Tomorrow night, the 29th of August, the show “Bad Universe” will premier on the Discovery Channel at 10 o’clock eastern time.  If you don’t live in the eastern US, check your local listings.   The show looks pretty cool, and it stars my friend Phil Plait, (AKA The Bad Astronomer) who is a very active member of the skeptic community and has been debunking bad science for years.   It’s really huge that Phil would get a show like this on a major television network, and it’s definitely a great way for him to help spread skepticism and good science.

More videos from the show can be found here.

One nitpick: Phil can’t actually shoot rays of energy out of his eyes. If he could, I’m pretty sure I would have been zapped by now.

Some of the anti-nuclear energy interest groups in Vermont are trying a new tactic against Vermont Yankee, demanding that the NRC order the reactor temperature lowered and thus the power output dramatically cut. Their argument is that the zirconium-based alloy used to clad the fuel can oxidize rapidly (basically burn) at the temperatures the reactor is authorized to run at.

The NRC denied their petition, which is no surprise at all.

Via the Battleboro reformer:

NRC says VY temps within limits
BRATTLEBORO — Anti-nuclear activists were denied a petition by the Nuclear Reactor Commission’s Petition Review Board Friday.

In a June 7 letter addressed to William Borchardt, executive director for operations at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, consultants for the New England Coalition, Mark Leyse and Ray Shadis, requested that the commission lower the limit of the peak fuel cladding temperature at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon.

Zirconium alloys used in Vermont Yankee’s cladding, which are also commonly used at other nuclear plants across the country, are designed to contain the plant’s reactor fuel, consisting of uranium dioxide ceramic pellets, Shadis said.

“Everything about nuclear safety has to do with containing those pellets,” he said. “The cladding has to retain its integrity to ensure fission products, like strontium-90, never get into the environment.”

The fuel cladding temperature set by the NRC, 2,200 degrees, is far too high to ensure the public safety, according to Leyse and Shadis.

Shadis told the NRC that lowering the temperatures could help ensure an accident similar to the partial core meltdown at Three Mile Island in March 1979, or even worse, won’t occur again.

Experiments and studies conducted in Germany have shown that rapid oxidation, an exothermic reaction where the reaction is self sustaining and generates more heat as the process continues, can occur as low as 1,832 degrees.

“Once rapid oxidation begins there’s nothing you can do about it,” Leyse said. In the experiments, it took only 60 seconds for the temperatures to reach 3,300 degrees because of the runaway oxidation.”

Trying to combat it with water would only make it worse, Leyse added, because the process would just drain the oxygen from the water, rising in temperature.

Based upon the nuclear plant’s analysis, Vermont Yankee is well within the NRC accepted criteria at 2,060 degrees, Entergy spokesman Larry Smith said.

The NRC agreed, which is why the petition was dismissed.

Leyse said the NRC constantly states its purpose is public safety and that it is overly conservative in those measures.

“To be truly conservative, the temperature limits should be lowered to well below the 1,832,” he said.

He estimates that the temperature should be below 1,700 to avoid rapid oxidation.

Leyse said that although the petition was denied, it was passed along to the NRC’s rule making branch for further study and analysis and could be considered for the regulations that govern all the U.S. nuclear plants.

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People seem to forget that there’s actually an easy way to rid your body of toxic substances, metabolic byproducts, pharmaceuticals and other substances.  Foot pad and, herbal remedies and even enemas all claim to do the trick, but there’s a much easier way to get those substances out of your body and restore balance.   It’s all natural too!

I’ve been thinking it’s about time someone made an ad to promote real natural detox.

Best to just flush it when done though.   Some quacks actually recommend drinking it (the logic is lost on me, since it’s something your body is trying to get rid of).   Don’t do that though.  For one thing, it’s just nasty.

In the past I’ve made a number of posts and videos mentioning the fact that uranium is a rather common mineral and that it’s been used in a number of consumer products.   Indeed, thousands of kitchen cabinets contain uranium-glazed dinnerware, some of which was mass produced as recently as the 1980’s.

This has been met with a curious response on numerous occasions.   Many concede that uranium is not all that harmful when touched or even ingested but then say “but what about the nano-particles.”   The dust, or “nanoparticles” resulting from uranium combustion are one thing that seems to come up again and again.  They are often credited with nearly magical properties, like the ability to stay suspended in the air indefinitely or to cause horrible health problems even in those far from the location where the uranium projectile was fired.

Indeed uranium tends to be more hazardous when inhaled than when exposure is by other routes, but that’s the extent of the truth to these statements.  Uranium is hardly unique in this respect.  Exposure to dust in general can cause respiratory problems, and certain metallic particles, such as beryllium, are well known to be especially hazardous if inhaled.   By comparison, uranium less dangerous, though it can be a hazard in high concentrations.

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In 1979 Three Mile Island experienced a partial meltdown of one of its reactor cores due to a coolant system failure and operator error.   The actual reactor vessel, though internally damaged, held, and the additional layers of protection offered by the containment structure also held, but were not even needed.   Nobody died, nobody was injured, no property outside the plant was damaged.   To this day, many hold it up as an example of the horrors of nuclear energy.

Meanwhile, a form of “renewable” energy around the country has been destroying homes and snuffing out lives from the very beginning with little fanfare.

The Lake Delhi dam was built in the 1920’s as a hydroelectric generating facility.   In the late 1960’s, the facility began to show its age and the operator didn’t have the capital to replace or refurbish the turbines, leading to most of the electrical generating capacity going offline in 1973.   Had the Delhi dam been a nuclear facility, the owners would have been required to have a fund set aside for its decommissioning, thus assuring that it would not be left a derelict hulk that endangers the community.

But it wasn’t nuclear, so there it sat, turbines rusting and no power being produced.   Instead, operations of the dam were turned over to the “Lake Delhi Recreational Association,” who apparently had no interest in generating electricity  and was not at all equipped to maintain or repair the dam.  The former hydroelectric dam, which held back a ten mile long lake seems to have sat under the control of the equivalent of a neighborhood association, and received little if any maintenance or inspection.

Although hydropower is a good economic and renewable source of energy, no government subsidies jumped in to repair the dam and thus several private attempts to repair the dam and put it back into service generating power went bust over the years.

Finally in 2008, it seemed that the plant would be brought back online.   It had the potential to generate electricity, but since it was not wind or solar, it took a while to get regulatory approval to even begin the refurbishment for power generation.   Yes, that’s right, the process to just get approval to begin refurbishment takes years!

By 2010, it looked like the plant was about ready to come back online.   Unfortunately, as it was being refurbished it was discovered that the years of neglect had not been kind to the Delhi dam and was in worse shape than anyone could have imagined.   Sediment had built up against the dam, at least one gate was severely damaged by a past flood and the integrity of the dam was called into question.  In 2009, the Federal Government allocated 2.5 million for critical repairs on the dam, in part because of the safety issue it presented.   The state of Iowa came up with another one hundred thousand dollars to begin a dredging and improvement plan last April.

But apparently, it wasn’t enough, because this morning, this happened:

Right now, how much damage this dam failure has caused remains unknown.   Details are sketchy, but officials are already calling it “catastrophic.”    At least a few homes are already reported destroyed and upwards of 700 could be in danger.    At least fifty homes have already reported some level of damage and the flood has also been blamed for extensive power outages.  Due to evacuations, it is hoped that deaths will be avoided.

The dam was not a nuclear facility, however, so don’t expect to read about this on the front page of the newspaper.  In fact, don’t expect to read about it on the second page either.   It may not even make the first section of your newspaper and if you don’t live in the US, it likely won’t make it to your newspaper at all.    After all, it’s just a dam and those fail all the time.   Small consolation to those whose lives have been washed away.

At least it was only water and not coal ash.

Back from The Amazing Meeting 8, which was indeed Amazing, I’ve found a pile of work to get to even as I get over the modest jetlag that traveling across three time zones will cause.   Luckilly, I don’t have to describe the event all by myself because others have.   Better still, my friends at the Greater Edmonton Skeptics Society (GESS) have put together a roundup of links from other blogs and news sites describing the amazing events of the Amazing Meeting!

Check it out here

Having returned from Las Vegas and The Amazing Meeting, an annual conference on skepticism hosted by the James Randi Educational Foundaton, I’ve been very eager to start posting about my experiences at the meeting.   Unfortunately, I’ve been fairly busy, as apparently going to Las Vegas for a week tends to result in a lot of work piling up.   In general, the meeting was attended by mainstream skeptics, who may not agree on everything but tended to agree on well proven things, like the fact that the US Apollo program did indeed send men to the moon and back.

This was not quite 100%, however, as at least one conspiracy-obsessed heckler did attend, and attempted repeatedly to heckle Phil Plait and Adam Savage.   Jarrah White is about as committed to the belief that the Apollo moon landings were faked as one can be.   He’s already produced (at last count) 393 Youtube videos on the subject – all of them absolutely stunning in their lack of technical and scientific knowledge.

I recognized White’s voice from the videos as soon as he got up to question Adam Savage. That snooty, nasal, sharp whine with an Australian accent was hard not to recognize, especially as I’ve seen plenty of his videos before. Apparently he came all the way from Australia to try to get up in the face of those who he considers the conspirators behind the faked moon landing

His behavior was about as strange as one might expect. I was concerned initially that he might try to rush the stage or do something else completely crazy – after all, Apollo conspiracy theorists have been known to physically threaten astronauts and do all manner of other crazy things. I alerted the staff and security to his background to be on the safe side, but luckily he didn’t try anything too violent.

Instead, he repeatedly insisted that he get a sit-down interview with Phil Plait. Phil was quite civil, and informed him that to get scheduled interview time he would need to register as press. The Amazing Meeting does not have very exclusive standards for who is given press status – bloggers and podcasters can easily get it. When he was asked for his information on this topic, he repeatedly made a scene about not wanting to reveal his background. I’m not sure how things worked out, but eventually he got a press pass and thus could get his interview. Unfortunately for him, Phil Plait decided to decline the request. After rudely interrupting Phil, who was trying to converse with others at the conference, the Little Dude from the Moon finally started yelling at Phil that he thought his answers were dishonest and he was a liar. Phil said something about how he didn’t believe he could say anything that would change the Little Dude’s mind and that if the Little Dude felt that way, he was not interested in sitting down for an interview.

I’m just glad that no punches were thrown. As he came from Australia, it seemed a reasonable concern that he would not want to make such a trip without getting in at least one dramatic moment or big confrontation. I did challenge him openly to a debate. He never responded to this. Surprised? In fact, I only saw him around on the first day of the three-day event. No word on whether he left early or went into hiding or what.
He has also already posted at least one video from the event:

It should be noted that Adam Savage is not an absolute expert on this topic. There is actually a greater context to this. Phil Plait may have been able to answer this, but Jarrah managed to burn that bridge a long time ago.

Debunking his ridiculous claim:

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At the risk of being called an environmental blasphemer, I’d like to propose something shocking:  the extinction of a species, entirely due to human activity may not always be a bad thing.  In fact, it may be a very good thing.   We have come to be taught that all species deserve to exist (not sure where the “deserve” comes from) and as such, any species that reaches the point of being critically low in number may qualify for the designation endangered species, providing it with protection under both national laws and international conventions.

In many, perhaps most cases, this protection is well warranted.   Many species are enjoyed by humans for their unique properties or their place in nature.  Others are vital to the balance of ecosystems or play a vital role in nature.  Still others may provide vast amounts of data to science on matters of evolution, biology or even practical data, applicable to medical treatment or biological control of pests.   It would be unwise to slate any species for intentional extermination without first considering whether it might have such importance and perhaps preserving some specimens, yet this does not preclude the possibility that extinction may be the best thing for humanity and nature, at least with a few species.

Numerous species of plant, animal, fungus and microbe are, dare I say it:  useless and better off wiped off the face of the planet.  Pathogens rank high here as do some parasites, such as intestinal worms, which are not prey or food for any species and play little role in the ecosystem, other than occasionally causing extreme pain, disease and death, often to humans.  Disease vectors, such as some breeds of mosquito also may be best off being dispensed of, if it is possible to do so.

If this makes me sound a bit human-centric, I have no apologies.   I happen to be a human and I also like my species quite a lot.  I have no problem dispensing with little nasties that cause my fellow main to suffer or die.

So to the Rocky Mountain Locust and the Small Pox virus I say only this:  Good riddance!

Extinct, believed extinct (no recent sightings) or critically near extinction and not really missed:

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From NASA’s confused, convoluted and underfunded Constellation program to the de-funding of it in favor of a non-existant plan, there has been little good news from the American space program.   There is one exception, however.   SpaceX has been making great progress in the design and testing of the Falcon 1 and 9 rockets.   The Falcon 9 is especially exciting.  It’s the first space launch vehicle to be developed 100% privately, the first completely new liquid-fueled rocket in decades and the first American rocket capable of completing a mission with an engine failure since the last Saturn-IB lifted off in 1975.

The Falcon-9 is designed to be human rated and is complete with the Dragon capsule, designed to carry cargo and eventually humans to Low Earth Orbit.   The rocket also can be configured as the Falcon-9 Heavy, which consists of three core boosters and is capable of lifting 28 metric tons to LEO, putting it ahead of the mighty Russian Proton rocket, the current most popular heavy lift ELV, and exceeding the capacity of all current ELV’s with the exception of the ultra-heavy configuration of the Atlas-V.

SpaceX also hopes to make the Falcon-9 considerably cheaper than other rockets.   The vehicle is intended to be partially reusable, with stages being retrieved after parachuting back to earth.  If the design meets projections, it may set a new standard for the economics of heavy lift vehicles and possibly help reestablish the United States as a major player in the commercial satellite launch business.

Today the first Falcon-9 lifted off and sent its payload, a test version of the Dragon capsule into low earth orbit!

First time trials of rockets are certainly not assured successes and SpaceX has spent some time testing the design on static test stands and dry runs for launch.    This flight is the culmination of years of development and an enormous step in making the Falcon-9 a cargo and human-carrying rocket we can rely on.

Recently, a study published in the Journal Pediatrics has been getting a huge amount of press for indicating a possible relationship between organophosphate levels and ADHD (but interestingly NOT ADD.)   Organophosphates are commonly used as pesticides and trace levels are found in a minority of food in the US.  Most fruit and vegitables sold in the US do not have levels of organophosphates that are high enough to be detected by standard analytical methods, but up to 25-33% do have detectable, albeit small, amounts.   Thus many people do have small but detectable amounts of these compounds in their bodies.

Organophosphates can be quite dangerous to humans and their application may require protective measures, however they tend to break down fairly quickly and when used properly the amount that remains in the end product is small and has never been conclusively linked to any health effects.   Their relatively short time to breakdown has lead to their widespread adoption.  Organochloride insecticides, such as DDT tend to present less danger of acute toxicity to humans, but may linger in the environment longer than organophosphates.

The study raises some interesting questions, but the way it is being reported makes it sound like it has presented far more conclusive evidence than it really has.    It is already being used by “organic” agriculture groups as proof of the superiority of organic products.  It is also causing a lot of fear and confusion for parents.   Even personal injury attorneys are already all over it! The news reports indicate that higher body burdens of organophosphates are linked to ADHD , but in reality the study’s data and conclusions are far less black and white.

Thankfully, you can download the entire study in PDF format for FREE here.

Issues with the study:
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