science/tech

Science and Technology

Which City emits more CO2: NYC or Denver?

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Scientific American reveals the surprise….

Compare New York City and Denver: Residents of the nation’s most populous city in America emit half the amount of Mile-High residents — 10.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent versus 21.5 metric tons.

“Some cities don’t have the luxury of deciding where they are [located],” said Daniel Hoornweg, one of the study’s authors and lead urban specialist at the World Bank. “Denver has high energy use, its electricity comes from coal, it’s spread out, and it’s cold.”

As one of the largest investors in development projects in the world, the World Bank will be able to use this study as a basis for development aid, along with information on renewable energy use, investment in public transportation and efficiency throughout the power distribution grid, said Hoornweg.

via Why Some Cities Can Be Far More Energy Efficient Than Others: Scientific American.

FTC’s taps Ed Felten Chief Technologist

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Edward Felton is in as the FTC’s first Chief Technologist and it seems like a damn good choice.

In the last decade alone, Felten and his students and Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy (where Ars alumnus Tim Lee currently hangs his hat) have broken the music industry’s SDMI encryption scheme, filed a lawsuit agains the RIAA, joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation board, and showed us all how to break a badly secured e-voting machine in under one minute. They also manage to run the popular “Freedom to Tinker” blog.

via FTC’s first Chief Technologist: DRM basher Ed Felten.

Here is Felton discussing the issues with electronic voting machines. It’s geek talk, but it’s five minutes. Watch it. What he says about paper records for each voter is key. (You get a receipt at an ATM, you need one for your vote too.)

USB Glory Holes

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Please don’t do this. Even with USB drives not stuck in a wall. Just don’t do it.

Across New York, there are USB drives embedded in walls, buildings and curbs. The idea is to create an anonymous, offline file-sharing network in public space. The drives are completely public and anyone can plug in to drop and download files.

via Why Is There a USB Drive Sticking Out of This Wall?.

I hate this art project.

Cookies that can’t be eaten

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Browsers need this.

Creative Commons License photo credit: bsabarnowl

Think you cleared all the offline data from your browser? Think again.

Where things really get grim is with the mobile version of Safari. Although this version of Safari doesn’t support Flash or Silverlight, the directories it uses to hold local storage are sandboxed off from all other applications, and there is apparently no way to delete this. To clear evercookie from an iPhone, White first had to jailbreak it and then run a script. Worse still, any application that uses a Web view to display HTML content also creates an individual risk; White’s script has to crawl through the entire phone’s directory structure to purge them all.

via It is possible to kill the evercookie.

Cleared all browsing data? Go here to clear your flash cookies. Trust me, they’re there.

Microbes survive a year of space exposure

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From BBC News:

Bacteria taken from cliffs at Beer on the South Coast have shown themselves to be hardy space travellers.

The bugs were put on the exterior of the space station to see how they would cope in the hostile conditions that exist above the Earth’s atmosphere.

And when scientists inspected the microbes a year and a half later, they found many were still alive.

These survivors are now thriving in a laboratory at the Open University (OU) in Milton Keynes.

The experiment is part of a quest to find microbes that could be useful to future astronauts who venture beyond low-Earth orbit to explore the rest of the Solar System.

via BBC News – Beer microbes live 553 days outside ISS.

Climate Change: real. Climate Policy: not.

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Depressing.

The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, and this summer its sea ice is melting at a near-record pace. The sun is heating the newly open water, so it will take longer to refreeze this winter, and the resulting thinner ice will melt more easily next summer.

At the same time, warm Pacific Ocean water is pulsing through the Bering Strait into the Arctic basin, helping melt a large area of sea ice between Alaska and eastern Siberia. Scientists are just beginning to learn how this exposed water has changed the movement of heat energy and major air currents across the Arctic basin, in turn producing winds that push remaining sea ice down the coasts of Greenland into the Atlantic.

Globally, 2010 is on track to be the warmest year on record. In regions around the world, indications abound that earth’s climate is quickly changing, like the devastating mudslides in China and weeks of searing heat in Russia. But in the world’s capitals, movement on climate policy has nearly stopped.

Democrats in the Senate decided last month that they wouldn’t push for approval of a climate bill. In Canada, Australia, Japan and countries across Europe, the global economic crisis and other near-term concerns have pushed climate issues to the back burner. For China and India, economic growth and energy security are more vital priorities.

Climate policy is gridlocked, and there’s virtually no chance of a breakthrough. Many factors have conspired to produce this situation. Human beings are notoriously poor at responding to problems that develop incrementally. And most of us aren’t eager to change our lifestyles by sharply reducing our energy consumption.

via Op-Ed Contributor – Near the North Pole, Looking at a Disaster – NYTimes.com.

Utterly depressing.

Ants in your pants

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Not even kidding: Tom Junod recounts what it was like to have an ant colony take over his family’s home.

And yet the numbers aren’t the worst part. The worst part is the intelligence of the numbers. A few years ago, I interviewed the great biologist E. O. Wilson right before he and his colleague Bert Hölldobler published their magnum opus, The Superorganism. The book, a study of ant societies, was an exploration of the notion that ants are such organized organisms that they almost don’t count as individual organisms at all but rather as cells of the colony they serve. The colony is the superorganism, and as Wilson told me, “an ant colony is far more intelligent than an ant.” I’ll say. An ant by itself is an inoffensive creature, at worst a crunchy annoyance, smidgeny and obsessively clean and, above all, dumb, with a pindot of a brain. An ant by itself is not going to get any ideas… the problem being that it’s rarely by itself, that it’s representative of something, and that what it represents not only has ideas — it has designs. Wilson’s book proposes that what an ant colony possesses is a kind of accumulated intelligence, the result of individual ants carrying out specialized tasks and giving one another constant feedback about what they find as they do so. Well, once they start accumulating in your house in sufficient numbers, you get a chance to see that accumulated intelligence at work. You get a chance to find out what it wants. And what you find out — what the accumulated intelligence of the colony eventually tells you — is that it wants what you want. You find out that you, an organism, are competing for your house with a superorganism that knows how to do nothing but compete. You are not only competing in the most basic evolutionary sense; you are competing with a purely adaptive intelligence, and so you are competing with the force of evolution itself.

And the worst part about that — the worst part about discovering that the ants in your house are actually emissaries of the enormous teeming brain in your backyard — is that it worsens the other worst parts, of which there are many. For example, I have found ants in my underwear. Lots of them, which I didn’t find until I put the underwear on. As a person who has had ants in his underwear, however, I have to say that what makes their presence particularly irksome is not the momentary discomfort but rather the knowledge of why they’re there. They’re not just passing through, you see, on their way to somewhere else. They’re not in your underwear by accident. They’re nation-building. They’re extending the range of their civilization, and they’re doing it in your drawers.

via Print – Invasion – Esquire.

Trouble in the Atmosphere

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An upper layer of Earth’s atmosphere recently shrank so much that researchers are at a loss to adequately explain it, NASA said on Thursday.

The thermosphere, which blocks harmful ultraviolet rays, expands and contracts regularly due to the sun’s activities. As carbon dioxide increases, it has a cooling effect at such high altitudes, which also contributes to the contraction.

But even these two factors aren’t fully explaining the extraordinary contraction which, though unlikely to affect the weather, can affect the movement of satellites, researchers said.

“This is the biggest contraction of the thermosphere in at least 43 years,” John Emmert of the Naval Research Lab was quoted as saying in NASA news report.

Emmert is the lead author of a paper announcing the finding in the June 19 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

“We cannot explain the abnormally low densities, which are about 30 percent lower” than from previous contractions, Emmert told CNN.com.

via Scientists baffled by unusual upper atmosphere shrinkage – CNN.com.

Under current models, the sun activity and the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere at that time doesn’t explain the extraordinary collapse in the thermosphere. There is a piece of the puzzle missing that has scientists scrambling for an explanation.

Ruling: Google’s YouTube not responsible infringing on Viacom copyrights

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Viacom had claimed that “tens of thousands of videos” based on its copyrighted works had been posted on YouTube, and that both YouTube and its owner Google had known about it but had done nothing about it.

But District Judge Louis Stanton said in his ruling: “Mere knowledge of prevalence of such activity in general is not enough. The provider need not monitor or seek out facts indicating such activity.”

Google and YouTube had argued that they were entitled to “safe harbour” protection under digital copyright law because they had insufficient notice of particular alleged offences.

Judge Stanton agreed, saying that when “YouTube was given notices, it removed the material… it is thus protected from liability” under a provision in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

via BBC News – Google’s YouTube wins Viacom copyright case.

If I record an episode of South Park to DVDs and then proceed to make copies for all of my friends, is Verbatim responsible for making blanks? Panasonic for making DVD players that can play a burned disc? Old media shouldn’t fight YouTube as a medium. Instead they should publish their content through it and attempt to generate add revenue in that fashion.

This is just like that South Park…

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Just because the writers of a show can find humor in everything…doesn’t mean they’re right about everything.

The 32 centrifuge machines, which a Costner-funded team of scientists have spent the past 15 years developing, are to be deployed to help tackle the spill, now believed to be gushing 40,000 barrels a day into the Gulf.

The devices, manufactured by Ocean Therapy Solutions, are carried to the spill area by barges before separating the oil and water. The largest of the machines, the V20, can clean water at a rate of 200 gallons a minute, according to the company’s website.

Once separation has occurred, the oil is stored in tanks. The water is then more than 99% clean of crude.

“This is the key,” Costner told CNN on Tuesday. “It’s certainly a way to fight oil spills in the 21st century.”

The actor has been developing the machinery since the early 1990s with the help of a team including his brother, a scientist.

via BP oil spill: Kevin Costner’s oil-water separation machines help with clean-up | Environment | guardian.co.uk.

Hopefully, this actually works.

Quack Glossary: Naturopathic Medicine

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If it’s on the internet, it must be true is a myth quacks love to take advantage of. The folks at Science Based Medicine break down

Recently David Gorski sent around a link to an e-book, Natural Cancer Treatments, that epitomizes the dark underbelly of health misinformation on the internet.

The book opens up with the standard disclaimer that ostensibly is to protect the public but in reality is simply legal cover for the purveyors of misinformation – it says to seek the advice of your physician and that this book is not meant to discourage anyone from seeking standard therapy for cancer. This is boiler plate CYA for quacks.

via Science-Based Medicine » Complete Cancer Quackery Resource.

Heed the garbage that is noted in this e-book by quacks for the gullible named “Naturopathic Medicine”.

You can go to just about any page on the book and find gems like this one, under the entry for colloidal silver:

“Naturopathic Medicine regards Cancer as a viral and fungal [candida septicemia] process. Microorganisms depend on a specific enzyme to breathe. Colloidal Silver is a
catalyst that disables these enzymes, and as a result they die. To this day, there has been no recorded case of adverse effects from it when it is properly prepared. There also has been no recorded case of drug interaction with any other medication. Unlike pharmaceutical antibiotics which destroy beneficial enzymes, Colloidal Silver leaves the tissue-cell enzymes intact.”

Further, colloidal silver is not a safe or effective treatment for infections. Silver can be used as a bacteriostatic compound to prevent contamination of equipment, but it is not safe and effective when used internally. It is also highly misleading to say that there are no recorded adverse effects “when it is properly prepared.” This is a lie – there are numerous case reports of argyria, a permanent skin disease resulting from use of colloidal silver. Developing argyria also has nothing to do with how the colloidal silver is prepared – it is a matter of dose. But what they are trying to do is dismiss adverse effects as being due to improper use. This is like saying that there are no adverse effects to any surgical procedure properly performed, because all adverse effects from surgery were due to improper technique. It’s a semantic game meant to mislead.

You are just as likely to be cured from cancer by treating it “Naturopathically” with colloidal silver (whatever the hell that means) as you are by going to get Benny Hinn’s hands laid upon you…

The FDA has ruled that products containing silver or colloidal silver are “not safe and effective” and may not be sold as having any medicinal benefits. Despite this, colloidal silver is readily available.

via The Culture of Chemistry: December 2007.

But people still flock to Hinn, don’t they?

The Brain has a master switch?

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Yep. It’s called Syt1…

Yeon-Kyun Shin, professor of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology at ISU, has shown that the protein called synaptotagmin1 (Syt1) is the sole trigger for the release of neurotransmitters in the brain.

Prior to this research, Syt1 was thought to be a part of the protein structure (not the sole protein) that triggered the release of neurotransmitters at 10 parts per million of calcium.

Shin’s research is published in the current issue of the journal Science.

“Syt1 was a suspect previously, but people were not able to pinpoint that it’s the real one, even though there were lots and lots of different trials,” said Shin.

via Brain’s master switch is verified.

Hater in Chief: iPod, iPads, XBoxes, PS3’s are just a diversion

Barack Obama at Hampton Class of 2010 Commencement
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Barack Obama at Hampton Class of 2010 Commencement

Obama: Don't listen to a podcast, unless it's mine. (Photo: AP/Steve Helber)

President Obama gave the commencement address at Hampton University and railed against mobile and home entertainment devices.

With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations–none of which I know how to work–information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation.

via Tech World Explodes Over Obama’s Anti-iPad Remarks | The Atlantic Wire.

Huh? I guess Obama’s oft discussed iPod playlist was really Reggie Love’s “music for oldheads” custom iTunes playlist after all.

The truth is iPods, iPads, XBoxes and Playstations can be used to deliver podcasts, record or playback lectures, play books on tape, view photo albums, deliver stimulative games (boggle, scrabble, crosswords, sodoku) and to deliver multimedia magazine and news info-apps. They can also be used to purchase movies, television shows and access a variety of internet resources. I use my iPod Nano to listen and watch lectures from universities I couldn’t get into, classic speeches, NPR on terrestrial radio, web only news and commentary and watch exercise instructional videos.

Even as far as entertainment goes, I love being able to podcast music that isn’t A&R driven, payola lite top 40 that’s increasingly dominated by auto-tune, 360 deal teeny boppers and trap music (disclaimer: nothing wrong with this music some of the time for some people, just something wrong when it’s on all the time).

He wouldn’t be alone in people on his side of the power pyramid not knowing the full benefits or how to operate these devices. I marveled at the ignorance of the Supreme Court Justices regarding how mobile networks, mobile devices, texts and pages work.

But its almost comically tone deaf coming from a President who has his own video and audio podcasts. This reminds me of the time I was in church (in the late 90s) and the seminarian guest preacher proclaimed from the pulpit that the internet was evil and corrupting. Later in the greeting line when she asked me how I was doing and I told her I was a software engineer co-op for the spring and summer she said she was glad to see I was doing well. Not only does Obama embrace a myopic and dismissive view of this technology, I am sure Obama the commencement speaker would congratulate a Hampton grad who had secured a job with Apple (makers of iPods and iPads), Microsoft (xbox) or Sony (PS3).

Its is even more tone deaf that President Obama was at Hampton University when he delivered these remarks. Many black Americans and Africans of young adult and teen ages are twice as likely as their white counterparts to use mobile devices to access the internet and are more likely to use mobile friendly services like twitter to seek, relay and collect information (24% of 17million twitter users are African American).

Tools, Mr. President. These are just tools. You can argue knives are bad because people get stabbed, but have fun with your spork and your steak dinner, hater!