Zark's

Cold Day in Australia

Black-Footed Rock Wallaby
Photo Credit: AustraliaZoo

Sometimes (okay, most times) we forget the weather in Australia is opposite us in season.  Sydney's warmest month is January, with an average temperature of 73 degrees F.  

While the U.S. Northeast is sweltering, down under, Sydney's Coldest June Morning for More Than 60 years.  The region has been experiencing a week of cold weather, with yesterday's temperature dropping down to 43 degrees F.  Mmm.  That is better than Florida experienced last winter.

Speaking of the U.S.  Were any of you caught in the air traffic mess in the Northeast yesterday?  Charlotte, hub of US Airways, had a long thunderstorm session and pretty much reset all of the flight schedules for thousands of people.  Sheesh.  Not a good day for traveling.

The Supreme Court's Murky Patent Law Ruling

First Light bulb Powered by Nuclear Energy
Photo credit: Department of Energy

Today the Supreme Court Issu[ed] Mixed Ruling on Method Patents.  My interpretation of their decision is - it depends.  Sheesh.

Under specific examination was whether so-called business patents should be valid.  These include the Amazon one-click (on-line ordering) patent and software patents that employ a mathematical formula.  Rather than disallowing such patents, the court decided a lower court ruled correctly in Bilski v. Kappos.  It rejected patent approval for mathematically controlling a hedge fund.

The troubling aspect (for me) of the Supreme Court decision was rejecting the lower court's Machine or Transformation test.  Roughly interpreted, the lower court said said to be patentable, something had to be something physical, not an abstract idea.  The Supreme Court narrowly ruled against Bilski in this one decision and essentially punted on considering whether abstract ideas are patentable.

Mmm.  This troubles me - I consider the light bulb as something innovative, and worthy of a patent.  Even the windshield wiper .   But I do not believe the variable speed windshield wiper is worthy of a patent.  I gotta  believe that drivers were manually turning the windshield wiper off and on before technology advanced sufficiently to produce a commercially viable implementation.  I think patents should be innovative, not evolutionary. 

Another Conflict for the Middle East

 Coast Guard Response Boat Dwarfed by Liquid Natural Gas Tanker

USCG Photo by PA2 Luke Pinneo

Lebanon Seeks Energy Law After Israel Gas Finds tells that Lebanon and Israel have a dispute over an offshore natural gas find.  The two gas fields may contain 24 trillion cubic feet of gas - twice the UK's proven reserves.

Wiki locates the Tamar gas field as 50 miles west of Haifa in 5500 feet of water.  An initial well was drilled to a total depth of 16,076 feet.  Production is expected in 2012.  It could potentially supply Israel's natural gas needs for 30 years.

Annotated Levant Basin
Credit: USGS

 The second field, Leviathan, is estimated to have twice the reserves of the Tamar field.  It too, is in the Levant basin which runs the length of Israel and Lebanon.  Israel May Join Gas Exporting Nations With Leviathan Discovery adds that the Levant Basin is estimated by USGS with the potential of 227 trillion cubic feet of gas.  Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources of the Levant provides additional reading.

Although not unexpected, but still ominous-sounding, Israel Would Defend Off-Shore Gas Find With Force.  The Israel Minister of National Infrastructures, Uzi Landau, says the gas fields are within Israel international waters and the nation will defend its claims under maritime law.

Cooler Pacific Temperatures = La Nina

The latest data from the NASA/European Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 satellite Credit: NASA/JPL Ocean Surface Topography Team

Adios El Niño tells that NASA has detected the formation of La Nina.  Note the blue band along the equator in the photograph at the left.  Curiously, the satellite photo is not showing actual sea temperatures, but water levels.

NASA's Ocean Surface Topography explains the colors: Red (warmer) areas are about 10 centimeters (4 inches) above normal. Green areas indicate near-normal conditions. Purple (cooler) areas are 14 to 18 centimeters (6 to 7 inches) below normal. Blue areas are 5 to 13 centimeters (2 to 5 inches) below normal.  The substantially reduced water level reduces the heat stored in the Pacific Ocean. 

So this summer we should experience less rain along the coasts of North and South America.  As if residents along the Gulf of Mexico need any more bad news - a La Nina reduces the upper level winds that frequently shear developing tropical storms.  Meaning of course, an increased number of tropical storms for this summer.

It is too early to predict whether this weather pattern will persist to winter.  If it does, La Ninas usually result in a dry winter for the North American Southwest.

Opening the Vial of Stardust

Composite Photograph of Comet Wild 2
Image Credit: NASA/JPL

Undoubtedly you have seen the movie or read the novel where a scientist opens a container of gas from outer space and ...

The container landed in South Australia on 13 June.  The Japanese spacecraft, Hayabusa had brought the container back from the asteroid Itokawa after a five year journey.  (Hayabusa translates into peregrine falcon.)

Starting to open Hayabusa sample container tells that the container was transported to the curation facility at the Sagmihara Campus to be opened.  The one-week process to disassemble the 16-inch wide re-entry capsule has begun.  Scientists peer inside Hayabusa asteroid capsule tells that scientists have detected a small amount of trace gas within the container.  X-rays show there are no particles larger than 1/25 of an inch.  Do you remember how the movie ends?

A Cure for Monkey Ebola?

Electron Micrograph of Ebola Virus

Photo Credit: Center for Disease Control

The virus on the left looks innocuous, but it is deadly - causing Ebola hemorrhagic fever, it attacks the endothelial cells that are inside our blood vessels.  In advanced infections, Wiki explains the walls begin to leak and the blood platelets are unable to coagulate, eventually leading to hypovolemic shock.  (To us non-medical people, this is the catastrophic loss of blood plasma.)

The photograph on the left shows the filamentous composition of the virus, as well as the distinctive "Shepherd's Crook".  The CDC tells that the filaments may be 14,000 nanometers in length, a diameter of 80 nanometers, and each virion contains a single molecule of RNA.

The Zaire virus has an average fatality rate of 83 percent.  The Reston virus in contrast, is very hazardous to monkeys, but non-pathogenic to humans.  There is no treatment for Ebola hemorrhagic fever - only supportive therapy such as fluids and electrolytes. 

Ebola Cured in Monkeys - Hope for Humans? explains that researchers developed gene-silencing drugs to defeat infected monkeys.  The National Geographic article explains the drugs are based upon small interfering RNA (siRNA).  Wiki adds that siRNA are double-stranded molecules capable of suppressing the production of a specific gene.  The researchers attacked the L-protein, known to initiate virus replication.  With daily injections, they were able to prevent the death of the monkeys from hemorrhagic fever, something never before achieved.

Because Ebola is a plausible terrorist threat, anticipate that governments will sponsor the development of drugs rather than big Pharma.  Thankfully there are not sufficient yearly cases to encourage development of anti-Ebola drugs.

What Do You Call It?

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates meets with Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal
Photo Credit: US Army

I am a student of leadership as much as technology, and I confess, the resignation/dismissal of General McChrystal bummed me out all day.  (I had blogged on Rod Blagojevich in December 2008.)

In case you were on an interplanetary transport without internet access for the past couple of days, a piece for Rolling Stone captured some criticisms of the Obama administration by the General and his staff.  The severity of disrespect could be compared to George S. Patton's conduct in World War II and Douglas MacArthur's conduct which vexed Harry S. Truman.  (George kept his job, but Douglas did not.)

Many of the talking heads and op-eds criticize the General for even conversing with the media, particularly Rolling Stone.  Yet that is a lesson from General Westmoreland's execution of the Vietnam War - our adversaries must understand our motives and intent.  (See my blog from Memorial Day, Wading Through the Fog of War.)  I think that was the reason General McChrystal was reaching out through Rolling Stone.  Although it offers delicious fruit, improvisation is fraught with danger, and as the General publicly admitted, there were mistakes in judgment.

It would have been very difficult for General McChrystal to continue leading after the whipsawing that has taken place in the media.  Perhaps that is why President Obama accepted his resignation.  I don't want to question the President's decision, but the dilemma. 

We are all human and make mistakes.  The Mistakes Quotes has some wise observations about mistakes.  Perhaps Confucius is worth quoting - "Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes."  That is the conundrum - we say that, but in the case of big mistakes, we do punish them as crimes.

Containing the Nuclear Genie

Cooling Tower of Savannah River
Photo Credit: Department of Energy

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was enacted on 5 March 1970 and currently has 189 signatories.  The treaty recognizes the U.S., Soviet Union, U.K., France, and China as nuclear weapon states.  These five agree not to further expand list of the nuclear weapon nations. 

Four other nations are believed to have nuclear weapons - India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel.  Recognizing the danger of additional states obtaining nuclear weapons technology, the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) was created.  (India had diverted nuclear technology and material from civil reactors to nuclear weapons.)  NSG's charter is to monitor and limit commercial nuclear technology to avoid similar nuclear startups.

Nuclear Powers Set for Pakistan Showdown tells that the NSG is meeting this week in New Zealand.  China has agreed to sell Pakistan two nuclear reactors in defiance of the NSG charter.  The waters are murky because in 2008 the U.S. engineered an exemption for India, which was previously blacklisted by the NSG.  Although perhaps the U.S. recognizes the problem with double-standards, Pakistan has a notorious history of exporting nuclear technology to all buyers.

Further, if Pakistan is granted an exemption, then Israel will undoubtedly seek the same favor, seriously disrupting the balance of power in the Middle East.  Further, China has announced its plans to be a major supplier of civil nuclear reactors.

India Should be Worried About What Pak Will Do With Reactors explains India's perception that China is behaving poorly.  Because of China's strong economic power, other nations were muted when Beijing supplied missiles to the Middle East.  India defense analysts fear Pakistan will receive new technology that it can sell and also use for new weaponry.

What Sight Reading Teaches Us

Members of the Air Force Band march down Constitution Avenue
U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Tim Chacon

Do you remember Band Contests when you would travel for several hours on a school bus and arrive at a small (or large) college which had dozens of school buses just like yours and band instrument-carrying teenagers everywhere?

At some time during the contest, both individuals and bands would have the much feared Sight Reading Test, where a student is handed a music score she has never seen and then graded on how well she plays it.  Wiki explains someone's ability to sight-read is partially dependent upon their short-term musical memory.  More experienced musicians are looking ahead of where they are playing and pre-processing the notes prior to them being played.  Wiki also tells that most studio musicians are experienced such that they can record the score on the first 'take'.  

For Sight-Reading Music, Practice Doesn't Make Perfect tells that years of music experience provide limited assistance in sight-reading.  Having the ability to simultaneously process additional data while performing - known as working memory capacity helps regardless of the experience level.  However, the study's conclusion was that the best sight readers combined several thousand hours of practice with strong working memories.

Wiki adds that working memory is what we used to call, short-term memory.  The magic number seven - is the average number of chunks a person can remember at one time.  Most people can remember seven numbers, although some can remember a sequence of 80.  

Back to the US News and Report article - there is some controversy, because some researchers argue that years of sight-reading encourage the brain to develop specialized mental facilities for pre-processing the musical score.  Those with less practice and experience are limited to using their general mental facilities.  There is another idea - those that react quickest with their fingers are better sight readers.  The idea being, their brains have additional time to think about the note because they spend less time depressing the keys.

Exploring the Difference Between Dumbing Down and Irrelevance

Photo Credit: US Army

Do you think students should still be taught cursive handwriting in addition to printing?  Perhaps I am too pragmatic, but I have been arguing that cursive handwriting is no longer relevant. 

Okay, what about multiplication tables?  Is there a reason for students to memorize them, or is that also redundant information?  Mmm.  Would you rather students understand properties of algebraic sets or know that 12 x 12 = 122?

Similarly, National Spelling Bee Draws Protesters Calling for Phonetic Spelling suggests that we should change the English language to match pronunciation.  It could also eliminate memorization - and students could concentrate on more important concepts.  After all, most computers have some form of spelling check installed upon them.

I 'Googled' and 'Binged' the phrase, 'dumbing down'.  It seems that 'dumbing down' depends upon your perspective.  With computer interfaces, some geeks desire the smallest 'tweak' to be available to them.  Others just want an Easy Button.  

I'm particularly intrigued about the influence of iPad upon future computing platforms.  As I've written before, I consider the iPad interface a 'consumer' type interface.  There is a place for that - there is no reason for a separate keyboard and 'mouse' in many applications.  My question though, with shrinking consumer choices, will that 'dumb down' the consumer if they are not left with other choices?