Posts by William Wallace

Brits and Yanks struck with embarasment embarrassment

Well, At Least English is Secure

Well, at least English is a secure language. Little chance Al Qaida will cleverly infiltrate without their minions being native speakers and spellers. Sometimes you have to look for the good in things.

FBI releases pics of low-level suspects in $9m ATM scam

This is why the mob exists

This is why the mob exists. If you steal $9 mil and the only risk you face is some time in jail, go for it. The risk/benefit is worth it. If you know you are going to end up in the Vegas desert beaten to death with a baseball bat, it is unlikely any theft is going to balance out this likely possibility. Hence, why we have the mob.

Nanotech researchers create the world's smallest writing

How Certain Is This?

Given that quantum mechanics just gives probabilities ... is anyone certain this paper was written and published?

Painting by numbers: NASA's peculiar thermometer

Why Nothing Will Happen on Climate Change

Rod Bowes - The Mars Climate Orbiter was lost Sept. 23, 1999 because engineers used pound force and flight controllers were expecting newtons. I like this quote:

"Our inability to recognize and correct this simple error has had major implications," said JPL director Edward Stone.

Right .......

That is why everyone is so hyper about the current Mars mission ... a failure might remind folks of the previous "simple error" and encourage some piling on.

Anyway I enjoyed the article about NASA's continuing futzing with the baseline, and the obligatory showing of satellite data that doesn't show much of a trend one way or another.

The US position on climate change is Byrd-Hagel, passed in 1997 by 95-0 by the US Senate. Full text can be found at:

http://www.nationalcenter.org/KyotoSenate.html

In short, it says the US will not entertain attempts to destroy its economy if China, India and other countries get a free pass on CO2. From V.P. Al Gore through Bush #2 ... this has not changed. Even the New York Times started providing some cover for the next administration by publishing a piece on scientific consensus (fat and heart disease) and showing how wrong everyone was.

The US does not casually enter into treaties, because a treaty ratified by the US Senate has force of law on par with the Constitution. Courts in the US would have upheld whatever it took to comply with Kyoto, unlike other countries that signed the treaty and then reneged. I guess it is more noble to sign a treaty and renege, then to be truthful and not sign in the first place.

Politicians know that in the US, asking people to pay more taxes and lower their standard of living for COLDER winters ... is a non-starter. People love hot weather, disgusting hot weather, and move in droves to Arizona, Florida, and other hot locales.

Most politicians in the US are attorneys, and from their law school training (and court experience if any), know global warming data would not stand a chance in the court room. They flee from this issue the same as abortion and social security.

So China will open their one coal-fired plant per week, surpass the US in CO2 emissions, and provide a much-needed place for US politicians to deflect criticism on climate change. Let the global warming folks try to move China off the dime first.

Interesting, radicals have painted themselves into a corner with global warming. If it is the end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it, then the only salvation is CO2 emission-free nuclear power. And nuclear is the only proven off-the-shelf substitute that can be rolled-out today. If nuclear is dismissed, then CO2 cannot possibly be the immediate threat it has been made out to be.

Anytime you see the US gov't and business getting "concerned" about climate change, rest assured that nuclear is going to be what they "reluctantly conclude" as the solution.