My Blog

Category: Science

  • TSA PreCheck System Flawed – No One Surprised

    “Using a website I decoded my boarding pass for my upcoming trip.

    “It’s all there PNR [passenger name record], seat assignment, flight number, name, etc. But what is interesting is the bolded three on the end. This is the TSA PreCheck information. The number means the number of beeps. 1 beep no PreCheck, 3 beeps yes PreCheck.”

    The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) did not respond to a BBC request for a statement, but has previously said: “TSA does not comment on specifics of the screening process, which contain measures both seen and unseen. In addition, TSA incorporates random and unpredictable security measures throughout the travelling process.”

    via BBC News.

    As usual the MSM is silent on the farce that is the TSA.

    It’s amazing what a complete and udder failure the TSA has become.  From the millimeter machines that pounded you with radiation and made pictures of your naughty bits to the number of TSA employees who have been busted for everything from child porn to stealing laptops it seems that TSA is the symbol for irresponsible government run amok.

    Perhaps the greater failure is that the Obama admin has done nothing to correct the issue.

    TSA provides nothing but the illusion of security by harassing and abusing law abiding citizens.  It’s a national embarrassment.

  • CPD Brass Wasting Money Trying to Track Gunshots

    The Police Department began using gunshot detection technology early last month in two 1.5-square-mile areas to try to better pinpoint the location of gunshots, Superintendent Garry McCarthy disclosed Thursday. The sensors sometimes give officers information before 911 calls are made, he said.

    In the past decade, the city twice installed the devices but ultimately removed them because of their high price tags and ineffectiveness. Since then the technology has improved “dramatically,” McCarthy said.

    “What we can do with this is overwhelming right now,” McCarthy said at a news conference. “It’s gotten a lot better, and obviously as it’s out there longer, it’s a lot cheaper also.”

    The one-year contract for the ShotSpotter system costs about $200,000 — money that will come from drug forfeitures and other property seized by police, authorities said.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    So it didn’t work before and was too expensive.  Boy, that’s not what we were told last time.

    Given the success of the pilot program, in September 2003, Mayor Daley announced that a new phase of PODs would be deployed throughout the City. Subsequently, the number of PODs increased from 30 to 80 by December 2003. Some of the new second generation PODs were also equipped with technology to detect gunfire. Using wireless technology, these units transmitted gunshot alerts, as well as the usual video images, directly to the City’s Emergency Management and Communications Center, thereby providing crucial intelligence on criminal incidents involving guns. Several of the 30 existing PODs were also upgraded with the same technology during that time period.
    — CPD Website, dated June 15, 2003

    and

    Chicago police plan to add 50 new remote-controlled cameras in city … The new cameras will be equipped with gunshot detectors….
    — Herald & Review, dated April 7, 2004

    and

    Chicago police have installed 30 surveillance units in high-crime locales. The system uses four microphones to zero in on firearm discharges.
    — USA Today, dated June 6, 2005

    The USA Today article ends with:

    Adding SENTRI to an existing surveillance camera is not cheap, however. The system costs between $4,000 and $10,000 per unit. In Chicago, money forfeited by criminals is used to pay for both it and the accompanying cameras.

    As a result, Police Superintendent Phil Cline told a recent U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting, “the drug dealers are actually paying to surveil themselves.”

    I guess everything old is new again.

     

  • Italian Court Jails Scientists for Failure to Predict Earthquake

    Rarely since a Catholic inquisition in Rome condemned Galileo Galilei to spend the remainder of his days under house arrest for the heresy of teaching that the Earth revolves around the sun, has an Italian court been so wrong about science.

    Today, a court in the central Italian city of L’Aquila, 380 years after that miscarriage of justice, sentenced six scientists and a government bureaucrat to six years in jail on manslaughter charges for their failure to predict a 2009 earthquake that left more than 300 people dead.

    via CSMonitor.com.

    Al Gore is soooo pissed right now.  He’s so wishing that the U.S. had tried those evil scientists who claimed global warming was a hoax.

    No better way to silence your opposition than place them in jail.

  • Google Data Centers — Photos and Comments

    Very cool photo tour of some of the stuff behind the scenes at Google data centers.

  • Dark Energy Camera — Science Rocks!!

    The highest-resolution camera ever built has begun its quest to pin down the mysterious stuff that makes up nearly three-quarters of our Universe.

    The Dark Energy Survey’s 570-million-pixel camera will scan some 300 million galaxies in the coming five years.

    via BBC News.

    Very  v e r y  cool.

  • ‘Warp drive’ May be Feasible

    A warp drive to achieve faster-than-light travel — a concept popularized in television’s Star Trek — may not be as unrealistic as once thought, scientists say.  …

    Now physicists say that adjustments can be made to the proposed warp drive that would enable it to run on significantly less energy, potentially bringing the idea back from the realm of science fiction into science.

    via Fox News.

    Sweet!!

  • 30 Game Changing Innovations

    Some very clever (or crazy) ideas are coming in the near future.

    Check ’em out.

    Business Insider.

  • New Govt Laser Reads You At Molecular Level

    The Department of Homeland Security will soon be using a laser at airports that can detect everything about you from over 160-feet away.

    Gizmodo reports a scanner that could read people at the molecular level has been invented. This laser-based scanner – which can be used 164-feet away — could read everything from a person’s adrenaline levels, to traces of gun powder on a person’s clothes, to illegal substances — and it can all be done without a physical search. It also could be used on multiple people at a time, eliminating random searches at airports.

    The laser-based scanner is expected to be used in airports as soon as 2013, Gizmodo reports.

    via CBS DC.

    Really?!  Is this what we’ve come to?

    I wonder what the ACLU’s position is going to be on this.  At the airport I kinda understand; you are giving your consent to be searched.  That’s the bargain for what is supposed to be a safe flight.

    But how long before Mayor Bloomberg decides that he wants to use this on people just walking down the street?

    1984 here we come!!

  • OxyContin Redesigned: Users Switching to Heroin

    This is a story about how smart people are stupid.

    In the past, OxyContin was designed to be released into the body’s system slowly, over the course of many hours, meaning each pill contained a large reservoir of oxycodone. Drug users soon discovered by crushing the pills and inhaling them, or dissolving the pills in water and injecting them, they could bypass the slow-release mechanism and get an immediate ‘high.’  …

    But in 2010, Purdue Pharma, which manufactures OxyContin, changed the formula of the opioid drug to make it more difficult to crush and much slower to dissolve, which appears to have made the drug less attractive to users, according Cicero and his colleagues.
    The researchers … found that while the new formula has successfully stopped many users from abusing OxyContin, they aren’t abandoning drugs entirely. A significant percentage of former OxyContin users are instead turning to harder drugs, such as heroin and other, stronger opioids.  addicts

    via Fox News.

    Well what did you think was going to happen?  Let me guess, a bunch of guys in suits (the “C” level suite) and bespectacled scientists (the drug researchers) and — THE GOVERNMENT — think they’re going to stop drug addiction by making it so people cannot get high?

    You don’t need a MBA from Booth or a Phd in organic chemistry to know that drugs addicts will move from one drug to another.  So why would Purdue Pharma do this?  Surely they’re selling less Oxy now with the abusers demand subsided.  They spent good R&D money on redesigning the drug to have lower sales.  Why?!

    It’s not in this story but I’m willing to gamble dollars to navy beans that Purdue Pharma did this because of a request from the FDA.  Big brother getting into everyone’s business.

  • New Chemical Makes Teeth ‘Cavity Proof’

    A new chemical could make human teeth ‘cavity proof’ – and do away with the need for visits to the dentists forever.

    The molecule has been called ‘Keep 32’ – after the 32 teeth in a human mouth.

    The chemical was designed by dentists in Chile, and wipes out all the bacteria that cause cavities in just 60 seconds in tests.

    Cool huh?

    Now comes the creepy part.

    The chemical could be added to any current dental care product, turning toothpaste, mouthwash and chewing gum into ‘super cleansers’ that could get rid of the underlying cause of tooth decay.

    via Mail Online.

    Eww.