Author Archives: Jon

Bob Coffield – Health Care Law Blog

Bob Coffield, an attorney specializing in health care law, is the proprietor of the Health Care Law Blog.

(Those of you paying close attention will notice that between the URL and the name  — the words are reversed. It’s the right address).

This is an excellent blog – but of the posts I’ve read so far, Coffield is a big-picture/systems guy, and very thoughtful. He’s asking good questions about health care policy and risk – and I didn’t see a single post that presupposed any legal knowledge. Haven’t yet had time to go through old posts to see if he’s followed issues of mass casualty incidents/disaster treatment, but I’m subscribing to his feed, and will try to keep an eye out.

Inhabitat: Transparent Solar Panels

Inhabitat reports on transparent solar panels developed at the University of Queensland. solarglass1.jpg

From Mike Chino

‘s article:

The Queensland University of Technology recently announced that it has been working with Dyesol to develop an innovative solar cell technology that re-envisions windows as clear, clean energy providers. Professor John Bell has said that these dye-infused solar cells would significantly reduce building energy costs, and could even generate surplus energy to be stored or sold. The development has been touted as the most promising advance in solar cell technology since the invention of the silicon cell.

Modern architecture has a love-hate relationship with windows: they contribute light and levity to interior spaces, yet they are the most frequently cited culprits for thermal energy loss. Traditional approaches to the problem have tended towards increasing insular ability, however this new development would imbue windows with power producing capabilities, actually providing energy instead of leaking it.

Dyesol’s solar cells use an innovative technology called “artificial photosynthesis”, wherein a dye analogous to chlorophyll absorbs light to generate electricity

. The panels are composed of “an electrolyte, a layer of titania (a pigment used in white paints and tooth paste), and ruthenium dye sandwiched between glass. Light striking the dye excites electrons which are absorbed by the titania to become an electric current.”

Dye solar cells are cheaper and require less energy to manufacture than silicon cells, since they don’t require expensive raw materials. They also produce electricity more efficiently, even in instances of “shadowing”, where overcast skies and shadows from trees and other buildings can cause a loss in collected power.

These solar windows will offer an enticing new option for skyscrapers and houses looking to break the zero-energy barrier – imagine the net power that a floor-to-ceiling glass-walled skyscraper could produce! Current cells have a rosy tint, although blue, grey and green cells are in the works. Dyesol says the panels will be commercially available over the next few years.

.

James Risen: G.I.’s Death Prompts 2 Inquiries of Iraq Electrocutions – New York Times

James Risen reported in the NY Times of March 20th:

On Jan. 2, Staff Sgt. Ryan D. Maseth, a 24-year-old Green Beret from Pennsylvania, stepped into a shower at his base in the Radwaniyah Palace Complex in Baghdad and was electrocuted. Now, two months later, his death has resulted in both a Congressional investigation and a Pentagon inspector general’s inquiry into similar cases.

Reports of at least 12 deaths; Sgt. Maseth’s family has filed suit against KBR/Halliburton in the Pennsylvania state courts.

Thanks to laviolet at Daily Kos for pointing me to the Risen article; laviolet’s post is here; the Houston Chronicle also covered this story (I will add links when I can) .  Laviolet’s post has a number of other resources for those in search of more details.

James Risen, “G.I.’s Death Prompts 2 Inquiries of Iraq Electrocutions” New York Times, March 20, 2008.

Larry Furman for School Board

We endorse Lawrence Furman for Manalapan Englishtown School Board.

First, a disclaimer. There are hundreds of political blogs on the Internet. Popular Logistics is not

one of them. However, Larry is one of our writers and editors. We have made an exception and endorsed his candidacy.

Larry wants to put Solar Power on the schools in the Manalapan Englishtown district, and every district in the country. For his campaign web-site, click here. He is one of five candidates vying for three positions. We have not spoken with the others, yet. The election is Tuesday, April 15, 2008.

Manalapan English Budget – Click Here. Voting information – Click Here.

Disaster Accountability Project on the National Response Framework

Excerpts from The Disaster Accountability Project’s comments on the National Response Framework:

• “The NRF inadequately considers the needs of non-English speakers who may be foreign visitors or immigrants… Make the draft NRF readily available in Spanish and other languages spoken by a substantial portion of the population”

• “Make civil service positions less vulnerable to political pressures from above by embracing meaningful whistle-blower protections for all emergency managers, including those with security clearances; and provide an effective and supportive mechanism for receiving disclosures of inadequacies in emergency planning, exercising and response.”

• ” ‘Framework’ is indeed a more accurate name for this product ; but it is not entirely accurate. What is needed is a different product – a plan, not a name change.”

• “The description of the FEMA Director and DHS Secretary’s responsibilities conflicts with requirements of the Post Katrina Reform Act.”

• “Shifting NRF implementation to the DHS Secretary is not consistent with the intent of Congress as described in the Post Katrina Reform Act…The head of FEMA and not the DHS Secretary should be in charge of coordinating federal emergency response.”

• “Some ESF functions may be inappropriately combined, partitioned or privatized.”

• “Not all ‘lessons learned’ are publicly reported or followed up with changes to plans. For example, as TOPOFF 4 prepares to being, the TOPOFF III after-action report still has not been issued.”

• “Federal exercises frequently ignore recovery or give it lip service if addressed at all… Ensure that adequate exercise time is allowed to cover long-term recovery issues in reasonable detail.”

• “Logic suggests that the FEMA Administrator would be the coordinator of the federal response, not the DHS Secretary’s advisor… The roles of the FEMA Director and Director of Operations Coordination appear to conflict, calling to mind post-Katrina confusion.”

DAP release here. Link to Acrobat (.pdf) file of complete comments here.

If you care about these issues – and if you’re reading this, you probably do – the Disaster Accountability Project is asking good questions.

Disaster Accountability Project (main site)

Disaster Accountability Project (blog)

Huckabee defends Obama, Wright

Governor Mike Huckabee has come to the defense of Senator Obama and Reverend Jeremiah Wright:

“As easy as it is for those of us who are white to look back and say ‘That’s a terrible statement!’ … I grew up in a very segregated South. And I think that you have to cut some slack — and I’m gonna be probably the only conservative in America who’s gonna say something like this, but I’m just tellin’ you — we’ve gotta cut some slack to people who grew up being called names…”

Read the rest on Ben Smith’s Blog at Politico . Thanks to Ghost in the Machine .

While we purposefully try to stay out of partisan tangles – this one seems potentially incendiary, and nearly entirely manufactured. The opinion of one Jewish man with more family in Israel than in the United States: Reverend Wright is welcome at our house any time, and this doesn’t remotely disqualify Senator Obama, in my view, as a presidential candidate.

We’d like a return to a discussion of the issues on their merits: tax policy, energy policy, Iraq, universal health care, and disaster preparedness. Which, as we keep trying to demonstrate, all overlap.

» ThemeShaper | sandbox.popularlogistics.com

[photopress:10howl2.jpg,thumb,alignleft] Kirk Johnson’s piece in today’s Times, “A Bid to Lure Wolves With a Digital Call of the Wild” is about
the Howlbox, a solar-powered, automated device which simulates wolf calls, and records the responses, making it possible to conduct a wolf census.

Under a research project at the University of Montana in Missoula, scientists are betting that the famous call-and-response among wolves can be used to count and keep track of the animals.

Tricked by technology, scientists say, wolves will answer what amounts to a roll call triggered by a remotely placed speaker-recorder system called Howlbox. Howlbox howls, and the wolves howl back. Spectrogram technology then allows analysis that the human ear could never achieve — how many wolves have responded, and which wolves they are.

“With audio software, we’ll be able to identify each wolf on a different frequency, so we can count wolves individually, kind of like a fingerprint,” said David Ausband, a research associate at the University of Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, where Howlbox was developed.

The devices, using off-the-shelf technology, cost about $1,300, including $300 for a solar panel. Audio recordings in the wild are nothing new, of course. Bird and amphibian researchers, in particular, have long used recordings to find or flush out critters. Howlbox’s innovations are the tools of digital analysis and programmed instructions that tell Howlbox when to howl, when to sleep because the wolves are sleeping, and how to store each day’s file on a disk.

The experiment will begin with a pilot project in which four Howlboxes will be placed in remote areas of Idaho in June. That month was chosen because it is when the packs gather with their spring-born pups in what is called a rendezvous. [photopress:19howlbox.190.jpg,thumb,alignright]
Wolf pups will howl at almost anything, scientists say. But a test here in Montana in January also showed that adult wolves can also be fooled by a good sound system.

Money is a driving force behind the research, much of which is being paid for by the Nez Perce Indian tribe in Idaho, which has deep cultural links to the western gray wolf.

Traditional tracking tools like radio collars and aerial surveillance were used extensively after wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park in the mid-1990s under the Federal Endangered Species Act. But federal protections will end later this month, and so too will the deep pockets needed for flyovers and catching and collaring.

A spokesman for the Nez Perce tribe, Curt Mack, said Howlbox might be a cost-efficient answer.

Spotted in “Counting Wolves” at Popular Science.

The biodiversity issues aside – we’re eager to take a look at the device – which might be adaptable for other purposes: automated warning systems, locating disaster victims – especially if mounted on a portable platform, like a ‘bot of some sort.

SurvivalReview.com goes online

SurvivalReview.com is about a month old, and features reviews of survival gear, and so far, it looks good. Its principal author is, we believe, a recent veteran of USAF. SR describes itself this way:

online destination for unbiased reviews on outdoor and survival gear. We put all of the products we review through the POT (”Painfully Obsessive Testing”) procedure to insure that the info you are getting is legit. We will not provide “paid reviews” from vendors or manufacturers. We will strive to have the best photos and videos supporting the evidence we put out there. Hopefully we can build an aware community of survival and outdoor gear lovers. As always if you ever have a product you’ve been thinking about investing in or knowing more about shoot us an email and let us know what it is. We will do our best to put it through the POT. Happy Reading!

We wish them well, more obsession and less pain, and hope to point our readers to SR’s reviews when we can. Here’s an excerpt from a recent review

:

The SureFire E1E Executive Flashlight is a high powered flashlight that fits easily in the palm of your hand. I love this little thing. It provides 15 lumens for 1.5 hours according to the specs but our testing has proven to exceed that runtime. The rugged Mil-Spec Type III hard anodized aluminum body has survived everything we’ve thrown at it. The glass at the business end is Tempered Pyrex, which is some tough stuff as well.

The tailcap switch is much more convenient than your typical MagLite. Push for momentary on, or press further to click it to constant-on. This could be very handy for signaling because short bursts on the tailcap switch makes morse easy.

VEXLabs’ Robotics Kits

Grant Imahara

writes in the online BotMag

about VEX Robotics, particularly their upgradable entry-level Explorer, which lists for $199. Link to review.

Robotics – perhaps like personal computers a generation ago – are becoming cheaper and more accessible. All sorts of implications, of course, in normal circumstances. But for emergency functions – particularly gathering information with lessened risk – robots cheap enough for local non-profit groups and simple enough to be set up, and repurposed, easily.

NYT: A Heart Device Is Found Vulnerable to Hacker Attacks

To the long list of objects vulnerable to attack by computer hackers, add the human heart.The threat seems largely theoretical. But a team of computer security researchers plans to report Wednesday that it had been able to gain wireless access to a combination heart defibrillator and pacemaker.

They were able to reprogram it to shut down and to deliver jolts of electricity that would potentially be fatal — if the device had been in a person. In this case, the researcher were hacking into a device in a laboratory.

Barnaby J. Feder , “A Heart Device Is Found Vulnerable to Hacker Attacks, The New York Times

A Heart Device Is Found Vulnerable to Hacker Attacks – New York Times

A Heart Device Is Found Vulnerable to Hacker Attacks – New York Times

To the long list of objects vulnerable to attack by computer hackers, add the human heart.

The threat seems largely theoretical. But a team of computer security researchers plans to report Wednesday that it had been able to gain wireless access to a combination heart defibrillator and pacemaker.

They were able to reprogram it to shut down and to deliver jolts of electricity that would potentially be fatal — if the device had been in a person. In this case, the researcher were hacking into a device in a laboratory.