Risky Business
UncategorizedEven though the Cold War is supposed to have ended, the US and Russia still test each other’s air defenses. How much risk is there in such actions? More than one might think.
North Korea’s latest test
Fissionable Material, Nuclear weapons effects, UncategorizedWell, it finally happened – North Korea finally set off another nuclear test, which wasn’t much of a surprise to be honest with you. After a couple of low-yield devices the North Koreans had plenty of reasons to continue testing – we’ll talk about that in a moment – and the world reacted fairly predictably [...]
The greatest good for the greatest number
Public Safety, UncategorizedIn the second Star Trek movie (based on the original Star Trek characters, not the more recent movies) there was a touching scene in which Spock sacrifices himself to save the crew of the Enterprise. His words, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few – or the one” were not only [...]
Safety
Health, Public Safety, UncategorizedSo how far are we willing to go to keep ourselves safe? We’ve heard a lot of stories – we’ve experienced them! Think about all the contortions we go through at the airport – the TSA striptease comes to mind – not to mention the whole deal with having to leave water bottles and regular-sized [...]
Helping Kosovo help the Dutch
Climate Change, Public SafetyIn 2009 I was asked to travel to Kosovo to give a talk at a UN conference on climate change – my participation was no doubt due to some wrangling on the part of some of my former students at the American University in Kosovo since I’m not a climate scientist. I’ve got to admit [...]
Sailors sue TEPCO
Fukusima, Health, Nuclear energy, Public Safety, SubmarinesIn that relatively dead news time between Christmas and New Years the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that 8 sailors from the USS Ronald Reagan were suing the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) on the grounds that TEPCO had covered up the severity of the Fukushima accident and that, as a result, the sailors had been [...]
Reality?
UncategorizedWhen I was younger I used to wonder how I could know if the reality I perceived was the same thing that other people perceived. In Philosophy 101 I found out that this is actually a fairly common question – when you see something that’s red, for example, how do I know that it’s making [...]
The Anti-Hero
UncategorizedIt’s easy to be inspired by the hero, even if we never put ourselves at risk for the sake of another. But it can be hard to really understand heroism – I know, for example, that I positively cannot envision what must go through a soldier’s mind as he’s running through enemy fire to try [...]
The plots thicken
Junk Science, Nuclear weapons effects, RadiationA couple of weeks ago the Associated Press ran a story that seemed to confirm the world’s fears about Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program. Central to the story was a plot (shown here) that showed, over a period of a few microseconds, energy and power output from a nuclear weapon. While everyone seems to agree [...]
To promote the general welfare…
Health, Public Safety, Radiation, Toxic, UncategorizedAccording to Thomas Jefferson “The purpose of government is to enable the people of a nation to live in safety and happiness. Government exists for the interests of the governed, not for the governors.” In a nutshell, government exists to serve and to protect the public. This view of government (not surprisingly) echoes the Preamble [...]