Quantum Physics Double Slit Experiment

Cool quantum physics video.

Drug company greed

This NY Times article (registration required) takes an interesting look at a cancer drug's ridiculous price spike. These are the kind of things that drive health insurance prices through the roof (well, if insurance even covers it; so many drugs aren't even covered by health insurance anymore. In this case, the drug manufacturer is trying to get insurers to pay their new, inflated prices -- well, of course they want the insurers to pay. Most people can't afford a $500.00 a month prescription). Outrageous. Sigh. Via Imitatio Christi.

Why do malformed URLs redirect to Microsoft?

Click the title to find out why. What can we do about it? Why, this: HTTP.

Bill Frist plays dirty politics

Bill Frist threatens to re-structure the Intelligence Committee in order to block NSA hearings.

Maybe black holes don't exist after all

Which really cramps some science fiction concepts. Link.

George Orwell would be proud

It seems Homeland Security is alerted if you pay too much on your credit card bill. Via Digg.

That way lies madness

Fine Line Revealed Between Creativity and Insanity. I've heard there's a fine line between genius and insanity - I suppose that this follows naturally. Geniuses look at things in different ways, which is one way of defining creativity. The insane also look at things in different ways, but I suppose it's taken to extremes. The creative genius and the archetypical mad scientist -- discuss.

Got a Mac? Good luck on that grant application!

In my day job, one of our challenges is making sure everything works on both Windows and Mac platforms. Now as long as you keep standards in mind and don't get into platform-dependent plug-ins (e.g., Active X), it's not really that hard. Sure, you get weird CSS rendering bugs at times, and JavaScript DOM issues, but for the most part, it's not a big deal, as the really important stuff happens on the server anyway.

The US Government contracted out some web sites and the developer came back with applications that will only work on Windows. As a blogger cited in the Washington Post article points out, this is the same government that went after Microsoft for monopolistic practices and is now kind of forcing a Microsoft-only solution on people. Sigh. They say the apps will be Mac compatible in about a year. via Digg

Songs that make you feel young

• No Surrender - Bruce Springsteen
• Find Your Way Back - Jefferson Starship
• Ride a White Swan - T. Rex

Schuylkill Taxpayers Opposed to Pollution

A local grass roots appears to have sprung up to stop the Gilberton Coal-to-Clean-Fuels and Power Project (see previous post). They have a website at ultradirtyfuels.com (in direct response to the corporate ultracleanfuels.com sponsored by the corporations behind the controversial plant).

Gilberton Coal-to-Clean-Fuels and Power Project

The US Department of Energy is seeking comments on a draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Gilberton Coal-to-Clean-Fuels and Power Project, which would construct a plant to produce clean hydrocarbon liquids, electricity, and steam from anthracite coal waste. Comments can be made at two public meetings:

• Jan. 9, 2006 at 7:00 PM at Shenandoah Valley Senior High School, Shenandoah
• Jan. 10, 2006 at 7:00 PM at DHH Lengel Middle School, Pottsville

Information sessions at both places from 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM preceding the public hearings.

You can also submit written comments by Feb. 8, 2006. Full details here.

From the Environmental Consequences section of the draft EIS: "Trace emissions of other pollutants would include mercury, beryllium, sulfuric acid mist, hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid, benzene, arsenic, and various heavy metals." Now, while they will scrub the emissions to reduce the amount of these elements that gets sent into the atmosphere, further on in the paragraph it reads "a high percentage of hazardous air pollutants and trace elements in the synthesis gas would be removed, but no estimates of the proposed facilities' emissions of these pollutants are currently available." I interpret that "as we can remove 99% of x, but we don't know what x is." So therefore, they can't really say how much of each of these hazardous materials will be released. They do go on to say that the EPA allows a max of less than 10 tons for any single hazardous air pollutant (e.g., mercury) and less than 25 tons total of all hazardous air pollutants in a rolling 12-month period. So I guess we can infer that they think it will be less than the maximums allowed, but that isn't even guaranteed, based on this statement (page 4-9): "Part of the purpose of the proposed project is to generate environmental data, including hazardous air pollutant measurements, from the operation of the integrated technologies at a sufficiently large scale to allow industries and utilities to assess the project's potential for commercial application." So I guess we're guinea pigs.

Then there's that little Global Warming thing. From the EIS, page 4-11: "The proposed facilities would increase global CO2 emissions by about 832,000 tons per year, which is about 0.003% of global CO2 emissions of 26,713 million tons resulting from fossil fuel combustion in the year 2000." While 0.003% doesn't sound like much, to think that one little plant in Schuylkill County will be adding 832,000 tons of CO2 emissions is a little ... alarming.

Based on their analysis of the effects to the local water supply, it doesn't sound bad (other than reducing the flow of water to the Mahanoy Creek by about 43%, but they say since no one drinks from the Creek, that doesn't really matter).

There are probably some more interesting insights that can be made by reading the entire EIS. I encourage people to post comments here.

I'm all for looking for alternative energy production methods, but it seems we're just swapping in another non-renewable energy source here (anthracite waste). Public funding is far better spent on researching and implementing renewable resources that do not contribute the environmental hazards that burning fossil fuels do -- let's look at solar collectors and wind farms and quit relying on fossil fuels. I'd much rather have a wind farm in my back yard than five more smokestacks spewing unknown quantities of pollutants.

College newspaper advisor canned for letting students use Macs

You see, allowing students to use Macs doesn't prepare them for the real world. Okaaay. Link. via Digg.

The Future of HTML

IBM's developerWorks has an interesting article on the future of HTML, mentioning HTML 5, a proposed progression to the HTML standard that is backwards-compatible with HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0 (I can sense you nodding off already). They also touch on Web Forms 2.0, which would extend current forms implementations to include built-in client-side validation (so you don't have to write custom JavaScript for required fields, or validating an e-mail address). There seems to be a lot of interest in what the web is transforming into, after Google showcased what you can do with AJAX to create a more compelling user experience. So what's the best approach to a more engaging and useful web - AJAX, Flash, the next generation of HTML or XHTML, or a combination of all these things?

Mom's Cancer

Mom's Cancer is a graphic novel about a family dealing with their mother's struggle with cancer. Highly recommended reading for anyone dealing with the anguish and struggle that cancer introduces into a family's life. Author's website is here.

How does your workplace hold up?

The Job Tracker database allows you to look up some interesting info on companies, including if they export jobs, endanger workers' health, or violate workers' rights under the National Labor Relations Act.

Schuylkill County from the air

Before Google Maps and NASA's World Wind let you peer at your house via satellite photos, we had to settle for looking at Schuylkill County from an airplane.

Papers Please

Deborah Davis refused to show her ID to a security guard who demanded to see everyone's ID on a public bus. After all, this is America, right? We can move about in public without the fear of the authorities demanding "your papers, please." But Deborah got arrested. For not showing her papers.

We're all a little antsy from the threat of terrorism, but we shouldn't let that serve as an excuse to create Big Brother.

Firefox 1.5 is out

You can get it here.

Trans Siberian Orchestra - Nov. 12, 2005 Wilkes-Barre PA

This is starting to turn into the concert review blog. Anyways, this was my third TSO show. They're always a good concert when they come to town, but the setlist doesn't seem to vary much. And this year, it seemed a little too early to be seeing a Christmas concert. They did most of Christmas Eve and Other Stories as the opening set, as usual, followed by a mix of rock and classical (and classic rock) -- this year's Zeppelin song was "Rock and Roll" (last year was "Immigrant Song," I believe).

Springsteen - Nov. 8, 2005 Wachovia Spectrum, Philadelphia

This was a different show - not a huge stadium mega-concert, but simply solo Bruce on guitar, piano, organ, and, at one point, ukelele (I Wanna Marry You). The opening song used only harmonica and some kind of foot-powered thumping percussion panel, and the vocals were so distorted as to make the lyrics completely garbled, as if the sound was coming through an old, tinny radio heard from a distance. I had no idea what the song was, and I don't think most of the audience did either. This morning I found out it was Born in the USA. Go figure.

Otherwise, a great show. Different takes on a few songs - Johnny 99 was also fairly unrecognizable, unless you knew the words. It was great to hear the acoustic Atlantic City. This Hard Land was another highlight, along with a rocking Open All Night (quite a few from Nebraska, including Highway Patrolman -- loved hearing that live!).

So it was nice to see this intimate rendition of these great songs. I've been debating if I would have preferred the full band, over-the-top Bruce concert experience vs. this solo act (and since I've never seen Bruce with the full band, it's kind of hard to say). Anyway, setlist follows:

• Born in the U.S.A.
• Devils & Dust
• The Ties That Bind
• Long Time Comin'
• Highway 29
• Fade Away
• Incident on 57th Street
• Johnny 99
• Ain't Got You
• Atlantic City
• Highway Patrolman
• Reno
• Be True
• Drive All Night
• The Rising
• Further On (Up the Road)
• Jesus Was an Only Son
• This Hard Land
• The Hitter
• Matamoros Banks

Encore:

• I Wanna Marry You
• Open All Night
• The Promised Land
• Dream Baby Dream