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I assumed gasoline would give a positive result on the test, you mean it doesn't?

The number of false positives from a detector that picked up plain old hydrocarbon vapours would be gigantic, particularly considering that airports and airplanes literally run on kerosene. Jet-A1 is essentially a low octane, slightly higher-boiling-than-gasoline mixture of hydrocarbons. Even without perfectly innocent fuel spills, as you describe, there are going to be non-trivial traces in the atmosphere all the time.

Then there's the nearly 2ppm of methane present in the normal atmosphere. That's going to complicate any simplistic hydrocarbon detection system.

I don't know what the detection technology inside these systems is, but I'd bet in IR spectroscopy. Gas chromatography is credible, but they'd need analytical-grade bottles of carrier gas or some major advances in gas generators since .... nah, GC isn't credible. Mass spectrometry ... certainly got the sensitivity and range of detection capabilities (the same systems do drug analyses too), but they're delicate lumps. And not terribly compact. IR's your lead contender by far.

Nitrate groups have an absorbtion pattern in the IR (see Table 1 in http://www.umsl.edu/~orglab/documents/IR/IR2.html for an example); see that and you have a positive. Organic nitrates aren't terribly common in the general public. Got a prescription to go with this claim of nitroglycerine for your dodgy heart, Sir? Been sniffing the old poppers, Sir ? ; I've got a lovely long rubber glove for you! Been playing cards, have we, Sir? ; well that was good enough to jail the Birmingham Six.

So I guess a gasoline fuel-air bomb would be easier to smuggle on board?

Hmmm, that would be how many litres of gasoline - when you're not allowed to board with liquids - and a compressed gas supply (also not allowed - look for the IATA "Do Not Carry these ..." posters all over the airport. think of a small SCUBA tank.). And the control and ignition circuitry (you want a bomb, not just a fire on board).

Fuel-air bombs ; what is the smallest you've test-detonated sucessfully, and how reliable is your implementatin?

wow, a whole million dollars? rly? In 1997, the US spent more than that every 20 minutes on intellegence. Imagine what they are spending AFTER 9/11 (cite)

And yet, some of the spiral tables organize by chemical properties, and intuitively show the progression of orbital shells. This 3D one is the most impressive.

It depends if you want a handy reference sheet or a pictoral that explains the workings of the universe. Personally, I never understood why the Lanthinides and Actinides were separate, and I took AP Chem. But one glance at the 3D chart (or any decent spiral) and it's clear what is going on.

Wow is right. Read the "fractal" part of the superliminal link and then navigate to this 3D version that she mentions. The 3D version is sick. (also full-color and rotateable)

The spirals attempted since the 1950s are basically the 3D version as viewed from above. Mrs. superliminal apparently realized that it's a fractal (it is), and the 3D version really makes that apparent.

Because Information Theory has no practical application to the physics of the Universe, right?

Or not.

Federal Republic of Nigeria. National or official languages: Edo, Efik, Adamawa Fulfulde, Hausa, Idoma, Igbo, Yerwa Kanuri, Yoruba, English. 106,409,000 (1998 UN). Literacy rate 42% to 51%.

here is an article about Shawn at MIT, in a class where they come up with this kind of stuff. Article is by Pagan Kennedy in the New York Times.

You should take a look at something called the Broken Windows Theory. Enforcing penalties for 'small' crimes such as speeding, vandalism and thing like jaywalking can dramatically affect the incidence of larger crimes such as murder. I don't care how good a driver you think you are - I don't trust your judgement as to how fast you can safely drive. http://www.umsl.edu/~nestor/Broken%20Windows.htm

Date: Thursday, September 23, 1999 7:21 AM From: http://www.umsl.edu/~skthoma/offline.htm Offline Illumination; Steamshovel Press Spooky Boys With Spooky Toys by Uri Dowbenko Future War: Non-Lethal Weapons in Twenty-First Century Warfare by Colonel John B. Alexander, US Army (Retired) (1999, St. Martin's Press, 254 pp.. $24.95) Colonel John Alexander never met a war he didn't like. As an unofficial spokesman for the Military-Industrial Complex, Alexander has written a book called Future War in which he continues to ply his trade -- promoting war -- and most importantly advocating those all-important expendables called "weapons systems." The oxymoronic "non-lethal weapons" which Alexander touts are anything but. They include exotic systems like electromagnetic weapons, chemical and biological warfare, so-called physical restraints like goop guns, etc., acoustic weapons, as well as information warfare technologies, which include good old-fashioned military propaganda -- like his book itself. Without questioning the wrong-headed abstruse US Government policies of war-making, he includes a brief history of War's Greatest Hits in a chapter called "Are We the World's Police Force?" Alexander's answer is an unequivocal yes. These include -- Restore Hope: Somalia; United Shield: Somalia Round II; Uphold Democracy: Haiti; Bosnia; The Idaho Rebellion (just kidding). Internet Bashing In a chapter called "Information Warfare," Alexander sounds the alarm about -- you guessed -it -- the "dangers of the Internet." You see, those nasty hackers, crackers and phrackers are out to get the Information Infrastructure. How do we know? Alexander says so. "It is predicted that anti-hacker software sales will increase from $1.1 billion in 1995 to greater than $16 billion in 2000," he writes. "The President's Committee of Critical Infrastructure Protection noted the increased likelihood of computer terrorism and recommended that research and development, now $250 million annually, should be increased $100 million per year until $12 billion is provided on a yearly basis." No matter what the "security" problem, all we need to do is spend more taxpayer dollars on the Military-Industrial Complex. Secret Life of John Alexander Virtually disregarded in this book is Alexander's spooky background as a Psy0ps (or psychological operations) expert, as well as a psychic warfare- mind control operative. According to Alex Constantine, author of Virtual Government (Feral House, 1997), Colonel John Alexander has displayed a long term interest in the paranormal and "has actively promoted psychic metal bending among government personnel using the techniques pioneered by Jack Houck of McDonnell-Douglas." Before his "retirement," Alexander had a 32-year career in the Army, including a stint as director of Advanced Systems Concepts Office, US Army Laboratory Command Alexander was also chief of the Advanced Human Technology Office & Security Command (INSCOM) and ran the "non-lethal" weapons lab at Los Alamos in New Mexico. Alexander allegedly also has a doctor's degree in thanatology, the science of death. British reporter Armen Victorian concludes that John B. Alexander is an active operative assigned to a covert military group "specializing in dissemination of disinformation," collectively known as the "Aviary." In a recent interview, David Morehouse, author of Psychic Warrior, (St. Martin's Press, 1996) reports that "Alexander was a Special Forces officer in Vietnam who commanded a Montagnard battalion. Others say he was a member of the Phoenix Project [the notorious CIA assassination program]. When he came out, he worked with the intelligence community and he never left." Later Alexander led a CIA harassment campaign against Morehouse. Alexander, the "retired" colonel working for the CIA, Jim Schnabel and Joe McMoneagle were all actively involved in spreading disinformation Campaign against him on the Internet, says Morehouse. Politically Incorrect Warrior And why was Morehouse harassed?

I find it funny the editors are probably pushing their thirties, yet still act like 5 year olds toward a billion dollar corporation that has contributed more and done more for the world than they can ever hope to.

Heck, it's the same even if you're running totally Open Source software! Unless _you personally_ have gone through every .c and .h file to verify the code, that latest version of BitchX you just installed (or even the latest source-based security patch!) has potentially compromised your system integrity.

Just going through the source files and headers isn't sufficient, because you have no way of knowing if those same source files are the ones that were compiled into the binary you're running. Unless you build everything yourself.

But even then, there is still a fly in the ointment, as the compiler you're using could be compromised. And even if you re-compile the compiler, you **still** aren't guaranteed safe.

See the following URL for more on that topic:

http://www.cs.umsl.edu/~sanjiv/sys_sec/security/ba ck_door.html

Privitizing also reduces what transparency there is left. It's also another degree away from electoral oversight, as far as control is concerned. We don't get to vote corporate leaders in. Why not trim spending where it counts instead of these half-ased attempts? Does Halliburton really need all this money? We know the military can do a lot of it for much less. For all the bitching that goes on about 'big governemnt' at least its bottom line is self-perpetuation instead of profit, like corporations. Which of these would paying for severe illnesses adversely affect more: the pencil pushing government officals, or potential executive bonuses at one of the major insurance providers?

Everyone still treats socialism as a dirty word, but form where I'm sitting corporations are using advertising and politicians in the design and construction of their own planned economy. If only the consumers were a bit more predictable and calculable they might succeed.

It's very understandable that opinions at work should me moderated. A person is being paid to perform a task, and anything but constructive criticism followed by a solution needs to be tempered. School is a different situation all together; we teach kids to respect diversity and the opinions of others, yet live in a society that rewards conformity. Good students are considered to be children that absorb what is taught and believe in the system they are raised in, yet people who ask serious questions and criticize mediocre curriculum are labeled rebel rousers and are demeaned. As I mentioned in a previous post, I was required to read a book called "The McDonaldization of Society" for an analytical writing class, but it is required reading for most sociology classes. It opened my eyes to why the society we live in behaves the way it does. It also speaks closely to our educational system and it's "rewards for conformity" based politics. Here is a link to a good summary of chapters. In fact, part of the argument I use above is a simplification of several pages of the book.

Excellent post.

My biomass numbers came from a longer non-/. email exchange about long term energy sources. The biomass numbers were in reference to an alternative of using ag-waste as feedstock to a chemical conversion process
changingworldtech.com, and came from a university class. And I see that between revisions I slipped a decimal - the article says 1/40th, or 2.5%, or perhaps applied a 10% conversion efficiency step somewhere and didn't back it out when I quoted the number.

The strength of materials numbers came from the Ryerson Catalog (except the strength of music wire, which comes from a music wire company). The Bamboo strength is the weighted results of various references (lab and university results weighted heavily and about 1/2 the strength value quoted by bamboo-centric web sites that apparently did not do primary testing). Aluminum costs and other data were checked against the admittedly biased aluminum association website (www.aluminum.org).

Your references on biomass conversion are far better and and quite helpful.

As for the other energy flow references, they were taken from my own emails, but the primary references are:

climate forcings (greenhouse contributions)
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/ forcings/altscen ario/

Useful energy quantities (also in m&ms as a unit)
http://newton.umsl.edu/~philf/energies.gif

Total vegetative consumption
http://newton.umsl.edu/infophys/lsp.h tml

Solar irradiance and variation thereof:
http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/sts-107/10 7_solcon3. pdf

Albedo and reflectance
http://lasp.colorado.edu/~avallone/at oc3500/lectur es/lecture23.htm
http://eetd.lbl.gov/HeatIsland/P avements/LowerTemp s/

Detailed ref on solar data: http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/

Detailed data on solar panel efficiency in real daily light:
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy99osti/26909.pd f

Retail Solar costs http://www.wholesalesolar.com/

energy consumption data
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/international/iea pdf/t0 6_02.pdf

Energy consumption
http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/brochure/ infocard01.ht m
Energy reserves
http://www.usgs.gov/public/press/public_ affairs/pr ess_releases/pr1183m.html
http://www.iea.org/g8/w orld/oilsup.htm
Carbon capacity
http://www.optimumpopulation.org/opt.af. biocapacit y.html
Carbon output
http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming. nsf/Uniq ueKeyLookup/JSIN5DQT4A/$file/ORSummary.PDF
Solar Costs
http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:3P2Cj2 FoBIEC: www.ncsc.ncsu.edu/fact/10body.htm+photovoltiac+cel l+cost&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Solar Availability
http://courses.washington.edu/me342/ hw2sol.htm
Hydrates at SciAm
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID= 0009ECC C-3F88-1C75-9B81809EC588EF21
Hydrates at DOE
http://www.fe.doe.gov/oil_gas/methanehydrates /
Hydrates at USGS
http://marine.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/gas-hydra tes/ti tle.html

Another St. Louisan here. Don't forget the many unique places that make StL um...stand out.

Then again, there are bunches of genuinely cool places and events that make the town with the easy-carry handle worth living in.

UM-St. Louis also produces a seriously good literary magazine and has a strong creative writing program.

$5 billion for a ship !! That's more than the GDP for many countries !!

GDP List (from CIA Factbook)

Weak measurement

See Aharonov's website for publications on superposition-preserving weak measurement techniques.
I have a recent article, experimental description and links detailing the theory, online at http://www.umsl.edu/~altmanc/measurement.html.

Physics of Consciousness

Building a machine to pass the Turing Test is one thing, but the nature of consciousness itself is the more profound question here. Rodney Brooks asked this question in a relatively recent Edge Online interview.
What are we missing in our computational models of living systems?

Chris

http://www.umsl.edu/~altmanc/
http://www.artilect.org/

Go here and you can read all about the origin of these words and the use of "spelunker" in the same vein as "visual basic programmer".

*** Gopher status update 4/24/1998:
*** The articles and data concerning Penn State are now on the web.
*** No new data is being or will be added to this gopher server.
*** Please visit the Penn State web page at http://www.psu.edu/

Our web is located at http://www.umsl.edu

"It was just about this time, spring 1993, that the University of Minnesota decided that it would ask for a license fee from certain classes of users who wanted to use gopher. Since the gopher software being picked up so widely, the university was going to charge an annual fee. The browser, and the act of browsing, would be free, and the server software would remain free to nonprofit and educational institutions. But any other users, notably companies, would have to pay to use gopher server software.

"This was an act of treason in the academic community and the Internet community. Even if the university never charged anyone a dime, the fact that the school had announced it was reserving the right to charge people for the use of the gopher protocols meant it had crossed the line. To use the technology was too risky. Industry dropped gopher like a hot potato."

This research has already been applied in humans by Dr. Phil Kennedy at Georgia Tech, who has been developing the work for years...

Christopher Altman
Graduate Researcher in Artificial Intelligence
http://www.umsl.edu/~altmanc/

Your sisters only copy of her dissertation was on a floppy?

Word trashed it? I'd find it more likely that the floppy just died, as they sometimes do.

What's your sister majoring in anyway, GYM?

I'm working on a team whose research involves utilizing genetic algorithms to create neural networks - specifically, to create a 75 million neuron 'artificial brain.'

Hmmm... maybe de Garis's CAM-Brain machine could be applied towards these purposes...

Would it be possible to, say, make a very small, very simple (read: no optimizations) cc compiler written in assembly for each architecture, and compile gcc (or whatever our system compiler is) with this trivial compiler first? It seems to me that this would eliminate the problem of having to know whether the entire history of whatever code we were running was trojan-free or not. If this is in fact possible, is it something that you would be interested in having in OpenBSD? In any event, keep up the good work!

(See the infamious login hack, which you should look up)

It certainly made me think the first time I read it. Highly recommended.

--

I prefer the 'dead horse' as suggested before (sorry, too lazy to search the archives). Is it too late to mod up that comment?

I got mine, but I'm still waiting for someone to come up with a useful application for one, other than the flashlight suggestion.

Read about how DC has commited mail fraud (and how to file your complaint with the US postal service) here.

And learn how to 'de-claw' (so it doesn't send out a serial number) your ::cue::crap spammer-- er uh scanner here.

They can be used as small red flashlights.

There are instructions on how to do just that (batteries and all) here.

http://s1066194.umsl.edu/cuecrap there you wil find all the software you need

catnip, a decoder for windows can be found at http://s1066194.umsl.edu/cuecrap/ or at www.wizkid.org/cuecat

I wonder whether the decreased reaction time could be a result of stochastic resonance.

This is a phenomenon in which injecting noise into a weak signal can increase its detectability.

It has been shown that crayfish use this in the nerve cells of their tail hairs, possibly to improve their ability to detect vibrations from the motion of predators they are escaping. I've seen some pretty dramatic examples of low contrast images that were impossible to interpret are made very plain by adding some white noise to them.

You better not install any more software off of the web - I mean, who knows what could be lurking in that tarball from ftp.gnu.org? Anyone could have hacked the server and put a backdoor into the GCC code! And those ISO images on the RedHat site

Oh, you mean like when someone hacked a server and replaced the sources to TCP Wrappers?

Or, speaking of GCC, how about when Ken Thompson, Granddaddy to things Unix, stashed a self-reproducing hack of the 'login' program in the operating system's own compiler?

Granted the TCP wrappers thing was quickly caught, but IIRC, Mr. Thompson's hack wasn't caught so quickly. Either way, the point is, if someone weren't raising the flags, worrying about the unlikely, working to secure the system, you'd be just another node in the DoS machine.

Maybe you are already.

*shrug*

Peer review (as one of the streanths in opensource) won't alone give you a secure system, there are far to many other factors to be considerd. Peer review is however one very important factor.

--

Rats! that was my idea too, only not quite. I was thinking along the lines of a program whose output would be DeCSS, but without any DeCSS source code involved - an alternate variation on the self-referential program. An alternate mucho cool hack would involve something along the lines of Ken Thompson's "Reflections on Trusting Trust" see here

My dad has written a lot of papers on ball lightning, some are available here.

One of the compelling arguments is: because compilers bootstrap, it is possible to put a trojan horse in the binary that never goes away, even if the source is modified. Very interesting stuff.