Science and the Media: Blizzard Edition | The Loom

Here at Fortress Zimmer, we’re gradually getting buried under the latest Snowmageddon, Blizzaster, SnOMG, or whatever you want to call it. The real spectacle so far has been the giddiness of local meteorologists on television and on weather blogs. My wife Grace reminded me of this excellent 1954 essay by E.B. White, in which he described listening to the radio about Hurrican Edna. Suddenly, I feel linked to history.

It became evident to me after a few fast rounds with the radio that the broadcasters had opened up on Edna awfully far in advance, before she had come out of her corner, and were spending themselves at a reckless rate. During the morning hours, they were having a tough time keeping Edna going at the velocity demanded of emergency broadcasting. I heard one fellow from, I think, Riverhead, Long Island, interviewing his out-of-doors man, who had been sent abroad in a car to look over conditions on the eastern end of the island.

“How would you say the roads were?” asked the tense voice.

“They were wet,” replied the reporter, who seemed to be in a sulk.

“Would you say the spray from the puddles was dashing up around the mudguards?” inquired the desperate radioman.

“Yeah,” replied the reporter.

It was one of those confused moments, emotionally, when the listener could not be quite sure what position radio was taking–for hurricanes or against them.


This 27-Inch Dell U2711 Monitor Looks Eerily Familiar… [Monitors]

Dell's U2711, on sale for $1,100 today, seems like the monitor dreams are made of, with 2560x1440 resolution, 100 percent representation of the sRGB color space, 6ms response and a window-friendly matte finish. There's just one, tiny catch. UPDATE

This Dell monitor is believed to use the same LG-sourced panel that's been plaguing iMacs. You know, the yellow one.

To make matters worse, some have already complained that these LG-sourced monitors are already causing problems in the Dell monitor line.

The potential issues haven't prevented Dell from securing a CNET Editor's Choice on the U2711, so maybe they're just fine. But I would strongly recommend you take a look at the return policy before ordering. Full specs at: [Dell via Electronista]

UPDATE: Excellent point from a reader—the 27-inch iMac uses the same LG basic LM270WQ1 IPS panel but the Dell uses a conventional CCFL backlight as opposed to the iMac's LEDs. Especially since the LED matrix positioning has been suspected of causing yellow iMacs, the idea that this Dell display would be just fine makes some level of sense.


The New War on Science–Now It’s Guerilla Style | The Intersection

Last week, the Harvard Kennedy School had a great event on just why it is that we are up such a creek with respect to global warming, politics, and the U.S. public. The featured speakers were Andrew Revkin and Matt Nisbet. Nisbet has a long post providing the audio of the event and a summary of its contents.

He was also kind enough to summarize a question I asked at the end; as the author of The Republican War on Science, I feared my wares were being misused, and the tables unfortunately turned, as now the anti-science folks are crusading at climate scientists and the Obama administration on allegedly scientific grounds:

3. A third important question came from friend and journalist Chris Mooney, author of The Republican War on Science and blogger at Discover’s The Intersection. Mooney noted that in his own book, he had plied the public accountability frame to draw attention to perceived political wrong doing on the part of the Bush administration and conservatives. This message was also taken up by many liberal advocates and organizations. Now that the Obama administration is in power, observed Mooney, shouldn’t we have been prepared that climate skeptics were going to turn to the public accountability message to leverage their own political goals?

I must confess that unfortunately, I wasn’t prepared enough. I fell for the enthusiasm after Obama’s promise to restore science to its “rightful place” in American life. I myself wrote at Slate that the “war on science” was over. That was wrong.

Granted, in a certain sense the “war” I wrote about did indeed end with the Bush administration. For there is no longer any systematic attempt to undermine scientific integrity coming from within the federal government–and that was the chief characteristic of the Bush “war on science.”

However, what I and many others failed to anticipate was that a kind of guerilla war on science–and especially climate science–would take its place, driven by blogs like Climate Depot and Watts Up With That. This war springs from the same politics, but it is coming from those who are out in the wilderness, rather than running the government.

As a result, this war hits harder, and is much more personal—aimed at discrediting individual researchers, by sifting through their emails and accusing them of scandalous wrongdoing. And it is draws its momentum from the vast numbers of online commenters who closely follow the climate “scandal” stories and then show up at this blog, and other ones, to leave comments attacking scientists like Mann, and institutions like the IPCC.

And how do we counter this war? Well, that’s something I’ll ask readers to ponder…..


Cosmetic Packaging

Please tell me the techniques we can use for orientation of containers. Now a days there are various types of containers which are difficult to orient in packaging line.

Thanking you.

Restless in Huntsville, Houston, and on the Hill

Obama overhauls NASA's agenda in budget request, Washington Post

"The decision to kill Constellation is akin to President Richard M. Nixon's decision to end the Apollo program in the early 1970s and build the space shuttle."

Space group attacks Obama's plans for NASA; calls for lunar return, Orlando Sentinel

"The National Space Society, which was once headed by NASA's current deputy administrator Lori Garver and chief of Staff George Whitesides, said in a press release today that the White House plans to increase spending on science, technology and commercial space companies to ferry astronauts for the international space station was commendable. "However, we believe the President's 2011 budget request would leave the job only partly done," the release said. "NSS calls for the President and Congress to restore funding for human spaceflight beyond low-Earth orbit."

Impact of a scale-back goes far beyond Houston, Sen. Corwyn, Houston Chronicle

"But NASA cannot pass the baton of human spaceflight to a runner that is still trying on its shoes. The private sector requires years of further development before it can send a human being to the moon or compete with America's international rivals. NASA was assigned the Constellation mission for the same reason it took on Apollo: It remains the only entity in the country capable of getting it done."

NASA chief: Mars is our mission, Houston Chronicle

"The president's plan is not what our country needs at this time," said Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land. "We have been the world's leader for 50 years, and I can't accept that we're going to fall behind. We are going to fight, fight, fight to ensure that the next person who steps on the moon is an American." Olson said the right thing to do is add $3 billion to NASA's budget annually for the next five years to ensure Constellation is fully funded."

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden looks to work out NASA future, Huntsville times

"I've got tiger teams out there looking to put meat on the bones" to define future NASA work, Bolden told a group of reporters and editors during a meeting at The Times today. "This is not a decision that will be resolved in a day."

Davis defends NASA, Huntsville Times

"Davis, a candidate for governor, joined Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle and former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin in the meeting with 20 aerospace executives from companies such as Boeing and Dynetics to discuss strategies to keep the Ares rocket and return trips to the moon in the federal budget."

The iPad Costs Apple As Little As $229.35 to Build [Apple]

The $500 16GB, Wi-Fi only iPad costs Apple less than half that to build, according to a recent component breakdown from iSuppli. And for the 64GB 3G iPad, Apple clears nearly $500 in profit. Here's how it breaks down:

Apple iPad Estimated Bill-of-Materials and Manufacturing Cost Analysis:
This will no doubt be updated once iSuppli and others are able to do a teardown of an actual device, but those estimated profit margins are pretty stunning, particularly on the higher-end models. iSuppli also points out that the 32GB versions of the iPad only cost $30 more to make than their 16GB counterparts, yet retail for $100 more—a good indication that that's where they expect the sweet spot to be in the market.

Goes a long way to explaining why Apple's so willing to be flexible on the price, no?[iSuppli]


Microsoft Knew They Got Burned When iTunes First Launched [Blockquote]

A series of emails that surfaced in an old Microsoft antitrust case have come to light, the most interesting of which show Bill Gates admitting his company was "flat footed" in the wake of the 2003 iTunes launch.

Microsoft executive Jim Allchin responded to the Gates admission succinctly enough: "We were smoked." You might remember Allchin as the guy who later took the fall for Vista and coped by, naturally, putting out a rock-n-roll album.

It's not the first email that's caught Gates owning up to his company's faults, and I'm sure it won't be the last. What's interesting about this one, though, is his encouragement to "move quick and match and do stuff better." Seven years later, and I'd say they've still got a ways to go.

——- Original Message ——-
From: Bill Gates
Sent: Wed 4/30/2003 10:46 PM
To: Amir Majidimehr; Dave Fester
Cc: Will Poole; Christopher Payne; Yusuf Mehdi; David Cole; Hank Vigil
Subject: Apple's Jobs again.., and time to have a great Windows download service...

Steve Jobs ability to focus in on a few things that count, get people who get user interface right and market things as revolutionary are amazing things.

This time somehow he has applied his talents in getting a better Licensing deal than anyone else has gotten for music.

This is very strange to me. The music companies own operations offer a service that is truly unfriendly to the user and has been reviewed that way consistently.

Somehow they decide to give Apple the ability to do something pretty good.

I remember discussing EMusic and us saying that model was better than subscription because you would know what you are getting.

With the subscription who can promise you that the cool new stuff you want (or old stuff) will be there?

I am not saying this strangeness means we messed up - at least if we did so did Real and Pressplay and Musicnet and basically everyone else.

Now that Jobs has done it we need to move fast to get something where the UI and Rights are as good.

I am not sure whether we should do this through one of these JVs or not. I am not sure what the problems are.

However I think we need some plan to prove that even though Jobs has us a bit flat footed again we move quick and both match and do stuff better.

I'm sure people have a lot of thoughts on this. If the plan is clear no meeting is needed. I want to make sure we are coordinated between Windows DMD, MSN and other groups.

.... Original Message ....
From: Jim Allchin
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2003 4:58 PM
To: Amir Majidimehr; Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Will Poole; David Cole
Subject: Apple's music store

1. How did they get the music companies to go along?

2. We were smoked.

jim

[Groklaw]


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What Got You Interested in Science? | Cosmic Variance

Yesterday’s book club raised the question of what first inspires young people to get interested in science. Many Cosmic Variance readers aren’t scientists at all, but a lot of you are. So — what first set you down this road? For purposes of this highly non-scientific investigation, let’s define “scientist” fairly broadly, as someone who has either received a bachelor’s degree in some scientific field, or is currently on the road to doing so (e.g. someone currently in high school or college). Even if you’re not currently a full-time scientist, we’ll count you if you got the degree.

Here’s a poll based on my quick guesses as to what might be the leading causes of nudging people into science.

What first inspired you to study science?
Parent, relative, or friend.
Role model outside friends and family.
Teacher or a particular class.
Science fair, mathletics, or other scholastic activity.
Personal hobby or tinkering.
Science books (non-fiction).
Science fiction or fantasy literature.
Movies, TV, radio.
The internet (for you youngsters).
Other

  
Free polls from Pollhost.com

I’d be very interested to hear if I’m leaving out some hugely influential category. And you can vote for more than one thing, if you think you were influenced by multiple sources. Among the many flaws of this kind of poll is that you might not actually remember what first inspired you — maybe it was hearing something on the radio, which made you go check out a book, but you remember the book and not the radio show. So be it; just try your best to be honest.


Where Fat Makes Its Final Stand in the Anorexic Body: In the Bone Marrow | Discoblog

anorexic-girlFat is normally not a word associated with anorexics, but researchers at the Children’s Hospital Boston suggest that people who suffer from the eating disorder anorexia nervosa have some fat stashed away in a surprising place. They may not have a thick layer of fleshy insulation like people with regular amounts of fat, but anorexics do store fat in their bone marrow–with detrimental results. The findings will be published in the February issue of Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.

In the study, researchers took MRI scans of the knees of 40 girls, half of whom were anorexic and the other half healthy. The average age of these girls was 16. Radiologists who studied the MRIs found that girls with anorexia had very high fat content in their knees and less than half as much healthy red marrow.

The researchers say that at an age when young girls should be developing bone mass, the malnutrition induces the bone marrow to stop yielding cells that aid in building bone, and instead redirects the marrow towards forming fat cells.

Science Daily reports:

One speculation is that it’s the body’s attempt to store energy and preserve warmth. Anorexics often develop hypothermia because of a lack of insulating fat, and are often hospitalized with extremely low body temperatures.

Related Content:
DISCOVER: Autoimmune Anorexia
DISCOVER: Inside the Strange World of Sleep Eaters

Image: iStockphoto


Google Wants to Test Gigabit Fiber Internet For Up To 500,000 People [Google]

Since Google wants to control all forms of communication, the logical next step is being not just what you do on the internet, but how you access the internet as well. To do that, they'll deploy 1Gbps fiber to you.

The company is going to test this super high speed internet to "a small number of trial locations across the United States," and give somewhere between 50k to 500k people an amazingly fast pipe. What's the point of this?

* Next generation apps: We want to see what developers and users can do with ultra high-speeds, whether it's creating new bandwidth-intensive "killer apps" and services, or other uses we can't yet imagine.
* New deployment techniques: We'll test new ways to build fiber networks, and to help inform and support deployments elsewhere, we'll share key lessons learned with the world.
* Openness and choice: We'll operate an "open access" network, giving users the choice of multiple service providers. And consistent with our past advocacy, we'll manage our network in an open, non-discriminatory and transparent way.

We basically read that as bridging the gap between webapps and desktop apps by making the connection so fast that most people won't be able to tell the difference. And, forcing other ISPs to upgrade their pipes to compete with Google, since they say it's going to be released at "a competitive price". Think of it as the Nexus One of service providers. Google is going to make an offering that's better than other comparable devices/services in order to make everyone else play catch-up.

So, if you want my address, Google, to know where you need to deploy the test, you've probably got it already. Seriously man, I need this. [Google]


Treasure Chests from an Ancient Shipwreck Still Await Discovery at Cape Town’s Oudekraal Beach

On the route between Cape Town’s city center and the Cape of Good Hope, my tour bus sped past the lovely, boulder-strewn crescent of Oudekraal Beach without the slightest acknowledgment from our guide. At first this did not seem odd; in a country blessed with more than 100 beaches – most of them exquisite – perhaps Oudekrall was not special enough to warrant a mention. I snapped a photo from the window and put it put of my mind. That evening, I downloaded the day’s photos and puzzled over the shot. Our tour guide had painstakingly identified every other site on the tour, in French, English, Afrikaans, and German. So why was he mute about this beach? My curiosity now piqued, I researched Oudekraal and discovered a history of mishaps and bad luck – was it possible my guide believed this beach to be cursed?calm

Oudekraal Beach spreads beneath the Twelve Apostles massif

Oudekraal’s first recorded instance of bad luck was in 1608, when the Dutch vessel Huis te Crayenstein, sailing in heavy fog that obscured the coastline, ran aground on the rocks behind the Lion’s Head, just below Oudekraal. The crew was picked up by a French ship sailing nearby and delivered to Cape Town, where arrangements were immediately begun to save the cargo, which included 19 chests of gold coin. Ship’s records indicate that 16 chests were recovered. Of the remaining three, two were thought to have been torn from their cleats and thrown into the gunner’s room, where they slid through the ports and into the sea. The few pieces of gold found lying about in the ship’s saloon and on shore indicated the third had been broken open and plundered; thieves were believed to have carried their booty up the mountain and hidden it there.

Fifty years later, Oudekraal’s curse seems to be alive and well. In 1957, the township granted the owner of the 44 hectares of land surrounding the beach the right to develop the property. But when he presented plans for a luxury housing estate in 1996, environmentalists opposed the project because of the ecological sensitivity of the site and Muslims lobbied for denial because of graves in the area. The City of Cape Town, perhaps recognizing that the land was the most valuable piece of natural real estate on the peninsula still in private hands, turned to the High Court and succeeded in having the development rights overturned.

Today Odekraal is best known by divers who descend into Justin’s Caves, a rocky outcrop less than a ten-minute swim from the shore, where canyons covered with pink china coral await at a depth of 45 feet. Just a short distance offshore, the 1698 wreck of the Huis te Crayenstein lures divers with legends of treasure waiting to be salvaged.

Granite boulders attract a resident sea lion colony to Oudekraal

Whether or not two old treasure chests lie on the ocean bottom beneath shifting sands, just waiting to be discovered, may never be known. But I know this much. Divers searching for ancient gold coins are missing the real treasure of Oudekraal: its deserted expanse of golden sand, its glassy surfing waves, and its rock-lined tidal pools that create calm lagoons perfect for swimming. You can keep crowded Camps Bay and Clifton Beach; give me cursed Odekraal any day.

Photo credits: Top, Barbara Weibel; bottom, Warrenski
Article by Barbara Weibel at Hole In The Donut Travels

MyTouch 3G Android Phone Gets Spec Bump With More RAM, Storage, 3.5mm Jack and Swype [MyTouch 3G]

T-Mobile is still calling the myTouch 3G update myTouch 3G, but the latest version has a 3.5mm headphone jack, 288MB RAM, 8GB microSD card, Swype for text input and a few included apps like Visual Voicemail and a Barcode Scanner.

The phone will be $150 with two-year plan, but otherwise it's basically the same myTouch 3G that we reviewed a while back, down to it looking almost exactly identical. Swype will be pretty interesting, for text input, and we'll definitely have to try that out to see if it improves on the Android on-screen text experience. [MyTouch]