pretty much everything you'll need to know. The good news is that the mini is extremely easy to open and upgrade. I highly recommend buying your RAM from a third party, as Apple charges $412 for a 1GB stick.

April 12, 2005   

• Started writing down some notes about general VoIP information and providers.
• Oh. My. God. This is hilarious. Awesome flash music video entitled America, Fuck Yeah!. A must see.

April 8, 2005   

• Disturbing article about the neocons as parasites on democracy.

  Paul Wolfowitz was a salesman; his job was to sell a war. He acknowledged this in an interview with Vanity Fair magazine, in which he acknowledged that WMDs and the threat they posed, was nothing more than a vehicle to sell this war to America. Now you [get] to the war itself and selling it to Congress and [the] questions: How long will this take? Or how much will this cost? Paul Wolfowitz lied to Congress about the costs of war. There is not a responsible member of government who thought this would be quick and cheap. There was nobody who believed that Iraq oil would pay for itself, no one in the oil business thought so.

April 7, 2005   

• Once and a while the little guy wins. Here's the story of David Zamos who successfully fought off a lawsuit from Microsoft. He was trying to sell his unopened copy of Windows on Ebay and they sued him.

  When Zamos cracked the complaint's legal language, he realized that the suit's claims of "irreparable injury to its business reputation and goodwill" were baseless. He hadn't pirated or stolen any software, falsely represented Microsoft, reproduced its trademark, or repackaged its goods, as the company's lawsuit suggests.

• I was just taking a look at the Flexcar service which is similar to Zipcar. You have to live in a major metro area but if you do and you don't use your car daily then these services look very cool.

  Why buy when you can borrow? Flexcar is the nation's largest and oldest provider of car-sharing programs. We give our members the key to new cars, trucks, and minivans located across a metropolitan region. You pay an hourly rate, and Flexcar pays for the car, insurance, gas and a reserved parking spot! Get where you need to go, with Flexcar. Join today!

April 6, 2005   

• One of my best friends had a little girl this morning. Congrats to Jane Ann Balog for choosing such excellent parents!!
• Just found the 43 Things site where you enter 'what you want to do with your life'. It's a cool community site where you can say 'lose 20 pounds' and find people who also want to do this and/or help people achieve their goals. Here's my profile. So I want to: patent an invention, run for public office, sail across the atlantic, and fly a helicopter. Pretty typical. I asked some specific questions about what i need to patent my invention(s). I also added content to help people: have my own domain name, eliminate spam, and conserve water. Fun!

April 5, 2005   

• 

  Another example of bullshit science confusing correlation with a causal relationship. This article says that kids who watch TV are more likely to bully. The study explains a little better that it is dealing with risk factors not causalities, but it doesn't go far enough. To really determine a causal relationship, you'd have to expose a group of kids to TV under controlled situations and compare their development with a control group.

  IMO, it is much more likely that parents who let their kids watch more TV aren't spending the time teaching them about proper social behavior. Their kids do not have enough exposure to adults to be able to mimic their actions and conduct.

  In this analysis, Dr. Zimmerman ruled out certain factors (such as how old the parents were when the child was born or the education levels of the parents) that might affect how much television the child was watching and the child's risk for ADHD. Zimmerman's results don't prove that television viewing causes ADHD. But in testing this relationship using data on the same kids over time, and by controlling for certain factors, this study eliminates several other possible explanations for ADHD.

• Just got sent a link to this cool publication called MakeZine which has a lot of cool hacks and building projects to do everything from kite aerial photography, $40 magnetic stripe reader, and a $14 video camera stabilizer. Whole bunch of neat projects and cool resources for parts and ideas.

  MAKE brings the do-it-yourself mindset to all the technology in your life. MAKE is loaded with exciting projects that help you make the most of your technology at home and away from home. This is a magazine that celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your own will.

• Researchers have implanted a chip into the retina of test subjects to improve their vision. It has resulted in a number of improvements to their vision that they did not expect. Here's another link to the clinical trials of the Artificial Silicon Retina microchip implant, made by Optobionics Corp (gotta love the name).

  Schuchard's team implanted a 2mm diameter silicon chip, covered in photodiodes, in the superior temporal retinal area of one eye of each of ten volunteers. (For the non specialists, that is not right in the middle of the retina, but up and to one side.) The chip captures light that enters the eye, and generates an electrical signal that is transmitted to the overlaying neural cells of the retina.

April 1, 2005   

• 

  Today's stupid phrase for death is... Drum roll please... "Stepped into eternity". Of course they are talking about Terri Schiavo. It's a real pet peeve of mine that people use different phrases for death, like it's going to make it easier for us.

  • I "lost" my father. Did you check the information booth on the first floor?
  • She's "passed". Passed a kidney stone?
  • He's "gone". On a trip to Florida?
  • She "stepped into eternity". Hope she wiped her feet before coming into the house.

  This may be callous but when my dad died I said that he died. Death is an uncomfortable topic for many in the US (maybe the world) and I don't think this is healthy. In case you haven't figured it out yet, none of us are getting out of here alive. Some of your loved ones are going to die before you do, and if you've not talked about it frankly with them then you are doing yourself (and them) a disservice. If you go first you run the risk of leaving your loved ones ill prepared and distressed. There is so much senseless suffering that could be averted by rational discussion between family members about life and death.

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