Category Archives: Science

If The Data Doesn’t Fit The Hypothesis, Create Data That Does Fit

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This is becoming more and more of trend with the global warming crowd. Via World Climate Report:

To make a long story short, Czymzik et al. examined sediment deposits in a well-situated lake in southern Germany, and they found the sediments beautifully preserved flood events from the past. Consistent with what others had found, this team concluded that flood “frequency distribution over the entire 450 year time series is not stationary but reveals maxima for colder periods of the Little Ice Age when solar activity was reduced.” That is something we see over and over – extreme events occurring in cold periods, not warm ones.

In light of the above, and from the plethora of other studies which fail to find a human influence of extreme weather, we’ll leave you with this incredible one sentence summary of an article by Laurens Bouwer in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society – a statement that still has us shaking our heads:

“Lacking significant impact from anthropogenic warming so far, the best way to assess the potential influence of climate change on disaster losses may be to analyze future projections rather than historical data.”

So we should disregard the lessons from past data on hail in China, extreme precipitation events in Hawaii, floods in southern Germany, or the historical occurences of other extreme weather, and instead turn to climate model projections for guidance? We can only hope that he is kidding.

H/T Climate Depot

Made In Detroit: A new way to make lighter, stronger steel

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This is really a big deal… And it was invented in Detroit.

A Detroit entrepreneur surprised university engineers here recently, when he invented a heat-treatment that makes steel 7 percent stronger than any steel on record – in less than 10 seconds.

In fact, the steel, now trademarked as Flash Bainite, has tested stronger and more shock-absorbing than the most common titanium alloys used by industry.

The Flash Bainite process is a new way to heat treat steel in 10 seconds rather than in hours (or days) like current processes.

“Steel is what we would call a ‘mature technology.’ We’d like to think we know most everything about it,” he said. “If someone invented a way to strengthen the strongest steels even a few percent, that would be a big deal. But 7 percent? That’s huge.”

Yet, when inventor Gary Cola initially approached him, Babu didn’t know what to think.

“The process that Gary described – it shouldn’t have worked,” he said. “I didn’t believe him. So he took my students and me to Detroit.”

Cola showed them his proprietary lab setup at SFP Works, LLC., where rollers carried steel sheets through flames as hot as 1100 degrees Celsius and then into a cooling liquid bath.

Though the typical temperature and length of time for hardening varies by industry, most steels are heat-treated at around 900 degrees Celsius for a few hours. Others are heated at similar temperatures for days.

Cola’s entire process took less than 10 seconds.

He claimed that the resulting steel was 7 percent stronger than martensitic advanced high-strength steel. [Martensitic steel is so named because the internal microstructure is entirely composed of a crystal form called martensite.] Cola further claimed that his steel could be drawn – that is, thinned and lengthened – 30 percent more than martensitic steels without losing its enhanced strength.

If that were true, then Cola’s steel could enable carmakers to build frames that are up to 30 percent thinner and lighter without compromising safety. Or, it could reinforce an armored vehicle without weighing it down.

“We asked for a few samples to test, and it turned out that everything he said was true,” said Ohio State graduate student Tapasvi Lolla. “Then it was up to us to understand what was happening.”

Cola is a self-taught metallurgist, and he wanted help from Babu and his team to reveal the physics behind the process – to understand it in detail so that he could find ways to adapt it and even improve it.

This is the type of business  that will create a large footprint of economic activity and many spin-offs. I would hope the political leadership in Michigan, who are endlessly prattling on about creating jobs, would clear the decks, remove all regulatory barriers and get Gary Cola processing steel in Michigan.

Do Musicians Have More Developed Brains?

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Frequent visitors to MCT know I’m a big music fan, so you know this caught my eye while I was perusing the Freakonomics blog:

A new study (abstract here; summary here) argues that musicians have more highly developed brains than the rest of us. The research relates the concept of high mind development to the potential to become really good at something:

New research shows that musicians’ brains are highly developed in a way that makes the musicians alert, interested in learning, disposed to see the whole picture, calm, and playful. The same traits have previously been found among world-class athletes, top-level managers, and individuals who practice transcendental meditation.

Very interesting stuff.

The Freakonomics Guys Are Catching Up To MCT On Electric Vehicles

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If you read the Freakonomics Blog, you would read this about Electric Vehicles today:

Electric cars are all the rage today, but some of the smartest people I know believe that moving towards electric vehicles is a terrible idea.

It’s like the Freakonomic guys have been reading motorcitytimes.com since its inception.

The blog post continues pointing out (eerily mirroring motorcitytimes.com)out the flawed economics of Electric vehicles:

Looking casually as an outsider at the unappealing economics of electric vehicles (the need for a new and immensely expensive infrastructure, cars that cost much more than either traditional gas engines or hybrids, limited ranges and long recharging times), I find it hard to understand why the Obama administration is pushing electric cars

Then the Freakonomics post moves on to a discussion of another MCT mainstay, rare earth materials:

Be careful what you wish for, however, because if electric cars become a mainstay, we may be trading one dependence for another that is even more troubling. Ninety-five percent of the world’s output of rare-earth metals today comes from one country: China. By some estimates, demand will outstrip supply within five years.

This sounds remarkably like a MCT post titled No Free Lunches: Trade Expensive Imported Foreign Oil For Expensive Imported Foreign Lithium (June 8th, 2010):

If goal is to move to large scale electric vehicle production. the next problem is where are we going to get the lithium needed to construct the batteries? The United States has only a very small reserve of lithium. The majority (by some estimates over half) the worlds lithium resides in Bolivia. So, rather than import expensive and dangerous foreign oil from places like Canada and Mexico we will end up importing expensive and dangerous foreign lithium from places like Bolivia.

Even the supply chain to construct these electric cars are going to require lots of petroleum. Are we going to use sail powered vessels to ship the lithium from Bolivia? Of course not. The entire supply chain, including shipping, will require petroleum.

It’s good to see that people are starting to catch on that the electric vehicle is not going to live up to the liberal / environmentalists hype.

Here are a few posts @MCT concerning electric vehicles / rare earth materials and green energy for your perusal:

More On Rare Earth Materials: China Is Reducing Exports By 10% In 2011

Rare Earth Materials And The Incompetence Of Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)

Electric Vehicles: Hyped For One Hundred Years

Obama’s Volt 281… 2011 Dodge Charger 3,263

Obma’s SOTU And His Flawed Green Energy Economics

Pravda: Energy is the keystone to any and every economy

Time Laps Video Of Milky Way

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This is amazing…

Via Vimeo:

This was filmed between 4th and 11th April 2011. I had the pleasure of visiting El Teide.

Spain´s highest mountain @(3718m) is one of the best places in the world to photograph the stars and is also the location of Teide Observatories, considered to be one of the worlds best observatories.

 

Police Violating The 4th Amendment… There Is An App For That

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Your iPhone has been tracking your whereabouts with out your knowledge.

Security researchers have discovered that Apple’s iPhone keeps track of where you go – and saves every detail of it to a secret file on the device which is then copied to the owner’s computer when the two are synchronised.

The file contains the latitude and longitude of the phone’s recorded coordinates along with a timestamp, meaning that anyone who stole the phone or the computer could discover details about the owner’s movements using a simple program.

For some phones, there could be almost a year’s worth of data stored, as the recording of data seems to have started with Apple’s iOS 4 update to the phone’s operating system, released in June 2010.

“Apple has made it possible for almost anybody – a jealous spouse, a private detective – with access to your phone or computer to get detailed information about where you’ve been,” said Pete Warden, one of the researchers.

And guess who, besides a jealous spouse, can use this information? How about The Michigan State Police.

The Michigan State Police have a high-tech mobile forensics device that can be used to extract information from cell phones belonging to motorists stopped for minor traffic violations. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan last Wednesday demanded that state officials stop stonewalling freedom of information requests for information on the program.

ACLU learned that the police had acquired the cell phone scanning devices and in August 2008 filed an official request for records on the program, including logs of how the devices were used. The state police responded by saying they would provide the information only in return for a payment of $544,680. The ACLU found the charge outrageous.

“Law enforcement officers are known, on occasion, to encourage citizens to cooperate if they have nothing to hide,” ACLU staff attorney Mark P. Fancher wrote. “No less should be expected of law enforcement, and the Michigan State Police should be willing to assuage concerns that these powerful extraction devices are being used illegally by honoring our requests for cooperation and disclosure.”

A US Department of Justice test of the CelleBrite UFED used by Michigan police found the device could grab all of the photos and video off of an iPhone within one-and-a-half minutes. The device works with 3000 different phone models and can even defeat password protections.

“Complete extraction of existing, hidden, and deleted phone data, including call history, text messages, contacts, images, and geotags,” a CelleBrite brochure explains regarding the device’s capabilities. “The Physical Analyzer allows visualization of both existing and deleted locations on Google Earth. In addition, location information from GPS devices and image geotags can be mapped on Google Maps.”

The ACLU is concerned that these powerful capabilities are being quietly used to bypass Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches.

We have the TSA frisking nuns, senior citizens and children. Now, we have the Police pushing for access to your cell phone.

Whatever happened to the land of the free and home of the brave?

An extra big tip O’ the hat to the ‘Bot and Martin

Sunday Night Links: The Make Your Own Pop Rocks Edition

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In light of the fact that news coming from Japan seems to be going from bad to worse, I thought I would lead off this link edition with something a little more light, how to make your own pop rocks:

Pop Rocks! Love ‘em or hate ‘em, you have to admit these tiny candy crystals pack a neat little punch. This candy takes me straight back to my childhood! They can be hard to find sometimes, so here’s how you can make a similar substitute with some surprisingly common ingredients.

CH 2.0: More on the Fate of Useful Idiots

BlogProf: St Louis union rally shows mindless drones being instructed where to go, what to do

U.S. Economic Meltdown

Japan: The estimated death toll from Japan’s disasters climbed past 10,000 Sunday as authorities raced to combat the threat of multiple nuclear reactor meltdowns and hundreds of thousands of people struggled to find food and water.

Are You Ready for the New Peer-to-Peer Economy?

Sentry Journal: Changing the Tone

The Eye: UK Atheist Group Urges Not to List Religion as Jedi

Why Twitter Should Think Twice About Bulldozing the Ecosystem

As with the company’s other recent moves, including shutting down misbehaving apps, the response has not been friendly from many parts of the network. And while Twitter can probably get away with this kind of behavior, it is taking a real risk of losing much of the goodwill it has built up over the years.

MTTM: The Right To Work Comments In The Interview

WWTFT: Liberty’s Exiles by Maya Jasanoff
Spellchek: The Japan Syndrome

Japan has the world’s third largest economy behind the U.S. and China. Yet , they have a debt equal to over 200% of their GDP. Now they are faced with infrastructure repairs of an unknown amount, hundreds of billions to be sure. Before the earthquake, they had 54 nuclear reactors functioning. It remains to be seen how many will be destroyed permanently through the efforts required to prevent the cores from melting down. That’s one huge difference from a normal recovery from a natural disaster. Generally, it’s only a matter of days or weeks before the power is back on. Japan faces no less than years to replace the destroyed power grid in some areas of the country. If the nuclear option is taken off the table for those rebuilding efforts, the costs from alternative sources will certainly be higher.

And To Wash the Last Music Selection Out’n Yer Ears

Todays World News: Blast at Japan nuke plant; thousands missing

How to think like a liberal – hint, does not include “get a lobotamy”

Charles Krauthammer Eloquently Slams NPR’s Nina Totenberg on NPR’s “Holding a Tin Cup for Taxpayer Money” (video)