Mad Science - Let me check my notes...

Lunar Meteor Event

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Mon, 20 May 2013 19:07:47 GMT

The following video does a good job of explaining, but let me throw in a few words. I used to work at NASA Marshal in the big white building on stilts. (The Lunar Telescope Facility) Heck of a job to hike up those stairs. I stopped working there in 2007, but I made a few of those early observations with Wes Swift, Bill Cooke, and others. A lot of the explanation on this video is from my public lecture on Space Environments. Which isn't a surprise, Bill and Danielle assisted in the development of that lecture, so their words and mine are a bit similar on the subject.

Overall though, what is interesting here?
1) In space you can get hit with a boulder traveling a more than 40 kilometers per second. What is that like? A nuclear weapon going off. Less radioactive, but you'd be just as dead. More dangerous (because there are a lot of them) is a grain of sand at that speed. It would hit harder than a bullet. Remember mV^2 is the energy you get hit with. If you imagine a "normal" bullet travels at a velocity on the order of 1 kilometer per second - this is 40 times as fast. Square 40, you get 1600. Mass could be 1/1600 and you would "feel" the same energy of a hit. How much would the equivalent mass be to say... a 9MM bullet? about 6 mg. Six Milligrams. so... maybe a big grain of sand, about a millimeter across. Something that could get caught, painfully, under your fingernail could punch a hole in your spacesuit. Factually, as the grain of sand hit you, it would form an explosive plasma which would char out a chunk of your suit about a cm deep while punching you with the full force of the kinetic energy. Might be survivable, but ... ouch.

2) A hit from a meteor forms a conductive plasma. If it hit any electrical equipment it'd zap it as well, ground it out at minimum. For example, if it hit your heart monitor, it could ground out that high-voltage capacitor through (heh) your heart on the way to your left foot ground plane. You have to watch your design for inadvertent currents that can kill you.

3) You can really only see these on the dark side of the moon. Luckily, there is a piece of dark side up almost every night. You can't see (without a light enhancing telescope) the dark part of the moon, but it is still there. Sometimes people forget that the WHOLE MOON is overhead most nights, for all you only see a sliver of it. That dark part is Extremely dark, so little flashes of light show up pretty well. We were only using an 8 inch telescope, the 14's are a big improvement.

Hawk's Beer and Movie Reviews (Yea!)

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:30:20 GMT

Good Monday to you all and I hope you had a happy Mother's day. (Ok, for those of us who are guys, if we survived without major damage we're in luck.) For me, it was a couple movies, a play, skipping fighter practice, and generally getting up with the baby. (And sleeping a bit in the recliner, for which my back may not forgive me.)

The Play was Alice in Wonderland. I want to congratulate Bob Jones of Madison Alabama for a wonderful play. My son had a relatively obscure part manning a projector under the stage, though he also helped in building the set. I'm glad he is learning a skill in high school.

Movie Reviews: We rented Looper and went to Iron Man 3.

Loopers: I like the concept of a time travel flick. This one is flawed.

What the F' is this gun? Can they not find guns in 2030? They have flying motorcycles, but ...

1) Don't kill people in the future, all crime is solved....
(except the story hinges on a murder and burning a house down... in the future.)

2) Don't kill Loopers in the past, it changes the future. (Except maiming the shit out of them doesn't apparently have any effects until the most recent 10 seconds.)

3) Killing yourself or dying stupidly causes a restart on the loop, except when it doesn't.

There was a very cool moment when our hero or villain saves his memories of a past that no longer exists... or changes something. It seems very important, except it stops being important and has no further impact on the story. I guess it was the only way the hero could shoot the woman in the end...but it frankly didn't get enough explanation for me to figure out before now.

Loopers - sucks. Don't watch it. Maybe 1 star in 5 or something. I wish I had drunk more beer before the 1/2 way point. I left and went to work on dishes.

Iron Man 3: This is obviously the 4th story featuring Iron Man. If you have missed any of the previous stories, go back and watch before you get to this one. Oddly enough, this is the story where he finally breaks down and tries to figure out where he is going.

The Mandarin. ARRRGH!!! Ok, all throughout I thought - "This guy talks like a loony liberal leftist from a freaking demonstration. He plays all the tropes without a single worthwhile concept." Pissed me off. (Turns out, it wasn't supposed to be so obvious, but it was part of the plot.)

Iron Man Mark 42: When they become available for the general public...wait for the upgrade. This is the freaking Windows 2000 of the armor world. The final battle felt like Tony was using 20 suits of Nerf armor and the villain had somehow picked up the "Iconic Villain Slaying Sword" the hero was supposed to have. Hated the final battle

That said, this is easily the best Iron Man movie. Easily. I loved 1 and was ok with 2. Avengers was amazing, of course, but this was a movie. It was long, it had character development, and you got to know the villains and the heroes. It had surprises and it wasn't all "pow" "biff" "bam"

Iron Man 3: If you don't see this movie, there will be no point in having a conversation with you in the future.

Beer : Tried a Milk Stout - Left Hand Nitro. nice beer. Really liked it. So far, I love Left Hand Brewery.

Look at that nice head... I assume they shook the bottle first, I've poured four of them without generating a cm of head.

Look, if you've never had a milk stout, try one. Different. You may hate it, you may love it. I can't tell you what you will think, but frankly, they are dark and creamy and full of flavor. Enough palate nonsense for two beers at least. As a milk stout, the only crime of a milk stout is being thin and weak. I've had a few of those. Brewers look at the library paste they are supposed to be putting in a bottle and think, "Gosh, we should water this down with a couple pale ales so that folks will drink it." *WRONG* If it forms much of a head, then they watered it down. Milk stouts have a tiny, thin, foam that doesn't last. It has a mild hop aroma. it has a strong sweetness that overpowers the malt flavor - but you can smell the chocolate malt they could dump on top of all that lactose sweetness. Tastes sweet with coffee and dirt (chocolate). Good stuff. Oh, the Nitro is 6% alcohol, so it'll give you a wallop. Might should start at the next one down...but damn it was good.

Major Tom

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:35:54 GMT

Makers Local

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Mon, 06 May 2013 18:31:33 GMT

I want to point out first that these people aren't nuts, but they are technology geeks. There are a good number of people who love 3-D printing, laser cutters, fab machines. They also do some hacking, some EMP, and a good bit of random art projects. I think they have a lot of LAN parties as well. Frankly, I've been over to the local group a total of twice, but a good friend of mine donated his laser and has built a couple of fabs.

Why? I'm not sure I can answer this for you. Either the idea of playing with a 3D printer is worth a couple nights out of your week, or you go fishing. Huntsville is a pretty tech-savvy town, but I expect that most cities over 100,000 people support one or more "Makers" groups. Heck, I want to play just to cut steampunk gears. (Using the laser, you can cut them out of a vinyl plastic material or plywood and they don't weigh like brass. A good paint job (or three) and they look like well-used sprockets.

Not to drift too far afield, I was bringing them up to discuss this marvel.

The 3D-printed gun that Cody Wilson calls the "Liberator." Click to enlarge. (Credit: Michael Thad Carter for Forbes)

A single-shot lexan pistol is not going to win a gunfight, but it could be built, easily, in one of those 3D printers. Go ahead and ban the design. Go ahead and ban trading in mp3s and japanese anime while you're at it. The design is out there. It isn't an assault weapon, but really, nothing sold in the US is, despite the national media. (Oh, the M16's that our army sells to Mexico's army are assault weapons...the fact that those weapons end up on the streets of Mexico City is a big issue...but their issue, not ours.) What is the issue is that this is a single summer's work from an amature. Get a gun professional and a materials scientist together for 6 months and I expect the results will look a lot like a .38 special.

In 10 years, I expect the printable materials will include high temperature ceramics and metals, the printing materials will be better than 90% of the materials currently used on handguns. With the exception of the barrel, I expect that most towns could start an assembly line of automatic weapons. This isn't to suggest that we ban ... something... or make anything illegal, but we really need to discuss the future of technology. "False shortages," usually due to government interference, are simply not going to affect the rate of distribution to the populace.

My dad used to tell me stories about putting together cars in the barn on his dad's farm. In the 50's, the government didn't control much about cars and couldn't mandate headlights, much less seatbelts. Now days, the government is happy to restrict everything about cars, guns, or medicine. 99.9% of that is for the good, but those 50 years of regulation may be coming to an end.

The Eagle Has Landed

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Thu, 02 May 2013 20:08:58 GMT

A month before my second birthday, man landed on the moon. Yes, I know some people argue that it was faked, but unlike so much science today, it wasn't. There is an app that I can't access here -

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/05/01/experience-18-minutes-of-world-history-as-if-you-were-there-landing-on-the-moon/

that lets you experience the landing. A shorter, film version, is below. The one below is plenty tense to me. There is also a couple sims out there that let you try to land yourself.

http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/

I'm not bothering to embed the codes, lazy day.

Just remember that three men risked their lives for this. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. Neil died last July, but Buzz and Michael are still with us. We think about how easy it looks, but frankly it was a life or death struggle. You hear them call out a 1201 error - computer malfunction. 1201 means you ain't getting data. These guys planned on operating through at least 1 abort signal, they wouldn't quit for just a minor emergency.

I've seen all kind of trolling on the moon landings. Just remember that hundreds of people contributed to these things, there could no more be a fake moon landing than you could fake an Appalatian trail walk while visiting your mistress in Venezuela. People aren't stupid and there are a hundred details you have to get right or it all comes out in the media. Thousands of people have tracked their work on this and it is all consistant. "Bad Astronomy" covers this and other issues, if you are interested.

Frankly, you have to realize that most people who make these comments aren't actually ignorant. (Ignorant is an old man who had a dream that the magnetic fields would repulse the Voyager and it would come crashing back to Earth. Yes, he believes something that isn't true, but it doesn't hurt anyone for him to believe it.) The guy who confronts Buzz to make him swear on the Bible that he walked on the moon isn't ignorant, he is a troll. He got a well-deserved punch in the nose. Most trolls just want to exploit pain, become famous, or hurt people. When you see people doing that, just ignore them (or punch them in the nose.) Ya'll have a good day.

Show & Tell at Dragon Con

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 19:21:09 GMT

As I was pointing out to a fellow scientist - this isn't a "Mad Science Project" it is a "Creative Resource Redistribution Device." Yeah, it is part of my mad science street-CRReD. Give me your money or I'll ... destroy the world? Perhaps, at least the tri-state area. hey, Dr. Doofensmirts is my hero. (I want a nemesis.)

Ok, so the Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow are thinking on some CRRDs. Something unique for D*Con. There was a concept for a real Science Faire, but ... well... there are too many weirdos who show up. I'll not have someone torturing puppies and calling it a science project for my show. I may discuss some real work, but I've got a lot of limitations on that. I can talk in broad terms about some associated particle detection devices, neutron generation and detection, real science.

So I guess I have a couple questions for the audience. Mainly: What do you want to see? I think Dr. DNA, Granade, and myself can talk about "Failures in science" a bit. I'd like to rain on some billion dollar budget failures that we have lauded in the past. (No, I won't go on a Global Warming rant, there is a difference between science failures and fraud.) Solar power, wind power, wave power - those aren't science failures. The attempts to model the future of temperature is laudable...if poorly done. Sucking a billion dollars out of public coffers and giving it to your friends is fraud.

A great example is the National Ignition Facility, which I love, but which does not produce what it was designed to do. Of course, neither does the Princeton Tokamak or frankly any other fusion facility. Heck, funny story. A young cadet performed a huge study of a neutron detector to get it properly calibrated to measure output at a fusion facility I shall not name. Afterwards, (as the second half of her senior thesis) she compared her calibration to actual results at the fusion facility. Weirdly enough, the very carefully calibrated detector showed a whole lot of ZERO at the facility. (Much less than their internal and apparently badly uncalibrated system.) Apparently, their system detected the presence of electricity in the detector circuits, not neutrons in the lab. She had no idea why her detector "decided not to measure" that day. ... Yeah. Poor kid. At least one of the fusion experiments the government is pouring money into is producing less neutrons than the average banana.

You know what is really sad? I was trying to get my PhD in fusion. Can you imagine spending your life in that field? That is like a PhD in Bigfoot spotting and UFO analysis, only it doesn't play as well for Reality TV.

Ya know, I think that is what we'll do this year. Science Track, the reality TV Show!!! (I'm sure I'm crazy now.)

The Engineer's Baby - Emotions

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 18:03:42 GMT

I'd like to talk about emotions today, because a lot of people don't understand them. As a scientist and engineer (yes, both) I study everything. What the heck are these "emotions." First off, let me tell you what they are not. There is no background environment for emotion. In other words, if the tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it... nobody cares either. If you feel happy, it isn't because the background level of H+ is high, it is because your mind/body interaction decided on happy.

But not to focus on "simples." If you feel that you should wear a nice outfit to work you have made a decision. It is actually an intellectual decision. You have weighed factors such as Dress Code, Peer Approval, Comfort, Desire to Display Status, and built a matrix. Then you weighted each of the factors - dress code is important, so x2, Peer approval is about the same as comfort, maybe status gets a X3 when you know you will see the boss... I don't control your weighting factors, but maybe you don't either. In the end, you build a matrix with these values, for each of your outfits on the bottom, and the ranking of each outfit depending on the weight factors across the top. Then you EMOTIONALLY adjust each of the weight factors. In the end, you chose an outfit. You FELT like wearing the suit on Tuesday. You FELT like wearing jeans on Friday.

Ok, so picking out clothing is actually a complicated intellectual endeavor, but so is everything. Emotions are how we determine our responses to complex inputs. Which is why Geeks exist. Why are geeks poor at social interaction when they have the same ability to use emotions as everyone else? Because most of us in the science fields have a "better" use for our emotions.

You have seen me make a number of predictions and discussions on the blog. I have spend my life applying the emotional matrix to scientific problems. Our minds walk down the mathematical paths, but figuring out which path to travel is a guess. Our history, thousands of hours of research, tens of thousands of hours of experience, and our specific knowledge from the problem at hand suggests multiple solutions. I am rarely given a problem with only one solution, often the problem has dozens, but I can usually FEEL which solution is going to give the better answer. I can feel when a project is doomed, because people are choosing low probability of success options. I can feel when a project is BS because the science/politics ratio crosses 1. It basically feels (to me) like a bad relationship. One side is doing all the romancing, the other side is reading porn on the internet.

Yes, any scientist could cure his lack of social skills with a bit of study, but frankly the insanity of the "normal" people make it hard. People make all sorts of decisions with ... poor ... understanding of the reasons they are making them. People are frequently irrational, showing out, uneducated, or simply unintelligent. Trusting people usually ends up biting you in the ass. It is easier to satisfy your emotional needs with an interesting scientific problem than to deal with people.

So, I've been married - twice - and still trying to make the second one work. The strains of kids in college, high school, and diapers doesn't help. (Or the fact that I tend to marry crazy women, something I've had to come to grips with.) I'm still trying to raise my current baby right. How much should she depend on those weird "social" emotions, that women speak so highly of. (And then weirdly complain about, as if society was stuffing those emotions down their throats.) My older daughter appears to have escaped, I may ask her advice. Despite the fact that she is an artist, she appears to be sane. Maybe some level of geeky-ness helps.

In any case, here is a picture of my bundle of joy. She decided to get up at 3 am last night, she looks none the worse for wear. I think I do: wide staring eyes, exhausted. (oh, thats Pinky Bear, not me laying there dead on the floor, I guess I'm not that stylishly dressed.)

.

The Recent Coronal Mass Ejection (Solar Storm)

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 17:55:52 GMT

Dr. Woozley warned me Friday that there was a high probability for a huge CME - thats a coronal mass ejection - over the weekend. A CME is when the sun throws off a chunk of hot gas, possibly weighing more than a planet, and the temperature is enough to blow out electronics in space and mess up the magnetic field enough blow out electronics on the ground. This really is in my job description, so I went to work. I didn't report anything on here for various reasons, but after some research, I didn't worry as much as he did.

Why? Well, lets take a look at http://www.solarham.net/ I recommend everyone take a look at the sun everyday, and since I like my eyeballs, I use the web instead. Right off the top their x-class flare warning was 15%. (big worry) I looked at it and guessed about half that, but since the CME was hiding behind the sun, I went ahead and took their numbers. Ok, better than 1 in 10 of a big event. So, How big? I looked at the previous events, some previous years, and compared some magnetic field strengths, and decided that an X-class wasn't going to top 3 on my scale. (A Carrington event is an 11, but the usual number we use for comparison is the October 89 event, a solid 9.)

Ok, so a 3 on my scale can shift the Kp index pretty solidly a few points, if we can get Kp above 5, then we are set for a badass geomagnetic storm. Something we would need to be very concerned about. I checked the current Kp... and it was 1. Well, a 3 storm and a 1 Kp ... might make it to 4 Kp. One storm just doesn't really affect the Kp very much, usually a set of storms, a week of bad space weather... it just didn't look like it. Ok, so no geomagnetic storm.

How about a solar storm? Below is a picture of the sun during the Bastille Day solar event. A classic 3 on the Hawk-scale.

Next is a picture of the sun today.

Now, I'll agree that the sun's magnetogram LOOKS like a butterfly chart. With a couple high-density regions (1723) which could produce a particle-rich event. But it just doesn't have the "feel" of the hot sun of the 89 or 2001-2003 time period.

Current sun magnetic field diagram:

This is a butterfly chart:

AND, since solar maximum is ON NOW, any major solar storm this cycle produces will be produced in the next two or three years. But... the sun isn't selling me on a major storm. I decided that while there was a possibility, I'd say it wasn't going to happen at sufficient energies to cause a major worry.

Now, there was a solar event which did produce a good amount of protons and Kp in the 4 region. There is evidence on the far side that we could see more of these and the geomagnetic field could get a good charge. If it keeps up or gets worse, I'll be in touch.

However, the aurora in Alaska is lovely, I wish I were up there this week.

Serious Times

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 19:29:05 GMT

Hard to be light-hearted when a tyrant is threatening to send a nuclear weapon. There are a lot of places he could send it, I suppose I'm personally safe, but I like Japan, Seattle, ... I don't particularly like LA, but I don't think it deserves to be blown away.

Picture: A view of Hiroshima, one month after the US dropped an atomic bomb on it.

Frankly, there is a lot of damage a small fission weapon could do in knowledgable hands. I guess we are lucky that the losers in NK don't have any of those hands. I also suspect that this is all a ploy to get the Venerable Senator and Secretary of State J. F. Kerry to send them more money. Kerry doesn't really care about solutions, he isn't that type. He just wants to make sure that nothing interesting happens on his watch. If that costs a billion or so, it isn't important to him.

Picture: JFK testifying before the Senate that we need a "less militaristic foreign policy."

Understand that no doing something today is worse than making the wrong choice. NK, today, has one or more nukes that probably can't be missile launched and a handful of missiles capable of reaching our shores. In four years, maybe five, they will have a dozen weapons and twice that many missiles. How many will we have to stop? All of them, of course. A dozen weapons could devastate the West Coast, Japan, and possibly strategic locations. If four years of negotiations get China on their side, we might face a retaliatory strike of over a hundred weapons. What if Iran manages to improve its rockets and NK, China, and Iran become the new Axis, reaching into South America for further allies. Kerry could be the man who decides the shape of WW III. It isn't a comforting thought.

Given that today is Euler's birthday, we should celebrate with a Venn Diagram of some sort. I can't think of one but it should show that WW III would be caused by the intersection of US weakness in response to threats and the ever growing desire of failed regimes to steal more money from us in order to prop up their power for a few more years.

Summer Convention Schedule

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 17:39:59 GMT

Alabama Phoenix Festival - May 24 - 26 - Birmingham Alabama.

I know some of my friends will be here, so I may go ahead and show up. I originally was going to be in Alaska, but once that trip was canceled, I was happy to help out. They got me signed up for all sorts of things -some panels, some games, maybe a show, but now I'm apparently down to running one game when the schedule permits, probably not Saturday. Lets be honest, at this point I'd rather not go. If I wasn't going to be hanging out with Zen... I might not bother. There is an SCA event that weekend and I'd rather cook breakfast for 200 people than be bored in a hotel.

If somebody is going and has a decent reason I should be there, ping me or something. Otherwise I think I'll make other plans. I had a good time at SCI FI SUMMER CON Atlanta, so maybe I'll try them again. Worth thinking about.

Peace Through Superior Firepower

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:23:13 GMT

Lasers on Ships - This is lovely.

Now as I, or any self-respecting engineer, would tell you. This laser isn't very powerful. I mean, i can take a purple hand-held laser and cook a hole in a paper airplane, light a cigarette, or set gasoline on fire. This laser is ... 100,000 times more powerful than that. (but still pretty wussy.)

The biggest sea - danger these days are runabout boats. Basically 1000 Horsepower diesel engines strapped to a plywood gun platform. Their safety was that people have a hard time drawing a bead on a bouncing target moving at 70 knots at an angle to their bouncing platform moving at 30 knots. A rough shot, but a laser has - in computer time - roughly a million years to line up a shot at a gas line. Five seconds later the liabilities of stacking 1/2 a ton of flammable items on your boat becomes apparent.

Drones are a lot tougher than paper airplanes and puppies are cuter than zombies ... ya know ... Is this is the lowest hurdle you've soared over today? Drones catch fire... this indicates that they are not made out of titanium. Modern aircraft are frequently made out of such things as titanium, steel, carbon fiber composites, and rarely aluminum. All of which aren't catching fire anytime soon with a 100 kwatt laser. (But 20 years ago, 100 kwatt would have been a big improvement over what we could get into the lab.)

The fact is, this is a spiral development. The problems with fielding a laser are being tested ... even if the laser doesn't really fulfill the mission we want it for. The bigger lasers are in development. They may be 20 years away, but someday we will have them, on ships, poking holes in missiles and fighter jets. It really is a game changer...but not soon.

In the next decade, ships that throw shells 100 km at 7 kps will be common. Spare nuclear reactors will be put into future ships, so that they can install rail guns and lasers. Ships will, of necessity, harden themselves to incoming missiles and aircraft; killing their opponents from far over the horizon. Year after year, war advances to the drumbeat of technology. Alfred Nobel knew as much 100 years ago. Luckily, the drum is in our hands. Sleep well and dream of a safer tomorrow.

I don't even play golf... but I want one.

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 22:59:31 GMT

The only thing which makes this more perfect than any other hovercar, is that Bubba designed it. I did a skit, some ages ago, with Bo and Luke Skywalker and Princess Daisy. This takes me back to those good ole days...

"Luke, Luke, I am your Father Luke.... and yer uncle."

Evil Geniuses for a Better Tommorrow (EGBT) - Dragon Con 2013

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 21:04:52 GMT

Dr. DNA has suggested an Evil Projects... sort of a science fair for the EGBT inclined. I'm going to spend some time working on a brain in a jar.

Also may help him produce his DNA mixer - and margaritta maker. I think it produces a Pandagator if used properly...and an alcoholic beverage. My Brain in a Jar will show how good life after the de-body process can be. I hope I still have my artist on this, some latex work will be necessary that might be beyond my simple skills. I can make some awards for the best evil project.

Global Warming in the Economist

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 21:53:08 GMT

The Economist "A sensitive matter"

I would suggest, that any reasonable person looking at the heating rate would say something like. "Perhaps we should wait ten years to see how this temperature excursion is going before making any huge changes." It is clear that the trends do not favor the models. Note that the models look a lot better than they are. The actual "prediction" stage begins after 2005-ish. All the "good fit" areas are from Post-diction, predicting the future when you already know it. The honest truth is, after the models were started, the warming trends ended. Between 1975 and 2005 the Earth appears to have net warmed about 0.5 degrees Celsius. I don't know why this occurred, but I suspect that CO2 may have contributed. The predicted feedbacks did not occur.

People have gone to a lot of effort to convince me/others that the science of warming was good, but frankly CO2 was only good for a limited amount of warming. A nigh-infinite amount of CO2 added to the atmosphere only adds about 0.1 to 0.2 degrees of heating. Some of the warming is due to "bad math." Which is increasing the effective area represented by some measurements while reducing the area of others. Given the huge areas represented by only a handful of thermometer, especially in the arctic regions, this can bias results significantly. Between bad math and bad siting of temperature measurement devices, almost half of the heating might be dismissed. Some heating must also be attributed to the sun. The extremely active sun from the late 80's through 2001 might have had some warming effect. I'm not certain the extent, but 0.1 to 0.2 degrees is very reasonable.

So, where are we? Why would anyone want to fake global warming?

Governments need money. That is the raw measurement of power. Power to improve people's lives, but the power to control them. Good or bad, this is true about all governments. All of history is about the government's efforts to find more ways of taking money away from people, partly so that they can be the heroes and give a percentage of that money back. Taxes on Carbon, Taxes on fuel, regulations - a double tax, the government must hire people to oversee each regulation as well as receiving a fee for forms/license/etc. There is always a reason for more taxes, more regulations, more government employees to protect us.

The university professors back these government agendas because there are millions of dollars spent at their universities on these kinds of studies. Columbia (just as an example) is a huge government studies aggregate. They are making millions studying global warming. Of course, they are making a lot of money studying all kinds of things, but Global warming is "Hot" right now. In the past it was DDT, Ozone Holes, Global Cooling, whatever. Just another business I wish the government would get out of.

Just remember, it is an emergency right now to "fix" global warming for ONE reason. In ten years, they are just as sure as I am that there won't be a recognizable problem. They will take your money now and in ten years they won't be giving it back. They'll just hem and haw and find a new distraction to run you after. "Look, bison are 20% less fertile, this probably means the end of civilization in just 50 years!"

(Yes, i stole that from Fermilabs April Fools Page.) Look, the government is going to be the government. You can't expect them to grow a moral code that requires them to actually do their jobs and stop trying to steal your money. Governments have been behaving that way since Sumerian times, sooner or later there will be a revolt and we'll just have to start over. Till then, just don't get stampeded like a herd of bison. Use your heads. If it sounds like a ready-made case for government intervention... then expect that it is a scam. It usually is.

Zoo Pictures as Promised

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 04:49:02 GMT

Not sure how many pictures you will see without clicking the MORE link. This is my trip to the Memphis Zoo. Plus a lot of pictures of animals...my wife won't let me take a picture of her.

I am rocking the camel rides.
I make this look good.

Baby D was deeply unimpressed by the elephants. "from what Pooh said, I thought they'd be bigger."
(note the "daddy-proof shirt" It has markings for Head goes here, arms go here, snap this closed. I really appreciate it.)

In the Chinese exhibit, I re-enact a scene from Fat Ninja.

Baby D raises her pinky finger when drinking from a bottle, she is so delicate.

Vacation!

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 21:39:46 GMT

Yes, I actually went on a vacation. It was almost a mistake, but then ... wham!... I was vacationing. I didn't know what to do. The Memphis Zoo was fun. We spent about 8 hours walking around, my legs fell off, but we saw the whole thing.
The architecture was amusing, a blend of Egyptian, Log cabin, Native American Northwest, and Asian. (And a complete lack of understanding of the difference between Chinese and Japanese themes.)

I got glared at by a gorilla, charged by a grizzly, threatened by an ostrich, and generally made a pest of myself at all the local beasts. My wife will upload all the pictures, I promise there is one good for future blackmail in there...somewhere.

Of course, It would hardly be a party without radiation, right? I went and looked at the neutron generator at a facility I will let go un-named. (They have a state permit, but no need to antagonize the neighbors who probably think they are an electronics store.) They have a standing issue about radiation dose that I promised to give them a hand with. I made some measurements with their Bonner Ball neutron detector. I had some initial idea on what the results would be and I'll publish them at a later date. They appear to be on track for meeting all their requirements on radiation. Still, it was good fun to be running around with a Ball and running MCNPx code. I'm going to try to make a pretty picture for them... not sure I can remember how. Durn these braincells, stuff I knew how to do a few years ago is slipping away. I'll just have to spend some time playing with code. (durn)

The ball with the Geiger Counter on its back is a Bonner Ball...though there are other types of them.

I'll tell you something. If you want to get good at a code, you have to learn to play with it. I suspect the same thing is true with golf or cards. Just using it the same way every time gets you very little advancement. Trying to do something that might be impossible...well... that teaches you a lot. (Like don't try to divide conical sections with planes - weirdest problem I ever had.) I love to take MCNP and mimic other people's work, do it backwards, whatever sounds like a fun problem. Then I save those pages for when someone asks me to do something crazy. Suddenly I remember how I did some dose calculations back in .... (ok, long enough ago that you might not have been born) ... I look up the old methods, play with them a while, then produce a miracle. (Yes, Mr. Scott was a hero of mine.) If that is too vague a reference, I recommend you go get a dozen episodes of Star Trek - the original series - and play them. If you've never seen Star Trek... why are you reading my stuff?

"She cannae take much more of this Captain."

I also received a letter requesting that I post the link to a link accumulator which has a lot of space links. I warn you off the top that it is a commercial site - obviously it sells Disneyworld tickets - but the links look good so if you are weak on REAL space history - as opposed to fake future history like Star Trek - you should check them out. (and buy me ice cream. I clearly am the loser in that bet.)

http://www.orlandofuntickets.com/a-guide-to-space-exploration

What have I left out? Silver Star where Corbin and I busted each other up with live steel. Yep, a real dang sword fight. I also worked on outrunning kids in my full armor all day. Heck of a week of vacation. I'll get some pictures up, but we only got into town last night at 11 pm, got into bed around 12:30 am, and I was at work at 9 am. (yawn) Just an amazing vacation and the first I've had since... well... a long time ago.

A Serious Note

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 22:30:24 GMT

As I head off to a few days vacation, it is important to remember a few words.
"I can neither confirm nor deny any aspect of that program."
Not very exciting words? Well, for a man in my business - like tens of thousands of men and women in this field - those are the only words you will hear me say about the missile program.
I may play the mad scientist on the stage, but you would have to be crazy to tell a room full of possible foreign persons a single detail about our strategic position.
Here's a reminder not to tell your foreign lover national secrets
So, he thought he could trust his girlfriend...well... sure, we all do. We want to impress people with how important we are to national security/the space program/Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Really, and I mean this, none of us are particularly important. Sure, the president will be the guy pushing the proverbial button to start a war (or finish it,) But the decisions on all aspects of running that war were made in committee meetings, sub-committee meetings, and small offices all around the United States. The missiles have a hundred hands on them and were designed by thousands of people. Sure, a lot of people can get to Top Secret material, but that doesn't make you important - only a danger to your country.

New Spacesuit Design

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 22:55:06 GMT

I Love The Onion

Other Famous Examples of ...

As opposed to the traditional:

The Engineer's Baby - Career vs. Child

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 22:44:52 GMT

I don't know about you, but I've seen three articles today about women "having it all" despite having a child. It seems like the conversation remains between a "Hard Feminist" position and a normal woman. I'd define the "hard Feminist" position as one that would require a woman to get her education and achieve a significant rank in her career before damaging her promotions with a baby.

Billionaire Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has said that women"are not making it to the top of any profession anywhere in the world. The numbers tell the story . . . 190 heads of state — nine are women. Of all the people in parliaments in the world, 13 percent are women. In the corporate sector, women at the top . . . 15, 16 percent.”

A normal woman's position is attempting to balance planning for a child and planning for a career - but still under the context that she really needs to succeed in that career. I understand that some women see themselves as having the most to prove and the most to do with childcare, but I suspect that these articles are somewhat clueless about men in the workforce. They have spent so much time staring at women, they haven't looked at the man one desk over.

Men also have children. Sure, SOME men don't care. Some men just want the house to be ... an oasis from work. But frankly, these days guys like that don't have to get married or have kids, they just hook up on the weekends and stay single. Women who want to be CEO's of Facebook probably should stay single through college and focus on their careers till in their mid 30s.

Most guys I know have been married before they hit 30 and are busting ass at work and at home. Most men that I know devote a substantial amount of their time to their wife & kids. Usually, this meant a time in their careers when they "cut out at 5" (that means 4:30) to coach softball practice or something. Most of the guys out there are in the same boat - every hour at work is an hour they aren't playing bouncy chair with their babies.

Most managers are older, older folk who's kids are grown, their spouses have full time jobs or hobbies, and now they are focusing on their careers. Yeah, I remember a couple of managers at NASA that were pushing to get to GS 15 before they were 40, get the 6 figure income and the cool titles. One of those ran an extra-marital affair on his government credit card. The other ... well ... he stopped after a while. Maybe had a heart attack or some kind of life-change. He isn't a division chief anymore. Should women feel bad that they aren't throwing their lives away chasing money and titles? Seriously?

So, why am I chewing on this? I've put in my share of long weeks, you can't hardly get a degree in Nuclear Engineering without some 80 hour weeks. Just remember, nothing is that important. No "captain of industry" is much remembered ten years after he retires. I took last week off and played a lot of "bouncy chair." Definitely was worth it. Rich and famous? Well, I'm not on that track.

Weekend Geomagnetic Storm

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:44:02 GMT

In the excitement of my wife returning from vacation, I missed a nice coronal mass ejection (CME) which had a very high velocity >700 kms. There are some videos I've recovered from SOLARHAM.COM which show the CME and the resulting magnetic storm. Ok, you can't see a Geomagnetic storm, but a big ole storm tends to cause a large dump of charged particles into the Earth's atmosphere where the magnetic field lines terminate in the atmosphere. You will recognize this as Aurora. A fellow named Mike Criss posted the following aurora pictures and music on YouTube.

http://youtu.be/LYlw1G0qAcs

http://youtu.be/lZc4N7iH09Y

ps. sorry for missing a week. Wife went of vacation and I've been playing single dad. Between working and the baby I've been too busy to play on the internet.