Rodney Alcala

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Alcala

In 1980 Alcala was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for Samsoe's murder, but his conviction was overturned by the California Supreme Court because jurors had been improperly informed of his prior sex crimes. In 1986, after a second trial virtually identical to the first except for omission of the prior criminal record testimony, he was convicted once again, and again sentenced to death. However, a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel overthrew the second conviction, in part because a witness was not allowed to support Alcala's contention that the park ranger who found Samsoe's body had been "hypnotized by police investigators."

For the third trial Alcala elected to act as his own attorney. He took the stand in his own defense, and for five hours played the roles of both interrogator and witness, asking himself questions (addressing himself as "Mr. Alcala" in a deeper-than-normal voice), and then answering them.  During this bizarre self-questioning and answering session he told jurors, often in a rambling monotone, that he was at Knott's Berry Farm when Samsoe was kidnapped.  He also claimed that the earrings found in his Seattle locker were his, not Samsoe's.  As "proof" he showed the jury a portion of his 1978 appearance on The Dating Game, during which his earrings — if he wore any — were obscured by his shoulder-length hair.  He made no significant effort to dispute the other four charges.  As part of his closing argument, he played the portion of Arlo Guthrie's song "Alice's Restaurant" in which the protagonist tells a psychiatrist he wants to "kill."

Grade Inflation

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/the-history-of-college-grade-inflation/

http://gradeinflation.com/

Why do we lock up so many people?

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/01/30/120130crat_atlarge_gopnik?currentPage=all

The accelerating rate of incarceration over the past few decades is just as startling as the number of people jailed: in 1980, there were about two hundred and twenty people incarcerated for every hundred thousand Americans; by 2010, the number had more than tripled, to seven hundred and thirty-one. No other country even approaches that. In the past two decades, the money that states spend on prisons has risen at six times the rate of spending on higher education.

Northern impersonality and Southern revenge converge on a common American theme: a growing number of American prisons are now contracted out as for-profit businesses to for-profit companies. The companies are paid by the state, and their profit depends on spending as little as possible on the prisoners and the prisons. It’s hard to imagine any greater disconnect between public good and private profit: the interest of private prisons lies not in the obvious social good of having the minimum necessary number of inmates but in having as many as possible, housed as cheaply as possible. No more chilling document exists in recent American life than the 2005 annual report of the biggest of these firms, the Corrections Corporation of America. Here the company (which spends millions lobbying legislators) is obliged to caution its investors about the risk that somehow, somewhere, someone might turn off the spigot of convicted men:

Our growth is generally dependent upon our ability to obtain new contracts to develop and manage new correctional and detention facilities. . . . The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws. For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them.

5 Creepy Forms of Mind Control You're Exposed to Daily

http://www.cracked.com/article_19646_5-creepy-forms-mind-control-youre-exposed-to-daily.html

Supreme Court says search warrants needed when police use GPS devices to track suspects

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/supreme-court-says-search-warrants-needed-when-police-use-gps-devices-to-track-suspects/2012/01/23/gIQA7wL1KQ_story.html

Regulatory Capture

I read a comic that lead me to this wiki article on examples of regulatory capture in the US.  It's a good article to read if you're looking to lose all hope.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture#American_examples

Monsanto's growth hormone, rBGH, which has been linked to cancer in cows and humans, has been banned in numerous countries, but is unlabeled and legal in the United States. Margaret Miller, a former chemical laboratory supervisor at Monsanto, wrote a scientific report that was to be submitted to the FDA to obtain approval of the drug. Shortly before the report was submitted, Miller quit Monsanto to take a job at the FDA, where her first job was to approve the report she had just written while employed at Monsanto.

Richard Feynman explains science

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYPapE-3FRw

Useful Websites for School

I've often said that I don't think I could do well in school in an age without the internet.  The bulk of my time spent learning is spent on various websites increasing my understanding of concepts.  While random sites found via googling are often useful, I've compiled a list of websites I go to time and time again.  I've mentioned some of these before, and some are quite well known, so you may have already visited them.

Wolfram|Alpha

I've mentioned Wolfram Alpha a few times here, but it really deserves its own post.  If you've never used it before, it is a "computational engine".  Similar to a search engine, but aiming to answer questions directly rather than simply via links.  While it can be used for any subject, I pretty much only use it for math.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=integral+of+sin+x+2x^3
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=sum+of+1%2F2^n+from+1+to+infinity
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=area+between+y%3D|x|+and+y%3Dx^2-6 
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i={{45%2C+-34%2C+120%2C+1}%2C+{-14%2C+25%2C+-67%2C+0}%2C+{12%2C+75%2C+-72%2C+1}%2C+{1%2C+42%2C+83%2C+82}}

While there are other systems that can solve math like this, Wolfram Alpha stands out two ways.  First is that it does a very good job of interpreting input correctly.  If you've ever tried to use a program like Maple or a graphing calculator to solve things, you know it gets pretty annoying to input what you actually want.  Even if you think you have the input right you don't know for sure.  Wolfram Alpha shows what it thinks you've inputted so you know for sure if it is correct.  The second thing is the show steps button.  With a simple click Wolfram Alpha will show you how it solved the problem.  This doesn't always help, as sometimes it uses a very labor intensive brute force method, but helps quite often.  Note the random and examples buttons near the search box if you want to see examples of what kinds of things it can do.

Khan Academy
I've written about Khan Academy before, but it is really an amazing site.  It consists of 10 minute videos on a wide range of science and math subjects, including: arithmetic, differential equations, calculus, bio, chem, physics, and economics.  The videos are made by Sal Khan, an electrical engineer who went to MIT and worked as a hedge fund analyst.  He is amazing at explaining things in an intuitive way.  I highly recomend you just go and watch a few videos.

MIT OCW
MIT Open Courseware is a site where MIT posts videos of their lectures.  The site has been around for over a decade now, and they probably have nearly the entire course catalog on there, usually with several different lecturers.  They also have the HW, tests, and answer keys.  In other words you can get an entire MIT education minus the piece of paper at the end for free.  While I don't like these videos as much as Khan's, you can't ignore the extra rigor and breadth in the MIT videos.  If you are looking for some to sample, here is the first in an excellent 5 part series on an overview of calculus.  Here's a great Physics I video.

Ptable.com
A dynamic periodic table.  I know if you're not currently in a chemistry class you will probably want to skip over this, but I recommend you check it out.  It is a very well done site, and presents a huge range of data in a amazingly simple way.  Most the fun stuff is in the properties tab, so click over to that one.  Then click the various properties (like melting point, or date of discovery) and examine how various properties vary with location in the periodic table.

Physics Forums
The Physics Forums are a great site to waste hours at reading through posts.  They are centered mainly around physics, but have forums for math, and other sciences as well.  Even if you are not interested in physics there are often some very interesting threads on there.  They also have homework help forums where you can post problems and they will attempt to guide you through it.

Cramster
Cramster is very useful site, that I probably would have put higher in this list if not for the fact that it's pretty exclusively useful for people actually taking classes.  It has worked out solutions for the odd problems for most textbooks.  The answers are generally a lot better than the ones in solutions manuals.  The have even number solutions if you are willing to pay something absurd like $100 a year.

Paper Rater
I've written about Paper Rater in greater detail before, so I'll be brief here.  Essentially, Paper Rater is an enhanced grammar checker.  You enter text and it goes through and gives you stats and possible issues with it.

Graphing Calculator
Not much to say about this one, as it's just a nice, simple online graphing calculator.

Obama administration says Constitution protects cell phone recordings

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/obama-administration-says-constitution-protects-cell-phone-recordings.ars

When I first saw this I almost dismissed it out of hand as the DOJ arguing against the right to video tape arrests.  It simply didn't compute that they could actually be in favor of people's rights.

The coming war on general-purpose computing

http://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html

Even this is a shadow of what is to come. After all, this was the year in which we saw the debut of open source shape files for converting AR-15 rifles to full-automatic. This was the year of crowd-funded open-sourced hardware for genetic sequencing. And while 3D printing will give rise to plenty of trivial complaints, there will be judges in the American South and mullahs in Iran who will lose their minds over people in their jurisdictions printing out sex toys. The trajectory of 3D printing will raise real grievances, from solid-state meth labs to ceramic knives.

How to coil rope

Coil thin rope (550 cord):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYEJS73nnKM

Coil thicker rope:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4uwdLAKT1g

Why Water Feels Colder Than Air

Air at 80°F can feel uncomforably warm.  Water at 80°F can cause hypothermia.  Why is it that if one has water and air both at 80°F that the air will feel warm and the water will feel cold?  It turns out there are several reasons why water feels colder than air.  If you've never thought about this before I suggest you stop to ponder it for a few moments before continuing on.

Heat vs Temperature
I'll begin with one of my trademark unnecessary background explanations.  Heat is a form of energy.  It manifests itself as kinetic motion in molecules bouncing around off each other.  Temperature on the other hand can be thought of as the average heat energy an object has (with some exceptions).  This is very similar to the relationship of mass and density.  If one wishes to increase density one can either increase the mass (while keeping volume constant) or decrease volume (while keeping mass constant).  Similarly, to increase temperature one can either increase heat energy, or decrease the volume (while keeping the other constant).  The classic example of this a bike pump feeling warm because of compressed air, or some sort of compressed air feeling cold when it's allowed to decompress.

An example I saw Bill Nye do once is the comparison of a lit match to an ice sculpture.  Clearly the burning match has a much higher temperature.  However, since there is simply so much more ice, the sculpture has more heat energy.  To revisit our mass and density analogy, styrofoam has a much lower density than lead.  However, a large block of styrofoam would have a much higher mass than a small pellet of lead.

Another issue that should be addressed is why things feel cold in general.  Your body is warm, and most things in the environment are colder than it.  When your warm body comes in contact with something colder than it, heat from your body moves to the object.  This leaves your body with less heat, and thus less temperature.  The transfer will continue until you body and the object are equal in temperature.  Since your body will continuously adjust its temperature back to normal, in practice this means your body will give heat energy to the object until it reaches body temperature.

Now that we understand the difference between heat and temperature, we can begin addressing the specific reasons why water feels colder than air.  There are five effects that could explain this.  Different combinations of effects will apply depending on the situation.

Denser
At the temperatures we are talking about water is liquid and air is a gas.  This means water is much denser than air.  Since density is simply the measure of mass in a certain volume, the higher density means more mass of water in the same volume of air.  Mass is often the best way to talk about how much of something there is.  In this case, since liquid water is denser than air, it simply means there is more water in the close space around your body.  This means it will take more heat energy from your body to warm the water up to body temperature than if it were the less dense air.

At room temperature a cubic meter of water has a mass of 998 kg, while the same volume of air has a mass of 1.225 kg.  The same volume of water as air has about 815 times the mass.

Specific Heat
We know that more mass will take more energy to warm up.  You may be asking yourself if that is the only thing that matters.  Will two different substances, of equal mass, require the same energy to cause the same rise in temperature?  The answer is no.  Every substance has an intrinsic property called "specific heat" that determines how much energy is required to raise the temperature of an equal mass by an equal amount.  The formula for temperature change is: $$$T = \frac{Q}{c m}$$$ Where: T is change in temperature, Q is heat energy, c is specific heat, and m is mass.  This can be viewed as saying, a given amount of heat energy will result in less of a temperature increase the higher the product of mass and specific heat is.

Water has many interesting and unique properties.  One of these is a very high specific heat.  The only known substance with a higher specific heat is ammonia.  This is largely the result of strong attractive forces between molecules, known as hydrogen bonding.  At room temperature the specific heat of water is 4.1813 $$$\rm{\frac{J}{g K}}$$$, and air is 1.012 $$$\rm{\frac{J}{g K}}$$$.  This about 4.13 higher.  Since we saw that specific heat is multiplied by mass, and the mass is also much higher for the same volume, we can look at the combined specific heat times mass of water vs air.  This combined product is about 3366 times higher for water than for air.

Forced Convection
When a fluid like water or air is in contact with your body it is warmed and then becomes less dense, and thus floats on top the rest of itself.  New unwarmed fluid moves in to next to your body and that must then be warmed.  This process is called convection.  In practice convection isn't that significant.  However, forced convection is.  Forced convection simply means that the air or water near your body is being forced to move away instead of naturally floating away.  This is how a fan or wind cools your body.

If you are in a pool of water vs standing in air there isn't much difference in terms of convection.  However, if the water is flowing over you than that is a very significant factor.  In the case of rain or a shower, water is in contact with your body for a few seconds and then leaves, taking whatever heat your body invested in it with it.  In a pool of static water or air your body could bring the temperature up to its own, and then the heat transfer would stop (ignoring gradual convection).  But if water is rushing by this can never happen.

Thermal Conductivity
When two objects of unequal temperature are in contact heat flows from the higher temperature object to the lower temperature one.  This is conduction, one the the three types of heat transfer.  How quickly heat is transferred will depend on the thermal conductivity of the substances.  Water and air have different thermal conductivities.  While, water's isn't that special, air's is very low.  This means air absorbs heat much slower than water does.  Liquid water has a thermal conductivity of about 0.6 $$$\rm{\frac{W}{m K}}$$$, compared to air at 0.025 $$$\rm{\frac{W}{m K}}$$$.  Heat energy is transferred about 24 times faster through liquid water than through air.

Latent Heat of Vaporization
I said above that if volume is held constant, an increase in heat will cause an increase in temperature.  This is true except for when the substance is undergoing a phase change.  In other words, while it is melting or vaporizing, there is heat being added, but the temperature does not go up.  Here is a graph that shows this.  Note the amount of heat energy (x axis) needed to raise water from freezing to boiling vs the amount needed to actually vaporize it.  To vaporize (boil or evaporate) a kg of water takes 2257 kJ of energy.  This is over five times the energy needed to raise water from just above freezing to just below boiling.  To make this clear, it means that causing a kg of water to evaporate requires many times more energy than warming ice water to body temperature.  That energy comes from your body heat, and this is exactly how sweat cools your body.

Like forced convection, evaporation may not occur in all situations.  If you are submerged in water there will be no evaporation.  And, if there is 100% humidity then the air is already saturated with water and there can be no more evaporation. This is likely the case in a shower or in rain.  However, afterwards the humidity can drop.  There is a good chance that the water on your body will have already warmed to body temperature, which will remove all the other effects.  At that point, evaporation alone is what would cause the heat loss.

To summarize:
Water feels colder than air because there is more water near your body (denser), which takes more heat to bring to body temperature (specific heat), and takes heat from your body faster (thermal conductivity).  This water may then be flowing away from your body, taking the heat with it (forced convection), or evaporating and consuming a huge amount of energy to do so (latent heat of vaporization).

It seems unlikely that Kim Jong Un will want to reform North Korea, but even less likely that the regime can go on resisting change

http://www.economist.com/node/21542227

It is hard to see how the economy could be modernised without abruptly destroying the state’s paternalistic ruling mythology. Much of the dark interior of North Korea is bereft not only of consumer goods but also of trustworthy information, on anything from prices to politics. Although an increasing number of people, especially in the border areas, are aware of the vast disparity between capitalist South Korea and their own workers’ paradise, defectors say many still do not fully grasp how wide that chasm is. As one defector puts it, explaining why his relatives cling to their belief in the Kim family state when he sends them cash from South Korea: “There is a gap between what you know and what you believe.”

Toothpaste

I had to write a report on toothpaste as part of a project for school.  Since I did a fair bit of research into how toothpaste works and what the various ingredients actually do, I figured I'd post it here.

Overview of Tooth Decay
To understand the importance of toothpaste one must first understand the process by which bacteria cause cavities. The bacteria in a person's mouth form a colorless, thin, sticky film called plaque. The bacteria use carbohydrates present in the mouth after meals as fuel. The population grows and they produce acid as a waste of their metabolism.

While teeth are the hardest substance in the human body, they are very susceptible to acid. The acid from bacteria causes the pH level in the mouth to lower. This causes demineralization, and causes the teeth to soften, which in turn reduces their resistance to abrasion. Once the pH level returns to a higher level, minerals naturally present in saliva cause the softened teeth to gradual remineralize. The critical pH level is 5.5. Below this level demineralization occurs, above it remineralization (Dawes).

As long as the process of remineralization is faster than the loss of minerals from acid there will be no decay. However, when carbohydrates are frequently consumed the bacteria can produce more acid than the body can counteract. This leads to tooth decay. Once tooth decay has occurred the body can not repair the damage.

Ingredients
Abrasives
Toothbrushing removes the plaque film that covers one's teeth. This is accomplished through the mechanical action of brushing. It was long thought that toothpaste provided additional abrasive qualities that enhanced this process. Substances like hydrated silica are added to toothpaste to increase its abrasiveness. However recent studies have shown plain water to be as effective at removing plaque as toothpaste (Paraskevas). On the other hand, other studies have shown an additional benefit to using toothpaste (Putt). It is therefore impossible to drawn any definitive conclusions. Toothpaste, however, has numerous other benefits.

Raising pH Level
Since the problem with bacteria is the acid they produce, raising the pH level to make the mouth more basic will neutralize some of the acid and delay tooth decay. Sodium bicarbonate is often used as both an abrasive and to raise the pH of the toothpaste. Since it is slightly basic, it reduces the pH in the mouth for some time after use. In addition to directly neutralizing acid, the basic environment makes it harder for the bacteria to grow, which further reduces acid levels.

Cosmetic Additives
One of toothpaste's most obvious benefits is the cosmetic impression of cleaning it has. While a mouth brushed with just water is perhaps as clean as one brushed with toothpaste, there is no doubt that toothpaste leaves the mouth with a sensation of cleanliness. The foaming action of toothpaste is associated with cleaning in general. Surfactants are added to toothpaste to enhance this foaming action.

The flavor of toothpaste is also associated with a clean mouth. While there are a wide variety of flavors the most popular are peppermint, spearmint, and wintergreen. Toothpastes also come in either paste or gel form. The option of paste of gel doesn't change the effectiveness of the toothpaste and the choice is a personal one based on preferences.

Fluoride
Toothpaste is also useful as a delivery mode for numerous chemicals that enhance oral health. The most significant of these being fluoride. Fluoride has a large body of evidence backing up its positive effects for teeth. Studies have shown that fluoride reduces cavities by 24% (Marinho). Furthermore, increasing the fluoride concentration generally decreases the cavity rate (Walsh). There are three forms of fluoride commonly used in toothpaste: sodium fluoride (NaF), sodium monofluorophosphate (Na₂PO₃F), and stannous fluoride (SnF₂). While NaF and Na₂PO₃F have been shown to be equally effective, SnF₂ has been shown to be less effective, and is thus less commonly used today (DePaola; Beiswanger).

Fluoride has three positive effects. First, it reduces the rate that bacteria are able to metabolize carbohydrates into acids. This effect lasts for some hours after using toothpaste with fluoride. Secondly, fluoride enhances the rate at which teeth are remineralized. This offsets a larger carbohydrate intake, for a net reduction in decay. Lastly, fluoride reacts with the minerals (hydroxyapatite) in teeth to form a protective coating (fluorapatite). This coating is more resistant to acid than the naturally occurring material. Specifically, the following reaction takes place when using sodium fluoride:

Ca₁₀(PO₄)₆(OH)₂ + 2 NaF → Ca₁₀(PO₄)₆F₂ + 2 NaOH

The result is that fluorapatite forms on the outside of teeth and resists future acid attacks more readily. However, this coating is very thin and wears off after several hours to a day. This requires regular applications of fluoride.

Surfactants
The use of fluoride in toothpaste is nearly universal. However, there are several other additives which are found in toothpaste to various degrees. Surfactants are added to toothpaste to act as detergents and cause the foaming action of toothpaste. This has already discussed benefits in perception of cleanliness. However, it also has been shown to enhance fluorides ability to penetrate into deeper crevices in the teeth, the result being a reduction in cavities (Caslavska).

Antibacterial
Triclosan is an antibacterial agent which was patented by Colgate for use in its Total brand of toothpastes. This patent expired in 2008 and triclosan has since spread to other toothpastes. Triclosan has been shown to cause a modest reduction in cavities and a 30% reduction in gingivitis (Feller; Garcia-Godoy). Its effect on plaque continues to work for hours or days after use (Jenkins).

Xylitol is a nonfermentable sugar that is used in chewing gums and sometimes added to toothpaste. Xylitol, not only will not increase bacteria counts, it can actually have a net negative effect on bacteria counts. This is because xylitol is chemically similar to sucrose, which causes bacteria to attempt to metabolize it. This, in effect, starves the bacteria and kills them. The result is a proven reduction in plaque levels (Milgrom).

Remineralization
Calcium phosphate has been shown to enhance the remineralization process, when used with fluoride it has a greater effect than fluoride alone (Shen). Similarly, nano-hydroxyapatite is a new technology that also enhances remineralization (Tschoppe). These two additives have proven benefits, and are currently only found in specialty toothpastes.

6 B.S. Myths You Probably Believe About America's 'Enemies'

http://www.cracked.com/article_19461_6-b.s.-myths-you-probably-believe-about-americas-enemies.html

12 Must-See Skywatching Events in 2012

http://www.space.com/14085-12-amazing-skywatching-events-2012.html

This meteor shower reaches its peak in the predawn hours of Jan. 4 for eastern North America. The Quadrantid meteor shower is a very short-lived meteor display, whose peak rates only last several hours. The phase of the moon is a bright waxing gibbous, normally prohibitive for viewing any meteor shower, but the moon will set by 3 a.m., leaving the sky dark for a few hours until the first light of dawn; that's when you'll have the best shot at seeing many of these bluish-hued meteors.

Can we lower medical costs by giving the neediest patients better care?

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/01/24/110124fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all

If Camden, New Jersey, becomes the first American community to lower its medical costs, it will have a murder to thank. At nine-fifty on a February night in 2001, a twenty-two-year-old black man was shot while driving his Ford Taurus station wagon through a neighborhood on the edge of the Rutgers University campus. The victim lay motionless in the street beside the open door on the driver’s side, as if the car had ejected him. A neighborhood couple, a physical therapist and a volunteer firefighter, approached to see if they could help, but police waved them back.

The Truth About Christmas

http://travonfree.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/the-truth-about-christmas-nsfcwcc-not-safe-for-christians-who-celebrate-christmas/

Nothing new here, but I liked the writeup.

Pope Benedict XVI attacks Christmas consumerism at Mass

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16328318

In his homily, he urged worshippers to "see through the superficial glitter of this season and to discover behind it the child in the stable in Bethlehem".

Seeing this story I couldn't help pointing out how much gold there is in the video of this guy giving his speech complaining about glitter.  Also, I'm contractually obliged to point out that the bulk of what we associate with Christmas has nothing to to do with Christianity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas#History

God of the Gaps

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_of_the_gaps

God of the gaps is a type of theological fallacy in which gaps in scientific knowledge are taken to be evidence or proof of God's existence. The term was invented by Christian theologians not to discredit theism but rather to discourage reliance on teleological arguments for God's existence.

Ideas For Government

• Bills must be read aloud in their entirety before being voted on.
• Only members present for the entire reading may vote on a bill.
• Bills require a majority of all members, not just members present.
• Bills must be published and read aloud at least one week prior to being voted on.
• Emergency votes could waive the one week requirement with a 60% vote, but would only be valid for two weeks unless they were repassed after the week requirement.
• Require a 200 word (or less) summary of goals of the bill.  Any part of the bill that does not directly address those goals is invalid.
• No one may hold a public office if they have received over $10,000 in gifts or contributions (from any source) total in the past 10 years.
• Starting one year prior to an election, anyone qualified for a public office may get signatures on a petition to receive funding for that election.  If they receive a number greater than 1/500th of the eligible voters then they receive some set amount of funding.  All ads or expenses related to the campaign must come from that fund exclusively.

Ok Candidate

http://okcandidate.com/

Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors

http://thoriumremix.com/2011/

Abolish the TSA

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petition-tool/petition/abolish-tsa-and-use-its-monstrous-budget-fund-more-sophisticated-less-intrusive-counter-terrorism/c7L94bFB

The petition to abolish the TSA ended with the requisite number of signatures on Oct 22.  They finally posted a response, almost two months later.  It was written by the head of the TSA.  The petition can be summarized as: The TSA is an awful waste of money that robs us of our rights.  The response can be summarized as: The TSA is great.

Stephen Colbert Interviews Neil deGrasse Tyson at Montclair Kimberley Academy - 2010-Jan-29

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=YXh9RQCvxmg#t=381s

Rummaging About in the Genetic Junkyard Skepticon 4 PZ Myers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=DRsN7w7iW08#t=260s

Candy desk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_desk

One senator with a particularly strong hankering for chocolate is Jim Talent from Missouri. Once during a vote, he called people away from the candy desk to his own on the other side of the row. There were oohs and aahs until six people walked away with Russell Stover Low-Carb Chocolates.

Basically, the Senate is just like Animal House.

New Jersey, in a nut shell

http://i.imgur.com/Pwnf4.jpg

Authorities in Awe of Drug Runners' Jungle-Built, Kevlar-Coated Supersubs

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/03/ff_drugsub/all/1

The group summed up its findings in a 70-page white paper—marked FOUO, for official use only—that conveys a grudging respect for the engineers and craftsmen who were able to build something so seaworthy in the middle of a swamp. “The streamlined hull, diesel-electric propulsion system, and fuel ballast system design all show a significant level of technical expertise and knowledge of submersible operations,” it states. The hull, they discovered, was made from a costly and exotic mixture of Kevlar and carbon fiber, tough enough to withstand modest ocean pressures but difficult to trace at sea. Like a classic German U-boat, the drug-running submarine uses diesel engines on the surface and battery-powered electric motors when submerged. With a crew of four to six, it has a maximum operational range of 6,800 nautical miles on the surface and can go 10 days without refueling. Packed with 249 lead-acid batteries, the behemoth can also travel silently underwater for up to 18 hours before recharging.

Halt and Catch Fire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire

Halt and Catch Fire, known by the mnemonic HCF, refers to several computer machine code instructions that cause the CPU to cease meaningful operation. The expression "catch fire" is intended as a joke; the CPU does not usually catch fire.

Usually.

Genetically altered mosquito warriors could wipe out humanity's biggest killer

http://www.gizmag.com/genetically-modified-mosquitoes-aegypti-mosquito/20668/

The humble mosquito, and the deadly diseases it carries, is estimated to have been responsible for as many as 46 billion deaths over the history of our species. That staggering number is even more frightening in context - it means that mosquitoes are alleged to have killed more than half the humans that ever lived.
...
In short, the modified genes affect only the female mosquitoes, rendering them flightless. The larvae hatch on the water, and the females are unable to leave, rendering them harmless to humans and leaving them to die. The males are unaffected, so they mature normally, then mate with other females to pass the genetic modification on.

I've often wondered why stuff like this hasn't been done before.  Admittedly I'm not a geneticist, but it would seem we have gotten pretty good at genetically engineering simple lifeforms.  Particularly in this case, since we don't care much about the overall health of the insect.  Just produce insects that carry a gene that makes them sterile when there are two of them, and release tons of them.  It would seem like this has been done, although using radiation to sterilize them as opposed to genetics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterile_insect_technique

A few years ago, I read something about genes that could affect the odds that they would appear in the sex cells.  A sex cell is supposed to have a random gene picked from the two possible genes (one from your father one from your mother).  These genes would increase the odds that they would be picked over the other choice to something over 50%.  This struck me as an interesting way to genetically engineer some sort of species as a weapon that dies off, (think the xenomorph from the Alien movies).  You create perfectly normal aliens and unleash them on some world.  However, included in the initial group would be a few individuals with a certain gene.  This gene would have various effects based on if the individual had two copies or one, and if they were male or female.  A male with one copy would be more likely to pass on the gene (maybe 90%).  A male with two copies would be sterile.  It would have no effect on females, they'd just carry it normally.

I wondered how effective this gene would be, and did some spreadsheet calculations.  I then wrote a basic program to simulate the odds.  I discovered that the gene was super effective as long as it had high enough probability.  The magic threshold appeared to be 86%.  At 85% the population would stabilize with a small core group of gene free males.  At 86% it would always wipe out the population, even when introduced into a large stable population.  I'm sure there's some interesting mathematical explanation for that point, but I don't know what it is, and I didn't really want to write a whole detailed post about this.

Oddly, I never added it to my site.  I vaguely remember not considering it done, but maybe that was before I realized that anything I do is done the first time I stop working on it.  I added it and it's there now, at the end of the C++ section.

http://daleswanson.org/programs.htm

How Software Companies Die

http://www.zoion.com/~erlkonig/writings/programmer-beekeeping.html

Read this and thought it was interesting, then I noticed it was written by Orson Scott Card.

Peek Inside the Lamborghini Factory

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/08/peek-inside-the-lamborghini-factory-2?sXFc&mbid=su_ppc_auto_5&sQZc&pid=1224&viewall=true

an illuminating metaphor for the process of biological evolution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=l-uNFaUJo5c

This is a very interesting example of evolution using memes instead of genes.

Money Data

http://xkcd.com/980/huge/#x=-1464&y=-1264&z=4

I think I'd be happy if xkcd switched from comics to just monthly epic data presentations like this.  Here are some interesting things I found in it:

• Annual cost of: cat - $670, internet - $720, cellphone - $928
• 1965 ratio of CEO pay to production worker pay = 25x.  2007 ratio = 275x.
• That royal wedding used $800,000 in flowers.
• Iraq war cost more than Vietnam.
• Combined Iraq/Afghanistan wars cost about 25% of WWII.
• Nuclear power plus a Fukushima level accident every year costs less than solar or coal with external costs (although less than on shore wind).
• State taxes are surprisingly regressive. 
• Apple has $76 billion in cash reserves, they could buy 15 Nimitz class carriers (at $5 billion each, US has 10), or 422 F-22 Raptors (US has 187).
• Walmart's annual profit of $16.4 billion could fund 88% of NASA's annual budget of $18.6 billion.

Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6476

http://www.cato.org/pubs/wtpapers/balko_whitepaper_2006.pdf

These increasingly frequent raids, 40,000 per year by one estimate, are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders, and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they're sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers. These raids bring unnecessary violence and provocation to nonviolent drug offenders, many of whom were guilty of only misdemeanors. The raids terrorize innocents when police mistakenly target the wrong residence. And they have resulted in dozens of needless deaths and injuries, not only of drug offenders, but also of police officers, children, bystanders, and innocent suspects.

Also see this map:
http://www.cato.org/raidmap/

Paramilitary Policing From Seattle to Occupy Wall Street

http://www.thenation.com/article/164501/paramilitary-policing-seattle-occupy-wall-street

Then came day two. Early in the morning, large contingents of demonstrators began to converge at a key downtown intersection. They sat down and refused to budge. Their numbers grew. A labor march would soon add additional thousands to the mix.

“We have to clear the intersection,” said the field commander. “We have to clear the intersection,” the operations commander agreed, from his bunker in the Public Safety Building. Standing alone on the edge of the crowd, I, the chief of police, said to myself, “We have to clear the intersection.”

Why?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Organization_Ministerial_Conference_of_1999_protest_activity

Police officer pepper-sprays seated, non-violent students at UC Davis

http://boingboing.net/2011/11/18/police-pepper-spraying-arrest.html

In the video above, you see a police officer [Update: UC Davis Police Lt. John Pike] walk down a line of those young people seated quietly on the ground in an act of nonviolent civil disobedience, and spray them all with pepper spray at very close range. He is clearing a path for fellow officers to walk through and arrest more students, but it's as if he's dousing a row of bugs with insecticide.

Well he's on paid vacation, so at least justice was done.

Persistence Over Intelligence

http://essays.dayah.com/persistence-over-intelligence

Conan O’Brien May Be About to Push the Envelope on Late Night Television

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=GME5nq_oSR4

Scale of the Universe

http://www.primaxstudio.com/stuff/scale_of_universe/scale-of-universe-v1.swf

I've seen a lot of these, and even made one at some point, but this is by far the best one I've seen.

5 Lessons of U.S. Plan for a Permanent Military Presence in Australia

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/11/5-lessons-of-us-plan-for-a-permanent-military-presence-in-australia/248266/

The U.S. has arranged with Australia to install a permanent military presence near the northern Australian town of Darwin, a move that signals shifts in President Obama's foreign policy and the U.S. vision for its role in the world. Obama will formally announce the new base with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard during his visit to Australia next week, the Sydney Morning Herald reported this morning.

U.S. Planning Troop Buildup in Gulf After Exit From Iraq

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/world/middleeast/united-states-plans-post-iraq-troop-increase-in-persian-gulf.html?_r=2

Argument recap: For GPS, get a warrant

http://www.scotusblog.com/?p=131423

Midway through a federal government lawyer’s plea Tuesday for unrestricted power for police to use new GPS technology to track cars and trucks on public roads, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., sketched out just how the Court may well restrict the practice.   Despite an unqualified prior statement by the Court that one moving about in public has absolutely no right to expect privacy, the Chief Justice said that such a right might exist, after all, and it could trump the fact that the movement was in public.  If the Court can find a way to say just that, police almost certainly would have to get a warrant before using GPS to monitor where suspects go.

Vaccine-wary parents warned against sending ‘chicken pox lollipops’ through the mail

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/vaccine-wary-parents-warned-sending-chicken-pox-lollipops-mail-article-1.973738

Parents fearful of vaccinations are being warned by a federal prosecutor that making a deal with a stranger who promises to mail them lollipops licked by children with chickenpox isn't just a bad idea, it's against the law.

Remind me again why we don't require a license before people can have kids?

Color of Time

I was stumbling and came across this site:

http://bickov.com/projects/the-moment-of-color/start2.html

It changes the background color for every second of time.  The obvious way to do this would be the convert the HH:MM:SS of time into a RGB value.  However, it was clear that wasn't what that site was doing, because the color changed dramatically every second.  I thought perhaps there was something more interesting going on.  It did mention that every second would have a unique color, which would imply that it took the date into account too.  I thought perhaps it took the unix epoch time and converted that into hex values.  It could use a simple hash of the time and then just take the last 3 hex pairs and use them directly.  That wouldn't absolutely guarantee unique times, but it would be about as close as you could get with the limited space of RGB values.  Since 256³ = 16,777,216 you'd have enough colors to only have to use each twice per year.

I checked the source, and was somewhat disappointed to see it was just generating random values.  I guess it was just a concept.  You could at least seed the RNG with the hour, minute, or second values.

I decided it would be somewhat interesting to see it implemented the way I had originally envisioned it, and set out to make it.  I began by copying his code since it was relatively easy to follow.  However, every time I attempt to use javascript I'm reminded of the inadequacy of my "pretend it's just C++" method of programming it.  So, I scrapped the code and started over from scratch.  After more troubles trying to figure out how to do things that should be simple in javascript, I got it working pretty well.  There are still some things I'd like to change, but that's not very likely.

I'll admit his is prettier than mine, but I think mine is more interesting to watch.  In order to make full use of the color space I'm not directly using the HMS values.  I'm converting them into a ratio and then multiplying that by 255.  In other words (#seconds/60) *255.  This allows a just barely perceptible change in color each second.  Also, I wanted to make the foreground color complementary colors.  However this is apparently not that easy to do.  I ended up just subtracting each hex pair from 255, which gives sometimes complementary colors, and painfully jarring colors the rest of the time.

http://daleswanson.org/things/clock.htm

White House Responds to Petitions

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petition-tool/responses

The white house has begun responding to the petitions that had the requisite signatures.  I was pretty cynical about what the responses would be.  However, I must say the responses surprised me. That is, I was surprised at how condescending, circular, and filled with bald faced lies they are.  Perhaps I'm too insulated from politicians' day to day lies.  

Also, I suspected that there would be petitions about not taking petitions seriously.  However I expected this would take a few months.  However, literally the day after the first responses were posted there were already multiple petitions to take the petitions seriously.  Here are some of my favorites:

Actually take these petitions seriously instead of just using them as an excuse to pretend you are listening

Offer a response to marijuana legalization petitions that isn't written by someone legally required to oppose them.

We demand a vapid, condescending, meaningless, politically safe response to this petition.


One silver lining is that they did respond to the petition demanding they acknowledge aliens. In their response they mentioned the various ways we're looking for signs of alien life.  Interestingly the first one, SETI, has been shut down since April 2011 due to lack of funding.  It requires $5 million in funding, ie, less than 0.0005% the cost of the Iraq War.

And since I've been watching these videos nonstop, I'll link this one about SETI here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHuve33yOVY

Bizarre Lunar Orbits

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2006/06nov_loworbit/

The orbit of PFS-2 rapidly changed shape and distance from the Moon. In 2-1/2 weeks the satellite was swooping to within a hair-raising 6 miles (10 km) of the lunar surface at closest approach. As the orbit kept changing, PFS-2 backed off again, until it seemed to be a safe 30 miles away. But not for long: inexorably, the subsatellite's orbit carried it back toward the Moon. And on May 29, 1972—only 35 days and 425 orbits after its release—PFS-2 crashed.

Weathering Fights - Science - What's It Up To?

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-october-26-2011/weathering-fights---science---what-s-it-up-to-

A Digital Direct Democracy For the Modern Age

http://politics.slashdot.org/story/11/10/21/1727257/a-digital-direct-democracy-for-the-modern-age

"Last month the White House created an online petition system through which constituents can directly voice any grievances and concerns to the US government. Any petition that reaches 25,000 signatures (5,000 originally) is promised an official reply. This weekend the first petitions will be closing, and already many have far exceeded the required number of signatures. Is this the way for the voice of the electorate to gain more weight in modern politics, or is it the web version of a placebo button? Will the President's office really consider the top pleas, which include petitions to Legalize and Regulate Marijuana, Forgive Student Loan Debt, and Abolish the TSA?"

This is somewhat interesting.  Not that I think it will change anything, but it will be interesting to see what "official response" they get.

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petitions/popular/0/2/0/

In particular, I am very interested in the official response this one will get:
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/formally-acknowledge-extraterrestrial-presence-engaging-human-race-disclosure/wfYDlmlG