wgreenwell

I took some time off from work to spend a five-day weekend at Hilton Head Island with friends. I had a wonderful time and came back feeling much more relaxed. I got horribly trounced at tennis and ping pong by a friend of mine who rode down with me, and didn't fare much better at games of Settlers and Carcassonne with the larger group. Fortunately the waves were kinder to me...too kind, in fact. The seas were so calm that it was difficult to do much boogie-boarding, but I had a great time regardless. The nine-hour drive each way was lengthy, but I've had trips from Northern Virginia to Hampton Roads that were more stressful and exhausting. Having company in the car also helps. Now that I'm back, I'm ready to kick off autumn—my favorite time of year—feeling a lot less stressed out. Hopefully this feeling will stay with me at least into the new year.

Until last week I had been using a plastic electric kettle at work to boil water for tea. I have an identical kettle at home, and I've been happy with both (well, with the exception that the anti-calcification filter seems prone to tearing). Last week I moved to a new office, and unfortunately, after four years of faithful service, my kettle was horribly abused: someone boiled coffee in it, apparently thinking it was "one of those things that keeps your coffee warm." The coffee boiled over, made a mess of the place, and stained the kettle inside and out. Despite soaking it in distilled vinegar over the weekend, water boiled in the kettle hasn't tasted the same since. I fear it might be ruined.

I bought a new, metal kettle last Friday, and the cups of tea I've made with it are some of the best I've tasted. I'm using the same tea, sweetener, milk, and Fairfax County municipal water, so the difference must be the kettle. Now I wonder if something from the plastic kettle was leaching into the water or if the interior of the kettle was coated in a film after so many years of use despite cleaning it regularly. I keep the new kettle in my office after having suffered the perils of sharing.

NPR: Scientists Question Safety of New Airport Scanners

In short, the TSA is deploying advanced screening apparatus at airports nationwide that use either millimeter-wave or backscatter X-ray imaging technology. The millimeter-wave technology is harmless; however, a potential flaw exists in the safety argument for the backscatter X-ray technology. The manufacturer and the FDA claim that the backscatter X-ray technology is safe because the calculated dose per exposure is very low and, in fact, orders of magnitude lower than the radiation dose associated with flying. Some scientists have found fault with this argument because the calculation assumes that the X-ray energy is dispersed through the volume of the entire body when it is actually absorbed mainly by the skin and immediate tissue beneath. Consequently the actual exposure to the skin could be much higher, possibly dangerously so.

Personally, I would decline to be screened by backscatter X-ray imaging until questions surrounding the dosage are resolved. The millimeter-wave technology is harmless, as are the traditional methods, and currently both the millimeter-wave and backscatter X-ray screening methods are optional.

I did not take off from work today in order to buy Final Fantasy XIII when the store opened and spend the rest of the day (and night) playing it. In fact, I do not expect to make a purchasing decision until I read a few reviews on it. I am a very different person than I was ten years ago, and Final Fantasy, sadly, is a very different franchise.

Researchers grew an amoeboid organism in a substrate whose perimeter and food sources corresponded to the geographic boundaries and city locations of Greater Tokyo, and observed that the amoeboid developed a network of tubules connecting the food sources that roughly corresponded to the actual rail system connecting Tokyo to its outlying cities. The amoeboid's network was slightly more efficient but slightly less fault tolerant than the actual rail network. Ars Technica reports on the research.

From the National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary report:

About 4:22 p.m., Pacific daylight time, on Friday, September 12, 2008, westbound Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA) Metrolink train 111, consisting of one locomotive and three passenger cars, collided head-on with eastbound Union Pacific Railroad (UP) freight train LOF65–12 near Chatsworth, California. The Metrolink train derailed its locomotive and lead passenger car; the UP train derailed its 2 locomotives and 10 of its 17 cars. The force of the collision caused the locomotive of train 111 to telescope into the lead passenger coach by about 52 feet. The accident resulted in 25 fatalities, including the engineer of train 111. Emergency response agencies reported transporting 102 injured passengers to local hospitals. Damages were estimated to be in excess of $12 million.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the September 12, 2008, collision of a Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific freight train was the failure of the Metrolink engineer to observe and appropriately respond to the red signal aspect at Control Point Topanga because he was engaged in prohibited use of a wireless device, specifically text messaging, that distracted him from his duties. Contributing to the accident was the lack of a positive train control system that would have stopped the Metrolink train short of the red signal and thus prevented the collision.

It's unfortunate that NASA has to expend resources to assuage public concern that the world will end in 2012. Of course, people who believe such nonsense will likely attribute NASA's efforts to a vast government conspiracy that is somehow linked to peak oil, the climate change "hoax," and Kevin Bacon.

NASA - 2012: Beginning of the End or Why the World Won't End?

Favorite quotes from the article:

• "Dec. 21, 2012, won't be the end of the world as we know. It will, however, be another winter solstice." (Oh, snap!)
• "This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012." (I guess doomsday scenarios share something in common with government acquisitions.)
• "A reversal in the rotation of Earth is impossible." (And the Lord said to Abraham, "Don't make Me turn this thing around!")

Yesterday the National Transportation Safety Board issued an urgent safety recommendation to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) stemming from its investigation into the fatal collision between two Metrorail trains traveling on the Red Line near the Fort Totten station. According to the Board, post-accident testing revealed that the automatic train supervision subsystem, which is part of the automatic train control system, failed to detect the presence of one of the two accident trains because the design of the subsystem allowed a spurious signal pulse mimicking an indication that no train was present to propagate through the system. From the recommendation:

The Board issued the following urgent safety recommendation to WMATA:

From the National Hurricane Center in Miami...

000
WTNT35 KNHC 261443
TCPAT5
BULLETIN
TROPICAL STORM DANNY ADVISORY NUMBER   1
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL   AL052009
1100 AM EDT WED AUG 26 2009

...THE AREA OF DISTURBED WEATHER EAST OF THE BAHAMAS BECOMES
TROPICAL STORM DANNY...

INTERESTS IN THE BAHAMAS AND THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES SHOULD
MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF DANNY.

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA IN THE UNITED
STATES...INCLUDING POSSIBLE INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS...PLEASE
MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED BY YOUR LOCAL NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
FORECAST OFFICE.  FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA
OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES...PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED
BY YOUR NATIONAL METEOROLOGICAL SERVICE.

AT 1100 AM EDT...1500 UTC...THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM DANNY WAS
LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 24.9 NORTH...LONGITUDE 70.3 WEST OR ABOUT
445 MILES...715 KM...EAST OF NASSAU AND ABOUT 775 MILES...1250 KM...
SOUTH-SOUTHEAST OF CAPE HATTERAS NORTH CAROLINA.

DANNY IS MOVING TOWARD THE WEST-NORTHWEST NEAR 18 MPH...30 KM/HR.
A GENERAL NORTHWESTWARD MOTION WITH A DECREASE IN FORWARD SPEED IS
EXPECTED TODAY AND THURSDAY...WITH A TURN TOWARD THE
NORTH-NORTHWEST EXPECTED ON FRIDAY.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 45 MPH...75 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER
GUSTS.  SLOW STRENGTHENING IS POSSIBLE DURING THE NEXT COUPLE OF
DAYS.

TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 140 MILES...220 KM
MAINLY TO THE NORTH OF THE CENTER.

THE MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE ESTIMATED FROM NOAA HURRICANE HUNTER
AIRCRAFT DATA IS 1009 MB...29.80 INCHES.

DANNY IS EXPECTED TO CAUSE STORM TOTAL RAINFALL OF 2 TO 3 INCHES...
WITH MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF 4 INCHES...OVER THE CENTRAL AND
NORTHWESTERN BAHAMAS.  STORM TOTAL RAINFALL OF 1 TO 2 INCHES ARE
EXPECTED OVER THE SOUTHEASTERN BAHAMAS AND THE TURKS AND CAICOS
ISLANDS.

...SUMMARY OF 1100 AM EDT INFORMATION...
LOCATION...24.9N 70.3W
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...45 MPH
PRESENT MOVEMENT...WEST-NORTHWEST OR 295 DEGREES AT 18 MPH
MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...1009 MB

THE NEXT ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER AT
500 PM EDT.

$$
FORECASTER BEVEN

Happy Co-Birthday to joecarnahan ! I hope it was a good one!