Wednesday News

Good Morning Conflucians!!

The aftermath of last weeks election is still being felt. In fact, it’s not over yet. The Senate race in Alaska is still being counted. Regardless of whether the winner is Miller or Murkowski, the seat will be held by a Republican. But it will certainly be interesting to see who won. Both because of the tea party angle and because of the possibility of a write-in candidate winning. The latter outcome would be very interesting and perhaps eye opening to many citizens of the country. The fact that we don’t have to take the two choices given to us would be refreshing. Everyone seems to be talking about it including WaPo, Politico, and Reuters among, well, everyone. And of course as you’d expect, the lawyers are at the ready. Miller has already launched one lawsuit requiring that Murkowski name be spelled correctly and exactly as it is registered. That’s silly as the law clearly gives leeway to counters to determine intent. Some of the legal fun from WaPo:

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (R) both urged supporters to donate money to Miller’s legal fund, in part to send enough lawyers and monitors to Juneau. In Anchorage, tea party supporters pooled their frequent-flier miles in hopes of sending about a dozen volunteers to be trained as official observers.

Murkowski, meanwhile, has reportedly hired lawyer Ben Ginsberg, who represented George W. Bush in the 2000 recount fight and Republican Sen. Norm Coleman in his 2008 recount battle in Minnesota.

Miller has also argued that the law requires Murkowski’s name to be spelled properly, though election officials ruled that misspellings are okay as long as the voter’s “intent” is clear – a subjective standard that could lead to a litany of disputes.

Meanwhile, Obama was in Indonesia pushing the message that we’re cool with Muslims. And that Indonesia provides an example to the world given its diversity:

“Today, I return to Indonesia as a friend, but also as a president who seeks a deep and enduring partnership between our two countries,” he said.

“Because as vast and diverse countries; as neighbours on either side of the Pacific; and above all as democracies – the United States and Indonesia are bound together by shared interests and shared values.”

He also highlighted the role religion had played in Indonesia’s development, praising the country’s spirituality and “rich diversity”.

“Just as individuals are not defined solely by their faith, Indonesia is defined by more than its Muslim population,” he said.

Reasonably good message. That’s about the best I can say about it.

There was a mysterious launch including video recorded contrail from a plane or something off the coast of LA yesterday:

Military and aviation authorities denied any knowledge of a scheduled launch and the Pentagon said only that it was looking into a report of an “unexplained contrail,” or vapor trail, left by an aircraft.

Whatever it was, it never posed a threat, officials said, and there’s no evidence it was a missile.

That didn’t stop aerospace experts, news outlets and curious onlookers from snapping photos and guessing the true nature of the “mystery missile” and who may have launched it.

No one is talking. We’re hearing “nothing to see here, move along, move along.” Who knows. What’s your best guess? There was video shot and some experts who got to see it commented:

Some aerospace experts who reviewed the footage said the size of the plume hinted that it was a government operation.

“It can’t belong to anyone but the military,” said Marco Caceres, an analyst with Teal Group Corp., a Fairfax, Va.-based aerospace research firm. The appearance of such a massive rocket contrail near military bases that are known for regularly testing missiles is unlikely to be a coincidence, Caceres said.

A more likely explanation, Caceres said: It was a mistake, perhaps a defense exercise launched by accident.

The military does, after all, operate a floating ocean platform and regularly carries out tests at San Nicolas Island, one of the Channel Islands, and Point Mugu Naval Air Station is a missile defense testing site.

Speaking of mysterious aircraft, paparazzi are starting to use unmanned drones with cameras aboard to spy on celebrities:

Anyone following the news out of America’s Af/Pak engagement knows that drones are being used increasingly – some say alarmingly so – to ferret out and eliminate militants along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. But if drones can track militants hiding in the Pakistani hills, why can’t they track a celebrity in Hollywood Hills? A celebrity-photo agency is developing a camera-equipped paparazzi drone that could soon be tracking and terrorizing celebrities in public and at their homes.

As aviation goes, of course, drones are the next big thing. The military is training up drone pilots and purchasing unmanned aerial vehicles at unprecedented rates, and being the military they’ve drafted a fairly stringent set of rules for how those drones can be used. In the civilian space, those rules are far less defined. The FAA limits the domestic use of drones to those operated by the governent – that is, they’re not cleared for commercial use.

Well, that’s just great. Soon we’ll be seeing drone helicopters flying this way and that with cameras attached, and you won’t know if it’s the government or the media, or just your nosy neighbor. That can only mean one thing, more target practice with your anti-drone weapons.

While we’re vaguely on the topic of flying, there are more reports of problems with the body scanning machines. We’ve all been hearing that the X-ray dosage is so low, it will only shorten your life by hours for each use. At least they admit it’s killing you, just not by much. Well, it may turn out they’re wrong. The radiation seems only collect in one area, the skin, so though the dosage might seem low for your entire body, it’s actually not low for your skin. In an article about a UCSF study, we have:

A group of UCSF researchers released a letter earlier this year, warning of potential health risks of the machines. Although the backscatter devices are being installed at airports around the country, the researchers are unconvinced that they are safe.

There are a number of problems with the machines. For one thing, the energy that they release tends to remain concentrated in the skin, rather than more safely dissipated throughout the body. Because the concentration is so much higher, there is an increased risk of causing skin cancer.

Or maybe there isn’t. The data simply doesn’t exist. There haven’t been any thorough studies into the concentration of energy in the skin. There are also unanswered questions regarding the effect on eyes and the thymus.

And related to that story, the worlds largest pilot union opts out of letting their members go through the scanners:

The world’s largest independent airline pilot association is warning its members to avoid security screening by full-body scanners out of concern the machines emit dangerous levels of radiation.

The American Pilots Association, which represents about 12,000 pilots, is recommending members instead submit to new pat-down searches, even though critics have described them as “horribly invasive” and likened them to foreplay. The recommendation is based on concerns that, contrary to claims by the US Transportation Security Administration, the types of X-rays emitted by the machines could pose serious risks that still aren’t well understood.

“We are already subjected to larger amounts of radiation by flying long distances at high altitudes,” Captain Sam Mayer, who is the APA’s communications committee chairman, told The Register. “While the TSA is telling us it’s completely safe, that may be true for the occasional user, but we haven’t seen any data yet talking about the long term cumulative effects of this over time.”

Read further for a link to a memorandum about the study and further details. I think I’ll be opting for the pat down, which is pretty bad itself. Even better, I think I’ll try to avoid flying if at all possible. If I can drive or take a train, I’ll do that instead.

Let’s switch gears and look at a great breakthrough where chips have been implanted in the retina of a blind patent resulting in some site. Discover and PopSci cover the story. From Discovery:

German doctors on Wednesday announced a breakthrough in retinal implants, the fledgling technology that aims to restore sight in people cursed by a form of inherited blindness.

Three patients fitted with the new device were able to see shapes and objects, and one was able to walk around a room by himself, approach people, read a clock face and distinguish between seven shades of gray.

The device “represents an unprecedented advance in electronic visual prostheses,” the Royal Society, Britain’s de-facto academy of sciences, said as one of its journals published the research.

And another story from PopSci of interest, you can improve your math skills with a bit of shock treatment:

With just 15 minutes of a barely perceptible electric current passed through the brain, scientists at the University of Oxford have succeeded in improving a person’s math abilities with an effect lasting as long as six months. Using a non-invasive method known as transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS), the scientists passed a mild electric current through the skull into the brain’s parietal lobe, where numbers are processed.

Patients were asked to learn new symbols to represent numbers, then, while they were on TDCS, they attempted to organize the numbers. Participants whose brains were being stimulated demonstrated an improved ability to perform the task. The amazing part is that, when tested again six months later, they retained their higher performance level. The current helps the affected nerves to fire more quickly, making it easier to learn information.

Shocking. But it adds up. OK, stop me before I make any more math jokes.

Finally, just when you thought social networking was all it could be, there’s still more. Now the Queen of England has a Facebook page:

The official British Monarchy page was launched at 8am on the world’s most popular social networking site, allowing users to connect with the Royal Family online.

[…]

The new Facebook page has been described as “the final frontier” of the Queen’s foray into digital technonogy.

The official @BritishMonarchy account on Twitter already has 70,148 followers. There is also TheRoyalChannel on YouTube, the video-sharing website, which has 32,418 subscribers and whose films have been watched 8.3million times over the past three years.

Yea, it’s all ruined now. If the Queen is doing it, it’s definitely not cool any more.

That’s a few things going on. Chime in with what you’re seeing today.