The new law, championed by Frank Upton (D-MA) and Harry Waxman (R-CO), ranking members of the House Energy and Commercial Activity Committee, announced passage of the new law in an unprecedented joint press conference held in the Rotunda of the United States Capital.

The Rotunda created a notable and appropriate stage for this historic legislative announcement with George Washington’s image looking down upon the participants. Washington, the centerpiece of Constantino Brumidi’s fresco, The Apotheosis of Washington, has graced the Rotunda’s canopy since 1865.

The social investment tax seeks to level the economic field by encouraging the sales of traditional gasoline-powered vehicles, which are more economical to own for most Americans, who commute, on average, fewer than 40 miles a day. Hybrid vehicles, which sell for an average of $6,000 more than gasoline-only alternatives, have a lower total cost of ownership than hybrids. Average gasoline efficiency of American-built vehicles has increased to levels that approximate those of hybrid vehicles. Therefore, hybrid vehicles present no statistically significant increase in gasoline efficiency, yet cost significantly more to purchase and maintain. In addition, the environmental cost of disposal of the new lithium-ion battery systems in hybrid cards presents a challenge to the ecology.

Upton said, “We have no means of ecologically recycling the batteries. Building hundreds of thousands of these huge batteries will be a disaster to American landfills.” Waxman finished the comment with, “Unless we create incentives to not build batteries that will untimely be discarded, we are setting up American for ecological failure.”

The Senate has already agreed to pass the legislation, and most transportation economists expect that the legislation will become law and go into effect on June 1st.

Professor Zenith Nadir, from the University of Northern South Dakota expects that this increase in the cost of gasoline for hybrid vehicles will immediately affect hybrid sales. She said, “We can expect to see sales of hybrid vehicles drop by at last 37% by the end of the month and drop again by another 63% within six months of the bill’s passing.” Transportation economist Conveyance Parsimony seconds Nadir’s comment, “The death knell has sounded for hybrid vehicles.”

Most Americans, who drive gasoline cars, are in favor of this legislation, which they see as a penalty assessed to those latte-sipping liberal college-educated snobs that drive hybrids back and forth to their suburban specialty grocery stores to buy their Cuban chicken panini sandwiches slathered with roasted red pepper hummus.

P.S. Happy April Fools’ Day!

 

Maybe it was too much cabin pressure, but after a passenger attempted to retrieve overhead luggage and whacked Slater in the head, Slater had enough. He gave the passengers a piece of his mind over the airliner’s PA system, grabbed two beers, popped the emergency slide, and waved goodbye as he slid away to personal freedom.

At least once in life, everyone needs two beers and an escape chute.

 

Amazon’s e-book reader meets the criteria for an digital book reader that I described 20 years ago: easy to use, clear text, substantive capacity, over-the-air downloads.

Kindle 2 Physical Size & Capacity

The Kindle2 is lightweight, 10.2 oz, about the size of a trade paperback book,
8” by 5.3”, and about as thick as a magazine, 0.36”. It was surprisingly thinner and lighter than I expected. This makes the Kindle2 easy to hold and carry. I can slip the e-book reader into my notebook case or keep it in its own leather binder. Either way, it is smaller than all but a few of the paperback books in my library.

I currently have five dozen books installed in the Kindle’s memory, and I have used less than .09GB of the device’s 1.49GB of available memory. This means that I should be able to store about 1,000 books similar to the ones that I have already downloaded. However, the books that I have installed are significantly longer than most books: Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s, the complete collections of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s and Mark Twain’s. Some of the books that I have installed are each thousands of pages in length, so I expect that the average reader will be able to carry upwards of 2,000 typical length books. Not bad for a device that can be carried in purse or computer bag.

Available Content for Kindle

With a quarter million books available from Amazon.com and thousands more available for free from other sites, I have had no problem finding interesting material to read on my Kindle. I downloaded classics that are now in the public domain from feedbooks.com, others from Amazon.com. Most popular books sell for $9.99; however, I was surprised to find that many books cost less, many for under a dollar.

Whether I purchase the books using my notebook or Kindle’s web interface, the books immediately download via a cellular connection to the device.

The device includes a web browser through which I can access Google and Wikipedia, as well as most sites. Some complex HTML designs confuse the device’s browser, but for the most part, I have had no significant problems.

Many of the academic papers that I read are delivered in PDF. The Kindle cannot directly read PDF files; however, Amazon offers a free conversion service: I e-mail the PDF files to my private Amazon.com e-mail address, and the Kindle versions of the documents automatically download to my device within a few minutes.

Change in Reading Habit

What most struck me about the e-book reader is the ways that it has changed my reading habits. I have read a dozen books on the device during the last two weeks. During the same period I read two paperback and two hardcover books. I compared reading physical and digital books during the same period.

I never noticed it before, but reading a physical book presents a few challenges. My thumbs were tired after holding the physical books open; I had never taken notice of this problem before. In addition, I had difficulty taking notes while reading the physical books. When my writing hand moved to the pad on my knee or desk, the book folded over, making it difficult to refer to the text.

Neither of these physical problems occurred while reading on the Kindle. In addition, I noticed that I more closely focused on the content of the text, as the Kindle displays only a single page at a time. When making notes, I could lay the device down and easily write in my notebook. I experimented with the digital notetaking feature of the Kindle, but the device’s keyboard does not lend itself to fast typing, so I kept to my paper notes.

Recommendation

I recommend, without hesitation, Amazon’s new e-book reader. Whether you read books, magazines, newspapers, or other documents–or a combination–I think that you will find the Kindle 2 a welcome tool in your literary kit. Buy the Kindle 2 directly from Amazon.com through this hyperlink: Amazon Kindle 2.

 

This distributed network will allow all users of the new Linux version to share one another’s central processing units (CPU). Users who are not taking full advantage of their computers’ CPUs will automatically share available CPU cycles with those Linux users who are executing procedures that can take advantage of extra cycles that exceed their own computer’s CPU.

Distributed networks, such as the Seti@Home project, which now requires the BOINC application, enable potentially millions of computer CPUs to share the effort of calculating complex formulae and searching large data pools. BOINC and Seti@Home are provided courtesy of the University of California, Berkeley.

The new Linux distribution, while similar to the BOINC network in effect, will not require the installation of the BOINC client software. By design, each computer on which the new version of Linux is installed will automatically seek out other similar installations and connect seamlessly into a distributed network, all without requiring the user’s taking any affirmative consent or action. The net effect of will be a global distributed network of Linux computers, some of which have hundreds of thousands of CPUs already networked into a single cluster, will share the processing power of one another’s CPUs.

A single user executing an application that requires trillions of CPU cycles may find the application completing in seconds, as the Linux distributed network shared the applications execution across hundreds of free CPUs. Given that Linux is used worldwide, free CPU cycles are expected to always be available, as computers are usually left running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Those computers that are expected to provide the greatest service are Web servers, which are connected to the Internet backbone through high bandwith connections. Home users connected via broadband will also provide a solid foundation to this new distributed Linux network, especially those with fiber to the home connections that have high speed upstream connections.

 

Large Hadron Collider

While the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest high-energy particle accelerator, was not expected to come online and be available for research activities for another six months, this information-transfer process was tested during the system’s post-installation efficacy evaluation process (PIEEP). The LHC resides within a 27 km circumference underground tunnel that ranges in depth below ground level from 50 to 150 meters.

The telecommunications network, which requires no physical interstitial points of transmission, will allow transmission bandwidth of at least 100MB/s between endpoints. Owing to the quantum distribution properties of protons and the availability of unused geosynchronous satellites currently in orbit, terrestrial endpoints may be located anywhere and airborne endpoints may be located to a maximum altitude of 150 miles above the surface of the Earth.

Technology Background

A proton is a subatomic particle with a positive electrical charge of one fundamental unit (1.602 x 10-19 coulomb). The CERN scientists, led by Dr. Albus Luminare, were able to store 8 bytes of quantum data within a single photon of pure white light. Using light photons, which travel through a vacuum at 299,792,458 meters per second, the scientists were able to effect the high bandwidth data network, creating multiple individual channels of data between two end points at near fiber-optic speed.

The current research demonstrates that data transmission does not have to be limited to a single transmission medium, such as a fiber-optic cable. Rather, multiple independent transmission streams may be effected through the use of quantum entanglement, and directed focus mirrors, which allow the digital data to be transmitted without the need of physical cables. Data endpoints may transmit and receive data between cellular and internet endpoints using satellite-based mirrors, literally reflecting the multiple data streams off mirrors in geostationary orbit, 22,500 miles above the surface of the Earth.

Dr. Luminare, chairman of the Worldwide System Hardware Language Infrastructure Systems & Technology Symposium (WiSHLISTS), has announced that the charitable organization will license—at no cost–the new technology, called the Proton-based Information System (PIS), to nations willing to offer free nationalized cellular and internet service to citizens, without restriction.

Dave’s Opinion

The PIS network sounds the death knell for terrestrial telephone and broadband providers. My sources confirm that the symposium’s services will be available before the end of the year, and I expect to see a plethora of new mobile digital devices that will take advantage of this high-speed data network.
It is fortunate that Dr. Luminaire’s team of scientists conducted their research during the LHC’s PIEEP phase, as CERN reported earlier this week that the LHC suffered a failure of its three quadrupole magnets.

Call for Comments

What do you think? Leave your comments below.

References

CERN
LHC Magnet Test Failure

 

Knowledge is power, when it is wielded to advantage. I came to consider this caveat a few months ago, when my wife challenged me with the question, “What are you going to do with all of the books that you read?” What was left unsaid in her question was, what would I do with the knowledge that I gained from reading the books?

Listen to the podcast at Internet Archive.

I have been pondering that question since last autumn, and I do not yet have an answer. Last June, when the Discovery Channel ran the special Krakatoa: Volcano of Destruction, I reserved a Sunday evening to watch the show. During the two weeks leading up to the show, I read every book on Karatoau and volcanoes that were in my county library, which is ranked first in the nation among great public libraries. Since then, I have had a simmering interest in geology, and I have read a few dozen more books on the general subject. This behavior is not unusual for me…I frequently find a topic piquing my interest, and I delve into it obsessively.

But, so what? What will I do with my broad introductory knowledge of geology and volcanism? I do not yet have an answer. My family and friends invite me to be on their team, when we play Trivial Pursuit, and I win our annual family vacation game of Who can state the most esoteric fact?…although, I have a wife and sister-in-law who give me a run for my money!

I am filled with questions, and I create new questions to be answered, throughout the day. I write my questions and queer tidbits of data in a small notebook that I carry in my backpack; here are a few examples:

1. Orthography: writing system
2. Orthoepy: pronunciation (phonology)
3. Out of a group of 23 people, there is a 75 percent chance of two sharing the same birthday.
4. There are an estimated 100 billion stars in a galaxy, 100 billion galaxies in the universe; the universe is 13.8 billion years old.
5. A. Einstein wrote, “Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”
6. Galileo’s principle of relativity: So long as one is moving at a constant velocity, there is nothing one can do to measure the speed of motion–or whether motion exists at all.
7. Coins (money) have milled edges to prevent counterfeiters’ clipping off edges to make new coins.
8. There were 250 individual languages and cultures in North America at the time of Columbus’s landing.
9. Stochastic resonance is the physical noise from solar variations. Stochastic resonance is also used as background noise to improve faint signal reception in both electronic and audio transmission.
10. Fluctuations in the height of the oceans may explain the 10,000-year periodicity of Earth’s ice ages.

I have created a world for myself in which I can explore topics that have immediate interest; however, I have not yet figured out how to put the knowledge that I gain to advantage (other than by making interesting dinner conversation and winning at a board game).

On the other hand, I also delved into the learning and thinking about the application of information technology, specific digital technology, with the same passion, and I was fortunate to build two businesses from this knowledge (and eventually return to academic teaching).

I encourage us all to be passionate about learning and to constantly seek applications for our knowledge.

 

It is estimated, based on Technorati’s numbers, that the blogosphere, the global blog space, is doubling in size about every six months.

One hundred and seventy-five thousand blogs are created every day–two every second. These aren’t blog entires, but new blogs, each with dozens to thousands of articles. an estimated 1.6 million entries are posted to blogs each day–eighteen per second. These numbers do not account for the comments, trackback pings, and e-mail distributions that follow many of the articles.

While most bloggers post in English–about thirty-nine percent–thirty-one percent ware written in Japanese. Together, these languages comprise seventy percent of the blogosphere.

Call for Comments
What do you think? Please leave your comments below.

References
Technorati

 

Having completed the first milestone in their pilot training, the cadets are now preparing for their written academic test, which they will complete by this coming Sunday.

Kudos go to both the cadet student pilots and their instructors. Both the students and instructors deserve credit for their volunteer efforts to prepare a new cadre of pilots. I wish them all well.

Details
CAP Student Pilots Prepare to Solo in Hagerstown

 

The Maryland Wing of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) is hosting a 10-day solo school for highly-motivated cadets at the Hagerstown Regional Airport-Richard A Henson Field. My friend, Dan, is one of the flight instructors at the school; he invited me to come out to meet the cadets and have lunch, today.

I picked up my favorite CAP aircraft at Tipton Airport at Fort Meade, Maryland, and flew out to Hagerstown. The weather, today, is absolutely perfect for visual flying: 10 mile visibility, low winds, and about 65 degrees (up at 5,500 feet). The cool air is a welcome relief, after a week of record-breaking temperatures.

When I arrived, Dan was preparing to take off wth a student to practice steep turns and emergency procedures. I was invited to fly along in the back seat, but I opted to wait in the pilot’s lounge. Aviation maneuvers are tough enough when I’m the pilot; I don’t want to sit through them in a cramped back seat. Other cadets were hard at work preparing for their ground school test. They have just over week to prepare for and complete a written test and a practical test that will culminate in their flying solo in the traffic pattern, a major milestone for all pilots. The first solo flight is often more emotionally rewarding than completing the requirements for a pilot’s certificate, as it is the first time that a student pilot is able to demonstrate autonomy in the cockpit, through three take-offs and landings.

Although we had planned on eating lunch at a restaurant, the cadets and CAP senior members talked Dan and me into eating with them, and I’m glad that we did. There’s not much that complements a good meal as much as camaraderie.

I think that I may return to Hagerstown on Wednesday, so I can watch the students solo. They deserve my cheers.

 

John Stossel’s latest book, Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel–Why Everything You Know is Wrong is a fun, quick read. I learned that the United States spends more on public education than we do on military spending: I am furious that we spend $536 billon each year on elementary and secondary education* and many adults that I meet are poor readers and absolutely horrendous writers. I must incorporate a few hours of basic grammar and composition lecture into each of my university classes, for both undergraduate and graduate students! Give me a break!

This book is a must read for every citizen that desires who seeks to be informed and is willing to have his or her opinions challenged.

*I confirmed this number on the U.S. Department of Education website.

Recommendation: Read Now

Buy this book at Amazon.com

 

Chesapeake Invader is a difficult read, as Poag adopts a pedagogic writing style that lacks the grace and fluidity of a science writer experienced in writing books for the public.

Rather than putting the meteorite’s impact in either social or geographic perspective, Poag focuses on the technical details of geology, submarine stratification, tsunami and extinction. The later two topics were well developed and offered the most interesting reading.

The details were presented in a clear, systematic manner that, I judge, would be too simplistic for a geologist, yet were presented out of social context, leaving them to be less interesting to the general reader.

Recommendation: Read if you have a particular interst in the subject.

Buy this book at Amazon.com

 

I enjoyed reading It’s Raining Frogs and Fishes more than any other books, this season. It is fun romp through the natural sciences, organized by annual season: spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

Dennis describes natural weather patterns and their effects, including a particularly lucid explanation of the Coriolis effect. As a certified pilot, I have studied weather extensively, and I wish I had read this book, during my training; it is much more readable than the aviation weather texts I have previously read.

The book is chock full of accessible explanations of the causes of heat, hail, and halos.

I judge this is a book that appropriate for each household’s bookshelf; it is a perfect family reading. I have ordered a personal copy for my family’s collection!

Recommendation: Read Now

Buy this book at Amazon.com

 

I enjoyed this Krakatoa, immensely, just as I have each of Winchester’s other books. I am preparing to watch the Discover Channel special on Krakatoa, and I wanted to gain a factually-accurate, social perspective of the August 27, 1883 event before watching the televised show.

Winchester, in his trademark 360 degree evaluation style, lead me through the geologic and scientific history of this South Pacific area, now known as Indonesia. The volcano does not begin to erupt until page 209—more than halfway through the book. By the time the events of Monday, August 27th are described, I had a firm understanding of the affected people,, both the Dutch colonialists and the indigenous.

Following the detailed description of the events that took up much of the 1883 summer, Winchester explains the social effects the explosions had: the growth of fundamentalist Islam, leading to Indonesia’s becoming the most populous Muslim country in the world, with 170 million members of the Islamic faith.

Recommendation: Read

Buy this book at Amazon.com

 

Initial tests of the EUBPAWT system confirm that reptiles and mammals can be converted to photons of light, transported through a hydrogen gas tube, and delivered, intact, over a distance of up to one statute mile (1.609 km).

Working with research scientists from the Stanford School for Graduate Physics and Engineering, as well as the University of Aberdeen Institute of Advanced Molecular Research, military scientists have successfully tested the EUBPAWT system on soldiers, weighing up to 180 lbs (81.646 kg), successfully quantum transporting them using the flexible gas-tight polycarbonate tube, across a psuedo-urban test environment. without the need to pass through the intervening space. According to Major General W. Herbert Walters, author of the joint military release, “…in plain English, the courageous volunteers stepped into the transporter and were immediately delivered to the reception station. While the laws of quantum mechanics are too complex to include in the announcement, suffice it to say that the soldiers were delivered to the intended destination without passing through the intervening space. One moment they were here, the next they were there.”

Dr. Richard Heisenberg, professor of quantum physics at the Aberdeen laboratory, directed the initial experiments and was present for the successful human test, conducted in the presence of media and peer review committees. Many of the Aberdeen and Stanford research team members were uncertain if the four volunteers would actually survive the proton-hydrogen transport.

Much of the scientists’ incertitude began with Werner Heisenberg, Richard’s namesake, who was the first scientist to realize that certain pairs of measurements have an intrinsic uncertainty associated with them and published his theory, in 1927, in his seminal uncertainty paper. For instance, if you have a very good idea of where something is located, then, to a certain degree, you must have a poor idea of how fast it is moving or in what direction. Now referred to as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, in effect, the principle states that within the principles of quantum mechanics one can’t measure both the direction and speed of a moving object.

Dave’s Opinion
If you are a long-time reader of my work, you know that I have been following the development of quantum devices for many years. This project appears to be the first equipment created following the rules of quantum mechanics to demonstrate an immediate and useful application of quantum teleportation.

I will keep you informed as I earn more about this device and the application of quantum teleportation, which may provide a safe and effective means of allowing the military forces to traverse the intricate urban landscape surrounding the nuclear weapons facilities built by the Iranian government, just west of Tehran.

Call for Comments
What do you think? Please leave your comments below.

References
US Department of Defense
UK Ministry of Defence

 

Charles Darwin, born February 12, 1809, in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England is a member of a privileged family; he went on to study both medicine and theology. His most famous work, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (often abbreviated as The Origin of Species) describes the processes of development, competition, and death in the natural selection of biological attributes that most effectively support variation (incipient species, as Darwin preferred).

Darwin, In the news this past year as a rallying call for religious arguments against evolution, described natural selection more so than evolution, Darwin’s work has been placed in counterpoint to the rigorist religious calls for the inclusion of intelligent design in public school science curricula. Natural selection, as described by Darwin, is, currently, the greatest challenge to the fundamental tenets of religion, that an omniscient hand created the universe: the complexity of life is such that it could not possibly have been created through a scientifically-explainable process.

Also born on the same day was Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States, on Sinking Spring Farm in the Southeast part of Hardin County, Kentucky to an uneducated, but relatively affluent family; he received about 18 months of formal education from itinerant teachers, yet earned a liberal education through his own efforts; he never joined a church. His personal opinions are best exemplified in his, arguably, most famous work, his second inaugural address. Rallying the nation with religious references, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in,” Lincoln recognized the common values shared by most Americans, one of which was a strong religious foundation.

It as mystery, although I judge not one of a religious nature, that two men, so well known, could be born within hours of each other, hold such distinctly different religious opinions, and yet, be remembered–out of context–for, not their values and beliefs, but for a few words that they left behind.

 

I have written about Orville’s Restaurant before, and I think it is worth writing about, again. The restaurant is small, quiet, and family-friendly. I pulled up in the Civil Air Patrol plane that I was flying for the day, and parked right next to the restaurant’s entrance.

The dining area was pleasantly full, with many diverse and and friendly conversations in progress. I ordered a half turkey sandwich and bowl of soup. My food arrived in only a few minutes, and my waitress recognized from my uniform (and vehicle) that I was probably in no mood to hang around. She had my check ready, and I was back in the air soon after finishing my meal.

If you are in the York Pennsylvania area, I suggest that you stop by Orville’s for lunch, regardless of whether your vehicle has three wheels or four.

 

Saturday evening, the world’s most accurate clocks will read, 23:59:59, 23:59:60, 00:00:00; normally there is no sixtieth second in a minute, but for one second this weekend, time will be created, effectively slowing down the world’s clocks.

Dave’s Opinion
I hope that my radio-controlled clocks will be quick to pickup the adjustment; I would hate to to have my clocks be inaccurate.

References
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_second

Call for Comments
What do you think? Leave your comments below.

 

Quantum computers can use individual atoms to store binary quantum bits (qubits) of data (0 or 1), much like traditional computer microprocessors; however, the rules of quantum physics apply at the atomic level, one of the rules being that a qubit may hold multiple states simultaneously and multiple qubits may be linked through quantum entanglement, leading to increases in some types of processing speed.

A quantum computer requires the qubit to be trapped, prevented from normal interaction with the outside world. The University of Michigan project allows for multiple trapped qubits to be integrated, scaled to a useful level. Initial reviews indicate that the university’s project may be scaled to hundreds of thousands of integrated qubits.

Dave’s Opinion
Should the University of Michigan’s project develop into a scalable quantum computer chip, it would be a watershed in the development of quantum computer, opening the door to commercial applications for computing at the atomic level.

Call for Comments
What do you think? Please leave your comments below.

References
University of Michigan

 

Every year, flights are delayed by mice, rates, snakes, spiders, and other unticketed critters. Some of the animals travel in the cargo hold, but many travel in the passenger compartment, maybe even in the first class section.

According to the paper, in July 2002 a small dog got loose in the cargo hold and gnawed electrical cables, causing the aircraft to be out of service for nine days. A big, hairy spider delayed an Air France flight for five hours earlier this year, while staff searched for the arachnid.

Swissair flights were delayed this year while a rat and an orange snake were hunted. The orange snake came abord in a passenger’s pocket, but found its accomodations a bit cramped and needed to stretch out, a bit.

Airlines sometimes use traps to capture onboard pests, but more often, they resort to either fumigation or carbon dioxide poisoning. The cost of filling the aircraft with CO₂ can easily cost $11,500, plus the cost of lost productivity as the plane sits in the maintenance area for a few hours.

Dave’s Opinion
Have you thought of bringing a pet on board? If so, plan ahead. Prepare your pet for travel, possibly including sedating the animal, and make sure the travel crate has a secure lock. Under no conditions, should you carry your four-legged (or slithering) family member in the passenger compartment.

What do you think? Please leave your comments below.

 

The European scientists think that a major contributor to global warming is the methane emissions generated by cattle. Globally, 1.4 billion cows produce 500 liters of methane each day, approximately 14% of the world’s methane emissions.

By altering the animal’s diet, methane emissions can be reduced by up to 70%. This would be a significant change to the effect of global greenhouse gas, as methane has a warming capacity 23 times greater than carbon dioxide, the leading contributor to global warming. Reducing ruminant methane by 70% is equivalent to reducing carbon dioxide production by 8,000 liters a day.

Scientists at the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, have developed a bovine diet that includes a mixture of organic sugars and a bacterium. The resulting mixture is similar to fumaric acid that in experiments reduced methane emissions by 70%.

Dave’s Opinion
As of 2003, the most recent report I was able to access, U.S. energy production is the the largest producer of methane; however agriculture, including the production of ruminant animals, contributed 72% as much of the greenhouse gas, more than waste management and industrial process combined.

What’s surprising to me about this recent research is that it’s taken so long to consider ways to reduce methane emissions from ruminant animals.

 

For example, the numbers 212, 911, 1040, and 1776 appear more frequently because they refer, respectively, to a New York City telephone area code, an emergency services telephone number, the Internal Revenue Service personal tax form, and a year associated with the American Revolution.

The frequency of each number’s entry in search engines reflects not only our culture, but possibly our cognitive preferences, especially for the numbers 1-10, and powers of 10 (i.e. 100;, 1,000; 10,000).

Dave’s Opinion
I’ve long been intrigued by numbers, both as a reflection of my interest in history (ex. 1066, 1776, 1865, 1945) and my desire to amend my poor showing in college calculus. I assume that we all have emotional scars that we seek to heal, and my skill–or lack of–at mathematics is one is one of mine.

This site may pique your interest or it may bore you. Either way, I think you’ll agree that in either case, numbers are intriguing for many.

Call for Comments
What do you think? Leave your comments below.

References
The Secret Life of Numbers

 

The weather was sunny and clear, with a 10 knot wind blowing steadily from 280 degrees. We launched each of the six sorties on runway 30, using a Maule MT-7-235 as our tow plane.

We released the glider from the tow plane at 3000′ AGL, which gave us about 30 minutes of soaring time. All of the cadets and I found our orientation flight both exciting and educational. We learned the fundamentals of turns, slow flight, steep turns, stalls, and wing overs. As a pilot of powered aircraft I found it the sensations of the glider not unlike those that I experience in powered aircraft, but it was a bit unnerving to enter the traffic pattern and setup for landing knowing that there really is only one opportunity to get it right. It reminded me of my simulated engine-out landings, but this really was a one-change, no-power landing.

The silent soaring environment helped me feel as if I were flying. The bubble canopy afforded a unobstructed view on both sides of the aircraft as well above. When I started following the hawks and picked up a thermal, I felt as if I were flying, not just piloting an aircraft.

Our CAP hosts were gracious teachers. Both the senior members and cadets taught my squadron’s members the safety and operational procedures of flightline ground operations. We had to move quickly on the ground because we had only a couple of minutes to push the glider onto the runway, connect the tow line, and get the aircraft underway…we didn’t want to hold up other powered aircraft that were about to enter the traffic pattern.

The mother of one of our host cadets spent the day being our "tow mom", and she patiently waited for each sortie to land so that she could help us by towing the aircraft on grass, back to its lauch point at the end of the runway. If it weren’t for her willingness to stay with us, we would have had to push the aircraft through the grass, a task that I would not wished on anyone!

I was impressed by the high standards that all of the senior and cadet members displayed, especially in regard to safety. We stopped operations half way through to hold a second safety briefing, a valuable procedure that prevents overconfidence and carelessness.

As one of my squadron’s Aerospace Education Officers, I helped the cadets, all of whom are middle or high school students, to understand the airborne operations that take place around a busy municipal airport. The cadets practiced keeping track of aircraft in the traffic pattern and listening to the radio for incoming jet traffic on a runway that was perpendicular to our active runway.

I encourage all young people (and those who are young at heart) to consider learning more about the Civil Air Patrol and its mission as the United States Air Force Auxiliary. You may find more details at cap.gov.

 

Consumer web use favors affluent, young, and educated users. Almost all, 95 percent, of households with a combined income over $100,000 annually have at least one computer, and 92 percent of this demographic are online. By comparison, households earning under $40,000 have a 41 percent online access rate, still a significant number.

Popular consumer online activities include gathering news, weather, and sports data; seeking government and health information, and job searching.

The most wired areas of the country were in the west, and the least wired were in the south.

According to a report released in October 2005 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 22 percent of American adults has never used the internet or email and does not live in a wired household; yet, 53 percent of home internet users has broadband access. The distinction usage through broadband and lower-technology dial-up service is significant.

Dave’s Comments
Interestingly, 62 percent, about two-thirds, of households with college graduates have broadband access to the net, while only 44 percent of households of high school graduates have broadband service. The Pew Internet & American Life project also reported that access speed is a greater predictor of online behavior than is the user’s experience. Broadband users are more likely to engage in a broad range of online activities than dial-up users. I have found this true, for myself, even within the broadband usage range. When I have a 6 Mbps or faster connection I am more likely to frequently maintain backups of my websites, download software updates, and participate in other bandwidth-intensive activities. When I connect to slower, yet still broadband, networks, such as residential DSL networks, I’m more likely to restrict my online activities to e-mail and web reading.

Call for Comments
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References
Digital Divisions (Pew Internet & American Life Project)

 

I was out for a bit of early fall proficiency flying in a Civil Air Patrol Cessna 172 that is based at Tipton Airport. My goal was to practice a few crosswind landings at Carroll County Regional Airport/Jack B Poage Field and York Airport, but my stomach started growling. I pulled up in front of the FBO at York and asked if the restaurant was still open.

Luckily for me not only was the restaurant open, but another pilot, also named Dave, was just sitting down for lunch. We shared a table and a couple of bowls of the best crab soup that I’ve had in a long time.

The soup was full of large chunks of crab meat, fresh vegetables, and a well-spiced broth. It’s definititely worth plotting a course to York and stopping by Orville’s Restaurant…just remember, the restaurant is closed on Mondays.

I hope to see you at Orville’s soon!

 

The principles of quantum mechanics allow for superpositions, in which a bit of memory may represent both 0 and 1 at the same time. The recent experiments, using beryllium ions, have created a less volatile data storage medium with a useful storage period over a million times longer than is necessary to enable quantum data processing.

Dave’s Opinion
The scientists at NIST have made a great leap forward in the development of quantum memory. Rather than relying on data backup and duplication to create a fault tolerant environment, the longer lasting memory may serve to protect data bits while they are being used for calculations and processing.

Call for Comments
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References
NIST

Related Articles
Quantum Computer to be Ready in Three Years

 

Other researchers have been able to slow, and in some cases, completely stop the speed of light; however, each previous experiment required controlled laboratory condition. The EPFL scientists, based in Switzerland, have demonstrated a methodology for speed control without the need for specialized equipment. Rather, standard optical fibers are used as the medium in which the experiment took place. The speed of the light signal can easily be adjusted, allowing the operator to control the transmission speed over a wide variance.

This is not just a scientific novelty. The ability to accelerate and decelerate the speed at light travels in a fully-optical environment will have profound impact on the telecommunication’s industry, which relies heavily on fiber-optic cable for both long-haul and short-hop data connectivity. Currently fiber-optic transmissions must be converted to slower electrical transmissions before the data can be processed. Data traveling at the speed of light that is controllable may allow all-optical data transmission media, eliminating the current need for electrical conversion.

The EPFL scientists demonstrated the creation of optical memory using their Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) method, which decelerated the light transmission by 72 percent.

Dave’s Opinion
One of the personal benefits that I see to an all optical network is faster data transmission speeds, both for corporate and consumer networks. Currently, broadband bandwidth is throttled to prevent electrical switches from being overtaxed during peak loads. The available bandwidth is limited to prevent excessive peaks in requested bandwidth. An all-optical network, with increased available bandwidth may increase the users’ available bandwidth, even allowing for management by pro-rata share and throttling.

Call for Comments
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References
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

 

InStep is an intensive internship program of up to 24 weeks, giving select students hands-on experience developing state-of-the-art software services and solutions in Infosys’ global development centers across the globe.

Dave’s Comments
I think this is a wonderful educational opportunity for MBA candidates, most of whom will shortly be responsible for making decisions that will affect thousands of U.S. employees. Seeing how outsourcing can be applied, to benefit both U.S. and Indian workers is an excellent learning tool, one that will have long term positive effects for the global marketplace.

Call for Comments
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References
Infosys Technologies, Ltd.

 

Many digital devices, including everyone’s personal computer, have built-in clocks that keep track of the current date and time. These devices usually have internal calendars that automatically adjust for daylight saving time each spring and return to standard time in the autumn. The new law will move the start of daylight saving time forward by three weeks and extend it by a total of four weeks. So, for four weeks each year, digital devices that do not account for the changes in DST dates will be off by an hour.

Many people wait to make cellular calls until their free nighttime minutes begin. If the cellular nighttime schedule is off by an hour, nocturnal conversations could easily run up almost $1,000 a month in per-minute charges.

Dave’s Opinion
I expect that Microsoft will quickly release a patch to Microsoft Windows XP and 2003 so users of these operating systems will see the correct time in the system task bar; however, users of older versions of Windows, such as Windows 95/98/Me/2000 may be out of luck. Microsoft no longer offer full updates service for these operating systems.

I hope that Palm offers a patch for my handheld computer. I rely totally on my Tungsten E2 to keep me on time for my appointments.

Thankfully, I wake up to a digital alarm clock that synchronizes with an atomic clock via a radio signal, so I should get up at the right time, each day. But, will I know when to go to bed?

Call for Comments
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The 2-2-2 breakfast includes two eggs, two pancakes, and two sausages. Even though the price is raised on weekends and holidays to $3,75, it’s a breakfast worth flying for. The pancakes filled the plate, and the well-browned sausages were fat and juicy.

We both ordered the 2-2-2, although with diffent egg preparations: scrambled and fried. I have yet to have a bad meal at Jimmy’s Restaurant…I might even drive up to Georgetown, this summer, while we’re vacatationing at the Delaware beach.

 

About 1000 AD, the Archimedes treatises were scribed onto parchment; however, about 200 years later, the text and diagrams were erased to allow the valuable writing material to be reused. Christian prayers, written in Greek, were scribed over Archimedes’ words, creating a palimpsest, a reused parchment. The prayer book was used in religious study for seven hundred years, until Danish philologist John Ludvig Heiberg discovered the palimpsest in the library of The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in Istanbul. It was Heiberg who recognized that the document was a palimpsest and contained text and diagrams that were authored by Archimedes.

Stanford’s accelerator is able to detect tiny amounts of iron in the erased ink by using x-rays so cause the iron to fluoresce, to glow. Most of the text was revealed by scientists at Johns Hopkins University and the Rochester Institute of Technology, using digital cameras and ultraviolet or infrared filters, the accelerator will help to fill in the missing parts. This palimpsest contains the only copy of Archimedes’ treatise, “Method of Mechanical Theorems,” which describes how the mathematician used mechanical means to develop his theorems, and the only original Greek version of the treatise “On Floating Bodies,” in which Archimedes addresses the physics related to flotation and gravity.

Dave’s Opinion
All I can say is Eureka!

Call for Comments
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Access to Google News, the New York Times, British Broadcasting Service, local weather and moving listings, and Google’s Gmail service can be displayed on a single homepage, along with a dialogue to Google’s flagship search engine.

Dave’s Opinion
I think this is a convenient way to quickly glance at the news without any of the annoying ads served up by Microsoft and Yahoo! I need all that annoying eye candy like I need a hole in the head.

Have you been coveting a Gmail invitation? I found over a million of ‘em on isnoop.net. If you’ve got a few invitations to share, I’m sure isnoop.net would love to help give them away. Be generous.

Call for Comments
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References
Google’s Homepage Creator
isnoop.net Gmailomatic

 

The broad support from the nation’s urban leaders took the computer and telecommunications industries by surprise. Most technologists expected the legislation to die in committee, after being supported by only a few House members, all of which are from rural areas.

Dave’s Opinion
As the law reads, both commercial and residential Wi-Fi networks will be rendered illegal, reportedly to clear a broad path through the 2.4GHz radio spectrum. Most networks that I have helped to install in the last two years have either been fully wireless (Wi-Fi) or included a Wi-Fi subnet.

Call for Comments
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1. Every gallon of ink used by consumer ink jet printers creates two tons of garbage, including the cartridge and it’s packaging.

2. The first atomic clock was originally set to the time on Albert Einstein’s pocket watch.
3. George Washington was a self-avowed atheist.

If trivia like these tickle your fancy then read on.

The three trivial statements above are taken from a fun website, gullible.info, I want to give the authors credit, both for their writing and their sense of humor. None of the statements is true, yet they each sound accurate. At first, I accepted them as true, because I took them at face value, not analysing and evaluating their veracity and accuracy. But now, I have to fess up; I’ve really presented them as a come-on, hoping that once you’re here, you’ll read further. I’m sorry for attempting to dupe you.

I’m challenged to write this article after facilitating a set of classes in the past month that addressed the topics of ethics and focused on the application of critical thinking to the evaluation of ethical considerations. What struck me in facilitating the classroom conversations is that many of the students, all thoughtful, well-educated adults, failed to apply the general principles of analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and evaluation when discussing whether common actions were appropriate (right or wrong). I was intrigued by the number of opinions that were formed based on untested truths.

For example, many adult students saw nothing wrong with distributing digital music that was protected by copyright and distribution reservations if the music was originally given to them (if they didn’t steal it directly, themselves). The opinions agreed that it would be acceptable to distribute exact copies of someone else’s commercial work, so long as the distributor didn’t pilfer the work, but received it gratis from someone else (even the original pilferer).

So, by extension, would it be acceptable for me to receive stolen objects and share them with a friend? What if the shared object were the booty of a bank heist? Isn’t there a law against possessing stolen objects?

I introduced the topic of digital ethics by posing a question regarding the use of pop-up and banner advertisement blocking software: is it ethically acceptable to use ad-blocking software to view commercial websites that offer free content and commercial advertisements?

In all classes, this question generated a lot of conversation, but in general, it was a question that the participants had not yet considered. If I were to use blocking software, such as the AdBlock extension to the Mozilla Firefox webbrowser, would I be accepting the content in a manner other than was intended (even licensed) by the provider? Is it ethical to take something without consideration for the desires and expectations of the provider?

What do you think? Is it proper (not just acceptable) to view commercial webpages using ad-blocking software?

 

We practiced landing under the control of the tower folk at Salisbury, and then flew north to Sussex County, a small uncontrolled airport, very near to my family’s summer vacation spot.

Airport restaurants are typically good places for lunch, and Jimmy’s Restaurant at the Sussex County Airport was true to form. The service was friendly and the food came out quickly and well prepared, it was one of the best $100 hamburgers I’ve ever eaten. The next time I’m flying or driving near Georgetown, Delaware, I’ll definitely eat at Jimmy’s. I suggest that you do, too.