Synthstuff - music, photography and more...

Amazing story

Read this article in Wired:

La Vida Robot
How four underdogs from the mean streets of Phoenix took on the best from M.I.T. in the national underwater bot championship.

I only have a few minutes left on my internet availability here at the library so I'm not going to excerpt the article but it is an amazing story of a couple Latino kids who beat out a bunch of nerds from MIT in an underwater robot building contest run by the US Navy Office of Naval Research and NASA…

Road Blogging

In Woodland, California for a day. I was heading over the mountain passes that define the border between Oregon and California and my clutch started slipping… Managed to limp down through Reading and started going along at a nice sedate 50 MPH while spending more time watching the tachometer than the road. Made it as far as Woodland before it started getting bad enough to call it quits. (Woodland is about 30 miles north of Sacremento)

They had a Dodge dealership with a great looking shop and they are working on it now. The repair will take about eight hours though (having four-wheel drive complicates things) so I am here for two nights.

Nice town — I'll be walking around taking some pictures later. Had a great breakfast and found Internet access at the local public library.

I spent the first night in Eugene Oregon at a Red Lion Inn and let me tell you, their IT Department's concept of Internet Security is false and sucky. I could log in but anything that caused a child window to open caused the machine to hang. Unfortunatly, the software I use for this blog uses popup child windows a lot so I was unable to do anything.

I'll post more when I get on the road again…

Light blogging for a week or so...

I am driving down to California today to pick up a large Apple Crusher and Cider Press that I bought last December. Driving down with the truck, renting a U-Haul trailer and driving back. I will also be stopping in Eugene, Oregon to check out these people as a possible supplier of Honey for our Mead making.

I will be logging in most evenings when I stop for the day but posting will probably be minimal.

See you in a few days — check back April 6th — I will definitely be back by then and back up to full posting. (And will have pictures of the trip.)

See you all later!

A possible replacement for Kofi Annan

Kofi is out — his son is corrupt and thinking that Kofi is not stretches the imagination too far for even the most die-hard UN groupie. This is just from the Oil For Food scandal. We haven't even gotten to the rape and pedophilia scandals, the cafeteria trashing, the horrible deaths of the Bosnians “protected by UN Forces”, the unpaid parking tickets, the slaughter in Darfur. The big and the small are dragging this august institution into irrelevancy.

Glen Reynolds writing in The Wall Street Journal suggests Vaclav Havel as a replacement.

Portland blogger Michael J. Totten has another suggestion which didn't make sense at first but actually does after thinking about it:

How About Howard Dean?
…Standing up to the Bush Administration earned him plenty of street cred all over the world. UN fetishists and apparatchiks go for that sort of thing. He’s also earning some street cred with me because he at least partly understands what’s wrong with the so-called “international community.”

Dean may have opposed the Iraq war, but he’s not a foreign policy limp noodle like Kerry. He just thought that one war in particular was dumb. Say what you will about him, but he doesn’t shrink from a fight. He’s the kind of man who likes to roll up his sleeves and get scrappy.

Michael then quotes from Dr. Dean:

Europeans cannot criticize the United States for waging war in Iraq if they are unwilling to exhibit the moral fiber to stop genocide by acting collectively and with decisiveness. President Bush was wrong to go into Iraq unilaterally when Iraq posed no danger to the United States, but we were right to demand accountability from Saddam. We are also right to demand accountability in Sudan. Every day that goes by without meaningful sanctions and even military intervention in Sudan by African, European and if necessary U.N. forces is a day where hundreds of innocent civilians die and thousands are displaced from their land. Every day that goes by without action to stop the Sudan genocide is a day that the anti-Iraq war position so widely held in the rest of the world appears to be based less on principle and more on politics. And every day that goes by is a day in which George Bush's contempt for the international community, which I have denounced every day for two years, becomes more difficult to criticize.

Michael then makes this trenchant comment:

Kofi Annan would never, ever, think or say anything like that. And I seriously doubt his replacement will ever think or say anything like that. Howard Dean might not be ideal, as Vaclav Havel would be. But he’d be such an improvement over Kofi Annan I’d pop a champagne cork if somehow, miraculously, he got the job.

He'd be at least slightly more likely to get Europeans to listen and work with us. He’d also be willing to kick some ass when it needs some kicking. As far as domestic politics go, he might help bridge one gap between American liberals and conservatives. He could make conservatives happy because he’d do a much better job than Kofi Annan. And because he’s such a hero to activist liberals, he could help them see that the UN really is broken. They won’t listen to Bush, but they will listen to him.

It is not a matter of listening to what people say — it is also trying to figure out what they would not say. I still think that Vaclav Havel would be the best person for the job but Dean has my interest.

Dummy? Meet Crash Test

This website: Progressive has videos of actual Crash Tests on various kinds of family cars, SUVs, pickup trucks, luxury cars, etc. by year.

Do not try this at home…

Cradle to Grave: The Environmental Impacts from Coal

Twelve-page PDF file which outlines in great clarity the environmental cost of burning Coal. In 2001, Coal provided over half of the electricity in the USA.

From the introduction page on their website:

The electric power industry is the largest toxic polluter in the country, and coal, which is used to generate over half of the electricity produced in the U.S., is the dirtiest of all fuels. From mining to coal cleaning, from transportation to electricity generation to disposal, coal releases numerous toxic pollutants into our air, our waters and onto our lands. Nationally, the cumulative impact of all of these effects is magnified by the enormous quantities of coal burned each year – nearly 900 million tons. Promoting more coal use without also providing additional environmental safeguards will only increase this toxic abuse of our health and ecosystems.

The trace elements contained in coal (and others formed during combustion) are a large group of diverse pollutants with a number of health and environmental effects. They are a public health concern because at sufficient exposure levels they adversely affect human health. Some are known to cause cancer, others impair reproduction and the normal development of children, and still others damage the nervous and immune systems. Many are also respiratory irritants that can worsen respiratory conditions such as asthma. They are an environmental concern because they damage ecosystems. Power plants also emit large quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2), the “greenhouse gas” largely responsible for climate change.

The health and environmental effects caused by power plant emissions may vary over time and space, from short-term episodes of coal dust blown from a passing train to the long-term global dispersion of mercury, to climate change. Because of different factors like geology, demographics and climate, impacts will also vary from place to place. For example, effects from coal mining may be the biggest concern in the coal-field regions of the country, while inhalation exposure may be the foremost risk in an urban setting and, in less populated rural America, visibility impairment and haze may be of special concern.

Makes Nuclear look pretty benign.

They have a lot of other reports here: Clean Air Task Force

BioWillie

Willie Nelson has gotten into BioDiesel in a big way — he formed his own Oil Company.

I present the BioWillie Corporate Website.

Cool stuff!

The Source of Oil

There is a quiet but interesting debate running about how Oil is produced. There is the general acceptance that Oil (and Coal) came from fossilization of organic matter but there is also evidence that Oil production does not require fossilization to happen.

This website has a good debate on the issue plus lots of links…

From the website introduction:

The abiotic oil debate and “peak oil”
The following is a collection of excerpts and links concerning a recent and ongoing important debate over the contending theories of oil origins (fossil vs. abiotic) between Mike Ruppert of From the Wilderness and Dave McGowan, as well as related topics pertaining to the scientific foundation of “peak oil” predictions. I do not wish to offer any final judgements, and I'm not qualified to do so, but I do think that McGowan and others have raised a great deal of documentation and argument which deserve close attention. Everything on this page is presented for informational purposes, intended as a review of the debate thus far.

Some of the links presented are very biased but it's an interesting read — pick and tease out the nuggets and leave the obvious tin-foil-hat stuff alone…

Cool robot sensor technology

Not new but a new use for an old tech: Thereminvision

It was developed by the crew of Team Titanium and utilizes the field sensing technologies of Leon Theremin's 1918 Electronic Musical Instrument the Thereminovox commonly shortened to the Theremin. They are still very much in use these days — I have one made by Bob Moog — a lot of fun to play.

Anyway, this sensing technology uses four tiny Theremins on a platform to sense the location and distance of near objects. Very cool idea and it has been released to the public domain.

In horrible taste but...

…sometimes humor is the only release in tragic situations like this.

Someone pointed me to Terri Schiavo's Blog

U.N. Oil For Food Scandal reaches well to the top...

Breaking news from Roger L. Simon who has the goods on parts of the Volcker report to be released (preliminary report) this Tuesday noon:

SPECIAL REPORT #1 - OIL-FOR-FOOD INVESTIGATION
This blog has new information from sources close to the investigation of the United Nations Oil-for-Food Scandal by Paul Volcker's Independent Inquiry Committee. After some delay, the committee is releasing its preliminary results at noon Tuesday. This report may reveal, among other things, startling information tending to indicate Secretary General Kofi Annan had more knowledge of, or was closer to, his son Kojo's activities with Cotecna - the company whose role in the scandal seems so pervasive - than previously thought.

The committee has been interviewing Pierre Mouselli, a businessman in Paris who was Kojo's business partner. Their relationship started in 1998 when then 45-year old Mouselli met young Kojo (then 23) at a Bastille Day Party in the French Embassy in Lagos, Nigeria. Mouselli, who has been a cooperative witness and is not under investigation himself, has told the committee numerous interesting things, which deserved to be followed up, They include:

1. Previously unrevealed private meetings between Kojo and two separate Iraqi Ambassadors to Nigeria, arranged by Mouselli in or about August 1998. At these meetings Kojo presented the business card of Cotecna, which subsequently won the lucrative oil inspection contract for Oil-for-Food. Cotecna had previously been blacklisted from doing business in Nigeria for alleged arms trafficking.

2. A trip in September 1998 by Mouselli and Kojo to the Non-Aligned Nations Movement Conference in Durban, South Africa during which they traveled with the Secretary General's entourage and later had a private lunch with Kofi Annan. In Mouselli's view, the purpose of the lunch was to make the Secretary General aware of the various business dealings in which he and Kojo were engaged, in order to get the Secretary General's “blessing”. It was Mouselli's understanding at the time that Kojo had previously discussed the Iraqi Embassy visits with his father, though he does not recall specific statements regarding the UN inspection contracts.

3. Early Autumn 2002. The Iraqi Ambassador to Nigeria makes a surprise call to Mouselli inquiring of the whereabouts of Kojo (at this point Mouselli and Kojo were not in close contact). Mouselli goes to the Iraqi Embassy where he is informed by the Ambassador that we (the Iraqis) have done favors for Kojo in the past and now need to see him. The Iraqis do not specify what these favors were or what they needed from Kojo, but offer Mouselli a visa to come to Baghdad for further discussion. Mouselli picks up the visa in Paris but does not go to Iraq because of the increasingly violent situation.

Mouselli appears to be reliable. I have spoken to him briefly on the phone in Paris and at some length with his attorney Adrian Gonzalez-Maltes. (Interestingly, witnesses and their lawyers seem not to be under confidentiality agreements in this investigation, possibly because there is no governing body to enforce them.)

Mouselli's testimony contains considerably more interesting material, which I will detail in subsequent reports or in tandem with Claudia Rosett with whom I have been in contact on this story. The issues his testimony raises are obviously troubling and I look forward to reading the committee report on Tuesday, which will probably flesh them out from other directions.

Roger's entry is fairly short so I am reproducing it in full.

Now we know why Kofi has been looking so haggard these days and that there is a buzz about his replacement.

Paging Mr. Annan — your credibility has left the building.

O-U-C-H

Guy doesn't want to wear contact lenses, needs some form of vision correction, opts to go for glasses but decides on a different style of frame. Mike King at Ramblings' Journal has the story and some photos that make you wince.

Texas man has piercing to permanently place glasses on face
James Sooy was tired of “wrestling with glasses” and decided to have a piercing placed on the upper part of his nose which attached to glasses, so that they were permanently affixed to his face.

I'm waiting for the first day when he catches them on a tee-shirt or something. That would have to hurt…

Mr. Tom DeLay

A hypocritical piece of work there…

The latest example comes from two sources and deals with the Terri Schiavo case:

From the LA Times:

DeLay's Own Tragic Crossroads
A family tragedy that unfolded in a Texas hospital during the fall of 1988 was a private ordeal — without judges, emergency sessions of Congress or the debate raging outside Terri Schiavo's Florida hospice.

And the story:

More than 16 years ago, far from the political passions that have defined the Schiavo controversy, the DeLay family endured its own wrenching end-of-life crisis. The man in a coma, kept alive by intravenous lines and oxygen equipment, was DeLay's father, Charles Ray DeLay.

Then, freshly reelected to a third term in the House, the 41-year-old DeLay waited, all but helpless, for the verdict of doctors.

Today, as House Majority Leader, DeLay has teamed with his Senate counterpart, Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), to champion political intervention in the Schiavo case. They pushed emergency legislation through Congress to shift the legal case from Florida state courts to the federal judiciary.

And DeLay is among the strongest advocates of keeping the woman, who doctors say has been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years, connected to her feeding tube. DeLay has denounced Schiavo's husband, as well as judges, for committing what he calls “an act of barbarism” in removing the tube.

In 1988, however, there was no such fiery rhetoric as the congressman quietly joined the sad family consensus to let his father die.

“There was no point to even really talking about it,” Maxine DeLay, the congressman's 81-year-old widowed mother, recalled in an interview last week. “There was no way [Charles] wanted to live like that. Tom knew — we all knew — his father wouldn't have wanted to live that way.”

Emphasis mine — this is an issue of the Federal Government trying to do away with States Rights and this stinks to high heaven! Our Founding Fathers worked long and hard to develop documents that would protect each state's rights while simultaneously providing for a minimal Federal government to regulate Military, Standards (highway, rail, electrical power).

The structure of the United States of America is a Federated Republic of States, not a centralized bureaucracy.

The second link comes from The Misanthropyst:

When even the Wall Street Journal points out that Republican Tom DeLay, the two-legged roach, is an example of all that is wrong with American politics, you gotta figure his shelf life is limited:

“…The problem, rather, is that Mr. DeLay, who rode to power in 1994 on a wave of revulsion at the everyday ways of big government, has become the living exemplar of some of its worst habits. Mr. DeLay's ties to Mr. Abramoff might be innocent, in a strictly legal sense, but it strains credulity to believe that Mr. DeLay found nothing strange with being included in Mr. Abramoff's lavish junkets.

Nor does it seem very plausible that Mr. DeLay never considered the possibility that the mega-lucrative careers his former staffers Michael Scanlon and Mr. Buckham achieved after leaving his office had something to do with their perceived proximity to him. These people became rich as influence-peddlers in a government in which legislators like Mr. DeLay could make or break fortunes by tinkering with obscure rules and dispensing scads of money to this or that constituency. Rather than buck this system as he promised to do while in the minority, Mr. DeLay has become its undisputed and unapologetic master as Majority Leader.

Whether Mr. DeLay violated the small print of House Ethics or campaign-finance rules is thus largely beside the point. His real fault lies in betraying the broader set of principles that brought him into office, and which, if he continues as before, sooner or later will sweep him out…”

…just typical Texas politics writ large — you bribe my back, I send tax dollars your way…

Indeed…

Sometimes fallout is a good thing

Blogger Straight Up with Sherri has been following the Terri Schiavo case closely an reports on an interesting and good fallout from this fiasco:

Agency Probes Group Homes' Deaths
The case of Terri Schiavo may be the wake-up call we have all needed:

Agency probes group homes' deaths
The deaths of four disabled Floridians are being investigated in light of cost-cutting changes in state nursing care.

A federally funded watchdog group is investigating the recent deaths of four disabled Floridians amid an aggressive campaign by the state to cut millions of dollars from programs that provide medical care for disabled people in community settings.

The case seems to focus on a few homes and a money-saving change made by the state:

No clients had ever died at either the Rockwood or Overland group homes before this fall, said Middell. The homes have been open since 2000.

''It takes a special kind of nurse to care for these people,'' Reed said.

Should the state have attempted to save money by changing nursing practices? ''Not if you want to keep people alive,'' said Reed.

It will depend on how much the state is interested in maintaining quality of life for indigent people, people whose family are not willing or able to take care of them.

I bet one thing — the state will pay more than twice the money it “saved” on damage controll…

Nuclear power - Are people waking up???

Great article in the New York City City Journal:

Why the U.S. Needs More Nuclear Power
Your typical city dweller doesn’t know just how much coal and uranium he burns each year. On Lake Shore Drive in Chicago—where the numbers are fairly representative of urban America as a whole—the answer is (roughly): four tons and a few ounces. In round numbers, tons of coal generate about half of the typical city’s electric power; ounces of uranium, about 17 percent; natural gas and hydro take care of the rest. New York is a bit different: an apartment dweller on the Upper West Side substitutes two tons of oil (or the equivalent in natural gas) for Chicago’s four tons of coal. The oil-tons get burned at plants like the huge oil/gas unit in Astoria, Queens. The uranium ounces get split at Indian Point in Westchester, 35 miles north of the city, as well as at the Ginna, Fitzpatrick, and Nine Mile Point units upstate, and at additional plants in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New Hampshire.

The authors (Peter W. Huber and Mark P. Mills) then go on to notice something very curious about Nuclear Energy:

That’s the stunning thing about nuclear power: tiny quantities of raw material can do so much. A bundle of enriched-uranium fuel-rods that could fit into a two-bedroom apartment in Hell’s Kitchen would power the city for a year: furnaces, espresso machines, subways, streetlights, stock tickers, Times Square, everything—even our cars and taxis, if we could conveniently plug them into the grid. True, you don’t want to stack fuel rods in midtown Manhattan; you don’t in fact want to stack them casually on top of one another anywhere. But in suitable reactors, situated, say, 50 miles from the city on a few hundred acres of suitably fortified and well-guarded real estate, two rooms’ worth of fuel could electrify it all.

And don't forget that the waste, although it needs care for a long time, is equally small. The waste from powering one large city would fill 1,500 Cu. Ft. or so — maybe as high as 3,000 but still, a lot less than the square miles of slag and fly-ash dumps that surround coal plants and pollute the groundwater.

The article also goes into the economic factors:

Once you’ve got the wheels themselves running on electricity, the basic economics strongly favor getting that electricity from the grid if you can. Burning $2-a-gallon gasoline, the power generated by current hybrid-car engines costs about 35 cents per kilowatt-hour. Many utilities, though, sell off-peak power for much less: 2 to 4 cents per kilowatt-hour. The nationwide residential price is still only 8.5 cents or so. (Peak rates in Manhattan are higher because of the city’s heavy dependence on oil and gas, but not enough to change the basic arithmetic.) Grid kilowatts are cheaper because cheaper fuels generate them and because utility power plants run a lot more efficiently than car engines.

DUUUHHHH??? And did I forget to mention that Nuke Plants emit no CO2?

Interview with three pioneers of Electronic Music

There is a nice interview in New Scientist magazine with three Electronic Music pioneers.

Bob Moog developed the first synthesizer using control voltages which used the standard of one volt per octave. This allowed all sorts of modules to 'talk' to each other and moved the synthesizer from the studio and onto the performance stage.

Peter Vogel co-founded Fairlight Instruments. This was the first commercially available keyboard that could 'sample' a sound and play it back over a large range of notes. Fairlight (and to some extent Synclavier) was the workstation of choice for a long long time.

Dave Stuart was the force behind creating MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface - the way keyboards and synthesizers 'talk' to each other now — MIDI has been accepted by all manufacturers and is the de-facto standard). Stuart also founded Sequential Circuits which built the first commercially mass-produced polyphonic synthesizers with programmability. This was a major help in making them accessible to the average musician.

The interview only really skims the surface but if you like what you see, a little time spent with Google will turn up lots and lots more pages of fun reading. A fascinating era that produced many still-valuable machines…

Back in town

Wayne Hancock was amazing — a real performer. Started a bit late (they had an opening act play until just before ten) but Hancock played without a break until closing time! We faded out a bit after midnight but he was still going strong.

He tours a lot and is well worth catching if he is in your area.

No posting today

We are heading down to Seattle to go through some of my Mom and Dad's stuff (they are moving) and to see Wayne “The Train” Hancock with some friends. Staying over night and heading back tomorrow morning. Posting will resume then.

Check out the fine links on our Blogroll to the right!

My Beloved Wife

Jen hikes a lot more than I do. A hiking partner (marylou) took this wonderful photograph of her last year and posted it to the NorthWest Hikers forum tonight under the topic heading of How to look extra dorky when hiking…

Picture a blue striped floppy hat - the kind cruise ship tourists wear - paired up with big sunglasses, a ratty stained shirt, and convertible pants that are looking decidedly past their prime.
That was me last year.
Sometimes Jen likes to wear the hat with some kind of lingerie coat thing and a prosthetic leg.
Drives the boys nuts.
Posted By: marylou

Drives this boy nuts anyway and I am happy to leave it right there. Besides, the prosthetic leg converts into a really cool helicopter and a submarine boat — what's not to love!!!

The Bee Lab

Finally, a State Ag University is starting to devote some major effort to Bees and issues with their health. Something that most people do not know is that the majority of our food results from pollination and that pollination comes from Bees — without Bees, no food. Tree-fruit and berries directly and grains from the seed production.

Here is the University of Minnesota Bee Lab

From their Research Projects Page

Our research projects include both tests of basic biological principles and the development of practical applications for beekeeping. Our primary focus is on honey bees, ranging from the neuroethology of honey bee behavior to breeding bees for resistance to diseases and parasitic mites. We also have ongoing bumblebee projects that range from studying patterns of conflict and cooperation within these social bee colonies to demonstrating how to rear bumblebees for pollination of native crops and wildflowers. We work as a team to provide the richest learning environment for students at all levels and from all backgrounds.

Lots of good stuff there - info, videos, links…

NASSA - The Untold Story

This is great!

A film telling the story of the other NASSA — the Negro American Society of Space Astronauts. The web site is here and there are options to download your preferred file format.

Here is a frame-grab of their successful landing on the moon three years earlier than NASA's “One Small Step”. Their craft is a modified Cadillac Coupe deVille with surplus NASA rocket engine.

Click for full-size Image

Japanese WW-II Submarine found off Hawai'i

Hat tip to BoingBoing for the link to this story at the Seattle Times:

Japanese WW II sub found off Oahu
The wreckage of a large World War II-era Japanese submarine has been found by researchers in waters off Hawaii.

A research team from the University of Hawaii discovered the I-401 submarine Thursday during test dives off Oahu.

“We thought it was rocks at first, it was so huge,” said Terry Kerby, pilot of the research craft that found the vessel. “It's a leviathan down there, a monster.”

The submarine is from the I-400 Sensuikan Toku class of subs, the largest built before the nuclear-ballistic-missile submarines of the 1960s.

And the mission for this particular sub:

The submarines were designed to carry three “fold-up” bombers that could quickly be assembled.

And:

Their mission, which was never completed, reportedly was to use the aircraft to drop rats and insects infected with bubonic plague, cholera, typhus and other diseases on U.S. cities.

The University of Hawai'i Hawai'i Undersea Research Laboratory was the group that made the discovery in 870 meters of water. This web page has photos of the sub. Amazing stuff…

Victor Davis Hanson

He is an excellent writer and essayist — his columns are well worth reading.

This one dealing with Ward Churchill is a good example:

The Seven Faces of “Dr.” Churchill
Does Ward Churchill even exist?

Dr., Native American, original artist, serious scholar, combat veteran, highly recruited and sought-after academic, ex-Weatherman mentor: How many — if any — of these seven faces of our real-life Dr. Lao are true?

Professors outside the arts at major research universities are supposed to have Ph.D.s. The phantom Ward Churchill does not. How he was hired, promoted, and tenured without a doctorate is a mystery — the equivalent of a high-school teacher credentialed with an AA degree, or a medical doctor operating without an M.D.

Ward Churchill proclaimed that he is a Native American of various tribal affiliations; he is not. Even his ridiculous costumes, occasional threats, and puerile rants cannot disguise that fact.

He seems to be a pop artist of sorts, but his canvasses are not quite his own either. Those of like political mind have praised his scholarship, but much of what he writes seems derivative, or misrepresents or outright plagiarizes others.

Churchill has spoken of the firsthand trauma of battle service as a combat veteran, both as a paratrooper and as a sniper — among the most hazardous of corps in the United States military. Once again, there is no such evidence that he served in any capacity other than what his official duties in a motor pool and as a projectionist entailed.

No pulling punches there — everything is documentable and true if you dig around. Dr. Hanson then offers four rules on how to be just like Ward:

Rule 1: Profess to be as far left as possible, understanding that extremism in the service of utopian virtue is no vice.

Rule 2: Among the nerds and dorks, act a little like a Brando, Che, or James Dean, a wild spirit that gives off a spark of danger, who can at a distance titillate Walter Mitty-like admirers and closer up scare off the more sober censors.

Rule 3: Whenever possible, reinvent yourself as anything but a white, straight American male.

Rule 4. Don’t worry about the anti-capitalist’s embarrassing six-figure salary, plush job, lifelong guaranteed employment, and fondness for jet travel and hotels. Just keep acting like an ageless denizen of the Woodstock nation, professing to be a timeless dagger pointed at the heart of money-grubbing square America.

Dang — so that's how you do it…

Automobile Engine Additives

Interesting article — it's old (1992) but some good information.

Is That Additive Really A Negative?
Information for this article was compiled from reports and studies by the University of Nevada Desert Research Center, DuPont Chemical Company, Avco Lycoming (aircraft engine manufacturers), North Dakota State University, Briggs and Stratton (engine manufacturers), the University of Utah Engineering Experiment Station, California State Polytechnic College and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Lewis Research Center.

So they have credibility. Here is some more:

In the end, we divided our additives into four basic groups and purchased at least three brands from three different manufacturers for each group. We defined our four groups this way:

1. Products that seemed to be nothing more than regular 50-rated engine oil (including standard additives) with PTFE (Teflon TM) added.
2. Products that seemed to be nothing more than regular 50-rated engine oil (including standard additives) with zinc dialkyldithiophosphate added.
3. Products containing (as near as we could determine) much the same additives as are already found in most major brands of engine oil, though in different quantities and combinations.
4. Products made up primarily of solvents and/or detergents. There may be some differences in chemical makeup within groups, but that is impossible to tell since the additive manufacturers refuse to list the specific ingredients of their products.

We will discuss each group individually.

The one that caught my eye was the first — the use of PTFE or Teflon in products such as Slick-50. Slick-50 is heavily marketed and I was always curious if there was any benefit but could never find qualified research for either viewpoint. This article sums it up very nicely:

The problem with putting PTFE in your oil, as explained to us by several industry experts, is that PTFE is a solid. The additive makers claim this solid “coats” the moving parts in an engine (though that is far from being scientifically proven). Slick 50 is currently both the most aggressive advertiser and the most popular seller, with claims of over 14 million treatments sold. However, such solids seem even more inclined to coat non-moving parts, like oil passages and filters. After all, if it can build up under the pressures and friction exerted on a cylinder wall, then it stands to reason it should build up even better in places with low pressures and virtually no friction.

This conclusion seems to be borne out by tests on oil additives containing PTFE conducted by the NASA Lewis Research Center, which said in their report, “In the types of bearing surface contact we have looked at, we have seen no benefit. In some cases we have seen detrimental effect. The solids in the oil tend to accumulate at inlets and act as a dam, which simply blocks the oil from entering. Instead of helping, it is actually depriving parts of lubricant.”

Remember, PTFE in oil additives is a suspended solid. Now think about why you have an oil filter on your engine. To remove suspended solids, right? Right. Therefore it would seem to follow that if your oil filter is doing its job, it will collect as much of the PTFE as possible, as quickly as possible. This can result in a clogged oil filter and decreased oil pres sure throughout your engine.

The whole article is a bit on the long side but very much worth reading if you are interested in Engine Additives.

Shiny shiny pretty pretty -- I want one!!!

And I don't even play the guitar.

Metalcarver: Fine Handmade Aluminum Guitars

From their website:

Welcome to Metalcarver Aluminum Guitars
I use manually controlled machine tools to carve these guitars out of solid billet aluminum, hollow them out, and use ornamental engine turning to decorate the tops. They are built one at a time and hand polished to a luster and shine unique to this metal. The patterns dance and shimmer with changing light in a way that I simply cannot show with still photography.

The best part of these guitars is the sound. Regardless of the pickup configuration the tone is rich and full, with a very wide tonal palette. I wire the humbucker models with a coil tap so that you have the choice of traditional humbucker sound or that of a very wide single coil. The result is a very good balance between the pickups and really wide choice of tones. The single coil pickups end up being quiet and clear with what amounts to be the ultimate in shielding. Just because it's made of metal does not mean that it sounds like a resonator style guitar. It's more of a hollow body sound with much more sustain.

Click for full-size Image

The 2003 report on Terri Schiavo

Is available here (38 page PDF File) — looks very thorough and comprehensive.

Here are the first couple paragraphs:

A REPORT TO GOVERNOR JEB BUSH AND THE 6TH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT IN THE MATTER OF THERESA MARIE SCHIAVO
Pursuant to the requirements of H.B. 35-E (Chapter 2003-418, Laws of Florida) and the Order of the Hon. David Demers, Chief Judge, Florida 6th Judicial Circuit regarding the appointment and duties of a Guardian Ad Litem in the matter of Theresa Marie Schiavo, Incapacitated.

Respectfully Submitted - Jay Wolfson, DrPH, JD, Guardian Ad Litem for Theresa Marie Schiavo - 1 December 2003

Introduction

Sometimes good law is not enough, good medicine is not enough, and all too often, good intentions do not suffice. Sometimes, the answer is in the process, not the presumed outcome. We must be left with hope that the right thing will be done well. We are, each of us, standing in Theresa Marie Schiavo’s shoes. Each of us is profoundly affected by the decisions that have and will be made in this case. Advocates of privacy rights and death with dignity, and advocates of right to life and rights of the disabled provide the compelling definitional parameters of this matter.

On 31 October 2003, pursuant to the requirements of Florida H.B. 35-E (Chapter 2003-418, Laws of Florida) and the order of the Hon. David Demers, Chief Judge, Florida 6th Judicial Circuit, a Guardian Ad Litem was appointed for a period of thirty days with the following charge:

“…make a report and recommendations to the Governor as to whether the Governor should lift the stay that he previously entered. The report will specifically address the feasibility and value of swallow tests for this ward and the feasibility and value of swallow therapy. Additionally, the report will include a thorough summary of everything that has taken place in the trial court and the appellate court concerning this case.”

The legislature instructed the court to appoint a Guardian Ad Litem to report to the court and the Governor. Florida law regarding the duties and powers of the Guardian Ad Litem In Re: Theresa Marie Schiavo, Incapacitated

Report to Gov. Jeb Bush and the 6th Florida Judicial Circuit 1 December 2003 Jay Wolfson, as Guardian Ad Litem to Theresa Marie Schiavo Page 1 of 38 afford considerable scope and flexibility. The specific court ordered charge is narrowly constructed, particularly with respect to the questions to be addressed. The recommendations proffered herein are intended for both the Governor and the court, on behalf of Theresa Marie Schiavo.

The Guardian Ad Litem’s efforts have been to deduce and represent the best wishes and best interests of Theresa Schiavo. In that no express, written advance directive existed, determining what Theresa’s wishes might be require a combination of substituted judgment, reasonable person considerations, and an aggressive, objective assessment of the massive legal and clinical record that has been compiled over thirteen years. The entire court file of thirteen years, including items of evidence, has been reviewed and studied, with particular attention given to decision points in the case history that are reflected in motions to and orders by the Court. The case review has included clinical and medical records, discussions with members of the family, caregivers, and with medical, legal, bioethical and religious practitioners and scholars and the conduct of independent research into the substantive issues in this case. The GAL has met regularly with Ms. Schiavo, his ward.

Below, the questions posed to the GAL are addressed with recommendations, followed by an introduction to the case, a summary of the case, a summary of legal and medical issues in this case, and an expanded analysis of the recommendations at the conclusion of the report.

There is zero doubt that Michael Schiavo is a stinking turd but there is dirty politics on both sides of this issue. Her parents are in the major Want To Believe stage and are pulling out the stops.

Still, the Exit Protocol as found by Straight Up With Sherri is brutal:

The nurse who discovered the Exit Protocol, Cheryl Ford, R.N., a Tampa nurse, was reviewing Terri’s medical file at the request of the Schindler family when she found the document. For the benefit of our readers, Ford agreed to explain this document in detail. [Editor’s note: The protocol, in bold print, is followed by Ford’s comments.]

I will quote only one excerpt:

Multifocal myoclonus or terminal agitation [sometimes caused by electrolyte imbalance]. Consider diazepam rectal administration 5-10 mg. May repeat in 4 hours if not resolved then daily — twice daily as needed.

Multifocal myoclonus means seizures taking place in various parts of the body. “Because of the electrolyte imbalance, Terri will begin to have seizures,” Ford said. “She’ll start to twitch. You don’t see this in an oncology patient because they’re already dehydrated. Even the elderly, who are going into the natural process of death, their bodies are doing what God created them to do — slow down. “Our job as health-care professionals at this point is to understand the death process and to oblige the process God has given these people to help them in comfort measures — palliative care — not to enhance death. But Terri’s not terminal,” Ford said. “What they’re doing here is starving a healthy person to death. This is the only reason why she’ll go into multifocal myoclonus.”

If you read the links, basically, the only thing they are doing is anal suppositories inserted four times each day. Jesus Christ — give her a morphine drip for the love of God.

She may not be “there”, she may not be able to move or talk but there is the offhand chance that she is able to feel. Why are these people begrudging a couple bucks worth of Morphine to ease her way out.

This murder and death will have repercussions for a long long time.

Banning DDT, Malaria, Poverty, Environmentalism - pick four

Back40 at CrumbTrail found an interesting article linking once again, the ban on the use of DDT with the Malaria epidemic (killing over one million people per year) and its economic implications:

Negligent Homicide
Reynolds points to an Oxblog post and one of his very old posts that wrestle with the DDT and malaria question.

RACHEL CARSON — MASS MURDERER? That's the thesis of this oped by Sheldon Richman. Richman argues that the near-elimination of DDT, largely as the result of Carson's book, has killed millions. Representative quote: “Deaths from malaria in the developing world had been falling precipitously - until the anti-DDT campaign got under way. Then infections and deaths skyrocketed. The number of cases in Sri Lanka has tracked the use and nonuse of DDT in that country: 2.8 million in 1948; 17 - yes, 17 - in 1963; 500,000 in 1969. Sub-Saharan Africa is the worst hit: A child dies from the disease there every 40 seconds. The United Nations Environment Program says that each year 400 million people are at risk and that “about 1.5 to 2.7 million people, mainly children, die each year from malaria.”

ON THE ONE HAND, in my area it's now routine to see bald eagles, blue herons, and other birds that only a few years ago were thought nearly extinct. Their comeback is because of the elimination of DDT spraying. On the other hand, millions of people a year are dying from a disease that we know how to control, if not entirely eradicate.

That was Reynolds. Adesnik examines the swampy ground of international pressure, not least by funding organizations and trade partners in Europe, that prevents the prophylactic use of DDT though it has in the past and could once again relieve human misery.

It seems to me that the combination of malaria and AIDS contributes greatly to the poverty of African and other developing nations. Much environmental damage results from poverty so it isn't clear that resistance to DDT is even smart environmentalism.

Unfortunately, although Nando Times retains a web presence, it shut down in 2003 and does not maintain any archive of the articles.

I have written about DDT before here, here, here, and here.
A classical example of right heart, wrong brain.

UPDATE: Heh — The Wayback Machine comes through again…

Enter the Dragon

Cajun at Mostly Cajun is an industrial electrician and will write from time to time about close calls and other interesting events in his career. Today, he posts an entry from one of his readers who “Saw the Dragon” I'm excerpting a bit in this quote:

Actually saw the dragon in Phoenix Az. a few moons back.
Working for a large Electrical contractor with several large projects going on simultaneously. They were all behind schedule and in penalty phase.

The company strongly urged all employees to work on a high rise Sheraton on an overtime Saturday.

It appears we were LOW bidder.

They describe the working conditions and talk about bondwire (BUSS Inter-ties - about as thick as a thumb)

…seemed almost threaded between the busses like a new garden hose unpacked by someone other than an electrician—a nice coiled spring 2-3 feet off the bottom of several sections.

And Enter the Dragon:

I place myself 2 feet from the bars about to install the huge breaker as a co-worker probably 40-50 feet away moved the bond wire a couple feet away from himself to gain temporary access to a tool on the floor.

Another electrician 100 feet away from both of us watched in horror as the cable shook back and forth until it got to me laying against 2 phases-a 480-volt blue meltdown.

My face and hands were complete 2nd degree mess. Someone slapped my t-shirt to extinguish some flames. One guy had the presence of mind to put my hands in ice water [ My dermatologist that treated me daily for 6 weeks indicated that that quick move to the ice made my injury a skin only-until you cool down you keep burning internally-we didn’t worry about my face as my predicament proved their was nothing inside to be damaged by heat]

When you get currents that large, the induced magnetic field is enough to move objects close to it. If the object happens to be another coil of wire with an equal and opposite field, they move quickly. You can see this with a simple stick welder running at 50 Amps — imagine what it must be like running 1,000 Amps.

You have all turned on a garden hose and had the nozzle squirt around — nominal water pressure is about 30 PSI — Imagine the same setup with 20 times the pressure. And this current kills.

How to dismantle an Atomic Bomb iTrips

Hat tip to BoingBoing on this one:

A blogger had her dead iTrip replaced by the manufacturer, who asked for photographic proof that she'd destroyed the old one. So she built an iTrip incinerator out of model-rocket engines and then lovingly photographed and described her build, up to and including the moment of iTrip immolation.

Unfortunately, the Blog in question has a bandwidth limit on their service and the link from BoingBoing blew it out of the water. Maybe try again in a few days…

Fascinating T. Rex news

Not the band — they are dead, I'm talking about the original.
From Yahoo/Reuters

Scientists Find Soft Tissue in T-Rex Bone
A 70-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil dug out of a hunk of sandstone has yielded soft tissue, including blood vessels and perhaps even whole cells, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.

Paleontologists forced to break the creature's massive thighbone to get it on a helicopter found not a solid piece of fossilized bone, but instead something looking a bit less like a rock.

When they got it into a lab and chemically removed the hard minerals, they found what looked like blood vessels, bone cells and perhaps even blood cells.

“They are transparent, they are flexible,” said Mary Higby Schweitzer of North Carolina State University and Montana State University, who conducted the study.

She said the vessels were flexible and in some cases their contents could be squeezed out.

How cool is that. Jurassic Park here we come! (Yes yes yes, T.Rex lived during the Cretaceous Period and not the Jurassic.)

UPDATE: MS/NBC has more plus photos of the tissue:

The text covers about the same story as the Yahoo/Reuters story above except for this:

Of course, the big question is whether it will be possible to see dinosaur DNA. “We don't know yet. We are doing a lot in the lab now that looks promising,” Schweitzer said.

To make sure she was seeing what she thought she was seeing, Schweitzer, a biologist by training, compared the Tyrannosaur samples with bone taken from a dead ostrich. She chose an ostrich because birds are thought to be the closest living relatives of dinosaurs and ostriches are big birds.

Both the dinosaur and ostrich blood vessels contained small, reddish brown dots that could be the nuclei of the endothelial cells that line blood vessels.

And yes - photos:

Tissue fragments from a Tyrannosaurus rex femur are shown at left, when it is flexible and resilient and when stretched (arrow) returns to its original shape. The middle photo shows the bone after it is air dried. The photo at right shows regions of bone showing fibrous character, not normally seen in fossil bone.

Clarification on the Nobel Prize Nomination

From the Nobel Prize website:

The Nominators – Physiology or Medicine
Right to submit proposals for the award of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, based on the principle of competence and universality, shall by statute be enjoyed by:

1. Members of the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm;
2. Swedish and foreign members of the medical class of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences;
3. Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine;
4. Members of the Nobel Committee not qualified under paragraph 1 above;
5. Holders of established posts as professors at the faculties of medicine in Sweden and holders of similar posts at the faculties of medicine or similar institutions in Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway;
6. Holders of similar posts at no fewer than six other faculties of medicine selected by the Assembly, with a view to ensuring the appropriate distribution of the task among various countries and their seats of learning; and
7. Practitioners of natural sciences whom the Assembly may otherwise see fit to approach.

Decisions concerning the selection of the persons appointed under paragraphs 6 and 7 above are taken before the end of May each year on the recommendation of the Nobel Committee.

Prize-Awarder: The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm

These people number about 3,000.

From another link at the Nobel Prize Website

The process of selecting a winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine starts in September, about a year before the prize announcement. At this time, the prize-awarder in Stockholm (The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet) sends out invitations to about 3,000 people who are allowed to propose winners. These are mainly members of the Nobel Assembly, previous prize winners, and a selection of professors at universities around the world.

The nominations reach the Nobel Assembly between September and February. Many suggest the same person, and therefore the total number of recommended candidates is usually about 200 to 300.

Once again — these 3,000 people suggest 200 to 300 people to the Swedish nomination committee, the nominees are selected by the Nomination Committee and their results are voted on by the Prize Committee.

Sure, someone who was among the 3,000 could make an off-hand remark to someone that: “Hey, I submitted your name to the Nobel Selection Committee!” but this does not make that person a Nobel Prize Nominee. This is done by the Nomination Committee which is part of the Prize Process and is kept confidential for 50 years.

A Complete Liar

Were told by one of the 3,000 Selectors and misinformed as to their nomination status (Selected not Nominated)

A Nobel Prize Winner (by default, all Winners must be Nominees)

Finally, a point of ethics — Jen and I were talking about this and we both feel the same way. Nobel Prizes are used to award people who have done something. Watson and Crick discovered the magic of DNA and then were awarded the prize. Surfer dude and biochemist Kary B. Mullis developed Polymerase Chain Reaction and was awarded a Nobel Prize for his efforts. (His book is a great fun read: Dancing Naked in the Mind Field)

Most people claiming to be Prize Nominees are using this to build their careers, not to enjoy the warm glow after a successful one.

To me and Jen, this speaks volumes…

Terri Schiavo - some interesting facts

One of the key players in the fight for Terri's life is a Physician who claims a Nobel Prize Nomination.

From Hyscience quoting another source:

“Despite the contention of Terri Schiavo's estranged husband Michael and courts that have allowed him to starve her to death, a doctor nominated for the Nobel Prize says he believes medical therapies are still available that could help Terri party recover from her disabled state.”

From Wesley J. Smith writing in National Review Online

Dr. William Hammesfahr, a world-renowned expert in cases such as Terri's — and a Nobel Prize nominee — testified that Terri is not in a PVS. He also testified that he believes he could help her improve her circumstances through proper medical treatment.

Just so there is zero question, this is from Dr. Hammesfahr's personal website:

Dr. Hammesfahr was nominated for the Nobel Prize for his work in Medicine and Physiology in 1999.

Let's check some facts here:

Let's go to the Swedish Nobel Prize Committee website.
Their database of nominees for Physiology and Medicine.

The Nomination Database for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1901-1949

The Nomination Database Manual
Introduction

The present registry comprises all candidates nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine since this prize was instituted in 1901, with one important limitation, i.e. only material older than 50 years is included, as stipulated by the statutes of the Nobel Foundation. Currently, data until 1949 is included.

The database contains information recorded in the registry. If further information is desired, e.g. original documents and evaluations, a written application may be submitted to the Nobel Assembly, Karolinska Institutet, SE-17177 Stockholm, Sweden. The application must include a description and reason for the intended study.

Emphases all mine.

If someone says they are a Nobel Prize Nominee, they are lying or misinformed.
ALL Nominations are kept confidential by the Committee for 50 years period.
There is no other way someone could find out their status.

Busy day

Spent today moving one of the new tanks to the farm.
More about this at Brown Snout website.

Tipping Point

Wonderful story at the NY Times:

Ordinary Iraqis Wage a Successful Battle Against Insurgents
BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 22 - Ordinary Iraqis rarely strike back at the insurgents who terrorize their country. But just before noon today, a carpenter named Dhia saw a troop of masked gunmen with grenades coming towards his shop and decided he had had enough.

As the gunmen emerged from their cars, Dhia and his young relatives shouldered their own AK-47's and opened fire, police and witnesses said. In the fierce gun battle that followed, three of the insurgents were killed, and the rest fled just after the police arrived. Two of Dhia's young nephews and a bystander were injured, the police said.

“We attacked them before they attacked us,” Dhia, 35, his face still contorted with rage and excitement, said in a brief exchange at his shop a few hours after the battle. He did not give his last name. “We killed three of those who call themselves the mujahedeen. I am waiting for the rest of them to come and we will show them.”

It was the first time that private citizens are known to have retaliated successfully against insurgents. There have been anecdotal reports of residents shooting at attackers after a bombing or assassination. But the gun battle today erupted in full view of half a dozen witnesses, including a Justice Ministry official who lives nearby.

Very cool — now tell me again why going in there was a mistake?

Wildlife meets technology

Three wonderful photos from the USS Honolulu (one of our L.A. Class Boomers) as she is up near the North Pole. She gets some visitors:

Hat tip to Parkway Rest Stop - visit there for the full-size images.

New Trilobites

Wonderful new find in Morocco. Generally, fossils are flattened by the thing that kills them - mud slide, rocks, etc… These guys were slowly engulfed and this preserved their exterior shape.

The Natural History Museum has the goods:

Amazing new trilobites have been found in Morocco with details of their anatomy preserved intact.

Fossils are usually flattened by the weight of deposited sediment above them as they lie on the sea floor after death or following burial, or by subsequent crushing of the rock formed from the sediment, during tectonic movement. In the case of these trilobites, however, the fossils show little or no distortion. As the delicate exoskeletons are complete, it is likely that this gentle burial followed an initial sudden engulfment that suffocated the trilobites.

MacroDay

On a photography roll here — ran into this website: Macroday

They call for a specific subject and allow photographers to submit their macro photographs on that theme. Some gorgeous work here.

Here is one example for the theme of Music:

Lensbabies

Interesting alternative lens for digital cameras developed by Portland Photographer Craig Strong. The lens is purposefully bad and is mounted in a flexible barrel to provide options for image distortion.

Some wonderful results in their Gallery page — here is one:

Robot Shark

Jacques Cousteau's grandson Fabien is following in the family footsteps. He has developed a robot shark. Hat tip to Gizmodo

From Gizmodo:

Jacques Cousteau’s grandson Fabien is building a shark-shaped submarine that will use pneumatics to power a working tail so that he will be able to slip in undetected with real live sharks. It sounds a little scary:

… the dive team on the Calypso “probably getting bored” decided to make the robotic shark act erratic and ” injured”. Consequently, a large female turned on the shark and gave it a “death blow” wh