Quality Hockey

Matthew Yglesias make a comment about Olympic hockey. I think he is pretty much spot on.

No Snow Day for You!

This seems a little harsh. After all, the city of Washington D.C. was pretty much completely shut down for almost 5 days; transit wasn't back to full capacity for a week and some areas didn't get plowed at all until after the end of the second storm. I know that in Delaware, the highways were littered with stranded motorists trying to drive through the storm, and it kept the National Guard occupied for quite some time. I would hope that where a reasonable effort was made, and a good excuse exists, some leniency can be applied

Tsunamis from Chile

By now most have heard of the 8.8 earthquake in Chile.

One of the interesting things about these kinds of coastal and underwater quakes is the generation of killer waves called tsunamis. This means that death and destruction are not necessarily finished with the quake and aftershocks (35 and counting!). Here is an interesting presentation concerning the Sumatra tsunami of 2004. The NOAA studies and models tsunamis, and has some interesting animations of how the waves can span the globe. The USGS gets into the action here.

Here is a pic showing the time it will take waves to cross the Pacific.

Spy Camera Caveat

Another interesting article by Bruce Schneier on the issue of the increasing prevalence of (and reliance on) security cameras. It seems to me some of the issues are around the remoteness of cameras, poor quality and lighting, and reliability. I know from experience that sometimes security cameras can stop working for months before someone actually notices.

This article as prompted by the assassination of a Hamas terrorist, presumably by Israeli intelligence. Bruce of course has thoughts about that as well ...

Bloom & Bust

So, after all the hype on 60 Minutes, the big Bloom Energy unveiling came and went, and there doesn't seem to be much positive press about it.

A bit of a shame, really, but the 60 Minutes piece was obviously a well-placed commercial by a well-connected venture capitalist, and apparently nobody at CBS had the background (or time) to really dig into the field. There was only a cursory skeptical viewpoint, which seems to be the dominant one now.

Until they can show me a household unit for less than $5,000 (or even $10,000), I don't quite see that they have advanced things that far. But if they really have discovered a cheaper alternative to the precious metal catalysts typically used in these things, then maybe it will come soon.

Understanding Biodiversity

This is an extremely interesting article. Sometimes good work takes a long time (18 years!).

The money quote: “Clark has shown that the complexity that we were trying to reduce is very likely essential to understanding”

I Think I'm Figuring Out Buzz.

I think this is hilarious. I wouldn't have found it without Google Buzz. Maybe there is something to this.

The Austin Plane Bomber

A really interesting summary of the motives of Joseph Stack. Narcissism indeed.

What's the Buzz?

I'm still trying to figure out Google Buzz. Heck, I just started figuring out Twitter. I've listened to This Week in Google and looked at the Gmail blog, but it still confuses me.

Climate Wierdness

Perhaps this is an example of "Global Wierding". I say pave it all over. Asphalt Rules!

The Wierding Way

Not something out of Dune, but an op-ed by Thomas Friedman in the NYT.

Now, I'm not that big a Tom Friedman fan. I remember he had a clever turn with his meme "The World Is Flat," which was, in fact, clever as far as it went, and I thought he had some interesting points. I ultimately felt it was a bit of oversimplification, which could not support the weight with which he rode it into the ground. I also remember him as an early and vocal supporter of the Iraq war, where he made the phrase "Suck on this!" briefly relevant to international diplomacy. Here, he provides an earnest, if fact-lite (okay, it is an op-ed), defense of global warming science, which doubtless could use some defending about now.

Global wierding? I agree that the term "global warming" should be avoided. I prefer something like "climate change." It is clear, concise, and quite descriptive and appropriate to the subject. "Global wierding" sounds (suspiciously) like a clever and catchy book title. Look for it by the end of the year.

His opening argument is essentially that weather is not climate, which is correct. The problem is that this argument works both ways: a heat wave in summer is likewise not evidence of global warming. He, of course, forgets this later talking about how recent weather events are "right in line" with climate change predictions. Such predictions are cheap and easy. I predict that sometimes weather will be severe and sometimes not: no matter what happens, it will be "right in line" with my prediction! The truth is that the climate models did not predict these events, and may be ever unlikely to do so. And while I feel for Australia and its 13 year drought, such droughts are not unique historically, such as the 300 year drought in North America 1000 years ago that led to the disruption of the Anasazi, or the one that brought down the Akkadian empire.

His diagnosis and prescriptions for the current climate science debates seem superficial. The faults are in citing non-peer-reviewed work and failing to respond to legitimate questions, but not making stuff up or conspiring to manipulate the peer-review process. And forgive my ignorance, but I thought the IPCC process was already supposed to be a convening of top world experts to put forth a summary of the science. I'm not sure a new panel convened to make better sense (or make up better stuff, perhaps?) of the old panel is such a hot idea. Besides, they would probably be the exact same experts (since there must be a "consensus").

I actually support the idea of investing in new energy technologies, but there are a host of good and valid reasons for doing so; making an unsupported statement such as "the warming that humans are doing is irreversible" shouldn't be necessary. Part of the problem, as he correctly states, is that larger numbers of people are going to try to "live like Americans," but I'm not sure there are enough resources on the planet to allow everyone to live that way; the current economic crisis indicates that we have enough trouble maintaining the American standard for those who live that way already. Sometimes it feels as though the purpose of climate alarmism is to redistribute (a la Robin Hood?) resources to a more "equitable" plan.

Tom does seem to have concerns about China. Maybe he should dust off the old standby "Suck on this!"

TSA Logos

Just saw this from Bruce Schneier. I think my favorite is this one.