This came up, for some reason, as a recommended video on Youtube this morning, and it was surprisingly interesting. A New York pizza chef goes on board a (pretty modern looking) US Navy ship to help out in the galley.
Dang, seems I can't embed it. Here's the link. 17 minutes but it's worth it.
Update: I can embed from another computer. Here you go:
Some observations:
* How extraordinarily young most military personnel on the ship seem to be. As I asked last week, what would US employment look like if the military was actually sized more in line with your average nation?
* In the food storage hold, everything just seemed stacked as if it were a land based store. Not at all sure what would happened to the stacks of crates if the ship was in heavy seas.
* For a modern ship, the messes and the line up to them still looked kinda cramped.
Sunday, July 07, 2019
Saturday, July 06, 2019
Dental work in Singapore
I saw this on CNA, but here is a report from Straits Times about it. It's pretty neat biotechnology:
This biotech stuff sure can take a long time in the testing....
Patients requiring dental implants often have to open their wallets wide, as well as their mouths.
But a new treatment process developed by the National Dental Centre Singapore (NDCS) could save them at least $2,000 - as well as a considerable amount of time and pain.I see that this technology was first reported on in 2016, and this latest report says they are just now recruiting for a large scale randomised trial starting next year.
Researchers there have developed an enhanced bioresorbable 3D-printed dental plug which promotes bone growth in the jaw, reducing the chances of bone shrinkage after an extraction.
Currently, many patients requiring dental implants have to wait for three months for bone to grow in the tooth socket after extraction.
If too much bone is absorbed and broken down by the body, the patients may need a bone graft, either surgically harvested from their own chin, jaw, skull or hip, or from animal-derived bone - these are expensive and not acceptable to patients with religious restrictions.
With the enhanced 3D-printed plugs manufactured by dental plug manufacturer Osteopore, patients will go through a shorter and less painful treatment process as the plugs are placed immediately after extraction, eliminating the need for bone grafts.
The plug prevents the bone from being absorbed by the body, and facilitates bone growth so that a dental implant can be placed. It then degrades gradually over 12 months, allowing the patient's own bone to fill in over time.
This biotech stuff sure can take a long time in the testing....
What a difference an accused (and a decade) makes
I love the way that at Catallaxy threads, they are appalled that actor John Jarratt was even charged with a rape which was said to have happened in 1976 - and are calling on the accuser to be sued or jailed - but when it was Bill Shorten accused of a rape that happened in 1986, they were appalled that he wasn't charged.
Nothing like consistency, hey?
Nothing like consistency, hey?
For the benefit of a stupid reader
Based on recent comments he has made to my posts about floods, reader JC, who prefers "blog science" over actual science, is plainly still having difficulty grasping that the IPCC has always been saying that climate change means both increased droughts and floods due to a fired up water cycle.
How many times have I had to post on this topic, which ignorant people like Bolt and every single commenter at Catallaxy can never get into their thick heads? "But Flannery said on TV ...etc" is all they can crap on about - and I have covered his words, which were more the target of a shallow, wilful misreading than anything elese - years ago.
Anyway, just to show that talking today about increased floods and droughts in the same breath has always been predicted, here is an extract from the IPCC AR4 report (the volume Climate Change: The Physical Basis) from 2007:
Mean Precipitation
For a future warmer climate, the current generation of
models indicates that precipitation generally increases in the
areas of regional tropical precipitation maxima (such as the
monsoon regimes) and over the tropical Pacific in particular,
with general decreases in the subtropics, and increases at high
latitudes as a consequence of a general intensification of the
global hydrological cycle. Globally averaged mean water
vapour, evaporation and precipitation are projected to increase.
Precipitation Extremes and Droughts
Intensity of precipitation events is projected to increase,
particularly in tropical and high latitude areas that experience
increases in mean precipitation. Even in areas where mean
precipitation decreases (most subtropical and mid-latitude
regions), precipitation intensity is projected to increase but
there would be longer periods between rainfall events. There
is a tendency for drying of the mid-continental areas during
summer, indicating a greater risk of droughts in those regions.
Precipitation extremes increase more than does the mean in
most tropical and mid- and high-latitude areas.
And:
Climate models predict that human influences will cause an increase in
many types of extreme events, including extreme rainfall. There
is already evidence that, in recent decades, extreme rainfall has
increased in some regions, leading to an increase in flooding.
And:
10.3.6.1 Precipitation Extremes
A long-standing result from global coupled models noted in
the TAR is a projected increase in the chance of summer drying
in the mid-latitudes in a future warmer climate with associated
increased risk of drought. This is shown in Figure 10.12, and
has been documented in the more recent generation of models
(Burke et al., 2006; Meehl et al., 2006b; Rowell and Jones,
2006). For example, Wang (2005) analyse 15 recent AOGCMs
and show that in a future warmer climate, the models simulate
summer dryness in most parts of the northern subtropics and
mid-latitudes, but with a large range in the amplitude of summer
dryness across models. Droughts associated with this summer
drying could result in regional vegetation die-offs (Breshears et
al., 2005) and contribute to an increase in the percentage of land
area experiencing drought at any one time, for example, extreme
drought increasing from 1% of present-day land area to 30% by
the end of the century in the A2 scenario (Burke et al., 2006).
Drier soil conditions can also contribute to more severe heat
waves as discussed in Section 10.3.6.2 (Brabson et al., 2005).
Associated with the risk of drying is a projected increase
in the chance of intense precipitation and flooding. Although
somewhat counter-intuitive, this is because precipitation is
projected to be concentrated into more intense events, with
longer periods of little precipitation in between. Therefore,
intense and heavy episodic rainfall events with high runoff
amounts are interspersed with longer relatively dry periods
with increased evapotranspiration, particularly in the subtropics
as discussed in Section 10.3.6.2 in relation to Figure 10.19 ...
However, increases in the frequency of dry days
do not necessarily mean a decrease in the frequency of extreme
high rainfall events depending on the threshold used to defi ne
such events (Barnett et al., 2006). Another aspect of these
changes has been related to the mean changes in precipitation,
with wet extremes becoming more severe in many areas where
mean precipitation increases, and dry extremes where the mean
precipitation decreases...
Climate models continue to confirm the earlier results that
in a future climate warmed by increasing greenhouse gases,
precipitation intensity (e.g., proportionately more precipitation
per precipitation event) is projected to increase over most
regions ... and the increase
in precipitation extremes is greater than changes in mean
precipitation.
How many times have I had to post on this topic, which ignorant people like Bolt and every single commenter at Catallaxy can never get into their thick heads? "But Flannery said on TV ...etc" is all they can crap on about - and I have covered his words, which were more the target of a shallow, wilful misreading than anything elese - years ago.
Anyway, just to show that talking today about increased floods and droughts in the same breath has always been predicted, here is an extract from the IPCC AR4 report (the volume Climate Change: The Physical Basis) from 2007:
Mean Precipitation
For a future warmer climate, the current generation of
models indicates that precipitation generally increases in the
areas of regional tropical precipitation maxima (such as the
monsoon regimes) and over the tropical Pacific in particular,
with general decreases in the subtropics, and increases at high
latitudes as a consequence of a general intensification of the
global hydrological cycle. Globally averaged mean water
vapour, evaporation and precipitation are projected to increase.
Precipitation Extremes and Droughts
Intensity of precipitation events is projected to increase,
particularly in tropical and high latitude areas that experience
increases in mean precipitation. Even in areas where mean
precipitation decreases (most subtropical and mid-latitude
regions), precipitation intensity is projected to increase but
there would be longer periods between rainfall events. There
is a tendency for drying of the mid-continental areas during
summer, indicating a greater risk of droughts in those regions.
Precipitation extremes increase more than does the mean in
most tropical and mid- and high-latitude areas.
And:
Climate models predict that human influences will cause an increase in
many types of extreme events, including extreme rainfall. There
is already evidence that, in recent decades, extreme rainfall has
increased in some regions, leading to an increase in flooding.
And:
10.3.6.1 Precipitation Extremes
A long-standing result from global coupled models noted in
the TAR is a projected increase in the chance of summer drying
in the mid-latitudes in a future warmer climate with associated
increased risk of drought. This is shown in Figure 10.12, and
has been documented in the more recent generation of models
(Burke et al., 2006; Meehl et al., 2006b; Rowell and Jones,
2006). For example, Wang (2005) analyse 15 recent AOGCMs
and show that in a future warmer climate, the models simulate
summer dryness in most parts of the northern subtropics and
mid-latitudes, but with a large range in the amplitude of summer
dryness across models. Droughts associated with this summer
drying could result in regional vegetation die-offs (Breshears et
al., 2005) and contribute to an increase in the percentage of land
area experiencing drought at any one time, for example, extreme
drought increasing from 1% of present-day land area to 30% by
the end of the century in the A2 scenario (Burke et al., 2006).
Drier soil conditions can also contribute to more severe heat
waves as discussed in Section 10.3.6.2 (Brabson et al., 2005).
Associated with the risk of drying is a projected increase
in the chance of intense precipitation and flooding. Although
somewhat counter-intuitive, this is because precipitation is
projected to be concentrated into more intense events, with
longer periods of little precipitation in between. Therefore,
intense and heavy episodic rainfall events with high runoff
amounts are interspersed with longer relatively dry periods
with increased evapotranspiration, particularly in the subtropics
as discussed in Section 10.3.6.2 in relation to Figure 10.19 ...
However, increases in the frequency of dry days
do not necessarily mean a decrease in the frequency of extreme
high rainfall events depending on the threshold used to defi ne
such events (Barnett et al., 2006). Another aspect of these
changes has been related to the mean changes in precipitation,
with wet extremes becoming more severe in many areas where
mean precipitation increases, and dry extremes where the mean
precipitation decreases...
Climate models continue to confirm the earlier results that
in a future climate warmed by increasing greenhouse gases,
precipitation intensity (e.g., proportionately more precipitation
per precipitation event) is projected to increase over most
regions ... and the increase
in precipitation extremes is greater than changes in mean
precipitation.
Friday, July 05, 2019
A movie not to watch
There are many reviews floating around about Midsommar - the new horror film by Hereditary director Ari Aster. Some are good - but some indicate not so much. (Slate asks openly whether it's OK to laugh at the ending which is "brutal and unhinged", and promptly describe it. I think the studio is probably really annoyed about that.)
I thought Hereditary was just awful, and don't understand how it got any good reviews.
The trailer for Midsommar made it look way, way too obvious: very much like The Wicker Man thematically. The reviews are pretty much confirming the comparison. (As it happens, I have never watched much of Wicker Man, but I do know the story and how it ends.)
I am therefore feeling extremely confident that this is a movie I would hate.
I thought Hereditary was just awful, and don't understand how it got any good reviews.
The trailer for Midsommar made it look way, way too obvious: very much like The Wicker Man thematically. The reviews are pretty much confirming the comparison. (As it happens, I have never watched much of Wicker Man, but I do know the story and how it ends.)
I am therefore feeling extremely confident that this is a movie I would hate.
Quantum computer scepticism
Sabine Hossenfelder, the physicist who thinks a bigger, better particle collider (now that the LHC seems to have discovered just one big thing) would be a waste of money, explains that she has some scepticism about whether quantum computing will ever turn out to be useful, too.
And in the course of that explanation, she comes out sounding sceptical of fusion too.
So, I'm pleased to have some heavy hitting physicist sharing my scepticism.
And in the course of that explanation, she comes out sounding sceptical of fusion too.
So, I'm pleased to have some heavy hitting physicist sharing my scepticism.
That's climate change for you
Axios notes:
Would be good to know if the economists who did the work on climate change think they adequately took into account the cost of repeated repairs for flood damage in future years. (Strong hunch that they didn't.)AccuWeather is predicting as much as $12.5 billion in damages throughout the Midwest after months of flooding has ravaged the region, according the the Wall Street Journal.Catch up quick: The first half of 2019 is on its way to becoming the wettest on record due to snowmelt and flooding, largely in the Midwest, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The ensuing damage has been extremely costly to Midwestern infrastructure and industries, particularly with agriculture.
- Officials in Iowa are estimating the first round of flooding alone cost the state $2 billion in losses.
- Illinois' state transportation department estimates more than 1,000 miles of road will require cleaning.
- In Nebraska, only 10 of the 21 bridges that had to be closed have reopened, and repairs on the rest may not be finished until fall 2020.
Rather like Trump, I imagine
Not sure if The Sun is at all a reliable source, but it claims this:
The stories of Boris's incompetence and unreliability (and dis-likeability) are legion now.
You would have to strongly suspect that intelligence delivery to Trump is also hedged - how on Earth could they trust the Tweeter in Chief completely??SECURITY chiefs kept top secrets from Boris Johnson when he was Foreign Secretary over fears he couldn’t be trusted, The Sun has been told.Intelligence bosses were “anxious” about sharing the most sensitive information with the frontrunner in the race for No10 during his two years in the Cabinet.
The nerves were sparked by at least two instances when Boris was accused of revealing classified information by mistake.
The order to cut him out came directly from PM Theresa May, The Sun has also been told.
“Pre-meetings” were held before key discussion forums such as the Government’s COBRA emergency committee that Boris attended for security chiefs to brief the PM on alone.
The stories of Boris's incompetence and unreliability (and dis-likeability) are legion now.
Movie financing in the news
The Hollywood producer Riza Aziz, stepson of the former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, has been arrested on suspicion of money laundering.
Mr Aziz, who produced The Wolf of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, was detained in Malaysia and bailed.
US prosecutors have accused Mr Aziz's production company of misappropriating money from a multi-billion dollar state fund to finance the film.
Mr Aziz's stepfather and mother have both been charged with corruption.
Mr Aziz will appear in court on Friday to face charges, said Latheefa Koya, the head of Malaysia's anti-corruption agency.Here's the link
Thursday, July 04, 2019
More record rainfall in Japan
I pointed out back in 2017 that Japan is now, nearly every summer, coming up with new record rainfalls and bad floods (often, given their landscape, accompanied by landslides and a lot of infrastructure damage.)
It continues in 2019:
It continues in 2019:
More than 1 million residents across the island of Kyushu in southwestern Japan were ordered to evacuate Wednesday amid torrential rains and warnings of severe flooding and landslides.This is real, damaging, climate change in action.
According to the latest weather forecast, the massive downpour, which has already brought record levels of rain over the past 72 hours, is set to intensify over the next 12 hours.
Wednesday, July 03, 2019
On 50 year anniversaries
It seems to me that the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riot, and the month long Pride events, are attracting much more media and pop culture attention than the forthcoming 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. (Maybe that will change in coming days, but I have my doubts.)
It's a very surprising turn of events, I think, that shows how very hard the job of futurologist must be, especially when it comes to social views and sentiment.
It's a very surprising turn of events, I think, that shows how very hard the job of futurologist must be, especially when it comes to social views and sentiment.
A typical pattern
I have been pretty busy today, so not much time to get to deleting Bird poop currently afflicting my comments.
Those familiar with Graeme Bird's history as a serial pest in the Australian blogosphere have had a few days' reminder of what he was like, and why he ends up getting banned sooner or later.
[In fact, sorry to tell you Bird, but your ideas seem pretty much stuck where they were a decade ago. Your primarily anti-Semitic conspiracies, cosmology and "reverse engineered" physics is very stale.]
As I mentioned before, he's been going through old posts of mine and making comments which I notice because copies are automatically emailed to me. Hence, I found this at the end of one of his comments last night, to one of my posts about Helen Dale, which is typical of the Bird of old - eventually getting angry or weird enough to throw in a line that sounds like it's from a dangerous psychopath:
I think that makes it worthwhile just deleting all future comments from you, Bird: you're very strange, and the amusement of interacting with you always wears off fast.
UPDATE: in response to comments -
* how have you all missed my dog's photos, such as this one from only a month ago? (She has appeared a few times before, too.) Zero marks for observation, everyone.
* no, I don't worry that Bird really is a psychopathic wannabe killer - you will note I actually responded to him in comments here in mocking tone, which I would not do if I feared he was actually was a danger to me (or my dog). But it's still off putting to be dealing with anyone who references, just about daily, an imagined violent fate for his imagined enemies. I think Jason only found a reference to killing a dog funny because he knows Bird's over the top rhetorical history - but no one near normal makes jokes like that, and he shouldn't be rewarded by normalisation via his repetition of conspiracy think that is ridiculously targeted against Jews, and the violent imagery he often spouts along with it.
* he has "retracted" the comment, which is nice - but he'll lose his temper again soon enough, or make some bad taste or offensive comment of some kind.
Hence, I'm just deleting him from now on, but if I am busy - like today - they may linger for a while before they go.
Those familiar with Graeme Bird's history as a serial pest in the Australian blogosphere have had a few days' reminder of what he was like, and why he ends up getting banned sooner or later.
[In fact, sorry to tell you Bird, but your ideas seem pretty much stuck where they were a decade ago. Your primarily anti-Semitic conspiracies, cosmology and "reverse engineered" physics is very stale.]
As I mentioned before, he's been going through old posts of mine and making comments which I notice because copies are automatically emailed to me. Hence, I found this at the end of one of his comments last night, to one of my posts about Helen Dale, which is typical of the Bird of old - eventually getting angry or weird enough to throw in a line that sounds like it's from a dangerous psychopath:
In my view the problem was with Australia and not with Helen. She can reinvent her own act every second year, set up any number of protective barriers, to protect the girl and the artist, as much as she wants ...... and its really no-one elses business but her own.(I presume he has noticed the occasional pic of my pup which gets posted here.)
Last time I met her, and last time I talked to her, was before I turned anti-Judaic. Jason can verify this, so don't try and condemn her by association, or I'll come around and slit your puppies throat.
I think that makes it worthwhile just deleting all future comments from you, Bird: you're very strange, and the amusement of interacting with you always wears off fast.
UPDATE: in response to comments -
* how have you all missed my dog's photos, such as this one from only a month ago? (She has appeared a few times before, too.) Zero marks for observation, everyone.
* no, I don't worry that Bird really is a psychopathic wannabe killer - you will note I actually responded to him in comments here in mocking tone, which I would not do if I feared he was actually was a danger to me (or my dog). But it's still off putting to be dealing with anyone who references, just about daily, an imagined violent fate for his imagined enemies. I think Jason only found a reference to killing a dog funny because he knows Bird's over the top rhetorical history - but no one near normal makes jokes like that, and he shouldn't be rewarded by normalisation via his repetition of conspiracy think that is ridiculously targeted against Jews, and the violent imagery he often spouts along with it.
* he has "retracted" the comment, which is nice - but he'll lose his temper again soon enough, or make some bad taste or offensive comment of some kind.
Hence, I'm just deleting him from now on, but if I am busy - like today - they may linger for a while before they go.
Tuesday, July 02, 2019
Another Ngo observation
I strongly suspect that many who are outraged that some on the Left are taking a "he asked for it" line on Ngo's attack are the same people who speculate after a lone woman is raped on a dark street that, you know, women really need to be practical about this and be careful not to place themselves in danger.
[That would make for a good tweet if I could be bothered tweeting...]
[That would make for a good tweet if I could be bothered tweeting...]
Space mold is a worry
If you think that going to live in space might be a cure for mundane Earthly problems like too much mold around your apartment - think again.
Science magazine explains that mold is a persistent problem in the International Space Station - they even have a photo of a patch:
[I would presume that one of the big problems is that bleach fumes are not something you want to have to deal with in a recycling air system.]
What's worse - mold spores can tolerate incredible amounts of radiation:
Science magazine explains that mold is a persistent problem in the International Space Station - they even have a photo of a patch:
[I would presume that one of the big problems is that bleach fumes are not something you want to have to deal with in a recycling air system.]
What's worse - mold spores can tolerate incredible amounts of radiation:
Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) already constantly battle with mold, which grows on the station’s walls and equipment. That mold, of course, is in a protected structure in low-Earth orbit, where radiation doses are low. Outside of the station, doses are higher—and they would be higher still on the hull of a spacecraft going to Mars or beyond.
To find out what might happen to mold there, Marta Cortesão, a microbiologist at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne and colleagues beamed x-rays and heavy ions at a common black mold called Aspergillus niger, which is plentiful in the ISS. The researchers fired “stupid amounts” of radiation, Cortesão says—much more than encountered on a Mars-bound spaceship (0.6 gray per year) or on the surface of Mars (0.2 gray per year). The gray is a measure of the amount of absorbed radiation energy.
The researchers discovered that the spores could survive radiation doses of 500 to 1000 gray, depending on which type of radiation they were exposed to. Humans, by contrast, get radiation sickness at doses of 0.5 gray and are killed by 5 gray. Cortesão also found that the spores survived large amounts of high-energy ultraviolet radiation, which is commonly used as a hospital disinfectant and has been proposed for sterilizing the surfaces of spacecraft.
Cortesão cautions that her research focused only on radiation and did not include all aspects of the harsh outer space environment. But, she says, at least one older study suggests that mold spores resist radiation even better in a vacuum. Meanwhile, one thing is certain, she says: “We will have spores with us for sure in our space travels. Fungi have been forgotten for the past 20 or 30 years, but it’s time to go back to them.”
In an unwise attempt to string out information from someone who thinks Einstein was wrong...
Graeme, my unwanted nutty commenter, made a contribution recently that people might have missed - I invited him to read a good Quanta article last week explaining a lot about how Einstein came up with his ideas, to see if he might re-consider his position (ha!) - and he responded as follows:
What does an abnormal person like you say?
"In an attempt, no doubt futile, to at least get you to reconsider the matter of Einstein and his wildly experimental successful theories...."Graeme - ignoring for the moment the nonsensical nature of the part that starts "think about your butt right now" - you would surely know about the 1919 eclipse observations? As this ESA site confirms, the experimental confirmation was not left there - it was refined over the following decades til we get to this point:
They are not even successful a little bit. Show me the data where it was proved that gravity is space bending? Think about your butt right now. There is no space between your behind and your chair to bend. Yet you still feel the force of gravity. So the theory is refuted right there. Yet the oppressive psy-op abuses us from childhood every day. What an incredible menace this oligarchy is when they subject you to that level of brainwashing.
After half a century of similar eclipse observations of the shifting stars, critics still said that there could be a 20 per cent error in the results. They were not accurate enough to rule out newer theories of gravity that challenged Einstein's version. Radio astronomers did somewhat better, with Quasar 3C279 which passes behind the Sun on 8 October every year. ESA's Hipparcos satellite (1989-93) provided the emphatic confirmation of Einstein's prediction. Hipparcos charted the positions of stars so accurately that no eclipse was needed to see the effect of the Sun's gravity. Where previous observations of the shifts had been confined to objects seen within a degree or two of the edge of the Sun, where the effect is strongest, the European satellite sensed the bending of light-rays even from stars in the night sky, at right angles to the Sun. According to the Hipparcos scientists, Einstein's prediction is correct to within one part in a thousand.A normal person would say this is experimental confirmation of theory.
What does an abnormal person like you say?
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