Category the future

Apr 28 2013

Signs of a failing infrastructure?

Livonia Water Tank Explosion

One of the things I’ve started to notice is the failure or sheer disasters associated with infrastructure or other related items lately.  A ten million gallon water tank in my neighborhood explodes, dousing the neighborhood in massive amounts of water — which, due to the pressure blew water mains all around, the Texas fertilizer plant explodes, a refinery in Detroit on Fort Street catastrophically fails and blew its top off last evening, causing evacuations around the neighboring city.

Fort Street Refinery Fire in Detroit

The sudden apparent-surge in explosions in things that one would think are regulated makes me wonder if we have a serious two-fold problem: a lack of oversight, and a failing infrastructure.

Infrastructure isn’t just roads, highways and avenues…  It’s pipes.  It’s tanks.  All of these things, particularly when they’re related to anything hazardous.  All of this stuff requires oversight and inspection.  Is it just a freak occurrence in quick succession, or is it a symbol of things to come?

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Apr 24 2013

Are Athlete Fraudsters Liable for Reimbursing Funders?

Lance Armstrong finishing 3rd in Sète, taking ...

Lance Armstrong finishing 3rd in Sète, taking over the Yellow Jersey at Grand Prix Midi Libre 2002 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Late Tuesday afternoon, the United States Government filed a lawsuit against former Olympic-Gold Medalist cyclist Lance Armstrong, citing the fact that he defrauded them out of millions of dollars in his doping campaign.

The Government, citing the False Claims Act, state that he defrauded the United States Postal Service by doping, and under that law, the USPS is, technically entitled to triple the amount of funds spent, or money in excess of US$120 Million; as the Government is contesting US$40 Million.

The United States asserts in its suit that a use of performance enhancing drugs is a violation and breach of contract of the agreement he signed with the USPS, originally in 1998 – through 2004.

Should any entities who chose to fund people be entitled to collect monies if they were unable to  prove during that time that the athlete/etc in question was doping, or taking other performance enhancing drugs?  While I agree it’s a great deterrent, when people make bad investments, often they are told they “are out of luck.”

Could such a ruling, for instance, be worked into such a precedent as Bankers and Executives for financial companies making and funding bad loans to be held responsible for them; and repayment as well?

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Apr 22 2013

The Earth is Burning…

centralia

Literally.  In Centralia, Pennsylvania USA that is, anyway.

In 1979, a local gas station owner dipped a stick into one of his fuel tanks to check the level of gas he had to sell.  When he pulled it back up, he noticed it was extremely warm — and subsequently lowered a thermometer on a string to the bottom of the tank for a few minutes.  Bringing it back up, he was extremely alarmed to find the temperature of his fuel to be over 170 degrees Fahrenheit.  Shortly after, in another part of town, a 12 year old boy fell into a sinkhole that opened below his feet — thankfully saved by another boy, as the steam coming out of the hole was filled with lethal levels of carbon dioxide.

This drew state and eventually federal attention to the fact that Centralia, a mining community, had a MASSIVE fire burning beneath their feet — literally below the ground itself, and it was so large, nothing humanly feasible could stop it.

The fire was traced to a mine event in 1962 where the anthracite in an active mine caught fire, and was abandoned and collapsed for protection.  What people didn’t know was that the fire raged on… and subsequently; and somehow, spread to the abandoned mines under Centralia… and continued burning.  Anthracite is, in a way, self-oxidizing, and can burn without direct oxygen feed from the surface — something that has been demonstrated by this fire for the last 51 years.

Panoramic view of Route 61 through Centralia, PA

Panoramic view of Route 61 through Centralia, PA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In 1992, when the State of Pennsylvania learned of the threat to life brought by the fire and the damage it was causing property, the Governor of Pennyslvania at the time, Bob Casey, invoked the laws of eminent domain and declared the entire borough of Centralia — stating that the entire town’s buildings were to be condemned, and all people were to be relocated and compensated.   While most left without much question, many chose to stay, including Centralia’s Mayor, Carl Womer — who continues to serve as Mayor.  While a very few homes remain, almost all of them have been demolished by the county authority or by nature itself.  Some residents remain as well, but against the advice and indeed, order of the state’s executive.

Since 1992, the Anthracite fire has spread to the mines beneath the neighboring town of Byrnesville, which was completely abandoned with the last home was torn down in 1996,  Scientists believe that the fire could continue to burn for at least another century before it will self-extinguish by depleting the anthracite, and could very well have burned for 200 years by the time it ceases.

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Apr 20 2013

Higgs Boson: Mission Accomplished!

An example of simulated data modelled for the ...

An example of simulated data modelled for the CMS particle detector on the Large Hadron Collider.

It looks like the verdict is in: we’ve finally found the Higgs Boson — one of the most elusive particles; with the exception of Dark Matter, in nature.  Science has theorized of it’s existence for years, but it was always just beyond our grasp.

Today, we’ve finally confirmed the existence of what we believe is the Higgs Boson.  Last July, physicists and scientists from the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or known more properly by it’s French acronym CERN, announced that it’s Large Hadron Collider (or LHC) had conducted a particle acceleration test that revealed the presence of a subatomic particle that had the distinctiveness of what physicists postulated as the characteristics of the elusive particle.

Why is the Higgs so important?  So what?  In essence, the Higgs is, according to Gauge theory published in 1964, gives all conventional matter “mass.”  The average particle of matter contains mass, no matter how minuscule.  However, items of other types of matter, such as neutrinos which are able to pass right through solid matter without being interrupted, and the ever-elusive dark matter, seem not to have this subatomic particle in it’s makeup, according to the math.  Dr. Michio Kaku explains more here why the Higgs is so important.

With the numbers all working out, Science has finally [mathematically and now, via observation] proven the existence of the Higgs Boson.  How was such a feat accomplished, nearly 50 years after it’s postulation?

With the Large Hadron Collider, of course!  The largest particle accelerator on Earth, and in human history, the LHC is so large, it stretches through the border of France and Switzerland;

Large Hadron Collider

Large Hadron Collider (Photo credit: Randall Niles)

and remains one of the largest and most complex structures ever to be built by humankind.  Indeed, it’s literal atom-smashing power is in excess of 7 Tetra-electron volts (7 TeV) — or, to put it in some sort of perspective, a single visible photon of light is approximately 3.4 electron volts.  One Tetra-electron volt is 10E12, or ten to the twelfth electron volts.  Indeed, the atom-smashing power of this collider exceeded the previous most-powerful smasher by over seven times.  Some theorists postulated the idea that the LHC, at full power, had enough power to create a black hole if atoms were smashed at full intensity.  Luckily, this seems to have been proven wrong.

What has been proven right on the other hand, has effectively proven that we’re on the right track, and further, have taken another step toward understanding our universe.

What else is out there?  What more do we have to learn?  Plenty, I feel.

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Apr 19 2013

The Future of Technology — Licensure?

English: Apple director Steve Jobs shows iPhone

English: Apple director Steve Jobs shows iPhone (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Google recently announced (likely only for it’s developer-model) that if you receive a Google Glass  — it’s only for you.  Nobody else.  You can’t even loan it.

Indeed, the Terms of Service for it clearly state:

quote-open“…you may not resell, loan, transfer, or give your device to any other person. If you resell, loan, transfer, or give your device to any other person without Google’s authorization, Google reserves the right to deactivate the device, and neither you nor the unauthorized person using the device will be entitled to any refund, product support, or product warranty.”

While I assume that this is because it’s still a developing product, and it’s to keep people from making massive amounts of money by placing them on an auction site like eBay or something else; likely making a major profit.

It made me wonder if this, along with what Apple tried to do with the iPhone — is that you’re not buying the ITEM itself, you’re buying a LICENSE to USE the item, and the manufacturer maintains control and ownership.  Apple successfully did this until a lawsuit ended “part” of this, exactly how, I’m still not entirely sure how it works… but it does make one wonder:

Is the future of technology and hardware in licensure of USE, not OWNING the hardware itself? Will we be paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars simply for a right to use something we don’t even own? What does this say about our future privacy, as well?

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