Over $200 trillion dollars? Sadly, give our current policies, I can believe it.
Category Archives: Media Criticism
The Colliers Series
Started sixty years ago, introducing the American public to the coming age of space. It later led to a series of Disney short animations, shown on Sunday nights.
Test-Tube Hamburger
This could be a useful breakthough in terms of a cheaper protein source. Via Natural News, who is naturally whining about it.
[Update a few minutes later]
This seems sort of related: Red meat makes you happier. The science is settled!
Is Climatology Pseudoscience?
Some thoughts from Judith Curry (and indirectly, Gary Taubes).
I think that it’s become pretty clear that regardless of the status of climatology per se, many of its leading practitioners, or at least, most-public proponents, have shown themselves to be pseudoscientists. And specifically, I mean Michael Mann, Phil Jones, and James Hansen among others (not to mention the disgraceful and disgraced Peter Gleick).
Tree-Ring Data Bias
Another reason trees make lousy thermometers.
Oil Production On Federal Lands
Salazar lied.
Shocking, I know.
Reinventing The Busemann Biplane
Here we go again. Folks at MIT are proposing a low-drag low-boom supersonic aircraft, but this is a head scratcher to me:
Through calculations, Busemann found that a biplane design could essentially do away with shock waves. Each wing of the design, when seen from the side, is shaped like a flattened triangle, with the top and bottom wings pointing toward each other. The configuration, according to his calculations, cancels out shock waves produced by each wing alone.
However, the design lacks lift: The two wings create a very narrow channel through which only a limited amount of air can flow. When transitioning to supersonic speeds, the channel, Wang says, could essentially “choke,” creating incredible drag. While the design could work beautifully at supersonic speeds, it can’t overcome the drag to reach those speeds.
If the design “lacks lift” (which it does — that’s the problem with a Busemann biplane) how does it “work beautifully at supersonic speeds”? What holds the airplane up?
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Twitter Has Broken AP’s “Breaking”
Heh.
I will confess a little irony, though, in the fact I got this off a twenty-hour-old tweet.
