The Strident Centrist Blog

For the first time in the nearly six months since I started this blog, I’ve encountered a major WordPress (the blog engine) problem of some sort. The data base record of the previous post (The Destruction of the Republican Brand) has some sort of anomoly in it that both prevents the display of the post as written, and it also prevents me from either editing or deleting it. Furthermore, when I try to look at the HTML source version it won’t let me do so. So, I’m going to first post this to make sure I can still do so, and then I’m going to (hopefully) repost the Republican Brand post so that it displays in the manner intended.

This is a test of the blockquote function, which apparently is where the problem is.

Update: Posting still works and Take 2 of the problem post is above, as originally written.

Science Daily has had more than its usual quota of interesting pieces over the last few days. Here are a few of them:\

Very long lasers made of optical fibers offer a promising route to highly secure communications.

Nothing beats quantum communication for absolute security, but the new method, which relies on classical rather than quantum physics, provides faster communication over long distances. It would also be feasible with existing hardware, in contrast to quantum communication that will require development of new, and probably expensive, components.

A new technique to identify objects of art will be foolproof

The system is based on the owner of the work selecting, for example, one square centimetre. The roughness/texture and colour of that square centimetre are then measured on a micrometer scale, and put into a database. Objects and collections which are fingerprinted can then be easily identified and traced when on loan or in transport.

It sounds good, but mightn’t it be a bit premature to say it’s foolproof?

Greenland Ice Sheet Still Losing Mass

The study indicates that from April 2004 to April 2006, Greenland was shedding ice at about two and one-half times the rate of the previous two-year period, according to CU-Boulder researchers Isabella Velicogna and John Wahr. The researchers used measurements taken with the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE, to calculate that Greenland lost roughly 164 cubic miles of ice from April 2004 to April 2006 — more than the volume of water in Lake Erie.

Erie is by far the smallest of the Great Lakes by volume, but that’s still a hell of a lot of water. This last story has an explanation of how the dual-satellite GRACE experiment works.

A change in gravity due to a pass by GRACE over a portion of Greenland imperceptibly tugs the lead satellite away from the trailing satellite, said Velicogna. A sensitive ranging system allows researchers to measure the distance of the two satellites down to as small as 1 micron — about 1/50 the width of a human hair — and to then calculate the ice mass in particular regions of Greenland.

Wired News has the skinny on how lithium ion batteries can go bad.

Abraham said the biggest threat is the possible penetration of the thin barrier made of synthetic material — about as thick as a sheet of paper — that separates the two electrodes and prevents the quick release of energy.

If a particle — such as a speck of metal — breaches the protective membrane during manufacturing, the particles worm through the opening and collide with the electrode, causing the device to short-circuit.

“There is still room to grow in terms of the amount of energy we can squeeze form a lithium-ion battery,” he said. “The technology can be improved, but we’re so much in a hurry to come out with these consumer products, shortcomings can occur in the finer details of the battery construction.”

The Register delves into the chemistry involved in brewing and using the binary explosive triacetone triperoxide (TAPT), the type the Paki-British plotters were allegedly about to unveil on flights over the pond. Will you be surprised to learn that both are more easily said than done, and that’s unlikely the would-be terrorists were any where ready to go prime time?

“So the fabled binary liquid explosive - that is, the sudden mixing of hydrogen peroxide and acetone with sulfuric acid to create a plane-killing explosion, is out of the question. Meanwhile, making TATP ahead of time carries a risk that the mission will fail due to premature detonation, although it is the only plausible approach.

“Certainly, if we can imagine a group of jihadists smuggling the necessary chemicals and equipment on board, and cooking up TATP in the lavatory, then we’ve passed from the realm of action blockbusters to that of situation comedy.

“It should be small comfort that the security establishments of the UK and the USA - and the “terrorism experts” who inform them and wheedle billions of dollars out of them for bomb puffers and face recognition gizmos and remote gait analyzers and similar hi-tech phrenology gear - have bought the Hollywood binary liquid explosive myth, and have even acted upon it.”

The new Swiss public toilet.

Link via Digg.com.

“The robot that parks cars at the Garden Street Garage in Hoboken, New Jersey, trapped hundreds of its wards last week for several days. But it wasn’t the technology car owners had to curse, it was the terms of a software license.“