Futurist

There are 396 posts filed in Futurist (this is page 17 of 40).

Ebola and hysteria

Over the past few days debate has popped up about what to do about healthcare workers returning from fighting Ebola in West Africa. Politicians vow to quarantine anyone returning from the affected areas, regardless of whether they show symptoms or not. Asymptomatic healthcare workers who are being “voluntarily” quarantined are rebelling against the restrictions placed on their activity. Nurse Kaci Hickox blasted politicians for falling for hysteria rather than following science.

“I’m not willing to stand here and let my civil rights be violated when it’s not science-based,” she said.

She’s right, of course. The only thing scarier than Ebola is succumbing to mob rule and hysteria.

The most worthless news items, though, are the polls being touted. The latest one says that 80 percent of respondents favor quarantining travelers to West Africa. Well, if polling had taken place during Galileo’s time, the majority would’ve favored the Earth as the center of the universe. What the majority wants, of course, does not make it so.

It does not matter what 80% of those polled think about Ebola if those 80% are not experts. When it comes to Ebola, disregarding science is a good way to get us all killed.

I Saw Firsthand How Nuts Airlines Are Getting With Ebola Fear

USAirways flight attendants had a full-fledged freakout Sunday at RDU Airport over a passenger they suspected of having Ebola, according to one local blogger. How did these superhero flight attendants, presumably not experts in infectious diseases, diagnose Ebola you ask? The woman had an African accent and asked for a club soda.

Yesterday I took a US Airways flight from Raleigh-Durham to Washington, DC to drive some Hellcats. So far so good, right? Across the aisle from me was a woman, from Boston, who was feeling a bit queasy. She asked the flight attendant for some club soda. They responded by trying to kick her off the plane. Any idea why?

If we’re absolutely being honest, there were two very simple reasons why: the woman was black, and had an African accent. In the popular culture of panic, those two factors seem to be enough to turn an entire plane full of people around and return to the gate to attempt to kick a paying traveler off a plane.

via I Saw Firsthand How Nuts Airlines Are Getting With Ebola Fear.

Canadian Public Health Agency scrubs Ebola website

As I touched on in the previous post, I recently came across some websites that reported that the Canadian Public Health Agency had recently changed the description on their website of research that suggests that Ebola can be spread through the air. The changes soften what was once an alarming statement about the spread. Here’s the August 2014 version:

In the laboratory, infection through small-particle aerosols has been demonstrated in primates, and airborne spread among humans is strongly suspected, although it has not yet been conclusively demonstrated

Ebola airborne transmission is strongly suspected

“In he laboratory, infection through small-particle aerosols has been demonstrated in primates, and airborne spread among humans is strongly suspected, although it has not been conclusively demonstrated.”

Now here’s the September 2014 version:

In laboratory settings, non-human primates exposed to aerosolized ebolavirus from pigs have become infected, however, airborne transmission has not been demonstrated between non-human primates

Ebola airborne transmission is not demonstrated.

“In laboratory settings, non-human primates exposed to aerosolized ebolavirus from pigs have become infected, however, airborne transmission has not been demonstrated between non-human primates.”

No explanation was provided for the change in the wording, which removed “strongly suspected” and changed “not been conclusively demonstrated” into “not been demonstrated.”
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AP News : Dallas health worker tests positive for Ebola

The head of the CDC insists the nurse who became infected with Ebola Saturday made a “breach of protocol,” though the nurse is said to be at a loss to identify what the breach might have been.

In 2012, Canadian researchers produced evidence (published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature) that suggests Ebola can be spread through the air. Some websites claimed the government of Canada’s Public Health Agency recently watered-down the description of this research on its website. The Internet Archive’s Wayback machine appears to confirm reports of alteration. Compare the snapshot from August 7th:

In the laboratory, infection through small-particle aerosols has been demonstrated in primates, and airborne spread among humans is strongly suspected, although it has not yet been conclusively demonstrated

Ebola airborne transmission is strongly suspected


… with the one on September 16th:

In laboratory settings, non-human primates exposed to aerosolized ebolavirus from pigs have become infected, however, airborne transmission has not been demonstrated between non-human primates

Ebola airborne transmission is not demonstrated.


What if what some of the experts are saying is true, that Ebola may have become airborne? Why would the Canada Public Health Agency change the website description of peer-reviewed research? What if we are only slightly less unprepared for Ebola than these African countries? Are we being told the truth about Ebola?

DALLAS AP – A “breach of protocol” at the hospital where Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan was treated before his death led to the infection of a health care worker with the deadly virus, and other caregivers could potentially be exposed, federal health officials said Sunday.

The hospital worker, a woman who was not identified by officials, wore protective gear while treating the Liberian patient, and she has been unable to point to how the breach might have occurred, said Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Duncan was the first person in the U.S. diagnosed with Ebola.

via AP News : Dallas health worker tests positive for Ebola.

Love wins

Deputy Biggs asks the crowd of supporters to move upstairs

Deputy Biggs asks the crowd of supporters to move upstairs

As I get older, but especially once I became a father, I started to really wonder why our world is so full of death and destruction, of war and greed. Though I am a veteran of the Navy I no longer take lightly willingly doing something that might make another suffer or die, “enemy” or not. I’m fortunate to have never seen that kind of action; I’ve seen enough of others’, though, to know how pointless it all is. The world could use a little less hate and a little more love.

This thought is always on my mind when the topic of what was once called “gay marriage” comes up. I’m a live-and-let-live kind of guy. If two adults want to commit to each other in marriage, what the hell does my opinion matter? Isn’t America about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Is there nothing that better embodies those ideals than the right to wed the person you love?
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Wilson asks FCC to override NC law it says shields Time Warner, Comcast | Technology | NewsObserver.com

the N&O’s John Murawski covers Wilson’s petition to the FCC to overturnNorth Carolina’s draconian municipal broadband conditions that were bought and paid for by Big Telecom.

Wilson, one of the few towns in the state that offer high-speed Internet service to residents and businesses, has stewed for three years since the North Carolina legislature put restrictions on municipal broadband.

The Eastern North Carolina town’s officials say they can’t expand their data service, called Greenlight, to nearby communities that have requested the high-speed connection. Greenlight offers residential Internet speeds up to 1 gigabit – or 20 times faster than Time Warner Cable’s fastest household Internet speed.

Now the former tobacco center about an hour east of Raleigh is asking the Federal Communications Commission to override North Carolina’s telecommunications law. The city’s unusual legal claim was made possible only in the past few months, after FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced, through a blog and at an industry conference, that the federal agency will consider pre-empting local laws that stifle broadband competition. Wheeler is one of three Democrats on the five-member commission.

via Wilson asks FCC to override NC law it says shields Time Warner, Comcast | Technology | NewsObserver.com.

Hold the ice

I’ve of course seen many Facebook postings of friends and family doing the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Our family was even tagged by some to participate. ALS is a good cause and I know my friends and family mean well. We were tagged by them while we were in Jamaica, though, and that got me thinking.

Kelly thought it would be fun to accept the challenge while on the beach but I kept thinking back to what our taxi driver told us the first day we arrived: Jamaica is in the midst of a serious drought. Not only that, I learned that Jamaican electricty cost is over four times what we pay for electricity. What’s worse, that electricity is generated one of the dirtiest way possible: diesel fuel. Did it really make sense to take scarce fresh water, chilled into ice using expensive and dirty fuel, and blithely dump it over our heads?

My eyes were first opened to the problem when I read former Raleigh resident Charles Fishman’s book The Big Thirst, an excellent look at how water scarcity is affecting the planet. We have some of that right here in America, of course, with California getting hard hit. At breakfast yesterday my dad was noting the steep rise in the cost of avocados. Over 90% of avocados consumed in the United States are grown in California. My recent read of all that the Colorado River supports brought home the danger that water shortages bear on our food supply.

I can’t help but think that, while ALS is indeed a worthy cause, so is problem of lack of clean water that’s plaguing the planet. Please forgive me, friends, if I politely decline your challenge.

Here’s a scary gallery of pics that illustrate the extent California drought:

Californians have been feeling the effects of drought for quite some time, with officials ordering water restrictions and pleading for residents to conserve water in all ways possible. Hell, even the "Ice Bucket Challenge" is viewed as controversial in California because it wastes water.Below the fold are some stunning photos that depict just how bad the drought has become in some areas

via Shocking photos: This is what drought looks like.

American aid worker stricken with Ebola arrives in U.S. for treatment | Reuters

I jumped into a Facebook debate today about the wisdom of bringing Ebola victim Dr. Kent Brantly to Atlanta to be treated at Emory University. While I once gave into the hysteria surrounding infectious diseases, I know what I don’t know – in essence, that infectious disease is most certainly not by bailiwick.

I am now unconcerned about Dr. Brantly and the other American Ebola victim, Nancy Writebol, being brought to the United States by trained disease professionals. It’s really the unescorted average Joes that get infected and then board a flight that scare the daylights out of me.

An American aid worker infected with the deadly Ebola virus while in Liberia was flown from West Africa to the United States on Saturday and taken to an Atlanta hospital for treatment in a special isolation unit.

A chartered medical aircraft carrying Dr. Kent Brantly touched down at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Georgia shortly before noon.Brantly was driven by ambulance, with police escort, to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta where he will be treated in a specially equipped room.

via American aid worker stricken with Ebola arrives in U.S. for treatment | Reuters.

Solar has won. Even if coal were free to burn, power stations couldn’t compete | Giles Parkinson | Comment is free | theguardian.com

Astonishing.

Last week, for the first time in memory, the wholesale price of electricity in Queensland fell into negative territory – in the middle of the day.For several days the price, normally around $40-$50 a megawatt hour, hovered in and around zero. Prices were deflated throughout the week, largely because of the influence of one of the newest, biggest power stations in the state – rooftop solar.

“Negative pricing” moves, as they are known, are not uncommon. But they are only supposed to happen at night, when most of the population is mostly asleep, demand is down, and operators of coal fired generators are reluctant to switch off. So they pay others to pick up their output.

That’s not supposed to happen at lunchtime. Daytime prices are supposed to reflect higher demand, when people are awake, office building are in use, factories are in production. That’s when fossil fuel generators would normally be making most of their money.

via Solar has won. Even if coal were free to burn, power stations couldn't compete | Giles Parkinson | Comment is free | theguardian.com.

Segway Inventor Dean Kamen Thinks His New Stirling Engine Will Get You Off The Grid For Under $10K

For the new issue of Forbes Magazine I wrote an article about David Crane, the visionary CEO of NRG Energy. When I met Crane for lunch a couple weeks ago, no sooner had we sat down than he began singing the praises of this new contraption he had in his basement. The machine — which can generate 10 kilowatts of continuous power, fed by Crane’s natural gas line — is a new iteration of an old creation, the Stirling engine. This version, called the Beacon 10, was created after a decade of engineering by famed inventor Dean Kamen.

With the Beacon 10, says Kamen, “you don’t have to feel guilty heating up the pool.” That’s because of the highly efficient nature of the Stirling engine. First conceived in 1816 by Scottish minister Robert Stirling, the device in its simplest form consists of applying an external heat source to a closed cylinder where the cyclical expansion and compression of air inside the cylinder drives the pistons up and down. Unlike your car, where fuel is combusted inside the engine, the Stirling is an external combustion engine; it can work with any external heat source.

via Segway Inventor Dean Kamen Thinks His New Stirling Engine Will Get You Off The Grid For Under $10K.