The Grumpy Old Techie

Depleted Cranium
Bad Science And Scary Science

EPA Releases Data on “High Hazard” Coal Ash Dumps
Less than a year after a major coal ash pond ruptured causing a very large area to be contaminated with millions of tons of toxic coal ash slurry, the EPA has released its findings on the state of coal ash dumps in the United States. Via the New York Times: The Environmental Protection Agency has released a [...]
Wind Power Could Provide For 100% of Human Energy Needs? no…
An recent entry on Slashdot stated the following: “To estimate the earth’s capacity for wind power, the researchers first sectioned the globe into areas of approximately 3,300 square kilometers (2,050 square miles) and surveyed local wind speeds every six hours. They imagined 2.5 megawatt turbines crisscrossing the terrestrial globe, excluding ‘areas classified as forested, areas occupied [...]
Apollo-11 Tapes Apparently Not Found
Big bummer. I received word from those involved in the preservation of records of the Apollo 11 broadcasts from tracking stations in Australia (Parkes and Honeysuckle Creek) which indicates that the story about the tapes being found is false.   According to a source involved in the archiving of data in Australia: The UK journalist was engaged in [...]
Apollo 11 SSTV Tapes Found???
There is a “World Exclusive” report in the Sunday Express which suggests that NASA recently discovered the original telemetry data tapes from the Apollo-11 mission, which contain the raw television images before scan conversion. ECSTATIC space officials at Nasa could be about to unveil one of their most stunning discoveries for 40 years — new and [...]
New Cruise Opertunity: Go out to see pirates and shoot them dead
Pirates have been a problem for hundreds, if not thousands of years.   In general piracy becomes a major problem in areas that lack the presence of organized navies or coastal defense forces but do have large amounts of merchant ship traffic.   As most cargo vessels are completely unarmed, they can be vulnerable to attack by [...]
We all knew Buzz was a little nutty, but a rap video?
And I mean nutty in an endearing, kind of way, as opposed to actually insane.   And by Buzz, I don’t mean myself, but the other Buzz, the one actually named Buzz.   Yes, that is his name - he had it legally changed from Edwin in 1988. Neil Armstrong is generally the private type, granting interviews occasionally [...]
Radiation Scare-Mongering Hits a New Low
We live in a society where there is a great deal of fear or rather PANIC over certain things.    People seem to spend their time looking out for something to panic over and generally the best things are the ones which people have only the most vague understanding of.    Perhaps it’s the media, perhaps it’s [...]
Sorry About the Links Thing
If you’ve visited this site in the past day and seen some very annoying “infolinks” in the text it’s because I was trying to find a non-invasive method of generating some return through advertisement placement and had no idea that when it was fully implemented it would be so goddamned annoying.   I thought I’d be [...]
40 Years Later, Another Look At Apollo Sites
In case you were not aware, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched just a few days ago and is presently on its way to the moon.   The unmanned spacecraft is expected to reach lunar orbit tomorrow (Tuesday) at which point it will begin sending back live video and pictures of the moon.   There have been [...]
Raise your hand if you’re not “aware” of greenhouse gas emissions
Are you aware of greenhouse gas emissions?    Are you aware that human civilization is currently producing large amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses?   Are you aware that this is considered a potential problem?   Are you aware that this can contribute to global climate change?   Are you aware that emissions of CO2 from fossil [...]
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