Technology and Society

Positive Feedback Loop

Control engineers would call this a runaway controller.

When the response to a change is to increase the change, rather than decrease it (which is what, for example, thermostats normally do), change happens very quickly, and uncontrollably. One of the issues with global warming is whether or not the feedback is positive, or negative. That is, does the warming result in even more warming, resulting in…or do things happen at higher temperatures that result in cooling?

One potential positive feedback might be that if glaciers and ice caps melt, the albedo of the planet decreases, which means that less energy is reflected back into space, which could result in further warming. In the other direction, if we are headed into a new glacial period despite the greenhouse effects (perhaps because solar activity dominates all else), then increasing snow cover makes things colder because more solar energy is rereflected, thus causing more cooling, and an accelerating glacial advance.

On the negative feedback side, though, it could be that more warming results in more clouds, which might in turn have the effect of cooling things off.

I suspect that the reality will be a combination of positive and negative feedback mechanisms, and it’s hard to know what the overall effect will be, though ultimately, it will be negative, but perhaps at a significantly higher (or lower) temperature. I’d be very surprised if the seas end up either boiling, or freezing solid.

Political Commentary

Desperate For Attention

One of the dozen or so people to protest Tookie Williams’ execution in Denver was Ward Churchill. Which reminds me–what’s the status of the investigation into the plagiarism and other charges against him?

Hmmmm…according to Wikipedia (for whatever that’s worth), the investigation is still ongoing.

And on the subject of the late Mr. Williams, how is that the Hollywood types are so consistent at being on the wrong side of almost every issue?

[Update a few minutes later]

Ahhh…we must have done the right thing–we’ve upset the Europeans…

[Update after noon]

Iowahawk has discovered one of Tookie’s unpublished children’s stories.

Administrative

Firefox Question

I like the new version 1.5 overall (particularly the feature that opens a new window when I click on a URL in Eudora, instead of changing the last window viewed, which was what it did before, and the ability to move tabs), but one thing drives me crazy about it (as it did in previous versions).

When I download a file from a site, it automatically puts it on my desktop. It doesn’t offer any other options. I think I can go in and change the default to some other location, but I don’t want a single default location–I want to specify at the time of download where I want it to go. Does anyone know if this is possible, and that there’s something I’m missing?

Political Commentary

A Culture Of Corruption

That’s become Nancy Pelosi’s latest catch phrase about the administration and the Republicans, but Rich Lowry says it’s true.

Of course, I don’t think that it’s any worse than it was when the Dems were running the Hill. But we’ve come to (or at least we used to) expect better of Republicans. He’s right–they need to clean up their act before someone does it for them.

Oh, and while we’re on the subject, for those who nonsensically persist in thinking that I’m a conservative, or a Republican, or even a great fan of George Bush, just because I don’t believe that he’s a retarded Chimpy McHalliburton, I agree with Andrew Roth, who has a list of grievances.

The problem is, as it was in last year’s election, that as unhappy as I am with this administration and Congress, there’s no reason to think that putting Democrats in charge would improve any of the things that I’m unhappy about, and most of their rhetoric and policy statements lead me to think that it would make most of them even worse.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!