Cash for Thermodynamic Clunkers

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Refrigerator Recycling Programs Take Off

The recent flurry of new programs in New England stems in part from the recent introducton of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a Northeastern program that caps greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to combat climate change, as well as from energy efficiency initiatives in individual states, according to Mr. Sirkin.

Utilities commonly estimate that homeowners can save up to $150 a year on their electricity bill by dumping their old refrigerator or freezer. Old refrigerators, made prior to 1990, also use three times as much electricity as new ones, the utilities say. In addition, refrigerators made before the mid-1990s may also emit ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons.

This is Not a Step

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Schneier on Security: Risk Intuition

“We have to make people understand the [security] risks,” he said.

It seems to me that his co-workers understand the risks better than he does. They know what the real risks are at work, and that they all revolve around not getting the job done. Those risks are real and tangible, and employees feel them all the time. The risks of not following security procedures are much less real. Maybe the employee will get caught, but probably not. And even if he does get caught, the penalties aren’t serious.

Brahe had a Sponsor. Kepler Works.

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Bad Astronomy: Kepler works!

The bottom plot is the same thing but zoomed in to see more detail. That second dip is a lot more obvious. It’s not another planet blocking starlight, which is what you might first guess. It’s actually the light from the planet being blocked by the star!

The planet is reflecting light from the star, just like the Moon reflects sunlight, allowing us to see it. When the planet passes behind the star, we don’t see that light anymore, so the total light from the system drops a wee bit. It’s not much, and totally impossible to see from the ground, but Kepler was able to spot it. And that’s critical, because it turns out this dip is about the same thing we’d expect to see if a planet the size of the Earth were to pass in front of the star. In other words, the drop in light from a giant planet going behind its star is about the same as we’d expect from a smaller planet passing in front of the star.

The fact that Kepler spied this dip at all means that, if somewhere out there an Earthlike world is orbiting a star, Kepler will be able to detect it!

Incredible.

This is pretty cool.

Death to Exponential Growth

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Your body wasn’t built to last: a lesson from human mortality rates

What do you think are the odds that you will die during the next year? Try to put a number to it — 1 in 100? 1 in 10,000? Whatever it is, it will be twice as large 8 years from now.

This startling fact was first noticed by the British actuary Benjamin Gompertz in 1825 and is now called the “Gompertz Law of human mortality.” Your probability of dying during a given year doubles every 8 years. For me, a 25-year-old American, the probability of dying during the next year is a fairly miniscule 0.03% — about 1 in 3,000. When I’m 33 it will be about 1 in 1,500, when I’m 42 it will be about 1 in 750, and so on. By the time I reach age 100 (and I do plan on it) the probability of living to 101 will only be about 50%. This is seriously fast growth — my mortality rate is increasing exponentially with age.

This is News?

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Tyrannosaurus rex ‘picked on baby dinosaurs and ate them whole’

Research into the predatory habits and diet of the biggest of the dinosaurs has concluded that T.rex and other members of its carnivorous theropod family preferred to dine on juveniles, preferably small enough to eat whole.

It shatters the notion that the giant battled with animals of a similar or even larger size, an image reinforced by its portrayal in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film Jurassic Park.

Really? Jurassic Park, a work of fiction wherein the T. rex never battled anything of similar, much less larger, size? And why would anyone expect T. rex to behave any differently than modern carnivores, who prey on the young and weak? Certainly not the researchers:

Dr Hone, who works at the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology in Beijing, said: “Modern predators mainly attack vulnerable, young animals as they are inexperienced in evading predators, and this was probably the same in dinosaurs. Young prey are easier to bring down and the risk of injury to the predator is much lower.