Tagged?

ERV appears to have tagged me. Thanks, ERV. I've never played one of these games before, but here goes...

Here are the rules:

• We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
• Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
• People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

I'm going to bast**rdize this little meme. Partly because I'm a little bit private, and partly because I'd like to write about the thing that is currently stressing me the most. I'm currently applying for my green card (I'm an alien). I thought I would reveal the 8 most ridiculous questions on the green card application (not necessarily in any particular order). But that's still following the rules, right? These questions are about me, and I will answer all of them. From the form I-485:

1. Do you intend to engage in the United States in espionage?

Hmmm... you supposed a spy entering the U.S. answers this one honestly? But for me? No. I promise I won't engage in espionage.

2. Do you intend to engage in the United States in any activity a purpose of which is opposition to, or the control or overthrow of, the government of the United States, by force, violence or other unlawful means?

No.

3. Have you ever engaged in genocide, or otherwise ordered, incited, assisted or otherwise participated in the killing of any person because of race, religion, nationality, ethnic origin or political opinion?

No. I have not.

4. Do you plan to practice polygamy in the United States?

Does hoping count? I think my wife would kill me if I took a second wife, but a guy's gotta dream, doesn't he?

5. Have you received public assistance in the United States from any source, including the United States government or any state,county, city or municipality (other than emergency medical treatment), or are you likely to receive public assistance in the future?

I had a research fellowship from the American government once. Does that count?

6. Have you ever been a member of, or in any way affiliated with, the Communist Party or any other totalitarian party?

No. I have not.

7. Have you ever engaged in any unlawful commercialized vice, including, but not limited to, illegal gambling?

Until single-malt scotch becomes illegal, I will have to say no.

And from the medical exam:

8. (Do you have) tuberculosis? syphilis? insanity? mental defect? mental retardation? previous occurrence of one or more attacks of insanity? psychopathic personality? gonorrhea? sexual deviation?

They seem to be worried that I might be insane. Hmmm. Doc says I passed that one.

I'm also going to dead-end this meme, because most of the blogs I read regularly have already been tagged, and because I'm no fun.

Grand Conspiracy #2

A central feature to believing that global warming isn't happening is a conspiracy to hide the truth. You cannot hold the belief that global warming isn't happening without also believing that the scientists who study it are either incompetent or conspiring to defraud the public or a combination of both. I think many people who hold this belief aren't aware of the vast number of people involved. This isn't 12 pointy-headed scientists that have come up with this idea. Anthropogenic global warming is supported by data gathered by a vast array of people.

So how many people are involved in this Grand Conspiracy to defraud Americans?

Let's count them:

The scientists of the International Panel for Climate Change:

2500+ scientific expert reviewers
850+ Contributing authors
450+ lead authors

Panels of the National Academies of Science of the U.S.

250+ of America's most talented and honored scientists

American Meteorological Society:

11,000 professionals, professors, students, and weather enthusiasts

American Geophysical Union:

45,000 scientists from 140 countries

This is just the scientists. From the most honored members of the National Academies, down to graduate students who are members of the American Meteorological Society. Roughly 60,000+ scientists would need to be involved. 60,000+ scientists keeping a secret that is so massive that they are able to defraud the world.

Now keep in mind, to hold the position that global warming isn't occurring and isn't caused by manmade carbon emissions you must also hold that 60,000+ scientists are so conspiring to defraud Americans. (The most common accusation I have read is that they are merely in it for the grant dollars).

So either 60,000+ scientists are defrauding the world and Michael Crichton has managed to figure it out on his own, or 60,000+ scientists are actually doing their jobs, and have shown that global warming is happening and is caused my manmade carbon emissions.

New commenting settings.

The number of commenters here at Conspiracy Factory seems to have increased. Previously, my level of traffic was low enough that generally I could tell the difference between anonymous commenter #1 and anonymous commenter #2. Now, I get a little schizophrenic reading the replies to each other where I can't tell who is who.

That said, I've turned off anonymous commenting, and suspect I won't be turning it back on in the near future.

So go ahead, go get yourself an account. Choose a pseudonym. You still get to be anonymous. But this way, I can tell you apart from other commenters.

Thanks,

-Factician

Edit: Nov 2007. I'm allowing anonymous commenting again, to increase the number of commenters. However, given some product spamming that I've been getting, I'm now moderating comments. If you're not selling garbage, or you're not being obnoxiously rude, your comments will get through.

Can you keep a secret?

"Three can keep a secret if two are dead."
-Benjamin Franklin

How many people can really keep a secret? I mean really keep a secret. Not utter it out loud, not write about it, not bitch about it over beers, but really and truly keep it a total and utter secret, safe from the world? I think I can keep a secret. My wife claims that I keep more secrets than almost anyone she knows.

Several years ago I was shopping for a Christmas gift for my then-girlfriend. I had flown in from out of town to visit with her and her family, so I was totally without a vehicle or any form of transportation.

She had recently gotten into photography in a semi-serious way, and I wanted to buy her an SLR camera for Christmas, but I didn't have the means to get to a camera store. So I arranged with her that we would go shopping with her parents' car, and I would blindfold her a few blocks from the store, and she agreed she would keep her eyes closed (she liked surprises far more than I did) while I went shopping. It was truly a convoluted plan, and in retrospect it was doomed to failure from the start. So that morning, we were ready to head out, and I was making a verbal list of all the things she and I were going to do that day. "Go to the movies, go get a present for my brother, go for lunch with your friends, go buy your camera...." Doh. I had blurted it out, just like that. I realized immediately what I had done, and I looked at my girlfriend in horror. She just smiled and said, "I thought that's what you were getting me."

Secrets have a way of coming out, even if you've never shared them. But what about when more than one person knows that secret? How hard is it to keep? I spent some time last night looking through PsychInfo for research on the difficulty (or ease) of keeping a secret. I confess I was unsuccessful (that said, I have a hard time imagining an ethical experiment that could test how well the average person keeps a secret). Most of the literature focuses on how damaging to one's psyche keeping a family secret can be.

So let's merely think about this, and I'll pose a few more questions. Could you keep a secret about yourself? What about if that secret is one that actually affects other people? For example, what if you harbor a secret about someone who is poisoning their wife? Could you keep that a secret? Do you know ten people you could share this with that would keep a poisoning secret? What about 10,000?

At the heart of most denialism is the need for there to be a conspiracy. For example, if mercury does in fact cause autism, tens of thousands of scientists would have to know this and be keeping it secret. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claims that the CDC and the pharmaceutical industry have conspired to keep the dangers of mercury a secret. They would have to be complicit in a scheme to poison millions of children.

So how is it exactly that one gathers together a football stadium worth of people, reveal to them a secret that is so grotesque as that of poisoning millions of children, and then demand that they all keep it a secret?

Conspiracy Factory - now safe for work!

9/11 simulation

The Hoofnagles gave us an entertaining view of a troofer a few weeks ago. This gentleman tried to simulate the fall of the twin towers on 9/11 using office supplies. It's clearly a mess.

Researchers at Purdue University recently released a slightly higher quality simulation of the crash:

The simulation could be used to better understand which elements in the building's structural core were affected, how they responded to the initial shock of the aircraft collision, and how the tower later collapsed from the ensuing fire fed by an estimated 10,000 gallons of jet fuel, said Mete Sozen, the Kettelhut Distinguished Professor of Structural Engineering in Purdue's School of Civil Engineering.

It took about 80 hours using a high-performance computer containing 16 processors to produce the first simulation, which depicts how the plane tore through several stories of the structure within a half-second, said Christoph M. Hoffmann, a professor of computer science and co-director of the Computing Research Institute at Purdue.

Their findings? The towers lost 25% of their core support beams:

The researchers are analyzing how many columns were destroyed initially in the building's core, a spine of 47 heavy steel I-beams extending through the center of the structure, Sozen said.

"Current findings from the simulation have identified the destruction of 11 columns on the 94th floor, 10 columns on the 95th floor and nine columns on the 96th floor," he said. "This is a major insight. When you lose close to 25 percent of your columns at a given level, the building is significantly weakened and vulnerable to collapse."

It remains to be seen if this has much effect on the troofer movement. (Don't hold your breath).

Apparently the researchers at Purdue are currently working on modeling the fall of the towers:

In the coming months, we will explore how the structure reacted to the extreme heat from the blaze that led to the building's collapse, and we will refine the visual presentations of the simulation.

The video of the simulation is below. It's fascinating to watch, even if it is disturbing.

Sleuthing out conspiracies

From Salon.com.