August 29, 2011
Freedom, Science Fiction and the Singularity: A conversation with author Vernor Vinge
Site of Royal Navy’s WW1 submarine disaster to be used for wind farm
In 1918, the Royal Navy suffered the loss of two submarines, with another three damaged along with a light cruiser. And you’ve probably never heard of it. It’s okay, I hadn’t heard of it either, and the British government went to great lengths to conceal the incident, because no enemy vessels were involved:
An underwater war grave containing the victims of one of the worst British naval disasters of the first world war has been surveyed for the first time so it can be preserved in the middle of a windfarm.
The two K Class submarines were destroyed on 31 January 1918 during the so-called battle of the Isle of May, in which 270 lives were lost. The two submarines were sunk and three more damaged along with a surface cruiser.
But no enemy ships were involved in the sinkings, 20 miles off Fife Ness on Scotland’s east coast. The deaths were all caused by a series of night-time collisions within the British fleet.
So embarrassing was the incident that even though one officer was court-martialed, the facts were not generally admitted for more than 60 years, until after the death of the last survivor.
A longer account of the accident is on the Wikipedia page. It’s pretty grim reading.
Vikings release ten players in first cut-down
All NFL teams have to cut their training camp rosters to 80 players by tomorrow, and to 53 players by Sunday. Most of the players waived in the first cut-down are third- and fourth-string players, but the players who survive the first cut will have one last chance to impress the coaches in the final preseason game. Today the Minnesota Vikings cut the following players:
- S Chris Adingupu
- G Conan Amituanai
- TE Ed Barham
- QB Rhett Bomar
- S Simeon Castille
- LB Jonathan Gilmore
- WR Andre Holmes
- LB Kyle O’Donnell
- K Nate Whitaker
- DT Colby Whitlock
There were no real surprises in this list, as Bomar was not given any playing time in the first three preseason games, indicating that the Vikings were not likely to retain him. Whitaker was mentioned as a possible “project” player for long-term development, but that was rendered unlikely with Longwell signing a multi-year deal.
NFL teams have to cut down to their 53 player regular season rosters in early September. Here’s my guesses about who makes the team as starters, who are the backups, and who the team is likely to try signing to their 10-man practice squad after the cut-down:
| Position | Starter(s) | Backups | Practice Squad |
|---|---|---|---|
| QB | McNabb | Ponder, Webb | |
| WR | Berrian, Harvin, Jenkins | Camarillo (?), J. Johnson, Aromashodu | Arceneaux, Iglesias, S. Burton |
| RB | Peterson | Gerhart, Booker | Davis, Robinson |
| FB | D’Imperio (?) | Asiata | |
| TE | Shiancoe, Rudolph | Kleinsasser, Dugan | Reisner |
| OL | Loadholt (RT), Hutchinson (LG), Sullivan (C), Herrera (RG), C. Johnson (LT) | DeGeare, R. Cook, Cooper, Love | Brown, Fusco |
| DL | Robison (LE), Williams (UT), Ayodele (NT), J. Allen (RE) | Griffen, Ballard, Awasom, Guion, Reed | |
| LB | Greenway (S), E.J. Henderson (M), Erin Henderson (W) | Brinkley, Farwell, Onatolu | Homan |
| CB | Winfield, Griffin | C. Cook, Sherels, A. Allen (?) | Parks, Torrence, B. Burton |
| S | T. Johnson, Abdullah | Sanford, Brinkley, Frampton, Carter | Raymond |
| K | Longwell | ||
| P | Kluwe | ||
| LS | Loeffler | ||
| KR | J. Johnson* | ||
| PR | Booker* |
An asterisk indicates a special teams player already listed on the roster in another capacity. A question mark beside a name indicates that the player is probably “on the bubble” to make the team, and might not be eligible for the practice squad.
TED talk: Tim Harford on trial, error and the God complex
American Chemical Society presentation or science fiction convention panel?
If all you had to go on was the first paragraph, it’d sure sound like the SF convention, not the ACS expo:
How do diamonds the size of potatoes shoot up at 40 miles per hour from their birthplace 100 miles below Earth’s surface? Does a secret realm of life exist inside the Earth? Is there more oil and natural gas than anyone dreams, with oil forming not from the remains of ancient fossilized plants and animals near the surface, but naturally deep, deep down there? Can the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, be transformed into a pure solid mineral?
Those are among the mysteries being tackled in a real-life version of the science fiction classic, A Journey to the Center of the Earth, that was among the topics of a presentation here today at the 242nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). Russell Hemley, Ph.D., said that hundreds of scientists will work together on an international project, called the Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO), to probe the chemical element that’s in the news more often than perhaps any other. That’s carbon as in carbon dioxide.
