After doing some reading about solar energy I came across some information on a danger that had, quite frankly, not occurred to me before.  It seems that many forms of solar thermal energy production carry a very high risk of severe fire and even explosion.

Solar thermal power plants use large mirrors to concentrate the suns light on collectors.  In most systems this works through trough mirrors which focus the light onto long pipes.  In others, an array of mirrors focuses the energy on a central receiver, which contains a fluid that is heated by the light.   The fluid is normally pumped continuously through a system of collection tubes in order to transfer as much heat as possible.

Leaks have always plagued solar thermal power systems.   The tubes must be thin to maximize thermal transfer and to keep costs down, and the scale of the systems is necessarily very large.   This, combined with the stress of daily heating and cooling has lead to what might be called a “plumbers nightmare” and explains why so much labor is required to keep solar thermal plants up and running.

The engineering challenge of providing a leak-resistant way of transferring the fluid through miles, under such harsh conditions has resulted in a number of approaches, including the use of ball joints and flexible hoses.   The sheer size of utility-scale installations has also been a problem, since the connections and tubing must be made as economically as possible.

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We recently lost Roger Ebert, who had been struggling with cancer since 2002.   Although modern medicine did manage to give him another decade, he lost his ability to speak and eat normally due to surgery on his throat and jaw.  Roger Ebert is best known as a film critic, but he was also a great editorialize, a humanist, a skeptic, a promoter of the arts and, of course, a champion for the great artistry of cinema.

Of course, as a film critic, Roger Ebert had to sit through many movies that he would not have watched by choice and did not exactly find much to like about.   One of his greatest talents was his ability to putdown movies which were sorely in need of it.   It’s an often unrecognized talent, requiring creativity, wit, masterful communications and an excellent vocabulary of insults.  Ebert was able to quickly, in just a few words, capture the sheer awfulness of two hours of garbage and communicate it to his audience in a way that was sharp and on point.  His insults not only captured the very stench of the crap he had to review, but were clever and funny in their own right.

As someone who so often reviews crap online, I find Ebert to be a high standard to aspire to for his ability to cut down those who need it.

Here are a few of my favorites:

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There have been many claims made about the potential health dangers of genetically modified crops by a number of groups.  Of course, most of these claims lack even the slightest evidence and seem to be based on the fallacy that anything artificial is dangerous.   While a few genetically engineered crops under development did show potential to cause allergies, these were quickly pulled from consideration for use in actual products.

Still, opponents continue to grasp for straws to prove that modifying DNA intentionally (as opposed as to by accident, which happens all the time) is somehow a danger to health.  A recent study claimed to have found strong evidence of harm, yet critical evaluation has found it not only to be flawed, but actually fraudulent.

Via Forbes:

Scientists Smell A Rat In Fraudulent Genetic Engineering Study
Last week French microbiologist Gilles-Eric Séralini and several colleagues released the results of a long-term study in which rats were fed genetically engineered (AKA genetically modified, or “GM”) corn that contains enhanced resistance to insects and/or the herbicide glyphosate. They took the unprecedented step of pre-releasing the paper to selected media outlets under an embargo on the condition that they sign a non-disclosure agreement. (That prevented the journalists from seeking scientific experts’ opinions on the article.) At a carefully orchestrated media event they then announced that their long-term studies found that the rats in experimental groups developed tumors at an alarming rate. Within hours news of their “discovery” echoed around the world. As we say today, the story “went viral.”

This really should have raised a red flag from the beginning. Typically, scientists will publish their work in a journal for review by other scientists before going to the media. If there are leaks about an especially large or important discovery, they may need to engage the media sooner, but this is usually done in a guarded manner. Otherwise, it’s normally improper to talk with the media about scientific data before it has been released in full, and doing so with a non-disclosure agreement is not normal.

Based on this atypical behavior and apparent desire for early media attention, the scent of a rat should have been strong even before the paper was released.  They also preempted publication of their study with the release of these extremely disturbing photos of the rats used in the experiment.

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It never ceases to amaze me what otherwise functional adults can believe.   Mind you, this video was produced by someone with enough of a grasp on reality to understand how to operate video editing software.  In fact, it probably involved more than one person.   These are the people who live along side each of us in society.

Okay, so now the reptilians are not simply the leaders but also their body guards?   That’s a new one.  I was under the impression that the evil alien overlords ruled but that their slave minions were humans.   One would think, in any case, they could keep the true shape-shifters hidden away from public events and use one of their human shills instead.   But then again, this does not need to make sense.

A few observations:

1. The Secret Service acts as the presidents body guards and are basically paid to be paranoid and constantly on edge that he will be attacked.  Some hide it better than others, but if an agent is standing in a crowd looking around a lot, that’s because he’s doing his job.  crowds are dangerous because anyone could easily pull a gun, and although there are usually metal detectors, they are not foolproof.
2. That looks to me like a tall, slender guy with a bald/shaved head.   Am I alone in this?
3. Video cameras and compression are designed such that small details, normally not important to the picture, are lost in order to increase efficiency.  One of the things that many video systems have is a smoothing filter, which removes random noise from the image to improve compression.   It can make faint background details appear smooth.   This can happen a lot in areas that are darker than most of the image or where contrast is high.  The effect is increased by zooming. Of course, you can’t just crop and zoom and get an accurate picture.  The image has a finite resolution.  Any zooming beyond that is just pixel scaling.
4. Do I seriously need to even

As far as scientific achievements go, this really does not mean much, but it falls under the catagory of “really cool,” especially if, like me, you are an Apollo program buff.

Apollo-11, like all the manned lunar missions was carried aloft on a Saturn-V rocket.   The first stage of the rocket, the S-IC was designed to be disposable.  After burning out, it was jettisoned and the next stage, the S-II took over.  By the time it cut off, the rocket was at an altitude of 67,000 meters and more than 90 kilometers down range, out to sea.   Since the stage was intended to only be used once, there was no parachute.  It simply fell from that altitude and smashed into the ocean.  Presumably, never to be seen again.

Well, that was not to be for the stage that carried Apollo-11 to the moon.   Because of the historical interest, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos took it upon himself to start a project to locate and recover the remains of that rocket stage.

Needless to say, it’s not in pristine condition.   The impact shattered the thin, lightweight structure of the stage and 40+ years under salt water did not do the remains any favors either.   Still, the thrust chambers of the rocket engines were solid enough to survive in remarkably good shape.   Although the engine bells seem to have been torn off, parts of the engines are still very recognizable, including the main turbopumps.

The mighty F-1 engine is definitely an impressive site, even broken apart!

Check out this link for a gallery of images of the recovered engines.

To all readers -
You may have noticed that Depleted Cranium has been a bit light in posts recently.   It’s been a few days since the last one and that one was a few days after the one before that.  Sorry about that!

My personal life has just been very busy recently.  On top of that, I’m working on a couple of posts that are going to be rather long and highly researched.   Please bear with me while I get things updated.  New posts will come soon!

Also, please don’t tell me it should be “bare with me,” because it is actually bear.  Bear is the animal, but it also means to hold, carry or stay.   Bare means naked.

Thanks

-Steve (AKA DrBuzz0)

It is often claimed by various “alternative medicine” gurus that the diseases currently faced by humanity are largely the result of our civilization and artificial causes.   Common claims are that everything from genetically modified foods to our use of wireless devices are the reason things like cancer and heart disease exist.  (Apparently at one time, people were always in good health and thus never died, either.)

There is some, limited, truth to this, in that some diseases now have the chance to exist more often, simply because less people are killed by something else first.   Heart disease, cancer many other diseases become more common with age and therefore would not be as common in a time when many died at an earlier age, as a result of infectious disease and traumatic injury.  Other diseases exist in the population today because they can be treated, while in centuries past, they would have resulted in death.   Type 1 diabetes, for example, was once a death sentence, but can now be treated.

A few other diseases may be more common today as a result of lifestyle changes.   Yet even these diseases were not unheard of in earlier human history.   Although a sedentary lifestyle and high calorie intake is well known to be associated with heart disease, a recent study has discovered compelling evidence that atherosclerosis – the buildup of plaque in the heart, existed long before modern lifestyles.

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Recently stories have been making the rounds about how Japan is coping with the aftermath of the tsunami and the partial meltdown that occurred two years ago.  It is as sad as it is predictable that the fears of radiation would become the most lingering and harmful effect.   Even as the radiation itself has faded to background levels for most of the effected areas, public anxiety remains high.   This is exactly what happened with Chernobyl and other incidents.

Via the Associated Press:

Stress Emerges As Major Health Issue In Fukushima
MINAMI-SOMA, Japan (AP) — Japan’s radiation nightmare has turned the lively home that truck driver Takahiro Ishitani once shared with his wife and three sons into a cluttered bachelor pad.

A coffee mug full of cigarette butts, a towel and other odds and ends sit on a low table in the apartment’s small living room. He offers a visitor a takeout box lunch, his main source of sustenance these days. Laundry hangs inside so it won’t absorb the radiation that remains in the ground, two years after an earthquake and tsunami caused meltdowns and explosions at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) to the south.

To escape this lonely weekday existence, the 42-year-old Ishitani drives three hours up winding roads every weekend to see his family, which has moved away because of fears that radiation could harm the children.

“If it really is safe, I want them to come back,” says Ishitani, a stocky man with a small beard on the tip of his chin. “But it’s hard to know. Different people say different things, and that adds to my stress. I don’t know whom to trust.”

Just as with Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, mental distress could be one of the biggest health issues to emerge from this disaster, experts say. While attention has focused on the potential cancer risks, they remain unclear. What is clear is that the uncertainty and the upheaval it’s caused in people’s lives is already exacting a very real and pervasive psychological toll.

“It’s one of the biggest problems,” said Seiji Yasumura, a professor of public health at Fukushima Medical University.

Ishitani collapsed on the street with an ulcer nine months into the disaster. He was hospitalized for three days and still takes stomach medicine. The slightest tremor wakes him at night, and then he can’t back to sleep as he worries about the future.

Will his youngest son, 8-year-old Ryusei, ever be able to play in the woods and catch crawfish in the river as Ishitani did as a child? How long can his family continue this divided life? Will his now half-deserted hometown of Minami-Soma even survive — or shrivel and die?

They can and should move back now. The tiny increase in radiation is trivial compared to the amount of damage this has done to the social fabric of the areas effected. Sadly, very few seem to be advocating this while many continue to cash in on the tragedy as a way of promoting their own agenda, often through fear-mongering. More efforts to inform the public are definitely necessary. Sadly, they seem to be lacking

Note:  it can be spelled iodized or iodised

I suppose it was only a matter of time before it started to happen.   Conspiracy theorists and various “natural healing” groups are now moving from fluoridated water to iodized salt.   The claims are pretty similar:  That it is forced medication that takes away choice from the individual, that it is dangerous and toxic and that the goals of adding iodine have nothing to do with improving human health and everything to do with causing disease/controlling the population/reducing fertility etc etc.

Historic Background:

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Like most blogs, this site gets its share of spam comments.  Most of them are from various sites looking to get traffic or try to use the comments for free advertising.  Others are from various malicious individuals who simply want to cause trouble or harass readers and blog authors.

It is the policy of this site not to block or restrict comments simply because they disagree with a premise or express an opinion that is not wanted.  Only comments that are entirely for such advertising are blocked along with repeat offenders who only want to repost the same thing over and over or harass readers.  That said, the right to editorial control is reserved.

As a reader, you have probably seen spam comments from time to time.  However, the vast majority never show up on the public side of this website.  In fact, the comments are spammed multiple times per day, but well over 95% are caught by filters, which flag spam comments and prevent them from showing up.   These filters use several methods, including blacklists of URL’s and common phrases along with banned e-mail addresses and IP ranges.

The filters are not perfect, and in addition to sometimes allowing spam to make it through, they also sometimes flag legitimate comments as spam and send them to the spam folder, rather than posting them.  This is not intentional.  It is simply an unfortunate reality that compromises must be made to balance the effectiveness of the spam filters with the problem of false positives.

Over the past few years, one particular spammer has been of particular difficulty in dealing with.  In addition to deluging the site with repetitive, often incoherent comments, this spammer is very tenacious and responds to having comments blocked with the use of different ISP’s and alternate e-mail addresses.   Because of this, they sometimes manage to slip through.  When this occurs, the filters are updated.

This spam usually comes from the province of Quebec Canada, but more recently, has been traced to ISP’s in Chicago, Illinois, USA.  It’s not clear if this is the origin or if proxy servers are being used.  Some of these comments have managed to get past all the automated filters and show up in the comment feed.

As a result of this, it has become necessary to tighten the rules for comment filters.  Unfortunately, this does increase the risk that legitimate comments will be flagged and not show up.  I do periodically check the spam folder to see if any comments have been miss-identified as spam.   These comments are not lost, and I do correct this when I find them, thus restoring them to the site.   Due to my busy schedule, this can sometimes take a couple of days.  If your comment does get flagged, you can contact me by email.

Also, be aware that despite these measures, it is still possible some of the unwanted comment spam will slip through.

Gee… I wonder who could be responsible for this???