Yet another weird SF fan
 I'm a mathematician, a libertarian, and a science-fiction fan. Common sense? What's that?Go to first entry

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 Yet another weird SF fan

### How Much Kinetic Energy Is There in Continental Drift?

The Earth's mass is 5.972 × 1024 kg. The speed of continental drift is 2.5 cm/year. If we put that together and assume that the motions that lead to continental drift extend through the entire Earth, we get a value of the total kinetic energy of continental drift of 1.9 × 106 J (using $$E=\frac{mv^2}{2}$$). That's around ½ kilowatt hour or 450 kCal. That last is about the calorie count of a McDonald's Quarter Pounder Burger with Cheese.

Wait a moment… That doesn't sound right…

### A Ninth Amendment Test Case

According to the Ninth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
At first this looks like a conclusive argument against the complaints that the Supreme Court is following Amendment Pi of the Constitution, in magic invisible ink that only special people can see … until we consider the word “retained.”

A right to gay marriage, for example, was not retained; it was invented recently. On the other hand, a right to wear a hat (according to Theodore Sedgwick) was retained:

if the committee were governed by that general principle, they might have gone into a very lengthy enumeration of rights; they might have declared that a man should have the right to wear his hat if he pleased; that he might get up when he pleased, and go to bed when he thought proper.
Even despite the fact that a member of the First Congress described the right to wear a hat as a right that should not have to be enumerated, many states violate that right when it comes to issuing driver's licenses. This might be a suitable test case for the 9th Amendment.

I won't more than mention that driver's licenses also look problematic.

### The Tepid Equations

There's an attempt at applying the “Trolley Problem” at Technology Review. Should self-driving cars be programmed to swerve out of the way of a crowd even it it would mean running over an individual?

I'm not sure why that would be a problem in the real world. The forces needed to swerve are the same order of magnitude as the forces needed to stop. I won't more than mention that humans can survive a deceleration of 40g, which would bring a 55-mph car to a halt in 2.5 ft. Maybe instead of paying ethical philosophers, we should pay for better brakes.

### A Note on Brainworms

Tapeworms don't only infect intestines; sometimes they're found in brains:

The closer scientists look at the epidemiology of the disease, the worse it becomes. Nash and other neurocysticercosis experts have been traveling through Latin America with CT scanners and blood tests to survey populations. In one study in Peru, researchers found 37 percent of people showed signs of having been infected at some point. Earlier this spring, Nash and colleagues published a review of the scientific literature and concluded that somewhere between 11 million and 29 million people have neurocysticercosis in Latin America alone. Tapeworms are also common in other regions of the world, such as Africa and Asia. “Neurocysticercosis is a very important disease worldwide,” Nash says.

This may explain Third-World politics. Hookworm infections were common in the southeastern US back when they always voted for Democrats. Come to think of it, I'd like to know what infection swept Europe in the first half of the 20th century.

One implication: If Third-World politics are due to brainworms, then immigration from the Third World to places with flush toilets and sewage treatment plants will help get rid of Third-World politics.

The really bizarre reaction comes from nativists, for example the commenters at Instapundit:

Geez...good thing we are letting all of those illegal aliens potentially harboring such parasites into the country.

What could go wrong?

If such worms were likely to spread in this country, they would have done so long ago.

### A Star Wars Speculation

The historical model for the Star Wars series is obviously the French Revolution and its aftermath.

It starts with a revolution backed by the “money power” (i.e., the middle classes) followed by a megalomaniac seizing power temporarily. The Emperor Palpatine is clearly an analog of Napoleon. (That means, of course, that Darth Vader is an analog of Talleyrand.)

The next step will be a restoration of the Ancien Regime. There may be more revolutions later.

### Solar Energy Is Not Always Associated with Hipsters

There is some evidence that the Kepler Space Telescope has found a star surrounded by solar-energy collectors (or, more likely, lots of asteroids). Some of my fellow wingnuts saw the word “solar” and figured the researchers must be hipsters trying to ignore nuclear energy. Well … Let's do some arithmetic.

The mass of the ocean is 1.4 × 1024 g. This is 1/9 hydrogen. Deuterium is 1 part in 104 of the hydrogen. Deuterium fusion can yield 3.4 × 1011 J/g. Multiplying them all out, we get 5 × 1030 J. The Sun emits 3.8 × 1026 J/s. Dividing that we see that the Sun puts out as much energy as fusing all the deuterium in Earth's oceans in 13,000 seconds.

Even if we assume we can fuse all the hydrogen in Earth's oceans (using imaginary technology), that would still only bring us to four years.

Compared to space-based solar, Earth-based nuclear energy is a wet firecracker.

### Occupation and Immigration

As is well known, the occupation of Germany and Japan after World War II is generally considered a success. The German and Japanese populations didn't change but having American authority made the difference.

Putting previously violent peoples under American authority? Isn't that part of immigration? The example of the post-World-War-II occupation shows that sometimes institutions matter more than people. In other words, bringing THEM over here need not turn here into there.

### A Seveneves Calculation

In the novel Seveneves by Neal Stephenson, the Moon explodes, causing the surface of the Earth to become uninhabitable for 5000 years. There is a colony or two of humans who survive in deep mines. Let's calculate how deep the human hole goes.

The thermal diffusivity of rocks appears to be around 1 mm2/s. 5000 years is around 1.6 × 1011 seconds. You can expect the heat from the “hard rain” to diffuse to a depth of $$\sqrt{1.6\times 10^{11}}$$ millimeters or 400 meters. Three times that distance should be safe, so the colony would only have to be $$\frac{3}{4}$$ miles down. It might be doable.

### Will the Chinese “Credit Scores” Backfire?

The Chinese “credit scores” might backfire. They might let dissidents know they aren't alone.

On the other hand, people with low credit scores will include both dissidents and real deadbeats. On the gripping hand, people sent to prison in the Soviet Union included both dissidents and real criminals. Even despite that, being sent to prison was sometimes considered a badge of honor in the Soviet Union.

Set paranoia bit to ON: What if this is being released by China for the purpose of encouraging the United States to crack down on “Big Data”? Such a crackdown might sabotage part of the US economy.

### Why Are People Getting Fatter?

One theory is that it's due to changes in exposure to pesticides:

First, people are exposed to more chemicals that might be weight-gain inducing. Pesticides, flame retardants, and the substances in food packaging might all be altering our hormonal processes and tweaking the way our bodies put on and maintain weight.
If pesticide changes are the cause, does that mean that DDT prevents obesity? Or is it due to the cyclamate ban? There's even a possibility it's due to the absence of leaded gasoline. All of these might explain why humans are getting fatter and also why lab animals are getting fatter.

On the other hand, could it be due to the decline in red-meat consumption? On the gripping hand, that would not explain the lab-animal data.

### We're Waiting

Last August 11, I received the following email:

Fellow Investor,

On October 7, 2015 a single event will change world
history and alter the course of your life.

It will take place on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean —
more than 4,000 miles away.

And it will light the fuse on the single most devastating
economic catastrophe the world has ever seen ...

A calamity that will have an explosive impact on your
income, your investments and every penny you have
socked away for retirement.

I know this is an extreme prediction — so extreme in fact,
that few who read these words will heed them.

Which is why I've published a shocking new report,
"Black October 2015: The Final Reckoning."

In this shocking free report, I document three of the
Most powerful destructive forces in the economic universe
and show you how they are now converging in one
time and one place.

These are the same forces that have triggered every
financial boom and bust of our lifetimes. Today they are
coming together in a way that is far deadlier than anything
we've seen before.

Get all the details now in "Black October 2015."

No man's life, liberty or property will be safe. The vast
majority of investors will suffer crippling losses. Most
will never recover.

But a select few — the handful who understand the crisis
ahead and prepare now — will not just survive but thrive.

You owe it to yourself and your loved ones to get the facts.

There isn't a moment to lose: Click this link and judge
for yourself. Please do it now, while there's still time.

Sincerely,

Larry Edelson
Larry Edelson,
Senior Analyst, Real Wealth Report

So what's taking so long?

### A What If Speculation

According to Ex Urbe, Pope Julius II was able to bring peace to central Italy by being a treacherous deceiver:

Outcome if Julius II had been virtuous:

Julius seals his pact with Cesare. After his election, he continues to treat Cesare as a close ally, allows him to control the papal army, and use it to continue waging war in central and northern Italy. Thousands if not tens of thousands die in combat and more from bandits and disease as the chaos continues. Cesare secures Romagna and the papal states, then turns on Florence, probably Modena and Ferrara too, on the Venetian land empire, shoring himself up more and more at the cost of chaos. In the end either the Emperor invades to check Cesare's rise, or Cesare grows strong enough to make his bid to be Julius' successor, and bloody civil war erupts whether Cesare wins or loses as he and the rest of Italy battle to see whether or not the papacy will indeed become a hereditary monarchy. Death toll: tens if not hundreds of thousands.

Outcome if Julius II is a treacherous deceiver:

Cesare is instantly removed. The wars in central Italy cease. The suddenness of the change makes it easy for provincial forces, as well as papal forces and city forces, to bring about some degree of stability. The shock of the suddenness of Julius' betrayal makes everyone else wary of causing trouble. Peace is instantly restored, the Borgia Kingdom eliminated, exiles restored, Florence protected. Death toll: Cesare Borgia, plus, perhaps, a few of his guards and associates.

I'm not sure that the virtuous outcome would have been that bad. The obvious prediction from a man of faith would be that God would strike down Cesare Borgia. In hindsight, we can see that was quite likely. Borgia was already disfigured by syphilis and would probably die a year or two later, leaving a disgusting corpse. One effect: Machiavelli writes The Prince but includes the easily observable fact that God strikes down evil princes just when they seemed most secure.

I'm not sure what effect that episode would have on the Protestant Reformation, which was just around the corner ….

### Out of What Bodily Orifice Did He Pull That Figure?

According to the Donald Trump Reality Distortion Field:

Illegal immigration is costing us more than \$200 billion dollars a year just to maintain what we have.
[CITATION NEEDED].

### Plastic Rings Fight Global Warming!

According to a recent study, sharks can fight global warming:

One of the sea turtles’ main food sources is seagrass, which store vast reservoirs of carbon within sediments. With more sea turtles consuming more seagrass, the carbon is unlocked and can be released into the earth’s atmosphere, thereby accelerating climate change.

………

“In the case of sharks and turtles, sharks eat turtles, which in turn eat seagrasses. But when sharks disappear, the turtles have a tendency to run wild and the seagrass ecosystems cannot sustain the turtle populations.

“The turtles overgraze, and, as a consequence, we’re seeing large reductions in seagrass carbon stocks.”

On the other hand, you don't need sharks to get rid of sea turtles, plastic rings can also do that:

Plastic marine debris affects sea turtles in numerous ways. Turtles caught in lost or abandoned plastic fishing gear may be injured or drowned. Those that mistake floating debris for food are at risk from intestinal compaction or tearing, digestive suppression, and exposure to chemical toxicants adsorbed by (accumulated on the surface of) the plastics. Leatherbacks, for example, are believed to mistakenly eat floating plastic bags instead of jellyfish, a primary food. Miscellaneous debris, such as plastic rings, can cut, maim or amputate limbs and cause severe and sometimes lethal infections. At least 100,000 marine animals are estimated to die as a result of plastic marine debris each year, a number that may increase dramatically with better estimates of mortality from marine debris affecting difficult-to-observe neonate sea turtles.

Drink a six-pack (in my case a six-pack of Diet Coke). You're doing it for Mother Earth.

### This Is an OUTRAGE!

The Wall Street Journal's article on Ikea's test apartment is not illustrated with a photo of the apartment but a photo of a generic Ikea store. By the standards of the critics of the Planned parenthood videos, this clearly means that the article is fraudulent and the apartment does not exist!

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