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Category Archives: science
Around the world in 5 minutes
Great time lapse video. Watch full screen HD.
(via Andrew Sullivan)
Who could have predicted this?
Via The New York Times:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that fracking — a controversial method of improving the productivity of oil and gas wells — may be to blame for causing groundwater pollution.
The draft finding could have a chilling effect in states trying to determine how to regulate the process.
By the way, there is a terrific documentary showing the dangers of fracking called GasLand. It is easy to access if you have a Netflix DVD rental account, or via the link on Amazon for sale or rental. Here is the trailer.
And here is more info from the film:
Related articles
- Fracking likely linked to groundwater pollution in U.S. (cbc.ca)
- Fracking may taint water supply, EPA finds (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- US environmental authorities have declared for the first time that fracking may be to blame for groundwater pollution. (texasvox.org)
MythBusters bust stuff
And they bust up stuff, big time.
More here.
This is pretty outrageous and the show should be put under close evaluation.
Europe bans porno-scanners
The European Commission has banned the use of x-ray scanners at airports in Europe. Why?
The European Commission, which enforces common policies of the EU’s 27 member countries, adopted the rule “in order not to risk jeopardizing citizens’ health and safety.”
As a ProPublica/PBS NewsHour investigation detailed earlier this month, X-ray body scanners use ionizing radiation, a form of energy that has been shown to damage DNA and cause cancer. Although the amount of radiation is extremely low, equivalent to the radiation a person would receive in a few minutes of flying, several research studies have concluded that a small number of cancer cases would result from scanning hundreds of millions of passengers a year.
Meanwhile, we in the States continue to deploy them as if it the radiation-emitting machines make us safer. The cancers caused by the scanners are a small price to pay for the comforting security theater that we Americans so enjoy. And so, in the US, we awake to this news:
The head of the Transportation Security Administration has backed off a public commitment to conduct a new independent study of X-ray body scanners used at airport security lanes around the country….
At a Senate hearing after the story ran, TSA Administrator John Pistole agreed to a request by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, to conduct a new independent study of the health effects of the X-ray scanners, also known as backscatters.
But at a Senate hearing of a different committee last week, Pistole said he had since received a draft report on the machines by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, or IG, that might render the independent study unnecessary.
“My strong belief is those types of machines are still completely safe,” Pistole said. “If the determination is that this IG study is not sufficient, then I will look at still yet another additional study.”
According to a summary obtained by ProPublica, the inspector general concluded the machines are within industry standards for radiation exposure limits. But the summary also suggests the report focuses mostly on how the TSA monitors and maintains the machines. The full report won’t be released for several weeks.
I feel safer than ever from both terrorist attack and the dangers of x-ray radiation. Don’t you? I thought so.
Related articles
- EU bans X-ray scanners at airports, citing health risks (americablog.com)
- EU Bans Airport X-Ray Scanners Over Health Concerns (motherjones.com)
- Europe Bans X-Ray Body Scanners Used at U.S. Airports (propublica.org)
- Europe Bans Airport X-Ray Body Scanners Amid Cancer Concerns (livescience.com)
- EU bans full-body X-ray scanners due to health concerns (news.consumerreports.org)
- Full-Body X-ray scanners banned in Europe airports, TSA comments (slashgear.com)
How we got to 7 billion
Your TSA: radiation danger denial
ProPublica has released a new report detailing the medical risks of radiation based scanners in use by the TSA at the nation’s airports.
On Sept. 23, 1998, a panel of radiation safety experts gathered at a Hilton hotel in Maryland to evaluate a new device that could detect hidden weapons and contraband. The machine, known as the Secure 1000, beamed X-rays at people to see underneath their clothing.
“I think this is really a slippery slope,” said Jill Lipoti, who was the director of New Jersey’s radiation protection program. The device was already deployed in prisons; what was next, she and others asked — courthouses, schools, airports? “I am concerned … with expanding this type of product for the traveling public,” said another panelist, Stanley Savic, the vice president for safety at a large electronics company. “I think that would take this thing to an entirely different level of public health risk.”
The machine’s inventor, Steven W. Smith, assured the panelists that it was highly unlikely that the device would see widespread use in the near future. At the time, only 20 machines were in operation in the entire country.
“The places I think you are not going to see these in the next five years is lower-security facilities, particularly power plants, embassies, courthouses, airports and governments,” Smith said. “I would be extremely surprised in the next five to 10 years if the Secure 1000 is sold to any of these.”
Today, the United States has begun marching millions of airline passengers through the X-ray body scanners, parting ways with countries in Europe and elsewhere that have concluded that such widespread use of even low-level radiation poses an unacceptable health risk. The government is rolling out the X-ray scanners despite having a safer alternative that the Transportation Security Administration says is also highly effective.
Note who made this decision that involves medical risks. Not the FDA which has responsibility for regulating X-ray devices, but the TSA? What medical studies were done? How reliable is the testing the day-to-day operation of these devices? Who is checking to protect the TSA employees from health threats that might come from working around such machines day after day? A TSA administrator claims that “It’s a really, really small amount relative to the security benefit you’re going to get.” What is that conclusion based on? Where is the data, the analysis and the conclusion, in writing?
Related articles
- DHS documents show agency isn’t sure pornoscanners are safe (boingboing.net)
- Is the TSA Downplaying Backscatter Cancer Risks? [Tsa] (gizmodo.com)
One of seven billion
Very shortly there will be 7,000,000,000 people alive on planet Earth. Which one are you?
Movie of the week
Burzynski (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)
My favorite film this week is a documentary called “Burzynski.” It is about a Texas doctor who appears to have come with an unconventional treatment for cancer that is more effective for many cancers than chemo and radiation and yet is totally safe with no known side effects.
The film portrays the repeated (but ineffective) attacks on the doctor by the Texas AMA, the FDA, and others, as well as the power that the pharmaceutical industry has over today’s FDA. It is both powerful and emotional, and it is a wake up call that shows (as if we didn’t know this already) the power of monied interests in the country that control the levers of governmental power.
The movie is not available on DVD, but is viewable via streaming on Netflix. Check it out.
Related articles
- Burzynski documentary reveals true agenda of FDA and cancer industry to destroy cancer cures that really work (talesfromthelou.wordpress.com)
- Got Cancer? (prof77.wordpress.com)
- Business is business is business is … (epinoiasphere.wordpress.com)
- Kick Cancer Overboard Presents Burzynski the Movie (sheratoneatontown.wordpress.com)
- Still think you’re fighting cancer with ribbons and wristbands? (skekzyz.wordpress.com)
- Exposing the fraud and mythology of conventional cancer treatments (talesfromthelou.wordpress.com)
Innovation quote of the day
Today’s belief in ineluctable certainty is the true innovation-killer of our age. In this environment, the best an audacious manager can do is to develop small improvements to existing systems—climbing the hill, as it were, toward a local maximum, trimming fat, eking out the occasional tiny innovation—like city planners painting bicycle lanes on the streets as a gesture toward solving our energy problems. Any strategy that involves crossing a valley—accepting short-term losses to reach a higher hill in the distance—will soon be brought to a halt by the demands of a system that celebrates short-term gains and tolerates stagnation, but condemns anything else as failure. In short, a world where big stuff can never get done.
– Neal Stephenson, author, arguing that as a country we no longer tackle the big problems in a rational way and innovation is falling. Stephenson has a new book out called Reamde: A Novel, highly recommended.
Related articles
- Planet Wobegon: (brothersjuddblog.com)
- Neal Stephenson’s Reamde: Baroque or Bloated? (wired.com)
- Reamde (behemot.si)
- Neal Stephenson’s REAMDE: A review for Stephenson fans (jargonmaster.wordpress.com)
- Exclusive Excerpt: Neal Stephenson’s “Reamde” (omnivoracious.com)
Only an expert
Laurie Anderson explains the (non-)solution to our problems: only an expert can do it. This is one song that addresses Oprah, Iraq, torture, and Wall Street financial crimes, while being kick-ass msuically. The version below is live, but the version on the album, Homeland, is even more terrific.
The studio version is available on iTunes for those who like her work.
So begin the neutrino jokes
"We don't allow faster than light neutrinos in here" said the bartender. A neutrino walks into a bar.
@flyosity
Mike Rundle
(via Boing Boing)
Related articles
- Live blog: neutrinos! (quantumdiaries.org)
- xkcd on neutrinos (blogs.discovermagazine.com)
- Neutrinos Rule!! (translight3.wordpress.com)
Spontaneous human combustion
According to the BBC, an Irish coroner has determined that a man has died from spontaneous human combustion, a first time determination in Ireland.But it is far from the first elsewhere:
Related articles
- I Guess This Is What Happens When You’re Irish and You Drink A Lot (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)
- Irish pensioner ‘died of spontaneous human combustion’ (telegraph.co.uk)
- Spontaneous Human Combustion of the Day (thedailywh.at)
A satellite falls today
There has been lots of coverage about the fall to Earth of NASA’s Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite some time.
Reminds me of the time Skylab fell back in ’79.
Faster than light?
Scientists at CERN‘s Large Hadron Collider say they have collected data that indicates certain particles created at the laboratory traveled faster than the speed of light, which is universally considered impossible.
Neutrinos sent through the ground from Cern toward the Gran Sasso laboratory 732km away seemed to show up a tiny fraction of a second early.
The result – which threatens to upend a century of physics – will be put online for scrutiny by other scientists.
In the meantime, the group says it is being very cautious about its claims.
“We tried to find all possible explanations for this,” said report author Antonio Ereditato of the Opera collaboration.
“We wanted to find a mistake – trivial mistakes, more complicated mistakes, or nasty effects – and we didn’t,” he told BBC News.
If true this would be an enormous breakthrough, but it is likely that some error crept into the calculations.
