There is no evidence that they did, but abundant evidence that they didn’t. One example of this is found in how business in the US handle the inevitability of future rising costs of energy, and along with this collection of individual behaviors, the way the free market, the most intelligent and powerful of human activities, optimizes our economy.
Continue reading How did humans get so smart?
Monthly Archives: April 2011
Japan nuke news 18: Reactor facilities smoke, sputter. Fission continues?
Claims are being made that the situation at Fukushima is starting to improve, but there is no actual evidence of this. We probably (but not certainly) passed the point where nuclear fuel is likely to accumulate in such a way as to cause a major fission event or explosion, but there is still sufficient heat to cause, apparently, water to split into hydrogen and oxygen, or at least, there is concern of this possibility. (Hydrogen explosions have already occurred here early on in the crisis, and there is concern that this may happen again.) All of the basic safety systems are still not working, and radioactive releases to both the sea and the air continue to happen, and notably, to happen with no clear explanation that might give us an indication that engineers have the most basic information about what is going on here.
Either fission continues or very high levels of radiation are occurring in reactors 1,2 and 3, indicated by temperatures well above “cold shutdown” levels in the pressure vessels. There may be fission occurring in the spent fuel pool of Rector 4.
There is still “smoke” of unknown composition and meaning coming from units 2 and 3, and now it is also coming from Unit 4. They are still working on getting electricity and water lines in place. The IAEA has started to use the phrase “…there are early signs of recovery in some functions, such as electrical power and instrumentation” in introducing their reports. They do not explicitly state what those signs are.
Continue reading Japan nuke news 18: Reactor facilities smoke, sputter. Fission continues?
Technology good news and bad news. Mostly bad news.
Good news: The next version of Internet Explorer will only run on Windows 7. That should be the end of Internet Explorer.
Bad News: Google Video is done with. It will stop existing on April 29th. Well, I never used it so I don’t really care personally, but this is why I once said that things like Amazon and Google should be taken over by the government and turned into utilities (you all hated me for saying that). This is exactly like having private companies build all the roads, then one company decides to unbuild its roads to use the asphalt for something else. If you happen to have spent time, energy, money, etc. with the assumption that this road you use will always be there, then you are screwed. Same with Google arbitrarily deciding that it would no longer be the infrastructure that I assume some people were busy using.
Good News: Google has a suggestion: Let all the users who need the ‘road’ each take a chunk of asphalt and see how that goes.
If you want to help archive Google Video, get some Linux machines running and join us in IRC (EFNet #archiveteam / #googlegrape)
Details here. If you do this, does that make you some kind of chump, or what?
Beware of Unity?
A lot of people got mad at me when I complained about the upcoming switch from Gnome to Unity. (And yes, I know Unity is based on Gnome but it is not Gnome. It is Unity). And yeah, I had some things wrong and some of the comments contraindicating my concern were valid, but many were more like “They know what they are doing, so just accept it” which is a little to Microsofty for me. And, for that matter, for the Linux Community in general, I would have thought. And now we have disconcerting reports that the new desktop which is coming out in a couple of weeks, in a late (but not final) Beta stage, crashes during roughly half the user tests it was subjected to, all on a single install. Now, I admit, failing just under half the time on some randomly chosen hardware is a lot better than Windows, but we’re not really comparing Unity on Ubuntu to Windows. We are comparing it to Lucid Lynx, which has already become a bit too Windows Like in its performance and deployment.
So we’ll see.
Some more tornado information
Two reposts for your edification:
Continue reading Some more tornado information
PZ Myers “expelled” this day in 2008
And now we start with the tornadoes. Are you ready?
I went to Target to look at weather radios and found out that they don’t carry them. But the three Target employees that were gathered near the cameras and electronics with whom we inquired were interested to know why we were looking for one.
“You’re about the tenth person today who has asked about weather radios. What gives?”
Apparently they missed Minnesota’s National Tornado Appreciation Week, which was yesterday1. And, they had missed the news that we were expecting a bad year for tornadoes.
Continue reading And now we start with the tornadoes. Are you ready?
Read The Kraken!!!!!!
Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid
I wondered at first why a popular science book would be named after a legendary creature (the Kraken) but when I read the book and also read up on The Kraken it became clear that the legend is the squid only barely disguised as myth.
Well, not all Kraken are real ….
Jackson Browne: “If I Could Be Anywhere”
Congressperson Joseph Crowley Struck Speechless!!!!
Best little YouTube video you’ll see all day, maybe all week:
Continue reading Congressperson Joseph Crowley Struck Speechless!!!!
It is time to meet your maker. No kidding.
God will be the guest speaker at this Sunday’s Humanists of Minnesota’s Spring Banquet, and Scott Lohman will interview him on Atheist Talk Radio. I am not making this up. Below the fold, some advanced video God’s people sent out, and details on this coming weekend’s events:
There’s a lot of good science in The Bible, but only if Auto-Tuned
What is your comfort zone?
Today, I took out the trash. I may or may not have taken the trash out last week, but I can tell you that the last time I did take it out, whenever it was, I had to drag the trash barrel across ice. Yesterday I went to the gym without a coat or jacket. That made me have to decide if I wanted to go to the locker room to stow the contents of my pockets (car keys, etc.) or just keep those things in my pocket. The grass outside is green. We expect snow on Friday.
Continue reading What is your comfort zone?