Friday, February 15, 2013

Friday Links (and Apology)

Obviously, blogging has not gone so well this week - indeed, has not gone at all - and I apologize for that.  Sometimes life intervenes.

Here are a few links to be going on with.  Hopefully, things will return to normal this coming week.
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4 comments:

  1. VVillyFebruary 15, 2013 at 9:53 AM

    "pundits who were wrong about the housing bubble"

    That list could go on and on and on. Points for getting it going.

    Hi Stuart, enjoying your big-picture blog. Something that interests me very much too.

    No apology needed for thin posts here - I'm suffering daily info-overload. Probably not the only one.

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  2. AnonymousFebruary 15, 2013 at 10:52 AM

    Now that you've started doing ~daily links, I've been checking your blog every day rather than ~weekly like I had been.

    I had wondered if I missed a vacation announcement! Nearly e-mailed you last night to ask how you were doing, actually.

    Welcome back. :-)

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  3. Chris ReynoldsFebruary 16, 2013 at 1:53 PM

    Hi Stuart,

    Given that you've linked to my minor post on the Russian Meteor event (Dosbat), I think I should update with info. Links to sources in my comment over at my blog here.

    Bullet pointed:
    Size - 7000 tons / 50 feet.
    Speed - 18km/s.
    Detonation yield - 300 to 500k tons (Hiroshima was 22ktons - but much lower airburst).
    Detonation height around 12 to 15 miles.

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  4. sunbeamFebruary 17, 2013 at 2:22 PM

    I have two things to say:

    1) Concerning the pundits. Their job is just to get on TV, and say stuff. What they say doesn't really matter. So they just say what the traditional wisdom is at the time, or maybe they are trying to be a maverick.

    Either way I don't think these guys are surveying the literature and making computer models.

    2) As regards the vulnerabilities with the software, I want to relate something I read happened in China, at some point where they actually tried to be communist.

    At some point there was a famine. Rats eating grain was a problem.

    So counter to orthodoxy, the government offered a bounty on rats.

    Sounds good right?

    Well some enterprising Chinese started RAISING rats, for the bounty.

    I'm not saying anything about political systems, but if you pay money for newly discovered bugs, well someone now has a vested interest to plant them in the first place.

    Maybe that is how it is supposed to work, I don't know. Seems kind of convoluted, but consider who we are talking about.

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