We're tempted to follow the editorial lead of others who've covered this story - emphasizing that Alexander Kendrick is 16 years old and won a science fair prize for his new low-frequency radio system. We agree that it's more remarkable that he's only 16 - but think this would be a remarkable achievement if he were 61.
It's our impression, based on Brad Horn's excellent coverage, that this system is lightweight, portable, easily assembled, and relies on relatively inexpensive components. Check out Brad Horn's piece on NPR, Texting Underground Can Save Lives And Caves.
Caves are some of the last places on the planet left to explore. Though caving is relatively safe, if something goes wrong deep inside the Earth, a rescue can take days — in part because cell phones and walkie-talkies don't work underground. But a remarkable teenager in New Mexico has invented a device that may significantly speed that process with the ability to text from underground caves. The young man's invention may have other applications, as well.
We hope to have an update with images and more information in the near future.
There's no question that nuclear power will be part of our energy supply mix for the foreseeable future. The United States has 104 nuclear power plants in operation at present, according to Matthew Wald on the Green Inc.blog of The New York Times, relying on NRC data. Incidents like this - in which a corporate official makes a false statement with serious health and safety implications - give us pause.
Which is worse - that the official was mistaken, and not aware that Vermont Yankee had water pipes which could leak - or that he knew and lied?
Incompetence or dishonesty, it would seem. Nuclear power can't be a safe part of our energy future on those terms. Entergy is responsible for knowing everything there is to know about the plants it operates. A material and incorrect statement - under oath, no less - seems explainable only by three hypotheses: (1) the official lied; (2) the official failed to make himself aware of the plant, in which case the question shouldn't have been answered; (3) the official was misinformed by subordinates.
If the first explanation is correct, perjury charges are, of course, in order. If the second or the third - Entergy hasn't met its obligations to mind the store.
A top official at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant was permanently relieved of his duties and placed on leave, the plant owner's CEO said Tuesday, less than a week after Gov. Jim Douglas demanded management changes over misstatements made to state officials.
Entergy Nuclear chief executive J. Wayne Leonard did not identify the official by name. But he described the executive relieved of his duties in a way that could only apply to Vice President Jay Thayer.
Douglas' urging for management shake-up followed revelations that plant officials misled state regulators and lawmakers by saying last year the plant did not have the sort of underground pipes that could carry radioactive tritium.
"In May 2009, an Entergy executive testified in a hearing on the state's report that he didn't think we had any such pipes, but he would get back to them," Leonard said. "He did not get back to them. He has issued a public apology and made clear that he failed to provide full and complete information, either on the witness stand or by failing to get back to them.
"He has been permanently relieved of his duties in Vermont, and placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the full investigation," Leonard added.
Calls to Thayer's home were not immediately returned Tuesday.
On Jan. 7, it was announced that tritium, an isotope said to cause cancer if ingested in high amounts, had been found in elevated levels in a groundwater monitoring well at Vermont Yankee. Plant and federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials have maintained tritium has not appeared in groundwater at concentrations that pose any threat to public health or safety.
On Tuesday, plant spokesman Robert Williams said the highest reading yet of tritium had been reported in a monitoring well at the Vernon reactor. The latest reading is four times the Environmental Protection Agency's safety limit for tritium in drinking water.
Leonard, speaking Tuesday about the company's fourth-quarter 2009 results to shareholders and analysts in a conference call, gave an update on Entergy Nuclear's plan to spin off a new company to own Vermont Yankee and four other northern nuclear stations.
Leonard raised the possibility that the plan could go ahead without including Vermont Yankee if the state fails soon to approve the spinoff; he said a lack of approval in Vermont might merely move completion of the deal from this spring to later in the year.
Vermont Yankee is not profitable for Entergy under the terms under its current deal to sell power to Vermont's electric utilities, Leonard said. The company is hoping to operate the plant for 20 years past the expiration of its current license in 2012 and says it will seek higher prices from the utilities then.
Technicians seeking the source of a leak of radioactive tritium at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant have found concentrations in groundwater there that were three times higher than what was discovered last week, a plant spokesman said Monday.
Tritium was measured at 70,500 picocuries per liter, which the spokesman, Rob Williams, characterized as a low level. The highest level discovered so far “does not present a risk to public health or safety whatsoever,” he said in a statement.
But it does put Vermont Yankee over the threshold at which it is obligated to make a report to federal regulators within 30 days, and say what it will do about the problem. The limit, 30,000 picocuries, was crossed on Sunday.
If your car is accelerating out of control, whether it's a Toyota, a BMW, or any car,
Put your foot on the brake – and press the brake with a steady pressure.
Put the car in Neutral. (Just like manual tranmissions, automatic transmissions have a “Neutral” setting. You shouldn't drive if you don't know this.)
Turn on the Hazard lights.
Pull over.
and Above All, Don’t Panic.
Putting the car in "Neutral" disengages the transmission from the accelerator, assuming there isn't a transmission problem. Don't turn off the engine: you will lose the ability to brake and steer. Don't put the car in "Park." It will slam to a halt, throw you and your passengers against the steering wheel or the windshield, damage the engine, and you will be rear-ended by the jackass tailgating you.
It also works regardless of what is causing the problem - and it might not be because of sticky accelerators. Writing in the LA Times, Jan 30, Ralph Vartabedian and Ken Benslinger, note that:
The pedal maker denies that its products are at fault. Some independent safety experts also are skeptical of Toyota's explations. 'We know this recall is a red herring,' one says.
Federal vehicle safety records reviewed by The /LA/ Times also cast doubt on Toyota's claims that sticky gas pedals were a significant factor in the growing reports of runaway vehicles. Of more than 2,000 motorist complaints of sudden acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles over the last decade, just 5% blamed a sticking gas pedal, the analysis found.
In what was being reported as a potentially significant shift, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Iranian State Television today that Iran is ready to send its uranium abroad.
"We have no problem sending our enriched uranium abroad," Ahmadinejad told state television, according to Reuters.
"We say: we will give you our 3.5 percent enriched uranium and will get the fuel. It may take 4 to 5 months until we get the fuel," he said. "If we send our enriched uranium abroad and then they do not give us the 20 percent enriched fuel for our reactor, we are capable of producing it inside Iran."
The U.S. reacted cautiously to the interview, saying it was willing to listen if Iran has genuinely changed its position on the fuel swap deal, while indicating it was continuing preparations with key allies on sanctions for further pressuring Iran. Iran has previously publicly said it was willing to send its low enriched uranium abroad, but it had balked at sending it out all in one batch, as a proposal worked out by the UN atomic energy agency last fall had stipulated. U.S. officials said it remained to be seen if Iran had changed its position on that.
[Many thanks to Bill Seidel of Revanche, a long-time ham operator, for his infinite patience in explaining ham and RF operations. We're going to try to keep reporting on ham operations in, to, and from Haiti.]
Even though the communications infrastructure in earthquake-ravaged Haiti is being rebuilt, there is still need for Amateur Radio communications. To assist in this effort, the ARRL’s Ham-Aid program is providing equipment for local amateurs to use.
On Friday, January 22, the League sent a programmed Yaesu VHF repeater with a microphone, as well as ICOM handheld transceivers, Yaesu mobile 2 meter rigs with power supplies and Kenwood mobile 2 meter rigs. Comet antennas, Larsen mobile antennas with magnet mounts, coax and batteries were also included in the package that was shipped to the home of the President of the Radio Club Dominicano (RCD) for distribution. All items were donated by their manufacturers.
Haiti
“In the horror of this tragedy, there still are stars and the cooperation between the ARRL, IARU Region 2 and the Radio Club Dominicano and has been bright,” said ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager Allen Pitts, W1AGP .
“It was donations from our members and friends that began the Ham Aid program in Katrina’s aftermath. Now once again, that sharing between hams will provide help in another worst-case incident. ARRL members and donors need to know that their gifts will be used very well indeed.”
Via PiePalace.ca: Sorry to say that we've just become aware that, last November, a
career Canadian diplomat blew the whistle on Afghani torture of prisoners turned over by Canadian troops.
a senior Canadian diplomat, Richard Colvin, who told a parliamentary committee last week that “the likelihood is that all the Afghans we handed over were tortured” during [...]
Priacta.com has, at least for the last eight months or so, maintained a list of GTD (an abbreviation of "Getting Things Done" and near-GTD-compliant applications - searchable/sortable, by OS, price, and each accompanied with a very concise description of the critical characteristics of each application. 119 Researched GTD Software Programs and Counting.
Via GDGT:
This is one of a family of devices from DROBO - (DROBO page on gdgt.com) external
storage arrays. The DROBO 2nd Gen, pictured at right, has four hot-swappable drive bays with a maximum capacity of 16TB (In/out ports include Firewire 800 and USB 2.0). Current street price about $200 USD.
The DROBO S, has five swappable [...]
In his State of the Union Address <video, transcript Englsh, en español>, President Obama said “The best anti-poverty program is a world class education.” He described a positive, or reinforcing, feedback loop. Education enables people to accomplish more, earn more, and better educate their children, who also accomplish more and earn more. It is [...]
NY. Jan. 25. Mark Fulton, "Climate Change Strategist" Deutsche Bank Asset Management, spoke at Cary Krosinsky's class in Sustainable Investing at the CERC, the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation, Earth Institute, Columbia University.
Krosinsky, Vice President of Trucost, recently co-edited and wrote the book Sustainable Investing: The Art of Long Term Performance with Nick Robins [...]
A team of scientists led by Jay Kesner at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center and Michael Mauel at the Columbia University Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science announced the "first significant results" from the Levitated Dipole Experiment, LDX. (Click here for the MIT news release).
Shear Thickening Fluids (STFs) may be "liquid" in a strict sense - but they're used in fabrics. Developed by Professor Norman Wagner and his research team, including students, of the University of Delaware, as a joint project between the University of Delaware Center for Composite Materials and the United States Army Research Lab. They're amazing [...]
Via BBC News:
The BBC has conducted an investigation which demonstrated that Iraq purchased bomb detection devices in which the component purported to detect trace amounts of TNT was, in fact, "nothing but the type of anti-theft tag used to prevent stealing in high street stores." Iraqi Interior ministry still backing 'bomb detector'
According to the BBC,
Some [...]
As covered in The Guardian, UK, and by WAVY-10, Virginia Beach, the disaster in Haiti as a result of the recent earthquake is giving the American base at Guantanamo Bay two new missions: supplying aid and potentially detaining thousands of Haitian migrants.
The U.S. has designated Guantanamoas the hub of the aid operation. Dozens of helicopters [...]
Over 300 residents of Los Angeles were ordered to evacuate because of the threat of mudslides from the rains. These rains are related El Niño, a warm ocean current from the South Pacific, according to CNN meteorologist Chad Myers (click here). The effects [...]
Yesterday afternoon, a massive explosion at an under-construction Connecticut power plant killed five workers and wounded several more. Workers at the Kleen Energy plant in Middletown, CT were reportedly purging a natural gas line, and the explosion was so powerful that residents towns away reported hearing it and feeling tremors. About 100 firefighters work […]
by revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure We still don’t know if we are experiencing a lull in flu or the virus has burned itself out for the season, but it’s as good a time as any to reflect a bit on where we’ve been and where we still need to go. Being otherwise occupied (I’m sure [...] […]
Portland, Oregon is already a model city in many ways, including an impressive public transit system and a high rate of bicycle commuting. Now, reports Joseph Rose of The Oregonian/Associated Press, Portland’s City Council is poised to approve a $613 million plan that would build 681 new miles of bike lanes over the next two [...] […]
Following Tim Dickinson’s Rolling Stone article about what Lisa Jackson is accomplishing at EPA, John B. Judis publishes a piece in the New Republic about the Obama “revolution” going on as Obama appointees at multiple federal agencies enthusiastically enforce laws intended to keep our air, food, drus, and workplaces safe. Judis contrasts previous Republican […]
by revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure The Nature blog, The Great Beyond, has an interesting although not surprising report of accusations on BBC that a cabal of researchers has been impeding publication of important stem cell research to help themselves or help their friends: Truly innovative stem cell research is being suppressed by a clique of peer [ […]
Children’s Health Fund