Holy Cow!

Yes, I know it's a bull, but pretend. Now Science has an article on methane from cows and the putative increase in global temperatures. OK, first here is a cow.

The article states:

In 2007, the amount of methane in the atmosphere (CH4) began to rise after a 7-year period of near-zero growth. Recent research shows that a second step change occurred in 2014. ...Yet, between 2007 and 2014, the amount has risen by an average of 5.7 parts per billion (ppb) per year, and by an average of 9.7 ppb per year since 2014. If this rise continues unabated, cuts to carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases will need to be even steeper to achieve the Paris goal.

Yep, the cows keep doing what cows do and swamps keep doing what swamps do and we get worse and worse. Humans must cease using any carbon bit even that may not help! But the article has statements like:

While the scientific community continues to debate the causes of the CH4 surge, the consequences are clear. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emission scenarios that limit warming to 1.5°C assume that the amount of CH4 in the atmosphere will decrease by 35% between 2010 and 2050.

Namely there is really no consensus. They also note:

The causes for the recent rise in atmospheric CH4 remain a subject of scientific debate, even for the initial period of increase from 2007 to 2014. Process-based estimates of CH4 emissions from inventory data, wetland models, and other information offer conflicting explanations, but measurements of the distribution of CH4 in the atmosphere and its 13C/12C isotopic ratio at a global network of stations hold clues.

Let's see. We don't know and the data is conflicting. Yep, real science here, no need to check. They continue:

Biogenic emissions mainly come from wetlands and agriculture, particularly ruminant livestock. Multimodel wetland studies do not confirm an emission increase since 2007. However, livestock inventories show that ruminant emissions began to rise steeply around 2002 and can account for about half of the CH4 increase since 2007. CH4 is destroyed in the atmosphere by reaction with hydroxyl radicals (OH) and other atmospheric constituents. Reduced chemical destruction of CH4 could both increase atmospheric CH4 and decrease its proportion of 13C. Actual OH changes over the past years are controversial, as is the role of sinks in global inversion studies.

Now let me try to simplify. The methane levels are increasing. The increases are not man made but come from decaying biomasses and cows. We think. There is nothing we can do here. CO2 is the other gas and we allegedly generate that so there is something we can do there. But it may not be enough, we don't know but Governments should mandate this.

Holy Cow, Batman, the Logic is compelling!

The Trivium

The classic version of The Trivium by Sister Miriam is a classic. The recent version is fine but this version is the original and it presents an excellent exposition of the issues. As a philosophy minor as an undergraduate I flailed through classic Logic wanting to do more symbolic logic. But as one matures the power of classical Logic and especially Rhetoric also matures and shows its value. In today's world people neglect Grammar, this inhibiting Logic and making Rhetoric akin to an alley of warning felines.

The Trivium was a classic set of studies during the Middle Ages for anyone working on their Bachelor degree. Following this was the Quadrivium. But the Trivium was Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric. Grammar was the proper use of words to convey a meaning. In today's world much of this is lost, including the sophisticated use of language, often hidden in new words created from more common sources. But the structure of a language is critical since oftentimes the meanings are in its subtleties. In the 14th Century one had both Latin and French and more likely at Oxford a mix of Middle English. Each language said things differently. Translation was not just transliteration but a following of the strict Grammar rules that many were educated in.

Logic was the assembly of grammatically correct sentences to affirm or deny some conclusion. The syllogism was at its heart. Here the book does a superb job.

Now Rhetoric was the use of Grammar in a Logical form to persuade others in a complex set of arguments. Rhetoric could be written or oral. This book does a wonderful job in presenting this. Of special interest is its handling of fallacies, rhetorical constructs we see all to often in our current world.

This book can be studied and restudied. This version is a well done replica of the original. I had the recent edition, cleaned up in format for modern readers but this rendition of the original has a force of time that makes it indispensable.

It is a shame that this material is no longer taught. Reading Plato's Gorgias has much greater meaning if one had been absorbing material such as this.

D Day Remembrance

Taken in Normandy just alter 9/11.

Happy 19th Amendment

Here is my Grandmother, Hattie Kruger, in front of the White House fence, yes fence, petitioning for the right of women to vote. Shortly thereafter she was imprisoned by Wilson for daring to ask for the vote. For some of the current crowd she was the Socialist candidate for the House in New York in 1916 and for NY Treasurer in 1920.

Hattie became a major player in the Socialist Party during the 1912 through the 1920 period. It appears that she may have started in Buffalo and then continued as she progressed through her time in Philadelphia if that was correct. However there was and is a Lighthouse Medical Clinic and Mental Health Clinic in Buffalo and this may likely be where she was. Her business address was Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo and that address is close to the current Lighthouse Medical Clinic3. However this Buffalo clinic is of recent establishment and unlike the Philadelphia is not nor ever was a settlement house.

A focal point for the Women's movement to vote was the National Woman's Party. From the Library of Congress the following description:

Founded in 1913 as the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (CU), the National Woman's Party (NWP) was instrumental in raising public awareness of the women's suffrage campaign. Using a variety of tactics, the party successfully pressured President Woodrow Wilson, members of Congress, and state legislators to support passage of a 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing women nationwide the right to vote. In so doing, the NWP established a legacy defending the exercise of free speech, free assembly, and the right to dissent. NWP members picket outside the International Amphitheater in Chicago, where Woodrow Wilson delivers a speech. October 20, 1916. The NWP effectively commanded the attention of politicians and the public through its aggressive agitation, relentless lobbying, clever publicity stunts, and creative examples of civil disobedience and nonviolent confrontation. Its tactics were versatile and imaginative, drawing inspiration from a variety of sources–including the British suffrage campaign, the American labor movement, and the temperance, antislavery, and early women's rights campaigns in the United States. Traditional lobbying and petitioning were a mainstay of NWP members, but these activities were supplemented by other more public actions–including parades, pageants, street speaking, and demonstrations. The party eventually realized that it needed to escalate its pressure and adopt even more aggressive  tactics. Most important among these was picketing the White House over many months, leading to the arrest and imprisonment of many suffragists.  The willingness of NWP pickets to be arrested, their campaign for recognition as political prisoners rather than as criminals, and their acts of civil disobedience in jail shocked the nation and brought attention and support to their cause. Through constant agitation, the NWP effectively compelled President Wilson to support a federal woman suffrage amendment. Similar pressure on national and state legislators led to the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920.

The NWP became an aggressive and assertive group of women across the country that used demonstrations and the media to press for the right of women to vote. This movement led to the November 1917 confrontation. It seems clear from the record that Hattie was a member of the NWP. In the records of her arrest she is assigned that attribution. In those days Socialists sought better living conditions not free money. Hattie worked at Seaview TB clinic for New York City and ironically dies there when it became an old age home. Perhaps some can learn from Hattie and her compatriots.

Satellite Junk

The above is a diagram from Walter Morgan at COMSAT circa 1984 for synchronous satellites, 23,000 miles. Clutter was beginning.

In a recent New Scientist piece they state the problems the massive satellite expansion will result in. They note:

We are entering the age of satellite constellations, and astronomers are worried. On 23 May, SpaceX launched 60 communications satellites, the first in a planned fleet of 12,000.

Having been in the satellite business from the early 1970s it is clear that this could be a massive problem.  The density of low altitude satellites has a multiplicity of issues. First, the do fall down, and then there are consequences. With 12,000 one wonders what the fall down rate is, most likely one a day! Then where do they fall? After a while real problems arise. Second they become massive RF clutter for the DoD in tracking enemy missiles. Really, it becomes a massive chaff field. Third, the communications link may not really be that great. Why not terrestrial wireless. Fourth, at what cost?

Have we not seen this before. Think Iridium..

Brush Your Teeth!

Eureka has an interesting study:

The researchers have determined that gum disease (gingivitis) plays a decisive role in whether a person developes Alzheimer´s or not. "We discovered DNA-based proof that the bacteria causing gingivitis can move from the mouth to the brain," says researcher Piotr Mydel at Broegelmanns Research Laboratory, Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen (UiB). The bacteria produces a protein that destroys nerve cells in the brain, which in turn leads to loss of memory and ultimately, Alzheimer´s. 

Yep, do as mother says!