dan ho

I remember back in high school, when we learnt about electromagnetism, I was very interested in the concept of the railgun. When my teacher tried to make one, I recall that the amperage needed to overcome the friction of the paper clip on the two rails, also caused the paper clip to melt and fuse into the rails. I was quite obsessed with making my own, an obsession that has died down since.

Well, the Navy has made such a futuristic weapon closer to reality. Pin point surgical strikes with nothing but kinetic energy instead of explosives would definitely reduce the collateral damage!

Speaking of weapons, apparently the Taser is in the news again, this time used on a 17 year old girl in her own bedroom. I think the “non-lethal” aspect of the weapon makes peace officers forget that it is in fact a weapon. Using the Taser is the same as beating someone down with a baton, or shooting someone. It is an escalated use of force. In the globe and mail article:

“I still am astounded that … three-full grown police officers cannot find some way to deal with a 17-year-old girl apart from using a taser,” Ms. Longley said, noting her client was unarmed at the time and has no criminal record.

“It certainly highlights for me the need for specific policies on taser use,” she said.

Globe and Mail

I really do think that the officers did not register in their mind (at least I hope not) that the Taser is a weapon. If they had fired the Taser knowing it is a weapon, then we have an even bigger problem on hand. In this case, it is almost an “easy way out” of having to subdue this poor teenaged girl. Much like the University of Florida taser incident, pure numbers and even the strength of one of the individuals involved should have been sufficient to subdue the person in question.

“To me, the taser is the last line before the gun is drawn. It’s supposed to take the place of that,” said Mr. Taylor, a former Calgary police officer.

“It’s just completely ludicrous that they would taser a 17-year-old because she was being non-compliant when there was no weapon,” he told globeandmail.com.

Globe and Mail

I wonder what the law says if one civilian Tasered another, claiming that all they wanted was for that person to “move out of the way” or “shut up” or something along those lines. In other words, casual use of a “non-lethal” weapon.

I was going to say something about pitbulls, but that story will come out soon anyway, so I decided to blog about a few random things that have been going on around this planet.

In a Discovery News article, I learnt how inefficient we were at energy use and production. I had already known that our car engines were not the most energy efficient. According to Wikipedia,

Most gasoline-fueled internal combustion engines, even when aided with turbochargers and stock efficiency aids, have a mechanical efficiency of about 20%
Wikipedia

Yet, I must say I wasn’t quite fully prepared to hear about the whole amount of lost energy in the United States alone in the article

The original goal, in part, was to address a common problem with energy: When it’s generated — by gas, coal, battery, or other means — much is wasted into thin air. In fact, in the United States alone, the amount of energy lost is more than the energy consumed by the entire country of Japan.
Discovery News

The entire article is a cool read still though as it talks about new ways of producing energy. I’m all for alternative fuels as I believe that the next big breakthrough in humanity would be our moving away from fossil fuels. Looking at the things that happen in scifi movies, energy efficiency is always the key. From the Star Trek dilithium warp cores to the Stargate Zero Point Modules, it is these energy sources that enable those space faring civilizations to boldly go where no man has gone.

Speaking of where no man has gone, the concept of virgin birth by some females species is particularly intriguing. Apparently, some sharks can reproduce without having interaction with males!

“We brought in three female bonnetheads on December 15, 1998, and on December 14, 2001, bang! One of them gave birth to an 8-inch-long offspring.”
Discovery News

Unfornately, that takes all the fun out of the reproduction process. Despite all the advantages of being asexual (and of course there are genetic disadvantages too, being genetically worse then inbreeding), sex still somehow survives.

The upshot is that sex beats cloning where long-term fitness, and even survival, is concerned.

“In theory, females that reproduce asexually should enjoy a twofold advantage in fitness over sexual females, yet sex remains the predominant mode of reproduction in virtually all [multicellular organisms],” Silvertown concluded.
Discovery News

Yup, those Taelons and Asgards are definitely screwed. No sex and their cloning is killing themselves. Back on Earth, we are under alien invasion! Apparently the tiny town of Gypsumville Manitoba, with a population of only 65 (and maybe having some genetic diversity issues of their own) has a tainted water supply.

The invader: A meteorite which struck down almost a quarter-billion years ago, creating the 25-mile-wide (40-kilometer) Lake Martin impact crater.
Discovery News

Although, it is a shame that that meteorite doesn’t bestow meteor powers such as in Smallville. It would definitely be cool to be a mutant, like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which apparently, the clergy in the UK are accusing their fellow countrymen scientists of trying to produce in the form of “cybirds”

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales sent a letter to parishes which was read in churches on Sunday 20 January, saying the bill raised “key concerns”. The leading concern was about hybrid embryos: “for example, from the egg of a woman and sperm from an animal. To do this would be a radical violation of human dignity.”
Discovery News

Well, I suppose this particular entry is all “Discovery News” related, but really, I do read more than just that. I would post something more diverse, but right now, I am going to hit dreamland and discovery some rest which I have been lacking all week.