A GenX Liberal Geek's Take on Science and Finance in the News: May 2011

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

US 'to view major cyber attacks as acts of war'

It's about time. This is what they are; acts of war. It's an attack on infrastructure; no different than blowing up a bridge.

Thinking Of Switching To A Smaller Car To Save On Gas? » My Money Blog

This blog post is perfect for anyone thinking of buying a car this year based on fuel economy. What's the point? It boils down to a graph that shows you how much money you'll save per year by switching to a higher fuel economy car. Hybrids aren't economical yet; which is the point of the article. Sure, they do use the least gas, but their cost is more than savings. I still say a well tuned, (proper tire inflation, good spark plugs, etc...) Civic/Focus is your best bet overall right now. Also, if you've never been in a Prius as compared to the Civic/Focus, the former is a lot smaller.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

TSA Thug Grabs Crotch of Wounded Vet

Another case, no worse or less horrible than all the others, of the TSA going beyond their mandate. This is absolutely crazy.

Air France crash sparks pilot mystery | Reuters

i never thought they'd find this thing, and now i can't believe what it recorded.

Scientists discover the largest assembly of whale sharks ever recorded

this is really cool. let's hope they can be protected from Shark Finners

Friday, May 27, 2011

Green and lean: Secreting bacteria eliminate cost barriers for renewable biofuel production

more hope for bio fuels. a big problem may have been fixed in the lab settings. they are going full scale next, and we'll see if it works there.

Cities affect storms, but downwind areas can get the worst of it

Again we are seeing more details about how weather works that we didn't know before.

New explanation for Hawaiian hot spot

Another long held, and well supported theory falls. Ge, scientists changing theories based on evidence. How radical a thought. (note I am making fun of the Global Warming Religion.)

Simeis 147 in mapped color - Astronomy.com - Online Community, Forums, Media Galleries, Blogs

A beautiful picture of a galaxy taken by someone in Varna, Bulgaria.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

NASA abandons Mars rover Spirit, chooses to remember the good times -- Engadget

the 3 month mission that became 7 years finally ends. that's one hell of a bang for hte buck!

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Multiverse = Many Worlds, Say Physicists - Technology Review

We might be getting closer to grand unification.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Nissho starts selling 52-inch, glasses-free 3D TV with Full HD resolution in Japan -- Engadget

apparently glasses-free 3D HDTVs were closer than I expected. They are hitting the HIGH end market now - $20k for a 52".

EPA chief called on to retract inflammatory falsehood made on Daily Show | JunkScience.com

It seems those on the LEFT are also willing to make "mistakes" and say things that are completely untrue, but nevertheless support their cause. Translation, everyone has an agenda, which is why we need at least two sides to an issue.

Mercury is dangerous, but in the amounts that come out of our powerplants, it's not a risk. It's not destroying anyone's brain. That being said, as I always say, getting our power in such a way as to enable us to not have to release anything like it would be a good thing. The real problem is that the hyperbole makes the reasonable conversation go out the window. Why not just say, "as the concentrations go up, it will eventually become a problem. I want us to focus on cheap power sources that don't have that waste product." Something like that would be wise, and would be inarguable from someone on the other side. Agreement out of the way, the next question is how to get there. Working together, even for different reasons, is better.

Microsoft Wants to Rule the White Spaces - Technology Review

This is really cool. This could drive real competition in the home delivery of internet access. With the range of these things, it would even compete with the cell phone companies wireless data plans. This is all good for the consumer.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

WikiLeaks bolsters argument for 'enhanced' interrogation tactics - Washington Times

this is perverse, and quite humerus.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Ron Gutman: The hidden power of smiling | Video on TED.com

everyone should smile more....

Creepy new Air Force camera can identify and track you from far, far away -- Engadget

Creepy new Air Force camera can identify and track you from

far, far away -- Engadget

now we are talking REAL big brother type stuff. the film Minority Report predicted this, but I guess I'm still surprised by it.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

E Ink shows concepts galore at SID 2011: snowboards, radios, thermostats, oh my! -- Engadget

Now we are talking, this is what i want to see all over the place!

Galaxy S II and Galaxy S screens compared at the subpixel level (video) -- Engadget

OMFG, I really WANT THE GALAXY S II!!! That will be my next phone. SPRINT RELEASE IT TODAY!!!!

Kindle books officially take over print sales at Amazon, pulp starts making retirement plans -- Engadget

now this is historic. i am an owner of a kindle 1.0, love it, and am part of this move.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Scientists at Aarhus University (AU) and the National Space Institute (DTU Space) show that particles from space create cloud cover

Danes show how cosmic rays do make aerosols in the air; aerosols already are proven to be seeds for clouds. The link between cosmic rays and superhero formation remains unconfirmed.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Exclusive: Inside Area 51, the Secret Birthplace of the U2 Spy Plane - FoxNews.com

this could be a fun read

LED bulb makers target 100-watt brightness | Green Tech - CNET News

these are true 75w and 100w equivalent light bulbs. the cost at roughly MSRP of $40 and $50 is not trivial, but remember, they do pay back several times over during their lifetime; especially for those of us in the North East with the expensive energy.

Mizzou Professor says nantenna solar sheet soaks up 90 percent of the sun's rays, puts sunscreen to shame -- Engadget

interesting idea. light is just another form of electro-magnetic radiation. why don't we use advances in antenna's to capture the energy?

Monday, May 16, 2011

Marvell chip designed to improve LED light quality | Green Tech - CNET News

This will help LEDs get more traction; better color quality for no increase in price. Forgive me if I think $0.01 increase in price on a $20-50 item is negligible.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

The Push-and-Pull of Rocket Science - Technology Review

3 years to possibly new PRIVATE manned missions to space via SpaceX. We'll see, I certainly hope they can do it.

Road Repair via Crowdsourcing - Technology Review

This is truly awesome. This is the kind of "who'd think of that" kind of thing that will have a huge world impact.

X-Prize reveals plans for tricorder competition, suspiciously lacking Nimoy endorsement -- Engadget

Another example of Star Trek's positive impact on humanity! Gene was truly a visionary! Long live his dream!

Update on the CERN CLOUD experiment | Watts Up With That?

Hmm, you mean we don't know everything about cloud formation and the potential link between Cosmic Rays and "aerosol seeds." Hmm, you mean we are still experimenting with that, and that this could be a significant, and here to fore unaccounted for in the computer models, lever in climate change. Amazing, I mean people are SO convinced that the science is settled.

I will say this again. Efficiency makes sense. LED light bulbs are actually cost effective today. Burning fossil fuels does put a lot of crap in the air, soot, etc, that does cause breathing problems. So stopping their use is a good thing. On the other side, cheap energy is the key to living well and lighter on the environment. So the plan should be, keep energy cheap, and find ways to make clean energy CHEAPER than dirty energy. Taxing "dirty" energy only raises it's price and hurts everyone; but the poor most of all. Better to simply help research cleaner energy, and at worst subsidize it.

Samsung's foldable AMOLED display: no creases, even after 100,000 tries -- Engadget

Since this works, I expect we'll see one in the not so distant future!

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Astronomers Solve the Mystery of the Ridge around Iapetus - Technology Review

this is why science is cool

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Lighting Science demos Android @ Home bulbs, promises dead-simple home automation (hands-on) -- Engadget

home automation via your google device. i think home automation is about to start working bigtime.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Neanderthals died out earlier than originally believed

very interesting adjustment to the old information

Monday, May 9, 2011

How Three-Dimensional Transistors Went from Lab to Fab - Technology Review

history behind the new awesome 3d transistors

Researchers find green roof is a cost-effective way to keep water out of sewers

cost effective, are they nuts? did they look at their own numbers quoted in the article. they say themselves that it costs about 2 cents per gallon. they also said that 10 billion gallons of water fall on NYC roofs in 1 year. okay, let's do the math here. 10 billion times 0.02 dollars = 200 million dollars PER YEAR! we could do a lot better than that to stop runoff. even if we only use their 30% number that Con Ed's building captured, then 30% of 10 billion gallons at a rate of $0.02 per gallon for maintenance, is still 66 Million Dollars!

Um no!

Now, mind you, white roofs, which would also cool the city in the summer, would make sense. still, then, i ask this, is it better to be cooler in the summer saving power then, and cooler in the winter meaning extra heating costs. My though is yes. There are many more hours of sun in the summer than in the winter, so the amount of solar heating you'd get, by heating your roof and the surrounding area thereby making your A/C work that much harder, should be much less than what you'd spend on any potential heating obtained in the winter with the fewer hours of sun anyway. Especially since the lower angle of the sun in the winter should allow more light/heat to come in through the windows.

so, i say, white roofs, yes, green roof, only if you happen to like it.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Facebook Could Be Planning a Visual Dashboard of Your Life - Technology Review

while i like the idea of this; seeing the numbers that represent my life, the idea of advertisers having those numbers, as most certainly they would, is rather invasive and unpleasant to me.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Antihydrogen Trapped For 1000 Seconds - Technology Review

This never occurred to me. for all i have been following antimatter developments since i first heard "they" made some in 1996, i never thought about the implication of having a bunch of anti-matter lying around. Anti-matter "should" have anti-gravity; it seems so obvious when you think about it. Damn that would be cool if it works. Still, having large hunks of anti-matter lying around would not be a good thing. anti-matter + matter = BIG BOOM!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Bin Laden's Death Might Not Pose a New Threat: Scientific American

this is a very interesting perspective.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Why all HDMI cables are the same | Crave - CNET

just a reminder folks, the $5 one at Amazon is just as good as the $50 one at Best Buy. Guess which one I buy?