Category Archives: Web Article Review

the UFO report

Here is one place to access the official UFO report. It says next to nothing, and is almost not worth the time. It was clearly typed out in a few hours by a summer intern. Like any good research report that concludes nothing, the authors would like to collect more data, they would like to do further studies, and they would like someone to pay for that.

Anyway, here are the possible explanations they give for UFOs:

  • airborne clutter: birds, balloons, “recreational unmanned vehicles”, and plastic bags
  • natural atmospheric phenomena: ice crystals, moisture, thermal fluctuations (because these things can show up on sensors)
  • “USG or Industry Development Programs”: they don’t bother to define USG, but I am thinking United States Government. “We were unable to confirm, however, that these systems accounted for any of the UAP reports we collected.”
  • Foreign Adversary Systems: “China, Russia, another nation, or a non-governmental entity”, such as a Bond villain. Okay, I added that last one.

Conspicuously missing from the list is aliens, a previously undiscovered deep-sea civilization exploring our atmosphere (see Charles Stross’ Laundry Files series), or entities operating in parallel universes (see Charles Stross’ Merchant Princes series). I have no evidence for any of these theories, which is to say I have exactly the same amount of evidence presented in this report in support of the theories above. My recommendation is to spend your time reading science fiction/fantasy series by Charles Stross rather than this report. You will be much more entertained, and no less informed.

yes, the Dutch are good at water…

It’s actually true that the Dutch are good water engineers. It’s just slightly annoying that the Dutch themselves are fond of telling us that, and then like to remind us frequently of that fact. Nonetheless, here’s a roundup of Dutch water engineering stuff. A lot of it is just using data analysis and computer simulations to predict what is going to happen and then designing clever interventions to nudge it one way or another. That is good basic engineering using modern tools, and not always done in other countries where political priorities lie elsewhere. Some of it is just a willingness and ability to pay for the aesthetic side of design, even if it costs a lot and takes a long time. The Dutch are patient, science- and logic-driven, and rational. I suppose they have earned the right to be just a tiny bit smug about it.

ARPA-H

ARPA-H is an idea for a new U.S. agency (probably within the existing National Institutes of Health) focused on leading edge medical and biotech research. It seems like a bit of a gimmick to me, but if this is what it takes to fund research and development (as opposed to just funding more research and development) I am all for it. The U.S. should have a competitive advantage here, and this should benefit out citizens.

checking in with Noam Chomsky

In this Alternet article, Noam Chomsky describes the business class as Marxists waging a class struggle. They never give up and working class is always on the defensive. So if the working class is less aggressive, which he says they have been since the “centrist Carter administration”, big business will get the upper hand as it has in the U.S. He sees some hope in the movement started by Bernie Sanders.

Will oil companies be forced to cut emissions?

This article from Guardian talks about court cases and shareholder activism that may finally force oil companies to take climate change seriously. Even Exxon which, in my opinion, through its manipulation of the U.S. political system bears significant responsibility for the fact that we have a climate crisis in the first place, or at least for the fact that we have not made a significant attempt to deal with it.

A couple points. When we talk about an oil company “cutting emissions”, I don’t think we are talking about the emissions caused by people and businesses using the product. I think we are talking about emissions used in exploration, production, and transportation of the oil itself. Which is all good, but not the root of the fossil fuel emissions problem which is burning the stuff to liberate energy to do work. The fact that the amoral, possibly psychopathic financial industry is turning on the oil industry means they think we are going to be burning less of it going forward. An oil company that invests in “sustainable investments” other than oil is no longer an oil company. The electric utility industry and nuclear industries are completely different animals with existing players, so Exxon is not just going to take them over. So maybe Exxon will just evolve into some sort of venture capital fund looking for profitable investments for its dollars. And there are already plenty of other companies doing that for it to compete with, so I don’t see why Exxon would be particularly adept at it. If they don’t make it long term, good riddance. See you in hell, guys!

gargoyles of Philadelphia

This post is probably only on local interest, but Billy Penn has an article on all the carvings on Philadelphia’s City Hall, which is also the world’s largest free-standing masonry structure. That is, this is about as big as you could build a building out of stone, before concrete and steel are invented. Like most things in Philadelphia, it is poorly maintained, underperforming and underwhelming. This may have something to do with the gargoyles inside the building.

the U.S. playbook for unsafe streets

Seriously, solutions exist on how to design and build safe streets. NACTO has published a set of line-by-line modifications to the Federal Highway Administration’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.

One thing I’ve learned halfway through an engineering career (but I’m not claiming to be a practicing transportation engineer or expert) is that change doesn’t occur at the site or street scale until best practices from elsewhere filter down to what I call the local “playbook” for design. The playbook is the set of codes, ordinances, regulations, design standards, performance criteria, standard plans and drawings, manuals, guidelines, etc. that a local community uses for design. The status quo in these documents usually has some reason for existing, but it also has enormous inertia, to the point where it can take decades for a clear solution to a problem to make its way into actual on-the-ground designs, and today’s designs can represent solutions that were appropriate for conditions as they existed decades ago.

Local professionals and bureaucrats are not always ignorant, but they are harried and operating under pressure that leaves little time for learning. There is a certain cynicism that sets in, at least in the engineering industry, and in my opinion the “STEM” approach to education tends to nudge more literal minded thinkers (who tend to be good at math and logic) into the industry while discouraging more creative thinkers. Revised curricula and continuing education for planners, engineers, architects, the construction industry, and public officials can be part of the answer. Grass roots advocacy can also be part of the answer. But changes to official documents at the federal level can really help get the ball rolling, because states often follow suit (slowly), and then local projects are often required to follow these documents to be eligible for state and federal funding. Just one small example is that in Pennsylvania, there is (or was until recently, I’m not sure of the status) a law that cars had to be parked within a certain number of inches of a curb. Sounds reasonable enough, until you realize that it actually makes modern protected bike lanes illegal! There are lots of little things like that, and then there are big things like safe intersections with different signals for motor vehicles, bikes, and pedestrians.

masks, ventilation, and filtration work in schools; social distancing and plexiglass don’t do anything

There, I think my headline summarized by layman’s understanding of this study published by CDC. I’m hoping my (rising) third grader won’t have to wear a mask to school in the fall, but that wouldn’t be the end of the world. What I’m really hoping for is five full-time in-person school days, which kids really need for normal educational and social development at this point. Masks would be a small price to pay for that until younger children can be vaccinated, but really can we speed that up.

I’ll give the School District of Philadelphia some praise for comprehensive testing of its HVAC systems district wide, followed by correction of problems. What they found though was that many classrooms had no functioning ventilation at all! I suspect they were like that for many decades. How many flu epidemics ravaged the city in that time because this city has a culture of accepting amateurism, mediocrity, and incompetence? I want to see the pandemic money spent to bring school buildings up to date, starting with HVAC and air conditioning. Air conditioning isn’t a luxury these days. It’s getting hotter and this would mean the buildings could be used year-round which could have enormous benefits.