This week, Gizmodo University is proud to have a very special, super-secret guest lecturer! This is presented in addition to our normal curriculum and in conjunction with Sparkle Labs so step on into class and see who we've brought! More »
Hi All
I am in the process of upgrading an old pump with new pump that has higher flow/head output. what parameters should i check to make sure the new pump will be working fine with regard to
suction pressure, flange to flange dimension, discharge pipe pressure rating, discharge p
There is a Transformer of rating 13./6.6 KV, 10MVA, /Υ. If a ground fault occurs between one secondary phase, say r phase to ground then will it be sensed in primary( ) also either by Over load or instantaneous over load? Pls make me understand with necessary calculations.
Could anybody recommend some manufacturers of these type of machinery to do slotted liner for use downhole of the heavyoil wells in sand control?
Chris Cristie values come to the House
From Eric Dondero:
Jon Runyon was heavily supported by this website, libertarian Republicans in the Garden State and across the country. He won election on Tuesday in one of the toughest fought battles in the Nation.
From Philly.com:
Former Eagle Jon Runyan, riding a national wave of voter frustration, defeated freshman Democratic U.S. Rep. John Adler on Tuesday, according to unofficial returns.
"I'll give you everything I have to really get this country back on track," Runyan, a Republican, said at his headquarters at the Westin Hotel in Mount Laurel.
Gov. Christie had stumped across the country for Republican candidates, but said this Third District race was the most important to him. He introduced Runyan to a roaring crowd of supporters Tuesday night.
"No candidate around the state has worked harder than Jon," Christie said. "Jon is going to go down to Washington as part of a Republican majority to take our country back."
Analysts said if the governor were to keep his star power with the national party, his candidate - Runyan - had to win the toughest House race on Christie's turf.
Runyon won with 51.2% to 47.1%. Over $5 million was spent on both sides in the race. NJ"s 3rd CD includes mostly working class to suburban areas of Camden and Ocean Counties, including Cherry Hill.
Hello!!
I am with an organization with deals in courier/logistic business, having fleet of 200+ vehicles. Intend to install an intergrated security system which must cover the following features:-
1. Should have been supported with hardware as well as software.
2. Must be
News
Most interesting post of the week: Maryn McKenna talks about “vaccine-derived polio”, an “unintended consequence of success”
Holographic telecommunicator. It’s low-res, monochrome and jerky, but seriously, it’s a holographic telecommunicator.
Tom Chivers sets aside his sense of humour to write an amusing explanation of why headlines about a “liberal gene” are being liberal with overstatement.
“The hunt for earth-like planets is an epic endeavour… a perfect case study for the way that science at the bleeding-edge operates. It’s a shame the media aren’t doing a better job of conveying this to public.” Martin Robbins has a planetary gripe.
Welcome to World of WarmCraft. A climate change computer game tries to bring the planetary challenge of global warming to new audiences.
“Evolution in action, audible to the naked ear.” A cool new study on Galapagos finches, a iconic to evolutionary theory as they ever were.
From Zoe Williams, a great interview with Carl Djerassi, the inventor of the Pill and the man who changed the world for women.
Ignoring warnings from 1950s movies, scientists grow giant insects in the lab.
Ah, isn’t it nice when a large international meeting actually produces the right result and everyone largely agrees. 200 countries join forces to stem the loss of Earth’s life. But wait, says George Monbiot. “There is one problem: none of the journalists who made these claims has seen [the declaration]… The evidence suggests that we’ve been conned.”
“For dolphin mothers, successful parenting is as much a matter of having good friends as it is good genes,” writes Brandon Keim.
This is big: the US Government says that genes (human or otherwise) “should not be eligible for patents because they are part of nature.”
More after the jump…
The number of papers being retracted is on the rise, for reasons that are not all bad.
Robin Lloyd and Steve Mirsky have a great writeup of a debate about Rosalind Franklin, one of the co-discoverers of DNA’s structure. In it, Nick Wade espouses the view that Franklin wasn’t wronged because…er… she didn’t know she was being wronged at the time. Right.
Amazon speeds up economics experiments but more importantly, it’s less likely to recruit WEIRD volunteers.
A fascinating Wired feature on the Global Seed Bank: Nature’s backup.
“Hope built on a lie isn’t hope at all.” Beautiful post by PalMD on talking to patients about prognosis
NYT: Europe’s Plagues Came From China. I too have Chinese ancestry, moved to Europe, and killed millions of… no wait.
They all look the same? Here’s why.
Where climate myths come from: a great video from Peter Hadfield, who writes more here.
A history of anti-vaccination movements, dating back to the 1850s.
Diana Gitig at Ars Technica describes a Moebius strip made of DNA origami
Did baby sauropods run on two legs? Did their predators stand around laughing while being cuted out?
“I know that I do not suffer from Autism. I suffer from a lack of understanding and support.” & 25 “things I know about autism” over at Steve Silberman’s blog.
Brian Switek is tired of seeing naked dinosaurs. Maybe he should put his binoculars away, the big perv.
Jesse Bering narrates an evolutionary tale of the fattest ape: us.
“Is it time to start countering climate denial at the local level?” asks Chris Mooney
David Kroll takes a walk in the footsteps of caricatured evil as he puts himself in the shoes of Big Pharma
RIP Leigh Van Valen, evolutionary biologist behind the Red Queen hypothesis
Sometimes, science can go screw itself. Anomalocaris may not have been a superpredator?
“Do mummies have a right to privacy?” asks David Dobbs. That’s the Egyptian kind.
Polar bears: are they threatened or endangered? And either way, are they just screwed?
“Vaccines save lives; fear endangers them. It’s a simple message parents need to keep hearing.”
Heh/wow
Greg Foot is a legend for this: how to make Big Ben strike 13
From the Daily Mash: “Science cannot defeat cancer AND produce a magical see-through space coat, experts have warned.”
Tired of arguing with anti-science crackpots who can barely pass a Turing test? Nigel Leck was and created a bot to pester climate denialists for him. From Chris Mims.
Want an early Christmas present idea? Buy the Zooborns book. Raising awareness of conservation through the medium of unbearable cuteness.
“Meerkat celebrity Aleksandr Orlov has murdered and partially eaten several of his lower-status co-habitants’ offspring, it emerged last night.” The Daily Mash, of course.
An incredible giant jellyfish caught on video.
Gaah! My brain! An awesome illusion.
George Takei versus a douchebag
The European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2010
At the NASA Kennedy Space Center shop…
The World Health Organisation’s ICD-10 manual of diseases and health problems includes “Very low level of personal hygiene”, “Bizarre personal appearance”, “Strange and inexplicable behaviour” and “Verbosity and circumstantial detail obscuring reason for contact”
“Psst! Lean closer…. I have a secret… *closer*… you ready?… okay, don’t tell anyone but OWLS DON’T REALLY CARRY POST, YOU MORON”
The Atlas of Science: visualising what we know
Blogging/journalism/internet
Sophia Collins and Shane McCracken organised a great Beyond Blogging event that I’m very sorry to have missed. The event produced five ideas for future activities to improve science communication and I absolutely love the idea of the Media Support Network.
A fascinating debate is raging in the comments of Angela Saini’s piece on whether bloggers devalue journalism.
A timeline for newspaper extinction in every country in the world. The UK’s papers to go within the next decade.
Sharks are “immune to every disease” says the BBC. They also have adamantium claws. They’re the best there is at what they do. One of those statements is true, and it’s not the one by the BBC.
An interesting take on Google and peer review in the public sphere.
James Harding says the Times paywall is a revolution for its journalism. I wonder if the reporters would agree? George Brock has an analysis of the newly released 10,500 subscribers stat.
Another scientist suffers under the yoke of British libel laws.
Invisible ranks: Jenny Rohn on the scarcity of female science ambassadors & pundits, and why it might matter.
Climate scientist Simon Lewis on setting the record straight after he gets misquoted by the Sunday Times’s Jonathan Leake. A valuable lesson on combating shoddy journalism.
Meet Soylent, the crowdsourced copy editor. Hint: it’s people!
You undoubtedly know about this by now, but witness the hilarious and outrageous case of CrookSauce: a tale of an editor with a ridiculous attitude to plagiarism, and what happens when you underestimate the Internet
Congrats to Rebecca Skloot, author of Amazon’s Book of the Year! That’s OVERALL by the way, not in a Science category. This is a massive win not just for Rebecca, but for science, journalism, good writing, racial equality, female role models, and perhaps most of all, for the Lacks family.
This DIY iMac G4 lamp from Etsy is like Apple's version of the Luxo Jr. All of the lamp's parts come from a recycled iMac G4 and the overall result is just as cute, useful and brimming with character. More »
I'm going to answer my own question.
Philosophy is not science.
As far as I'm concerned, whether it's Plato or Nietzsche, philosophy is nothing more than random thought sitting on the curb waiting for a bus load of validation to come along.
Philosophy, by it's very nature,
Democrat loser says Tea Partyers "greedy" and "ignorant"
From Eric Dondero:
The loss of Tea Party libertarian/conservative Sharron Angle to Harry Reid was very painful for pro-liberty Republicans. However, there was another race in Nevada - a big win for the GOP - that you're not hearing anything about.
Incumbent Democrat Congresswoman Dina Titus was defeated for reelection by hardline Tea Party Republican Joe Heck. Nevada's 3rd CD consists of Las Vegas suburbs south to the Arizona border. The election was very close. Heck prevailed with 48.2% to Titus at 47.4%.
This was one of the most targetted races in the entire country on both sides.
From Fox 5 News: 
LAS VEGAS -- The race for Congressional District 3 was decided by less than 2,000 votes when Republican Joe Heck ousted freshman Rep. Dina Titus.
As Titus gets ready to return to Congress for the lame duck session, Heck prepares to take over the seat in January.
"We've been given the opportunity to govern," Heck said. "We're not going to squander that opportunity."
Heck said the first thing on his agenda is to focus on the economy and try to bring jobs back to Nevada.
"We've got to go through all the unreasonable regulations that have been passed over the last two years," he said. "Things that take away from the bottom line of small businesses, because every dollar from their bottom line is one less dollar for a pay raise or the next hire."
The incumbent though, is expressing nothing but sour grapes, even making derogatory statements to describe her Tea Party opponents. Continuing:
[Titus said] "there's a real tsunami across this country of greed and anger and ignorance, so we got to fight back."
My car has been suffering by the central locking and immobilizing system being activated. It has been to the garage twice and nothing has been found to be causing the problem. A house in the vacinity has had solar panels installed on the entire roof which coincides with the time my car has been play
Gaming the transient homeless vote
From Cliff Thies:
About those questionable Clark County results? Turns out there are thousands of people who live underground in Las Vegas, in storm drains. None of these people have landlines and, so, weren't surveyed by the poll-takers. All the union goons needed to do to GOTV was go down into the dark places. Offers of food and drugs were probably sufficient. Just had to be careful to provide dark sunglasses so as to prevent snow blindness.
From the UK Daily Mail:
Deep beneath Vegas’s glittering lights lies a sinister labyrinth inhabited by poisonous spiders and a man nicknamed The Troll who wields an iron bar.
But astonishingly, the 200 miles of flood tunnels are also home to 1,000 people who eke out a living in the strip’s dark underbelly.
Most of the people who live underground have fallen into destitution after struggling with drink, drugs or mental health problems
Living in underground hovels. The future of America???
Cab drivers know their cities intimately, using shortcuts and side streets to bypass traffic jams and (hopefully) get you to your destination more quickly. Now Microsoft is hoping to tap into this talent and design better driving directions for online maps. More »
how to calculate counter weight for balancing of reciprocating compressor?
How costly would it be to manufacture an electronic cigarette atomizer in the good old USA.
Is this cool or what?
From Eric Dondero:
Carol and Dan McGuire may have just made history. They are the very first husband/wife Libertarian Republican team ever elected to a State Legislature anywhere in the United States. Carol won election first in 2008. Both Carol and Dan were easily (re)elected this cycle. They represent Epsom and Pittsfield (south-cental NH).
Carol and Dan are longtime members of the Republican Liberty Caucus. In fact, they serve on the RLC State Board. Dan served as State RLC Chair in 2007/08. They also served as delegates to the 2009 RLC National Convention in Jacksonville.
Now 81 members of the NH House Republican Liberty Caucus
From McGuire4House.com:
We're very grateful to you the voters of Allenstown, Epsom and Pittsfield for electing us as your State Representatives together with Tony Soltani and Jon Richardson. The amazing extent of the Republican wave that washed over both the House and Senate means that we can get to work right away on balancing the state's finances through responsible spending cuts and added efficiency. We also will concentrate on regulation reform to lessen the burdens on business and welcome back the New Hampshire Advantage.
Carol has already filed a dozen bills. The most important of which would bring administrative rules under more direct control of the legislature. Administrative rules have the force of law, but are not written by legislators. Her bill would require confirmation of all rules by a legislative committee before they take effect. It is bad enough when elected representatives add to the people's regulatory burdens, but when unelected bureaucrats do it that is a step too far.
Dan is still working on bills, but has a couple of important ones in mind that could result in large savings for the taxpayers. First, deregulation of the health insurance industry. We have some of the most onerous health insurance rules in the country and we pay for it with out of sight insurance rates. Dan estimates that a free market in health insurance would save consumers at least $250 million a year. Another large savings could come from eliminating turnpike tolls and funding those roads with a small increase in the gas tax ($40 million estimated annual savings).
Note - The RLC blog has an excellent wrap-up of New Hampshire election results by National Vice-Chair Aaron Biterman; "New Hampshire Chooses RLC Leaders, 81 Endorsed Candidates to Lead State Legislature." Two former NH RLC Chairs now serve in the NH House. In addition to McGuire, immediate past Chair Jim Forsythe won election.
November 9 is the 76th anniversary of Carl Sagan’s birth, and is celebrated across the globe as Carl Sagan Day (in general, places that celebrate the day do so on the Saturday previous; so, today!). He did more to bring the wonders of the Universe to the world than any other human being, alive or otherwise, and this day should be a holiday.
In honor of that, I present to you my friend Sara Mayhew’s idea of what she plans to do:
Sounds like a good idea to me. If you’re curious about the apple pie thing, try here. It’s Sagan’s best quote, hands down.
I attended a Carl Sagan Day last year in Broward County, Florida and wrote about the experience. Everything I need to say about Carl and his influence is there, so go read it. Also, that same group in Broward is holding an event this year which will be streamed live.
The world may be a poorer place without him, but it’s much, much better place for having had him once in it.
Related posts:
- The Unbroken Thread
- Brian Cox talks about Carl Sagan
- Scientific Valentines
- Fine autotuning the Universe
Jim Wallis addressing a cycle of disrespect in our society.
I AM IN THE MIDDLE OF BUILDING MY HOUSE IN MA. I HAVE BEEN PLANNING ON USING EVACUATED TUBES ( SOLAR ) ON MY ROOF AS MY MAIN HEAT SOURCE. I JUST HAPPENED TO RUN INTO AN OLD FRIEND THAT DOES GEO THERMAL. WE TALKED ABOUT IT AND THE BOTTOM LINE WAS, HIS RESURCH TELLS HIM THAT SOLAR WILL GIVE ME ONLY 20
How did the Libertarian Party, Other independent candidates do?
by Clifford F. Thies
This was not a good year for third parties, except perhaps for the progressive Liberty Union of Vermont. The once significant Independence and Reform parties have shriveled to near nothing status. The Libertarian Party continues at about 1 or 2 percent of the vote in statewide races. And, the Green Party continues to flounder as a nationwide organization, with only scattered displays of existence.
Georgia LP fails to gain "Balance of Power"
Minor parties attained the balance of power in only three Congressional races. These were NY23, where the Conservative Party candidate drew 6 percent of the vote and threw the election to the Democrat. CA11, assuming the razor thin margin of the current frontrunner holds up, where the American Independent Party got 5 percent of the vote and succeeded in re-electing the Democrat. And, IL8, where the Green Party candidate got 3 percent of the vote and enabled the Republican to turn the Democrat out of office.
If you noticed that, in all three instances, the minor party helped the opposite major party, this is what minor parties do. Hopefully, not too often. Just enough so that the major party doesn't get too comfortable moving toward the center of the political spectrum.
One somewhat bright spot for the Libertarian Party Scott Kohlhass, our Libertarian buddy in Alaska, who agree to "caucus" with the GOP if elected, scored 30 percent of the vote in his attempt to be elected to the lower house of his state's legislature. It was certainly dissapointing he didn't get elected though. Another downer for the LP, their best shot to pick up a state house seat in New Hampshire with Brenden Kelly was unsuccessful. He placed 5th in a field of 8, (first 4 won seats).
In Georgia, the Libertarian candidate for Governor looked as though he might keep the Republican below 50 percent and force a run-off between the Republican and the Democrat. However, the voters of that state decided that they had had enough of politics for one year, and put Nathan Deal over the 50 percent mark.
Even Libertarian Party website describes mediocre results
The Libertarian Party website describes an "about average" election year. Their candidates for US House received approximately the same percentages as usual. One decent showing; Edward Gonzalez running for Congress in a San Francisco Bay area, with only a nominal write-in option for the GOP on the ballot. Gonzalez polled over 7% as a Libertarian.
No significant offices were won by the LP. A handful of minor offices were won. From LP.org:
Kathy Woolsey for Charleston County (SC) Soil and Water Commission - 53%
Jim Culberson for Sebastian Inlet Tax District (FL) - 62%
Ron Skrutski for Lee County (FL) Soil and Water Conservation District - unopposed
Tom Clark for Lee County (FL) Soil and Water Conservation District - unopposed
Kim Hawk for Lee County (FL) Soil and Water Conservation District - unopposedIn Wayne County, Indiana, Cheryl Heacox was elected to the Clay Township Board. (It was a partisan "vote for 3" election, and she was one of the three candidates elected.)
In Arizona, Scott Stewart was re-elected to the Pima Community College Board for a six-year term. (Non-partisan race.)
Typically, the Libertarian Party elects at least 10 to 15 of its members to local offices each election cycle. So, this is a bit of a drop.
The buxom blonde Madam in NYC
In New York, our buxom buddy Kristin Davis, first with the Libertarian Party, later with the Anti-Prohibition Party, only pulled 20,000 votes, about one-half of 1 percent. And, this was in an election in which the Republican candidate was discombobulating.
We will also mention that in Colorado, the Republican candidate for Governor got 11 percent of the vote and, so, preserved ballot status for the Grand Old Party in that state. We presume the guy will now return to deep undercover status with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. Of course, Tancredo got 38% of the vote for Colorado Gov. under the American Constitution ticket.
As to why the third parties did not play a more significant role, we can cite the decision by the Tea Party movement to act within the Republican Party, challenging the party establishment, infusing the party with new candidates, enthusiasm, volunteers and money. This strategy enabled the Republicans to make a dramatic comeback, although it also presented the party with a few rough edges.
In 2012, I think we can look to a strong Green Party or other progressive-socialist party attempt to discipline the Democrats for "selling them out" during the two years they had hegemonic control over Washington. Just be sure to sign their petitions when you are asked.
Thies is a former Libertarian National Committee member, fmr. LP National Treasurer fmr. Maryland LP State Chair and fmr. LP candidate for US House - Montana. Dondero contributed to this article.
