The Global Warming Debate just became Less Serious

I'm not interested in making fun of the fact that Al Gore's movie just won the Best Documentary Oscar for "An Inconvenient Truth" (Oscar, 2007). Instead, I want to highlight the damage that this does to a debate that should be very serious.

If there is any shred of truth to the idea that man-made global warming may threaten coastal cities in a devastating manner, then the discussion should be a serious, measured scientific analysis that weighs the pros and cons, supporting evidence against contrarian evidence. It has been well documented how this topic has declined into superficial, emotional shouting, but this award cements this topic as a "pop culture ditty" that will end up in the pages of People Magazine. Science is now officially a popularity contest.

Reference:

1. Oscars. (2007). 79th Annual Academy Awards - Winners. Retrieved February 25, 2007, from http://www.oscar.com/oscarnight/winners/.

Last Year: Best Active Force Recruitment in almost a Decade

An article in Friday's Pentagram stated that despite many commentaries and op-eds to the contrary, active force recruitment is doing well. Gen. Peter J Schoomaker, Army chief of staff, is quoted:

Last year was the best recruiting year in nine years for the Army's active force and 13 years for the reserve force (Wood, 2007, p. 25).

Gen. Schoomaker made this comment while he and Gen. James T. Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps, were answering questions for the Senate Armed Services Committee. In their opinion, the gradual pacing of the troop strength increase (65,000 Soldiers and 27,000 Marines by 2012) was adequate to meet military requirements. They also indicated that no additional incentives would be needed to meet sustained recruitment goals.

Both Generals indicated that the units operating in Afghanistan and Iraq are fully trained and equipped, but expressed concern about the training of non-deployed forces. The increase in troop strength will allow for additional training time between deployment rotations.

Reference:

1. Wood, S. (2007, February 23). Force increase necessary for war on terror commitment. Pentagram 54(8).
   
   

Quiet, Please

The town of Clifton, New Jersey City Council is considering imposing a fine for dogs that bark too much:

Later this month, the council is expected to introduce an ordinance setting a limit on how long dogs can bark. Noisy canines will be defined as those that bark for more than 30 minutes on two consecutive days (Associated Press, 2007).

There has been some precedent in limiting communication through daily quota. Here is an excerpt from the Standing Rules of the Senate:

no Senator shall speak more than twice upon any one question in debate on the
same legislative day without leave of the Senate (Senate, 2007).

My guess is that the dogs were working on a non-binding resolution.

Reference:

1. Associated Press. (2007). N.J. town to set time limit on barking. Roanoke Times. Retrieved February 25, 2007, from http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DOG_BARKING_LAW?SITE=VAROA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT.
2. U.S. Senate. (2007). Standing Rules of the Senate. Retrieved February 25, 2007, from http://rules.senate.gov/senaterules/.

Young Survival Coalition

This weekend is the Annual Conference for Young Women Affected by Breast Cancer, which is presented by the Young Survival Coalition. There are approximately a quarter million women in the United States that have been affected by this disease that are under the age of 40 (Young Survival Coalition, 2007).

My wife, who is 31 years old and was diagnosed last year with BC, is currently attending and hopefully having a blast. If you are interested, the story of her/our travels through this fight have been well chronicled at http://katwerner.blogspot.com/.

Reference:

1. Young Survival Coalition. (2007). Young Women and Breast Cancer. Retrieved February 24, 2007, from http://www.youngsurvival.org/young-women-and-bc/.

New Gaming Technology is a Hit

The Nintendo Wii took a risk by leaving the traditional video game console format in order to develop the handheld, motion sensing device. This risk is paying off; Merill Lynch analysts "now predict that a third of all Japanese households and 30 per cent of all US households will have purchased a Wii by 2011" (Seff, 2007). One out of three is a lot of market penetration.

For more information on the Wii, go here: http://us.wii.com/.

Reference:

1. Seff, M. (2007, February 23). Analysts Predict Wii To Reach 30% Saturation. Internet Gaming Network. Retrieved February 24, 2007, from http://wii.ign.com/articles/767/767190p1.html.

How to Deal with Space Madness

NASA has a detailed plan on how astronauts should deal with a fellow crewmate who is suicidal or flips out. Those people who say you can fix anything with duct tape may have a point:

the astronaut’s crewmates should bind his wrists and ankles with duct tape, tie him down with a bungee cord and inject him with tranquilizers if necessary (Schneider, 2007).

Reference:

1. Schneider, M. (2007, February 23). Star crazy: Plans deal with breakdowns in space. MSNBC. Retrieved, February 24, 2007, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17300028/?GT1=9033.

Telephone Tax Refund

If you had long distance service between March 2003 and June 2006, you may be eligible for a federal tax refund. Several federal court decisions held that the federal excise tax no longer applies to long distance service, so a one time refund will be provided this year. According to IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson, "[m]any taxpayers are overlooking this special refund and the chance to get a bigger refund” (IRS, 2007). In fact, the IRS website states that early filing statistics show that approximately 30% of filers are no taking advantage of this opportunity.

You can go through all of your old phone bills and calculate the exact tax that you can have refunded - OR - you can take the standard deduction, which is between $30-$60 (based on personal exemptions). I personally used TurboTax, which asks you directly about this refund.

Reference:

1. IRS. (2007, February 23). 10 Million Taxpayers Miss Out on Telephone Tax Refunds; IRS Urges People to Check before Filing. Retrieved February 24, 2007, from http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=168058,00.html.

552 Years of Printing

Today is the 552nd annivesary of the date that Johannes Gutenberg began his first printing run, thus publishing the first book (the Bible) using his printing press (Wikipedia, 2007). Regardless of your personal religious views, you have to admit this was a monumental event in human history.

Reference:

1. Wikipedia. (2007). Johannes Gutenburg. Retrieved February 23, 2007, from http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Gutenberg.

A Step Closer to Artificial Intelligence

Researchers at MIT have created a new type of computer model that more closely mimics the biological functioning of a brain. Prior to this model, computer systems that are designed for A.I. have typically created an object archtype and when a new object is encountered, the system would try to match it to an existing object. This presents problems when similiar objects are encountered, or if the same object is viewed from different perspectives. "What makes the Poggio lab's model so innovative and powerful is that, computationally speaking, it mimics the brain's own hierarchy" (Delude, 2007). Obviously, the future application of biologically architected computing would be immense.

John Conners would be proud.

Reference:

1. Delude, C. (2007, Feburary 23). Computer model mimics neural processes in object recognition. Massachusetts Institute of Technology New Room. Retrieved February 23, 2007. from http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/surveillance.html.

Global Warming: Looking for a Compromise

The debate over global warming has become nauseating. On the one hand, some on the political right call man-made global warming believers "alarmists" and "religious cultists", while many on the left compare the act of questioning this theory to denying the Holocaust.

It would be infinitely more constructive if we all spent less time insulting people without our particular views and more time trying to find common ground. For starters, the goal of many on the left is to reduce the impact on the earth by either reducing the usage of energy, or changing the method of energy production. It is not, to my understanding, a goal of simply finding new ways that the government can regulate our lives. For many on the right, there is a strong belief that government regulation is a problematic solution to most issues, which cuts to the core of why there is a lot of resistance. Conservatives aren't fighting for the excuse to pollute the earth, they just don't want government regulation that could cause extensive economic damage.

We should all be looking for market solutions to this problem, whether or not we have the government involved. To be more precise, if a new technology is on the market which reduces our impact on the environment AND it is economically beneficial - both sides should embrace it. A lot of discussion has focused on ethenol, solar and wind power, but I rarely hear about geothermal energy. I think this is a home heating / cooling technology that already can meet the concerns of capitalists and environmentalists alike.

To grab your attention, here is a brief section of of a report released on January 22, 2007, by an MIT-led interdisciplinary panel:

Geothermal energy from EGS represents a large, indigenous resource that can provide base-load electric power and heat at a level that can have a major impact on the United States, while incurring minimal environmental impacts. With a reasonable investment in R&D, EGS could provide 100 GWe or more of cost-competitive generating capacity in the next 50 years. Further, EGS provides a secure source of power for the long term that would help protect America against economic instabilities resulting from fuel price fluctuations or supply disruptions (M.I.T., 2007, p. 1-3).

Here is a comparison of some of the aforementioned environmental aspects:


(World Energy Council, 2007)

In addition to large scale energy production, geothermal systems can be installed in residential homes. These systems can reduce the heating/cooling portion of an energy bill for a home by 75%. In addition, at certain times of the year, the geothermal system will heat water, which reduces the energy required by water headers. The economic issue is that the upfront costs are prohibitive for existing homes to "retrofit". However, the cost for installing these systems in a new home construction will be offset by the ongoing reduction of the energy bill. It is estimated that after seven or eight years, the homeowner will begin seeing the economic gain.

Wait - seven years? That's a long time! This is the main reason this hasn't taken off in the United States. While many states (and the federal government) are giving tax breaks for energy efficient windows and solar panels, not many have even given a thought to this technology.

I encourage a brief perusal of the Department of Energy's overview of this technology: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/geothermal/overview.html.

References:

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (2007). The Future of Geothermal Energy – Impact of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) on the United States in the 21st Century. Retrieved February 22, 2007, from
http://geothermal.id.doe.gov/publications/future_of_geothermal_energy.pdf.
2. World Energy Council. (2007). Geothermal Energy. Retrieved February 22, 2007, from http://www.worldenergy.org/wec-geis/publications/reports/ser/geo/geo.asp.