Ann Coulter's function

Ann Coulter’s function may be to be so unreasonable that anyone not quite as unreasonable seems reasonable by comparison. So points out Rebecca Blood in a post explaining the “Overton Window” – something you might have suspected existed – but didn’t know the name for.

the Overton Window is related to my usual argument in favor of certain radical groups: they open up an avenue for discussion and consideration. People may reject PETA’s premise, for example, that animals should never be used in testing of any kind. But in doing so, those same people may decide that—while medical testing on animals is acceptable—certain forms of testing on animals in the manufacture of cosmetics should be eliminated. Come to think of it, I suppose this is the purpose Ann Coulter serves for the far right. She’s so very extreme that almost anyone else appears to be reasonable by comparison. See? I told you this was an idea that kept on giving.

I believe I recall Dave Foreman of Earth First making this point in an article published in Whole Earth Review – but haven’t been able to locate it.

Link to Rebecca Blood’s post here.

The Overton Window explained at the Mackinac Institute, where he worked.

Via KottkeÂ

Deficiencies in 911 systems – “an SOS for 911”

Shaila Dewan has a good piece in this morning’s Times, describing difficulties less-affluent communities are having upgrading the 911 systems – and the attendant consequences.

The piece includes an excellent description of the various flavors and vintages of 911 systems. One particularly useful feature in the newer systems

At the next level is Enhanced 911 Phase I, as it is called, which provides the call-back number of wireless callers and the location of the cellular tower their signal has reached. Phase II provides a more precise location, accurate within 50 to 300 meters depending on the technology the carrier has chosen.

[Kevin J. Martin, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said in Washington this week that he would propose new rules to improve accuracy.] [in orig.]

Experts are laying the groundwork for what they call Next Generation 911, which will better handle Internet-based calls, text messages, cellphone photos and other forms of communication already in common use.

“Deaf people are using text messaging,†Rick Jones, the operations director for the national association, said by way of example. “They can’t talk to 911.â€

For now, though, many counties are focused on Phase II, which shows a caller’s location on a computer map, allowing emergency responders to find people who either do not know where they are or cannot say. Beyond saving lives, it promises to put a stop to chronic prank callers or tell dispatchers when many calls are coming from the same area, which happens when multiple cellphone users try to report the same car accident or heart attack, threatening to overload the system.

Link to the Times article.

Reactor shutdown follows siren trouble in testy week for Indian Point

For those not familiar with the New York City area, “Indian Point” is not

a rhetorical conclusion of Native Americans, but the name of a nuclear power plant.

Another week, another set of challenges for Indian Point – first, problems with a siren test Monday and then an unplanned reactor shutdown yesterday.

The nuclear plants ran into what Indian Point officials hope was a glitch when 123 of the new 150 emergency sirens failed to successfully complete an operational test.

The sirens are required to be ready to go by a week from Sunday, and county emergency officials said they hadn’t expected to see a step backward so close to the deadline.

“This test was clearly disappointing,” Anthony Sutton, Westchester County commissioner of emergency services, said of the Monday morning test. “We expected it to go in a positive direction, and it went in a negative direction.”

Then about 4:15 a.m. yesterday, Indian Point 3 workers shut down that nuclear reactor as it was going back to full power from a 24-day refueling outage.

There were low water levels in the plant’s steam generators, where steam is used to help produce electricity.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission and local emergency officials commended nuclear workers for their quick action, noting that unplanned shutdowns occur more frequently when plants go back online than during routine operation.

Jim Steets, a spokesman for Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which has owned and operated Indian Point since 2001, said the shutdown went smoothly and the appropriate notifications were made to the NRC and county officials, but that there were no safety concerns.

– snip –

“We don’t think this is a matter of the sirens not activating,” said Steets. “We think that it was largely about polling.”

The sirens must communicate with a central point to let county officials know they’ve sounded. Without that polling from the 150 locations, police and fire officials can’t be sure if the sirens alerted residents about an emergency at the nuclear plant.

“If it comes up red on the computer screen, that means it didn’t sound as far as we’re concerned,” said Sutton, the commissioner. “That was the biggest trouble we had with the old system. We don’t want to be in that same place with the new system.”

The nuclear plant operator seems to be arguing that – it’s not that the siren’s didn’t work – it’s that in polls, people didn’t admit to hearing them. It’s a polling problem. If that’s true -is the implication that there’s no accurate way to tell whether or not the sirens work?

From Lower Hudson Online.  

Nuclear Drill Performance Raises Issues on Safety -NYT

Nuclear power plant operator does poorly on NRC drill – complains to NRC, wants grade revised upwards. There are a number of interesting issues here. For the moment, we’ll focus on one:

Matthew Wald of the Times reports that David Lochbaum, of the Union of Concerned Scientists

, points out that since the reactor has a water sensor nine inches off the floor, a leak of 150 gallons per minute would take 90 minutes to be detected by the sensor.

Lochbaum has been with UCS since 1996 – but spent 17 years working in nuclear power plants.

Background information on Lochbaum via UCS here.Â

Matthew Wald’s NYT article here.

Leading Blog Gives Away Jewish Secret

We read BoingBoing every day, and we’revery disappointed that they – that Cory Doctorow fellow – has given away one of the major secrets of the international Jewish Conspiracy: the bagel is actual an information storage device. It’s how Jews have always done so well in school, and in business. Why Stanley Kaplan always told people to bring something to eat (“bring a bagel”) to the SAT. Now our secret is out.

bagelspindle.jpg

Link 

Via BoingBoing.

Power: Sittin In The Morning Sun and Blowin In The Wind.

NPR’s Marketplace broadcast Nuclear Power Redux on March 27, 2007, a predictable piece on nuclear power. Marketplace interviewed an industry spokesman, a business lobbyist who said “It’s ok, we only worry sometimes,” and a environmental activist who used to work for the nuclear industry but became disillusioned when she realized that nuclear power is “a crappy way to boil water.”

The industry spokesman repeated the same tired old fallacies about solar and wind power “that there is insufficient capacity to make a meaningful difference. Marketplace didn’t challenge him, but he’s wrong. Just about any house in New Jersey can be retrofitted with enough solar panels to meet its needs for electricity and hot water. Similarly, much of the power needs for single family homes in every state, except Washington and Oregon, could be met through solar power.

Solar panels don’t produce power or hot water at night. That’s where wind power comes in. VestasGeneral Electric and Airtricity built and installed on the Arklow Bank of Ireland, if installed in sufficient number off the coast of New Jersey, could also take care of much of the state’s power needs. If installed along the Gulf Coast, up the Atlantic Seaboard, along the Pacific, in the Great Plains, in West Texas, wind power could provide much of the nation’s electricity needs.harnesses the wind to produce 33% of Denmark’s electricity. Today. The kind of wind turbines that

Solar and wind provide power with no pollution: no greenhouse gases, no mercury, no radioactive wastes. There is no fuel so there are no fuel costs. No mines, no mills, no wells, no spills. Unlike nuclear, evacuation plans and extraordinary security measures are not necesssary. There are none of the external costs that are associated with nuclear, coal, or oil.

Land based wind costs about $1.5 million per megawatt of generating capacity, offshore wind costs about $3.5 million per mw, rooftop solar costs about $7 per watt, $7 million per mw. At $6 Billion for a 1,167 mw plant, Watts Barr cost about $5 million per mw. So when you look at the hard costs to build, forgetting the externalities and the massive government subsidies for nuclear power, the technologies cost the same.

When you factor in those externalities: the costs of safety, security, waste management, and fuel for nuclear, versus practically nothing for wind and solar; when you factor in the 23 years to build Watts Barr versus a few months to build the Arklow bank wind facility; you realize that wind and solar can be brought on line faster and cheaper and without the kinds of public relations challenges or government subsidies nuclear requires.

So what’s the best answer for tomorrow’s power needs today? The answers, to juxtapose Bob Dylan and Otis Redding, are Sittin’ in the morning sun

andBlowin’ in the wind.

Beautiful Data Maps

Beautiful images from Stanza   – generated by an array of sensors placed around a city. Stanza – we’re not sure yet  if that’s he, she, orthey – appears to be using a variety of sensors – gathering data about noise, light, radiation, and other things.

Here at Popular Logistics, we don’t know much about art, but we do know what we like. And these images are beautiful.  But since we’re not here to talk about art (or qualified), we point out the following. The late Jack Maple demonstrated that it was possible to radically reduce crime with good data, paper maps, and colored push-pins. And available resources. Stanza’s data maps

could be used to similar effect to address all manner of problems.

Via Visual Complexity

Solar Boat plies the waters of Hyde Park – the Serpentine Solar Shuttle

UK’s SolarLab has developed a solar boat which is

[a]ble to run itself in all daylight conditions, the SolarShuttle has reserve power for night-time running and even generates surplus energy that can be fed back into the national grid. The Serpentine SolarShuttle’s maiden voyage triggered an unprecedented response among politicians, the media and the UK public, all of whom have been inspired by the future potential of solar transport.

Link  

(This is a Flash-heavy site – so the link’s to the main URL – then navigate via “Projects”) sol_launchparty-04.jpg

More demonstrative photograph coming shortly.

Why aren’t we using this technology to shuttle tourists to and from Liberty Island and Battery Park?

Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?

Apparently the British sailors captured by the Iranians don’t speak their native English too good. At perhaps there’s something about being captured by the Iranians and induced to “confess” and “apologize” that’s limiting their language skills.

Professor Mark Liberman of Penn makes a strong, detailed case that the that the statements were dictated by the Iranians. [And quotes Niall Ferguson, writing in The Telegraph, referring to the statements as being written in “Borat-ese,” a construction we’ll try to work into conversation.] As the child of non-native English speakers, we’re fond of English mildly mangled.

It’s the abuse of prisoners – by Iran and by coalition forces – which gives us pause.  Let’s hope that during a week in which at least two religions celebrate holidays which consider the plight of prisoners – things improve for all of them.

Innovative paramedic bags

Statpacks has made some of its packs and waistpacks with reflective material, and added the option of LED/fiber optic illumination. Here’s one of their models, the Manager.    We’ve seen other trauma bags with one or two strips of Scotchlite – but these are the first we’ve seen where virtually the entire outer surface is reflective.

They’re careful not to suggest that this would comply with ANSI Class III requirements – because a back or pack isn’t generally going to be visible 360 degrees around the person carrying it. We also don’t know whether they’re using  prismatic, higher-visibility reflective materials – like Reflexite – or not-as-reflective material like Scotchlite.

But this is an excellent design innovation. Anyone who’s watched news footage of EU member country emergency workers has seen pant legs and sleeves ringed with reflective material, on every hem and up, down, and around each garment component. Last night in Brooklyn, we saw a near-miss – a uniformed NYPD officer, trying to keep an intersection clear for ambulances and fire apparatus – nearly get hit by a marked NYPD car. Both cops – the one in the street and the driver – were doing their jobs right – but better “conspicuity” features on uniforms would reduce this risk. We would like to take credit for coining the term “conspicuity.” We wish we had.

Permeable sidewalks –

Permeable (that is, water-

permeable) sidewalks is an example of the confluence which is the principal principle (or conceit, if you like) of Popular Logistics. 

  There are at least two materials from which permeable sidewalks are made – a type of concrete and a hard rubber composite.

Here’s how it works: like a sidewalk. The weight of people and objects are borne by the sidewalk. But not liquid, which goes through.

Three welcome consequences:

  1. Trees planted near sidewalks get watered right through the sidewalk; their roots don’t need to keep travelling laterally to seek water, bursting through the sidewal. Tree gets to live; sidewalk doesn’t need to be replaced as often; tree continues its photosynthesis thing – and often cools the street and houses, making people more comfortable and reducing the need for air-conditioning. (We assume that all Popular Logistics readers are sufficiently caffeinated to make the next jump – that this creates a net reduction in energy consumption. Stay with me- this is only one immediate effect – and look at all these benefits.
  2. Water doesn’t pool on sidewalks, creating mosquito habitats.
  3. Water – once on the sidewalk – doesn’t evaporate – but can make it back into the water table, making more water available.
  4. During floods, the environment has additional capacity to absorb water – at least mitigating the effects of the flood.

The University of Alabama Cooperative Extension Service has a press release about their project – with an extensive set of links to information about permeable or “pervious” sidewalks. Given the sound of “pervious” – I think we’ll stick with “permeable” for the time being.

Link here. Tip of the hat – or the chapeau de fromage to IT goddess Lauren Dohr.

World's First Building-Integrated Wind Turbines

World’s first buildling-integrated wind turbines – in, of all places, Bahrain.

bahrain_wind_turbine.jpg

This post via TreeHugger.com

Our enthusiasm about wind-powered energy generally is tempered by our experience as New  York City residents. It’s our understanding that the City has yet to approve a single application for wind-powered generation – because of concerns about noise. We’ve  yet to follow up on this intelligence about the NYC Department of Buildings – but plan to, and welcome submissions from any of our readers who can help us out on this.

Mark Kleiman on WaPo coverage of Russia

If you’re not already persuaded that the current state of affairs in Russia should be a cause of great concern, Mark Kleiman makes the point quite concisely in this post.

I’ve been reading Kleiman’s work since dinosaurs roamed the Grand Concourse, carrying betting slips for wise-guys. When getting a copy of one of his article or books meant long waits via interlibrary loan, and many quarters spent printing microfilm reprints. He was one of the first people to look at drug policy in a methodical way. These days he posts at The Reality-Based Community

– and lots of other stuff.

While I was law school, and a bit after, I did some work as a ghostwriter and book editor. I was approached by aides to someone that I’ll refer to here as One of Many Current Candidates. OMCC wanted me to ghost-write a book persuading America that (illegal) drugs were evil, as great a threat as threats could be, and that only someone with the particular skills, experience, and temperament of OMCC could save America from the dreadful prospect of the universal availability of drugs, mandatory

drug use (an idea which, sadly, has not gotten the consideration it’s due), the whole country taken over by Colombian drug cartels.

I talked myself out of that job – and, in fact, I talked OMCC out of being one of many politicians who’ve written drug-war memoirs. One of the arguments I used was that to make the case he wanted to make, one would first have to take account of – and rebut – the work of a number of serious scholars who’d already addressed the issue – and who hadn’t necessarily come to the “no penalty too harsh, no intrusion sufficiently invasive” position this politician had come to. I’m sure I mentioned Kleiman, and Norman Zinberg, of Harvard Medical School. Their work was part of my introduction to drug policy, before I was involved in enforcing it, or criticizing it, or writing about it.

So I talked myself out of a well-paid gig; the politician – now a candidate for the presidence – never did have that book written.

I don’t know if Kleiman is the coiner of the phrase “Reality-Based Community.” I’ve been reading his stuff on the Internet since I found out that I could do it without using the microfilm machines or filling out an interlibrary loan slip and waiting two months. His current blog includes his contributions and those of a handful of other people – mostly scholars – who aren’t familiar to me. But The Reality-Based Community blog is worth checking out; its current skewerings of the Administration’s prevarications and obfuscations regarding the “overblown personnel matter” (the firing of eight United States Attorneys) are precise, and to the point. Each new statement from the Administration is like the Coyote’s new order to the Acme Company; Kleiman’s posts are like the Acme merchandise, unwrapped and in action. See, Coyote v. Acme, U.S.D.C., S.W.D., Arizona (No. B191294) (1990).