The Long View 2007-06-05: American Green Zone; Snooperphones; Plagiarising Bees; Manufactured Meat; European Extinction Conference
Chemical sensing prototype
Image credit: NASA Ames/Dominic Hart
Here is an early war on terror idea that I am thankful never materialized:
In such times, the principle of "every man his own cop" is insufficient. We must look to the day when every man is his own bomb squad:
American cell phones can already check e-mail, surf the Internet and store music, but they could have a new set of features in coming years: the Department of Homeland Security wants them to sense biological, chemical and radioactive material.
Putting hazardous material sensors in commercial cell phones has been discussed in scientific circles for years, according to researchers in the field. More recently, the idea gained support among government agencies, and DHS said publicly in May that it wants businesses to start coming up with proposals.
Remember the sleepless days when car alarms were new, and you could count on at least one car in every parking lot waking the neighborhood at 2:00 AM? We can predict with some confidence that there would be similar problems for emergency services if every phone were an Imminent Threat Detector.
It would be truly difficult to manage the false positive rate.
American Green Zone; Snooperphones; Plagiarising Bees; Manufactured Meat; European Extinction Conference
The CBS television series Jericho is no longer with us, but perhaps we should take comfort that its premise is by no means forgotten>:
WASHINGTON, June 2 The United States is updating its post-apocalypse plan for maintaining a semblance of order after a devastating terrorist attack or natural disaster.
The Boston Globe said Saturday the plan is meant to update similar contingency plans drawn up during the Clinton administration and will reflect the post-Sept. 11 emphasis on terrorism.
The plan largely revolves around a surprise attack -- most likely nuclear -- that kills a large portion of the national leadership and requires surviving officials to set up shop in a new location within 12 hours.
Such precautions make perfect sense, when you consider what the likely effects on the national security situation of a withdrawal from Iraq would be. At the time of the withdrawal from Somalia after the Battle of Mogadishu, more than one analyst foresaw that the consequences would be catastrophic over a period of a decade or so. In very large part, that is what 911 was about.
As for the new capital district after an attack? It would resemble nothing so much as the Green Zone.
* * *
In such times, the principle of "every man his own cop" is insufficient. We must look to the day when every man is his own bomb squad:
American cell phones can already check e-mail, surf the Internet and store music, but they could have a new set of features in coming years: the Department of Homeland Security wants them to sense biological, chemical and radioactive material.
Putting hazardous material sensors in commercial cell phones has been discussed in scientific circles for years, according to researchers in the field. More recently, the idea gained support among government agencies, and DHS said publicly in May that it wants businesses to start coming up with proposals.
Remember the sleepless days when car alarms were new, and you could count on at least one car in every parking lot waking the neighborhood at 2:00 AM? We can predict with some confidence that there would be similar problems for emergency services if every phone were an Imminent Threat Detector.
* * *
Here is as petty a posting as you are likely to see on any blog.
Remember back on March 30, when I had this to say about the mystery of the disappearing bees?
Any reader of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy can read these reports only with great distress:
Across the country, honey bees are disappearing by the thousands. ... “This is unique in that bees are disappearing,” Hayes said. “The hives are empty. You don’t see dead bodies. The colony, over time, dwindles until you don’t see anything left in the colony.”
So long, thanks for all the gardens?
Then we read this in The Washington Post on June 1?
In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, just before Earth is destroyed to make way for a hyperspatial express route, all the dolphins in the world disappear, leaving behind just the message: "So long, and thanks for all the fish."
Now, around the world, honeybees are vanishing en masse, leaving their humans engaged in a furious attempt to figure out the meaning of their exodus.
Can this be a coincidence? Actually, yes, to a very high degree of likelihood. I would be interested to learn who thought of the reference first, though.
* * *
We should applaud the fact that the Dutch try to grow enviro-friendly meat in [a] lab:
UTRECHT, The Netherlands (Reuters) - Dutch researchers are trying to grow pork meat in a laboratory with the goal of feeding millions without the need to raise and slaughter animals....But it will take years before meat grown in labs and eventually factories reaches supermarket shelves. And so far, Roelen and his team have managed to grow only thin layers of cells that bear no resemblance to pork chops.
Under the process, researchers first isolate muscle stem cells, which have the ability to grow and multiply into muscle cells. Then they stimulate the cells to develop, give them nutrients and exercise them with electric current to build bulk.
After perfecting that process, scientists will then need to figure out how to layer tissues to add more bulk, since meat grown in petri dishes lacks the blood vessels needed to deliver nutrients through thick muscle fibers.
I am sometimes troubled by eating meat, especially meat I know came from animals who did not live rich and rewarding lives. How much better it would be if the meat could be manufactured. Then the animals that used to produce it could be rendered extinct.
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Speaking of Europe and extinction, Pepperdine University is hosting a conference this weekend on The Collapse of Europe; and yes, Mark Steyn will be there. Another conference star, Claire Berlinski, had this to say about the event:
A commenter here described the upcoming conference as a “gathering of the usual suspects.” Indeed, it is, and the fact that there are now enough suspects to gather is in my view good and significant news.
The next level in prestige will be reached when such a conference is held during the the school year.
Copyright © 2007 by John J. Reilly
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