Will it work in the Gulf? I don’t know, I haven’t read it yet, and I probably still won’t know even after I do. But I link, you decide.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
Keep It Coming
A cure for ebola?
They used small interfering RNAs or siRNAs, a new technology being developed by a number of companies, to hold the virus at bay for a week until the immune system could take over. Tests in four rhesus monkeys showed that seven daily injections cured 100 per cent of them.
I like a hundred percent. Of course, it’s a small sample.
Space Junk
While a cascade in LEO is something to be very concerned about, this Pop Sci article gets this quite wrong:
If a chain reaction got out of control up there, it could very quickly sever our communications, our GPS system (upon which the U.S. military heavily relies)…
Most communications satellites are in GEO, thousands of miles above LEO, and GPS are in twelve-hour orbits, also very high, but not as high as GEO. Most of our communications would remain intact, as would GPS.
From Verde To Merde
A report on the Spanish green energy debacle:
As predicted was inevitable, today the Spanish newspaper La Gaceta runs with a full-page article fessing up to the truth about Spain’s “green jobs” boondoggle, which happens to be the one naively cited by President Obama no less than eight times as his model for the United States. It is now out there as a bust, a costly disaster that has come undone in Spain to the point that even the Socialists admit it, with the media now in full pursuit.
Breaking the Spanish government’s admission here at Pajamas Media probably didn’t hurt their interest in finally reporting on the leaked admission. Obama’s obvious hope of rushing into place his “fundamental transformation” of America into something more like Europe’s social democracies — where even the most basic freedoms have been moved from individuals and families to the state — before the house of cards collapsed has suffered what we can only hope proves to be its fatal blow. At least on this front.
La Gaceta boldly exposes the failure of the Spanish renewable policy and how Obama has been following it. The headline screams: “Spain admits that the green economy as sold to Obama is a disaster.”
It has lots of company with other administration policies in that regard.
The New Age
…of airships. Are they all blimps, or are dirigibles coming back as well?
“It’s Tough To Draw Where The Line Is”
Have researchers created the first artificial life? If not, it certainly seems like a tall milestone marker on the way to that.
[Update a few minutes later]
More at the Beeb.
Nolan Ryan’s War
…against “robot baseball.” A lot of good comments on why the pitch count has become more important, though.
An Amusing Facebook Page
Jim Treacher’s busted-up knee. Nice way to make material out of a hit’n’run. But if he sets up a Facebook page for any other body parts, I don’t want to hear about it.
I Did Not Know That
I knew that Kelly Johnson was a Michigan alum, but I didn’t know that he went to the same high school and junior college as I did (albeit forty-five years earlier).
WordPress Spam-Free
I installed it a few weeks ago, at someone’s suggestion. It is a complete failure, as far as I’m concerned. I have seen no diminution of spam from it. The only improvement is that I get more information about them in the email notification. Moveable Type used to have a feature that automatically blocked an IP address that posted more than X comments in less than Y time. This seem like a no brainer to me. Why can’t WordPress do it?
Or maybe it does, but I have to upgrade to the latest version? Anyone know?